The attack was powerful and explosive, enough to level the entire surrounding area, carving a path nearly a hundred ters long through the dense forest, leaving both sides littered with uprooted trees and torn earth.
Edmund let out a breath, his arm hanging at his side like a broken piece barely attached to his body.
It was clear that such a devastating attack had cost him far more than just a large amount of mana, but given the situation, it had been the best course of action he could think of.
An opponent capable of standing against a D-Rank without even flinching was not soone to take lightly. Holding back would have been the sa as asking to be killed. If he could catch his opponent off guard and strike with his most devastating attack at full power, then he would do it, and so he did.
"Seems like I underestimated you again, in the end..." he said, breathing hard, to no one in particular, or perhaps not.
A mont after the words left him, a thin line of light appeared across his abdon, cutting diagonally, and then burst open in a spray of blood.
As that happened, the dust in the area began to settle, and beside Edmund, in the part untouched by the blast, a female figure could be seen holding a sword, its blade seemingly coated in a flowing liquid.
It was, of course, Luna. She had managed to move in ti, and counterattack.
Edmund’s mind was in turmoil as he processed what had just happened. After a few seconds, he let out a breath, not of disappointnt, but of defeat.
He had no mana left to defend himself or heal. The full force of the attack had struck him without resistance, but that alone wouldn’t have been enough, not when the person he was fighting appeared to be a D-Rank at the advanced stage.
There had been sothing more in that attack, sothing he had barely noticed. Sothing that seed to ignore all defenses and obstacles, allowing that blade to cut through him as if he were made of butter.
"That energy... what the hell was—"
He didn’t have ti to finish the thought. His mind stopped working as his body began to collapse, the upper half slowly sliding away from the lower.
Luna showed no expression at the sight. Ever since she lost Emily, nothing had been able to shake her. Perhaps the only thing that managed to stir even the slightest curiosity in her was Evan, that strange figure who seed to grow more mysterious with each passing day.
Normally, the more ti you spend with soone, the better you understand them. But with him, it was the opposite. The more she learned, the more she questioned who he really was. Too much about him didn’t add up, made no sense at all.
Aside from him, nothing else even ca close to affecting her.
And even now, after dealing with Nicolas, that emptiness inside her hadn’t completely disappeared.
At that mont, footsteps echoed beside her. She didn’t turn, there was no need. She already knew who it was.
"Tch, that bastard almost got ," Evan said.
"But you definitely didn’t go easy on him... was it because he was that guy’s father?" he added, dusting off his black robe.
"No. I just didn’t want to waste any more ti on him, not when we’re surrounded," she replied, her voice as flat as ever, as if what she said was completely normal.
Evan didn’t seem surprised. In fact, he had already noticed them so ti ago.
"They got here fast," he said, his clone’s sharp eyes picking out vital signatures appearing from every direction through the trees. "He probably called them before he ca."
City guards.
From the brightness of their life force he could tell that most of them weren’t awakened, but others were, with most of them being F-Ranks and even a few E-Ranks among them. One presence in particular stood out above the rest, its luminosity approaching Edmund’s own, if just barely.
Evan shifted his gaze toward a gap between the trees and saw a man step forward, sword already drawn, expression carrying nothing remotely resembling goodwill.
’So that’s the head of the city guard. Commander Darius. a mid-stage D-Rank,’
He wasn’t particularly surprised by this developnt. It was one of the scenarios they had considered over the past few days, if Edmund ca, Darius almost certainly would too. And if Darius ca, then the other presence would likely not be far behind either.
He drew his blade and began ntally marking his targets, everyone except Darius, but as he did, the light in his clone’s eyes was beginning to dim, consciousness slowly receding, the clone beginning to reclaim its own body.
’Good. That should be enough. Ti to deal with my own situation.’
He opened his eyes.
Not in the clone’s body anymore, his own in his room.
Through the thin walls he could already hear the commotion building inside the manor. Edmund’s attack had been powerful enough to be felt from Lirath itself, the distance between the city and the forest being what it was, a shockwave like that didn’t go unnoticed. Add to that the sudden large-scale mobilization of the city guard, and it hadn’t taken long for the citizens to start panicking, the manor’s staff included.
He could already hear Martin’s voice carrying through the corridors, sharp and controlled, issuing orders, trying to assess the situation, which ant exactly the kind of chaos Evan needed.
’Perfect timing.’
He got up from his bed.
’Let’s just hope those two can hold out long enough.’
He didn’t doubt his clone’s ability to handle the E-Ranks, and he didn’t doubt Luna’s ability to handle Darius. The only unknown was that powerful presence still at the manor, one that, at this very mont, hovered in the skies above the city.
Evan hadn’t sensed it at first, but once his rank rose to E-Rank, he beca able to perceive it, and it had been a shock.
He knew that a border city like Lirath couldn’t possibly be without experts...
But this one felt particularly strong.
Stronger than him. Stronger than Luna.
Possibly a C-Rank...
or worse,
a B-Rank.
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