novelraw Chapter 382: Lena – One Strike
Chapter 382: Lena – One Strike
379: Lena – One Strike
At first, it looked easy.
Though it was large, it was alone. Compared to the towering monstrosity it had been before, its current form lacked that same overwhelming presence.
It seemed no more than an unusually shaped beast.
Thus, Lena crossed her arms and watched the battle unfold from a distance.
But her confidence quickly began to waver.
The first attack from the two-headed monster was a spear thrust. Five royal guards were impaled as if they were skewers and lifted into the air. Lena didn’t even realize when she had uncrossed her arms.
This thing… is strong.
Even so, there was still room for optimism. They had overwhelming numbers on their side.
Unless the creature used magic to manipulate allies like earlier, it stood little chance of victory.But then—Bang!
The monster swung its spear. Despite its grotesque appearance, its movements were almost beautiful.
It never made large, clumsy sweeps. That would have been unrefined. Instead, the monster rotated the spear around its waist.
With a loud bang, the air seemed to explode. Lena’s eyes couldn’t track the spear—it was too fast. All she could see was the crimson disc-shaped afterimage it left behind.
From a distance, it was already impressive. For those up close? There was no time to marvel. The knights’ heads and torsos were severed cleanly.
We have to go.
Lena thought this grimly. Against this monster with its long spear that could effortlessly slaughter humans, numbers alone were meaningless.
But how could they defeat it?
She imagined herself standing before the creature. If she tried to approach behind the cover of her shield, it would skewer her. If she cautiously advanced with her sword, the result would be the same.
At her current Level, she had no chance.
Lena assessed her skills with cold honesty. In that case...
“Barin. Nil. Wendy. Go. Take it down.”
At that moment, three Royal Knights emerged from behind, cutting through the soldiers.
Coincidentally, Lena had just been thinking she needed a “sample” to study how to fight a spear-wielding enemy.
As they passed, she overheard the shortest knight joking flippantly:
“A spear, huh? Too bad Joen isn’t here. That’s her specialty, you know?”
“Sir Nil, please be quiet.”
“Oh, come on. Honey, you know I’ve always loved you, right?”
“Not now! Ugh, you’re embarrassing me to death.”
Sir Nil seemed to sense his impending demise. Yet he kept babbling, perhaps trying to lighten the mood.
He wasn’t particularly cRever.
Thus, as Sir Nil made frivolous jokes and belated confessions, the three advanced without looking back.
“Whoa, this is terrifying as hell.”
At last, the three knights reached the monster. They drew their weapons, and even then, Nil’s mouth didn’t stop.
“What if we turned back now? Loyalty is great and all, but isn’t staying alive more important? Hahaha. So, let’s all make it back alive, okay?”
Lena silently observed them, ready to mourn their imminent deaths. She focused intently on the fight, hoping to figure out how to counter the monster.
“Huh?”
“Wow, honey, did you see that? I almost got decapitated!”
“Shut up! Attack!”
Sir Wendy lunged with her sword. Although she missed, Lena was astonished.
They were reading the spear’s movements.
They moved preemptively, and whenever one of them was in danger, the other two launched fierce attacks. For a moment, they even seemed to have a chance of winning.
But then—
“Hmph.”
The monster stopped spinning its spear. It gripped the weapon’s shaft wide, its body as the midpoint, and thrust both ends forward.
Bang, bang!
The next was a shove. The monster raised its spear to block Sir Barin’s sword and then pushed him back with immense force, breaking his stance.
“Ah! Fall b—”
Thwack!
In the blink of an eye, the monster brought its spear down on Sir Nil’s head.
There was no way to predict it.
After raising the spear to push Barin, the monster appeared to be in a wide-open posture, arms raised like in celebration.
That’s when Lena noticed it—the way the spear had bent under the sheer force of the movement.
The monster had released its right hand, swinging the spear backward with only its left. The blow shattered Nil’s skull. Nil had expected the monster to release its left hand instead and had called out to his wife.
“Honey!!”
He had been a foolish husband.
He was neither stylish nor skilled with words, often hurting others with his bluntness. They’d bickered frequently since their trainee days, their arguments spanning ten years before they married. Even Rudy, her cousin, had tried to stop the wedding.
The spear struck her, too.
“...That’s enough. Let’s go.”
Sir Barin fought valiantly, but he also perished.
It wasn’t much of a consolation, but thanks to them, Lena had figured something out.
Dragging her long sword behind her, Lena stepped forward. Ray followed, and Sir Rev emerged, clearing the crowd.
A boy—an unfamiliar Swordmaster whose face strangely felt familiar—joined them.
Ray was stronger than Lena, and Sir Rev was a champion. The boy, despite his youth, was also a Swordmaster. Wouldn’t it be better to leave her sword to them?
Lena thought so, not out of fear but for efficiency.
Still, deep inside her, a fire burned.
“Lena, you’re destined for greatness. Possessing a divine weapon means you’re meant to achieve something truly remarkable. Something I couldn’t accomplish.”
Where had that old man Boris gone? It was silly to feel moved by the drunken ramblings of a senile old man. Yet her heart burned with anticipation.
‘If I die, I die. It’s not like I’ll have any complaints about being unworthy.’
If she fell, someone else would retrieve her sword and finish the fight. Lena turned to Ray and smiled.
Ray smiled back and nodded, giving her courage.
But why was Sir Rev smiling, too? How annoying.
They approached the monster with smiles. The only one tense and grim-faced was the Swordmaster boy. He looked terrified.
What’s with him? He doesn’t seem reliable at all.
Shouldn’t a Swordmaster confidently say, “Just follow me,” or something inspiring?
But he didn’t.
His trembling arms barely held steady, his face pale as if he might wet himself.
Lena found herself rolling her eyes. How disappointing.
As they confronted the monster, Lena felt something strange.
[ Leo, you and Lena have defeated an overwhelmingly strong foe together. For this achievement, you gain the ability {Joint Combat Technique}. ]
Fighting as a group against one enemy was harder than it seemed. You constantly worried about getting in each other’s way or accidentally striking your ally.
Though she was used to working with Ray, Lena had worried about the others. Yet now, she felt no such discomfort.
So, this is what it’s like working with a champion and a Swordmaster.
Sir Rev and the boy split up, each moving in a different direction. Ray took the front, while Lena positioned herself on the flank, given her heavy, unwieldy sword.
The monster scowled in irritation.
“Counterfeits.”
She didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded dismissive. Good. Let it underestimate them.
Ray struck first.
“Hah!”
As his blade descended, Rev and the boy followed with carefully timed movements, spacing their attacks.
Their staggered strikes ensured continuous pressure, even countering the monster’s evasions.
Lena prepared as well.
Dragging her blade across the ground, she built momentum for a rising diagonal slash.
The monster, however, reacted swiftly.
“Hmph.”
It swung its shoulder-mounted spear in a downward arc.
The spear deflected Ray’s strike and simultaneously blocked the Swordmaster’s horizontal slash with its rear end.
Then, with its free hand, it reached for Rev’s throat. As the eagle-like talons neared him, Lena made her move.
- Grrrrrrrrrrr!
“Aaaaaaah! Take this!”
Her sword rose in a ground-tearing upward slash.
Just as she thought she had her moment, the monster’s goat legs shone with power.
Pow! Without any visible preparation, it pushed off the ground.
Or perhaps it had been prepared all along, given its naturally bent legs. Regardless, the creature lunged at Sir Rev, seemingly aiming to grab his throat with its entire body.
“Ack!”
Sir Rev swung his sword down on the creature’s head. Clang! The blade struck its goat horns, failing to break through.
If only the creature had charged at the Swordmaster instead of Rev!
Had it done so, the Swordmaster could have cleaved through both horn and head. But, of course, the monster must have known that, which was why it chose Rev.
It was a critical moment.
Sir Rev was on the verge of being caught, and the cunning monster used its free hand to swing its spear backward, keeping Ray from approaching. Meanwhile, Lena was still off-balance from the weight of her own sword.
“Hyaaah!”
Just then, the young Swordmaster made his move.
A massive aura blade over 7 meters long erupted from his sword, slashing down toward the monster that was lunging at Rev.
At first, Lena thought: “Hey, you idiot—wait!” But then, she realized it wasn’t such a foolish move after all.
She had nearly scolded him for attacking recklessly, thinking, He might kill the monster, but he’ll take Rev with it!
The monster seemed to have the same thought—it dodged to the side.
Clang!
Rev was safe, his blade deflecting the aura blade just in time.
Curiously, Rev wielded the same type of sword as Ray.
The monster muttered:
“Leonel’s left-hand blade... Well, well. Even that comes in multiples. Vaneca would love this.”
Whatever it meant, they didn’t have time to dwell on its words.
Quickly regrouping, they adjusted their positions. Based on what they had seen so far, everyone silently recalibrated their next moves.
The monster, now gauging their skills, lowered its spear to waist Level. It gripped the weapon behind its back with one hand, letting the other hand dangle casually.
Lena recognized the stance immediately.
“Dodge!”
Swish!
The air screamed as the spear tore through it.
The sound came only after the fact—they barely dodged in time, crouching low to avoid the spear’s trajectory.
The monster had swung its spear using its back and hips as a fulcrum. And that wasn’t the end of it.
“Move!”
It caught the returning spear with its left hand and spun it in a wide sweep. The crimson arc it traced was the same devastating motion it had used earlier to mow down soldiers.
This was impossible to dodge on reflex alone.
They had to anticipate its movements and act preemptively. But such tactics often came with their own risks.
“One down.”
The monster seemed to have decided to eliminate Ray first. As Ray dodged, mid-air and vulnerable, the spear was poised to pierce him.
The young Swordmaster was also airborne, and if the monster wanted to target the weakest, Lena herself was right there. Though admitting it hurt her pride, it would have made more sense.
For some reason, the monster seemed to perceive Ray as the greatest threat. The spear lunged toward him.
Bang!
“Ugh!”
Wow, Ray! You did it! Well done!
Even mid-air, Ray maintained control of his blade. He deflected the spear with its flat edge, redirecting the thrust, and tumbled to minimize the impact.
Rev charged in to block the monster’s follow-up attack.
Once again, the young Swordmaster’s massive aura blade descended, forcing the monster to retreat.
It seemed this attack posed the greatest threat to the monster.
But why go after Ray first? Lena thought. Maybe it just didn’t like him.
The battle became a fierce exchange of attacks and counterattacks.
The priests in the distance cast blessings, helping them survive near-death situations. At one point, the young Swordmaster made a mistake, nearly getting everyone killed.
Lena realized this couldn’t go on.
They were growing exhausted, while the monster showed no signs of weakening. The young Swordmaster’s lack of experience was glaring, and the monster had noticed, exploiting his openings.
Too young.
The boy didn’t look older than thirteen.
Lena stepped back from the fight, taking a deep breath and adjusting her stance.
She gripped her sword by the blade to shorten her reaChapter It was still a massive weapon, but this made it easier to control.
“Lena?”
“Don’t talk. Focus.”
The tradeoff was that her body felt heavier. With the blade held closer, her center of gravity shifted, making it harder to evade attacks.
But there was no other choice.
She resolved to thrust her sword like a spade—just once. If she could land a single decisive blow, that would be enough.
Carefully, she sidestepped toward the monster, creeping closer.
Of course, the monster had already noticed her change in stance and was keeping an eye on her.
As expected, it moved.
“Hmph.”
The crimson disc spun violently as the spear whirled. Lena ducked, avoiding it with practiced ease.
The real danger came next.
Whether she ducked or jumped, dodging the spinning spear always left her off-balance. That was when the monster would follow up with a thrust.
With her oversized sword held close, she had no way to dodge.
But she trusted Ray.
“Not so fast!”
As the monster prepared its thrust, Ray charged. He leapt toward the massive beast, ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat. The monster, oddly wary of Ray, hesitated.
This is it!
Lena bent low, her sword nearly scraping the ground, and dashed to the monster’s left side. Ray’s distraction allowed her to slip in.
Her being left-handed worked in her favor.
Pivoting quickly, she aimed for the monster’s flank, but it turned to her, grinning menacingly.
The spear spun, knocking aside Ray’s sword, and the monster deftly caught it with its right hand, swinging it behind its back. The motion simultaneously pushed back Rev and the boy, redirecting the spear toward Lena.
She saw death approaching.
The tip of the spear gleamed as it zeroed in on her forehead.
Clenching her teeth, she pushed off the ground.
If I’m already dead, let me land just one strike...!
Then, Ray’s voice rang out, laughing triumphantly.
“Gotcha!”
The spear struck Lena’s forehead, but clang! A blue barrier erupted.
The necklace Ray had given her shattered, and the monster visibly panicked.
Without time to retrieve its deflected spear, it swiped at her with clawed hands.
Still dazed, Lena instinctively widened her stance, mimicking the moves of a knight named Katrina she had once seen. She shifted her center of gravity and toppled sideways. Using the momentum of her fall, she thrust her sword upward.
Slice!
“Kaaaah!! You... accursed—!”
The divine blade A’bota pierced the archduke’s body.
Thunderous laughter echoed from the god Lachar.