The gleam in eyes, hands wrapped in iron plates, muscles settled in armor again, minute movements, rainwater, wind, and even killing intent floating through the humid air.
Alexandra gathered all necessary information and put it in her mind.
It was a technique of calculating surrounding situations and using them in battle—a specialty that her friend Enkrid often showed.
'You're not the only one who's good at it.'
Even in the driving wind and rain, Alexandra focused on the enemy before her eyes. She withdrew interest from everything around her and narrowed her range of perception, leaving only the enemy and herself. This way, she could ignore Medusa's petrification curse.
Of course, Medusa's curse would have some influence from outside her perception range.
Since she couldn't immediately cut Medusa's neck and return, there was no answer other than ignoring it.
So she did exactly that. She ignored it and raised her concentration. She forgot that it was raining and forgot that wind and rain were raging.
Entering a world where only the enemy and herself remained.
From the friend who had returned from death, she could glimpse traces of when she was alive. Behind the helmet exhaling black steam, braided hair hung down.
Andante had possessed flowing long hair.
It was Alexandra who had told her it would be a waste to cut such beautiful hair when she tried to cut it saying it was unnecessary.
After teaching her how to braid, she wore her hair braided back for the rest of her life.
'She grew her hair so long after that.'
Later, she even showed techniques of hiding blades within braided hair, but that was just a momentary prank.
Hissss.
Steam gathered and clumped, then seeped into the helmet.
It looked like preparation before battle. Alexandra also put slightly more strength into her big toe than before.
Alexandra and Andante never had long sparring matches. They always enjoyed decisive duels.
Since it was sparring with half their lives on the line, Andante in life had greatly enjoyed those matches.
"When you feel you're touching death, the world doesn't look so red either."
These were words she said with a smile even while bleeding profusely from a hole in her thigh.
The red world—Andante said sometimes the world looked that red to her.
Unpleasant for anyone to hear, and after truly unfortunate times for herself, she had developed an unbearable desire.
A desire that could only be quelled by killing people.
That killing intent became a complete blade stabbing at herself. Pressure became a sharp, blood-red blade approaching right to her nose.
But Alexandra didn't move even a single step.
Two acrobats walking on a tightrope stretched on a pole.
'Let's go with one strike, Andante.'
What happens when you add death to the calamity called a Knight?
The result was right before her eyes. Andante would react faster and more dynamically than when alive.
She could tell without directly crossing swords.
Andante also had several other advantages.
First, her breathing couldn't be read. Since the dead don't breathe, naturally.
Moreover, she could instantly draw out all her strength without warming up muscles or preparation movements.
A mind with only combat instincts remaining was one of a Death Knight's powers.
If there was fortune, it would be that the absolute amount of Will probably hadn't changed.
A Knight's Will doesn't increase easily to begin with, but after death it absolutely never increases. Only the Will possessed in life can be used.
There was also the fact that if arms or legs were cut, they would quickly regenerate.
This meant the parts that could be targeted were predetermined.
The neck or head had to be severed, and the opponent would know that aim too.
'She'll instinctively strike with a sword to win.'
Outwardly, the two were just standing peacefully. Neither had drawn their swords, standing awkwardly with hands hanging down.
To someone who didn't know, it might seem they were about to clasp hands and shake, but Death Knights probably aren't that sociable.
Rumble!
Lightning's white light split between them. Even then, neither moved.
After a standoff that was long if long, short if short, Alexandra was the first to move.
Bending her knees, she kicked and pushed off the ground. Just before her body moved forward, her hand had already gripped her sword.
Blitzklingen—why was she given the nickname Lightning Blade?
Because the sword she wielded was fast enough to resemble lightning.
It was speed she had never shown in sparring with Enkrid.
When even Rynox existed, wouldn't she also have secret techniques she couldn't use in sparring? Naturally she did.
She condensed and gathered the Will swirling through her body and exploded it. With that explosive force, she temporarily exceeded her own limits.
Bang!
An explosion erupted as the blade tore through air and surpassed time's limits to reach the enemy.
Clang!
Andante, transformed into a Death Knight, responded to Alexandra's speed. But she didn't block—she stabbed back.
At the moment when staying put might result in a hole in her abdomen while only scratching the opponent's helmet, Alexandra accelerated once more.
Bang—
Such a sound rang in her ears. It wasn't an actual sound. It was a hallucination heard thanks to gathering remaining Will and exploding it once more.
Alexandra's advancing body curved to the side. The blade traced a zigzag trajectory and struck past the Death Knight's helmet.
Crack!
The helmet split and black steam gushed from within. Alexandra's world turned red. Something hot poured into her nose as well. Both legs also trembled.
Looking back through that reddened vision, she could see a rotted head through the split helmet.
Whirlllll.
Where she had passed, a whirlwind formed parallel to the ground. It was like a long tunnel made of wind and rain had formed.
Only after one exchange ended did traces of her tearing through the atmosphere appear.
"Guh."
She had split the head with a Will-laden sword, an engraved weapon at that. Death Knights aren't invincible. If the head is cut off, they die.
Andante's last words were "Guh."
Her real last words would have been heard by Heskal.
"Cough!"
Alexandra closed her eyes that were shedding bloody tears to let the rainwater wash them away, knelt on one knee and stabbed the ground with her sword tip. Then she said:
"Andante, if you're satisfied, go on now."
She had once said she wanted to see a sword faster than the present. She had just shown her that.
Two explosions—exploding Will itself was half-mad behavior.
She had done it twice. The second time more violently than the first.
Whether her organs were torn, her lower abdomen ached and her head throbbed.
It was pain resonating through her entire body to the degree she wondered if she might die. Her organs were twisted so she couldn't lift her body, but well, it was fine.
In her youth, while perfecting this technique, she had become unable to bear children, but she had no regrets then or now.
Though she couldn't give birth from her womb, she had children born from her heart, and ultimately hadn't she contributed to protecting the house with techniques trained that way?
'Still, this is a bit severe.'
Even within Zaun, Alexandra's symptoms weren't that serious. Light coughing was all. But with her body in this state, the disease also raised its head. Sudden chills came.
From one perspective, it was just one sword strike, but with that one sword strike, a Death Knight had died.
So she had fulfilled her role, but the problem was the battle wasn't over yet.
'When my body won't move.'
There were monsters flapping toward her. And Medusa's eyes were still there.
The petrification curse she could ignore until now became pressure she couldn't turn away from.
Alexandra lowered her head to avoid the monster's gaze.
The sorcery serpent overhead remained, Medusa looked down on the battlefield, and there were monsters targeting her with flapping wingbeats.
'Not good.'
Meanwhile, whether it had a brain particularly small compared to other beasts, one of the lizard beasts bravely charged at her. Alexandra appeared to barely endure while leaning on her sword.
The lizard beast that had lost its rider opened its mouth to bite her head.
Alexandra drew her sword, swung it, and thrust it back into the ground. Her hand speed was so fast that ordinary people wouldn't even be able to see it.
Slash!
However, only one beast sprawled on the ground with its jaw open and the top of its head blown away, announcing what she had done.
'Really not good.'
She didn't even have strength to speak, but the beasts and monsters around her kept increasing. It wasn't difficult to guess the reason.
'Tempe.'
He was tied up. Even with Rynox beside him.
'That bastard Heskal truly deserves to be called a fox.'
It would be a strategy from his mind. Making Andante into a Death Knight, sending her to herself.
Well, she didn't know whose victory he had predicted between Andante and herself.
If she died in this state, the scales would tip slightly toward Zaun's defeat.
Her senses dulled and she began to feel the weight of wet clothes. Naturally bad signs.
'Someone please deal with that snake head at least.'
The petrification curse and sorcery serpent made it even more hellish.
One psychokinetic Scaler gripped her sword. An invisible grasp held the blade.
And she felt presence behind her. Due to her confused mind and dulled senses, she didn't notice until someone stood behind her.
'What a mess.'
She shook off the psychokinesis and swung her sword backward. She only had strength to swing once.
If this was the last time, she should swing and at least call her husband's name.
If she was going to die, he would somehow resolve things and come.
Or well, she would die here and become a vengeful spirit to interfere with her husband's remarriage.
Definitely.
'So save me, Tempe.'
She finished gauging the distance to the one approaching from behind and drew her sword caught by psychokinesis to swing it.
Snap, whoosh, clang!
Her attack was blocked. The opponent raised his sword vertically and simply stopped the sword's movement. Then the opponent boldly closed the distance. Steps so fast there was no time to call her husband's name.
While counting the number of arrows floating around him, Enkrid realized that supernatural ability monsters—especially those with outstanding abilities—had mostly gathered here.
There would still be many monsters using psychokinesis remaining, but they could be considered rabble.
Wasn't the fact that instinct didn't need to tell him right before his eyes?
At least five stood blankly without even pretending to raise their hands while floating over ten arrows each.
Fifty arrows floated while targeting him.
Once those started flying, it would be quite troublesome.
And the arrowheads were pitch black too.
Enkrid could bet Rem's left hand that poison was applied there.
"I am Panito, Lord Heskal's right hand."
The net's owner spoke. Enkrid turned his head to look at him. The iron plate armor giving off a subtle glow looked like treasure itself.
Something Krais would covet if he saw it.
The opponent seemed confident he had cornered him. Such an attitude.
Watching that, a sudden thought occurred.
'Is it over just because I'm caught in a net?'
No. That's not it. An idea suddenly came to mind. It could be called inspiration.
'Mix the Sword of Chance with tactical swordsmanship.'
Based on tactical swordsmanship, calculate with Flash and put even chance and luck within his intentions.
Everything was to gain advantageous points.
Because tactics exist for that purpose.
His mind spinning hotly enough to cause fever produced an answer. The result of that. Enkrid's mouth opened like an elegant instrument and expelled sound.
"According to plan."
No. Actually, being caught was correct. But if even all this coincidence was contained within intention, the current situation could also be called part of the plan.
"...You anticipated this?"
Panito asked back in surprise.
"Of course."
Enkrid was confident. Compared to Ragna who had the shamelessness to point west and call it north, this much could be considered charming.
"Impressive, Border Guard's Enkrid."
He had never met anyone called Panito even as a sparring partner.
Several of those following Heskal were actually too busy with external affairs to meet easily, and Panito was one of them.
He was genuinely surprised, and Enkrid briefly had other thoughts.
Since he had decided to contain coincidence within intention, making it truly appear so would be the realm of tactical swordsmanship.
Tactics were about deceiving opponents—that is, Luagarne-style tactical swordsmanship was illusion swordsmanship.
Here, small ideas successively rang through his mind.
Valen-style mercenary swordsmanship originally didn't speak of how to handle swords. It was because it was illusion swordsmanship. That is, tactics were based on deception. If he continued training tactical swordsmanship and dug deeper this way, the path he should advance to next seemed visible.
Should it be called training methods for deceptive swords, or swordsmanship?
Right now it was difficult to organize everything completely, so it was an idea that had to remain at just recalling and remembering.
Shouldn't he face what was right in front of him first?
"You gathered superior individuals among supernatural ability monsters here, planned to kill one Knight-level force and advance into Zaun like this?"
These were words he could say because he had read the opponent's intentions. If the opponent had shown their hand this far, now he could know the purpose of those cards.
"That's right. You anticipated this too."
Panito wasn't that clever, constantly showing surprise. In one way, he was properly fooled, and in another way, it could be said Enkrid's acting ability had reached its peak.
Enkrid spoke again as if walking along the path shown by tactical swordsmanship.
"Yes, everything is according to plan."
If Krais had seen this, he might have called him the continent's greatest liar.
If Luagarne had seen this, she would have continuously clapped with those slippery hands.
"None of you can go behind me."
And this was sincere. Plan or whatever, the moment he faced these people, Enkrid knew what he had to do. And by now, that bastard Ragna would also know what he should do.
"Even knowing won't make it easy to stop."
Panito said while gritting his teeth. Feeling jealousy that there was someone who had seen through his master's strategy.
That jealousy soon converted to anger and concluded as killing intent that he absolutely wanted to kill that bastard.