"W-Who the hell do you think you are, you little insolent brat!" Levreeshka snarls.
Chris throws a violent punch at her face, and she has no choice but to dodge. She knows if she tries to block it, more bone spikes will sprout from his armor.
But no matter how much Levreeshka tries to pull away, Chris doesn’t give her a mont to breathe.
Despite her strength and speed far surpassing those of an ordinary vampire, she’s most comfortable fighting at range thanks to her weapon. But the overwhelming strength and endurance Chris gained from his Innatus have made her whip completely ineffective.
... pushed on the defensive by that worthless brat?! No way!
Levreeshka dodges another barrage of Chris’s punches. Then, driven by pride, she strikes back.
She drives a violent elbow into his skull-shaped helt, trying to pull back before the spikes trigger. But the armor reacts faster than she does.
The bone spikes snap out the mont she makes contact, piercing her arm.
She barely holds back a scream of pain.
T-This doesn’t make any fucking sense! That brat might’ve gotten stronger, but his reflexes shouldn’t have improved! How the hell did he react that fast?!
But what Levreeshka doesn’t know is that this has nothing to do with Chris. She’s right — his reflexes haven’t improved. It’s the armor itself that releases those spikes — an automatic defense chanism that triggers with perfect precision, even though Chris didn’t even see the elbow coming.
Her right arm is temporarily disabled, and the pain freezes her for a mont, giving Chris the opening he was looking for.
He throws another punch, and this ti it lands.
It slams into Levreeshka’s face again, and the bone knuckle-duster triggers the mont it touches her skin. The blow hurls her to the ground, disfiguring her face and reducing it to a bloody pulp.
Before she can regenerate the deep cuts on her face or get back up, Chris is already on her.
A net of red tentacles closes around him, but once again it’s useless.
It can’t stop the violent kick he slams into her side.
Levreeshka is sent flying upward until she brushes against the top of the do.
Chris imdiately launches himself at her as he shapes a thick bone spear.
"D-Damn brat... do you really think you can defeat a general of the glorious Scarlet Army?!"
Levreeshka vomits a torrent of blood. Before it can reach Chris, it transforms into a gigantic primordial vampire.
Chris reacts on instinct. The bone spear pierces its skull in one blow. But there’s no ti to pull it out — the creature’s body is already collapsing onto him. He lets go and throws it aside with a powerful swing.
It’s exactly what Levreeshka wanted.
She never expected that creature to kill him. All she needed was to block his vision for a second to counterattack.
When Chris frees himself from the carcass and sees again, it’s too late.
Levreeshka is already on him, catching him off guard with a devastating kick to the neck.
The skeletal armor absorbs the impact, but it’s left badly cracked. Chris is shot toward the ground like a bullet.
In that brief mont, he tries to regain his balance in midair, land on his feet, and build montum to attack her again.
But before he can do it, the red appendages intertwine beneath him, forming a lattice.
Chris falls onto it and the rebound launches him upward again.
W-What the fuck happened...?!
Before he can even understand how, he finds himself face to face with Levreeshka again.
"Take this, you pathetic insect!" she snarls, twisting her hips to wind up the strike as appendages hold her suspended by the arms.
Caught off guard, Chris doesn’t have the reflexes to react in ti to another kick aid at the sa spot.
Once again, the skeletal armor holds, but the already cracked neck section shatters. The skull-shaped helt breaks away from the rest of the armor, leaving Chris with his head completely exposed and defenseless.
Another hit like that would be fatal.
S-Shit... I thought the Innatus made strong enough to beat her... fuck, I was winning! I was kicking her ass, and now everything’s completely flipped... how the hell did I get overwheld?! This isn’t good — not at all! I... I can’t give in now!
Chris is falling as Levreeshka dives at him, ready to land the finishing blow.
Shit... shit! I... I have to... do sothing!
But before he can even think of a counterattack, Levreeshka regurgitates another massive surge of blood. It turns into a primordial vampire even bigger than the one before.
An idea flashes through Chris’s mind.
With that huge beast covering her, I can’t see how or where she’s going to hit ... but she can’t either!
Chris thrusts his arm toward the primordial vampire. He channels all his remaining energy into his palm, and from it a large bone stalactite erupts.
The spike pierces straight through the primordial vampire’s chest. A mont later, Levreeshka lets out a horrifying scream of pain.
Chris is crushed under the massive carcass. Levreeshka falls onto her back, the large bone spike embedded in her shoulder blade just a few centiters from her heart.
The pain is excruciating, yet she forces herself back up. She rips the spike from her shoulder, and an unstoppable stream of blood gushes from the deep wound.
The rage and frustration twisting her face into sothing grotesque aren’t from the pain of her wounds — they co from her pride.
She’s always prided herself on being a strategic genius, yet she was caught off guard by soone she sees as nothing more than an insignificant insect. An outrage she can’t bear.
But she’s almost at her limit now.
Creating all those primordial vampires, controlling the countless appendages of her whip, containing the flas of the Destruction Dragon Eyes, regenerating from Chris’s brutal blows. She’s consud a massive amount of Sanguis energy, and her regeneration is severely compromised.
But Chris has it much worse — he’s completely out of the fight. The carcass crashing down on him finished off his skeletal armor, leaving it so badly cracked that even a light breath of wind could shatter it into a thousand pieces.
His blurred vision follows Levreeshka as she staggers nacingly toward him, the bone spike clenched in her fist.
T-This ti... I think this really is the end... not even a miracle can get us out of this...
Mia, Zaira, Brianne. Forgive ... I failed...
Levreeshka drags herself toward Chris, leaving a trail of blood from the deep wound in her shoulder.
She stares down at him, her eyes full of scorn and disgust. She grips the bone spike with both hands and raises it to plunge it into Chris’s skull.
He shuts his eyes, bracing for the inevitable, when... BAM!
He snaps his eyes open at the thud.
Now, standing at his side, it’s no longer Levreeshka, but Isabelle, a large blood sword clenched in her fist.
Sunlight hits his face, filtering through a breach in the do wall.
Chris blinks repeatedly and even rubs his eyes, realizing it’s really her and not a hallucination.
"I-Isabelle..." he murmurs, his voice barely a whisper, eyes filled with tears of joy.
Her serious, analytical gaze sweeps across the battlefield.
She imdiately finds Mia, unconscious not far away, still wearing the Tear of Azkarith. Then her gaze shifts to Zaira and Brianne, both in terrible shape but still breathing.
Then her gaze returns to Chris.
She grabs the carcass of the gigantic primordial vampire crushing him with one hand and pulls it off him as if it weighs nothing.
When she does, her eyes widen and a faint smile forms at the sight of what remains of the bone armor.
Finally, her gaze turns to Levreeshka. She’s kept upright only by red appendages holding her by the arms.
Blood pours from her mouth. Not because she’s using her Innatus, but from the overwhelming kick Isabelle hit her with.
It was aid at her chest, but Levreeshka managed to dodge in ti.
She was only caught by the energy from Isabelle and the air displaced by the kick, yet it was enough to hurl her to the opposite side of the do.
"S-Shit... this isn’t fair... I was so close... it’s all that damn brat’s fault... if I’d known he had such a powerful Innatus, I’d have taken him out first..." Levreeshka snarls, her voice choked with blood.
"I-Isabelle, forgive ... I... couldn’t protect Mia... I couldn’t protect anyone... you were right, I’m useless..." Chris sobs.
"It’s all right, Chris. I’m here now."
Isabelle crouches at his side and gently strokes his head.
"I should be the one apologizing, Chris, not you. If Mia, Zaira and that Monster Slayer are still alive, it’s thanks to your strength and courage. You protected them all, even against an opponent completely out of your league. I’m proud of you."
She stands up and points the sword at Levreeshka.
"Now focus on resting and healing your wounds, Chris. I’ll take care of her."
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