Chain Of Tragedies (6)

Elena was in perhaps the worst position she could possibly ever imagine herself to be. Due to the absence of Dilet accompanying her to fend off the enraged beast rushing mindlessly to murder her—she could barely defend herself—much less to counterattack.

The clash between Elena and the beast was a legendary sight to behold—yet the beast undeniably had the edge over Elena. Stamina that exceeded far beyond human comprehension—paired up with substantial agility, tremendous raw durability and strength—it was certainly a foe no one would ever wish to cross paths with.

On the other hand, while Elena might possess a power sought after by many—Aura, along with immense control over it—her constitution, physical prowess and stamina is comparable to the likes of an average male human by society's standard.

The sole reason she succeeded in becoming such a big shot in the current era was due to the aid provided by her aura, and her deep understanding of the abstract concept of aura—down to its fundamental bases, needs, and the criteria to fully maximize its limitless potential.

The amount of known aura users that still resides amongst the living barely reached the third digit. For a noble house capable of employing an aura user is the equivalent of the greatest boast and humiliation to other noble houses—especially those with a budget incapable of ever hoping to ever recruit an aura user.

Needless to say, all aura users—old, and young—have come to an agreement that none shall ever surpass Elena in terms of comprehending the theoretical concept of aura's true nature, and the connection it holds with human emotions.

Thus, shall one ever witness the world renowned swordmaster struggle in combat, and were to spread rumors regarding the incident—none shall ever bat an eye to the baseless rumors.

The possibility of seeing one of humanity's greatest combatants falter against their opponent is a bizarre and foreign concept to many.

Yet presently, just by a single glance—it was evident that Elena struggled to maintain a suitable pace against the ferocious beast.

Her attacks rendered useless by the hair-like appendages that concealed the beast's vulnerable points. The hair-like appendages were harder than most metals—yet smoother than any other strains of hair known to Elena.

Every time she thrust her blade into it, the thick mass of hair halted her blade from piercing the beast's scalp. While anytime she attempted to swing her blade onto the hair-like appendages with the intention of cutting it—the smoothness of the hair-like appendages caused the momentum of her blade to redirect itself from its original target.

It infuriated her greatly as she couldn't deal any significant damage to the beast this time around. However, her goal is to survive—not conquer the vicious beast that stood in the path of her survivability.

The longer the battle drew—the likelihood of Elena surviving the outcome seemed thinner than ever before. She had longed exceeded her limits—her adrenaline barely keeping her awake.

Her stamina was exponentially diminished. Her muscles fibers screaming in anguish—for she had overworked them far past what her human body could tolerate. For Elena, it felt like she was being burned and had needles stabbed into her with every movement she made—whether it be small or wide.

As for her signature ability—aura—that too could no longer be utilized for she was mentally and physically exhausted due to the multiple emotions that went rampant earlier—as well as witnessing the death of her disciple right in front of her eyes, and risking everything within a single strike to ensure that the murderer of her disciple would cease to exist.

Thankfully however, because the beast was focused on killing Elena as fast as possible in order to regain the pride it lost—the predictability of its attack lessened Elena's difficulty. While one direct hit from the beast is a guaranteed ticket to the afterlife—the simplicity of the beast's ongoing assault made it plausible for Elena to predict and dodge its next attack.

With nimble and acrobatic movements, she gracefully dodged all of the beast's strike—from its attempts at stomping her with its pair of astoundingly heavy legs, shredding her body with its sharp claws, flailing its tail around to whack Elena if an opportunity ever arises, and to sink its teeth into Elena's flesh—all deemed pointless in front of the cool-headed Elena.

Maximizing the efficiency of her work while minimizing the usage of stamina is something Elena is very familiar with. Elena had abandoned her blade, and the thoughts of slaying the beast—only focusing on dodging its attacks with as little usage of stamina as possible.

However, although she successfully evaded most of the fatal strikes—with just a few attempts that nearly grazed her skin—her consciousness was slowly fading overtime.

Amidst her evasions, she carefully laid out an insane yet realistic plan that even in her feeble state—she was certain she could pull off. Carefully, she awaits for the opportunity to execute her flawless plan.

Luckily for her, the opportunity presented itself sooner than she had anticipated. The beast was preparing for a long, wide attack as it readied itself to spin its entire body in 360°—attempting to use its tail to make Elena meet her demise. Regrettably for the beast, this upcoming attack of it was a part of Elena's scheme.

As soon as the beast began to rotate its entire body—it was perplexed to see its prey rushing towards their imminent death. The beast laughed inwards, thinking that its prey had finally realized that their attempts at escaping from its clasped was futile.

Thrilled by the thoughts of quickly regaining its lost pride—the beast accelerated its rotation to reciprocate Elena's outlandish action. Although barely discernible, the beast had a smirk on its face as the distance between it and Elena shortened tremendously.

Elena's heart was thumping rapidly as she saw the beast's tail drawing closer to her with each second—yet she showed no intentions of putting her mystifying plan on halt, and simply accelerated her movements.

Just as the beast's tail was right in front of her eyes—ready to demolish anything and everything that stood in its path—Elena swiftly dove into the ground as the beast's tail missed her just by a strand of hair and continued on its path of wrecking havoc.

The beast felt something amiss. It was certain that its tail had eradicated Elena from existence. Yet, it didn't feel Elena's skin making contact with its tail—not that it knew the texture of human's skin. It pondered as to why it felt unsatisfied with the outcome of its attack.

Amidst its bewilderment, Elena attempted to be as eerily quiet as possible while sprinting towards a certain adolescent boy. Her goal was to rescue Tain—who was still grieving for his brother, unable to accept and move on from Dilet's abrupt demise—out of this hellhole.

Her vision wavering with each step she took. She was nearing to enter the state of unconsciousness, but she prevailed with her indomitable will and continued her advance.

After a few seconds, she quickly snatched Tain off the ground—causing his firm grip on Dilet's severed head to loosen as it tumbled on the ground—and carried him on her right shoulder.

Tain strived to wriggle out of Elena's clutches—not wanting to be separated from his brother even if he had already passed away. Nevertheless, his attempts were in vain as Elena hurriedly knocked him out cold.

It was cruel for her to do so, but she didn't want to risk the chances of seeing another disciple of hers kicking the bucket.

With Tain secured in her arms, and the beast still mystified by her unforeseen disappearance—Elena steadily made her way towards the stone bridge that connected the estate with the outside world.

Elena's vision worsened and became blurrier the closer she got to the bridge. It wasn't long before she would collapse from exhaustion. Mustering the remaining strength she had left—Elena continued to walk towards her exit to paradise.

'Please…please let this be…the end…' Elena prayed.

A smile immediately formed on her face the moment she saw the stone bridge once again. But that smile was soon replaced with an expression of pure hopelessness as she witnessed the bridge abruptly crumbling in front of her eyes.

'Haha…of course the gods wouldn't answer my prayer.'

…