That’s right, nothing changed.
Han's appearance was just and still a shadowy figure to me.
I wasn’t even saddened by it.
I had no reason to.
After all, this wasn’t a loss.
Just a missed opportunity.
"Are you sure?"
"I already got my arm back, that’s already a thing on its own. When we came here I had no idea how I would have that remnant heal me, but somehow she did it without even me asking or forcing her to. "
"I see... so what do we do now? Do we- What the hell?!"
Still being held in midair, I heard a powerful explosion come from where she was. It was as if thousands of mighty thunder strikes stroked at a single point.
Both the shockwaves and the deafening sound from the blast were enough to knock us from where we were.
"What happened?"
When we moved away from the woman's remnant, the one who ran to her ran away.
Embracing her in a way that suggests that despite his status of remnant that person has still remained a thing such as affection, he tried to shake her up, to keep her awake from her injuries but there was no doubt that she was dying.
At this point, as Hon said knowing Hon’s luck, our luck, that wouldn’t even surprise me if that woman were to get back like the other undead human from above, but that wasn’t quite what happened.
While the brother was trying to keep the sister awake, she brought the tip of his blade to a place, high on her chest, just below the Adam's apple.
At first, I assumed she did it to ask him to put an end to her misery, but then her body began to glow with a violet light,
And she strongly exuded her last droplet of mana despite her already dying state.
Though with hesitation, the brother thrust his sword into his sister, and upon contact, it caused the powerful explosion from earlier.
As the smoke screen slowly faded away, a figure slowly emerged.
Only one figure.
It was the brother, he was kneeling in the same stance earlier, his hand firmly clenched on his sword, his sword which was now beaming with a now completely light purple while being surrounded by a darker violet lightning bolt along with some sparkle of light.
The girl was totally missing but the presence of her mana was still lingering around.
During the fight, I got a very good taste of the brother's light magic proficiency, while the sister on her side seemed to be very expert at lightning magic.
Now that sword was embedded with both lightning and light magic.
It smells bad.
And to make matters worse, during the fight I wore out most of his armour, and even managed to land some physical damage, but now all the damage I’ve inflicted upon him seems to have completely disappeared to nothingness.
"What do we do now? Do we back up? Tough the girl mana is still lingering around, I doubt she can do anything for us, and for this guy I doubt he would even under torture even consider healing you."
He was correct, what we were here for had not been completed entirely, but it was the best we could get out of it. But I still had the impression there was something else we needed to do.
"... Do you think we can win?"
"To be honest, I’m not sure."
"... If you don’t mind I think I would like to … You know just as always."
"I’m not sure, but with that guy from what he exudes right now, I have the impression that a single misstep could easily cost us our lives, especially yours."
He was correct; the fact that we were still here instead of already miles away was a mistake in and of itself.
"I’ll just have to be more careful to not make any missteps then."
As he let me fall to the ground level, he said, "It is a good thing to be confident, but be careful to not step into overconfidence and cockiness."
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"Understood."
"Well, that’s very cheap coming from me, who couldn’t handle the other on my own. Well then, let’s not make our friend over there wait. ."
The man stood up, and then looked at us with murderous intent.
Grasping his sword so hard to the point of bleeding,
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" he screamed like a wrathed and maddened beast.
Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, he charged at us in a stance that revealed that he was so blinded by his wrath to the point of wanting to run on his fours like a wild animal..
"Hang on tight. He’s coming. "
I retreated as fast as I could and sent out vicious wind blades at him, wind blades that were a specialty of the Queen Chrackt we’d fended off the other day.
Several wind blades, which at this point were like solid sharp-edged razors, flew at the man, but the man, despite the madness drowning him, was still sane enough to easily avoid them or deflect them with his yellow-white-and dark purple sword.
As we retreated, I sent out more and more of my wind blades.
But I had the ill-omening impression that the more time was passing, the more he was regaining his sanity.
Coming to an abrupt stop, he raised his sword toward the sky while pouring an insane amount of man in his already overwhelmed sword.
The entire blade of the sword was enveloped in a dangerous-looking hue of dazzling golden and purple sparkle light and lightning.
The hue enveloping the sword has already grown enormously in a fraction of a second.
At this point it looked like a pillar was coming from the sky.
It seems he really wants to wipe us out in one go.
He swung his sword vertically down at us and with it a pillar of light and lightning that looked like divine punishment..
From the look of things, it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to evade that attack. We knew that to the bone.
So Han assumed his second form, made himself as small as possible, and rolled into a ball around me to shield me.
I knew very well what he was trying to pull off.
His second form was a magical beast adept at using lightning magic, and as the incoming attack was a mix of both lightning magic and light magic, so he assumed that this form would be the best to serve as a shield.
In this situation, I was not of much help, so I did what I had deemed the best, Hon immediately knew what it was all about.
I made myself as small as possible in his embrace, I closed my eyes and awaited for the worst, or whatever the outcome was to happen.
His attack fell upon us.
Even in my state, I could feel the light coming from it.
It engulfed both of us in a sea of flame, light, and lightning.
A few instants later, the backtraft had calmed down.
I was inside a hot, yet palpable smokescreen.
I was there alone, lying on the ground, coughing like a sick person because of the smoke.
Bruised but dead.
Blind but not deaf.
From where the man was, the sound of a footfall could be heard.
It was getting closer and closer till it reached a distance of what? three meters away from me.
At this point, if he hadn’t attacked me yet, it was clear that it had gained more and more sentience, just as Han said.
Yeah, just as he said.
The man was now clearly above me, clenching his sword, about to put me in an eternal sleep like I had his sister.
Just as he was about to strike me, in a strange small explosion, Han’s Queen Chrackt form appeared, immediately restraining the man’s hands .
"Hon!." He said, urging me to act according to the plan.
There was a reason why we needed to exterminate all the Chrackt in the area. Smoke, fog, mist, and any other stuff that one would have a hard time seeing are literally playgrounds for a Chrackt Queen. They are capable of being almost unnoticeable in this type of environment.
The only reason she revealed herself was because she thought that these types of hide and seek tactics would have some effect on both of us.
It was by taking advantage of that ability and the smoke the brother attack offered, that Han was able to go unnoticed.
Standing up, I immediately charged toward the man whose arms were locked like two parallel bars by Han. Instead of immediately going for him, I went for the arm in which the sword was. Using his hand as a bare, I knee-blew his elbow.
A very nostalgic sound popped out of it.
Despite the simple grunt he uttered, I knew it had hurt from the moment I did what I did. He let go of his sword,
Not having to worry about his right arm or the sword, Han went for his neck with his free hand.
Like one would throw a trash can, he tossed the man several meters away from where he was.
Despite the viciousness of the throw, the man returned to his feet in almost an instant.
We both charged at him, trying to not give him the opportunity to pull out something that would be out of our league once again.
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" He screamed once again, enraged, as he charged at us.
Han retrieved his Deathseeker form and created the charging man with a punch,
On the other hand, I took a position directly behind the man, greeting his already dozed state with the first punch I landed with this new arm of mine.
Sending his already dozed body toward Han, he sent out another punch, and I, from behind, welcomed him with a kick.
We kept that pace, altering with a kick or punch upward or downward depending on the bending of its body.
At first it was just a grunt, but as the beating went on, the crackling and squishing became more and more audible.
After withstanding a good dozen kicks and punches, he was on his knees.
"Your life must have been full of regret, but time has come to let go. Whatever apostle you believed in, may he allow you, and your men to rest in the peace you so well-so well deserved."
And I finally landed it.
The final hit.
Just like with his sister, my entire arm was impaling his chest.
And just like her, I felt life, or whatever, kept him awake, fading away.
Unlike his sister, he went on without a word.
Whoever that person was, he is now truthfully dead.