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–––Lacus’ viewpoint

I blocked her attack with my sword and felt an incredible amount of pressure on my arms. A single attack from her carried this much power. Just where in her tiny body did she have the muscles necessary! The force from it sent me flying backward and she followed after me, this time she attacked upwards and sent me higher up.

“Ughh?!”

I would not let her do as she pleased any longer! I would beat her dead with my fists if I had to!

“Ahhhh!”

Still flying upwards, black flames sprouted from my body. They quickly spread throughout my entire body and vanished soon after. Lapis looked shocked at how quickly the transformation happened, and I flew down towards her and swung my sword with all my force, sending her and her halberd down.

“Don’t get carried away now! There’s no way someone like you can win against me! It’s time to end these games! I’ll fight you with everything I’ve got!”
“Didn’t you already say that earlier?”
“Shut upppp!”

Now I could fly much faster than before, and seeing that she tried to flee immediately. She barely managed to dodge my attack at full speed, but she would not get away for much longer. I would not be satisfied until I saw her smug little face contort in pain and fear.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

I changed course at a steep angle and swung my sword towards Lapis again. This time my blade reached her shoulder and would soon cut her arm off…

“There’s no resistance? That can’t…kyah?!”

A bad feeling crept down my spine and I immediately turned around while swinging my sword, but she was not there either. Instead, I just felt a burning sensation on my back. I had gotten cut?! But how?! It was impossible for a human to be faster than a Strengthened demon!

“You littleeeee!”

If any targeted attack or spell could not hit her, then I just had to attack everywhere at the same time and she would get hit. She was actually faster than me, as annoying as it was, I would give her that, but no matter how quickly she moved she would never be able to dodge this!

A different type of flames than those of Strengthening burst from my body and spread all around me. If we were on the ground, the flames would have consumed half of the city. But that was not all, once the flames had spread, I still could make them all detonate at once and plunge everything into a sea of flames. No matter where she tried to hide, Lapis would burn to death.

“Dieee!”
“Too naive.”

As everything detonated, I heard a terrifying voice next to my ear, and before I could react her halberd ate out a chunk of my side. I had not expected her to travel through those flames and come attack me directly. Wounded as I was, I left that spot as quickly as possible and looked back, seeing her with her Halberd and not a single scratch on her. I could not believe it, was she actually immortal? The pain on my side made it harder for me to focus and the flames died off.

“It seems they’re done below as well, so let’s put an end to this, shall we?”
“!”

Hearing that, I looked down and saw Ditoner’s body cut in half. After all his boasting he had died fighting a human like that? He was actually useless! I was already pissed off being cornered by Lapis, so I wanted to throw all my displeasure onto Ditoner, but I did not have the time for that.

Lapis was holding her right hand up into the air not too far from me and gathering a large amount of magic in it. She was doing that faster and more efficiently than even I could. The stars and weather seemed to react to her command, dark clouds quickly appearing in the sky. This was bad! I had no idea what type of magic that was, but I knew that if I took a direct hit I would not survive. If I was an onlooker I would love to study whatever spell she was using, but being the target made things different. I hurriedly took out a Scroll from my pocket and began infusing it with magic.

“Lightning!”

I heard Lapis utter that word which carried the power of a spell, and in response, a flash of lightning came from the sky. Everything turned white as I closed my eyes, then later I felt a floating sensation before I fell on solid ground. When I opened my eyes, a familiar scenery greeted me.

“This…this is Lord Trianf’s castle. I survived…”

The Scroll I had imbued with my magic was a Teleportation Scroll. Ditoner did not have one, but Lord Trianf himself had entrusted me with one in case things went south. I had been confident that there was no way for a human to surpass me, so I did not think it was needed, but in the end, it saved my life.

“I thought I was a goner for a moment…what even was that…she’s a beast.”

I felt strength leaving my body as I was filled with relief from saving my life. Not even I had been able to fight her. She was far stronger than any regular human, stronger than demons even. From what we gathered she was not even a hero, she merely worked for one. But why was she so strong? I was afraid, I did not wish to think that, but maybe she was even more powerful than Lord Trianf..?

“Nah…that’s absurd.”

She was still in that city. Soon enough the remaining demons and monsters of our army would be exterminated. I hated to admit it, but this time our attack had failed. Still…

“I guess the good thing is that we were able to gauge the strength of a hero and Lapis? Though there’s no way we can fight her head-on. The best option will be to wait until another Demon King fights her, and then take them both out at the same time when they’re weakened.”

Impatient to get over this all, I undid the Strengthening on my body and began healing my wounds while I hurried to meet with Lord Trianf. He had to know this information as soon as possible. I was definitely going to get punishment for failing so spectacularly, but I had to bear through that patiently.