"Ugh, this never ends. I shouldn't have trusted a map that I got from who-knows-where," sighed Frida.
She wondered why her luck was so bad. She had just escaped from the threat of the Impersonator, only to face a much stronger enemy. Likewise, she wondered if Vale had brought bad luck to her.
A giant, 4-meter-tall puppet monster raised its right hand, surrounded by a red aura. It then aimed its fist at Frida.
Frida tilted her sword and whispered, "Sword's Will, Third Way of the Sword Breath, Endless Shadow."
Her shadow suddenly became wild and transformed into a three-dimensional object, moving as if it were engulfing her. After consuming Frida's body, the shadow duplicated into three people, each running in a different direction.
Lily furrowed her brows at the sight and controlled the giant puppet monster to attack the three shadows. The monster's fist managed to defeat one of the shadows, but the other two slipped past and ran towards Lily, the one controlling the puppet.
The giant puppet monster lifted its hand and shot its palm at the second shadow, shattering it at high speed. However, the third shadow managed to approach Lily.
The shadow effect then disappeared, revealing Frida, who was hiding behind the third shadow. With a determined expression, Frida raised her sword and swung it with great force, intending to cut Lily's puppet body.
Lily held Frida's sword with her small-looking right hand and said angrily, "If you think I'm weak, you're greatly mistaken."
Lily released her control of the giant puppet monster and quickly attacked Frida with red threads.
"I can't let those threads touch me," murmured Frida.
She then jumped back, agilely avoiding the red threads that nearly touched her body. Unfortunately, one of the threads managed to stick to her right hand that was holding the sword.
"Damn it!" Frida cursed as she saw her right hand immediately aim the sword towards her heart. She quickly held her right hand, which had lost control, with her left hand.
Frida cursed as she saw her right hand immediately aim the sword's tip at her heart. She quickly held her right hand, which had lost control, using her left hand.
Ironically, it was at this moment when Frida stopped moving that Lily took advantage of it and allowed the other red threads to touch her. As expected, after five red threads touched her, Lily threw Frida's body hard against the cave wall.
As Frida crashed into the cave wall, the ground shook violently, causing sharp rocks from the ceiling to fall and injured her right hand. Despite the injury, she forced herself to stand up, rubbing her forehead and admitting defeat, "I can't beat her. I have to find a chance to escape."
Meanwhile, Lily regained control of the giant puppet monster and prepared to attack Frida.
Frida looked around before taking a deep breath, reassuring herself that she would survive. She then tilted her sword diagonally and whispered, "Sword Will, Ninth Way of the Sword Breath, Melody of Sword."
[Melody of Sword] was a movement category magic technique that greatly increased Frida's speed in a short amount of time. It was the only movement category magic technique in the [Sword's Will] series.
With newfound agility, Frida charged towards the giant puppet monster. As it swung its left hand to crush her, Frida leapt onto its hand and sliced it with her sword. She then evaded the monster's right-hand attack with another nimble jump.
Unexpectedly, after launching the attack, she tried to escape by running in the opposite direction from where Lily was. Realizing Frida's intention to escape, Lily immediately pursued her at full speed.
"Do you really believe you could escape from this princess?" she taunted.
Frida turned and unleashed several shockwaves with her sword, causing rocks to collapse and obstruct Lily's path.
"This kind of trick wouldn't work against this princess!" Lily released hundreds of threads and threw the rocks blocking her path. She then flew again to chase Frida who had already fled.
On the other hand, Frida could only sigh at how easily Lily overcame the obstacle.
"Although I suspected it wouldn't stop her, I didn't expect her to get rid of the rocks so quickly. Nevertheless, at least the rocks delayed her a bit."
Frida sensed danger behind her and turned to find dozens of red threads chasing her like snakes. She drew her sword and deflected the threads, narrowly avoiding being ensnared.
Frida frowned, realizing that her opponent was not to be underestimated. Despite the odds stacked against her, Frida knew that she had to keep fighting to survive.
Frida fought off the threads that kept coming at her one by one, her concentration unwavering despite the continuous attacks. Beads of sweat glistened on her face, while her pupils darted to track every danger that came near her body.
For a moment, Frida forgot about the exhaustion that urged her to give up, the pain that pulled her to stop. The only thing in her mind was to fend off Lily's assault.
Lily's face showed a clear expression of surprise. She watched Frida fend off five to eight threads simultaneously each second. Not only that, but her movements were flawless and not a single motion was wasted.
Lily gritted her teeth and said angrily, "This princess doesn't believe you can hold back hundreds of threads at once."
Lily released a thick red aura around her puppet's body and created hundreds of threads from that aura. The threads flew toward Frida like a pack of hyenas impatiently attacking their prey.
Frida, still in an extreme state of concentration, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She gazed at the hundreds of red threads approaching her at high speed. A second later, Frida put on an extraordinary performance. She moved at such a high speed that an ordinary human eye wouldn't be able to see her movements clearly.
The girl kept fending off the barrage of threads relentlessly. At first, Lily thought that no matter how good Frida's concentration was, it was impossible for her to fend off all the threads. But the sight in front of her made her understand. For Frida, it was possible. The girl kept fending off the barrage of threads for a full minute, leaving Lily speechless.
After a minute had passed, Lily stopped her attack and muttered, "If I dared to kill her, the academy would crush me with her talent."
The Midvalley Magus Academy was aware of Lily's presence, but they let her be. The academy had signed an agreement with the puppet girl. Therefore, Lily could only attack the students who had entered her territory. One of the agreements also stated that Lily had to release students who were talented.
On the other hand, after Lily's attack was over, Frida did not move at all. Suddenly, her body trembled and she fell to the ground.
Frida had fainted while standing up right after Lily's attack had ended.
Lily looked at the unconscious Frida with innocent eyes and said, "Sister, I have respect for you."
Thereafter, she left Frida alone.