I could barely stand straight. I stared at him with a cautious gaze, and then, slowly, it spread into a cocky grin.
"Oh? Alright then, let’s do this. I can do this all day by the way. I will kill you just like I killed the damn beast over there."
Kohen changed his posture entirely, and his facial expression shifted with it. Before, he always had a small smile on his face, sothing playful, like all of this was a ga to him. But now he was dead serious and there was nothing left but cold anger.
’I must have really struck a nerve huh.’
And that made all the more curious about what exactly was going on. What did I do by killing the gate guardian, and why does it bother him this much?
Before I could think on that any longer, he lunged at . He was faster than before, moved differently too, and before I could even prepare for his arrival he was already upon .
But since I was already aware of how his ability rode on impact, how he could send that force outward into anything, I threw myself back. Impact oftentis dampened when it had to travel a longer distance than intended, so my thought was that if he ant for this hit to land at close range, throwing myself backward would reduce its effectiveness.
But I was very wrong.
Despite the distance I’d gained, the impact slamd into my chest like a boulder carried by a titan and hurled with everything he had. My body hit the ground and bounced, then rolled, blood exploding from my throat. I almost choked on it, but by so rcy I landed face down, turned over, and just kept coughing. Tons of blood spilling from my throat with each hack.
I slowly pushed up with my arms, but it was slower than slowly. Getting back up after that was far more difficult than I expected. Even after the coughing stopped my lungs felt twisted, and every organ in my stomach seed devastated, all of them losing sense of their function for a long, horrible mont.
I stayed there on the ground while he walked closer. His face was dark and his eyes glinted viciously.
He said nothing. Finally he arrived above , and knowing he was close, I managed to push myself up.
And he waited... surprisingly.
I straightened but was still holding my belly, blood sared across my jaw, a tired, pale look sitting in my eyes.
Yet there was a dented grin stained on my face that made it seem like I was enjoying all this pain.
To be honest, I think I must’ve looked more like the villain than the hero in this case.
’Wait, was I even ever the hero?’
I did not fret despite being in this position. At the end of the day, all I’d have to do was find a good corner and beat my at again.
’Such convenience. I hope this one doesn’t watch this ti around.’
It took a mont to call myself out on my bullshit.
’Hey, we’re not supposed to get comfortable with that!’
Tilting his head sideways with a curiosity and suppressed indignation that gave way to a hollow smile, Kohen asked:
"Why are you smiling? Do you find this situation that funny? Your approaching death amuses you?"
I raised my chin and laughed. After laughing, I fixed my gaze on him with a little bit of that laugh still lingering.
"Approaching death?"
The laugh resounded again. I scratched my temple this ti around.
"I have considered different ways this could end, what could possibly happen... I have gone to the future to find how many ways you could defeat ."
My gaze darkened on him.
"I only found one..."
Then I chuckled again.
"anwhile, I went and found one hundred and one ways to kill you. But since I’m feeling really rciful right now, I won’t employ them. I’ll just let my fire wizard take care of this..."
I paused.
"Or should it be fire nun?"
He looked at with a frown and belatedly widened his eyes, leaping away from his position.
Maggie’s leg swiped past the front of his eyes, missing by a hair’s breadth. He had sensed her late, but was still able to twist away from the incoming kick.
’Wow! That’s comndable!’
This Kohen fellow wasn’t a fluke. Despite being a bloodline user, he was a genuinely astounding fighter.
’Why is it that all the bloodline users I’ve been eting are freaking strong... and the summoners...’
I paused for a mont, in the loving mory of the pretty boy. Then I swallowed those words back.
’Nah, they’re equally strong too.’
It was just that summoners, I assud, had a higher probability of neglecting their own training since the summons could do all the work. But in a summoner against summoner’s battle, you’re not only fighting the summon, you’re fighting the summoner too.
It sounded a bit la for two summoners to just stand behind, barking commands while their summons are fighting. Like two kids arguing over whose action figure would win.
Kohen stood differently now, staring at Maggie with extre caution.
’Huh, what’s that?’
I had only noticed it as she stood straight and revealed her other hand.
’Is that the head of a wolf?’
In her left hand, Maggie was wearing the scarred head of a wolf as a gauntlet. She extended it toward Kohen and made a ’co here’ gesture.
Kohen, of course, was not stupid enough to jump right ahead. Instead he glared at his comrades who lay lifelessly on the ground in pools of their own blood. Sothing passed behind his eyes then. Sothing ugly.
In that mont, the entire depth shook ferociously. This ti, the gate itself was coming undone.
Kohen suddenly broke into a childish laughter, which fit him perfectly. He looked like a child even though he was a destruction machine.
"My goodness, I suddenly rembered I left the soup on fire before coming here. Shit, I didn’t even feed my red-ear rabbit before leaving. What in the world is wrong with ?!"
He shouted at himself while hopping back, slapping his own forehead for good asure.
"I guess we will have to et again. Spirit Summoner! Fire Wizard, let’s et again!"
He winked and exploded upward with an impact that shook the ground, vanishing into the darkness above like he’d been yanked by a string.
anwhile, Maggie and I stared, dumfounded.
’...Did that man just use a pet rabbit as his excuse to run away?’
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