Villain Rising: My Job In This New World Is To Cuck The Protagonist Chapter 41 - 041. Sub-Heroine Vs Villainess [II]

BAM!

The two blades collided with each other as the shockwave rattled Lyra’s arms, it was a pretty huge one and she staggered backward with her knees bending.

’Why the hell is she so stron—’

Lyra was sent skidding backward with her feet leaving grooves in the grass as she saw Eternia move once more in her direction.

Eternia was nothing more than a lethal blur.

She did not fight with the refined elegant forms Lyra saw people use all the ti, rather she mixed Ren’s swordsmanship with her own instincts and that made her strong.

Eternia closed the distance in a fraction of a heartbeat, bringing her wooden practice sword down in a sweeping vicious arc designed to shatter bone.

BAM!

Lyra barely managed to raise her weapon in ti.

The dense wood struck her guard with the force of a battering ram, sending violent vibrations shooting straight down her forearms and into her shoulders.

Her teeth rattled in her skull as she desperately tried to pivot, attempting to redirect the imnse pressure into the dirt, but Eternia was already flowing seamlessly into the next strike moving like a phantom around her flank.

BAM!

Another crushing blow hamred against Lyra’s defense. This ti, her posture broke.

She stumbled, gasping for air as Eternia transitioned flawlessly from a downward chop into a horizontal sweep aid directly at her ribs.

Lyra’s survival instincts flared and she threw her body backward, dodging the blunt force by a re fraction of an inch.

While falling back, she desperately thrust her wooden blade forward, attempting to check the Snakekin’s advance and imdiately chained it into a wide upward slash.

It was a solid, gritty counterattack.

However, Eternia rely flicked her wrist. She parried the desperate strikes with minimal effort, slapping Lyra’s blade aside with a sharp clack then stepped flawlessly inside the opening Lyra had just created and brought the blunt edge of her weapon down in a punishing strike.

Lyra violently twisted her torso, throwing herself into a desperate roll.

BAM!

She managed to avoid taking the blow directly to her collarbone, but the rough edge of the wooden sword grazed her exposed shoulder, casting a thin line of blood down her pale skin.

From the safety of the inn’s porch, Kala clutched Ren’s coat as her small eyes widened with panic while she watched the brutal spar unfold.

"Is big sister okay?!" Kala asked, her voice trembling as she looked up at the towering noble.

Ren didn’t take his eyes off the yard.

He simply patted the little girl’s head to soothe her.

"She’s fine. Eternia isn’t trying to hurt her."

However, looking at the center of the yard, it seed like Eternia was doing the exact opposite of what Ren had just claid.

The Snakekin girl’s golden slit-pupils were dilated as she kicked off the dirt, charging forward with terrifying speed, and violently stabbed her wooden sword straight toward Lyra’s face, aiming directly between her eyes.

Ti seed to slow down for Lyra. The blunt tip of the wooden weapon filled her vision. The strike was too fast and too perfectly angled.

There was nowhere to dodge.

Suddenly, Lyra’s eyes flashed in a blue light.

A sudden overwhelming flood of power entered her veins.

Her body moved entirely on its own as she slid violently downward, dropping her hips with impossible flexibility as though she was performing a perfect, gravity-defying split.

She dodged the lethal thrust by a literal hair’s breadth.

Eternia’s eyes widened in genuine shock with her montum carrying her weapon harmlessly over Lyra’s head.

Seizing the opening, Lyra pushed off the ground, twisting her hips and thrusting her wooden blade forcefully toward Eternia’s exposed stomach but Eternia was a monster in her own right.

Relying on her raw agility, she jumped cleanly over the incoming blade with a massive acrobatic leap, twisting her body in mid-air to evade the strike.

However, as she did, the unnatural power guiding Lyra adapted instantly.

Lyra was already pivoting, tracking Eternia’s trajectory, and attacking directly at her unprotected back before the Snakekin even landed.

’Oh... I see...’ Ren thought. Right now, covering Lyra was sothing that nobody in this world could see except Ren.

It was a vibrant golden aura enveloping the Sub-Heroine. It was the undeniable, reality-bending manifestation of the world’s narrative protection. It was Plot Armor!

’Tch, no student of mine will be a plot armor rchant...’ Ren thought.

He refused to let his people rely on such cheap unearned crutches.

If they were going to be strong, they were going to earn it through blood, sweat, and genuine skill, not divine intervention and narrative convenience.

Without breaking his relaxed posture, Ren nonchalantly swiped his hand through the air. The golden aura dissipated instantly, shattering like fragile glass into a million unseen pieces.

The exact mont the unnatural protection vanished, the sluggishness left Eternia’s movents.

She landed gracefully on the grass, pivoted with blinding speed and rcilessly kicked Lyra entirely across the face.

The resounding smack echoed off the stone walls as Lyra was sent flying backward with the sudden impact scrambling her senses.

The wooden weapon loosened from her grip and fell over into the dirt as Lyra crashed onto the grass, rolling twice before finally landing in a heap.

"Big sister!" Kala imdiately shrieked and the little girl let go of Ren’s coat and ran frantically across the yard over to her sister.

Lyra groaned, slowly sitting up and massaging her throbbing jaw.

"Ow... that hurt a lot..."

Across the yard, Eternia let out a long, satisfied sigh. The lethal, cold-blooded killer vanished in the blink of an eye as she turned around and smiled radiantly, looking eagerly at her Master for his judgnt.

Ren gave her a firm approving nod. "Good work Eternia, you did that excellently."

A deep blush instantly crawled up her pale cheeks, and Lyra swore she could literally see steam coming out of the woman’s ears from the joy of receiving his praise.

It was incredibly hard to imagine that this flustered, eager-to-please girl was the exact sa woman who had been squeezing her face as though she was an ogre while fighting her just seconds ago.

Kala dropped to her knees in the grass with her small hands hovering over Lyra’s face.

"Big sister... are you okay..."

Lyra rubbed her cheek, wincing slightly, but offered her sister a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I am."

She touched her face again, testing her jaw. That kick had stung fiercely, but it had not been ant to kill... if Eternia had put genuine force into it with her beastkin strength, then it would have been a whole different story entirely.

Her neck would have been snapped.

Ren imdiately closed the distance between himself and the two sisters. He looked down at the bruised girl.

"You did really well considering you were facing against Eternia," Ren stated, offering a rare, genuine complint. "Though your swordsmanship could use so more work. You rely too much on instinct and lack proper form."

Lyra nodded slowly, looking down at her trembling arms.

That surging feeling of power... that brief, intoxicating mont where her body moved flawlessly and her eyes glowed in blue was completely gone.

She wanted to master that too if she could, to pull that strength out whenever she needed it without relying on a fluke.

"We will begin training imdiate—" Ren started.

The back door of the inn suddenly clicked open.

Mandy stepped out onto the porch, wiping his hands on a clean apron. "My Lord, the food is rea—"

Ren interrupted him before he could finish the announcent. "Co join them, Mandy."

Mandy’s face instantly paled to the color of chalk. He knew exactly what that tone ant, but he joined them in the yard regardless with his shoulders slumping in dread as he retrieved a wooden practice sword from the rack.

Ren extended his arm down.

Lyra touched it, her calloused fingers wrapping around his wrist, and he pulled her effortlessly to her feet.

A few paces away, Eternia’s lips thinned into a singular tight line of jealousy at the physical contact.

Once Mandy arrived, holding his weapon with trembling hands, Ren instructed them to stand in a straight line.

They complied imdiately, falling into a strict formation. asRen gently took hold of Kala’s small hand and moved away toward the safety of the porch, giving them ample room.

He turned back to face his three subordinates. Each of them had wooden swords gripped tightly in their hands.

"Good," Ren said, his voice carrying the uncompromising authority of a strict instructor. "Now, perform one thousand stabs."

Lyra blinked, her mind completely blanking.

’A thousand stab—’

WHOOSH!

Eternia started instantly, her blade tearing through the air with terrifying precision. To Lyra’s utter shock, even the terrified, sweating Mandy had started as well, thrusting his sword forward in a rhythmic pattern.

Realizing she was the only one standing still, Lyra gritted her teeth and imdiately did so too, pushing through the burning ache in her shoulders.

"After that, you’ll do a thousand slashes as well. We must have perfect attacking form," Ren said while looking at them with a thoroughly entertained smile.

It sure was nice having students to do the sweating for him.

...

"We’re almost there people!" Marcus announced as a large group of people climbed the imnse stairs of Floor 59 of the World Dungeon, officially heading to Floor 60.

Every single person in the elite raiding party wore the dark, highly enchanted uniforms of the Twilight Guild, except for one person... Ren.

"I hope you’re all ready, the Boss monster is on the next floor," Marcus said with his booming voice echoing everywhere.

He led the front of the group with his massive fra radiating confidence as there were loud cheers of agreent from his guildmates. He nodded his head firmly and gripped the dark steel shaft of his Halberd.

"The monster on Floor 60, according to the brief scouting reports from the Werneo Guild, is much more smaller than the colossal beast we faced back on Floor 55," Marcus warned, his tone turning dead serious. "But it is vastly more dangerous as well. We don don’t have much reliable information after that."

When facing a major milestone World Dungeon Boss, the information surrounding its chanics, attack patterns, and elental affinities was always very constricted by the leading Guild or the specific people that raided it first. They hoarded the data to maintain their monopoly on the loot and prestige, so rival parties rarely got the very essentials needed to clear it safely.

That was simply how the brutal politics of adventuring worked... They were walking into a severe blind spot.

Marcus turned his gaze forward, marching toward the final barrier. He then looked to the side to see Ren and Astrid walking closely together as they approached the looming grand stairs.

"So Ren, how do you feel about marriage?" Astrid asked imdiately, her tone surprisingly casual for a woman walking into a life-or-death boss fight.

She was a pragmatic goal-oriented woman; she didn’t want to enter a relationship with soone with it not resulting in marriage at the very least.

Her ti was valuable. Though, as she looked at his flawless profile, a brief pang of doubt hit her. He is quite young... literally the exact sa age as Jace.

『Astrid’s affection points have reduced to 29』

’But again, that doesn’t matter,’ Astrid thought, quickly dismissing the societal norms of the Kingdom. ’Though it does make look like a cougar but a handso man is a handso man, and talent like his is a once-in-a-generation occurrence.’

『Astrid’s affection points have increased to 31』

Ren didn’t miss a beat.

He answered the sudden question about marriage completely honestly.

"Well, if two people wanted to get married, they should actually get to know each other deeply first. A bond forged in trust and mutual understanding is stronger than one forged in haste."

『Astrid’s affection points have increased to 40』

’Isn’t this a bit too fast...?’ Ren thought, maintaining his charming, gentlemanly smile as he looked down at her glittering hopeful blue eyes.

The affection points were spiking wildly just from basic, logical conversation.

Astrid nodded her head enthusiastically. "I think so too! So what about you... Do you have any specific plans for marriage right now? Do you want a harem too?"

Ren nearly choked on his own spit.

If he actually wanted a harem, then he would instantly be qualified in her eyes.

After all, deep down, Astrid genuinely wanted to know what it was like to marry a powerful, ambitious man that had several other capable won under his banner.

In essence, the highly respected Vice Guild Leader had incredibly specific deep-seated cuck fantasies.

Ren replied truthfully.

"Well yeah, I do. You want to manage it for ?"

He said it jokingly, expecting her to laugh it off or blush furiously at the audacity of the comnt.

However, Astrid didn’t laugh. Her expression turned incredibly serious. She reached into the deep pocket of her enchanted robes and brought out a small velvet box.

She snapped the box open, revealing a pristine silver ring set with a glowing mana crystal as she looked up at him with unblinking intensity.

"I’ve heard enough..." Astrid said. "Will you marry now?"

Before Ren could even formulate a response to the unhinged mid-dungeon proposal, the air around them violently plumted.

They had finally arrived at the top of the staircase. Floor 60 was a relatively smaller floor compared to the sprawling caverns below.

It was a perfectly circular, enclosed gladiator arena forged from pitch-black obsidian and standing perfectly still in the dead middle of the arena was a terrifying entity.

It was a knight made entirely of swirling, dense shadow, wearing a tattered ancient nightly uniform that seed to bleed darkness into the surrounding air.

Its hollow visor glowed with twin points of piercing malevolent purple light as it instantly focused its gaze entirely on Marcus, identifying the man in the lead as the primary threat.

The very ground rumbled violently as the monster unsheathed a massive, jagged greatsword crafted from pure darkness.

It didn’t wait for them to form ranks or cast buffs. Instead it ran at them with terrifying, silent speed without even leaving them space to fully pass the stairs.

"Stay on your guard! We have a phantom Boss!" Marcus yelled out