Chapter 8 - Fighting Elsa

(AN: There are some copied paragraphs/ideas here from another Re:zero fanfic on fanfiction.net with Arthur Prototype - (Re:Zero, Why Me? By: Writer with bad Grammar T-T). It will be similar in the future where I copy some things, as I don't see a reason to reinvent the wheel.)

"This armor of yours is really amazing. When I slashed it it barely received a scratch," Elsa said charmingly, smiling in surprised joy.

It had to be said that Elsa's daggers were not made from ordinary material and her strength was also monstrous. Yet, on Mordred's armor she only produced some sparks and a scratch.

"Well, let's test it again," Elsa said with a smile. She didn't seem to care much that she was exposed, because not a moment later she launched herself at Mordred.

"Tsk." Mordred clicked his tongue and readied the mana in his body.

'Even if I cannot really die, let's try to deal with her as quickly as possible this time and see what's going on.' Mordred changed his mind.

"AAAAAAHHHHRRRR!"

Without retracting his helmet, Mordred roared loudly and frantically poured magical energy into his entire body and into Clarent, his eyes focused on Elsa.

Mana Burst!

Mordred's entire body crackled with crimson lightning, overflowing with power.

Boom!

With an explosion around him and a sonic boom, Mordred's sword slashed at speed faster than the ground beneath him exploded in a crater, as Mordred turned into a streak of lightning.

With speed very close to straight-out teleportation, he instantly moved and appeared right in front of the charging Elsa, his speed greatly superior to before.

"Aahr!"

Clarent then made a horizontal cut the exact same movement as before, slashing downwards like he practiced many times with Reinhard, making Elsa have no time to react even if she did her best.

She attempted to dodge, but it was useless; the speed that Mordred now had when using [Mana Burst A] was a dozen times higher than before when he simply used mana to reinforce his body.

With speed that couldn't be seen by a naked eye, Mordred's sword cleaved Elsa downwards near her shoulder, going through her body like butter. The overflowing energy around the blade pulverized an area around it as it traveled, decimating the flesh along the cutting path more than the thickness of the sword itself.

Unfortunately, Mordred used so much force in this strike, all that he had to not take any chances, that he was unable to stop the overswing. Although he tried to make a controlled strike, the force behind the movement still sent him tumbling forward - he fell onto Elsa's cleaved body.

Elsa's blood and guts splattered over Mordred's entire armor and around the area as he kept rolling with her two body-halves across the ground, making a few flips until they finally crashed into the ground, with Elsa lying on top of him.

With his instincts screaming to him, Mordred immediately kicked Elsa's body off himself, sending her flying.

When he finally got up, he clicked his tongue as he felt that his left arm was wounded - when they were rolling Elsa slashed at his exposed arm joint and he wasn't able to avoid it.

At the same time he also saw that Elsa was now in one piece again. Her clothes were slightly battered and ripped, but miraculously there wasn't a single drop of blood on them or on her body - it was as if all of her blood was absorbed by her in order to completely recover.

Mordred frown. 'Damn, such tenacity.'

Elsa, with no lower garments and no cloak, smugly smiled.

Jump right!

All of a sudden, a voice from within himself told Mordred to dodge right, and dodge he did.

It was just in time, as a black blur passed just above where his arm was one moment ago. If not for following his instinct, his arm would have gotten cut at a place that lacked armor.

Raise your arm!

Mordred followed his instincts again, raising his arm to avoid being slashed, while Elsa's swinging dagger landed and traveled across his body armor.

Duck!

Red eyes met Mordred's light green as Mordred quickly lowered his head, causing Elsa's dagger which was about to pierce into the eye hole in his helmet to only graze across his helmet.

Kick!

"Aargh!"

Making use of this chance when Elsa was vulnerable, Mordred instinctively sent out a mana and rage filled knee kick toward her abdomen.

Unable to resist the force, Elsa's body bent like a shrimp and dropped to the ground.

Not a moment later, Mordred jumped back hurriedly as Elsa aimed her dagger at his knee joint.

"Ahahaha!" Elsa laughed in joy, before she leaped off the ground and launched herself at Mordred again.

Mordred's gaze hardened as he prepared for her attack. Earlier, he had gotten overwhelmed by the sudden increase in Elsa's speed, but he was now fine; Elsa was not his match. He stood calmly in a stance and channeled energy into Clarent, exploding out with a roar.

"AAAahhhr!"

With a sudden explosion of magical energy around him like a dome, Elsa's body was flung away like a rag doll, also being burned and mangled by the magical explosion in the process.

Mordred smiled from behind the helmet. He found Elsa's glaring weakness and a perfect way to handle her.

He remembered this 360 degrees knockback move that he had just used from the Fate Apocrypha anime. When Mordred dueled Siegfried he exploded her mana in a dome to knock him back when they were stuck in a clench.

On another occasion Mordred used her Mana Burst ability, overflowing her magical energy and hate, to explode with a dome of crimson lightning that decimated several golems around her.

Elsa was a close-range fighter. With these two moves in Mordred's arsenal, Elsa was simply unable to even get to him as long as he responded fast enough! Every time that he could sense Elsa attacking, Mordred could simply explode; especially because Elsa was supposedly very weak against magic and had low defense, this move perfectly countered her.

Elsa, with slashed and burned clothes, readied her dagger.

Mordred squinted his eyes and raised his sword with both hands, the sword that he miraculously didn't let go off yet probably due to instincts, taking a battle ready stance. His left arm was hurting him, but he forced himself to ignore it.

Elsa laughed in joy as she looked at the armor-clad Mordred in the distance. Her face seemed to be full of ecstasy, as she called out, "What a great move! A great move, indeed, Mordred! You seem to be an amateour, but with this heavy armor and this move, I feel very helpless, oh my, it's as if there's nothing that I can do now! Hahaha!"

However, Elsa was not scared or depressed, or even angry that Mordred just slashed her in half twice, but continued smiling in joy that she encountered such a difficult opponent.

"Helpless, I think it's a good description of your current situation, Bowel Hunter."

Turning his head toward the source of the voice, Mordred saw a red haired knight enter the area.

Elsa's beatific face turned into a frown. On any other day she would be delighted to see the Sword Saint or even to cross swords with him, but right now? In her current condition after already regenerating more than twice? No, this would definitely end badly. At this moment she might not even be able to handle Mordred alone.

Things were not looking good for her.

"I suggest you surrender now," Reinhard said, looking at Elsa. Taking another step forward, he said, "You're completely overpowered and outnumbered."

"Yes, things are obviously not looking good for me," agreed Elsa with a chuckle while nodding. She looked very calm for someone in her hopeless situation. She looked at Mordred. "Mordred, can you take off this armor and show me your stomach, please?"

"..."

"..."

Whether it was Reinhard or Mordred, they were both speechless.

"Sure, I'll humor you." Mordred chuckled after a while as he recalled his armor. When he wore a white T-shirt and a red jacket again, he nonchalantly pulled up his shirt, exposing his slender midsection and chiseled abs to Elsa.

"Oh my, how wonderful!" Elsa touched her face with her palm, her eyes and face displaying crazy joy and her cheeks blushing hard. "I'm so surprised. You actually did it, exposing yourself to a surprise attack!"

"Thank you, Mordred. What a shame I won't see what your stomach looks like on the inside today," Elsa lamented charmingly with a joyful smile. "Then I will retreat for now. However, know that this is not the last time you will see me, ~Mordred."

"You aren't going anywhere," interjected Reinhard in a serious voice as he took a step forward.

"I won't be so sure…" purred Elsa as she pulled out something from her bosom and showed it to them. "If you try to catch me, this will be destroyed."

It was an insignia… Very likely the Royal Insignia that Mordred knew belonged to Emilia.

"This Insignia belongs to the half-elf girl, Emilia. If you let me go I will return this. So, how about it?" Elsa looked at Mordred.

Reinhard glared at Elsa, wrinkling his eyebrows.

"Do you know what? The girl is still barely alive," Elsa added.

"She's alive?" Mordred asked in shock.

Elsa's charming smile deepened. "That's right. If you hurry up, you might still be able to save her. So, what do you say?"

"You're saying that Emilia-sama is gravely injured and this is her insignia?" Reinhard asked, looking at Elsa in shock and anger, and then he looked at Mordred.

"Reinhard, please let her go," Mordred said, looking at Reinhard.

Reinhard looked at Mordred for a moment, before he nodded his head. "Very well."

After a moment's lag, Mordred called out, "Reinhard, get the insignia! I'll check on Emilia!"

Not saying any more, Mordred exploded with magical energy and broke into a sprint, rushing to the loot house, releasing his armor along the way, also hearing Elsa call out to him: "Please take good care of your bowels before we meet again, Mordred!"

Standing in front of the loot house, Mordred raised his foot and kicked off the thick wooden door straight out of its hinges and then barged into the building. Thanks to his superior night vision he quickly noticed three bodies inside.

Old man Rom, Subaru and Emilia. He immediately recognized three figures covered in blood.

He ignored the other two and rushed toward a girl's body, seeing it adorned by a splendid white royal robe and her head full of beautiful silver hair. She laid on her stomach in a pool of blood, her hand being squeezed by Subaru's.

Turning Emilia over, Mordred finally saw her angelic face.

Beautiful, she was stunningly beautiful for sure. The deathly pale color on her face right now made her seem even more unreal like a doll.

'This is a parallel fantasy world for you…'

Mordred was shocked for a moment, before he brushed any distracting thoughts aside and extended his hand to Emilia's neck to check her pulse.

Thud, thud, thud.

Mordred was shocked to see that Emilia's heart was indeed still beating. Her pulse was weak, he could tell, but it was undeniable that she was still alive just like Elsa said!

At this moment Emilia's face was deathly pale - she definitely lost a lot of blood.

Mordred then looked at the wound on the half-elf girl's stomach only to notice it very slowly mending and joining together, regenerating at a speed that could be observed.

'This isn't enough,' Mordred thought. He felt that at this rate Emilia would still die.

He called out his sword again, having an idea. Holding Clarent in his right hand, he gritted his teeth and cut his left wrist with a swift movement, cutting deep.

Blood gushed out in large quantities from his left arm and started falling onto Emilia's stomach, onto the wound.