“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!”
A loud sound—explosion-like echoed throughout the cave, the sound reverberating even outside. At the site of sound, dust engulfed the surroundings as small debris fell. Within, an enormous crater formed in the walls of the cave—a gaping chasm.
“Ahhh… keep doing that—forget about winning, you'll bury us both alive.”
“Hmm, you're fast huh?”
“It was close.”
“Humble, what's your name?”
“Horst.”
“Horst, a swifty champion, I presume?”
“I suppose so, Bernadette.”
“Oh, you know me?”
“Well, your gang is kind of famous. Some people say if you want to go to the outside world, the surefire way to do it is to accompany you guys.”
We’ve been talking since earlier, but this dust… it's in the way. It's hard to see.
Horst glanced around to assess the surroundings, looking ahead, Bernadette's towering shadow was nowhere to be seen. His eyes widened—then, in a split second, her leg swept through the space where his head had been just moments before.
A surge of wind cleared the dust, revealing a jagged horizontal rift that stretches from left to right, overlaying the already formed circular chasm. Barely dodging by twisting backwards, Horst wasted no time recalling his footing and leapt to get away from Bernadette's incoming stomp.
Her leg, albeit full of muscles, was unnaturally fast. However, as fast as she was, Horst could feel the sheer weight behind her movement, each millisecond stretching as her foot came crashing down.
Stomping, a crater formed in the ground as cracks spread all the way into the ceiling. Amidst the destruction, Horst struggles to ground himself as the cave rattles from the force exerted by Bernadette.
Seizing the opportunity, Bernadette charged at Horst, launching a barrage of punches. Each strike whipped up a gust of wind, yet Horst narrowly dodged them all.
In response, he hurled a dagger. Bernadette deflected it with her arm guard, lowering her arm just as another dagger grazed her cheek. She barely had time to react before the second one came hurtling toward her—its trajectory perfectly aligned with the previous dagger, masking its approach.
“Tch, had I coated my daggers with poison that would have been my win.”
“You're a crafty one.”
“That's how I win.”
Empty-handed, Horst lunged for the sword laying on the ground, grabbing it. The moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he noticed the towering presence in his back. Whirling around, Horst is greeted with Bernadette, her eyes obscured, her fist, about to be released.
Horst raised the sword to guard himself against the rapidly incoming fist. “ARGH!” The blade shattered into pieces on impact, and the sheer force of Bernadette’s punch sent him hurtling backward.
She's so god damn fast, I don't even have the time to take a breath. Fuck! Where the hell are the others? Am I the only motherfucker here!?
.
.
Frieda reached toward the cave ceiling, imbuing the silver ore with her geist. “And… complete!” Using her geist as a platform, she stepped down through the air as if walking down an invisible staircase. “The cave is still shaking… Bernadette isn’t holding back, huh.” Smiling, she strolled past the dozens of criminals, all collapsed from the sheer force Bernadette had unleashed. “Hmm?”
“In my way, I’ve been seeing blobs of geist around. Was that you? What are you planning?” Stopping Frieda in her tracks, the unkempt guy pries.
“You're one of the guys that kidnapped us.”
How am I only noticing now, this girl's geistkraft… she's not exuding it but I can feel it. She's a veteran!
The unkempt guy stretched both hands forward, his forearms facing the ceiling.
[Insekt: Arrow]
Five mud-colored geist start to emerge from his forearms rising to head level, as it swirls, hornets—the size of an adult female’s palm—start to form. “Attack her!” The unkempt guy's summons hurtled towards Frieda.
Not even a moment to be surprised, you only know you've been stung is when you’ve reached the afterlife. How's the taste of my summon's speed?!
“What, bullshit…!?”
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The stinger of each hornet stops, the distance, exactly one inch from stinging Frieda's eyes. In-between Frieda's eyes and the hornet's stinger, her rubbery-like geist acted as a shield. “Too bad, huh?” Frieda smiled as she taunted the unkempt guy.
[Steigern!]
The hornets’ stinger grew sharper, and their wings started to flap so hard their wings could no longer be seen by the eyes of an average adventurer.
“I’M NOT DONE YET, BITCH!”
“Jeez, what a rude guy.”
[Hüpfburg.]
The room was enveloped by Frieda's geist, trapping her enemy within. The unkempt man's hornets ricocheted back to his side as her geist spread across the narrow corridor, both arms wide, yet stretching long.
“Such a geistkraft from someone so young… don't belittle me, you hatchling!”
At the tip of her index finger, a small sphere, resembling a water droplet, dangled. “Don’t underestimate me, mister.” She released the sphere, and the ground below it seemed to stretch downward as if the weight of the sphere were exponential. The sphere began to bounce off each side, gaining speed with each bounce. “I can control the sphere’s direction, by the way.”
One of the hornets surged forward at its maximum speed to reach Frieda. However, before it could even make it halfway, it appeared to burst from the inside after being struck by Frieda’s bouncing sphere.
“H-how am I supposed to win…” baffled by Frieda's capabilities, the unkempt guy stumbled, pressing his hand on the wall of geist behind him.
“Give it up, all of you are cornered!” Frieda dictated.
[Teil Insekt!]
The surface of the unkempt man’s palm began to be covered by mud-colored legs of cydnidae. Pressing against the wall, he punched a hole through Frieda’s geist cage.
“A hatchling is a hatchling, you have no battle experience!” The unkempt guy laughs as he leaves Frieda's domain. “Now then.”
[Insekt: Swarm]
The unkempt guy's geist bursted out of his own body, like a mud splattering. Each splat took the form of three centipedes the size of a teenager's forearms.
The unkempt guy chuckles as the corridor in his side is covered by the swarms of centipedes, “You’ve lost, outside of your doma-”
“I can still propel my sphere outside.”
“Even if you still can propel your sphere outside, my centipedes’ thick armor can shield me. It's no use.”
A spark of lightning shot down from the ceiling. After a minute, another crackled along the walls. A minute later, yet another streaked across the floor.
"I wonder how much those centipedes of yours can withstand the damage from my balls." From each tip of Frieda’s fingers, two spheres emerged. “Though, that might not be necessary.” She closed her fist, dispersing the spheres she had created.
“Huh?”
“My friends, they've arrived.”
From Frieda's back, footsteps could be heard. “You sound so confident, are you sure those friends of yours can save you before we kill you?” The bald guy with a big frame inquired.
.
.
Inside the spacious room, the clash of sword and armor echoed. Running towards Bernadette, Horst swung both swords, but they were swiftly deflected, leaving him suspended in mid-air. With his arms still reeling from the recoil, Bernadette launched a counterattack. Arms wide, she swung them in a clap, aiming to crush his ribs. As her arms closed in, Horst dropped his head, flipping himself—head down, feet up.
Noticing something in Horst’s boots, Bernadette halted her swinging arms just before they connected. The force of her movement created a surge of wind, knocking one of his boots off and sending Horst flying.
“Poison? How lethal is it for you to sacrifice a whole leg?”
“Holy shit, you noticed that? This is the worst, my hearing is barely of any use against you. You're too wild.”
“Hearing?”
“My family got some good genes, we can hear even the tensing of muscles and predict how someone is going to move.”
After hearing Horst's words, Bernadette immediately clapped her hands, producing a loud sound, enough to shatter the eardrums of those around.
“Nice try, but I lied. My family doesn't have good genes, it's a geist blessing.”
“So you're a prodigy, huh?”
“I don't know about that when I'm seriously struggling against you. Have you been blessed by geist to have insane combat skills or something?”
“No, it's just pure training.”
“Wah, how embarrassing…”
“Seriously.” The man with glasses and a man-bun uttered.
“What are you doing here, Aitagi!” Horst shouted.
“Oh, so you knew me? I'm here to prevent a crazy woman from burying us alive.”
Before Bernadette could react, Aitagi slipped behind her with a sword. Acting quickly, Bernadette raised her armguard to block, then leapt just in time as Aitagi swung the sword swiftly. Creating distance, she grounded her feet firmly.
“This sword is a bit heavy. I couldn't cut through, as expected of the metal Geisthrall. This sword broke instead.” Aitagi muttered.
Horst's brows furrowed as he grit his teeth while smiling, “A bit? Bastard, that's a two handed sword.”
Bernadette raised her left arm at a heart level showing a small dent in her armguard, “you're strong, you left a dent in my armguard.”
“That armguard, it's not synthesized isn't it? No wonder I left a dent.”
It doesn’t matter whether it’s synthesized or not; this bastard actually left a dent in a geisthrall armor. Horst remarked. "Looks like he’ll be a far more interesting match than me, Bernadette.”
A spark of lightning shot down from the ceiling. After a minute, another crackled along the walls. A minute later, yet another streaked across the floor. “Huh, what's that?” Horst questioned.
Bernadette lowered her stance, which from the outside, looked as if she had given up.
“What are you doing?” Aitagi inquired.
“My friends are here, this is a wrap.”
“How confident, are you sure your friends can save you before I kill you?”
Grounding their feet firmly on the ground, Frieda and Bernadette smiled with confidence. Despite being outnumbered and alone in the cave, facing enemies, the two refused to give in and trusted their comrades wholeheartedly. Though they were nowhere near each other, they didn’t need to affirm each other to answer a simple question.
“Yes!” “Yes!”
