Crack.

The monster recoiled in pain as the exoskeleton over its pincers shattered. It lunged forward and snapped at its challenger but couldn’t clamp onto anything before another impact struck its head. Its elongated legs gave out and dropped its body onto the floor.

“I don’t see how Guardians are such a big deal! It’s just a giant crab!”

Salith caught on its outstretched pincer under her arm and with a twist, tore its limb out. Strangely the beast did not bleed. The opening was clogged with bulging muscles which quickly hardened.

She held her fists together and hammered the creature, breaking more of its shell. No matter how much the Rozzalian pummeled the invading beast, its unwavering will allowed it endure impacts which would have taken even a Wyvern’s life numerous times.

She removed its antennas and now a claw. The hermit crab like monster continued to stand up every time it was knocked down.

“Dammit! Why is it so persistent?”

“Salith!” From below Lily called out. “I received a message from Kihet! Douglas was found on his side, but he will be changing targets! Let’s hurry and defeat this Guardian then find Fatilda!”

“Easier than said.”

Salith stomped forward and reeled her armored knuckles. She unleashed a devastating right hook onto the beast’s head, creating a web of cracks spreading from one side to another. It steered the creature to fall onto a community of abandoned homes and kicked up a huge dust cloud.

Suddenly, a claw swung out of the billow dust and slammed into Salith. She was forced a step back and saw the creature rushing out. Before the creature could build enough momentum and body slam the Rozzalian, an explosive hit the crab’s head.

Lily hopped from one roof to another and loosened another explosive arrow to widen the hole at its head. She quickly swapped to bow with the heaviest draw weight and took aim. She strained the bow arcs while pulling back a precious arrow crafted with materials from an Ikaga’s pinion.

Once her target aligned in her sights, she let go of the arrow. It whistled through the air and punctured the Guardian’s head. She couldn’t tell from its frozen reaction if she managed to destroy an important organ as the Guardian stood still, seemingly lifeless.

“Did we do it-?”

“KREEEEEEE!”

The monster screeched. In the next moment, its antennas regrown, a new claw burst from the opened wound, and any exposed flesh was sealed by a layer of hardened mucus.

“The bastard just regrew everything!”

“Salith, get away from there!”

The Guardian’s sluggish movements abruptly quickened as it whipped its arm like a chained flail. After bludgeoning Salith with a flurry of hammering blows, it spat out a gooey web to ensnare the Rozzalian.

But in the next moment, it found its view shifted forward. The Rozzalian disappeared without a trace and Pamalyra’s world tree was now in its full view. As there was now nothing left to stop it from moving towards the sweet nectar luring the beast to the giant cactus, it resumed its march.

Its stemlike legs speared into the ground. For each step it took, the creature was confused why it felt it was met with great resistance. It turned around and saw its own sticky net bound its shell to the ground.

Then a fist plowed between its eyes.

“Thank the Creator I could use [Castling] in this form.” Salith smirked.

When the oversized hermit crab spat a sticky substance to immobilize her, Salith had used her Crest’s ability to exchange places with the creature. As a result, the net dropped onto the Guardian’s shell without it knowing.

“Salith, it’s going to keep regenerating! Its weak spot should be in its shell!”

“I can’t break it with my bare hands. What do you want me to do?”

“Let’s knock it down like last time first!”

“So, we beat it up until it stops moving again. Sounds like my kind of plan!”

Salith barraged it with a flurry of punches. For each strike, an audible crack echoed across the air. Unable to retaliate, the creature shrank into its shell in hopes to find refuge and recover its stamina.

“Bad choice!”

Salith firmly grabbed onto its shell, raised her foot, and punted the crustacean’s claws covering its face repeatedly. She ruthlessly kicked the creature and churned the insides of the shell until fragments and innards sprayed everywhere.

“Tomoe, I’m dragging it out now! I won’t know how long I can hold it down!”

“En!”

Salith reached into the shell and pulled the limped creature out. The main body was covered by an exoskeleton while its exposed curly tail was fleshy. The creature was already regenerating at a frightening pace. Its head was being reformed, new eyes sprouted, and its shattered claws regenerated.

Once it realized it was out of its shell, it struggled to try and throw Salith off its back.

Seizing this opportunity, Lily jumped at the tail and drew Shibata’s trusty sword. “[Coiling Dragon]!”

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The named weapon acknowledged Lily as its new owner by emitting a faint glow over its golden edge. A nostalgic warmth enveloped her body while preparing an attack. She reminisced the time she watched Shibata wielded the blade during his training when she was little. At times, she peeked into the manual of the Lunar blade Forms Shibata studied during the time.

From her memory, she mimicked his stance. Though she had never mastered [Blooming Petals], the blade carried by her late brother gave her confidence to test her skills. By combining the complex movements of [Waning Moon, Falling Petals] and her first attempt at [Blooming Petals], Lily mustered a whirlwind of blades sawing into the Guardian’s tail as she slid off it.

[Coiling Dragon] had a whip like aura akin to a Dragon’s tail to further extended the range of her slashes. She successfully severed the Guardian’s tail using only a few strokes.

“KREEEEEEEEE!”

The creature unleashed a blood curling screech and collapsed on its stomach. Its severed halves bled profusely, draining the creature of its blood and watered stored in its water sac. The gigantic creature past the halfway checkpoint towards Pamalyra’s world tree showed no signs of reawakening.

“Whoa. I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Normally I can’t, but I think it’s thanks to this sword I was able to pull it off.” Lily inspected [Coiling Dragon] once more for damages before sheathing it. “Now that we defeated the Guardian, should we go find Fatilda or go help Ainig?”

“I’d say we look for Fatilda. I don’t see anyone able to pass the docks held by Aten and Ainig.”

“En. Sounds good!”

“Get on.”

Lily hopped on Salith’s hand, keeping her eyes peeled as they made their way towards the mercenary guild.

From afar, she could see the harbor well defended under Ainig’s protection. Although several ships from Douglas’ fleet successfully docked, the enemy weren’t able to pass Ainig’s stalwart shields and Aten’s lightning swift takedowns.

Over by the Golden Temple, that place had gone quiet. Kihet must’ve resolved everything there.

“Tomoe, do you have the things Yizdra gave us? I think I accidentally broke my batch when I used [Wars Blood].”

Lily patted her pockets, relieved to know vials of paralysis toxins were intact. “I still have mine. We’ll need them to take down the attackers without killing them.”

“Can I give them a concussion instead? I’m not a fan of using those things.”

“They’re only a method to subjugate the attackers. Kihet did say as long as they’re not dead.”

“That settles it then.” Salith grinned under her helmet. “Get ready to jump. I’m going to turn back to normal.”

She plopped a candy in her mouth and suddenly her body began to shrink along with her magical armor. Her body stopped shrinking when she was at her normal height.

“Let’s go nab Fatilda.”

“By the way, do you remember where you put your weapons and shield?” Lily asked.

“I left them behind thinking if I had my mace and shield, I might accidently kill someone. Don’t worry about me. I can manage. I learned a thing or two from Kihet about improvising.”

Residents of Navargzan evacuated the streets and had either gathered at a designated facility or found their own safe locations on the opposite side of the city.

Lily and Salith sprinted down a path leading to the Mercenary Guild. At the end of the street, they saw several buildings surrounding the guild transformed into a once impressive fortress. However, as impressive as it was erected at the beginning of the siege, it was now in shambles.

The road ahead was littered with bodies of enemy sailors and mercenaries.

“There are two people down the road coming at us!”

Lily’s ears directed her eyes towards Pamalyrians lined up over the walls. She didn’t recognize any of them, but they did not wear the same uniform as the guards.

“Is it fine for us to continue running through them?” Salith asked. “They have archers aiming at us.”

“I can take care most of their projectiles, but we’d still need to find cover.” Lily positioned one [Trick Orb] above them as the archers called out their second warning. Once the final warning was given, a hail of arrows was loosened towards them.

Her [Trick Orb] gladly vacuumed the oncoming projectiles while adding more arrows to her stock stored inside the orb.

“I’ll make an opening through here!” Salith tore down a wall into a building. Once inside, a group of Douglas’ saboteurs were already waiting for them. “Out of my way!”

She palm struck an enemy, marking them as a target for [Castling] and hurled a sailor into the next building. She then swapped herself and her target to ambush enemies in the next room.

No sailor could match a Giant’s raw strength as Salith bulldozed through structures until the Guild was discovered across the street.

“Tomoe, get ready to fly!” She said as she flung a sailor into the air.

Salith casted [Castling] consecutively. Once to teleport herself into the air, next to swap Lily into position to rain arrows from above while Salith wreaked havoc at those opposing her on the ground.

When she noticed a band of sailors rushing to meet where Lily was about to land, she activated her ability and brought her full weight down and unleashed an earthquaking stomp.

Everyone standing within ten meters of Salith were robbed of their balance. As their bottoms hit the floor, they were struck by a numbing pain from Lily’s paralysis arrows.

“Path’s open! I’ll lead the way-!”

A giant club suddenly smashed through the doors and forced Salith to quickly put her arms up to defend herself. Before the crushing blows could break her arm, she quickly pushed it off to the side and charged forward to her attacker.

“Pilus, they’re forcing themselves through!”

“Got it! Hmph!”

Pilus, a crew of the Silver Cry, held his stance against Salith’s shove. The large Mixrel knew he did not stand a chance against a Giant’s inherit physical abilities, but he did not have to win. Which was why he attacked first to gain the advantage while the enemy was processing the ambush.

“Zicron, Scarl, Hable!”

“Hold em there!”

Three more members of the Silver Cry jumped into the fray. While Scaryl waved his staff, channeling mana from his magic crystals into spells, the other two dropped from the ceiling.

Hable lunged at Salith with his steel claws. Right before he hit the Rozzalian’s face, an arrow wove through the crevices at impeccable timing to make his attack fall short. Meanwhile, Zicron suffered the same fate as he could not build enough momentum chop into Salith’s armor with his battleaxe.

“Dammit, the Giant’s not alone!” Zicron warned. “Ilbus, take the other one!”

A Lycanthrope melded into the shadow and slithered out the building to where he found Lily already launched a firecracker arrow at his location. A storm of arrows quickly zeroed at on him and forced him to take defensive maneuvers.

“Gurd, Ulos, Dupil, Holk, Nalus, Ruh, Bast!”

“Scarl’s done! Get back!” Hable shouted.

Pilus, Zicron and Hable dove out of the way as Scarl conjured a large boulder. The robed Mixrel gave a flick of his staff, hurling his spell at Salith. Before the Rozzalian was able to catch the massive rock, it exploded into fragments and the shockwave blasted her out of the building.

“Salith, are you okay?”

“They got me by surprise there. Luckily it was me and not you who took the hit.” Salith frowned. “They don’t look like your off the mill sailors either.”

“We’re part of Silver’s crew.” Scarl stated. “Sorry for eavesdropping. I can’t help but let you know who we are since we’re supposed to be infamous.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve never heard of anyone named Silver in my life. He sounds like a coward for not showing up.”

“More reason to spread our fame by introducing ourselves. Anyways, who are you two wanderers? You’re certainly no mercenaries. Perhaps you’re with the Oracle?”

“Let’s say we are. Where’s your boss? Seems like he ran with his tail in between after he fought with Kihet.”

“Who knows? Silver just needs a little night walk. Then maybe you’ll see what kind of monster he can be on a full moon like tonight.” Scarl tapped his staff, conjuring a blazing whirlwind of flames to set the guild ablaze. “Allow me to apologize for keeping you here in the meantime. Foreigners shouldn’t meddle with local affairs.”