Chapter 331
Not so easy (3)
The face didn't seem to be the weak spot, her sword having bounced off without applying any real damage, but that didn't stop the creature from reacting violently. It raised its left hand and smashed it toward the ground with ferocity, thousands of sharp fingers aimed directly at Natsuki's head.
If contact was made, not only would thousands of holes be punctured through her skull, but her entire upper body would cave in from the sheer force and monstrous strength behind the blow.
This reality… would never come to pass.
With the gait of an apostle of the gods themselves, she dodged and flipped into a spin, avoiding not only the point of impact but also the shockwaves that followed. She landed with the grace of a fairy as BOOM!!! The impact was deafening, the creature's strength proving impossibly high as dust, dirt, and the low-hanging fog were violently swept from the area.
Natsuki's eyes flashed—not with the gold from before, but with a deep, profound indigo!!!
!!?
It was a shocking development. IAM had never met someone whose eyes shifted to different colors when utilizing their path methods. Before, her eyes had glowed gold… and now, indigo!
The cause and meaning behind such a phenomenon were vast and complex, its implications deep and layered—but the truth of it was known only to the owner of those eyes herself.
Her eyes—those that always seemed to pierce deeper than the surface itself—now tinged with indigo, appeared to have discern as she suddenly sprinted toward the creature.
She wasn't daunted in the slightest by its strength. Shockingly, she leapt onto its thin, charcoal-black arm and, with skill exceeding that of a tightrope artist, actually ran up the narrow limb as if it were solid ground. The creature reacted, drawing its arm back—an arm that had already displayed terrifying strength despite its thinness.
But it was far too late.
Natsuki moved too fast. She reached the shoulder and hopped onto its bumpy, featureless face, using it as nothing more than a foothold. She didn't slow down. She didn't even spare it a glance. Her momentum carried her forward as she pushed off and leapt.
She hadn't engaged the creature at all.
She had used it as nothing more than a step stool to achieve her goal.
How domineering!
She flew through the air like an angel of death, her target clear—it was the tree from which the creature had emerged.
But why?
What was the point?
What did she intend to achieve?
This question would be answered swiftly in the next few seconds as she suddenly pulled her arm back and flung it with incredible strength, her sword cutting through the air.
It was unstoppable.
It was inevitable.
It was—
It crashed through the hole left behind by the creature when it had torn itself free, piercing deeply into the tree's core. Black sap burst out in droves, splattering violently as, inexplicably, the creature that had been used as nothing more than a step stool suddenly began to screech in pain and turmoil. It collapsed to its knees, writhing as if it had been critically struck.
Natsuki gave a small nod, as though something had just been confirmed. Her eyes returned to their normal color as she landed and rolled, already close to the tree. She called her sword back, and it obeyed instantly, snapping into her grasp. In the same motion, she swung fiercely into the wound she had already opened.
A disturbing sound rang out on impact.
The creature let out another woeful, howling screech as it turned fully to its knees and began clawing desperately back toward the tree, trying to stop her—trying to protect the weakness she had grasped.
It was a truly pitiful sight.
She didn't let the opportunity slip. She swung again and again with reckless abandon, the screeches echoing through the forest in tandem, until one had to ask—
How had such a reality even come to pass?
It had all begun with her mysterious method.
That single action had allowed her to grasp the creature's weakness—but not within the creature itself. No. The weakness lay in the tree it had emerged from.
That realization was truly unexpected.
Yet, for someone truly perceptive, the signs had been there from the very beginning. When the creatures first emerged, they had torn open their respective trees—and as they did so, they had let out piercing screeches. At the time, it seemed insignificant. Almost meaningless.
But paired with what had just occurred…
What if those screeches hadn't been cries of aggression—but of pain?
What if, in tearing themselves free, they had quite literally ripped open their own weakness?
That would explain everything.The mark on the tree... The identical damage mirrored on the creature itself...
Minute hints had been scattered from the start, subtle enough to be ignored, yet clear enough in hindsight that one could understand how such a conclusion might be drawn.
But was this truly how the trial was meant to unfold?
The answer was chilling.
No.
The normal reality would have been far uglier.
They would have fought for minutes—long, grueling minutes—slowly realizing just how resilient the creatures' bodies were. Panic would have crept in as exhaustion mounted. Doubt would have followed. The thought of retreat would have hovered at the edge of their tired minds.
If they were clever—truly clever—they might have noticed something odd. The screech when Natsuki struck the wound near its shin. How it echoed the exact same sound the creature had made when tearing itself free from the tree.
With enough observation.
With enough desperate thoughts.
They MIGHT have pieced it together.
And only then, after a brutal struggle, would they barely manage to exploit the weakness and bring the creatures down.
Or they would have chosen to flee.
Either way, that was how this was supposed to go.
But none of that happened.
With a single use of her fantastical method, she had pierced straight through the veil and directly into the creature's weakness. She bypassed exhaustion, bypassed desperation, bypassed trial-and-error entirely.
She dragged them straight into the most optimal reality possible!
Natsuki didn't slow down for a second.
With a final, fantastic strike, she slashed. One last hateful screech tore from the creature's body as it staggered forward, only inches away from the tree it had crawled from. Its countless fingers stretched desperately toward her—reaching, grasping—
... And then it died.
So simple... So easy!
Not even a full minute had passed since the fight began...
She was left mostly untouched by the black sap, having already stepped clear of the tree. Without even sparing the disappearing corpse a glance, she shouted in IAM's direction,
"You saw that, right!? You know what to do!"
And then she moved on.
She disregarded the remaining creatures entirely, as though the death of one of their own meant nothing at all, already sprinting toward the next tree.
IAM—who had only just begun firing his bullets toward the closest creature near her—could only stare in her direction. A strange feeling stirred in his chest, something between disbelief and intrigue, mixed with a pleasant shock he hadn't felt in a long time.
Natsuki was… absurd.
She could send her sword flying through the air and call it back as though it were an extension of her own will. Her eyes had flashed two entirely different colours while using her path methods. She had done things that faintly resembled techniques only Masters should be capable of—on the same level as what Henry and Reuel had displayed.
And she had done all of this while being only a high novice.
She had effortlessly taken down a deadline creature of the same level… and then immediately moved on to the next.
Incredible... for lack of better words.
Her figure seemed almost luminary as she advanced toward her next target, cutting through the battlefield with absolute certainty.
This was Natsuki.
A being who had just completed a domineering introduction!!!