Everything happened in an instant.

The illusory peace of all sides waiting for someone to make the first move ended when… well, Earl’s men made the first move.

Yet, the very moment three of his knight fakes turned to move towards the invading anomaly…

The anomaly pulled out some blocky wand from its bag, raised it up to its arm…

And just like that, before Camila could ever blink, three of the knight wannabes fell to the ground, coughing up blood as the last bits of their lives spasmed out of their flesh.

‘Instakill magic?!’

Camila freaked out a little…

But no.

‘Never apply your common sense to the anomalies,’ Camila thought, only to catch a slight, silvery flash appearing at the front of the anomaly’s blocky wand.

And it happened again and again, always a mere second before one of Earl’s wannabe knights would fall down to the ground.

It took mere seconds before the formidable unit that could challenge even Camila and her elite friends turned into a shadow of its former self, with nearly ten bodies resting upon the grass and slowly soaking the ground with their blood.

Recognizing the anomaly was a much greater threat than he conceived, Earl rushed to the front, ready to challenge the invader himself.

Still, before he managed to get to the front of the fight, a few more of his men fell…

All following the same pattern. A slight flash, the bulky item the anomaly held would drive up a bit, the anomaly would turn its entire body at its hips, pointing the front of its device at the next target. Then, the pattern would repeat…

And right off the bat, the quality of his armor showed… but also proved that whatever weapon the anomaly was using, it was no legendary, instakill magic.

The anomaly cast its flashing attack at Earl, paying him no more mind than it did to all the other warriors. After executing the pattern once, the anomaly moved to search for the next pattern.

By now, close to half of Earl’s unit fell down to convulse on the ground as the life seeped out of them in mere moments.

Still.

Contrary to the cheap fakes of the proper knights’ armor, Earl’s plates held…

‘To try to understand the anomaly is the greatest arrogance a human can commit,’ Camile thought, gritting her teeth…

As much as she tried not to, she could see the repeating pattern.

The anomaly would point its tool… Is it’s weapon? Then, whatever stood in front of it would fall down, dying from some sort of curse, damage, or spell.

Still, that rule didn’t seem to apply to Earl, for even after the anomaly looked away he continued to press ahead, barely affected by the little… pushback?

Whatever this spell was, it applied backward force to Earl, nearly making him stumble.

‘Wait, don’t lose the grip on the entire situation!’ Scolding herself in her thoughts, Camila raised her eyes to the side…

Where her friends have already read into the flow of the moment, making use of the opportunity to jump to the other side of Earl’s goons, currently engaging in intense combat with five of them.

‘Shit!’

The moment Camila turned her eyes away, something changed again. And when she looked back to the anomaly…

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It changed it’s position…

Before unleashing a myriad of sparks upon Earl’s armor, pinning him down with such force that even a noble knight of his caliber barely held his ground. And quite notably, despite leaning forward and standing on just one of its legs…

The anomaly actually kept still, as if the silvery light coming out of the front of its weapon also held it in the spot.

‘For heaven’s sake…’

Gritting her teeth, Camila took a deep breath… And broke the taboo by refusing to ignore what was behind her eyes.

‘Isn’t this a picture of how vectors of force work?’

Looking up, Camila could see nothing but the picture her teacher made her draw every so often before painting it over with a mapping of arrows describing each of the forces that acted upon it.

The anomaly leaned forward… because whatever spell or tool it was using, the great force at which it spat attacks also meant it was pushing the anomaly back. And that’s why the anomaly leaned forth and stood on its leg, to let its unstable position balance this push-back out!

A weird thrill moved down Camila’s spine.

‘This is… just…’

But the situation changed again.

No matter how the anomaly’s barrage stretched in time… Earl’s armor held. And when he turned sideways and attempted to push forth…

Fay saw it.

The crystalization of all of her lessons.

A vector leading ahead and stretching from her fist to the worn-down part of Earl’s armor.

Camila had no armor whatsoever. And if the anomaly’s attacks could pierce through fake and crude but still iron armor, her simple leather clothes would amount to nothing.

And for all intents and purposes…

‘It’s better to get on its good side, and do it fast!’

This single thought sufficed for Camila to give in to the vector, happily throwing all the inhibitions her late father drilled into her head.

The visage of the dignified, graceful duchess cracked before shattering into pieces and unleashing a maniacal smile on the noble girl’s face.

As the vector pulled her body through space within a single instant, all of her sudden acceleration contributed to the duchess's fists as she drove it right into Earl’s stomach, where the anomaly’s attack wore down his armor the most.

Quite frankly, though, such precision was no longer necessary when Camila brought down the total sum of her year's worth of physical training and the exhausting crash course on rule visualization.

Earl’s face paled down for the single instant Camila could see it before her fist sent him flying.

Turning her eyes to the side, Camila saw her two friends making short work of the few fake knights left in the back.

Yet, before the duchess could do a single thing, the anomaly turned its device towards her.

All the vectors vanished from Camila’s eyes.

In the frame of reality, she found herself in, there simply wasn’t a possible way of retreat for her. The patterns she observed made it clear just how insanely cold and calculated this tool was.

And in the single instant, the girl had before the anomaly would attack her too…

She raised her hands and took a step back.

This move was merely a desperate act to show a lack of hostility if her attack on Earl didn’t implicate it already.

And for some reason, it worked.

Camila gulped her saliva down while staring down the small, black opening right where all of the anomaly’s attacks came from. And now that she had a second to look at it…

‘Wait, isn’t he…’

Staring down right into the anomaly’s eyes, Camila’s soul twitched.

‘I know this kind of look.’

It was taboo to try to understand an anomaly. At its very core, it was a being designed to fool human minds.

Yet, no matter how hard she tried, Camila couldn’t unsee the cold, empty look in this young man’s eyes.

Miraculously enough, the anomaly didn’t shoot.

It looked down along the upper rim of its tool at the girl with a sense of total lack of interest in its squinted eyes.

Trying not to tremble in fear, Camila pushed her hands away from her body and took another step to the back. She then slowly lowered her left hand to her face, slowly pulling her mask down.

The duchess’ throat moved when she gulped down a mouthful of saliva.

Still staring at the black hole at the front of the anomaly’s tool, Camila took a third step to the back before gracefully kneeling down, all the while keeping her hands away and raised.

The anomaly’s disinterested eyes continued to patiently observe every last of her moves.

And for the next few, precious seconds, it didn’t attack.

“My lady…!” Urk called out as he ran up… but stopped several feet behind.

Zion had no tongue so he could not cry out. And contrary to his senior, he didn’t stop in his tracks.

In a single instant, all the peace that Camila tried to build, all her efforts to appear as non-threat…

The anomaly coldly turned its gun over, easily tracking Zion’s agile moves… Only to twitch back to the duchess when she jumped up from her knees and rushed to the side.

Camila’s face froze in terror as she jumped in front of the anomaly while turning its back to it.

At the very last moment, she managed to grab Zion’s shoulder, rooting the kid in place before throwing him away.

Even with all of this happening… no death came from behind in the form of a silvery flash of sparks.

Shocked, Zion didn’t even try to get out of Camila’s hold. Instead, he simply looked at the duchess, all confused.

But as Camila fearfully glanced back, she caught it.

The anomaly…

No, this broken, terrified, and blood-soaked young man rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh before lowering his tool a bit.