Chapter 234: Eliz
Zarek stood there in silence, not reacting to Eliz’s words at all. However, that didn’t mean Urouge would be the same.
"Eliz, dear, Eliz... There’s no need for such cruel words. We’re in this together, are we not?"
"Are you trying to say I need to work with you to take down this ant? If you’ve grown so weak, it sounds like your start phase didn’t go as well as you hoped."
Zarek continued to listen, his breathing growing steadier and steadier with every moment of rest he was given.
"How about you attack first and ask questions later? Since you know I’m here, then just act, what’s there to worry about? Are you going to waste all the effort I put into getting him this tired?"
Eliz’s eyes narrowed. From the start, her gaze on Zarek hadn’t left. She was as focused as a person could be on him.
The calmness in Zarek’s eyes didn’t mean much to her. If he was where she thought he was from, then the odds that he would know her by look alone were minimal.
However, given what she could see from Zarek’s strength, there was no chance that he could kill Lyn, but he had. Not only that, he had done so while in a three-versus-one situation where only the fat ass behind her had managed to come back.
Then there were Urouge’s words. She knew well the kind of monster Urouge was. He was ranked above her by one for a reason. However, his words seemed to imply that he had been trying to tire Zarek out for a while now.
Who could survive for so long against Urouge’s usual tactics?
Plus, if he didn’t know who she was, why was he so certain that he could put all his attention on her and not the two lurking behind?
If he had used a Scouting Skill, she would have sensed it. But he definitely didn’t. It was like he had picked her out based on his mood alone.
"Shoot him," Eliz said to Edwin coldly, ignoring Urouge’s words.
"It won’t work," Edwin said. "It will give him ammo and a chance to attack from a distance too. It’s not the smart approach to take."
His voice was low. While Eliz’s voice had been projected, his wasn’t. With some clever manipulation, there was no way Zarek could hear them.
They also weren’t speaking the same language, so reading his lips wasn’t a possibility. Even so, Edwin had still covered his mouth. It was clear how cautious he was trying to be.
"I said shoot," Eliz growled. "Your fastest and strongest. Now."
Edwin clenched his jaw, but he fired so fast his hands blurred. If he couldn’t control when he fired, he could at least control how. If they could catch Zarek off guard, that would be for the best.
Zarek’s eyes flashed, a quill having already appeared in his hands. Even at a 300-meter distance, it was much too fast. He wasn’t sure that he would have the time to finish the Matrix, and even worse than that, there was still Urouge to consider.
However, he still did it, pulling out an ancient scroll with every intention of acting on it. He drew out the same Matrix he had every time since, his muscle memory working on overdrive.
He had done this same action so very many times that it came as second nature, his wrist flickering through the air so fast it left trailing winds of its own as he took a quick step back.
Then he sensed it.
A sneer spread across his face, everything happening too fast for anyone to register it.
At that moment, the scroll imploded in a flickering flame that looked nothing like a use of Unholy Beacon, the arrow beaming by.
However, what was important was that the location of Zarek’s shadow had shifted. The sun, clouded as it was, came from behind him, casting his shadow forward. But the scroll imploded with flame from the front, briefly shifting Zarek’s shadow behind him as well.
Urouge’s usual Skill snatched at nothing but air for a moment until it caught something else instead.
An Unholy Beacon Matrix.
’There you are.’
Zarek’s eyes flashed as a shadowy hand was enveloped by his Matrix and an arrow ripped right through his shoulder.
He hadn’t even bothered to dodge in the first place. Edwin had compensated for him, shifting the arrow slightly toward where he thought Zarek could make it, only to end up turning what could have been a lethal strike into something not so lethal at all.
Especially not after Zarek cauterized the wound and his body flashed, being quickly covered in a black tar from head to toe. The only part of him that wasn’t was that blinding white sneer and his burning amber eyes.
Now the games could really begin.
Zarek pulled the lance from his back, his eyes flashing with murder as he dashed to the side.
He didn’t try to run after any one of them. Instead, he bolted directly, aiming for the mountains in the distance. If there was no forest to take advantage of, then he would just have to take this path instead.
Eliz blinked, not quite knowing what happened. Was this Zarek everyone was making such a big fuss about too slow to even react to that?
No, it couldn’t be. That scroll had to be something. Was it so weak it couldn’t even stop her brother’s attack?
No, that felt almost too ridiculous too.
After a while, her gaze flashed with anger. This was all that fool Urouge’s and her idiot brother’s fault. This wasn’t her style of doing things.
In one moment, she was standing in relative silence. In the next, she had unsheathed that enormous sword and sunk into a state.
"Keep up or die," she growled.
Her quads bulged and suddenly...
BANG!
She shot into the skies, a shocking crater opening up beneath her as she soared. In a flash, she had landed again...
BANG!
... Right in front of Zarek.
Zarek’s gaze flickered. Leaping almost half a kilometer in a single bound... that was already stretching the bounds of what one could reasonably expect from a B Class, but she didn’t seem to be sweating it at all.
In fact, she had not only crossed the distance, but she was already swinging her weapon down from above.
There was a heaviness to it that could make a man’s blood run cold. Powerful beyond reason, and more than strong enough to be even more reckless with her body than she already was.
However, as fast as her blade was, and as great as the show of power happened to be, leaping almost half a kilometer and waiting for gravity to bring you down was far too arrogant and gave someone like Zarek far too much time.
She crashed right through another use of Unholy Beacon.
Zarek had already sent out several tendrils of Lurker’s Godsfall. They seemed to be spider-webbing out in every direction other than Eliz in an attempt to find a path for him to escape. However, the moment \[Unholy Beacon] took shape, they curved, almost as though being homed right onto her.
She found herself attached from all sides, but the swing of her blade wasn’t hindered in the slightest.
Instead, it was as though what Zarek had done was worthless...
Until he used \[Angel Wing Flash].
He shot out of the way in an instant of time, the blade passing through what was nothing but an afterimage. He had shot out to the side, pivoting away from Eliz and beginning his dash toward the mountains again.
Chi.
The blade was powerful, cutting through the ground like it was nothing but the air it had just passed through. It split the ground with the same ease it would have likely split Zarek’s head had it landed, but Zarek hadn’t even looked back.
Eliz growled, pulling her great sword back up and charging toward Zarek. But the moment she turned around, the threads attached to her twisted along with her, pulling taut.
One whined on the verge of snapping, but then the others came together to tighten as well.
Lurker’s Godsfall wasn’t meant to have a B Class level to it, making it among the weaker B Class Godsfall Intents despite the upgrade. But... it was a B Class Godsfall Intent nonetheless.
Even Eliz in all her strength couldn’t easily rip it apart on a whim, especially since it was designed to be elastic. She even almost lost her balance, her frustration at the ridiculousness of the situation only becoming worse when she realized her useless brother would see all of this.
However, Edwin was already firing—not at her, but in between herself and Zarek, protecting her, even.
Her frustration boiled over into fury.
She was being protected by this useless...
"ZAREK ASHBORN!" Her fury billowed out in a shriek.
What she didn’t notice in all that fury was that Urouge, who would have certainly made several snide remarks by now, had actually said nothing at all.
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