Luna didn’t wait for Mira’s signal to move. She exploded into motion by circling the distracted monster and made it to its most obvious blind spot….its back.

Meanwhile, Mira was fighting off the wyvern with her beautiful swordsmanship. She had managed to delay the blast breath by maneuvering and staying out of its range. She deflected its claws and dodged when the attacks were too strong for her to deflect with her shield or when she wasn’t strong enough to take on its force.

Luna on the other hand appeared behind it and avoided its swinging tail by ducking. She had concealed her entire presence, so she was in the clear as long as the creature didn’t see her.

Compared to the smaller Wyverns she saw earlier, this one was three times the ordinary size. Its entire body was glowing with amounts of qi she hadn't felt until now. If it survived today, then it wouldn't be an ordinary cursed general.

'It might be powerful enough to break free from the Undead King's powers.'

Luna was careful to avoid making contact with the creature as it maneuvered while trying to kill off the little human bothering it from ahead. After desperately trying to go under the creature without being detected, Luna finally found a perfect spot right near the creature’s legs. She acted fast by activating the katana’s cutting enchantment and slashing at one of the legs in a perfect swing.

At first, it looked like her blade had done no damage to the crimson scales.

But then, a deep laceration appeared and black blood spluttered as the blade’s enchantment tore through scales, flesh, and bone as if they were all made of paper.

Once that happened, the creature stopped attacking and let out a painful roar before stumbling after forgetting to walk for a moment.

Luna quickly ran away before the creature could collapse onto her. It was clear she didn’t know what to do next after this.

In an attempt to flee, the wyvern opened its wings to fly. But after leaving the ground for a second, Mira jumped and stabbed between its right wing and limb. Weak as her attack might have looked, Mira had pushed her gladius in the perfect place to kill the creature’s balance.

GRAAAAAAA!

A Pained roar escaped its mouth before they both fell back on the ground and Luna wasted no minute to sever its tail next. Confused by the pain, the wyvern ignored Luna and snapped at Mira who was still trying to pull her weapon out of the wing.

She narrowly escaped the clutches of its mouth by jumping back before its mouth closed.

However, when it turned to attack again, its golden eyes noticed a smaller human running from behind. Its eyes narrowed when it sensed the intense battle aura taunting it to attack.

‘What the hell is she thinking?!’ Mira asked herself as she turned her focus to Luna who was charging ahead.

Suddenly the world’s temperature rose at a rapid pace when the cursed creature opened its maw to use Blast Breath. The energy in its mouth was like swirling hot air at first before turning into a swirling fireball. Even though she wasn't in line for its attack, Mira increased the power of her hand shield in order to take on the heat that came from Blast Breath.

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It was better not to underestimate the attack, especially while being so close to the source.

Meanwhile, Luna continued her charge even after seeing the flames gather in the creature’s mouth.

Luna was planning to use a Wind Blade to counter its flames. She had given it some thought and came to agree that that sword technique was the best for a situation like this one because air was a perfect counter to fire to some degree. She had fought dragons, digital ones of course. And from what she had learned from every game so far, the best weapon against creatures with powerful affinity to fire was either water or wind itself. And lucky enough, Wind Blade was a powerful sword technique that allowed her to control the wind to a minimal degree.

On top of that, her katana was powerful enough to take the force of Wind Blade's second form without shattering to bits like a normal sword. The technique's effects would be minimal if she or her weapon were normal. That sandworm wouldn't have fallen so easily.

She channeled more energy into the suit and her speed increased as she balanced her breathing to tighten every muscle. Luna didn’t slow down, neither did her demeanor collapse as she approached the much larger Wyvern.

As soon as she was within its range of fire, the cursed soldier unleashed a beam of crimson flames. They exploded from its mouth with a loud, ear-piercing whistling noise like steam escaping from a gigantic kettle.

At the same time, Luna stopped and pierced the air with the tip of her sword with all her strength. Her maneuver released a blast of air that collided with a beam of flames and split through them, surprising both herself and the wyvern.

Before it could unleash another blast, Mira quickly acted by throwing her shield at its exposed neck. It flew in a spinning motion and dug itself it the large wyvern’s neck and drew a lot of blood after she had used the full strength of her suit.

Luna saw the opportunity to kill the creature. She burst into an incredible speed and appeared just under the wyvern after it lowered its head to avoid bleeding. In that moment of its distraction, Luna let out a warrior scream and used the first form of Wind Blade to end this fight. Her blade and technique didn't fail her because the sword's enhancement easily slashed through from one end of the neck to another...

The wyvern froze for a moment as if time had stopped for it.

Then, its head fell and the rest of its body followed with a loud thud that briefly shuddered the ground.

Despite the ragged breaths, Luna managed to muster up a weak victory laugh to celebrate this new achievement.

The two of them had killed a cursed soldier on their own. And not just any cursed soldier, a cursed soldier that was evolving into a cursed general soon. This would’ve been an easy feat for someone with powers. But for them, this was a great feat.

Sure Luna had killed the Mind Wraith a few weeks ago. But that didn't mean anything because the Wraith was still weak at the time. It was her luck at the time.

Mira finally heaved out a sigh of relief. “No one would believe me if I told them this.”

After catching her breath, Luna shot Mira a pale smile. She hadn't tried two Wind Blade forms in one fight until today. Who knew it would cost her her this much stamina to pull off?

‘I should make notes on that.’

Her body felt both tired and strained. She needed a short break to recover some of it.

“That we killed a high-class wyvern? Or that we, two unblessed, killed a cursed soldier?”

Mira let out a soft laugh and answered:

“Both, my lady.”

Luna sighed.

“We should have recorded the entire fight on camera. That last move we made would’ve looked good on a high-resolution screen. It looked like something out of a webtoon or a video game.”

She laughed tiredly and turned her eyes to the wyvern’s head which hadn’t fallen so far from them. Its lifeless eyes were staring at them with eerie calmness—as if it was at peace during its final moments.

‘No. I’m seeing things.’

“Well then, should we continue to the tower?” Mira asked with her usual respectful tone.

Luna then looked at the Siege tower. It wasn’t far from them, only a few kilometers away. However, the undead king was probably guarded by powerful creatures.

So…

Much as she wanted to, fighting in her current state was a death wish. She needed a few moments to breathe before attacking head-on.

“No. I need to gather my strength for a few minutes.”

Mira seemed to understand the situation because she only nodded and turned to observe the fight happening in the icy wasteland.

Most of the cursed creatures had fallen at the hands of the humans and their divine summons.

…The battle of the Blood Desert was slowly reaching its climax.

***

Meanwhile, atop the Siege Tower.

A humanoid figure silently watched the battle unfold. It was covered in shadows to keep its presence hidden from everyone with a sensing ability. Its only visible feature was its vibrant pair of scarlet red eyes that watched everything from a distance.

And right now, it was staring at a pair of young women who had just taken down a Cursed Soldier, as they called it. In its right hand was a single flame that extinguished itself once the Wyvern lost its life force.

A smile appeared under the mask of shadows and it spoke in a very human voice. “As expected of someone like you, Lunaris Feng. I guess Hamido was right when he said he finally found it after all these centuries.”

“I look forward to meeting you on the next floor, Lunaris. After all, you are drawn to the truth. Just like the rest of us."

After a short silence and a long look, the figure sighed and vanished into the air….