Inside the jolting carriage,
Kraush gazed at the Armed Princess in disbelief as she stood before him.
“…Are you sane? Considering you know my real name, you must be a world eroder. Which lunatic wearing the Balheim guise thinks to wage war with me? Are you the one whose weapon I took?”
The woman, draped in weapons from head to toe, was a clear danger, each piece of her arsenal deadlier than the next—especially the Thirteen Demon Kings, her main armament, posed such a threat that even Kraush couldn’t guarantee his own safety once deployed.
‘Surprisingly agile for someone laden like that.’
Kraush, who had seen her in combat, clicked his tongue. Despite the spatial limitations within the carriage, she bore all her weapons. Outside, her combat style would shift once again.
“Enough talk.”
Kraush intended no lengthy battle. Misidentified as a world eroder, he chose a forceful approach.
“Abandon the Rain Thunder Prime and disappear.”
“Huh?”The Armed Princess showed bewildered irritation. Yet, she hesitated to attack—a reflection of her inherent caution.
‘She acts as if she’s got something up her sleeve.’
The evidence was clear as one of her eyes barely opened. World eroders typically possessed unique powers, and the black flames from earlier were a bit uncomfortable but not unmanageable. However, the thought of facing another power was irksomely daunting.
Especially suspect was the faint sense of world erosion emanating from Kraush.
It was weak—too weak.
‘Or perhaps,’
He was hiding his full power of world erosion well enough to elude her detection.
‘Maybe I should just pull out one of the Thirteen Demon Kings.’
A swift and decisive victory crossed her mind.
‘No, there’s no benefit in revealing my hand in a situation I don’t fully grasp. Better to check first.’
Besides, Kraush’s association with Balheim irked her—any connection with Balrok was best avoided.
Anyway, the world was full of unpleasant things.
All she wanted was a life surrounded by her children.
Thus, she drew an axe from her back.
For the life she dreamed of, acquiring the Rain Thunder Prime was essential.
“To speak to me in such a manner, I see you lack fear.”
She made her decision—to completely unravel her opponent’s strategy.
Kraush, maintaining a façade of composure, took a deep internal breath.
‘The bluff worked.’
If she had blindly rushed to kill him, Kraush would have no recourse. The gap between their powers was stark.
And that was Kraush’s only chance to gain an upper hand against the Armed Princess.
‘The peculiarities of the eighth floor.’
Kraush glanced out the window at the landscape rushing by.
‘If I satisfy those conditions…’
The Armed Princess would be at a loss.
From now on, it was purely a matter of endurance.
He never planned to face such a formidable opponent from the start, but what choice did he have?
If he had to fight, he would fight.
‘Swish-‘
The Armed Princess made the first move.
Leading with a footstep, the first weapon to strike was the axe—a level of axemanship worlds apart from his previous encounters.
‘Flameburst.’
Kraush, recognizing the axe’s identity, didn’t engage. Instead, he retreated immediately.
‘Boom!’
A blast followed, and black smoke filled the carriage.
The effect of Flameburst—explosion and smoke—was simple, but within the confined space of the carriage, the smoke excellently obscured vision.
Then, amid the smoky haze, a silver, unadorned blade unexpectedly pierced through the fog on its own.
‘A self-directing blade, Starblight.’
Instead of countering, Kraush twisted to narrowly avoid the blade, and simultaneously, he parried another spear.
“Clang!”
“Hmm?”
The Armed Princess’s eyes narrowed from behind the smoke. It was as if Kraush had predicted her attack.
“You’re using something strange.”
The silver blade zigzagged through the smoke before returning to its empty sheath at her waist.
“And you seem to know quite a bit about my weapons.”
Well, that made sense.
‘After you’re dead, I’ll collect and categorize all your weapons.’
Such was the fate of one relegated to menial tasks.
So Kraush didn’t reply; instead, he opened up his intuition.
“Dammit, that’s annoying.”
The next moment, her spear lashed out wildly.
The scarlet aura on the spear revealed its deadly intent to take Kraush’s life.
Thus, Kraush, relying on near-predictive intuition, tenaciously unfolded his Annihilation Erosion technique.
As he did, black flames sparked around him, slowly catching on.
His arms tingled.
Even with Lunar Body enhancing his physical functionality through Annihilation Erosion, keeping up was challenging.
But he couldn’t just defend.
The Armed Princess was still uncertain about his identity.
Before she was convinced of her advantage, Kraush had to push back, even slightly.
“Clang!”
The moment Kraush met the spear’s shaft with his sword, he slid down it, launching an attack toward the Armed Princess.
“Ha!”
As she gasped out, the Armed Princess immediately let go of the spear, reaching for her waist.
And in an instant, two daggers crossed paths, clashing with Kraush’s sword.
“Whoosh!”
The ensuing black flames billowed around them.
But the Armed Princess didn’t care. Her black flames couldn’t inflict lethal damage, and she knew it.
Thus, she injected strength into both arms.
“Crunch, clang!”
As her arms extended, the force transmitted through the daggers caused Kraush’s sword to float momentarily.
The power behind her strike was so overwhelming, Kraush nearly lost his grip.
Not missing a beat, the Armed Princess sent her dual daggers slithering toward Kraush’s throat.
The target was clear; the moment the daggers reached, his throat would be crushed.
“Whew!”
Seeing this, Kraush briefly intensified the Annihilation Erosion in his right arm.
The surging power of Annihilation Erosion momentarily pushed his arm’s limits, propelling it downward.
“Boom!”
But what Kraush struck was not her but the carriage floor.
In the black flame’s upsurge…
The Armed Princess’s form scattered like a snake shedding its skin.
‘Mortal Fang.’
Upon recognizing the daggers’ identity, Kraush immediately released his sword from his right hand and swung his left hand behind him.
‘Black Hood.’
As his left hand waved, a sword manifested.
Then, behind him, the Mortal Fang wielded by the Armed Princess clashed with Kraush’s sword.
“Clang!”
Refusing to be overpowered, Kraush poured more Annihilation Erosion into his legs, stubbornly holding his ground.
The Armed Princess’s eyes contorted in frustration. Her supposed killing blow was blocked too easily.
“The bastard!”
She then abruptly lifted her left knee.
“Whoosh!”
As her waistband unsheathed Starblight once more, it darted toward Kraush, alone as before.
Kraush, abandoning the strength contest, sidestepped, letting her force pass by him, and his swinging sword countered Starblight.
The parried Starblight, unlike before, didn’t retreat but continued aiming for Kraush.
Starblight’s characteristic was to return with an attack upon being parried.
As Kraush dodged, the Armed Princess, having thrown Mortal Fang into the air, was already swinging Flameburst.
The widespread attack from her dual axes gave little room to evade within the confines of the carriage.
‘Damn, not even giving me a moment to breathe!’
“Boom!”
As Flameburst and Kraush’s sword met, an explosion sent him tumbling across the floor.
His vision blurred momentarily from the explosion’s range.
But Kraush’s intuition was clear: roll away, now.
“Crack, boom!”
As soon as Kraush rolled, Flameburst struck down, exploding in his place.
The Armed Princess did not stop there.
As Kraush began to roll on the floor, she continued to slam Flameburst down, seemingly intent on finishing him off.
“That guy rolls well. Even a caterpillar has skill!”
With provocative words, she released Flameburst onto the spot where Kraush lay and then drew a great sword, raising it high into the air.
“Let’s see if you can escape this.”
Kraush’s mind snapped to attention.
That cursed woman.
In an instant, her great sword soared high enough to touch the carriage ceiling and then descended upon Kraush.
“Boom!”
The gargantuan sword reached the far wall of the carriage, and Kraush barely managed to lift his sword to block it head-on.
His trembling arms betrayed the strain of warding off the great sword.
The great sword that could freely alter its size and weight—Manifold Greatsword.
Feeling its crushing weight, as though he and his sword could be squashed any moment, was suffocating.
Just as the previous attack, he’d reserved the second phase of Annihilation Erosion as much as possible.
If he faltered here, the Armed Princess would take notice.
“Dammit, pretending is exhausting.”
Before he could be crushed, Kraush surged Annihilation Erosion.
“Clang!”
The heated force erupting from his body was so intense, the Armed Princess couldn’t react in time.
With the force Kraush pushed, the Manifold Greatsword floated briefly.
In that gap…
Kraush, from an uplifted stance, channeled all the flames of Annihilation Erosion into his dark blade.
“Flare up!”
As the fiercest flames yet rose,
“Whew!”
Kraush immediately slashed downward with a drawn breath.
A crescent-shaped blaze enveloped the Armed Princess.
She, too, realized she couldn’t just take this and immediately released the great sword, lifting her wrists.
Then, peculiar chains burst from her wrists and wrapped around her like a shield.
“Boom!”
As the sound of explosion and the flicker of black flames filled the air,
Kraush felt his arms shake with the repercussions of Annihilation Erosion.
And the smoke that seeped from his mouth felt hot enough to scorch his throat.
Sweat dripped down.
Having faced death several times in mere moments of conflict, Kraush felt a dizzying sensation.
Had he erred even once, he would’ve been a corpse.
‘Snow Puppet.’
Thus, Kraush pulled up Snow Puppet, forcibly suppressing his tense emotions.
Instead, he wore a comfortably casual smile.
He had to feel like a world eroder with a hidden trump card.
Then, as the Armed Princess retracted her chains to her arm with a rustling sound, her eyes twisted.
“You hid your strength. That’s it.”
Convinced that Kraush had just slightly revealed his full force, she smiled wryly.
“But that won’t do much against me.”
Hearing her, Kraush let out a slight scoff.
“What’s so funny, brat?”
Her undisguised irritation glaringly apparent, he slowly lifted his dark sword.
True to its reputation for sturdiness, the dark sword remained unmarred despite the attack.
He’d have to thank Crimson Garden for providing such a blade.
Tick, tock-
Kraush’s eyes roamed over the black flames fervently igniting various spots in the carriage.
He had roughly five minutes.
“Shua Delpia, no, Butterfly.”
Kraush taunted her by her disparaging nickname.
“Are you in heat? Quit mewling.”
With a twitch,
Her ears and tail bristled in anger.
“Fucking brat!”
Watching the Armed Princess, Kraush’s eyes glowed red within the black flames.
Ready to knock this cat off the speeding carriage.
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