----
While scouting the area ahead, Poney encountered another Gravekeeper with 5 skulls.
'Should I lead him to where Akashi is?' Poney thought but she widened her eyes when she noticed what he was carrying with him.
It was a six barreled pistol she knew very well since it belonged to Tsukushi. Poney immediately lost her cool and started to question him. He tried to persuade her to surrender but Poney refused with a mocking smile and thus the fierce fight started.
The Gravekeeper transformed his legs into the one's of the grasshopper and started bouncing from one wall to another at unbelievable speed. Poney took this as a challenge since her power also dwells in her lower body and she immediately intercepted him while he was in the air, starting a series of high-speed kicks.
The Gravekeeper was surprised by her speed and strength in her legs so he started to slowly retreat, however, Poney didn't let him catch a breath and kept close to him. She started gaining an advantage while using a few of Katsura's moves.
'Haha, these moves aren't bad at all, if I will meet him once more, I will make sure to at least thank him before fighting him again!' Poney thought with an excited smile when she saw how she was slowly gaining an advantage over him.
"Haven't the Empire taught you to always be on your guard?" The Gravekeeper suddenly asked with a cold look in his face.
Suddenly a few traps activated, firing bolts and other sharp things at Poney.
"?!" She quickly reacted and twisted her body in the air to dodge incoming attacks which she has done flawlessly but...
The Gravekeeper wouldn't let go of such a chance and while she was busy with dodging the traps, he kicked her into a waist and she had no time to react to his surprise attack due to being busy dodging the traps so she was blown away into the nearby wall.
*Bang* His kick was so strong that when petite Poney hit the wall, cracks were created even a few meters away from the impact.
"Gah *cough*" She immediately coughed out a lot of blood while holding her waist in kneeling position.
'...Why did it feel like I killed something while crashing into that wall?' Poney thought with a pained expression and a few tears welled up in her eyes due to intense pain. She took a peek behind her just to see some kind of black dot smashed on the wall.
"Hm? To think that you actually survived my kick...You are something else, I have taken a liking to you" He said with a sinister smile while pulling Poney into the air by her ponytail.
"Ha-ha *cough* That's already the second time my enemy showed some interest but I would still rather go with that other guy than ugly you! *spit*" Poney laughed a bit and then spit blood into his face with a smile.
"...Forget it, bitch like you deserves to be kicked to death!" He just looked at her with cold eyes when Poney's blood and spit landed on his face before shouting aloud while driving his knee deep inside her abdomen without letting go of her ponytail.
He continued kicking her for a while before letting go of her ponytail and she immediately has fallen to the ground but instead of having a look of horror in her eyes, she actually formed a mocking smile while looking up at him.
"What are you smiling at crazy b-?!" He suddenly turned around just to see red eyes with slit pupils staring down at him just a few meters away from him. He immediately jumped numerous meters away from the newcomer and Poney.
'How the fuck did he get so close to me without me noticing him?! And what was that chill I felt down my spine?' He thought while warily watching a newcomer.
----
---Akashi's POV---
Looks like I got here in time but if not, she would have died...Dunno if I should say that she is lucky or not, considering that I am not exactly an ally she can depend on. I actually heard some shouting even before getting here so I am more or less aware of what had happened here.
I thought while looking at Poney's abdomen full of bruises with eyes devoid of any emotion.
"You...are late...Akashi" She said with a faked amused smile.
"What are you smiling for? For getting beaten up to a pulp?" I approached a bit closer to her and asked with a mocking tone while staring down at her pained expression combined with a smile.
"I...am smiling because that fucker will get what he deserves now that you are here, ha-ha *cough*" She replied with a smile and one closed eye due to pain before coughing out more blood.
So much faith in me, how heartbreaking...
I sarcastically thought.
"Heh, looks like you two were together from the beginning. I can feel that you are much stronger than her but it seems that you are too arrogant and stupid for wasting that chance to kill me. I am the strongest one here after the boss, I won't let any of you leave alive" He finally recovered from his shock before saying to me.
---
His specialty must be stealth to be able to get past my senses but even then I can feel that he is strong. As long as I won't underestimate him, I will win!' Gravekeeper thought with a small smile while enhancing his transformation even further, growing smaller wings on his back and even his arms seemed to be affected by his transformation.
---
"...Are you saying that a grasshopper, an insect, will kill me?" I asked with a calm tone while glancing at him from the corner of my eye without even turning my whole body to him.
"Heh, I can't wait to see that bitch's expression of despair after I will kill you in front of her." He wasn't bothered by my sarcastic question and he kicked off the ground and started leaping from one wall to another all around us while increasing his speed every time he bounced off the wall.
I just followed his movement with my eyes without moving around at all and just waited for him to attack.
Suddenly, he bounced off the wall up to the ceiling and then down, aiming his leg to completely flatten my body with his speed and leg power.
"I am a swordsman, are you stupid or what? Fighting a swordsman barehanded, you are the only one arrogant here." I glanced above me to meet his eyes and muttered with an annoyed expression.
*Screech* I swung my sword at him even before he was in front of me, sending a slash of crimson energy at him.
"Wha?!" He widened his eyes, however, he had no time to dodge the attack with his wings due to his too high speed, he was split into 2 halves from the bottom.
My slash also damaged the ceiling but thankfully, the walls and floors were so thick that it didn't go through the entire ceiling. I just had to get rid of a few debris that has fallen down with my flames.
---
[+40 XP for killing your enemy]
[+5 XP for using technique related to your class]
Class: Blade Master (Lv. 6; +11 Str, +11 Agi, +5 Const) 153/320 XP
---
"If you are the second strongest person here then all those traps got my hopes too high!" I said in a disappointed tone while looking at his dead split body with his eyes wide open.
Well, if he had some kind of weapon, it could be somehow interesting fight due to his extremely high speed but he had to fight barehanded...
"Heh" Poney only chuckled after seeing the result.
"Don't do that...Learn from this, this is what happens when you fight barehanded against someone who has a weapon." I said with a cold tone while pointing at his sorry state corpse with my sword.
"I know...ha-ha you are even stricter than the chief. You are really a dark upgraded version of Najasho." She replied with an amused smile while closing her eyes.
...That's not really a compliment. Shouldn't you be more grateful to me for saving you?
"Agh!" She immediately opened her eyes when she felt the pain coming from her forehead. She looked at me with confused expression while holding her forehead.
"You aren't going to sleep, we still have a job to do. If you want, you can go back but I won't let you sleep here." I said while crouching next to her and looking at her with an indifferent gaze.
I put my hand on her bruised abdomen and she immediately winced in pain while closing one of her eyes.
"Endure it, I will heal you so you can at least walk around without any problems." I said and focused on healing her.
After 10 minutes...
[Energy: 950/1365]
This time, it took a lot of time and also a lot of energy just to heal her a bit but considering that this guy was the second strongest...I don't need to save that much energy, not to mention my regeneration...
"...Thank you. Although I don't understand how is it possible for you to heal me so quickly, I won't ask for now..." Poney said with a grateful expression when she was finally able to get up on her own legs.
The bruises were still slightly visible but she could finally move around without wincing in pain each step she would take.
"No need, everyone would blame me if you died since we are a team." I said with a calm tone while looking around where we should go next.
"Gah! That's why you saved me?!" Poney dropped to her knees with a defeated expression.
"You are quite energetic considering that you almost died a few minutes ago. Tell me, from where did he come from? Maybe we will be able to arrive at their treasure room or we might be able to find more prisoners." I asked with a small smile.
I took the bag he was carrying with him and waited for Poney's response.
"He came from that direction if I remember right...Wait! More prisoners? So you found prisoners behind those doors? What happened anyway?" Poney pointed at one of the many hallways so we slowly started to walk towards it.
"...I found more than 10 prisoners so I quickly treated them and freed them, however, I killed 3 of them. I also described the way out for them so they could leave on their own." I said a short version of the story and she immediately widened her eyes.
"What?! Wait, wait! Why did you kill them?!" She hopped in front of me to stop me from walking and asked me with a confused and slightly angered expression.
"...They were girls, all of them. Do you follow?" I asked with furrowed brows.
"..." Her expression told me that she was unsure but she definitely had an idea in her head.
"I happened to hear you shout at him that you aren't interested or something so I pretty sure know what he wanted from you...Now let's imagine that others wouldn't even ask or kill you if you refused...Do you understand now?" I explained with a serious expression and horrified expression immediately appeared on her face.
"Y-You mean to say that...those girls-" She was unable to follow with how much she was shocked.
"Yes, that Umber girl really meant it when she said that they need to procreate. They treated those girls from the Empire's assassin units as breeding cattle." I said with narrowed eyes and put my hand on her shoulder to gently shove her aside.
"This...!!!" I stopped walking and turned at her to see her looking down with disgusted expression and eyes full of hate while gritting her teeth and clenching her fist.
"I took care of them so they won't have to...bear anyone's child. But even then 3 of them didn't want to live anymore so I just sympathized with them and quickly killed them. That was the best thing I could do for them at that time. Let's move forward and get this mission finally done." I said and started moving once again.
"...Yes!" Poney shouted with a resolute tone while catching up to me.
When I took a peek at her expression, I saw a new expression. She was fully focused and all serious.