Chapter 74
Kwah-aaaang!
Inside the carriage section, the thunderous explosion echoed.
Lakradiyon landed on the ground after slicing through the soldiers.
Just then, a shadowy sword flew by, grazing her hair and slicing a few strands.
“Phew!”
With a forced breath, Lakradiyon immediately retaliated, slashing at the Shadow Armed Princess with her sword.
However, despite being cut, the Shadow Armed Princess remained unscathed.
That’s because unless she received significant damage, she wouldn’t vanish.
Ka-kang!
But unlike the Shadow Armed Princess, who could withstand Lakradiyon’s attacks, Lakradiyon couldn’t just dodge her strikes.
“L-Lakradiyon!”
“It’s fine. Just focus on healing.”
The reason was that behind her stood Sodric, the vice-captain, gravely injured, and Olivia, the white mage, doing her best to heal him.
If Lakradiyon evaded an attack, Olivia and Sodric would be in danger.
Thus, she was determined to block every attack from the Shadow Armed Princess as much as possible.
Because of that, wounds were starting to pile up on Lakradiyon’s body.
Though the shadow version was nowhere near as strong as the original, she was still formidable enough to match Lakradiyon’s strength.
‘At this level, what about the original?’
Thinking of Kraush, who was facing the Armed Princess, Lakradiyon swallowed hard.
She was worried for him, but at this moment, she had no choice but to trust him.
“Lakradiyon! Look out!”
At that moment, another Shadow Armed Princess emerged from the door that suddenly swung open with a creak.
Seeing the blood on her sword, it appeared that someone had fallen victim to her.
The real problem was that the number of Shadow Armed Princesses had doubled.
“Leave me and run!”
“Vice-Captain!”
Olivia shouted in shock, but Sodric, bleeding, forced himself to speak.
“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t interfered with you guys, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Sodric bit his lip, blaming himself for putting his team in danger.
If he hadn’t disrupted Lakradiyon and Kraush, they might have reached the eighth floor without scattering or dying.
“Please, save the other team members first. They don’t know. Only Ebbling and I knew.”
He referred to the swordsman Ebbling, who had been the first to fall to the Armed Princess, and how he and Sodric had covertly tried to hold Lakradiyon and Kraush back.
The rest of the team had no idea about this.
Not even Captain Pendal.
So, Sodric hoped that at the very least, Olivia and Lakradiyon could escape and save another team member.
“Vice-Captain, stop talking! You’re losing too much blood!”
“…I’m sorry. I can’t face the Captain anymore.”
Knowing this, Sodric felt deep guilt as Lakradiyon exhaled slowly.
“We’ll talk later.”
That meant she wasn’t planning to leave him behind.
“Even if Pendal is like that, do you really think he wouldn’t be aware of what’s happening in his own team?”
Sodric’s expression hardened.
“He may have agreed to your plan, but Pendal isn’t like that. Not for the sake of Pendalord.”
Even if it seemed like Pendal had suddenly mobilized, he had been pondering for ages on how to take down Nakcheon.
He simply hadn’t been able to commit to challenging Nakcheon alongside Lakradiyon.
But he hadn’t been idle.
Lakradiyon realized that Pendal’s struggle was to overcome Nakcheon.
“So, I’ll just follow Pendal’s request.”
Those words indicating her determination to save her teammates.
Boom!
But as they say, bad things tend to come in waves.
With the creaking of the broken door, another Shadow Armed Princess appeared.
That made three in total.
It was the worst possible situation for Lakradiyon, who could barely manage one.
“L-Lakradiyon!”
Olivia was on the verge of tears.
She felt death looming.
“It’s fine.”
Yet, Lakradiyon remained steadfast, lifting her sword with resolve.
“I promised.”
A promise made to Kraush. That she would look after Pendalord.
Even though they were clearly the ones putting her in danger, she wanted to protect them.
Such was her determination against the Shadow Armed Princess.
Facing three shadowy foes head-on was not an option.
Pak!
In that moment, the three Shadow Armed Princesses moved in unison.
One wielded a sword, another an axe, and the last a spear.
While they didn’t possess as many varied weapons as the Armed Princess, each one was deadly in its own right.
Clang! Clang!
The metallic sounds reverberated as Lakradiyon began to sustain wounds.
Amidst the splattering of blood, her weapon shone with an aura blade as she swung valiantly.
She was proving why she was often called the Light of the Demon Castle.
The radiant light emerging from her sword erupted with a power fiercer than ever.
Swish!
One swing cleanly detached the head of a Shadow Armed Princess.
But that came at a great cost.
The sword of another came thrusting into her side, piercing her through.
“Ugh!”
Suppressing a cry, she quickly turned her sword, striking down the Shadow Armed Princess who had stabbed her.
The Shadow Armed Princess released the sword embedded in Lakradiyon’s side and swiftly withdrew.
In its place, she conjured a new shadowy weapon.
Drip, drip—
As the sanguine liquid flowed, Lakradiyon took a moment to breathe.
The Shadow Armed Princess wielding the two-handed axe couldn’t withstand the damage and eventually fell.
Only two remained.
However, Lakradiyon’s injuries were nearing their limits.
Boom!
At that moment, the spear-wielding Shadow Armed Princess charged toward her.
Lakradiyon had no way to evade the spear.
Why? Because it was aimed directly at Olivia, who stood behind her.
“Ugh!”
Ultimately, Lakradiyon had to engage in a difficult struggle to deflect the spear just as the sword-wielding Shadow Armed Princess came slashing at her neck.
In that brief instance when death flashed before her eyes.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out, and the Shadow Armed Princess’s sword clashed against a jade-green blade.
Realizing who wielded the sword, Lakradiyon’s eyes widened.
“It’s Pendal!”
“It’s late now.”
With the potion having forcibly healed his wounds, Pendal stood beside her, clutching Okcheon, bearing a scar on his neck.
“Captain!”
As Olivia called out to Pendal, he caught his breath and aimed Okcheon ahead.
“…Pendal, there are two more.”
Aside from the three Shadow Armed Princesses, there were still two others.
Upon hearing that, Pendal raised Raioner to channel his power.
“One was dealt with by me and the others. The other is missing. But Jorshia is dead.”
Pendal muttered with a hint of anger regarding the fate of Jorshia, who had been on scouting duty.
“Well then, it’s simple.”
“Right, we just take care of these two, and then only the monster remains.”
Lakradiyon and Pendal’s eyes locked.
And at that moment, the two leaped forward without hesitation toward the Shadow Armed Princesses.
The two Shadow Armed Princesses responded by swinging their weapons as soon as the they attacked.
Clang!
Suddenly, the carriage was filled with the deafening sounds of blades colliding.
The Shadow Armed Princesses were powerful.
After all, they were clones created from the same source.
Their movements and thoughts matched, leading to near-perfect synchronization in their attack patterns.
Contrarily, Lakradiyon and Pendal were different individuals.
While they had once been comrades, they hadn’t trained together in years, nor had they spent much time together.
Yet somehow, the tide seemed to turn against the Shadow Armed Princesses.
Though their timing was off, the misalignment created unexpected variables in their fight.
As Lakradiyon deflected an attack in the nick of time, Pendal struck with a lightning strike, landing a hit on a Shadow Armed Princess.
The odd, yet fortuitous variables started stacking damage against the Shadow Armed Princesses.
It was a peculiar dynamics, but it was exactly how they had operated before.
Two mismatched partners created chaotic yet unpredictable outcomes that confounded their opponents.
“Pendal!”
“I know!”
As Lakradiyon sensed the shadow clones beginning to falter, she called out to Pendal.
With his body low to the ground, Pendal began to draw Raioner over Okcheon, preparing his special move.
Sensing the Shadow Armed Princesses aiming to strike him, Lakradiyon showcased her extraordinary fencing skills, simultaneously parrying both the spear and the sword with a brilliant display of aura.
A perfect union of offense and defense.
Only Lakradiyon, who valued fundamental techniques above all, could reach such a level.
In that instant, Olivia gasped in awe as Pendal released a fierce spark from his body.
Crack!
And as the sharp sound echoed through the air, Pendal’s silhouette flickered, and with the ensuing spark, Okcheon was thrust forward.
Lightning Wolf Sword!
The lightning wolf tore through the heads of the two Shadow Armed Princesses simultaneously.
Though the blow on the Armed Princess had been blocked, it was more than enough to damage the clones, causing them to start collapsing.
At that moment when both Lakradiyon and Pendal were certain of their victory, the faltering weight of the Shadow Armed Princesses ensnared Lakradiyon’s arm.
“Ugh?!”
Surprised by the unexpected ambush from the faltering Shadow Armed Princess, Lakradiyon gasped as she glanced toward the door.
Standing there was another Shadow Armed Princess, the one Pendal had supposedly defeated.
Holding a massive pillar-like object in her hands, she pulled something without warning.
Click! Whoosh!
With the sounds of gears clicking and flames igniting from within, danger crept up on Lakradiyon as she instinctively tried to flee. Yet, despite the crumbling Shadow Armed Princesses clinging tightly to her, she found it nearly impossible to escape.
In her weakened state, they rushed at her, making flight virtually impossible.
Meanwhile, amid that chaos, another Shadow Armed Princess was preparing to unleash something explosive.
Lakradiyon’s eyes widened in terror.
I’m going to die.
Is this how it ends? Without even having the chance to challenge Nakcheon or voice those words to Kraush?
To die like this?
It would be a lie to say she didn’t feel regret.
Instead, she felt an overwhelming sense of longing for what could have been.
If she was going to die so foolishly, she should’ve at least swung her sword at Nakcheon first.
As a bitter emotion settled in her heart, something unexpectedly rushed toward her.
A man with gray hair came barreling into view.
In the dimming light of the flames, she recognized the back of a man.
“Pendal?!”
“Damn it, what a terrible decision this was.”
With a short, resigned laugh, Pendal voiced his thoughts just as the flames consumed the inside of the carriage.
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