Chapter 137: From Rampaging to Battling (2/2)

Only her arms had been returned, but compared to when all of her limbs had been prosthetics, she was now able to use considerably powerful magic again. Despite Loren being a capable mercenary, despite the armor being a gift from an Elder, despite his weapon being something Lapis had brought her from her hometown, she still believed she could overpower him.

But she couldn’t afford to kill Loren here. In the first place, the purpose of her fighting him was to stop him before his body failed; if he died because of their fight, then everything would be meaningless.

On the other hand, she also knew very well that he was not an opponent she could go easy on or just try to immobilize. Normally, he was below her level, but he could still retaliate. Now, in the midst of a rampage, his combat ability had increased.

The only saving grace was, Loren was not in the condition where he could fight with a perfectly clear mind. If he had been, with his experiences in combat, Lapis might suffer an embarrassing defeat at some unexpected point.

“Let’s prepare to give each other some injuries, shall we?”

She wouldn’t be able to restrain Loren without hurting him, but she didn’t think she would be unscathed either. Lapis wrapped both arms in magic and used spells to enhance her strength.

Lapis had wondered if she should use some weapons against Loren, who was still swinging his greatsword and mass-producing corpses, but she felt that using subpar weapons would give her disadvantage instead, so she decided to face him bare-handed.

And it was probably unlike that Loren had a lot of experience fighting with bare-handed opponents. After all, it was not strange to associate standing barehanded before a greatsword-wielding Loren with death. There was no experience to gain from fighting someone that got killed immediately, so she believed that he was not used to fighting bare-handed enemies.

Also, an unrestrained Lapis could still easily kill a man even barehanded.

“Loren! That’s enough already. Please stop!”

The number of their pursuers had dropped to near zero at that time. Smashed wood blocks and human remains had covered the ground and around them, trees had been cleared from an area as large as a public square.

In such a setting, Lapis rushed straight towards Loren while raising her voice. The gross state of the ground under her feet didn’t slow her down at all. She stepped on chunks of wood and lumps of meat alike, scattering them around.

The Loren she confronted wasn’t in a normal state.

Lapis spread her arms, kicking at the various things under her feet while running; magic could be seen like a shimmering heat haze around them. Right in front of her was Loren, who held his sword high above his head and swung downwards with great force, as if he didn’t care about defense at all.

Lapis felt a little worried about being attacked by Loren.

A sane Loren would probably never, ever do such a thing. But in addition to him going berserk, Lapis had now directed hostility towards Loren to attract his attention; it couldn’t be helped that he now considered her an enemy.

She told herself to be patient until she could stop the fight while crossing both arms over her head to receive the sword’s blow and stop it. As the blade crashed against her protective magic and sparks of fire rose up, Lapis felt the strength of the blow she had somehow stopped, and involuntarily gulped.

In her current condition, she could probably stop a blow from a sliver rank adventurer with just one arm. But Loren’s attack, which she had stopped with both her arms, had not only stopped her track but had even pushed her back two or three steps while scraping off her magical protection.

Lapis had expected this, but she was still surprised.

Of course, she was not in top condition herself, and she had to go somewhat easier so that she didn’t kill him. Still, she was a demon, and it was unexpected for a human to be able to make her switch to defense. But Loren’s blow wasn’t something that can be blocked with just one arm, and she had to use both instead.

“How unexpected, Loren.”

Lapis said with admiration. She was still good: no matter how powerful Loren’s blow was, she still had managed to catch it. It would be a simple strength contest from now on, she thought. If she pushed using her strength, she could easily incapacitate him.

That was why when Loren began putting even more strength into the sword, surprise was clearly shown on Lapis’ face.

“No way… I can’t push him away?”

They were in a strange state where Lapis’ arms and Loren’s sword were crashing against each other. Lapis tried to push the sword away, but she could feel the blade pressing at her instead.

She planted her feet on the ground and braced herself, but she was being pushed back little by little. She once again looked at the swordsman called Loren before her with surprise.

“Loren… You really…”

On the other side of her arms and the greatsword was Loren’s face; he probably had no self-awareness. If she lost focus even just a little, she would easily be blown away, or fell to her knees due to the pressure. She stared at that face and muttered with fear.