17 Through Tooth and Nail

Puchi!

Riza rammed her knife deep into a lychnus man's back. Blood spilled and stained her clothes further. Just as the other Lychnus were about to attack Riza, she grabbed the man and used him as a shield. All of the soldiers hesitated for a moment. The woman and one other lychnus disregarded his life and attacked regardless. Two shurikens were flung towards Riza's head, but she kicked the man forward and they pierced the small man's stomach instead.

Pale and bloodied, the lychnus stumbled with a look of horror on his face. Two more lychni stepped in and caught him before he fell down. They looked up and found Riza running towards them, brandishing her knives. A shiver ran down their spines as they instinctively dropped the man and fumbled to grab their weapons. With little time to react, they were slashed across their necks.

"Damn you!" The woman spat out while running towards Riza. She was slower and couldn't keep up in her enlightened state.

As if she didn't hear the girl's words, Riza was unfazed and ran through their blood to another two lychni a hundred meters away. They threw shurikens towards Riza while another four rushed behind her. She looked behind and threw four daggers behind her while deflecting the other two soldier's shurikens that darted to her. She swung her knife and changed their course. Looking behind, there were two daggers and two shurikens headed to the four lychni.

With no options, they tried to dodge. The daggers flew by and delivered shallow wounds across their chest. After Riza deflected the shurikens, however, they became even faster and the other two soldiers could only watch it cut into them. Two of the four in the back dropped dead as the woman approached Riza from the side.

Only five soldiers including the woman remained.

It was at this moment that the energy within Riza stabilized as she finished her breakthrough. As her vision refocused, confusion was plastered over Riza's face for a moment until her memories caught up with her. Covered in her enemies' blood, she felt nauseous and sick. Adrenaline flushed the fear away as she tried to refocus on the battle. She tried to remember that fighting style and use it to her advantage.

Once the power of enlightenment was over, however, Riza's power output dropped back down to a normal Pseudo-novice. Her body felt drained as her breathing became heavier. The light that boosted her power vanished too.

"Quick, her breakthrough is over," The woman screamed, "bring her back alive for his Highness!"

By the time her mental state recovered, all five lychni surrounded her. Like a pack of wolves wanting to rip her apart, they launched a full assault. As they swung their daggers without regard, Riza cursed Sig'car's name. Seeing a slight glint, Riza instinctively arched her spine backward as the female lychni swung her dagger right past Riza's head and sliced off a few strands of her hair. Quickly steadying herself, Riza blocked the girl's knife as sparks flew. Her arm felt numb as she firmly held the knife despite her exhaustion.

'I can't keep this up.' Riza panted and changed her plans.

With the other lychni approaching, Riza ran toward the coast as the girl gave chase. Shurikens were hurled at Riza as she ran and deflected them. Her arm gave out as the dagger fell to the ground. With the lychnus girl right behind her, Riza jumped and rolled to the edge of the cliff.

"Stop! We need her alive." She glared at Riza and called off her men.

Just as they were approaching her, a man emerged from the side of the cliff and pulled her down into the murky waters. The rest of the lychnus was dumbfounded. They looked down and vaguely saw Riza and a man with her swimming away.

"Get down there, now!" The girl shouted and abandoned all fears. The remaining four men jumped off and fell into the water. Anger clouded their perception, however. Once they jumped into the water, they saw several creatures swarming around them. As if the fish were happy that prey willingly invited themselves over as food, they kept gnashing their teeth and making strange gurgles. Riza and the man vanished before their eyes as the lychnus girl stood alone at the cliffside. Suddenly, the girl heard footsteps and turned around. Just as she did, a foot squarely kicked her in the face and sent her careening off the edge.

Splash!

The lychni rose to the surface and looked at Riza, shouting incomprehensible curses. All they got in return, however, was Riza looking down on them disdain.

"Wait! Don't leave us!" The female lychni spoke with haste, her face contorted as she desperately wanted to jump up to kill Riza. The girl discovered that she had nothing to offer Riza, though. With no option but to fight, she cursed Riza as she unsheathed her blades. "Don't forget my name! Nydia Eichert III will kill you!" She spat out, every word sending dense waves of killing intent into the atmosphere.

Riza had already walked away once she heard the name but discarded it from her memory. She was more worried about Sonalius than any lychni. After a few more minutes, the waters turned turbulent as Riza saw a giant shadow beneath the water. Its ginormous sea-creature swiftly approached her as a man's figure slowly surfaced. Her eyes almost popped out of her skull as she saw the rugged Sonalius on top of it, peaking his body out of the water.

"Sonalius, what took you so long?" Riza spoke with fatigue as sweat formed between her brows.

"Getting us a ride over the Degasi." He said as he stroked the now visible creature's head. It had a long, slender body, with dark green stripes on its red scales. With a single large eye and a gaping mouth filled with sharp teeth, it excluded a bloodthirsty nature. Rubbing some blood off his nose, Sonalius glanced at the hundreds of bodies before asking, "Where did the rest of the lychni go? Did they run off to seek help already?"

"Dead," Riza stated.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense." Sonalius said. A moment passed before Sonalius realized what Riza had said.

"Wait, you killed them all?" Sonalius fumbled over his words as his eyes widened.

"Yes. I made a breakthrough during combat after observing a bird healing its young." Riza casually said.

"Oh, alright. That makes sense with the energy bath gained from breaking through-" Sonalius halted as his expression became almost comical. His jaw dropped to the point where you could almost fit a goose egg inside.

"You broke through by observation and your own knowledge?" He asked, his voice full of disbelief.

"Yep."

"From enlightenment?"

"Mhmm," Riza nodded.

Sonalius wore a strange look before staring at Riza in awe. "Amazing! Fantastic! You already reached the point of comprehending the law by comprehension! Quick, we can talk later, let's leave before there's more trouble." He said with haste and vigilance.

Sonalius clicked his tongue three times and motioned for Riza to climb onto the more than 6-meter long creature. With caution, Riza slowly got onto the creature and straddled it. Without a second to waste, the creature's scales rotated, tunneling through the water at breakneck speed. The creature stayed above the surface as Sonalius communicated with it. The river spanned 3 kilometers in width. Once the three of them reached the half-way point, they heard a loud bang towards the coast of the Vibrant Forest.

Riza instinctively turned around and saw two silhouettes near the rest of the dead lychni. The first appeared to be a tall man with gray hair, and the second was a short man with blue skin surrounded by light. The tall man vanished into thin air as the blue-skinned man ran towards her. Riza's gaze grew cold as dense killing intent formed around her.

"He's here." Riza felt it was impossible to hold back her emotions as she wanted to kill the man right then and there. However, she didn't act because she knew the aura he was giving off was far more powerful than her own by far. Despite her seething hatred for the man, she tried to stay calm. Just king Sig'car's aura felt suffocating to Riza. Trying to go up against someone of his level was suicidal.

The sea creature, noticing something was wrong, pushed itself to the limit. It went another half time faster than before.

King Sig'car, who was on the opposite side of the Degasi river near the Vibrant forest, was also filled with sickening anger. He grabbed a handful of blue sand from a pouch on his hip and threw it into the river. Ice crystals formed on the surface of the water. After a few moments, over 50 meters of water turned into ice. King Sig'car slammed his foot into the ice and launched himself deeper into the river. Throwing the blue sand continuously, he was closing the distance between him and the creature.

"Try to slow him down!" Sonalius shouted as he bit his hand and sunk it into the dark water. Riza unclicked her pouch as she grabbed a few shurikens and threw them towards king Sig'car. However, because Riza and Sonalius were still so far away from king Sig'car, her shurikens plummeted into the depths of the river.

"Damn it! This cannot be happening!" Shock and terror flushed through Riza's brain as she failed to come to a reasonable solution. With her one strongest ability, Riza cast Light Absorption on king Sig'car who was still freezing the water.

"What a disgustingly simple trick!" He bellowed, his voice creating ripples on the water. King Sig'car's entire self glowed with great brilliance, blinding both of them. Riza threw up blood as her complexion paled. The light released from Sig'car gave Riza burns, but in doing so, Sig'car accidentally melted some of the ice he had just formed. She fell down on her back with half-closed eyes.

"Riza!" Sonalius retracted his hand from the water and checked her pulse. "Overexhaustion from energy. This girl is too damn reckless." With a heavy sigh, he looked at Sig'car with deep hatred. "Go!!!" He swung his arm forward, splashing blood into the river. Five small creatures came bursting up out of the water and rushed to Sig'car. Within a few seconds the creatures, with sharp teeth and claws, dived into Sig'car.

"Riza Arriero from Lorea!" King Sig'car shouted as his fists shone with light. With every punch, a creature would be severely injured. After two punches each, the creatures looked at Sonalius with regret and hatred. Sonalius, Riza, and the creature they were already only 200 meters away to Mist Valley. Still, king Sig'car was catching up.

"I need answers! Now! What happened that day? Who killed my daughter? You? Rey Nefasi? Aizen Poniel? Someone else? You greedy, damn, humans! Your fate is sealed! If you come to me, I won't kill anyone else. But for every day you prolong, one person from Lorea will die because of you. Their blood will be on your hands. It's your choice, Riza!" King Sig'car spat out in fury.

"Nydia Eichert III." Riza muttered, which caused king Sig'car to feel anxious.

"What‽ How do you know that name? Nydia... where is she?" Bubbling anger rose to his chest as he stopped chasing. The creature also stopped under Sonalius' command.

With ragged breathing, Riza tried to sit up. The burns on her skin flared up and she almost fainted from the pain. "Promise me, on the honor of the Lychni, that if I tell you where she is so you can save her, you will not harm those who are innocent."

Silence pervaded the atmosphere as king Sig'car thought. "If you tell me where she is, and who killed my daughter, on the honor of the Lychni, I will not kill those who do not deserve it." He bit his lip as he bowed.

"She is at the cliffside in the water, where the rest of your men are lying. She was fighting monsters in the water. you should hurry if you want to save her." She paused and muttered something under her breath. Her voice quivered as she looked back and forth between Sonalius and king Sig'car. "The one who killed princess Yu, your daughter, it was Rey Nefasi."

"So it was Rey Nefasi who killed her… You don't know where he went?" King Sig'car heaved his chest upward. Riza had already collapsed onto the creature's back, however.

"You should hurry and save that fairy of yours before it's too late." Sonalius mocked him, making king Sig'car seeth and glare at Sonalius before turning around. Sonalius watched as the blue man sprinted off and looked at the upcoming shore. Orange sand reflected the sun's light as the sea creature Sonalius and Riza rode upon reached Mist Valley. With a loud howl, the snake-like creature threw the of them off its back. Sonalius quickly maneuvered in mid-air and caught Riza, who was nearly passed out. After softly setting Riza down on the sand, Sonalius turned around and saw that the creature was waiting there with its teeth showing and killing intent starting to form.

"Right, I almost forgot!" Sonalius tried to laugh it off and change the mood. "This might hurt a bit." With one hand, Sonalius peeled back the scale and touched the exposed skin. With beads of sweat forming on Sonalius' face, the creature felt joy as its eyelids slid back. After a few more minutes, Sonalius stopped and bent the scale back into place. With a happy, yet creepy smile, the creature took off and left the two alone.

"You awake Riza?" Sonalius half-asked as he walked over to Riza. Collapsed onto the ground, Riza laid with her chest heaving up in down. With a pale face, blue veins fully visible, covered in sweat and blood, and riddled with small cuts, Riza was unresponsive with a pitiful appearance.

"Overexertion again. You really pushed yourself to the max and beyond... good job Riza. Only by walking the line between life and death can you push your body and potential to the limit and grow. It would seem that the Lychnus ambush and Sig'car was a gift in disguise after all." Sonalius spoke freely as he hoisted her up. Noticing that he was also extremely tired and exhausted, Sonalius carried them further into the valley and found a small cave. After forcefully evicting its furry occupants, Sonalius collapsed to the ground with Riza, plunging into a deep sleep.