According to Gozuki's plan, Akame and Kurome would launch the first attack from the rear to disrupt the enemy, after which the frontal and side teams would break in together and regroup with them.
But he had misjudged the situation.
If Green were still alive, that plan would definitely have succeeded.
Kurome, however, could not restrain Akame the way Green could, and that allowed Akame to push too far ahead.
At the same time, Gozuki had never expected that Akame and Kurome, fighting together, would lose so quickly.
While Akame and Kurome were fighting Cassandra, Nahashu attacked the castle's front entrance with Poney and Gin.
The instant they rushed through the main gate, Nahashu immediately signaled for the two of them to stop.
Beyond the castle's entrance was a large garden, but it had clearly been abandoned for far too long.
The vegetation had grown wildly, even breaking through the flowerbeds, leaving the whole place looking ruined and overgrown.
And in the middle of that ruined garden, someone was already waiting for them.
"That is...?"
Nahashu stared sharply ahead.
There was a chair there, and seated on it was... a woman?
The moment Poney saw her, she blurted out, "Eek! A mummy!"
Gin cautiously raised her large blade in front of herself.
"You're one of Oarburgh's assassins?" Nahashu drew the Water Dragon Sword at his waist and pointed it at the figure.
At that moment, the mummy sitting on the chair began to move.
She swayed as she stood, her movements stiff like a marionette being pulled by strings.
"So you've come, you disrespectful rats drawn here by Lady Merraid's scent. I, Gilberda, will not allow you to defile Lady Merraid!"
"..."
Poney blinked, then exaggeratedly said, "Nobody was thinking about anything like that, okay? Don't just make stuff up!"
The mummy's true identity was Gilberda.
Because the severely burned parts of her body had been cut away, her entire body was wrapped in bandages, with only one eye exposed.
When she heard Poney call her a mummy, anger immediately flared inside her.
'This body belonged to Lady Merraid.'
'Yet it had been reduced to such a miserable state!'
Although Lady Merraid would not abandon her affection for Gilberda because of this, Gilberda herself felt that serving her beloved mistress in such a broken condition was an unforgivable disgrace.
She could not forgive it.
She absolutely had to pay them back!
She had to make that man pay!
And the first thing she had to do was get rid of these small fry!
Gilberda grabbed the chair behind her with one hand and hurled it straight at Nahashu.
Nahashu's eyes widened, and the Water Dragon Sword came down in a single slash, smashing the chair into pieces.
Charging in together with the chair was Gilberda herself.
Her speed was not any slower than the chair flying through the air. The instant Nahashu split the chair apart, she threw a punch.
Nahashu raised his greatsword in time to block.
But the force behind that punch far exceeded his expectations.
The cold-faced boy was sent sliding back nearly ten meters by that one blow!
His feet scraped two long trenches across the ground, and Poney stared in shock.
"Captain?"
Nahashu was the strongest among them.
And yet that mummy had actually knocked him back?
This mummy bastard was strong!
"Damn it, then take this!" Poney gritted her teeth, lowered her whole body, and in the next instant burst forward with incredible speed, arriving in front of Gilberda and sweeping a leg toward her face.
Gilberda reacted a little too slowly.
Although she managed to tilt her head aside in time, half her face was still struck.
After taking the kick, Gilberda twisted her neck, her face expressionless. It seemed to have had no effect.
Poney's expression shifted.
"This mummy is tough!"
She had been trying to kick the woman's head clean off and had not held back at all, yet the result had barely mattered.
In other words, with her current strength, Poney could not even inflict a fatal wound on this enemy.
Seeing the battle suddenly begin, Gin immediately chose to circle around behind.
She intended to coordinate with the two of them and attack from both sides.
But just as she raised her large blade and prepared to cut into Gilberda's back, a strange distortion severely disrupted her vision, throwing her sense of balance into chaos.
Gin clutched her head, stumbled, and nearly fell.
She quickly planted her blade into the ground to support herself, but the confusion in her senses only grew worse.
"What's wrong? Not feeling well?" Gilberda laughed coldly. "If you feel sick, hurry up and lie down!"
"Damn it!"
Gin struggled to recover.
But in the next second, a fist smashed directly into her face.
Gin's features were crushed inward from the impact, and she was sent flying backward while spraying blood.
She collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
At the same time, Poney and Nahashu, who were a bit farther away, also began showing similar symptoms.
Poney swayed.
In that instant, Gilberda decisively rushed forward, once again throwing a punch straight at Poney's face.
But what should have been a guaranteed hit missed.
The wind from her fist grazed past the girl's cheek, yet failed to strike her body.
'She dodged?'
Gilberda's one usable eye widened.
'How was that possible?'
Lady Merraid's hallucination insects were scattering hallucinogenic pollen overhead the entire time.
Judging from this girl's condition, she had clearly been affected, so how had she dodged Gilberda's attack in that state?
That should have been impossible!
Gilberda attacked again.
This time, she went for Poney's lower body.
A sweeping kick.
Poney almost had her legs taken out from under her, but she retreated several steps just in time and stabilized herself.
"Again?"
Gilberda stopped attacking in shock and stared at the swaying yet still-standing Poney.
At the same time, she noticed Nahashu had already come charging in.
"Tch."
She clicked her tongue under her breath and turned to fight Nahashu instead.
Nahashu kept a distance of roughly two meters, wielding his greatsword with refined swordsmanship and forcing Gilberda back step by step.
If this were normal, she might have chosen to meet him head-on.
But right now, she was covered in wounds, and her cracked, so-called invincible body could not display its original power.
Being suppressed one-sidedly, Gilberda thought that she had no choice but to borrow Lady Merraid's power.
Something beneath her bandages writhed.
Nahashu noticed the movement sharply, and his brow furrowed.
The abnormal movement on Gilberda's body soon settled down.
Facing Nahashu's attack, she suddenly changed tactics.
She no longer retreated, instead raising her arm to meet the edge of the Water Dragon Sword.
Nahashu was startled.
What was she trying to do?
When something acted strangely, there was usually a reason.
He was the type who could stay calm in battle, so he paid attention not only to the flow of the fight, but also every small detail.
Clang!
The sound of metal striking metal rang out.
Nahashu stared in shock at his blade, which had struck her arm but could not cut any deeper.
It felt as though he had cut into a wall of steel.
'So hard!'
Nahashu instantly retreated.
At the same time, he shifted to gripping the sword with both hands.
With two hands, his attack power would be stronger. It was simple logic.
If one hand was not enough to cut through, then he would use both.
'Hss...'
Nahashu held his breath and focused his concentration to the limit, staring straight at the enemy without looking away.
Gilberda felt an extremely powerful pressure coming from him and grew serious as well.
The two observed each other for a moment, neither able to find an opening.
Then, as if by silent agreement, both launched their attacks at the same time.
Whoosh!
Their figures flashed.
Both crossed half the distance in an instant and rushed into each other's range, their faces filled with cold intent to kill.
Gilberda threw punches wildly, her arms moving too fast to see clearly.
Her fists turned into a storm of afterimages that enveloped Nahashu.
Nahashu also swung his sword at extreme speed, the blade leaving countless afterimages in the air.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Die!"
"I'll finish you."
Both of them focused completely, pouring everything into their attacks and canceling each other out, filling the garden with a dense chain of impacts.
In the blink of an eye, they had exchanged dozens of blows.
During the clash, the bandages could no longer withstand the terrifying force and were torn apart one after another.
The secret beneath Gilberda's bandages was finally exposed.
Insects.
Nahashu stared at the wounds across Gilberda's body, unable to imagine how a person could still move after suffering such severe injuries, let alone fight this intensely.
Many pitch-black beetles clung to her body, making it seem as though she were wearing a suit of hard armor.
Nahashu discovered that even if he swung with all his strength, his blade would only be deflected by those insects.
But for now, he still seemed to have the advantage.
Because between the two of them, only Gilberda was being pushed back.
Sword shadows and fist shadows crossed at a frequency of dozens of strikes per second, yet Gilberda was slowly being suppressed and forced several steps backward.
At this rate, she would soon be defeated.
Gilberda looked at the expressionless boy in front of her and cursed him inwardly as a "monster."
"I... cannot let Lady Merraid suffer any more shame!"
'Boy.'
'You really are strong.'
'But sorry.'
'Our resolve isn't on the same level!'
"Ooooooh! Release! My limiter!"
Snap!
The moment Gilberda roared, something inside her head seemed to break.
In the next instant, the muscles across her entire body rapidly swelled, as if they had been freed from their restraints.
Her gaze changed, and her aura skyrocketed.
The fists she had been swinging paused for just an instant, and in that instant, Gilberda finished gathering strength and taking a new breath.
Then, in the next moment...
The sky full of fist shadows erupted all at once.
Nahashu had no time to react before four punches struck his face and body.
He then struggled to defend himself, but the situation had completely reversed.
Now he was the one being suppressed one-sidedly.
Although only four punches had landed, those four punches were far too fast and sudden. He had not even blinked, yet he had lost track of her movements.
Those movements had already gone far beyond human limits.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
If Gilberda's fists had previously struck like sledgehammers, then now they hit like cannon shells.
The punch to his face directly blinded Nahashu's left eye.
The other three punches shattered two of his ribs and half of his collarbone, while his sternum also cracked.
Now even breathing had become painful.
Nahashu had truly not expected this woman to still be hiding such a terrifying trump card.
Even with the situation this unfavorable, Nahashu remained calm.
He analyzed the difference in their current combat ability.
Although the enemy's strength was incredibly high and her speed was not weak either, if he could break through that defense, he still had a chance.
But with his current strength, even gripping the sword with both hands would not be enough.
There was only one method.
Use the Shingu, Water Dragon Sword's ability.
For three minutes, it would raise his combat power.
If he activated the Water Dragon Sword, he should be able to break through the shells of those beetles!
The problem was that this crazy woman would not give him the chance.
Activating the Shingu's ability required time. It was only an instant, but his movement would still freeze briefly.
In a fight between experts, that instant was fatal.
The two of them were currently exchanging blows at point-blank range.
He had no chance to do it... hm? That is...
Nahashu looked behind Gilberda.
There, a figure staggered to her feet, using a large blade as support to force herself upright.
'That presence.'
'Gin? She wasn't dead?'
At that moment, Gilberda also noticed the presence behind her.
The little girl she had thought she had already dealt with had actually climbed back up.
Gin let go of the hand covering her face, looked down at the blood covering her palm, and clicked her tongue in irritation.
"Tch. You damn brute-force woman."
She shouldered her large blade and prepared to charge in to help.
Gilberda could only deliver a front kick, using overwhelming force to push Nahashu back before immediately turning to attack Gin.
When choosing targets, you went after the weakest one first.
Take care of the small fry, then deal with the boss. That was common sense.
And it was that turn.
Gilberda suddenly felt the boy's presence swell behind her, becoming enormous—almost terrifying.
She turned back in shock.
In the short span of time it took her to look over her shoulder, Nahashu had already undergone a drastic transformation.
With the Water Dragon Sword's ability activated, the power of a Danger Beast flowed into his body.
His hair grew much longer and turned grayish-white, while his pupils became cold, vertical slits, giving off the arrogance of an apex predator standing above all living things.
"You were hiding a trump card too?!"
Gilberda felt a wave of danger.
Her instincts told her that the boy before her was nothing like he had been moments ago.
She might be killed!
'Damn—'
Nahashu's figure landed silently behind Gilberda.
The Water Dragon Sword in his hand slowly lowered.
Gilberda's eyes widened, filled with disbelief.
A massive wound suddenly opened across her chest.
The beetles' defense was useless.
They had been completely cut apart in a single slash, and the heavy blood loss caused her strength to leave her body as she collapsed to her knees.
Through that wound, even her beating heart could be seen.
'Too fast.'
She had not seen anything.
By the time she realized what had happened, she had already been cut!
'For him to suddenly become this powerful... just what kind of power did that brat have?'