Chapter 60
Lennix was, to say the least, a bit peeved off both towards Almer and towards himself for being the first one from his team to technically lose. Eirisse wore a self-satisfied smirk as she taunted, "Well, it seems you'll have to surrender if you-"
Before Eirisse could finish her sentence, Ercale unleashed another lightning bolt, catching everyone by surprise. Swiftly evading the attack, Eirisse protested, "Hey! Almer has my little brother hostage! If you attack me, he'll kill him!"
Ercale regarded her with a hint of confusion and nonchalance, asking, "And?"
Clearly exasperated, Eirisse retorted, "What do you mean, and? He dies if you attack!"
Ercale shrugged indifferently and said, "Eh, he doesn't really have any value, so I don't particularly care," before firing another lightning bolt at Eirisse, prompting her to evade once again.
Almer, seeing Ercale's relentless attacks on Eirisse, was on the verge of pulling the trigger. However, before he could do so, Eirisse yelled, "I swear to goddess, Almer, if you pull the trigger, I'll rip you to pieces!" She dodged yet another of Ercale's lightning strikes. Karin couldn't help but face-palm in annoyance, muttering, "Why did she say that?"
Lennix, despite his predicament, couldn't resist a smirk. "Well, well, well, looks like someone can't kill me," he taunted. Almer, his expression deadpan, adjusted the revolver, this time aiming it at Lennix's knee and firing. Lennix crumpled to the ground, clutching his injured knee. "Ugh! I probably should've seen that coming," he groaned, while Almer shifted his aim toward Clarissa.
As Almer aimed at Clarissa, he suddenly saw a knife hurtling straight towards his left eye. With a quick, instinctive dodge, the knife grazed his skin, leaving a shallow cut on his face. He started to taunt, "You mi-" before being interrupted by a sharp pain in his shoulder. He turned to see the knife Clarissa had thrown, thinking he'd dodged it successfully. However, the knife had hit a pipe and ricocheted, lodging itself into his shoulder.
"If you were about to say I missed, then you would be very wrong." Clarissa stated in her usual emotionless tone. Almer clenched his shoulder in pain. Meanwhile, Eirisse was finally able to use the artifact, and its eye shifted to an orange hue. It released a powerful force directed at Ercale, who managed to evade it but struggled to counterattack. Just as he attempted to strike back, the eye's color abruptly changed to a deep black, negating his lightning.
Ercale thought to himself, *Shit, not this again!* Clarissa swiftly threw another knife at the artifact to knock it out of the air. However, the knife was intercepted mid-flight by Eirisse, who caught it between her fingers and hurled it back towards Clarissa.
The knife approached Clarissa at breakneck speeds, leaving her with no time to evade. Instead, she reacted by swiftly raising her arm in defense, intercepting the knife. It came to an abrupt halt just before making contact with her bone, causing her arm to bear the brunt of the impact.
Observing Almer preparing to fire at Clarissa once more, Zee attempted to rush towards him. However, her charge was intercepted as Karin swung her weapon in Zee's direction. Zee was barely able to evade the attack by nimbly backstepping out of harm's way. She clutched her dagger firmly, ready to face off against Karin, who was wielding her own weapon—
As Almer prepared to shoot Clarissa, Lennix intervened by swiftly grabbing his foot and sweeping him to the ground, causing Almer's shot to go wide.
With Almer temporarily subdued, Zee locked eyes with Karin and confronted her with a pointed question, "Why?"
Karin responded with a quizzical tilt of her head, "What do you mean, why?"
"Why are you allowing Eirisse to consume your own child?"
Karin hesitated briefly, her gaze falling away, before she responded, "Why do you care? You've only just met us today, and besides, you're an elf. Why should you concern yourself with the fate of a human girl?"
Zee didn't waver in her conviction, replying, "My recent acquaintance with her doesn't change the fact that she's an innocent little girl who doesn't deserve to die."
Karin scoffed at Zee's words, retorting, "Don't pretend to care about humans, elf." Then she continued saying, "In fact, you're right about her being an innocent little girl who shouldn't be killed."
Zee was taken aback by Karin's admission, but her disgust deepened as Karin callously explained, "That's precisely why she's the perfect choice for Mistress Eirisse's consumption. I raised her to be as innocent as possible for this very purpose. If I ever truly wanted a child, I could easily have another, perhaps with someone I genuinely desire to have a child with. So why should I care about Mari?"
Zee gripped her dagger and took a deep breath. "Someone like you doesn't deserve the joys of life," Zee declared before lunging at Karin, her dagger aimed at Karin's throat. In response, Karin quickly swung the chain-linked weapon horizontally, targeting Zee's midsection. Zee, with a swift movement, brought her dagger down to deflect the chain, but Karin didn't stop there.
With a sly smirk, Karin harnessed the momentum of her spinning weapon, executing a series of strikes. She spun the chain downward, then back up, then repeated the motion. It became a relentless whirlwind of attacks, leaving Zee no opportunity to close the distance and engage her. The room echoed with the rhythmic clashing of weapons as the intense duel between the two women unfolded.