Chapter 1076 – #256_Small Wars(3) – DeepL

#1070

1.
Herja, the man who led my group to behead my beloved lover Dorothy.
Xinxiu, who not only killed my favorite subordinate, Talia, but also cornered the Lehar group through epilepsy.

They have every reason to hate each other.
And if they have reason to hate, they have reason to fight.

Herya didn’t try to call for backup.
Xinxiu didn’t try to get out of the way and pick a safe battlefield.

In this way, sometimes hate is what makes people pure.

It makes them both think that only they have the right to twist the other’s neck.

“Goddess, sing your fury.”

Her whole body is enchanted as she grips her axe with a majestic chant.

-Patztztztztz

More than just an axe, the Halberd has an axe blade, a spear tip, and a beak that can simultaneously capture and drag down an enemy.

The entire weapon glows with concentrated energy, scattering spiderweb-like thunderbolts.

Herja Valhirie, Witch of War.
Notorious for its destructive power, the magic of Thunderbolt began to echo in the empty sky with a tearing roar.

“Peer.”

Red lines like veins rose from the sleek black armor that covered his body.
Xiu gripped the red branch and activated the distortion field to full power.

-Woof.

The cursed spear, which would consume its wielder if not properly controlled, emitted a low, long infrasound like the wail of the dead.

Two bolts of blue and red light raced straight toward each other without a moment’s hesitation.
A righteous lunge that only a Mencius unafraid of struggle could choose.

-Kaaaah!

The two forces clashed at breakneck speed, scattering the night sky with shattering magic energy.

At the same time, the recoil of the collision was transferred to the two of them.

“Boom!”

The moment the spear tip and axe met, Xiu felt an intense shock that made his arm muscles shrink.

He knew that Herya’s magnetic magic was thunderbolt magic, so he had modified the properties of his armor to insulate it.
It even radiated a distortion field outward, repelling Halberd’s current.

Nevertheless, the electricity that seeps through his armor still rushes through his muscles, as if he’s grasping the exposed wires with his bare hands.
The pain, like a knife slicing through his flesh, stiffened his entire arm to the back of his neck.

Magic that forced damage with the mere clash of unarmed hands.

This must be the source of Herja’s confidence in adopting such unwitchy melee tactics.

But then again, so was Xiu.

“……!”

At the moment of impact, Herja felt an intense pain like a sledgehammer pounding her entire body.
An unreal impact that felt like her spirit body was being shattered and ground into powder.

Her breath caught in her throat and her arms went limp.
The distortion field emitted by the cursed red spear rampaged through her body, trying to consume her.

-Kwajijijijijiji!

Neither Xiu nor Herya are willing to back down.
Usually, in a game of chicken like this, the one who steps aside is the one who is left vulnerable.

Xiu stretches out the ribbon and sticks it into the ground, creating a “grounding plane” to maximize the flow of electricity, while Herya’s waist gradually folds back.

It’s like an arm wrestle, with the moment one side goes over the other, the odds are stacked against them,
Herya doesn’t duck or back away.

“Uhhhhh…!!!”

She screamed instead.
Her eyes popped open.

Like a powerlifter, he gradually lifts his upper body with his magically enhanced core and lower body strength.
It’s an ignorant way of compensating for a lack of strength with sheer power.

But nothing is impossible in the face of extremely trained muscles.

“…rrrrrrrr!!!!”

Her back straightened as if it was being crushed, and she unleashed a blow with explosive force.

-Quang!

In response, an outstretched toe kicked at Herya’s abdomen, but it was Xiu who was knocked back.

The impact was strong enough to dent the helmet on his bare forehead.

“Ta-da, shit. My head feels dizzy.”

Despite her dissatisfied tone, Herja grinned belligerently as she held her bleeding forehead.

I chuckle in disbelief.

Up until now, Xiu was second to none when it came to strength.

Spiritual power enhancement is based on the spiritual body, and men’s physical bodies are naturally stronger than women’s.
Therefore, in terms of pure strength, even the two masters, both masters of close combat, would be no match for Xiu.

But Herya is different.
Her height is over 190, and her weight is close to her height.
She’s not just obese, but all that weight is bulked up muscle.

If she could do something as ridiculous as squeezing coal to create diamonds with her hands, it might actually be possible.

“Now I know, your strength.”

Herja makes a rumbling noise in her throat and grips Halberd’s pommel tightly with both hands.

Another thunderbolt, this one going beyond Halberd, travels through his body.

-PATZTZTZTZT!!!

Her silhouette, lit up with twig-like thunderbolts, looks more like a thunder god than a human.

“Here we go.”

-Bang!

Closing the gap with a short sentence, Herya’s movement was more like an explosion than a maneuver.

Even if a bomb exploded right next to her, she could move faster than the speed of light to avoid it.
Add to that an incredible amount of endurance that allows him to run through and over any obstacle.

The two combine to create a blinding afterimage as Halberd targets Xiu’s throat with a sideways slash.

At this point, he’s opted for a frontal assault.

It’s a fool’s errand to take this from the front, no matter how red it is.
Xiu moves out of the line of fire and tries to deflect Herya’s charge like a matador.

No need to engage in another ignorant show of strength.

If he could dodge and stick a spear in her side, that would be enough.

“Run–don’t–run!!!”

because I didn’t have enough information about her.

I’m obviously out of the line of fire, but the blue flash of light that Herja draws cuts an odd zigzagging path toward Xiu.

It didn’t slow down a bit.

The only thing that didn’t faze him was his response,
Xiu had grown accustomed to the inertia-defying movements of Linnaeus.

-Boom!

Swung viciously like an axe at a condemned man’s throat, the halberd narrowly missed his upper body and grazed his breastplate.

He dodges, but it’s not the only thing he’s aiming for.

Mid-swing, she spins the Halberd around and hooks its beak, which is normally used to bring down jousting foes, behind Xiu’s neck.

It’s a spine-chilling moment when an enemy’s weapon gets caught behind the cervical spine.
Xiu doesn’t dodge or shake off the halberd as it pulls him down.

-Boom!

Instead, he uses the pull to dig into Herja’s arms.

With her left leg, she pushed forward and made a clenched fist, bringing it right up to Herja’s angled chin.
At the same time, he kicks her leg with his right foot to break her center of gravity.

It’s a fluid, natural motion, too agile and perfect to be a human response to a stabbing.

But Herja’s reaction was even more inhuman.

“Is this–is this–aah!!!”

The iron fist slammed into her jaw as her legs collapsed and her center of gravity was completely thrown off.
It’s an impact that wouldn’t surprise me if it blew my jaw off or fried my brain.

-Thud!

However, Herya only staggered for a moment before slapping Xiu’s face with the back of her hand while their bodies were still tangled.
It was a blow that made the root of her tongue tingle.

-Boom!

Xiu swung his spear at the same time as he hit the clown.
Utilizing the force of his body’s overturning, he landed a fierce blow on Herya’s temple.

Her knees give way, but she quickly regains her balance and goes for another blow.

Eventually, Xiu stomped her chest with his foot to close the distance again.

“Ugh…!”

Xiu’s strikes were precisely aimed, and Herya’s were more like off-target knockout punches.

Still, the exchange rate was terrible.

If it goes to a slugfest, there’s no answer.
In addition to his immense strength, Herja also had the grit and determination.

“You’re running away already? I was expecting you to kill Urshira, but you can’t use your spirit power?”

A normal witch would have screamed, “This isn’t magic!
But Herya is clearly an accomplished ‘witch’.

-Rrrrrr!

Xiu could see it.

The sky is filled with swollen food clouds as Herya leads them into a dogfight that looks more like a brawl than anything else.

The uninhabited island they were fighting on was now densely littered with ion tubes generated by magic power, like weed roots.
Herya had used this trick in the middle of the fierce battle.

An ion tube is the path of a thunderbolt.

Next.

-Quang! Quang! Kwa-ang!

An oblique bombardment of thunderbolts from the sky.
More than a mere disaster, it’s the kind of lightning that burned the world when this blue star was still a primordial star.

Lightning bolts with enough energy to vaporize a piece of iron in an instant strike the entire island along the ion tube.

There are no blind spots.
There is no time to dodge.

The bombardment of lightning, leaving a trail of white flashes as dense as a rain shower, seemed to announce the end of the world.

“Oh, you can’t take this?”

After what seemed like an eternity, the bombardment ended.

The terrain changed as if a carpet bombing had fallen on it, an island of flames.

In the center of it all, Xin Xiu crouches with his spear upright.
The hemispherical distortion field from the red branches seemed to protect him like a shield.

Above his head, an angelic ring spun slowly, sprinkled with golden light.

Xiu looked up at Herya, who looked down at him arrogantly.

An all-arounder, covering all intervals from close to mid-range.

Strong enough for a 22nd-ranked player.
The kind of strength that Bianca, Linnaeus, Dorothy, and Ursula had honed through countless experiences.

She was conscious of the presence of the four-leaf clover in her arms.

It was the insurance policy I’d prepared for this plan, the one that would allow me to deflect death with extreme luck.

But he quickly pushed it out of his mind.

The opponent is definitely strong.
But with ‘this much’, he can win.

Xiu was sure of that.