An unpleasant Meeting (3)

"Who the hell are you?"

Pointing his sword at me, the boy narrowed his eyes, flashing me a glare.

"I'm not here to fight you."

While I was ready to grab my sword with my dominant left hand, I persuasively raised my other hand to try to dissolve the conflict, using it as a means to create a bit more distance between us.

"Then you shouldn't have used that skill on me. What was it again? I think it was called something like..."

"Reading. It's called reading."

Although he still didn't put his sword down, he at least didn't attack me, which was a good thing in my eyes.

"And it was not something threatening to you. Reading is just a skill that lets me analyze people."

However, my explanation didn't have the effect that I wanted. Instead, his eyes narrowed even more, as a black aura started to surround him.

"What did you learn about me?"

"Nothing. Your skill blocked mine."

"I see..."

Adverting his eyes for a brief moment, he seemed to get lost in thoughts. Standing there and facing each other, we dwelled in silence for a while.

Truthfully, I wasn't scared of conflict. In fact, a warm feeling was building up inside me, which I guessed to be excitement.

However, I couldn't find any logical reason for me to actually indulge in a fight with someone else if they weren't monsters or criminals.

"If you don't mind, then. I'll take my leave now."

I was the first one to break the silence. Announcing my leave, I took a few steps back. My guard was still up, as I didn't trust the person in front of me.

"No, you'll be staying with me."

He said in a firm voice, taking a step forward to approach me.

"I'll decline that offer. I have no intention of wasting my time here. There is something else I have to do.

Namely, take my well-deserved rest. Seriously, I just can't catch a fucking break, can I?

"No."

Instantly, he shook his head.

"I can't trust you yet. Maybe you lied to me and cursed me instead? Did you really expect me to trust a suspicious stranger?"

"Tsk."

I clicked my tongue.

He had a point. If I was in his position, I wouldn't trust the words of a stranger, either.

Still, staying by his side wasn't something I wanted to do. It just seemed bothersome for me to follow behind him like a minion. Besides that, it wasn't specified how long I should stay by his side. Until he trusts me? Until he gets a check-up?

I just didn't have the energy or time to do that.

"The first question you asked me...you asked who I am, right? "

I took a deep breath, pausing for a second before I continued talking. This would be my last try to mediate this entire situation.

"My name is Weiss Azelio. If there's anything wrong with you, then you can just go to the Azelios and call for me."

Grabbing my pocket, I took out the adventurer's ID card that Irene gave me, showing it to him.

"Here's my Adventurer ID if you still don't trust me."

However, he didn't answer, just glaring at my ID with a look of contempt

"So you're an aristocrat..."

He said in a low whisper, seemingly talking to himself, as he averted his gaze from me, looking at the ground.

"...I guess s—?"

CLING—!

I could barely react when a sword strike seemingly came out of nowhere.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

I looked at the boy who had just suddenly attacked me. However, he didn't answer and just lunged toward me with a thrust, closing the gab between us.

Fortunately, I still had [Reading] active, which allowed me to foresee his movement and react in time, parrying his attack.

"You're an aristocrat."

In a low voice, he shot a menacing look at me, releasing his imposing mana as he did so.

Taking a step back, a horrifying pressure pressed down on the area.

Immediately, I narrowed my eyes, assigning even more mana to [Reading] so as to accurately follow his movements. Even if that meant my mana would drain even faster.

Driving his foot into the ground, he shot off with a loud 'bang', as the ground beneath him cracked apart.

"[Judgement Cut]."

A black aura enveloped his sword like a torrential wave of energy. Extending his arms, he did a horizontal slash, which I couldn't follow with my naked eye.

CLANG—!

However, [Reading] provided me with information about where his sword would go, allowing me to parry it.

Still, the force of his strike made my arms feel numb, even though I parried it. Yet, it wasn't the end of his skill, as the sound of fire began to resound from his blade.

Crackle—

The sound of his mana reminded me of that of a burning flame.

WROOM—!

Then, like a monstrous wave of fire, his black mana stretched around the cave, crushing the walls with its pressure.

Channeling my own mana into my blade, I managed to block the full brunt of the attack, only suffering minor damage.

"Not bad. For a girl, that is."

"Shut up."

The boy didn't stop there. Ending with his skill [Judgement Cut], he immediately started to chain his skill into another one, pushing me to the defense.

"[Sword Breaker]!"

An unrelenting barrage of slashes and strikes was unleashed on me, giving me no time to escape, as I was too busy with parrying his attacks.

His size advantage combined with his strength advantage made it almost impossible for me to push him away, as he hacked his sword at me like a storm of blades.

However, that didn't mean that I couldn't do anything. In a situation where I'm cornered, I just needed a quick skill that could reverse the situation..

"[Freezing Flourish]!"

Parrying his next attack, I used the fraction of a second that was given to me to spin around and deliver a devastating attack to him.

CLANG—!

"Wha—!?"

Although he blocked it, his sword already started to freeze, as his blade gradually gained a blue hue.

Narrowing his eyes, he staggered back to reposition himself, which I just waited for.

Immediately, I followed up with my attacks.

I was on the offensive now.

"[Blizzard Slash]!"

Raising my sword above my head, I strike down vertically. The moment I strike down, the boy also raised his sword, trying to block my strike.

SHATTER—!

However, due to the freezing effect of my attribute, the steel of his sword shattered, breaking his weapon into pieces.

"..!"

Seeing that, his eyes widened in horror as he realized that he was now weaponless.

The boy gritted his teeth, and dashed back, trying to evade my next attack, as his eyes widened again at the next realization.

His back was now pressed against a wall.

He had no room to escape anymore.

"Heh.."

Forming a smirk, I dashed toward him, pulling my sword back to prepare a thrust.

PIERCE—!

Thrusting at him, he avoided it by a few inches, which I had already expected.

Good.

This was my intention anyway.

Now, with the sword in his way, sticking out of the wall and blocking his escape routes, I released the grip on my sword.

"What are you doi—?!"

He gave me a look of confusion as I released my sword, but was quickly interrupted as I grabbed him by his hair.

SLAM—!

"Urgh!"

Channeling mana into my arms, I slammed his face into the wall next to me, shaking the entire cave with the impact of the slam.

SLAM—!

SLAM—!

SLAM—!

At first, the boy tried to defend himself, but his movements gradually started to become sloppy, as I kept slamming his face into the rocky wall.

The iron smell of blood was now stronger than ever and soon his resistance stopped.

SLAM—!

Although I guessed that he was unconscious, I slammed his face into the wall once again to make sure that he was incapacitated.

Thud—

"...alright then."

I let his unconscious body fall down on the floor, as I wiped the dirt from my hands, carefully observing him to see if he was faking being unconscious.

"...doesn't seem like it."

Turning my face to my sword, which was still stuck in a wall, I pulled it out, approaching the boy as I looked down at him with my sword in my hand.

Should I kill him?

Logically, that would be the best course of action, as he was the one who endangered me first and there was no guarantee that he would suddenly turn nice to me when he woke up.

Still, my consciousness was against killing a literal child, so I just stood there for a few seconds, thinking about my next course of action.

"No, let's not do that."

Sighing, I put my sword back into its sheath, taking a deep breath to relax.

"Besides that...it doesn't look like he will be any danger to me right now."

I looked down at his now bloodied face, suppressing an evil smile at the look of the pummeled face of a pretty boy.

It just looked funny to me.

My original plan was just to leave him behind and wait till he woke up by himself. Who knows? Maybe he'll be thankful for that someday.

I was just about to go when I then suddenly recalled something I had to do.

"Right, I almost forgot..."

A feeling of irritation welled up inside me when I repeated what he had previously said in my head.

Bam—!

Approaching his unconscious body, I kicked it with all of my physical might, without the use of mana.

"'Not bad. For a girl, that is.'"

Imitating him in a ridiculing voice, I mocked him.

"Shut up, bitch!"

Bam—!

"That was weirdly refreshing."

I said in a tone of satisfaction.

After kicking him once again, I was satisfied, deciding that he had enough punishment for being such an arrogant little shithead.

"Now, I'm really done..."

Letting out a refreshed breath, I started walking away until I suddenly heard the sound of something round rolling.

RrrRrrRrrRrr—

Was something else here?

Quickly, I turned my head around, but no one was there to be seen. Releasing another breath of relief, I calmed down, as I then noticed something rolling on the ground.

"...a marble?"

On the ground, a whitish marble covered with cracks rolled around the ground, stopping right in front of me.

"...I guess this was damaged during the fight or during my kicks..."

Kneeling down, I picked the marble up before walking over to the boy again, putting it down right beside his head.

"Seems like this belongs to you, asshole."

Crack—!

Right as I put it down, however, the marble started to crack again.

"What?"

I watched it with a raised eyebrow as the cracks spread around the marble until the marble finally broke.

Then, when the marble broke, a blending light was released by the marble, causing me to squeeze my eyes together, as I turned my head away from that light.

[Welcome to the [Sealed Widow Dungeon]!]

[Quest Information has been updated!]

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[Quest: Escape from the Dungeon!]

Killed [Widow]: 0/1

Escaped Dungeons: 0/1

Rewards: Survival

[Dungeon Information]

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