Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Great Escape (3)

#15

The metallic sound tore the atmosphere.

The two who had clashed simultaneously retreated.

Tat!

Landing while somersaulting, Spera growled while clenching her teeth.

“Kid. What on earth is your identity?”

Spera gripped her wrist.

The fierce eyes were contorted with pain.

The stiffened left hand was trembling as if it had struck a rock.

“You’re a completely different person from when we first met. To have hidden this kind of strength··· uup.”

Spera covered her mouth unable to overcome the nausea.

The impact that occurred while clashing swords with Bran shook even the insides past the dagger and wrist.

Monstrous strength surpassing Delgato.

If the timing of withdrawing had been even a little late her body would have been halved.

“Who’s the one to say that.”

Bran answered dryly.

He wanted to return those words as is.

From behind Kale’s voice filled with shock rang out.

“B-Bran! Your hand···!”

“Don’t make a fuss. It’s fine.”

Bran shook his head while fixing his gaze on Spera.

One dagger was embedded in his left hand.

Blood drops were dripping along the knife tip that protruded from the back of the hand.

『The paralysis poison of Semachi Grass has infiltrated the body.』

『High Mental Power and resistance resist the toxin!』

Even paralysis poison was applied to the blade.

Fortunately since it was a plant poison he could receive the resistance correction.

Since he was stepping on the drawbridge not the ground super recovery was not occurring.

Bran caught his breath.

‘To think it would be this fast. No wonder she’s the boss.’

Different from Delgato or anything.

Definitely stronger than the Serpent of Dementia too.

The level difference displayed in the game was only 1, but the difference actually felt is distant.

Spera let out a coquettish laugh.

“Ahaha, anyway I can’t understand. Sacrificing a hand because of a mere slave.”

“It was worth it.”

“Friendship or something? Kids of that age do get close quickly.”

Spera’s gaze was directed at Kale.

Belatedly grasping the situation, Kale gasped.

“S-surely. While trying to protect me···!”

Spera had been aiming at Kale from the beginning.

What was embedded in Bran’s hand was the dagger thrown toward himself.

Kale became an expression as if he would burst into tears at any moment, but Bran did not mind.

“Leave the outfield. Your opponent is me.”

Bran pulled out the dagger embedded in his left hand.

Blood gushed but it was somewhat endurable.

“Haha, sorry but that won’t do. I’m going to take everything of yours.”

Smack. Spera kissed the dagger.

The eyes were curved like a crescent moon but the pupils inside were blazing with indescribable anger.

“Petty.”

“···Petty? Ha, I’m petty?”

Spera let out a hollow laugh.

Sweeping her bangs, she gestured behind with her chin.

“Kid. Do those words still come out even after seeing that?”

Blackstone Fortress was being smashed to the point recovery was no longer possible.

Buildings collapsing with the ground, smoke surging from various places.

Tears flowed down one of Spera’s cheeks.

“My everything···.”

Harmeno that had popped out smashing the fortress roof was growing vigorously like the beanstalk in a fairy tale.

He hadn’t seen it earlier but some pig was stuck at the tip. Is that a person?

Suddenly, Spera’s face contorted like a demon.

“While taking my everything! You dare utter such nonsense?!”

Along with the roar the killing intent that burst out pressed the shoulders.

Putting her hand in the cloak, Spera drew and threw two new daggers.

Swaaack!!

Almost bullets. It was a speed hard to even sense, but Bran had experienced this pattern in the past.

“Hup!”

Predicting the trajectory, Bran swung the longsword.

Clang! With a metallic sound the two daggers were bounced at the same time.

His hand whined. If the angle of deflecting had been even a little different the daggers would have embedded in the head and belly.

Spera did not panic and immediately prepared the next throw.

“Quite something! Can you dodge this time too!?”

Spera drew a new dagger.

The amazing storage ability was admirable but now there was no time.

He had to decide the match before Power of the Giant Tree ended.

Without turning his head Bran opened his mouth.

“Look forward.”

“······!”

Kale’s eyes widened.

It was words directed at himself.

Understanding the meaning was not difficult.

“Yes!”

Now was not the time to feel guilt.

Barely removing his gaze from Bran’s hand, Kale closed his eyes.

Paaaaaa!

A faint radiance bloomed over Bran’s shoulder.

『The faint light of morning blesses you!』

『A small amount of stamina is recovered.』

『Physical abilities are temporarily greatly enhanced.』

The blood flowing from the back of the hand stopped. Bran’s thigh swelled greatly.

Bang! Kicking the drawbridge he rushed forward.

“Kuk!”

Spera flinched.

The speed at which the interval narrowed was faster than expected. Bran pulled the sword hilt.

It was the moment Spera urgently tilted her upper body backward.

Boooom!

The slash sprayed while drawing a semicircle grazed her chest and passed.

“···Vicious.”

Cold sweat flowed down Spera’s temples.

It was a sound that would come from a siege weapon not a sword.

To think this was an attack swung with one hand.

“But still slow.”

However Spera did not break.

Drawing a new dagger from her ankle she dug into Bran’s embrace.

Slash! The stab missed but a short slash cut the side.

“Mm!”

Bran groaned lowly.

The two began to properly clash.

Bran’s sword was fatal each time, but Spera continued the battle while narrowly dodging or deflecting every attack.

Kagagak! Clang!

Occasionally whenever the blades met a metallic sound was ringing out.

“You! You already killed Delgato right?!”

Suddenly Spera asked.

Because it was a melee the voice was loud.

When Bran did not answer, she continued the words as she pleased.

“You killed him! Well done. That homo bastard overlaps in taste with me!”

“What?”

“I can’t help it. Even looking at times like this he’s really handsome···.”

It did not seem like she was trying to avenge her younger brother.

Even in the midst of life and death Spera was stickily scanning his face.

Bran frowned.

What kind of crazy words is she saying.

“I’ll cut off the limbs and take you! I’ll love you every day so you can look forward to it. Aaah, what expression will you make every time you’re pressed down by me?!”

“Crazy woman.”

“I’ll make your pretty friend into a taxidermy while alive. I’ll pull out the eyes and make them into accessories, and raise him feeding only preservatives and sand instead of rice! Don’t worry that friendship might break···”

Spera dragged out the end of her words.

Goosebumps rose along Bran’s spine. Instinct was ringing an alarm.

A mad smile rose at the corner of Spera’s mouth.

“I’ll definitely display the two corpses facing each other!!”

Booom!

Spera leaped high. The cloak that had been wrapping the body unfolded.

Dozens of daggers were sparkling like a constellation from inside the cloak.

『Blackstone Fortress’s boss, Spera casts “Black Chaos Dance”!』

Perhaps because she was the boss a kind warning window also rose.

It was the moment the fully unfolded cloak spread like a crow’s wings.

Boooom!

At the same time all the daggers were fired, thick black mist poured out from inside the cloak.

Bran chewed his lips.

“As expected.”

It was the so-called finishing move.

A technique of simultaneously pouring black mist made by blending poisonous herbs and dozens of daggers.

The symbol of Black Feather Spera, and a pattern that frustrated numerous players.

“Kyaaaak! B-Bran!”

Kale screamed.

It seemed a black avalanche was coming.

If swept one definitely dies.

But Bran did not panic.

“It’s fine.”

In fact he had been waiting only for this moment.

The duration of Power of the Giant Tree remained precariously.

Pubeok!

The daggers that rushed along with the black mist embedded in Bran’s body.

“Kueu!”

Bran groaned.

A total of five. It hurt enough to bring tears but since he avoided instant death it didn’t particularly matter.

Paaaaaa···!

Morning’s light rose over the fist not holding the sword.

The vitality that had been swirling inside the body was gathering.

To properly feed one shot.

Bran who let go of the sword gripped his right wrist with his left hand.

“Haaap!”

And gathering all strength he drove it down on the drawbridge.

Boooom!

Along with a fierce golden explosion, the middle of the bridge sank with a thud.

“I-impossible!”

Spera was astonished.

Smashing a bridge sturdy enough for an army to come and go with bare hands!

Moreover she was in the middle of just landing after pouring Black Chaos Dance.

No matter how agile she could not change direction in the air.

Bang!

In an instant, a hole was pierced in the middle of the black mist and Bran appeared.

“Ah···.”

Spera’s eyes widened.

In Bran’s hand the longsword was gripped again.

Despite daggers being embedded all over his body he was charging without hesitation.

She tried to dodge somehow but Bran had already reached right in front of her neck.

It was the moment Spera took a defensive posture while crossing the daggers.

Twaaaang!

The stab driven with full power smashed the intersection point of the two daggers.

All three swords shattered. A sound as if the bones inside the body broke at once rang out from inside her body.

“Kuek!”

Consciousness faded. Spera vomited blood.

Boooom!

The body that flew in a straight line embedded inside Blackstone Fortress.

“···Cough! Gack! Ahaha! Ha, damn it!”

The sprawled Spera burst into laughter like a seizure.

She had inhaled the gas of the hallucination bomb.

The milky white cloud had almost disappeared, but to the near-death Spera that alone was fatal.

“Aha, heheha, don’t make me laugh···.”

Spera muttered.

She tried to get up immediately, but far from moving limbs she could not even breathe properly.

A natural thing.

Because she had been hit by Smash that not only had Power of the Giant Tree but also Morning’s Blessing fed.

If she had been cut it would have ended at once, but while blocking clumsily the bones of her entire body broke.

“···Why. Ahat, not finishing?”

However, something was strange.

Bran did not kill her.

Throwing the longsword that only had the hilt left, Bran began going down the drawbridge while being supported by Kale.

“Hurry··· Kale···.”

“B-Bran! You must not die!”

“I won’t die··· cough, don’t worry.”

Bran shook his head.

Every time the limping leg dragged on the ground blood poured out.

Watching that back, Spera burst into laughter.

“···Ahaha, no energy left to come this far?”

Thinking about it it is a natural thing.

There was no way to be fine after embedding five daggers coated with deadly poison in the body.

Regrettable. If he had taken a few more steps he could have killed me.

Suddenly, a flustered voice rang out from not far away.

“My god! Captain Spera!”

“You··· are···?”

Forcing her head to turn, Spera raised her eyes.

A bandit group of about thirty was running.

Surprisingly all were perfectly armed.

The man leading the group urgently supported Spera.

“We just finished the dispatch mission and returned. What on earth is this?!”

“Why is Harmeno···!”

The bandits were astonished.

The change in the time they had gone out for a few days was too unconventional.

Literally a despairing landscape.

However, from the mouth of Spera the owner of the fortress a cheerful laughter burst out.

“Aha. Ahahaha!”

“C-Captain?”

“Hehi, heaven is helping me···.”

This time it was really laughing because she was happy.

It seemed heaven also pitied her and intended to grant at least the last wish.

Raising her upper body with all her strength, Spera extended a finger toward beyond the main gate.

“There, do you see those two guys? Uhi···.”

“Yes? Aah, yes. I see them.”

“Right now··· hi, right now go and kill them.”

“B-before that the wounds first···”

“That kind of thing is fine! Right now go and tear them to death!”

Spera raged.

The subordinates pressed by the killing intent gasped.

Spitting blood water, Spera continued.

“Hehit! Now nothing else is important··· just kill those··· cough! Gack!”

It was sincere.

If she could take care of those two who were no different from the source of all matters she had nothing more to wish for.

Moreover if she only preserved her life she could rise again anytime.

“U-understood. We will obey.”

“Hurry··· hehe, the wounds are serious so they can’t go far anyway.”

“Let’s go! Only one remains to support the Captain!”

The bandits immediately prepared the pursuit.

A smile like a crack rose at the corner of Spera’s mouth.

The personnel who returned now were the elites of the Crow Bandit Group.

Catching a dying kid or anything would not even be work.

This is why the finish is important.

Just as Spera was about to burst into a victorious roar, then.

Boooom-!!!

Something huge drove down onto the broken drawbridge.

A flash fluttered.

As the moat overturned the surging water spray covered the fortress.

The gust that burst out as if exploding tore the cloud and Spera’s black mist.

“Kyaaak!”

“Fuck, what?!”

“Protect the Captain!”

The bandits fell into confusion.

The light soon subsided.

The drawbridge had disappeared without a trace.

In the place where the bridge had been one giant pillar was embedded.

“···What is that?”

“Ah fuck, scared me. What’s a pillar?”

The bandits tilted their heads.

The use could not be guessed.

It was a pillar long and thick enough to be used even in an average temple.

On the ivory-colored surface geometric magic circles were densely engraved.

“That is.”

The corner of Spera’s mouth that had risen stiffened as is.

She was the only one here who knew that that was not a simple pillar.

"Anchor of Justice."

Bran who had been watching that scene from afar giggled while coughing blood-mixed.

“Keuhehe, the stupid one is you. Spera.”

“B-Bran··· what is that?”

Kale asked in a trembling voice.

The two had already reached the forest on the opposite side of the fortress.

Bran stroked his head.

“Watch well··· cough! It’s a rare spectacle···.”

It was regrettable that he could not directly take care of Spera but there was no other choice.

Just getting out in time was already a sufficient miracle.

The countdown of the pocket watch had just exceeded the time Bran had set.

Suddenly, a strong light ray surged above the pillar.

Paaaaaat-!!!

The ray that surged vertically tore the clouds and disappeared.

Hurriedly looking up at the sky, Spera froze.

“A-no.”

A ghost-like pure white airship was staying in the sky above Blackstone Fortress.

The long and sleek hull resembled a sword.

On a pair of sails spread like wings the emperor’s crest was engraved.

“Ehehe, hehe... how already!”

She had forgotten for a moment.

The reason she had suppressed Harmeno’s growth even while raising an Otherworld monstrosity.

What happens when that tree is revealed above the ground surface.

The appearance of Bran who had been repeatedly checking the time was flitting before her eyes and passing.

“I-I···”

Spera’s complexion turned pale.

People’s shadows were jumping from the airship.

A scream that a person with large nails driven into hands and feet would make burst from Spera’s mouth.

“Imperial Knight Order!”

All Three Dragon Trees grown under the sky belong to the empire and His Majesty the Emperor.

It is the law that those who live stepping on the ground must properly keep.