Retribution Pt. 1

Lisa thrust her weapon forward and an arc of blue lightning shot out from the tips and slammed into Atticus.

Caught off guard by the appearance of Lisa and her new demeanor, the knight was completely unprepared for the sudden fierce attack.

With a bang the human man was sent flying into a nearby wall.

The mages who standing nearby were in shock.

"Help the captain, open fire!!"

No one knew who said it first but one by one the mages began to assist Atticus in bringing down Lisa.

Unfortunately for them, Bekka wouldn't allow them to get a single shot off.

With a leap, she dove into the center of the mages and began to rip through their bodies while laughing maniacally.

However, even if these mages were caught off guard, they were still stage 1 and most were able to quickly counterattack.

"Light Shard!"

One mage was immediately able to launch a fast moving light spell at the frenzied hellhound and he immediately released a sigh of relief when he thought everything was over.

That was then.

Under the horrified gazes of everyone present, the magic simply fizzled out as soon as it made contact with her body.

"W-What just happened?"

"S-she nullified my magic somehow!"

"How is that possible?!"

The mages had begun to fall into a panic once again and rightfully so.

As mages, they prioritized being able to dominate battlefields through mana.

This unfortunately meant that their physical bodies as well as knowledge of physical combat was sorely lacking.

So against an opponent like Bekka with excellent physical prowess and seemingly an immunity to magic, they were at the worst disadvantage imaginable.

Even if their bodies had been sharpened by an evolution, their durability was not enough to stop Bekka's claws and their speed was not great enough to strike her.

"Men! Do not panic! Surely she cannot keep this up for long so we must not give up! All magic has a price!"

One of the soldiers seemed to be able to rouse the spirits of the others and they regained hope.

Out of the 39 mages that were originally fighting, 15 were already lying in pools of blood.

But one by one the remaining soldiers shook off their fear and prepared their most powerful spells, making the large dragon watching them sneer inwardly.

'Fools.'

Before they'd landed, they of course saw the group of powerful mages so in preparation of that Lisa gave Bekka her ring of repulsion.

Bekka's job was to keep the mages off Lisa's back so she could kill Atticus but because she was still unevolved, she needed a slight boost.

Since Atticus relied solely on sword techniques, Lisa didn't need her ring for this fight so they came to this decision.

Exedra wasn't sure it would work, but with two rings of repulsion Bekka's magic negation shot from 60% to a whopping 120%.

These mages could shoot spells at her all day and she wouldn't feel even a poke.

Bekka of course heard the mages attempt to regain their fighting spirit and flashed a beautiful bloodthirsty smile before she stopped moving entirely.

She simply stood there, holding a single man by his neck while she was covered in blood.

The mages saw this as a provocation and responded accordingly.

"Ice Lance!"

"Dark rain!"

"Flame myriad!"

The result was the same.

Each spell made contact with Bekka's skin and fizzled before it disappeared entirely.

Seeing that she was completely fine once again, the mages were utterly silent before one gave the order that would seal their fate.

"R-run!"

Immediately, the mages turned tail and tried to flee.

They didn't care about honor.

They didn't care about Atticus.

All they cared about was getting away from the monster in front of them.

Bekka could only smile helplessly.

These people clearly did not know her.

She was a hunter.

She was an apex predator.

She would never allow these men to get away.

-

While Bekka was hunting down the rest of the mages, Atticus had picked himself up out of the ruble and faced Lisa with furious icy blue eyes.

"You bitch! You're going back in that cellar!"

He unsheathed a longsword from his side and rushed forward bringing his sword into a downward swing.

Lisa blocked his blow with some difficulty before responding.

"Please don't say things like that or he'll kill you before I get to."

Atticus briefly looked over at Exedra and gulped when he saw the dragon's eyes glowing in rage.

This reminder allowed Atticus to realize there was only one way for him to live.

'Escape.. I have to escape!'

Even if he defeated Lisa, there was still an enormous dragon standing nearby and watching his every move.

He had no doubts that if he killed her this dragon would turn him to ash.

This brief distraction allowed Lisa to break their stalemate before launching her own flurry of attacks.

Atticus was stage two so he defended with ease, but surprise still shone on his face.

'She's good… too good. Where the hell could she have learned this? She's evolved now too?! Just what the hell happened when you ran?!"

In his memories of Lisa she'd never held a blade in her life unless it was to cook.

So why was she suddenly so talented?

Not only that, her lightning was so potent and powerful that it almost felt like it was her natural affinity!

But that couldn't be possible right?

Seeing an opening, Atticus parried her trident before giving her a hard kick to the stomach that sent her skidding backwards.

Lisa coughed furiously before looking at Atticus with hate fueled eyes.

"Even if you know a few tricks you cannot overcome the gap between us with just this! Give up!" Atticus taunted.

While Lisa was good, she was still only stage 1 and could not kill him unless he got incredibly sloppy.

He was hoping he could break her spirit enough to cause her to falter and allow him an opportunity to flee.

Lisa stood up and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Atticus' kick contained a bit of his aura that penetrated her body and did damage to her internal organs.

With a sigh she closed her eyes to concentrate and inhale the night air.

Seeing an opening, Atticus quickly took a giant leap backwards.

There were underground passageways out of the city that wouldn't be blocked by the walls of ice so his only hope was to escape that way.

As Atticus got further and further away he smiled when he thought he might've escaped his fate.

"Lightning bane."

Lisa muttered the name of the spell she'd so painstakingly mastered and her body was flooded with a new energy.