Sealed Widow Dungeon (3)

[You have angered 'Widow'!]

[The boss 'Widow' will now chase you!]

[Prepare for combat!]

Immediately after those messages appeared, an ominous pressure washed over the village, pressing down on us.

"What is going on?"

Noir, who didn't have the ability to see those system messages, took a step forward, grabbing onto my bloodied poet shirt.

"Hey, Weiss. What is going on?"

He whispered into my ear, hoping for any sort of reaction. His warm breath was tickling my ear, giving me a weird sensation.

"What the hell are you doing?"

With knit brows, I turned around, looking at him with an expression of disgust.

I didn't know whether he had been taught such things before, but this certainly wasn't the way you should approach a woman. Or anyone, for that matter.

It was just straight-up creepy.

"I was repeating my question because you didn't answer..?"

"Yeah, 'cause I was thinking, dumbass!"

Rolling my eyes, I let out an exhausted sigh before leaving the small house. There was nothing interesting inside their house.

With [Reading], I had roughly skimmed over the interior of their home, but there was nothing interesting to see inside it.

No interesting books or paintings. Just the collection of her husband was located here, which probably was her only memento of him.

It is understandable why she got angry when we entered her home.

"Tell me what is going on!"

"It would be faster if you just saw it for yourself."

I grabbed Noir by his arm before pulling him outside the building alongside me. It wasn't a very spacious house, so I would like to avoid fighting inside such a place.

As the boss was already agitated by me, it would be a matter of minutes or seconds until she arrived, so there wasn't any time left to explain the whole situation.

Although there was enough time to give him a short overview of the situation, I guess.

"The boss knows where we are. Prepare for combat."

Narrowing my eyes, I pulled my sword out of its sheath.

Shiiiing—

The familiar sound of the singing metal echoed through the air, giving me a feeling of comfort inside this unknown dungeon.

With a firm gaze, I shifted into the stance of the Imperial Sword Art, heightening my senses as I readied for the battle.

"What do you mean?"

Instead of obeying my advice, Noir just looked at me with a puzzled expression, his voice carrying a tone of utter confusion.

"It's an order."

Using that phrase, the mana contract was activated, forcing him to get into his own stance.

While I wasn't necessarily wounded, I was low on mana, so I would have to rely on any help I could get in this upcoming battle.

Though I did get the talent [Mana Thief] at around level 15, so this would lessen my strain on using my mana.

Still, this didn't mean that I could just waste it freely, as the mana recovery wasn't enough to stop my mana from going down entirely.

It just slowed it down.

"...alright."

Nodding, Noir gave up before focusing on the battle himself. I guessed that he had judged the severity of the situation by my behavior and voice.

With {Reading], my eyes jumped over my surroundings, looking for any suspicious changes.

Rustle—

Then, suddenly, a slight rustling of a nearby tree.

CLING—!

Taking a step back, I used my sword to parry a surprise attack, which was charging toward us.

I couldn't determine what it was, but I could feel that it was heavy and thrown with a force that made it hard for me to fully block it, forcing me to redirect the force.

BOOM—!

After I shifted the course of the trajectory, the surrounding ground blew away as the unidentifiable projectile made contact with the floor.

The pressurized wind blew from the direction the projectile landed, fluttering my clothes.

This all happened in the span of a single second.

"Weiss?!"

Noir, who hadn't noticed what was going on, tore his head to me, looking at me with an expression of shock.

"What is happening?!"

"Tsk."

Not answering, I grabbed my eye when I felt a sharp pain coursing through my eyes.

No, it wasn't because of my mana, as I still had plenty left to at least be able to use [Reading]. It was because of the speed of the attack just now.

Its speed was so overwhelming that in my current state, I had a hard time keeping up with it, which forced [Reading] to compensate for that gap by accelerating my reaction speed.

"She is fast."

My mana was burning as I relocated all of my mana into [Reading] to even stand a chance of parrying or dodging her attack.

The boss completely outclassed me.

And I knew that without her even revealing herself.

"Where did that explosion come from?"

Noir asked in a worried voice, his eyes focusing on the projectile, which had dug itself into the ground.

It was a gray spear filled with dark, ominous energy. The pressure it radiated gave off a feeling of a suffocating danger, similar to the aura that was pressing down on the village.

The air surrounding that spear blurred, creating a weird-looking, transparent barrier around the spear and engulfing the weapon in an air of mystery.

"You didn't see it?"

"No, I didn't."

Gritting my teeth, I could feel my heart starting to race as I reassessed the whole situation.

I had expected the boss of an 'A- dungeon' to be strong, but not this strong. After all, there was a reason why it was considered weaker than a normal A-ranked dungeon, right?

However, it seemed like I had either underestimated the strength of the boss or vastly overestimated our own strength.

Once again, the realization settled in.

We were vastly outmatched.

While I could barely react to her attacks, Noir couldn't even perceive them.

Soon, the next spear came shooting toward us. Its flight was so quiet that we would've been taken out without even knowing what had happened to us if it wasn't for [Reading].

Narrowing my eyes, I prepared to parry her next attack, but I quickly realized that this attack wasn't aimed at me.

Swish—

With an almost inaudible sound, the spear raced right past me, aiming at my partner, Noir, who didn't even realize what was coming for him.

"Noir!"

I called his name, rushing toward him as the spear charged toward him.

The projectile was now only a few meters away from him, yet he didn't react to it, seemingly not realizing the incoming spear.

Although I had reacted fast enough, I couldn't reach him in time due to my lacking speed.

I winced at the imagination of my partner getting ripped apart by the destructive power of the spear.

Then, something unexpected happened.

SLICE—!

Reacting at the last moment, he cut the spear apart in the middle. But he didn't stop there,

His arms blurred in an unidentifiable circle around his body as the spear chipped apart until there was nothing left to be seen.

Tinkle—!

Similar to the sound of glasses, the remaining pieces of the spear fell to the ground before disappearing into black energy.

"What the—"

I froze up as Noir turned around, facing me with a dead expression. His eyes, which were previously a crimson red, now glowed in an intense blue with slight tints of lavender.

"Ah."

With an emotionless voice, he touched his face, his hand brushing over his eyes as he widened them in realization.

"It activated again."

Then, before I even had the chance to ask him what he was doing, another spear was shot toward him.

SLICE—!

Without even looking at it, Noir cut it apart, his expressions unchanging as if nothing had happened.

BANG—!

Then, like a thunderous roar, a bang occurred, and a tall woman with long black hair appeared right beside him.

White, almost paper-like pale skin and long black hair.

Her facial features seemed sophisticated and I would've bet that she was a beautiful woman in the past, but now she looked like nothing more than another version of the ring girl.

"So you are the one who barged into my and darling's home~?"

Her mature voice tickled my ears in all the wrong places, sending a shiver down my spine.

With a devastating speed, the widow threw a punch toward Noir.

Noir, who had been standing fixed like a statue until now, suddenly reacted at the last moment, blocking the strike with the flat side of his sword.

"How dare you..."

The widow narrowed her black eyes as her voice started to gain an edge of irritation.

"How dare you barge into our home!"

The voice of the widow distorted like a glitched audio data as she pulled both her arms back.

Screeching in a high-pitched sound, she conjured a spear of cursed energy before unleashing a barrage of violent slashes toward Noir.

"HAHAHAHA!"

With bloodshot eyes, she released a crazy laugh as she continued with the barrage of strikes.

CLING—! CLANG—! CLING—!

Noir looked at the barrage of attacks with an expressionless face, silently parrying each one of them at the last moment and occasionally counter-attacking.

However, there was something weird about his way of fighting...it looked so..rough?

Almost as if he was solely reacting to his instincts and not consciously fighting himself.

"Oh? I think I know what little trick you used there~"

Seemingly realizing his strange behavior herself, the widow's next attack was a feint, which was filled with murderous intent.

This time, again, Noir tried to parry the attack, falling for the 'widow's' trap.

"Kekekekekekek!"

With an insane roar, the widow thrust forward with her spear, which Noir could only barely avoid.

However, he was still hit by her attack, bleeding as the side of his body was ripped apart by her attack.

That's right.

Noir still couldn't perceive her attacks and just reacted with his instincts.

Forming a wide grin, I called out to him as a plan devised in my head.

I now knew how to bring us victory in this battle.

"Follow everything I say, Noir! This is an order!"

Immediately, as I called out to him, I could feel the effect of the mana contract taking place when a blue impulse of mana was released into the atmosphere.

Ignoring my call, the widow focused on the stronger of us two, pausing for a second as she activated a skill.

"[Thrusting Branches]!"

Once again, she thrust her spear forward as it branched out into dozens of smaller blades, racing at Noir.

"Step aside and slash her vertically! The weight of her skill stops her from pulling her attack back fast enough!"

Obeying my orders, Noir sidestepped the attack, slashing toward her rips, his sword cutting into her body as black blood began to flow out of her wound.

"YOU..!"

Gritting her teeth, she tried to entrap his sword between her arms.

"Release your sword and deliver a low kick with your right leg!"

CRASH—!

Letting go of his sword, Noir kicked toward the side of the widow, knocking her into a nearby tree, causing her to let go of his sword.

Grabbing the sword in the air, Noir swung it to the right, wiping away the blood that was stuck on his blade.

"Good orders. Give me more."

"Yes." I nodded. "Will do."

Although I could feel my eyes straining at the overuse of [Reading], I now knew how we could beat her.