Meanwhile, Alicia and Adrian were having their battle. Although Alicia acted like she had everything under control, she knew that she lacked the confidence and preparation to win easily. Considering her status, it would be no surprise if she had several life-saving items, but she had given most of them to Alex. Due to how she grew up and her innate ability to sense danger, she rarely got involved in unexpected trouble, and any trouble she did get into could be solved with whatever she had on hand, so she gave away a large portion of her emergency tools to Alex since he wasn't as sharp as she was.
'Not that I can claim to be too sharp after getting in a trap like this.'
What she did have in her storage ring included a few defensive life-saving measures, but there was no guarantee that Adrian wouldn't just leave the barrier with her in it if all she did was defend. Additionally, Alicia had allowed Emily to go to her family once she noticed her, because she knew that telling her to go back would have no effect, so she had to hurry up and follow her to provide support. She was even more determined to do so once she realized that Emily being here was part of Adrian's plan.
As she relaxed her muscles to improve her flexibility, her sword split into numerous parts connected by a thin wire and dropped to the floor. Whip swords were generally very annoying to deal with because it was hard to analyze their movements, but due to his armour and skills, Adrian had no fear. When Alicia swung the blade at his right, it swerved like a snake and targeted his left instead. Even so, he deflected it with his axe and then charged at her.
With his speed, he should have been able to get in range of her before she could pull back the sword, but suddenly, he found the tip of the blade about to swipe at his legs. He immediately jumped away, but then Alicia shook the blade, causing it to ripple up and down like a wave and unleash an arc of sharp sword light at him. Adrian blocked this attack with his barrier and then used a spell to fire loose stones at her. In response, Alicia focused on the barrier that she already had deployed while drawing back her sword. Subsequently, using that same pulling force and momentum, she spun around and swung the blade at him once more.
This time, it came at a shocking speed, so Adrian had to rely on his barrier to block it. He planned on rushing her after this confrontation, but her whip sword wasn't so easy to escape. An instant after her first strike, the blade attacked from the opposite direction and then continued lashing at his barrier. He could hold out against the lashes, but he wasn't so optimistic that he thought that it would be fine to stay passive.
He picked the right timing to quickly expand his barrier and then used a spell to increase the gravity around him, smashing the whip sword into ground. With her annoying weapon restricted, Adrian dashed towards her to finish her off, but he forgot that he was dealing with a wealthy young lady.
When Alicia threw another spirit-rank dagger at him, he wondered if it was a bluff, but he didn't want to take the chance so he stopped and deflected the dagger with his axe. As he felt the vibration of the dagger's explosion when it made contact with a corner of the roof, he narrowed his eyes at Alicia who had recovered her sword. He was surprised by how easily she could waste an artifact like that, but now that he was closer, he felt that victory was near.
However, he was mistaken about one thing. He thought that a pampered miss like Alicia wouldn't be that good in close range combat, but it was opposite. If he had finished his research, then he would have known that Alicia was the one to put a silver spoon in her own mouth.
Adrian swung down his axe with all of his weight behind it. He was confident that he could kill anyone of the same cultivation with this strike, so surely this would be the end for her. Considering the consequences her death would have, he should have tried his best to avoid dealing a fatal blow, but he didn't care. He would leave evidence to incriminate his father and then escape after he dealt with Emily. He wanted to brutally murder Shui as well, but he couldn't see the depth of his strength so he decided to settle with killing everyone he cared about.
'Hahaha! You can blame me all you want, but this isn't my fault. If she had only returned my feelings then I would have done anything it took to protect her, anything! But she chose him instead!'
As he thought of his revenge plan, a vile smile crept onto Adrian's face. Even without her special eyes, Alicia would be disgusted, so actually reading into his thoughts literally gave her the urge to vomit. Nonetheless, Alicia held back that urge as she parried the incoming axe and swept her blade across his eyes. The way she swung the sword was so elegant that it left him entranced for a moment, but Adrian barely managed to pull himself back in time. However, Alicia wasn't finished yet.
When he pulled back, Alicia took advantage of the slight destabilization of his stance to knock himself off balance, and then slammed her foot into his face.
He flew away until his back was stopped by the barrier. His armour decreased the damage he took, but he could still feel the shoe that slapped his cheek.
"You!"
"Hurry and stand up. Aren't we both in a hurry?"
"Ahh!"
It then became a quaking game of cat and mouse as Alicia passively evaded the aggressive swings from Adrian. Buildings in Paraj were very durable, but his rampage left holes and rubble all over the roof. At the rate he was going, he would either catch up to Alicia as her movements became limited, or the roof would cave in.
'It's about time.'
Adrian seemed to be cornering her, but she never lost her composure. Even if someone was in the building before, they had long run away because of the explosions, so she had no need to account for such variables in her plan.
Once again, he slashed and she dodged, but this time, she tightened the grip on her sword and poured her energy into it. As soon as her whip sword began to glow blue, she swung it horizontally while extending the blade. Unfortunately, Adrian had sensed that she was drawing out power from her artifact so he hastily backed away. He may be giving her a hard time, but if Alicia was able to use the full strength of the tesora-rank artifact, then it would be a different story.
Since he was able to escape her slash, Adrian thought that he reacted well, but he noticed that something was wrong when he saw the smile on Alicia's face. She made it look it she was attacking him, but it was actually the isolation barrier that she was aiming for. This barrier came from a tier 4 array, so there should have been no way that she could destroy it with brute force, but when the tip of her sword touched its wall, a rip was created all too easily.
"What?!"
His father was an array master, but he wasn't, so Adrian didn't think this was possible, but it was Alicia who truly hid the possibility. Strictly speaking, she wasn't an array master either, but because of her master she was able to analyze most arrays of tiers below tier 6. Using this knowledge, she had led Adrian into smashing key points maintaining the array and then used her own strike to create an opening just for herself.
The first thing he should have done was go after her, but due to his shock, Adrian could only stare blankly as Alicia slipped out of the array and her exit subsequently closed.