The Walker suddenly shook violently.

Myr, still half-asleep, quickly opened her eyes and reflexively held onto Elicia before she could come to her bearings.

“O-Oh, sorry!” After muttering a quick apology, she got off Elicia and grabbed her rapier. “Stay here. You’ll be safe. Probably….”

She immediately opened the trapdoor and leaped to the group. She took a step forward and narrowly avoided a stray arrow by pure luck.

“Eughh!” Myr fell to the ground in surprise. She quickly composed herself and picked up her rapier again, this time scanning her surroundings properly.

To her front, the Hunters were gathering around, shooting crossbows and holding up shields to defend themselves from a group of people in dark leather armor and bandanas.

And to her back was basically the same thing. The only difference was that there was a huge catapult being loaded up. So that’s what hit the Walker.

Myr readied her sword. Although the shields could handle the arrows, they couldn’t do the same against a giant boulder flying at them. So, she rushed for the catapult.

“Hey! Where are you going!? Get back in line!”

Someone shouted, but Myr didn’t listen. She jumped on a Hunter’s shield to give herself a boost. Flying through the air, Myr activated [Eyes of Clepsydra] and watched the arrows, making minor adjustments so as not to get hit.

She rammed head-first into the catapult. But she didn’t even wait for herself to recover from the impact and drew a Mana Pattern on her sword.

“[Quick Flash]”

One single stab was all it took for the mighty catapult to become no more than a collapsed heap of wooden beams, knocking dirt and dust up into the air. Myr took the opportunity to rush inside the dust cloud and kill every bandit she could find.

{+1% progress to the next level.}

{+1.4% progress to the next level.}

{+0.7% progress to the next level.}

{+0.9% progress to the next level.}

{+1.2% progress to the next level.}

When the dust settled, Myr sheathed her rapier and eyed her surroundings again. It didn’t take an expert to realize that she’d been surrounded from all directions.

“Not a smart one, eh?” One of them laughed. He looked at the ground at Myr’s feet and shook his head once he found the corpses of his comrade. “Yer only killed five fodders. Now we’re gon’ cut yer arms off and hav’ fun w—”

“[Quick Flash]”

{+1.5% progress to the next level.}

{+0.6% progress to the next level.}

{+0.4% progress to the next level.}

Myr cut him off. Literally. Her attack went beyond just that and also impaled two bandits behind him. She sheathed her sword again and spun around, copying another Pattern.

“[Quick Flash]”

{+2% progress to the next level.}

{+0.2% progress to the next level.}

…

{You have reached level 10.}

Myr leveled up, but she couldn’t be happy. She’d used [Quick Flash] over and over again, and while she managed to kill most bandits, there were a dozen left alive. And she was out of Mana.

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They still fear me, Myr concluded. For every step she took, they took two steps back. She just needed to keep up this act until—

“Ah!”

She fell to the ground in a fit of dizziness. While she scrambled for her sword again, a bandit took his chance to fire an arrow at her.

But before the arrow could hit, someone grabbed Myr’s collar and yanked her out of the way.

Myr looked up. Despite the sun partially blinding her vision, she could tell that she hadn’t met this guy before.

“Sup. The name’s Webb.” The man pulled Myr to her feet and tossed her Luna. “Vice-master of this ragtag group of Hunters. Apology for my boys not doing anything. They were too… shocked.”

Myr looked around. Beside the bandits, she could see the Hunters that she’d passed before standing huddled in a group with their shields up, afraid to even do anything.

“W-Why have them here then?” One glance and she could tell that they weren’t really experienced in combat, and she was comparing them to herself!

“Filling the number. You seriously don’t expect us to have this many Hunters at the ready, do you?”

Suddenly, from across the battlefield, a familiar shout rang out.

“Shut up! Do you want the merchant to dock our pay?”

“Sorry boss!” Webb shouted back and scratched the back of his head. Unsheathing his twin blades, he turned his back to Myr. “Five you, five me. Deal?”

Myr gulped. “O-Okay.”

She couldn’t see what Webb was doing. But judging by the clanking sound and the grunting of bandits, he seemed to be doing better than her. Myr approached the bandits and swung her sword wildly—without form nor discipline. She didn’t have any training besides footwork. And she didn’t have the advantage of surprise and the dark here.

Every time she was about to hit a target, another bandit would intercept and deal minor injuries to her.

Without Mana, she was nothing.

Without [Quick Flash], she was nothing.

Without Luna, she was nothing.

And nothing she was. Just a simple harder-than-normal strike from a bandit was enough to make her fall to the ground. And again, just as she was about to receive a blade to the face, a pair of twin swords blocked the attack.

“Come on, stop fooling around! Where’s that power from earlier?”

“I-I—”

“Don’t bother. Focus.”

That’s right. Focus. But it only helped her dodge attacks, not counter them.

And just as her despair was about to hit its highest, a small shadow dashed through the legs of a bandit and approached her.

“Elicia? What are you—”

The child didn’t answer. In her right hand was a knife. She lightly cut her other hand with it, letting her blood drip to the ground. Then, she forced the blood down Myr’s throat.

Myr reflexively pushed Elicia away. When she looked again, she couldn’t find the child anywhere. But strangely, she felt… energized.

Her Mana was filled up.

Well, what do you know….

Smiling, she turned toward the five bandits and muttered,

“[Quick Flash]”

But it wasn’t a normal attack, much to Myr’s surprise.

The flash of white light split into two. Two split into four. And four into eight.

The bandits tried to dodge, but the light kept following them.

It was like serpents slithering their way toward their targets.

The attack didn’t leave a hole in them. No, it made them implode from the inside. In the pink mist of blood and gore stood Myr, holding her breath and completely shocked.

“W-What was that, Luna? D-Did I get stronger?”

Luna appeared. She didn’t say anything at first but soon opened her mouth as her eyes transfixed on the fourth Walker.

[That little girl… Go after her!]

Myr’s back unwittingly straightened. She looked behind her. After seeing that Webb was still handling himself well, she rushed for the Walker and climbed up it. She opened the trapdoor and poked her head inside. “Elicia! You’re safe!”

But instead of Myr, Elicia’s eyes were fixed on Luna. She pressed her back against the compartment, completely frightened.

“...Who are you? W-What are you?”

Meanwhile, Luna was staring at the child blankly.

[The Forty-ninth… You’re one of us.]

*

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*

*

*

The Mystic Demonknight in black armor stabbed his Greatsword into the ground and looked around. Dead men in leather armor were everywhere. Some were even no more than a pile of meat and blood.

Amidst this gruesome scene, he was calm. He approached a certain location where thirty or so bandits laid dead. Most of them were killed by a quick stab, he concluded.

But his attention was mostly on some drops of blood on the ground. It was an insignificant amount, but its worth was unfathomable compared to the large puddles of blood here.

He scooped the blood up with his finger. Taking out a seed, he dropped the blood on it and watched as the seed grow into a beautiful flower.

“It’s her…” He muttered. Planting the flower into the ground, he picked up his Greatsword and continued on his way.

“Must… Get her… Home.”