“Hyaaaaat!”
Was that sharp voice the shout to resolve her fighting spirit or the despair of a girl fighting against futility?
Lefille carried her outburst of emotion onto her honed sword and delivered a flare like attack to Demon General Rajas.
The strike created glowing crimson mana wind. Mana wind would normally cut through the earth, the mountain, the sky, without discriminating the size of the target. However, Rajas simply blocked the attack with his dark aura surrounded arm.
The power of the spirit which had exterminated countless mazokus and monsters thus far couldn’t even scratch his skin and the aura was enough to deflect the attack. It was as if Rajas himself was saying that kind of power was laughable.
“Kuuuh...ugh!”
“Hahaha!! What’s the matter, swordsman of Noshias? Is that the best you can do?”
“Shut uuuupppp!!!”
She replied his ridicules with a scream. What she struck next with was another crimson strike, the ‘May Rain’. Rajas countered the wild yet regulated strike directly with his ominous aura-filled fist.
Red lines collided with dark lines and retracted. It was a clash of strength. The ground both party stood on could not withstand the power and cracked with each exchange between the sword and the fist.
Lefille was losing. If Lefille and Rajas’ strength could be put on scale, it would lean towards Rajas. If she retreated a single step, he would advance two steps and if she swung ten times, he would counter eleven times.
Whatever she did, she couldn’t win against Rajas. The number of wounds on her body only grew.
“Hyyaaap!!”
Amidst flurry of attacks, Rajas prepared to launch a massive strike to finish the fight. She noticed it ― but her body didn’t listen. Normally, she could deliver five strikes while the opponent was preparing for such a cumbersome attack, but because of the injuries to her hand, even a single strike was difficult. She barely withstood Rajas’ fist using the giant sword as a shield.
She groaned at the shockwave that bore through her body and retreated.
“Kuuh…..”
When she knelt on the ground and breathed harshly, Rajas spoke with a mocking laughter.
“Kukuku. This is just like the repeat from that time”
“.... repeat?”
“Yes. Repeat from when we attacked your home. Just like that time…”
She could remember her home when he spoke of it. Just as Rajas said, the day when mazokus invaded Noshias. She could never forget that sight. While battling the endless tide of mazokus, what appeared amongst a sea of minions was Rajas. With immense strength standing above any mazoku, it destroyed everything in its path.
In the face of overwhelming strength, she knelt just like now.
Blaming herself for not being strong enough while watching her comrades get mercilessly slaughtered before her eyes. After that, she fought him multiple times at different places and time until the capital fell, but the results were only repeated.
At the end of every battle was her kneeling and someone sacrificing themselves to save her. Comrades and friends. It was always someone precious to her.
They sacrificed themselves protecting her, someone who lost to mazokus.
“Uuh, uggh….”
When she was moaning from the resurfacing memories, Rajas raised a corner of his mouth.