The roar of the wind burst through the storm, as if trying to tear the surrounding tempest apart, violently colliding with it. Under that clash, the strong winds turned into raging gales that swept in every direction.
"Ugh...!"
Everyone struggling against it instinctively raised their arms to shield themselves from the incoming blast. Among them was a woman staring straight ahead, her eyes filled with sharp determination and frustration.
She had shoulder-length black hair and a tall, graceful figure. She wore a black evening dress and a pearl necklace. Various other accessories adorned her body as well, giving her the aura of a powerful noble lady. Yet this elegant noblewoman was, without a doubt, a professional Hero.
She was known as the 'Blizzard of Hell'. Or simply, 'Fubuki'.
She was the Hero Association's B-Class Rank 1 Hero and quite famous among professional Heroes. There were three reasons for that fame.
First, Fubuki was a 'Level 5 Esper'.
In this world, superpowers existed as well. However, unlike the powers in Academy City, which could produce all kinds of strange phenomena and effects, the superpowers here were much closer to what people commonly imagined, psychokinesis, the ability to bend spoons or lift objects without touching them.
Naturally, the strength of those powers varied greatly depending on the user's level.
Take Fubuki for example. Not only could she freely manipulate wind through her psychic powers, but by compressing it, she could use it for both offense and defense.
Her signature move was a ruthless technique called 'Hell Storm', which swept scattered debris into a spiraling tornado and launched countless stones at her enemies, shredding flesh, crushing bones, and reducing opponents to ruin in mere moments.
Because Level 5 Espers were extremely rare in this world, Fubuki's name carried considerable weight despite being only B-Class Rank 1.
The second reason was that she led a faction within the Hero Association.
Professional Heroes formed groups and cliques just like anyone else. Fubuki was one of those leaders. To expand her influence and power, she had gathered many notable B-Class Heroes under her banner and established the 'Blizzard Group'. That was another reason for her fame.
The third reason was her older sister.
Her sister was also a Level 5 Esper. Moreover, she was S-Class Rank 2, known as the Hero Association's ultimate weapon and publicly acknowledged as the Association's strongest combat asset.
These three factors made Fubuki well-known throughout the Hero Association. Even S-Class Heroes all knew who she was. Normally, Fubuki led the Blizzard Group during Hero activities. Today was no different.
In Fubuki's view, with her own abilities and the support of so many B-Class Heroes, even a Demon-level Mysterious Being could be defeated. Unfortunately, that confidence had just been shattered.
As she endured the incoming gale, Fubuki trembled slightly and bit her lip.
'I heard my sister went to Antarctica. I thought this would be the perfect chance... If I could defeat a high-disaster-level monster without relying on her protection, I could finally prove my own strength...'
But that determination had been mercilessly crushed by reality.
Objectively speaking, the Blizzard Group did possess the strength to defeat a Demon-level Mysterious Being.
Although Demon-level threats generally required at least an A-Class Hero to handle, Fubuki herself was no weakling. As B-Class Rank 1, she could submit a promotion request to the Hero Association and become an A-Class Hero whenever she wanted.
The only reason she never did was because she didn't want to give up her number-one ranking. She believed that with her abilities, reaching the top ten of A-Class would be effortless. But there was one position she could never reach: A-Class Rank 1.
The current holder of that rank was Sweet Mask, someone who, like her, deliberately refused promotion. His strength was simply overwhelming.
Even among S-Class Heroes, he would never rank near the bottom and could easily place somewhere in the middle. Against an opponent like that, even with A-Class-level strength, Fubuki had no chance.
So she stayed in B-Class. Because of that, her actual strength was far beyond ordinary B-Class Heroes and firmly within A-Class territory.
With power like hers, plus the support of numerous B-Class Heroes, shouldn't defeating a Demon-level monster be possible? Honestly, her reasoning wasn't wrong.
But Fubuki had forgotten something. Just as Heroes of the same rank could vary greatly in strength, Demon-level Mysterious Beings also ranged from weak to terrifyingly powerful.
The weaker Demon-level monsters could indeed be handled by A-Class Heroes. The stronger ones, however, were opponents that even S-Class Heroes sometimes couldn't defeat alone.
The Demon-level monster before Fubuki wasn't quite that powerful, but it was already beyond what an A-Class Hero could handle.
"ROOOOAR…!"
The beast let out another earth-shaking howl. It was an enormous demonic hound covered in jet-black fur. Its eyes burned with savage brutality as it glared at Fubuki, blood vessels swelling across its pupils.
BOOM, !
In the next instant, the Demon Dog slammed its forelegs into the ground. The earth shattered beneath it, and cracks rapidly spread outward as the surrounding terrain began collapsing.
"...!" Fubuki's expression changed instantly. Without hesitation, she activated her psychic powers. A faint green light enveloped her body.
Buzz!
Her figure rose into the air as though gravity had suddenly released its hold on her. But her expression changed again almost immediately.
"My subordinates...!"
That's right. Even though Fubuki had escaped into the air, the members of the Blizzard Group, who had been effortlessly defeated at the very beginning, were still lying helplessly on the ground.
Rumble…!
The ground collapsed at alarming speed. The asphalt road crumbled into rubble, and the destruction rapidly approached the fallen Heroes. If this continued, every member of the Blizzard Group would fall underground, buried alive beneath the debris.
Fubuki gritted her teeth, and the green glow around her body intensified. Just as she was about to use her psychic powers to rescue her subordinates, a beautiful singing voice suddenly echoed through the battlefield.
"...The Wind of Weaving, the Breeze of the Breeze…"
What kind of voice was it? For a moment, Fubuki couldn't even process it. But she was certain of one thing: it was the most beautiful voice she had ever heard in her life.
Then, a miracle occurred.
Whoosh…!
A powerful hurricane suddenly swept across the ground. One after another, the unconscious members of the Blizzard Group were lifted into the air by the wind. In the nick of time, they escaped being swallowed by the collapsing earth.
Then a graceful figure descended from the sky as lightly as the wind itself and landed in front of Fubuki.
"Good. Looks like I wasn't too late." The gentle laugh that accompanied those words allowed Fubuki to finally see the newcomer's face. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Sylvia Lyyneheym?!"
The newcomer was, naturally, Sylvia.
And Fang Li had come as well. He was standing atop a distant building, watching everything unfold. Watching the rampaging Demon Dog. Watching the group Sylvia had just saved. And especially watching the astonished Fubuki.
Fang Li slowly narrowed his eyes.
(End Of This Chapter)
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