Senna arrived pedaling his new bike, this time a regular city bicycle with a front rack.
"Bel, that's your chance!"
"Got it, Sen!"
Cybele—now back to being a dog again—jumped from the rack and pounced on the lizard girl. "Wooof!" she barked. Which, to Senna, meant 'I got you, scaly bitch!'
"Hmph!" The Dragonoid gracefully stepped aside and avoided her claw swipe and fang bite. It didn't seem to deter Cybele, however. The now familiar mist began to form around her again.
"…!? You…" The lizard girl's expression changed. There was an odd reaction as she saw the phenomenon. The way it was, it seemed she knew something about it. "Why are you… It doesn't matter."
She picked up her spear, twirled it, then pointed the weapon toward the Husky. "I don't care why you're working with them. Traitors are to be dealt with accordingly."
"…What are you talking about?" Cybele could understand the girl's speech. But the meaning behind her words was lost on her.
"Nothing you need to know!" The Dragonoid lunged at the mist, her spear poised to penetrate anything hidden inside it. But then… *Clank!* The sharp tip was deflected by a newly formed Icicle Blade.
"You dare to ignore my question? An arrogant hatchling needs to be punished!" The haughty Girl-Cybele remarked as she pushed the spear away with her blade. Then, she unleashed a flurry of slashes at her opponent.
Dodge, parry, dodge, retreat. The battle between them gradually grew faster and faster, slowly transcending beyond human speed. "W-What the… who? Senna, who is she?!"
In truth, Brad wanted to ask the reason why he ran off from them without any warning. Yet, the sudden appearance of a powerful fighter fighting on their behalf changed his priority.
Racing to the axeman's position, Senna slid and braked his bike when he reached him. "Uhh… can we leave that for later? I doubt you'll believe me. She's on my—our side, I'm sure."
"Where did you even get her? And what is this thing?!"
"Question later! Don't you need to repel these Komodo dragons with bad eyes!?"
Senna struggled to convince Brad and the other hunters to leave fighting the mysterious lizard girl to the newly arrived dog-slash-wolf girl—who was also mysterious. They had their own reptilian enemy to fight.
"I'll help thin them out. Just push them off as much as you can!"
Senna began to ride again. The mana he got from unmanifesting the ATV was substantial. It provided him with enough mana to summon this cheap bike and still left him with plentiful reserve.
Reserve for unrestrained Gaslighting, for example.
"Try this!" The rider skirted just outside the horde and pointed his left hand toward it, flame bursting out of his palm and incinerating the oversized monitors.
"You can use fire magic!? This—Everyone, now's our chance! Follow his lead and finish off the ones burning! They're helpless!"
"Y-Yeah!"
"Let's go!"
Seeing the cyclist bravely charging into the horde and the burning lizards reignited the hunters' morale. They ran following his track, each using their weapon to kill off the flailing Red Eyes enveloped in flames.
'I'm not gonna be getting many PP from this…' Senna thought as he glanced back. 'No, there'll numerous chances in the future. I just need to be patient.'
< Mana: 64/180 >
The Gaslighting magic took considerable mana with each second of usage. However, considering the number of Red-Eyes, Senna confidently believed it was doable.
"But what about Bel? I hope she's as capable as she boasted… What's with the drastic change in personality anyway? I don't get one bit."
Back to the beast girls' fight, it was still unclear who had the advantage. At first, Cybele's counterattacks pushed the Dragonoid back. But now, both of them were at a standstill.
As Cybele swung her blades, the Dragonoid effortlessly parried with the shaft of her spear. Then, taking advantage of the opening created by the swing, she rotated her weapon and poised it to thrust at her opponent, which Cybele also easily blocked by crossing her frozen blades.
The exchange of slashes, swipes, and thrusts continued wordlessly for a while.
"A-Amazing," the exclamation full of awe slipped out of Elrand's mouth. "They're so strong…"
From the sideline, he observed the fast-paced combat. Their capabilities were a league above all the hunters he knew, even Brad. There was no need to say how much stronger the girls were compared to him.
'I want to be that strong.'
'I want to be that fast.'
The words of wishes fluttered in his mind. They all spoke of his deeply held desires, the sincere yearning to improve himself.
"El!"
'I'm… I'll definitely grow to be that strong. Strong enough so that I could protect everyone!'
"El! Listen to me!"
"I won't… I won't stay as a weak hunter anymore. I will improve… get stronger… strong enough to defeat a monster like you!"
Picking up his fallen shortsword, Elrand rushed to the fight. "Elrand, stop!" Not even the repeated plea from Reimi calling from behind him registered in his mind.
"Boy, don't interrupt—"
"Hah!!"
Distracted by the sudden interloper, the Dragonoid finally managed to land a hit on Cybele. The speartip grazed the side of her stomach and fresh blood sprayed off from the wound.
"Kuuhh!?"
"Heyyaahh!!" Elrand didn't notice what happened to Cybele and continued his dash. Raising his sword, he was about to strike the Dragonoid girl with an overhead swing when a swift swipe of her spear blew him back.
"El!" Desperate footsteps scattered through the now muddy ground. Seeing Elrand seemingly struck down, Reimi worriedly ran to him, ignoring the objection from the other villagers huddling together inside the hall.
She couldn't stay still watching what was about to unfold.
"Human, as always. You're dumb." The Dragonoid spat out, although her words were indecipherable to Elrand. "Weaklings should just stay still, cowering, waiting for their retribution."
"Ga… ugghhh." Wincing from the pain in his abdomen, Elrand narrowly opened his eyes to see the lizard girl posing her spear to pierce into him. "I… I'm not done…"
"Hey, Scalesack. I am your opponent, do not disgrace our duel." Cybele attempted to goad her while holding her bleeding wound.
"You just grimace silently over there, traitorous cur."
It didn't affect the Dragonoid. She was fully intent on finishing off Elrand. "I said… I can still… go on!"
"Hmph!" Seemingly losing her patience, the girl plunged her spear, right into the direction of his chest.
"El!"
"…Rem!?"
Unknown to any of them, in the other area of the yard where the battle with the Red-Eyes we're unfolding, Senba suddenly stopped his bike.
«Warning: Foreign Fate Level detected to have surpassed the threshold.»