Battling the Red Woman

A figure of a woman appeared before the Vajra Sword. Her skin was red in color and there were two horns sticking out on the side of her head. She has no genitals and face.

She was emitting a powerful energy to the point that people could see it with their own two eyes. It was red in color and looked like blood vessels that were pulsing in the air.

"What the hell is this?!" Souta looked at the figure of the woman before the Vajra Sword.

If he wasn't mistaken, the Vajra Sword doesn't have a skill like this one. It only has three skills: [Crimson Moon], [Cross Moon], and [Possession]. The girl had previously used [Crimson Moon], and [Cross Moon] was a combat arts skill similar to the first, while [Possession] was a skill that increased the user's stats.

"Jack! Be careful this one is different from before! Be ready to wake up everyone and take them away from this place!" Souta said in a loud voice. His eyes didn't leave the woman for a single second. He was wary of this unknown woman who appeared out of nowhere.

The woman reached out her hand and grabbed the handle of the Vajra Sword. She slowly pulled it out and roared in a loud voice.

"Raaaaahhh!!"

The roar shook the entire ground as debris of rocks started to fall down.

"Should I test her out?" Souta muttered and he looked at his stats.

Health: 164/336

Stamina: 81/148

Mana: 120/280

He lost too much health from the attack before and he consumed his stamina because he was fighting non stop since morning. There's only 120 mana left in his mana pool and for him, this was enough to finish some low-level boss.

He could still fight with these stats. Souta lifted up his head and looked at the red woman. He slowly took a step backward and placed the girl in the corner. The girl was the host of the [Vajra Sword Saya].

He then bent his knees and threw himself towards the woman.

He gripped the sword tightly in his hand and swung it toward the red woman.

Swoosh!!

The red woman slightly bent her body backward and avoided his sword by a hair's breadth. She then waved the Vajra Sword in front of her.

Clang!

Souta pulled back his sword quickly and used it to block the Vajra Sword. He felt his hand getting numb when his sword and the Vajra Sword collided.

Tap!

Souta kicked the ground and jumped away gaining distance. He observed the red woman with his eyes.

From that little exchange, he knew that the red woman was a strong opponent.

He received 10 free attribute points and 5 skill points from completing the two quests. He didn't think that he would use these points as soon as he received them.

He added 10 free attribute points to his intelligence attribute. Warm energy flowed in his body as it made him a little bit stronger than before. His mana increased because of the increase in intelligence attributes.

He then quickly checked his skill tree. There were three skills above the [Shadow Bind] spell. They were the [Shadow Spike], [Shadow Blend], and [Shadow Ball].

[Shadow Spike] spell was an attack spell that could pierce the target's body. He could create a total of five shadow spikes with this spell and every level the spikes increases by five. Just like the other spells he had there's no cooldown using this spell.

[Shadow Blend] is a spell that allows him to conceal his body in the shadows. The darker the environment, the more he blends into the shadows. He could hide in the shadows for five minutes, but the camouflage would be lost the moment he attacked or took damage. Each use depleted ten of his mana points. As the level rises, so will the time limit.

[Shadow Ball] was a spell that throws a ball of shadow and he could teleport to the position of the ball of shadow anytime. It cannot be casted repeatedly. Once the [Shadow Ball] was gone only then he could cast another [Shadow Ball]. As long as the ball was in the field he could not cast it again. Every time it levels up the number of the ball of shadow that he could throw increases.

All of these spells consumed ten mana points per usage.

Above these three spells were four locked spells. He needed to level up one of these three spells to level 5 before he could unlock those spells above.

He used 2 skill points to learn the [Shadow Spike] spell and another 2 skill points to learn the [Shadow Ball] spell.

"This will be enough..." Souta nodded and said loudly, "Jack! Wake up the rest and take them out of here!"

"But... are you sure you can fight her alone?" Jack asked him unsurely. He was sure that the red woman was strong just from seeing the red energy that was seeping out of her body. He still couldn't believe what she was seeing, only those strong people's energy could be seen with naked eyes. Their energy was so thick and dense that people could see it in their own eyes. From his experience, only those Rank C and above could do this.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure I can do this," Souta replied with a grin while looking at the red woman. "I'm going to start... Here I go!"

Jack and the other adventurers looked at Souta who was battling the red woman. Jack actually wanted to help Souta fight but from his tone, it seems that Souta wanted to fight the red woman alone. They will have a chance to defeat it if they fought together but if they do that who's going to protect these people. If he wanted to help Souta then he should wake up these people as quickly as possible.

"Let's wake them up!" Jack shouted at his comrades.

The adventurers looked at each other and nodded. They went and started to wake up every person in this area.

"Hello! Are you there?" Jack said while shaking the body of an unconscious man.

The man slowly opened his eyes and looked at Jack. "Where am I?" He asked in a low voice. Just from the way he speaks, Jack could tell that the man was tired.

"Hold it for a while! Help me wake up everyone and leave this place!"

Jack knew that these people would become a burden to Souta if they stayed here in this place. It will be hard to fight that red woman if he still had to protect these people.

...

Souta raised his injured left hand and opened his palm. He casted [Shadow Ball] towards the red woman.

A palm-sized black ball flew over and accelerated straight to the red woman. The [Shadow Ball] could still cause damage to an opponent, even if the damage was minimal.

Swoosh!

The red woman shifted up her body slightly and the black ball passed over her.

"Good!" Souta suddenly vanished in his position and appeared in the position of the black ball behind the girl.

Swoosh!

He quickly swung his sword as soon as he appeared behind the red woman.

The red woman noticed his arrival and she managed to react quickly by lifting up the Vajra Sword to block his attack.

Clang!

Souta then raised his feet and launched a powerful kick at the belly of the red woman.

The red woman saw this as she moved her other hand and caught his feet.

Bang!

Souta then aimed his palm on her head and casted [Shadow Bind] on her. The shadows moved upwards attempting to strangle the red woman.

The red woman pushed him away and slashed her sword towards the shadows around her.

Souta looked at her as he landed on the ground and casted [Mud Slide]. Casting a spell like this was a very crucial thing as it could save him sometimes and it could also create an opportunity to attack his opponent.

[Shadow Ball]

Three seconds was what he needed before the black ball disappeared. The black ball needed to disappear first before he could cast this spell once again.

"Raaah!!"

The red woman screamed before she jumped in the mid-air dodging the black ball. She raised the Vajra Sword above her head and swung it down on him.

Swoosh!!

The sword only hit the air as Souta disappeared into thin air. The red woman turned around but a sharp object pierced her belly.

Putchi!

She looked down and saw five black spikes burst out of the ground and pierced her body.

"[Shadow Spike]," Souta smirked and dashed towards the red woman. He gripped his sword tightly.

"Graa!!" The red woman ignored the spike in her belly as she crossed swords with Souta.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

In terms of strength, Souta knew that he wasn't the red woman's match. Just from exchanging a few blows, he could already feel the numbling sensation in his hand.

He jumped backward and the red woman chased after him. Suddenly, she stopped and Souta revealed a wide smile.

"Oto... Do you know that I've already place [Mud Slide] across the whole place here?" Souta smiled widely as he rushed towards the red woman. "Well, it's not that you understand what I'm saying."

"Grr!!" The red woman swung her sword towards the approaching Souta. Since she couldn't evade, she would just fight him head-on.

Clang!

Souta gritted his teeth as he deflected her attack. Cracks appeared on the blade of his sword. He waved his injured left hand.

[Shadow Ball]!

[Shadow Bind]!

[Shadow Spike]!

The shadows beneath the red woman burst out. It strangled her limbs and pierced her body.

Putchi!!

The red woman ignored her wounds as she looked at Souta with crazed eyes.

"Good!" Souta pulled his sword and executed [Stab] repeatedly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Holes kept appearing in the body of the red woman. Despite that, there's no blood that was pouring out of her wounds. There were many strange creatures in this world so Souta thought that everything would be possible with her.

After a few moments, Souta stopped as the spells that he casted dissipated into thin air.

"Huff... Huff..." He was extremely tired and he drained his mana to zero. In his current condition, he couldn't even cast a single spell.

Jack looked at Souta and saw the situation. Some of the people already left this place but there were still people left here. It was because they had injuries that they couldn't stand on their own.

Jack sighed as he thought that Souta won the battle. Then he noticed something from the red woman.

"Souta!! She's still alive!!" He shouted as he stood up and rushed towards Souta.

Swoosh!!

Souta lifted up his head and saw the red woman slowly standing up. Even after all that she still stood up.

"Haha, this is bad..." Souta smiled wryly at the red woman.

"Graa!!" The red woman charged at him with great speed. She was still fast even though she had an injured body.

Bang!

Jack appeared in front of Souta and shot a punch at the red woman. He quickly followed it up by kicking.

Bang! Bang!

"Huff..." Souta took a deep breath and looked at the red woman that was battling Jack.

After a few moments, he saw an opportunity and he immediately threw himself on the red woman.

[Stab]!

His sword pierced the shoulder of the woman. The red woman grabbed the sword and her body shook as Jack delivered a powerful blow on her belly.

"Grr!!"

She raised the Vajra Sword. She was about to slash it when an arrow pierced her wrist.

Putchi!

Jack and Souta turned their heads. Both of them saw that the other adventurers were going to help them fight.

"We already woke them up!"

"They said that they will go up on their own!"

"Yeah, they said that they will help each other and they don't need us there as you need us more than them."

A grin slowly formed on Souta's face. "Okay, let's finish this one."