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As Zack clashed against the mysterious Red Oni, Ninhursag was battling the group of smaller Cultists, and holding her ground just fine. Zack gave her assistance using his Wind Magic while Ninhursag used the magic of the wyvern she had transformed, which was fire and darkness rather well, controlling the shadows of her foes to paralyze them for a few seconds and then blasting them with several fireballs all at once.
However, their special equipment made them very resilient to magic attacks, and only brute force could really get through them. Ninhursag had a lot of that, but her body in this form was very big, making her movement sluggish, even more, she had many blind spots where they threw arrows and daggers at her, slowly trying to weaken her over time by cursing her wounds.
Aquarina herself had gone to fight as well, standing right in front of us as she was unleashing spears of ice everywhere desperately. She was panicking as she saw many people attacking flashily around her from all sides. Her two spirits, Undine, and Leviathan, were doing a lot of work covering her blind spots, while Pyuku was also helping her evade attacks and more, sometimes making her foes trip into the floor so Aquarina could take them down, there was honestly no time to hesitate, I could clearly notice how she was hesitating though, but ultimately still killed two people already by stabbing their heads with her knife.
"Hahh… I won't have mercy… Just like papa taught me… I can't have mercy in the battlefield… Not without the strength to be able to do so…" She said.
Shade had taught her well. Apparently, although he often shows a lot of mercy with his foes, only knocking them down unconscious, he taught her not to do this, but to kill. This is because Shade himself did the same until he reached the strength enough to incapacitate people safely instead of killing them. But if Aquarina lacks such ability and strength, then she can only go for the kill to not risk her own life while being compassionate.
"Damn kid! Stay down!"
A man rushed towards her, kicking Aquarina, only to have his leg trapped around the tentacles of Pyuku.
"PYUUUU!"
Pyuku furiously captured the entire man, crunching his entire body down with his entire body. But the man's strength was more than what Pyuku could take, as his limbs easily broke out of his slimy interior, breaking apart the slime!
"PYUKU!" Aquarina cried, as Pyuku fell into the floor, his entire body looked like a broken balloon filled with water that was letting all its internal fluids go out. Slimes were more like giant balloons in a way, if their external skin, which was very tough, could somehow break, they could even bleed to death or dehydrate too much and dry out like snails or slugs.
"Water Bullet!" Aquarina desperately splashed Pyuku with tons of water to recover him, something the cultists used as an advantage to attack her from the back.
"ROAR!"
However, Leviathan was taking of Aquarina's back, unleashing his newest Ability Ice Breath, which unleashed a storm of icy wind that began freezing the faces and arms of Aquarina's attackers, slowing them down but not really dealing any lethal blow, enough for Aquarina to quickly throw several spears of water and ice against them, pushing them away.
They were too hardy though and were able to withstand many magic attacks with those damned cloaks of them, and those masks were not for show either, as they protected their faces exceptionally well. These guys were putting too much effort in trying to kill us, and of course, the one leading them all was slowly walking directly towards me. With our allies too busy dealing with the rest, she and two more came for us.
"Move aside." She said. "I have not come here to kill you though, despite what we said earlier."
"What? What do you want then?" I asked, as my mother used her magic to erect a barrier around us.
"That man… Give it to me." She said, pointing at the Duke of the Fiefdom behind us.
"What… the Duke?!" I asked.
"I'm gonna kill him." She said.
"Huh?" My mother was also confused. "So you want to kill him to throw this entire place into even more chaos? What afterwards? Will you become the queen or something ridiculous?"
"That man… He's my… Tch, it doesn't even matter. If you don't give it to me willingly, I won't have mercy." She said.
So she has some sort of consideration for others at the end… But how far does it extends, I wonder? Nonetheless, she really wants to kill the Duke of the Fiefdom, the lord thar rules everyone here. Could it be some sort of grudge? Was she a follower of his father? After all his father was trying to protect and help the demons after the war, while his son killed him and overthrew the entire regime to take over his land.
Nonetheless, he's still… someone I can't just let her kill. I wouldn't be able to simply forgive myself if I throw him at her, even knowing how much of a bastard he is, even knowing he had made so many demons suffer. If I give it to her, I would be helping these bastards at the end, who had killed many innocents already, not only the nobles here, but all those adventurers back then in the dungeon… I can't forgive them for that.
"I won't allow you…" I said, biting another Leaf of Life, as my body regained a slight amount more of Stamina. No longer having as much exhaustion, and feeling my body strangely lighter, I decided to stand up and fight.
"Hoh… So you're going to fight me again?" She asked, I could tell she might be smiling behind that mask. "Last time I was not able to properly beat you… But now? It will surely be different, I won't hesitate… I'll kill you."
"Not like I was expecting any mercy from you." I said, unsheathing my sword.
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