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The Path of Black Lightning
“Hahaha, I hope you all don’t think you’ll be going home today~”
Even as she laughs, Murellia releases a wave of pure intimidation and anger. It’s an overwhelming force that even me, with Evil’s Bane, can feel. Looking around, I can see even Kiara and Mare changes their expressions ever so slightly.
All of the beastmen adventurers that showed up with Kiara were sobered up by her terrifying power and are standing on the sidelines. It’s not that they were weak, all of them had strength superior to a D rank adventurer. But they were all under no illusions. They knew they didn’t have the strength to so much lay a finger on Murellia.
All of the reinforcements that were still here - Kiara, Mianoa, Guendalfa - all enter their awakened state. It reminded me of a certain prince’s quote, “Super #aiyan Bargain Sale”, but retracted that thought when noticed that some of the people that were supposed to be strong weren’t evolving.
“Hey, aren’t those women maids of the royal palace?!”
“No way, two gods of death are over there?”
“Outside the royal palace?”
“Why are such top tier fighters here…”
A lot of the adventurers are fighting to get a look at Kuina and Mianoa. Gods of death, huh. And top tier fighters besides that? Apparently the palace maids are more famous and feared than I thought. I suppose it’s only natural if all of them are as strong as those two?
“I’m going to tear all of you people to shreds, but I’ll let you go if you pass me that sword right now.”
“...”
Looks like Murellia is still obsessed with me, but Fran only looks on silently.
“Mm. You’re a passionate little girl, aren’t you.”
Murelia changed her face a bit and held out her right hand. At that moment, something glinted on the surface of my blade.
“Huh?”
[Careful, she just did something.]
“Why are you…! I’m telling you to come here!”
Murellia pushed out her hand again, clearly irritated. But once again, a bit more clearly this time, my blade shone black for a short moment.
“What in the world…?”
It looks like she tried to steal me again. However it looks like the effect of Evil’s Bane is demonstrating its usefulness now. Murellia squints and me and makes a frustrated face.
“No matter I suppose, I’ll just take it from you.”
“Don’t say whatever you like.”
“Hah… That sword already belongs to me. I’ve decided so.”
“Won’t give to you.”
Fran’s grip on my hilt tightens.
“Fufufufu. Then, I suppose I’ll just take it by force! Sigrun, you watch from up here.”
“Understood!”
“Will regret that.”
Murellia extended her arm towards Fran and a black bullet formed from her power and shot out towards Fran at a high speed. It’s abnormally fast, probably as fast or faster than a bullet. I guess she prioritized speed over power.
However, Fran easily intercepts its trajectory and simply swats it away with my blade. Even if she prioritized speed over power, it should still pack quite a punch, but there isn’t a single scratch on my blade.
Everyone else in the group immediately kicks into high gear.
“--Fire Javelin!”
“White Blaze!”
“KUOOO!”
“AWOOOO!”
“We’re going too!”
“Yeah!”
Kiara begins chanting with no hesitation. I’m not sure whether she chose fire magic by chance, or if she already knew that lightning magic wouldn’t work against Murellia.
Mare and Linde’s attacks quickly followed, with a myriad of spells and arrows barraging Murellia shortly after.
“Ku!”
Murellia puts up her barrier with a strangely impatient expression. However, she made an obviously relieved expression when she saw that the barrier had invalidated all the attacks. Murellia instantly puts her proud face back on.
“Oh, hahaha! Useless!”
Apparently, she had been worried that her power was weakening because of my successful attacks against her earlier. Though, I guess blocking 20 attacks simultaneously had helped her to regain her confidence.
However, Murellia’s defense had been foreseen by Kiara. From the beginning, we had been aiming to limit her sight.
“Rolling Black Thunder”
Kiara’s body immediately blurred as she disappeared and reappeared behind Murellia, as if she’d teleported. To those watching, it’d probably looked like she’d teleported. It was only me and Fran, who’d barely noticed, that she had overcome the gap with sheer speed rather than transfer magic. Kuina and Mianoa might’ve noticed too, but I couldn’t read their unchanging expressions.
Just how fast has she become now? Rather than the black lightning wrapping her body, it was as if her body had become black lightning itself.
Even if Fran uses Black Lightning Advent and increases her speed with skills and magic, she wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near that speed. Plus, “Rolling Black Thunder”?
Maybe it’s a technique that can only be used while in an awakened Black Heavenly Tiger state, similar to Black Lightning Advent? But we’re not able to use it...
Murellia’s reaction to Kiara was delayed since she was focused on me and Fran.
“Hah! Impact Slash!”
“Gah! Now you’ve done it!”
Amazing! Kiara combined a sword skill with her fire magic and successfully injured Murellia. I guess no matter how strong you are, if you’re attacked without any protection, you’ll take damage regardless of the gap between you and the attacker. For Kiara though, it seems that her full power strike was only a scratch to Murellia.
“Well well well! Isn’t this amazing! Hahaha! There’s three Black Heavenly Tigers here! This is amazing! It’s been 500 years since a meeting like this!”
“Hmph, it seems you’re one as well.”
“Indeed I am. A Black Heavenly Tiger and Kin of the Evil God! In other words, I’m as strong as both of those combined!”
“I see. Rolling Black Thunder!”
“Tch.”
There’s that technique again! But seeing it makes me sure. As far as Black Heavenly Tigers, we still have a long way to go. Just as I have a long way to go to master Kanna Kamui, it seems Fran still has a long path of mastering Black Lightning ahead of her.
Kiara may have only just evolved, but she’s already accumulated a ton of battle experience by killing and battling every day, and she has an amazing enough battle sense to receive the blessing of the God of Fighting. Taking that into account, it wouldn’t be strange for her to be able to acquire and properly use the abilities she’d only just acquired.
“Haah!”
“You-!”
The two of them were locked in a fierce one-on-one, to be honest, Murellia had an overwhelming advantage. Neither of their Black Lightning techniques are nullified due to the nature of Black Heavenly Tigers, and Kiara’s attacks only inflict negligible damage. But if Murellia’s attacks land even once, it’s game over.
Though, that doesn’t stop the battle-crazed Kiara from trying to cut her opponent to pieces.
[Fran, I’ll assist you!]
“Nn.”
Even in the middle of her fight, Murellia has been wary of Fran and I on the sidelines. Even Fran slightly increasing her grip on me increased the tension to new heights. Despite that, Fran jumped into the fight.
You’ll probably get mad at us later, but first, we need to take care of Murellia.