Blood Red Sunset Part 1

'Damn it!'

Flash!

The dagger struck Lyrica from behind, however, it didn't go through her body.

"What?!"

The man is left shocked, and so is Lyrica.

[Now Playing: Heavy Metal]

Right before the edge of the man's dagger touched the back of Lyrica, her Heavy Metal music activated by itself, shielding her from harm.

'My Heavy Metal! Did it activate because I thought I was going to die?'

Yes, at that moment, Lyrica thought she was going to die, she did not see it all coming. But, her magic ability, which manifested out of her strong desire to live in peace and without trouble, came and protected its magic-user. The headphone system will not let its user fail to achieve her desire that easily.

"Is that... Tibay?" The man uttered in disbelief. "I thought she's just an elemental magic user, a fire user at that?"

He immediately went back into the blind spots of the trees after failing to assassinate Lyrica.

"Hey, did you just say she used Tibay? And she's a fire magic user, too?"

"Well, you can see her glowing with light, don't you?"

"Possessing more than one elemental magic is nothing new, but isn't it impossible to manifest two different kinds of magical abilities?"

While the assassins are talking out of Lyrica's view, albeit audible enough for her to hear their conversation, Lyrica is struggling to keep a poker face as the weight of Heavy Metal puts her feet buried to the ground.

'I-It's because I used heavy metal by instinct that I didn't measure how many decibels I used!'

That's right. Due to her using it via instinct, she activated Heavy Metal at 100dB. It's the same amount she first used to knock out the Guardian Snake, only this time, she's not completely stuck to the ground thanks to the lessened weight drawback of the leveled-up music.

Listener: Lyrica Ley Rael

Lv. 27

HP: 81.8%

MP: 44

dB Limit: 64

[Statistics]

STR: 30 -> 40

DUR: 10 -> 35

Agility: 30 -> 40

Stamina: 20 -> 21

Senses: 10

Available Stats: 0

[Playlist]

Playable Music:

- Jazz Harmony (Lv. Max)

- Heavy Metal (Lv. 2)

- Heavy Metal: Iron Maiden (Lv. 2)

- Fierock (Lv. 2)

- Hip Hop (Lv. 2)

Background Music:

- Elements of Music (Lv. 2)

-

-

> Acquired EXP: 17,242

> Required EXP: 24,150

What's more, although she felt the impact of the dagger as if it hurt her, Lyrica barely received any damage, with her HP remaining more or less the same since after her fight with Gilberto.

'Still, I can't be left stuck here for long, not unless they let me be for three minutes.' She muttered to herself. 'I doubt they'll do just that, though.'

What happened earlier completely caught her off guard. She should've expected that there's more magic abilities in Alteria other than the ones she first encountered, but the man in dark attire's attack completely flipped Lyrica's situation around.

'I thought I could fight them with a certainty that I can win,' She thought. 'But that agility, no, that's not a mere work of agility, it's like he teleported right in front of me. If all of them can do the same thing, then I should expect to receive fatal damage... This might even be my last sunset in this world.'

"Putting her abnormal capabilities aside, I still can't get over the fact that we're looking at the spitting image of her..." The voice of the woman who talked to the boss not long ago had spoken. "It's almost as if we're being haunted of the past."

"Image? Haunted? The past?"

Hearing Lyrica uttered those words, one of the people keeping their eyes on the girl stated: "I'm sure the boss will be utterly surprised once she gets a good look on her face, but she doesn't need to see her alive and breathing, right?"

'Boss? There's someone else coming here and it's their boss?'

"Yeah, it doesn't change the fact that she's still our target." The voice of the man who attacked Lyrica before replied. "I held back a little, thinking I'm up against an elemental magic user, at least a normal one. But this time, I'll make sure my dagger goes through her head."

"Sorry, but I'm not waiting until your boss gets here." Lyrica mouthed as she clenched both her teeth and her fists, preparing to take them on, rather fearlessly.

"Do not worry, your soul ain't gonna be here when she arrives!"

Right then, the same person who first attacked Lyrica jumped out of nowhere towards her. Along with him, another person wearing gauntlets with two razor-sharp blades protruding from them appeared behind Lyrica. On the other hand, Lyrica remained standing, still keeping the poker under the pressure put on her by Heavy Metal.

But what's this? Despite being stuck in that situation, the glint in Lyrica's eyes doesn't seem to be faltering at all. It's almost as if she's purposely letting them get close to her.

"Behold the magic ability that lets me assassinate even those using Tibay!" The man spouted as he poured his mana onto his dagger, making it glow in blue light. "Piercing Dagger!"

"You're too loud for an assassin."

In the blink of an eye, the two assassins teleported close to Lyrica and are about to strike her face and her back. However, in that exact same moment, the barrier coating Lyrica begins to move towards her arms, to her fist.

"What? She removed Tibay?"

Wrong. Rather, she did something with her barrier.

"Heavy Metal:..."

The barrier took a shape similar to that of the face of a hammer. And then, she intercepted their blades.

CLANG!!

Their blades shattered into pieces the moment they hit the barrier.

"... Iron Maiden!"