Chapter 346: Talent And Defiance [IV]

The sheer force of that apocalyptic detonation sent both young men flying in opposite directions.

Michael was hurled back like a weightless paper doll.

His body skipped several times across the charred earth before slamming into the base of one of those ancient trees. The impact was enough to rattle the very roots, sending a final rain of ash and dead leaves down upon him.

He lay there, motionless.

His matte-black armor was rapidly disintegrating into twinkling motes of dark light, leaving only the scorched remains of his undergarments and the raw, burned skin of his chest behind.

The shimmering white thread was still there, seeping out of his sternum and flowing toward the faraway horizon.

Ray fared no better. In fact, his condition was worse. He tumbled through the haze of the settling ash, his path smeared by a bloody trail of crimson.

He came to a halt near the edge of the crater he himself had created moments ago, clutching the stump of his arm while grunting and crying and thrashing around in pain unimaginable.

The forest around them had become a graveyard of smoldering, bowl-shaped depressions and clouds of suffocating dust.

Once Ray went still, the silence that followed was deafening.

The only sound now present was the distant lap of waves against the sandy shore of the

Lake of Grief

.

Michael’s eyes remained vacant, staring up at the fractured sky through the skeletal branches.

With his short breaths slowing into shallow gasps, he remained unresponsive for a long time.

...Until he wasn’t.

All of a sudden, with a renewed sense of false vigor, he straightened in his position and wheeled his longsword forward.

CLANG—!!

A loud metallic chime rang, like steel striking steel.

Even though no one was standing before him, Michael looked like he was struggling to push an invisible foe back.

At last, he seemed to win the struggle. He hoisted himself to his feet and quickly repelled the unseen force pressuring him down.

Then, he twisted the sword and swiped it in a sharp reverse swing.

—THAK!!

The sound that resounded this time was that of something solid splitting under the sharp edge of his dark blade.

Immediately after, two even halves of a perfectly cut Card appeared from thin air and disappeared just as fast in a rain of light sparks.

Simultaneously, a beautiful girl with braided white hair and glacial eyes, which were as icy blue as they were magnetic, appeared right in front of him.

She seemed to have ducked just in time to avoid being cleaved by his sword and was now crouching low.

Before she could pounce and make use of either the wakizashi or the katana in her grip, Michael used the pivoting momentum of his earlier swing to whip his leg around.

Although Juliana managed to lift her short blade to block the strike in time, the brutal roundhouse kick still connected with enough force to send her rolling sideways across the uneven, soot-covered ground.

But of course, just this much wasn’t enough to keep her down for the count.

In fact, Juliana didn’t even struggle to get back on her feet. She bounced with the momentum and transitioned into a light-footed stance.

She didn’t look frustrated, either. If anything, she had a playful yet unnerving smile on her face.

Slowly, she raised her wakizashi and tilted it so the dim light of the burning grove could catch the fluid sliding down its surface.

...It was dripping with fresh blood.

"I can hurt you now~!" Juliana giggled, her melodic voice discordant against the unsettling backdrop.

A deep gash had opened across Michael’s shin where he had delivered the kick.

Juliana hadn’t just blocked the strike, she had angled her blade in a way that let his own momentum drive his flesh into her steel.

Even as out of it as Michael was, he instinctively realized this was going to be a tough one.

"You really are a sturdy one, aren’t you?" she mused, her cold eyes locking onto his vacant ones. "On top of that, your armor was

really

problematic."

It

really

was.

After just a couple of exchanges when this whole thing started, Juliana understood she couldn’t pierce through his defenses alone.

Not only was Michael constantly imbuing his armor with Essence, but a good number of churning shadows from his sword had also enveloped it to make it ridiculously durable.

And then there was the problem with the amount of Essence he was spending. His reserves seemed unending as he kept on boosting himself

and

his items without any care for ever running out of fuel.

That was obviously because of the entity controlling him, Juliana had concluded.

Nonetheless, the main issue was his armor.

They had to break him out of it like a snail from its shell if they wanted to truly subdue him.

So, naturally, Juliana had conveyed a plan to the rest of the group with Ray at its vanguard.

She had hoped that no matter how tough the shell, a truckload of TNT delivered directly to the sternum would be enough to crack it.

And she had been right.

Ray’s final, desperate gambit had done exactly what it was meant to do. It had stripped Michael of his impenetrable defense.

It had taken more effort than she’d originally thought, because Michael was a monster — his Origin Card was practically a cheat, and his battle IQ was formidable.

But in the end, the playing field was finally even now.

Well, since her condition was far better than his, she was tempted to declare herself at an advantage... but she also knew not to underestimate his skills.

This really was going to be a tough one.

Juliana spun her katana in a dazzling circle, the air whistling against it as she prepared for a second exchange.

"You know, I haven’t been myself ever since this journey started. First, my leg kept getting injured in the same spot. Then there were... a lot of things weighing on my mind, even during the events of the

Night Sanctuary

. Most of which I still haven’t processed," she shrugged.

"Not to mention, I was

way

out of my comfort zone. A lot of that I blame on Kevin. But damn, I miss that bird." Her fingers tightened around her swords. "Still, even now in his absence, I find you guys... tolerable. Like I don’t want to stab you every waking moment of the day. Which I know still sounds concerning, but it’s

very

strange for me. Believe me."

Juliana expelled her breath through clenched teeth.

"Especially since you all represent the epitome of everything I find irritating. I mean — why would you distribute food and Cards so generously? Why was your girlfriend just handing out healing potions without any catch? Do you people have no sense of hoarding resources?" she glowered. "Why would Vince offer me his gloves when I ignored him while he fell? Why would Ray brew his stupid tea every single day just for me to throw it away? And why the fuck would that blind shorty save me when I couldn’t care less about her?"

Michael suddenly launched himself forward, unwilling to listen to the rest of her monologue.

He crossed the distance in a flash, but Juliana had already sprung onto a nearby tree branch.

Looking down at him slicing at nothing, she made a gesture of her exploding. "It’s— it’s baffling! At first, I thought you all had some ulterior motive. Or that this was just desperate ass-licking for survival, so the group may continue to stick together. But oh my god, was I wrong. Slowly, dreadfully, I realized you were all

just

that stupid."

Her eyes narrowed. "Because only stupid people could be so uncharacteristically, unconditionally kind. Right? Right?!"

Michael charged once again, this time obliterating the entire tree she stood on with a single swing of his longsword.

And once again, Juliana escaped by leaping onto another branch with a ballerina’s grace. "Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe since I’ve never been treated with unconditional kindness... except by one boy... I mistake it for lack of logic, for schemes and ruses. The last time someone showed me kindness like that, he also showed me that people change. And that hurts."

She groaned softly, as if irritated with her own words. "Argh. Whatever! I guess what I want to say is — try to resist, Michael. I really don’t want to kill you...

that much

. Because make no mistake, I

will

kill you. You may be stronger than I am. You may be more skilled than I am. You may even be able to see the future right now. But I am the one who has already decided the end of this duel. If you fight me, I

will

win. So, what’s your answer?"

The black-haired boy raised his guard in reply, brandishing his cursed sword to deliver yet another devastating blow.

Juliana’s smile returned at that, blossoming wider this time.

"Good. I was hoping for that!" She fell into her own stance by standing to her full height, one foot gliding ahead of the other and her twin blades drawn low. "Let’s dance, then. Shall we?"

Then she vanished again — not through magic, but through pure, blinding speed.