Chapter 118 (2/2)

Loren, on the other hand, was breathing heavily, as he plunged the tip of the great sword into the ground, using it like a staff, but at Stoos’ question, he exhaled deeply and replied.

“Think for yourself, Elder.”

“Stingy, I see. Well, whatever.”

Stoos guessed that she hadn’t blocked the attack completely.

Judging from the state of her arm, she had blocked the sundering blow itself, but hadn’t been able to kill the impact.

She surprised that a human, a normal swordsman on top of that, could deal such an attack, but to her, it was just that.

It was more than enough for her healing factor to kick in, and even if she was hit with a hundred of them, it wouldn’t be close to fatal.

And judging from Loren’s state after the blow, it was easy to guess he was using some sort of energy or ability.

She wasn’t sure if it was mana or life energy, but she knew that it took a great toll.

She guessed that he couldn’t use it in succession but seeing him barging at her again after catching his breath, she realized she was wrong.

“You can do it again?”

Loren’s second strike was faster than the first.

Stoos blocked it, putting a bit of strength in her arm, frowning as she felt a slight quiver of pain, and looked at it, ignoring Loren, who was flung back again.

The blade still hadn’t reached her skin, but the damage was increased than before, with the red hue being larger, and she turned her eyes to Loren, who was getting up, with slight surprise.

Meanwhile Loren, enduring the fatigue in his whole body, stood up using his great sword as support, thinking that he was lucky that Stoos still thought of him as a lesser being, which kept her from following up with an attack of her own.

He didn’t know what he was doing either, but he guessed that the sword carried a few mechanics to it.

In any case, when he dashed forward, activating self enhancement, he also imagined putting all his strength into his sword when he swung it, and when he did, he noticed that the strike was more powerful than usual.

Although it wasn’t enough to get past the Stoos’ defenses, it seemed that he was doing a bit of damage, and a smile appeared on his face as he knew that it wasn’t completely neutralized.

But the price was very high.

Every attack, he was attacked by a feeling of all his strength leaving him, and if Stoos seriously wanted to kill him, if he had used such an attack just before, he couldn’t dodge or parry everything she threw at him.

‘Onii-san, are you alright? Should I give you some more?’

Under normal circumstances, Loren shouldn’t be able to perform the attack more than once.

The reason why he could do so in rapid succession was thanks to Shayna, who was lending him power from the inside.

‘As expected of an Elder. My energy drain isn’t that effective. But it’s working nonetheless, so there’s no problem with supplying you with more energy.’

(Thanks. I know it’s difficult but lend me a bit more of your strength.)

When he replied to Shayna in his mind, he immediately felt a surge of strength.

The immediate replenishment of strength was possible due to Shayna using energy drain every time Loren attacked Stoos.

Shayna had been transferring the drained energy to Loren.

‘It’ll be impossible to drain her completely. She’s recovering as well, probably since she’s on the draining side.’

Elders, who had enormous amounts of mana and life energy, seemed to have incredible recovery as well, as even with Shayna’s energy drain, it was impossible to defeat her.

But because of it, he was able to regain his strength to continue attacking, so he thanked Shayna quietly.

“>! >! >! A short break, and another >!”

“Damn you! So annoying! You know it’s not working! It doesn’t hurt, but it tickles!”

“>! Annoying you is good enough! >!”

While Loren was catching his breath, Lapis used > in rapid succession to keep Stoos’ attention on her and keep her from attacking him.

Even though it didn’t do any damage, it seemed to cause discomfort, as Stoos waved her arm, blowing up dirt and sand, and tried to attack Lapis, but with her own powerful abilities, she continually dodged Stoos’ attacks, using > at every chance she found.

“One more, coming up!”

Loren kicked the ground, putting in even more strength than before, and swung at Stoos.

Since her attention was turned completely towards Lapis, she couldn’t even dodge the attack, and could do nothing but raise her arm again.

This third attack, same with the previous two, didn’t reach her body, but this time Loren wasn’t flung back, but instead the great sword and her arm were suspended at the point of collision.

13

“It got stronger again!? What in the world are you…?”

“I’m just an adventurer!”

As Loren roared and tried to push the blade into Stoos’ arm, she kicked him away.

With all his strength used up in the attack, Loren couldn’t dodge it and took the full brunt of it, but even as he flew back and rolled on the ground, he didn’t let go of his great sword.

“An impressive attack, but even with a hundred or two hundred of those, it won’t reach me.”

Stoos declared, fixing the hem of her dress and rubbing the arm that blocked Loren’s attack.

“If you’re expecting help from Dia, you should stop right now. As long as I have her True Name, she won’t be able to move.”

Ever since the fight started, Dia hadn’t moved a step.

It was because she understood that if she wasn’t careful, Stoos would use her True Name and make matters worse.

Although it was possible for Stoos to tie her up with her True Name even though she wasn’t moving, but with Loren and Lapis attacking, it didn’t seem like she was going to use it anytime soon.

“I’m not done yet. <<Turn…”

“For the last time, you’re annoying.”

When Lapis tried to use her ability again, Stoos waved her arm.

With just that, the ground under Lapis’ feet exploded, and as she was trying to attack, she couldn’t dodge it and was blown backwards by the blast and fell to the ground.

“Lapis!”

“I-I’m fine. I’m quite tough.”

After coughing violently and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he stood up, Loren shouted out to Lapis, but she immediately got up and waved at him that she was fine.

“I thought I knew what to expect, but you’re pretty ridiculous, Elder.”

“Then that means you didn’t know what to expect, so give up now, human.”

Loren couldn’t help but say so as he readied his great sword again.

As Stoos looked down on him as she replied, Loren couldn’t find any words to say