Cecilia’s final attack put a hole in the enemy’s heart.
His skin was flushed red, his muscles unnaturally swollen; he looked like a completely different person. He hadn’t been like this when we fought before. Had he acquired this power through training since then? Elana was taken down in a single blow, her movements too fast to even follow.
Moreover, even the wound on his chest had been sealed. Was this also the work of the ki circulating through his entire body? When he glared at me with his upturned eyes, I naturally took a step back. Moving at that speed, I would never be able to keep up. Like Elana, I would be defeated before I even knew it.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Veronica said, wiping the blood from her lips as she stepped forward. Was he going to go toe-to-toe with him in this state?
Before I could call out, Gadou moved. No, he was already moving. Gadou’s fist narrowly grazed Veronica’s face.
“Damn it,” Veronica immediately created distance. But even that distance was meaningless to Gadou. He was already strong, and now he was practically invincible. He wouldn’t fall even with a hole in his heart. The level difference was just too great. It felt like everything we had done until now was meaningless.
That before overwhelmingly superior power, any ordinary person would fall.
Gadou’s fist approached Veronica again. It stopped precisely at her chest. After a beat of hesitation, Veronica’s body was sent flying like a piece of scrap paper.
It was too surreal to accept. Could a person really be sent flying like that? For a moment, time seemed to stop. Then came the fear of being next. Gadou, in his current state, likely had no mercy.
My entire body, my instincts, screamed at me to run. There was no way to win against him; I wouldn’t last a second. Veronica, who was so easily defeated, had been strong. There was no way I could even lay a hand on him.
I involuntarily averted my gaze. My body instinctively sought escape. Glancing to the side, Sharin, who had been there moments ago, was gone.
A bad premonition struck me, and as I looked up, I saw her back as she ran towards a path of carnage. “No, don’t go!” I almost cried out.
His crimson fist rained down towards Sharin. She barely managed to dodge it by stumbling. But then his other hand reached out, grabbed Sharin, and slammed her into the ground.
I thought I heard the sound of Sharin’s teeth grinding.
“Stop it!!”
Her eyes, now those of a demon, flickered towards me. They were bloodshot and looked ready to burst. Suddenly, a calm thought, different from fear, crossed my mind. Why did she have to be in this state? It was because she had taken so much damage that a hole had been put in her heart.
So, what would happen if this state were to be undone and she returned to her normal body? Would the hole in her heart be healed? Perhaps such a feat was possible. But that was just speculation; it wasn’t something that normally happened. If she returned to her usual state, we might have a chance.
The problem was how long this state would last. It surely wouldn’t be long. If it lasted, he would have done it from the start. And this demonic state must be taking a toll on his body. That’s why he used it as a last resort.
In short, the opponent was fighting for his life. In that case, let’s see who can endure longer. Who would fall first, him or us?
“Hey, let go. The next opponent is me.”
A sliver of Gadou’s remaining sanity made him hesitate with his beast-like hand. In that moment, Sharin broke free from his grasp and got behind him. She quickly plunged her dagger into his back.
“The back is no good!!”
He could attack even from behind. Furthermore, his blade couldn’t penetrate the armor of his hardened muscles.
Then, from another direction, Nina wrapped herself around Gadou’s body with incredible speed. Good, she had woken up. But her joy was short-lived, as her binding was broken, and her tail was forcibly torn off.
“Swoooosh…”
A breath like the wind. An attack was coming! Come to think of it, Gadou had been breathing deeply and shallowly since a while ago. He had done this in our previous battle. He was likely circulating ki to try and recover.
“The neck, choke him!”
Nina, acting on instinct, wrapped her snake-like tail around Gadou’s neck. But perhaps he had anticipated it, as he spun himself in the air and, using that momentum, threw Nina to the ground.
“Gah…!!”
Nina’s body was thrown upwards by the recoil. To so easily toss that giant body around. Gadou, having shaken off the obstruction, heaved his shoulders up and down, continuing to breathe.
“Hoo hoo.”
The ogre’s face looked towards me. There was no escape now; the next target would undoubtedly be me. If I was going to die anyway, I might as well put up one last struggle.
