Lance Corporal (2nd Adjutant), Reichel Schwertspinne, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, Urganschoft, Deutsche Imperial Army

The green glint of Michal's sword glowed faintly as if it was made of bright emeralds as it swung with motion upon Reichel's throat.

'Fast!'

It was fast to a certain degree, It was so fast that if it was her from a year ago from when she just came to Hyurasia she would find her throat slit without even knowing what happend.

That was her from one year ago.

'But not nearly fast enough.'

Reichel instictively dodged the incoming blade with the most amount of speed and coordination she could muster within less than a second, and with her attempt it looked like she had dodged it successfully.

Reichel was about to stop after stepping backward and then launch a counter-attack aiming for Michal's own neck, When suddenly her instincts told her that she shouldn't.

'!?'

It didn't seem like Michal had any defenses set up, and neither was his guard up. He was fully open and vulnerable for a counter-attack. It was a perfect situation to end it with only a single strike, just as she intended to do in the first place.

But that was the problem.

The situation was far too perfect.

'This smell...'

'It's a trap.'

Instead of just stopping when she had already successfully dodged it and quickly releasing a counter-attack of her own in quick succession, Reichel took a few more steps back and gained a short distance from between them and Michal. She had been too cocky it seems. She underestimated the hobgoblin's own capabilities and focused on his sword instead, A typical mistake.

A mistake that Reichel doesn't typically make.

"Tch." Michal clicked his tongue as he waved his sword in the air and brushed off some blood from his emerald-green blade with an annoyed expression.

'Wait...blood?' Reichel realized.

It was then when a sharp pain at the side of her neck erupted that she realized...

*squelch* She touched the based of her neck with her left hand while keeping her rapier pointed at Michal with her right.

'I've...been hit?' Reichel's thoughts were in disarray.

The wound was shallow and far from being deep enough to warrant any kind of attention, But this warranted something else.

'Caution.'

"What was that just now? I dodged the sword completely but I still took damage." Reichel asked the goblin straight on, There was no need for any kind of tricks and deception right now. But if she could dish anything out at the moment then it would only be brute force.

For some strange reason, the goblins that were rushing right past Michal and Reichel's fight didn't even interfere.

'Do they think it's some kind of sacred duel?'

"Hm?"

The tall hobgoblin rested his sword at his shoulder and replied to Reichel as he was surprised.

"You can speak my mother tongue?"

"That's excellent..."

"Now you know much I absolutely despise you!" Michal once again kicked off the ground, lunging towards Reichel at high speed.

'What!?'

"You took everything from me!"

Michal raised his sword and struck again and again, prompting Reichel to respond in kind by delivering blows of her own as well as deflecting and parrying.

The pair traded blows left ad right using their weapons, with neither side unrelenting.

In all honesty from the scene of a young woman and a tall goblin trading blows with each other, It looked like Michal's own speed and Reichel were roughly equal.

However...

'His blows...'

*SHRIIING*

'They're heavy!' Reichel once again found her own physical strength to be lacking.

'Just like that time...'

"Everything I held dear, Everything that I worked so hard to protect, You took it all away from me in less than a day!"

'What the hell is he talking about in the middle of a fight!?'

"I don't even know who you are!"

*BANG* The green blade was swung so hard against the thin silver blade that Reichel held that sparks actually flew when they connected.

'He's already aiming for my vitals! What the hell happend to "I will give you a slow and agonizing death"!?!?' Reichel found herself suddenly in the worst situation possible. She was once again out-powered and out-classed by yet again another foe.

'I have to find a way to turn this around, Think! What can I use to win!?' Reichel had already put on of her feet inside a grave, if she didn't pull herself out soon she could find herself slip and be buried alive not accomplishing anything.

"[Dust Devil]!"

Reichel once again found herself deflecting several bullets made of wind, She could only block the wind only with pure instinct and skill, and while Michal was swinging his sword at her she could only barely defend herself.

*BRAK* (armour-breaking.mp3)

'Shit!' Reichel suddenly felt a sharp pain erupt throughout her right shoulder, Her shoulder armour had been broken through in all but one shot. Solid iron just split open with just one swing, if she had bent her head right at that moment her skull was the one that would have been split open.

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If this was going to continue she was going to find herself dead. She knew that as a fact, And she also had the means to escape the current situation.

'Should I use one? Should I use a technique!?' Reichel's mind suddenly found itself with conflicting decisions and miniature debates.

Reichel has multiple techniques at her disposal, and going by how she was almost standing with equal footing with Michal even though she isn't using one, She guessed that it would take but only one technique to finish him off and end the fight.

But she couldn't, Because most of the techniques at her disposal were imitations of magical weapon techniques that implemented the use of the Essence of Gluttony. If she used this and survived there was no gurantee that she wouldn't find the Priscian Imperial Guard or even the Italien Inquisition knocking on her door the next day.

Ever since the Essence of Gluttony went missing, both parties had tripled the amount of spies sent to every country in the continent, If it was suddenly revealed that she was seen using the Essence of Gluttony there would be no doubt that she'd lose her head shortly after.

'Not a chance.' The risk was far too great compared to the potential benefits. She could live now but then she'd be running again.

And this time around there wasn't a gurantee that anyone would help her hide.

'So what should I do?'

What should Reichel do? She only had her sword and she was being outclassed in it, Not only that but even though other goblins aren't attacking her out of respect for her duel with Michal there was no chance of any help arriving that far inside the enemy's formations.

So there was only one thing left she could do.

"Why are your blows so heavy!?"

Complain.

*BANG*

'What...happend?' Reichel's thoughts suddenly went hazy.

*SCHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

And with the emergence of hazy thoughts was the immense volume of goblin screeches that made her ears almost bleed.

They were celebrating.

Reichel raised her body from her lying position and sat on her knees, Which straight after squeezed her right hand only to find that her silver rapier wasn't even in her grasp anymore. She turned her head around tiredly to see a silver glint just next to her head.

It was the silver light belonging to her rapier, But there was something different about the rapier which she stole from Ursus' grasp just a year ago.

It's blade was broken halfway and it was only as short as a dagger now. And while lying down she touched the side of her head, And from it she felt another sharp pain as well as the viscosity of her own blood running alongside her head as it dripped down towards the floor, adding more blood to the already bloody battlefield.

'Shit!' Now she remembered.

She was blown away after she tried to deflect the last blow, Her rapier broke in half after it tried to connect with the green longsword, and while she was in shock the blade continued it's momentum until the flat side hit the side of her head.

She remembered what happend, But what she was wondering why she was still alive.

'Why did he hit me with the flat side of his sword?' Michal could have ended it like that, he could have one right then and there.

"Black-Haired Stalker, You asked me why my blows were so heavy...Is that right?"

Reichel's thoughts were interrupted when a raspy voice called out to her as she was kneeling on the ground.

"My blows are heavy--"

'You must have a great talent too, Your blows had a crude yet refined feeling to them, And even though your skills had much unnesecary movements they were certainly the result of hard work combined with that training.' Reichel thought as she looked at the body of the goblin.

Even if most of body was painted with the blood of human soldiers, She could roughly see the outline of muscles that looked like they were trained ever since he was a child, He looked like he devoted his entire childhood to learning the blade. And Reichel suddenly found a respect for Michal even though he was her enemy.

"--Because I carry the will of the souls you put to death upon my shoulders."

It was then that Reichel suddenly lost all respect for any and every monster on this continent.

"My comrades, My brother, Which died from the cowardly assassinations you did in the black of night with no remorse or hesitation gave me their wills before they moved on to grant me the power I needed to deliver divine retribution that a beast such as you deserves. Through their grudges, their hunger for justice, I, have come to know, what a sad and pathetic being you are, finally able to meet you one to one, against each other, you unsightly creature."

Reichel suddenly found her own veins on the verge of popping due to sheer fury and anger at what she was hearing right now.

"Now that I think about it, Your skin is unnaturally pale for a human...Maybe it is because that the Goddess of Life Ylen cursed you with an unsightly appearance that you became like that."

It was then that Reichel finally snapped.

'[Fleeting Rush]' Reichel mindlessly put out one of the first techniques. But unlike when Ursus used it, this version was much more quicker and faster than what he used. The technique was refined into its utmost limits.

It happend in less than a second, None of the goblins surrounding saw it happening.

The speed was so fast that only a High Ranker could dish out (People who are Level 10 and above). In less than the duration of the blink of an eye, It happend.

It was not even until seconds after the deed when Michal couldn't feel his hand that he realized what happend.

Reichel picked up her broken rapier and sliced off Michal's hand which was holding his longsword.

"AHHHHHHHHHH--" Michal couldn't even finish his screaming when Reichel's left fist connect with his nose and broke it in an instant.

*BUK*

Reichel grabbed the head of her opponent and held it in her grasp tightly, almost crushing Michal's skull and hit her bleeding forehead against Michal's forehead. Reichel continued to look at Michal's eyes with her own eyes. And it was then that Michal knew the true meaning of fear.

'If you stare too long into the abyss, The abyss stares back.'

"...And what about this village you burned to the ground?"

'To think that you actually talked so much that I was able to find an opening in your defenses.'

"Those people were civilians, Those people had families who were only working to keep their daily mundane lives. Yeah I know that they were going to die without accomplishing anything of significance but what gives you the right to criticize me when you burned a village full innocent men, women, and children down to the ground?"

'As small as it is the number of the farmers who were in this village are a valuable workforce that contributes to my amount of daily rations, The children would have taken after them in the future and would have increased the Empery's agricultural workforce and resources!' Reichel absolutely despised the concept of wasting valuable human resources.

"What is a few hundred green abominations who are actually counted as soldiers compared to a thousand people who didn't sign up for any kind of war? They did not know any conflict or any kind of misdeed, So why did you have to drag them into this?"

'Why couldn't you have instead attacked our base head-on yourselves, Seeing as every piece of green goblin trash you've amassed here is already suicidal? Why couldn't you have killed those recruits with no kind of obvious and certain military future? Yes you would obviously failed since it was only a measly 1,500 pieces of genetic waste against 6,000 pieces of slightly better genetic waste, But you could have at least improved reduced the damage!'

"You attacked a village full of innocent civilians, Without even adhering to the International Laws of Warfare and delivering a formal declaration of war to our capital first. This is why a country filled with monsters shouldn't ever be acknowledged as an actual country!"

'You savages don't adhere to any kind of rules or regulations, You monsters only stick to your concept of brute strength yet you have the gall to call yourself an actual country and fuck with my career!?' Reichel found herself more enraged at the fact that a goblin, a mere fantasy creature that was supposed to be equal to dust in her eyes.

"Unlike you, I pride myself from doing unnecessary deeds that would get my country burnt to the ground. I don't let myself controlled by my emotions, I don't cause unessecary troubles for others!"

Her fingers dug in deep to Michal's head as her voice gets more tense by the second, prompting Michal to further recognize how dire his situation was.

"All of you are merely obstacles in my path to achieve perfection, Imperfect beings who only know how to consider their own feelings without giving a regard to any sane benefits and profits like a being in pursuit of perfection such as myself has no say in criticizing my actions!"

Humans, Goblins, Orcs, Ogres, Elves, Demons, Angels, Gods, and Devils. It didn't matter which race they belonged to, They were all imperfect in the end.

"This hypocrisy--Wait you can't even call this piece of trash hypocrisy. This stupid crap that you call justice is so flawed that my own actions and the motives behind them would always come out on top, Ten out of ten times, A hundred out of a hundred times, A thousand out of a thousand times, A million out of a million times I will always come out on top."

Reichel felt the Essence of Gluttony running amok inside of her, Influencing her train of thoughts yet again. She was basically ranting out her private feelings, But it wasn't as if it was making her do what she didn't want to do, It was only urging her to do what she wanted in the face of supreme this supreme idiocy which was Michal.

"Out of my courtesy as a being that stands above the gods, I will ask you..."

And finally there was that other insult that Reichel just couldn't let go.

"... Does my face look unsightly to you?"

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