Edrie stood in front of the hallway, he is currently wearing a shortened black mantle, worn over a white sleeved shirt and a trousers, and a black cloak, he was a former capital knight, said by White, and yet, he is a silver-ranked adventurer. It will be a tough battle since we were on the same level, he lent out a grinned smile
"White, long time no see my friend, it's been years since we're partners. I must say, I'd prefer it if you could stop putting holes in my walls. I expect better behavior from my guests, whatever they're the leader or otherwise"
Then, Edrie's eyes turned at me, with a disheveled expression through my soul. I can sense that his power is overwhelming, like I've been encountered a mad scientist who conducted these experiments, and soon, I met that man,
"Hello young lady, I have never seen you before. Hold on, just who are you exactly, I wanted to greet these visitors who entered my castle"
"Edrie, you…"
I took a step forward, but White put out a hand to stop me. It seemed that I had done exactly what Edrie was expecting, and he burst into laughter. His insane cackle echoed through the passageway and sent a shiver down my spine. Talk about creepy.
As he led out a mischievous smile in front of my eyes, I glared at him and used inspect, I saw his stats clearly
Edrie Collon
Skills: Vanishing, One handed spear Technique, Retribution
Vitality: 2000
Strength: 1300
Defense: 500
Agility: 500
Mana: 10000
Those were the stats of a capital knight, I would give him that. Strong enough to use his stats to kill me and White, at least. But he was weaker than Experiment 001, which is still alive and well. In other words, it barely surpassed my stats, meaning I can duel him easily,
However, I was curious about his skills, I already knew Vanishing and one-handed spear technique has to do it, but the retribution intrigued, I analyzed it with inspect
Retribution- increased damage when dealing damage to enemy
No way this guy is stronger, it's skills told a story, I can tell that he had full potential around his skills, not only that, his smirk remained the same
When he finally stopped laughing, Edrie walked straight through me and stopped at White, holding it's spear in the process,
"Today's a special day, I wanted to start now but it seems somebody already got things going. No matter, It's as I expected, Today's the anniversary of the day I lost her, after all. My mother, and today, with this power, do you know what I'll do to this kingdom?"
"Edrie?!"
"That's right, White. I can feel it from you too, the same strength, How do you feel now that you have it?, How does it feel having all the wealth and fame?, you betrayed me White. And let me tell you, I'm the real deal. Completely different from that mere beast, the luminous-knight-turned creature.
Then, White kicked Edrie with its full force, with a touch of "Stay away with me!", in response. And I just stood there, gripping my blood sword through my bare hands
Soon enough, the lights from the passageway began to flicker, The color of Edire's eyes became more serious than ever, The hatred that seethed from them made me want to flinch back as they focused to me, then Edrie pulled a black spear as if from out of thin air and pointed at the blade at us
"Huh?, did that spear magically came out of thin air" I responded to White
"Roxy, Edrie has vanishing magic, of course he can do that, watch your head"
After that, Plasma reacted through my body as soon as he saw the black spear in Edrie's hand
"Roxy, you're too close! You need to make some space, and you need to do it now! Go!"
I dodged back, but it was too late. The blade of Edrie's black spear seemed to vanish all the way up until just before the place where he gripped it. In the next instant, the vanished blade reappeared in front of me as if from nowhere, driving straight toward the right side of my head. It was too fast! I couldn't get away in time
"Ah shit!"
Suddenly, a White used it's rapier and instinctively whipped through the air with her cry, knocking the black spear off course. The blade grazed my left cheek and plunged into the floor
"Did you forget me already?" White said to me in dismay
"Thanks, White" I gasped
"Thank me later. First, let's move. We don't want to get trapped fighting in here"
As soon as White blocked the spear flinged through me, Edrie used it's immense speed to retrieve his black spear quickly, it's agility stats were far from over,
"Not bad, White, it seems your friend over there had quite some good instincts. How about some piece of me"
As we were escaping, we broke through the wall, leaving the unsettling showroom behind us. However, just as expected, the monstrous luminous knight awaited us outside.
"Roxy… I will kill you Roxy"
The monster roared my name into the air and careened straight for us, He'd transformed again and grown even stronger, but the transformation had seemingly swallowed what was left on his mind, the creature he only knew violence, His fighting style had grown simplistic. Though he had blindsided earlier, he would do no such thing again.
"Hey you disfigured face, Do it! Come on! Kill me now!"
I shouted repeatedly at the wretched creature trying to lure me out, While he howled and howled endlessly, His crimson eyes burned with fury and he bounded toward me, his sword raised high, ready to slice off both my arms
"White, Now!"
The man's glare had been so focused on me that he didn't realize I was bait, White glowing sword sliced through the air, penetrating the thick armor like butter, taking the creature's head off in one clean swipe, The head landed with a heavy thud and rolled along the ground
However, the headless creature did not fall. Instead, it stood rigid and still, like a petrified statue. Something wasn't right.
"Oh no… not a single drop of blood from his body, what the fuck!"
Instead of the fountain of blood that should have spurted on the creature's neck, there was nothing, bones and flesh are visible
"Impossible, his healing powers can do that?" White muttered in shock
A new head began to sprout from the creature's neck while his old one still rolled along the bloody floor on the ground. First a jaw, then a nose, then his eyes, is this creature immortal? And if so, what did we have to do to kill him?!"
White and I looked at each other as Edrie slowly walked out of the hole we'd made in the facility behind us. His face grinned with fury whilst holding a black spear
"Oh? Is this the best you've got? Roxy and the leader of the guild itself… How you disappoint me!" Edrie chuckled
While the headless creature slowly regenerates it's head, I asked a few questions from Edrie
"What extraordinary healing. What did you do to him?"
"I merely gave him some of the virus. You see, somebody went and cruelly slaughtered the poor young man during my time in Caria, so I had begun my experimentation about my newly discovered ancient virus, I modified it and mutated it multiple times, then used my artificial virus on my very first test subject, Experiment 001"
"What are you talking about, he's a luminous knight, are you crazy!"
"You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about, Roxy. But White.. you know, don't you?"
"You monster!"
With the gap of his defenses still open, Edrie sent his black spear streaking forward, it vanished into space again until it reappeared behind me. I twisted to avoid the incoming thrust, but it still caught me, cutting into my side.
"You got some reflexes, Roxy, I'll give you that. So, now that I'm warmed up, perhaps we can get to the real thing… the great call of my retribution, Awaken, my brethren!"
With a twisted grin, Edrie released an unfathomable amount of magical energy inside of his body, Experiment 001, now finished healing, reacted to the flow and let loose an echoing roar, A countless number of voices condensed together like a storm.
"White, what is happening to him?"
"That the power of his human skill, Retribution, it feeds down strength from foes and potentially becoming stronger continuously, I can tell that he will use this skill in no time, think of it as a last resort for him"
After that, the newly headed monster suddenly raises it's sword up high, it lend out a strike straight at me, but I managed to block it's overwhelming strike and with a quick flash of inspect, I sensed his mana meter
Experiment 001
Mana: 0/ 10200
Bingo. Experiment 001 has ran out of mana, Because of this, he cannot fully heal himself, his regenerative ability cannot work due to the lack of mana, I sensed a surprising opportunity
"White, the monster cannot heal himself, he's ran out of mana, kill him before he regenerates"
"Sure, Roxy. You deal with Edrie from now on, we cannot fight two monsters at the same time, it's up to you"
After that, White and I parted ways, She will have to deal with the experiment 001, while I was insisted to fight Edrie all my myself, I locked both eyes from Edrie,
I morphed my blood sword into a shape of a bow. There I pulled the bowstring tightly, creating a magical presence of blood arrows. I loaded the blood arrow and fired directly at Edrie, As I loosened my crackling arrow, each dashing in opposite directions,
Edrie deftly split my arrow in half with his black spear, As expected, straightforward attacks were no use against him. Edrie turned his gaze toward White and sent his spear flashing through space, straight for White's back
As I pulled back and reloaded the bow, Plasma cut in.
"Roxy, Charge your next blood arrow with Defense Reduction and aim for the tip of the black spear"
I did as Plasma told, I imbued in with Defense Reduction and released the arrow, Wrapped in swirls of the overwhelming skill, it flew straight for the tip of Edrie's spear, Edrie spotted the arrow and deflected it as through it were an annoyance before directing his next attack at me.
"What?!" Edrie exclaimed
The armor-busting skill had encased the tip of Edrie's spear until it fractures, interfering with his ability to send it wherever he pleased
"I'd appreciate your words of wisdom a little earlier next time", I muttered
Edrie glared at the end of the black spear in disgust, it was about to shatter anytime. Shattering Edrie spear will left him unable to use, pleasing my victory one again, the effect of the armor-shredding skill is useful and come in handy,
With the black spear momentarily stuck, I saw the spear was about to move, returning to its owner, I saw an opening and immediately charged my blood bow right away, aiming directly at the returning spear once again,
As Edrie's eyes momentarily darted to White behind me, I parried his spear to the side and kicked him in the head with the magic-imbued skill, Defense Reduction, Chunks of Edrie face splattered through the air as I leaped backward, swapping places with White.
As we swapped places, I saw the undead-luminous-knight sweeping through me, he is literally decapitated, yet still he did not die, it's blood-covered armor were shattered all thanks to White's support, He swooped in low, his sword primed into strike, I dodged around the first and sliced it's left arm and at the shoulder before the second blade could find it's mark, I didn't stop there either
"How about this?!" I shouted
Ducking the creature's strikes, I raised my blood sword into a high guard, then brought it down from the top of the creature's head all the way through him, slicing him cleanly in two. Both halves rolled along the ground and slammed into the walls of a nearby facility, He is dead at this point
As I heaved to catch my breath, I turned to see White with her rapier through Edrie chest, his spear has been shattered due to my arrows, and was left unused since that, White lifted the sword up into the air with Edrie skewers on in and shouted "Holy Light"
All the magical energy White had poured into her blade was unleashed in an instant, and the darkness from the night was suddenly illuminated. From within the binding light, I felt White pour even more magic into the attack, Edrie took the entirety of the light-imbued rapier from the inside out, through the rapier that impaled him
When the light from her rapier subsided, Edrie stood unmoving with a gaping hole in his chest. The hole was like a frame through which I saw all the rumble and shrapnel and bodies from our battle earlier. A cold wind cut through the air and the lights stopped flickering
White's eyes were saddened as she stood facing Edrie.
"Is this not enough to stop you, Edrie Collon?" Wait asks
"Yeah, I wanted to see your beautiful face one last time"
There, between his pockets inside his cloak, he handed a bottle of liquor, Edrie opened the cork with its own teeth and drank it. He chugged the liquor vigorously
"Edrie, why the liquor. Is this your last meal before you die?"
"Yes… this is my redemption after all"
As Edrie drank the bottle of liquor until it is empty, he dropped the bottle on the floor and shook his last breath, there he dies