Raiju was incensed when she heard Maria’s words so she howled in anger and started charging up for an attack. An electrical field appeared around her which kept Maria at bay as she began generating more and more electricity around her body and weapons.
“I’m going to fry you, you little worm,” Raiju said with a scary look in her eyes. “[10,000 Volt Beheading]!”
Maria heard what Raiju was going to do so she was ready to receive the technique. She thought that in this situation when the battle wasn’t even decided yet, it was stupid of Raiju to shout her technique which was a dead giveaway that she was going to use it. Of course, Maria wasn’t going to deny that Raiju looked totally cool while executing this technique of hers.
Upon using the [10,000 Volt Beheading], Raiju disappeared from her spot in a flash of lightning that was accompanied by thunder and suddenly appeared behind Maria. Maria was ready to receive the skill and with her reflexes that were enhanced by her [Intuition] talent, she burst forward with a sonic boom which surprisingly enough, blew away Raiju who had appeared behind her.
She didn’t expect such a thing to happen but Maria followed up on it and using her faster than sound movement speed appeared in front of Raiju and said, “What was that technique you used earlier? Something, something Beheading, right?”
“Kugh, h-how?!”
“Let me show you how I behead someone.”
Maria kicked Raiju’s stomach and sent her flying even further back and got into a sword stance.
“[Zantetsuken]!”
She disappeared with a sonic boom and just like what her opponent did earlier, Maria appeared behind Raiju and unlike the latter, successfully executed her skill while aiming for the lightning spirit’s neck. Raiju's eyes widened in fear for the first time because a spatial scar had appeared on her neck before it exploded right in her face. The skill wasn’t enough to kill her but unlike Maria who was aware that this was still a game, Raiju didn’t have that awareness.
The feeling of her neck being lopped off and separated from her body was extremely vivid to her and so was the spatial explosion and skill that reaped away a large portion of her HP. Maria was about to follow it up with a [Calamity Cleave] from her Calamity-Z but what happened next made her stumble.
“I-I give up! Have mercy, Great Goddess!”
“Eh, what?”
Maria redirected her attack but it caused a great amount of destruction in the area just next to Raiju who was kneeling with her face planted on the ground. She turned to the side and saw a deep, flaming sword scar embedded into the earth that stretched far into the distance. The result of Maria redirecting her attack caused a massive area of the terrain behind Raiju to disappear in an explosion of flames that came soon after. The lightning spirit broke out in cold sweat because if that attack landed on her…
‘N-No, I don’t even want to think about it! H-How the hell is a Battle Goddess like her the one that freed me from my confines?! Agh, my luck is just so bad!’
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Raiju inwardly thought as an imaginary stream of tears rolled down the side of her face. She had been sealed inside of the [Statue of Karni Amat] because she had been impersonating the Rat Goddess for a little while for fun. She was a Noble-rank lightning spirit that manifested in the shape of a rat and the Rat Goddess, Karni Amat, was supposedly of the lightning affinity as well. A few lower beings had mistaken her for the goddess so she impersonated Karni Amat for fun but the consequence was her sealing.
It was only out of luck and coincidence that Maria had taken the statue out of the dungeon instance and accidentally broke it when she got out. Otherwise, Raiju would have remained stuck inside of the statue forever. If the statue was broken inside of the instance dungeon, the powers placed inside of the dungeon would trap Raiju within its confines before sealing it back into the statue right after. That was the narrative that the game had given for Raiju but an alternate ending to her would be her release, which could be invoked by any player though it could only happen once.
Since Maria was the first person to unseal her outside of the dungeon, she naturally should have acquired a quest from Raiju but without even listening to her, Maria had beaten the shit out of her instead. Now, the weakened lightning spirit was kneeling before her and was treating Maria like some kind of Battle Goddess because only deities, gods, and higher-ranked spirits would be able to overwhelm her.
No mortal or lesser being would be able to pierce through her Noble-rank Spirit Guard so normal players couldn't hurt her. Maria was an exception because the skills she used when fighting Raiju had directly pierced through her defenses. Earlier when they were battling and Maria was probing Raiju’s stats, she had noticed that no attacks that she made had decreased Raiju’s HP by even a little. That changed when she used the defense-piercing skill, [Zantetsuken].
She had followed it up with a [Calamity-Z Cleave] which similarly ignored defense and dealt pure damage so the sense of danger that Raiju felt from her attacks was what made her give up on battling Maria. Raiju was in her weakened state and a single [Zantetsuken] that used 10% of Maria’s resources had depleted her HP by over 25%. A few more of those attacks and she would be a goner.
‘Just why did I have to provoke the Battle Goddess? Ugh, I’m so stupid! Stupid!’
The reason why Raiju thought that Maria was a Battle Goddess was due to the armor she was wearing and the two weapons she was wielding. The armor set and the weapons she was holding were Myth or potential Myth-grade! A mortal or lesser being couldn’t possibly have access to such things and with the crimson feathered wings she sported on her back being numerous, Raiju naturally thought she was an angel at the level of a goddess.
Maria halted her attack since Raiju had surrendered and after seeing that there was no way that she’d try anything underhanded, Maria sheathed her two weapons and walked over to the kneeling lightning spirit. She squat down in front of her and asked, “What’s the big idea, surrendering like that? I was just about to have some fun…”
‘Oh my god, she really is a Battle Goddess, only those weird bitches would find pleasure in fighting others non-stop! She’s crazy! She’s really, really crazy!’
“I-I just wouldn’t be able to win against you, great Goddess...p-please spare this little one’s life!”
Even though she thought something else inwardly, on the surface, Raiju had to do something to appease this goddess. In her circle of connections, many of those stronger and of higher rank than her had constantly emphasized that Battle Gods and Battle Goddesses were the worst of all the known deities as they were all unreasonable battle junkies.
The worst of them all was the War God, the ringleader of all these Battle Gods and Goddesses. With how crazy and eager Maria was for battle, it was only natural that Raiju misunderstood her as one of these unreasonable higher beings.
“Hmm...I’ll spare your life, but...you’ll have to―”
“I-I’ll do it! I’ll serve under you, goddess!!!” Raiju cut Maria off and quickly said this before she slammed her head into the ground as a show of subservience.
This was how Battle Gods and Goddesses gained followers. They would challenge a person, whether they be a mortal or a higher being, to a fight and if they won, the loser would naturally have to follow the winner. In the case of the Battle God losing...well, there was actually never a case that any of these lesser deities lost in their matches.
Since that was how things operated on her level of existence, Raiju naturally thought that she’d have to submit to Maria and become her underling or else she’d be killed by having her divine crystal forcefully pried out of her body. Maria was entirely clueless as to how things developed to this stage. She didn’t want Raiju to become her subordinate or anything. All she wanted was the lightning spirit to help her find a way to recover and repair the [Statue of Karni Amat].
She still hadn’t let go of the notion of being able to train in the dark whenever she wanted but she naturally needed the statue in order to do that. However, with the statue now broken, needed to repair it, and what better person to ask than the one kneeling in front of her.
Subservience and gaining a new subordinate was the last thing she had on her mind but this was fine as well. She understood that today, she had only won because the lightning spirit was weakened and she had somehow managed to scare her with her [Zantetsuken].
Maria wasn’t so stupid as to let this prime opportunity to gain another powerful subordinate slip past her fingers so she immediately straightened her back, crossed her arms, and said, “Fine, I’ll ‘reluctantly’ take you in! Now stand up, let us form a pact!”