"On the other hand." Nadia turned her heel to look at the perplexed face of Amon. "You don't have to come you know." Nadia said as she studied Amon's face. "I have nothing to lose, but you do. My life doesn't hold the same value to me as yours." She stated. 'besides, I'll survive. I'm not that easy to kill this time.' Nadia swung her sword to her shoulder and started walking.
"Tch." Amon steeled his attitude, "Tch, Tch, Tch." Continuously, he clicked his tongue as if he had something lodged on the roof of his mouth.
"Stop clicking your tongue, you sound like a clock." Nyx sighed at Amon.
"Ah Whatever. To hell with everything. Nyx, Bianca look over the camp, we'll come back." Amon started to walk towards Nadia with his weapon as he asked— ordered Nyx and Bianca. "God will I ever find a place where the world hasn't gone completely crazy yet?" The guy grumbled but moved his feet faster.
"Alright," Nyx muttered, his shoulders tensing slightly. He couldn't help but that pang of worry, but he knew he couldn't stop Amon.
"Ok," Bianca said, her eyes narrowed. She didn't trust Amon's plan, but she knew better than to argue with him.
It didn't take long for Amon to approach Nadia's side. Without a word, they both methodically packed their weapons and started walking towards the dungeon of the demonic wolves.
Slimes, once a gold mine for EXP, were now more like a penny-pinching vending machine. Sure, they still dropped those sweet, sweet cores, and the coins kept trickling in, but it was more of a grind than a thrill. Nadia, though, didn't complain.
With no heavy luggage to lug around, their pace quickened, their movements more efficient and fluid. It was like they'd shed a layer of weight, both physically and mentally.
'A scary person,' Amon muttered in his heart, watching Nadia carve a path of destruction through everything that dared to cross her. 'A very scary person,' he corrected himself, a shiver running down his spine.
⟨⟨You have leveled up! Lv:4→ Lv:5
Please choose of the following:
•500 coins
• Enbutenshu
• Demonic Entanglement⟩⟩
At long last, just as Nadia's MP dropped below 100. She got a notification, and it cheered up her spirit a bit. After searching for an hour they still could not find a trace of the monster that they are looking for. Just as she was about to call for a break, she leveled up.
Amon, noticing Nadia's pause, swiftly retrieved a glistening core from the slain slime. He held it up, a silent question in his eyes.
'What tf is this supposed to mean?' flabbergasted Nadia looked at the three options that were laid out in front of her. She wasn't that , surprised at the coins, but she was surprised about the skills. 'what demonic entanglement? What Enbutenshu?'
"Gosh, you shouldn't just stand there like a living target for monsters," Amon called out from behind, dragging Nadia towards the fallen wall of a house for cover.
"No guts, no glory," Nadia replied with a playful smirk.
"Are you seriously not afraid of anything?" Amon couldn't fathom where Nadia found humor in the face of potential death.
"I'm afraid of dying alone, that's why you're here."
"Screw you."
"It's obvious you wanna,"
Amon's ears burned crimson at the clear provocation in Nadia's reply. His eyes darted away, swimming in a sea of embarrassment. He refused to meet Nadia's gaze after that, his cheeks burning with fluster.
As if she was obvious of how much she flustered Amon, Nadia smoothly swerved the topic elsewhere. "Hey, do you know what Enbutenshu means?" Nadia looked ahead, as she asked Amon who was caught rubbing his ears as if his actions would make them any less redder than it was.
"Isn't that a Japanese phrase? What was it again... " Amon hummed as he thought aloud. "Aa, that's right 'Dance towards the heavens' is it? Or something like that." His expression
Instead of answering, Nadia's lips curved to a smirk.
<
<
<<"Enbutenshu" Lv:0
The steps to heavens, the dominion of everything to the path of heavens starts with this skill.>>
Still a bit peeved at how Nadia found humor in their situation, this feeling only grew when he caught a glimpse at the tilting smirk on her face. Deciding that he should just let her do her thing, Amon instead looked around from the pile of ruins around them.
While Nadia was aggressively fiddling with the harness that held her extra knives, Amon roamed his eyes at the burn marks that littered around the clearing. Having some experience with hunting the wolves he could tell that there has been a pack roaming around the vicinity. He dipped his finger into one of the burn marks curiously, and found it hard.
Nadia was watching him, eyes narrowed. He knew that look. Curiosity mixed with a hint of skepticism. Amon opened his mouth to explain. "If I can get a fingertip in that soil, see if it's still warm, we'll know it's fresh. Two, maybe four minutes, tops."
"I see," Nadia murmured, her eyes still fixed on the mark.
"This soil's hardened up good. Means they've been gone for a while. Thirty, maybe forty minutes, give or take. They're still around, though. Gotta be." The guy huffed. "Wouldn't want to lose 'em now, would we?" Amon shrugged, a hint of a grin playing on his lips.
The earth beneath their feet shuddered, a low rumble that sent shivers up their spines. Instinct took over, and Amon dove for cover, disappearing beneath the crumbling remains of a long-forgotten structure. Nadia, never one to be left behind, followed close at his heels. Peeking cautiously from behind the weathered stone, they watched, weapons ready.
And despite the perilous situation that they are open to, both of their hearts could not help but leap in relief and in excitement upon looking at the dangerous animal that was barring its teeth to its surroundings.
And there it was, a creature of nightmare, a hulking demonic wolf, its fur matted with blood, its eyes burning with a feral hunger. Its near dead figure could not dampen its momentum.
"A survivor," Amon said, his gaze hardening. "We need to be careful. It's wounded, but it's still dangerous." He said, watching the claws of the wolf barely making a spark when it would've set the ground that it was stepping on, ablaze.
"Not for long," Nadia uttered, a little grin maring her face.
.
.
.
Amon should have known better than to underestimate Nadia's recklessness, it was obvious she had a few screws loose up there. He'd seen it before, that reckless abandon, that thirst for the fight, that blatant disregard for her own safety.
And now, there she was, charging towards the dying wolf like a whirlwind, a wild grin splitting her face. It was like watching a spiderweb being flung against a brick wall, and he could only wince, his heart plummeting into his stomach.
Nadia, looking like she was being fueled by a potent cocktail of adrenaline, cocaine, caffeine and sheer, unadulterated daring dopamine, was a force of nature unleashed, Amon quickly found himself helpless in that situation.
How does one truly stop a woman who looked to be waging war against her own body, as if hell-bent on its destruction?
Amon was lost.
Nadia's blade clashed against the wolf's gleaming claw, sparks flying from the impact. The wolf snarled in surprise when Nadia just popped out of nowhere. Unknowingly though, Nadia had activated the passive skill Enbutenshu. She didn't notice it until she was dancing along with the dying wolf in grace she didn't even know she even had.
Even Amon was stunned stupid when Nadia disappeared and reappeared like a flickering silhouette.
Her steps were quick and light, her body moving with such fluidity that it seemed as if gravity had no claim on her. She flipped through the air in a series of unpredictable, acrobatic twists. As she locked eyes with the ferocious wolf, her instincts flared. In an instant, she vanished from sight, slipping into stealth with such precision that even Amon, watching from the sidelines, could feel the pulse of something dangerous of the unseen. The wolf's growls faltered, confused by the sudden absence, while Amon stood frozen, sensing the razor-sharp edge of her stealth skill.
Nadia was able to have a dual skill activation.
The wolf could no longer track Nadia's movements. Her speed alone wasn't extraordinary, but with two skills working in perfect harmony, the creature was utterly outmatched.
In truth, it never had a chance-not with its body already faltering toward death. With a single, decisive swing of her blade, Nadia ended the struggle. The demonic wolf's head flew from its body, its final, pitiful whine lost to the gobsmack look on Amon's face as its lifeless form crumpled to the ground.