Chapter 46 (2/2)

“>”

She lightly waved her hand and flames erupted from it, flying towards Loren in the shape of a fan.

Loren dodged it by leaping backwards in a hurry, but by doing so he lost all the distance he had slowly been gaining on her.

“I can’t get close! Being able to cut her down or not isn’t even the problem here!”

“Don’t you have any knives left!?”

“I used them all up on the zombies!”

“Nuuu…Lost ones, return to where you belong. >”

Lapis groaned and then used an exorcism spell. Shayna’s body glowed for a moment, but immediately disappeared, and it didn’t look like she took any damage at all. She didn’t even try to face Lapis, but instead was focused on Loren, who was zig zagging his way towards her.

“Of course, it would get resisted…It didn’t even tickle her.”

“Maybe you don’t have enough faith!?”

“If there’s a priest who could exorcise a >, bring one here right now!”

As soon as Lapis shouted, she dove away, and white flames erupted where she had stood.

Shayna wasn’t looking at Lapis, but she knew she was there.

She tried to attack Lapis when she was caught off guard, so she pulled a feint, looking at Loren while attacking her, but Lapis wasn’t an ordinary being either.

“Stones of red, strike the enemy >”

The spell that Lapis used while dodging shot four bullets made of fire from her fingers, and all of them hit Shayna in the face.

It was an attack that would’ve seriously injured a person, but when the flames cleared, Lapis saw that it didn’t even leave a burn on Shayna’s face and growled.

“I guess an elementary cla.s.s spell won’t even leave a mark.”

As Lapis muttered under her breath, Shayna looked away from Loren and faced her, finally acknowledging that she was an obstacle.

As Shayna slowly raised her palm towards Lapis, Lapis stood still and looked straight back at her with a sly smile.

“Are you sure? That it’s okay to look away from him?”

The moment that her attention moved away from him.

There was no way Loren would miss such an opportunity.

Shayna was in the middle of launching an attack on Lapis as well, so he dashed straight towards her, knowing that this was his only chance to close in.

“You can hate me for this!”

Loren brought his great sword down from over his head, straight onto Shayna’s forehead, but the blade couldn’t capture her.

It was because Shayna sensed Loren’s attack and leaped down from the altar, whilst casting > at Lapis. Loren’s attack caught the hem of her dress and crashed down onto the altar, destroying it.

“Lapis!”

Loren continued with a scooping stroke from under, but Shayna dodged it again.

But Loren was determined to stick close to her and went in for another strike, but he saw Lapis being engulfed in white flames, and shouted in surprise.

“I’m fine! One hit won’t do anything to me.”

When the flames died, although she was breathing heavily, Lapis wasn’t turned into an undead.

It was an attack that even a wight succ.u.mbed to, but if she was able to withstand it, didn’t that mean Lapis was tougher than a wight? The thought crossed through Loren’s mind for a moment, but his body was still moving to keep within attacking range of Shayna, launching strike after strike with his great sword.

“Loren be careful! What she’s using isn’t magic so there’s no need for her to chant spells! The attacks will come suddenly!”

“Isn’t that impossible to be careful of?”

Currently Shayna was raising her palm before she attacked, but according to Lapis that wasn’t a necessary action, so if she stopped doing that, there was no way for Loren to know that an attack was coming.

Rather than that, Loren thought bitterly.

It was hard to believe that Shayna had battle experience, but Loren was astonished at the fact that she evaded all his blows.

He guessed that since she was a > her physical abilities would be considerable, but her dodging his every attack whilst floating made it feel like he was fighting against smoke or a heat haze, and although he was keeping her down, Loren felt panic slowly rising inside.

“Loren! Aim here!”

Lapis’ voice reached his ears.

While continuing his attack, Loren faced Lapis and saw that she was pointing at her chest.

“The place where it’s glowing! Normal > don’t have anything like that! I’m not sure what will happen, but it’s worth a shot!”

It was where the > had been.

Although it was feeble, there was a light coming from Shayna’s chest, and Loren wondered whether he should do as Lapis said, but when the No Life King heard what Lapis said, it reflexively covered its chest with its hand. Seeing that, Loren decided what to do.

“You’ve seen a regular > before…? Well, seems that Lapis is right and aiming for it is worth a shot.”

Of course, there was no response from the No Life King.

Instead, still covering the glowing part with its arm, faced Loren with its hollow gaze and let out a sharp screech.

It was loud enough to make Loren want to cover his ears, but if he did it would mean that he would have to stop attacking and would give the No Life King an opening to recover.

Loren decided that he should endure it and keep attacking, but then he felt a strange sensation in his arms and legs, making them heavy and sluggish, slowing him down and slowing his attacks as well.

“Loren! The > strengthened its energy drain! If we don’t hurry it will overcome the protection that I cast on you!”

“So, we’re running out of time…”

He had to strike the chest of an opponent that he couldn’t even land a single blow on until now, so Loren didn’t have time to consider his options.

He decided that he didn’t care if he blacked out later, and he heard a click in the corner of his mind, like a piece fitting into place.