CHAPTER 14.

The sword was an odd-looking one, it was like the shell of the Pyramid Tortoise had been twisted into a helical structure, flattened and then attached to a hilt that looked like the head of the tortoise but the weird looks did not detract from the fact that it was easily one of the best swords he could use and the SP drain power combined with the SP preservation status effect made it perfect for using theSword Beam skill.

Adrian prepared himself. He had his Blade Projections floating and ready, his Sword was in the correct form, he had the Magic Water and SP potions ready for himself and his party and the enemy was unaware of the imminent attack as verified by his Blindsight. Adrian walked forward keeping a swift and steady pace, using his Blindsight to make sure nothing else was in the area and that the insects were still unaware.

Once they reached within the range of Malty's spell and had a clear shot at the hive, she tugged on his arm, and he and Andrea moved forward weapons at the ready while Malty and Bellamy prepared their spells and began to chant.

Then the insects were suddenly moving, he didn't know exactly why they were suddenly agitated; perhaps they had some detection ability, but Adrian didn't hesitate, he took aim and fired a massive blast.

His Sword Beam was an interestingly variable ability. Adrian could choose the diameter of the blast, if he had Blade Projections active then he could use them to fire a barrage of beams, and he could even control how long he kept the beam active for and he could move the sword to target a wide area effortlessly given that the beam seemed to have no inertia of its own. All of this resulted in what was easily his best AOE attack, the only drawback? A massive SP cost, which was precisely why he needed to use the Pyramid Tortoise Sword despite its mediocre attack rating, the SP drain skill was simply too useful in combination with the Beam.

Without his SP mitigation Status Enchant and the SP drain, a single 5-second blast consumed about 60% of his SP. With both of these, he could reduce it to about 30 % if he was lucky. The difference was truly substantial but hopefully after a few levels and the right equip bonuses he would no longer need to be concerned with the SP loss.

The SP he lost was well worth it, the massive hive and the Queen were both struck hard by the beam, and he could see a massive swell in his Exp points along with the wonderful sight of the hive and the tree it was collapsing on itself. The loud sound was rather jarring but Adrian ignored it as he moved the beam slightly, just by a few degrees, and the exp continued coming in, it was truly convenient to have an auto-kill confirmation ability in this world.

He stopped the blast after five seconds, feeling an odd sort of tiredness that was not quite the same as normal fatigue, a familiar feeling after a few days of combat that signalled a large, swift loss of SP. The damage was done. The Queen was dead, and the remnants were in chaos.

But the insects did not stop there, most of the swarm was dead or crippled as they had yet to leave the hive before he had fired on them. However, nearly a third of them still lived. Adrian used his Blindsight to focus on Malty and Bellamy and noted that they were not yet ready. He considered the enemy numbers for a moment and the fact that dozens of the fastest ones were already coming closer to them and then used his Sword Beam again.

This time he used a beam with a larger diameter and lesser SP, it would do less damage per unit area, but he was not targeting a hive or a tree anymore but insects out in the open air with nothing to stop the blast, thus as he swept the beam through the closest insects they died without any difficulty and the enemy number was slashed in half again.

Exp notifications filled his status screen once more. Adrian winced slightly as he noted that his SP was at about fifty per cent, the lowest he had ever allowed it to fall, but choose to ignore it for the moment. He still had enough to use his more efficient moves dozens of times and even a full-powered Sword Beam once more. It should be enough.

Malty finally finished her chant here, and a massive burst of fire that surprised everyone in his party, even Malty, erupted at the location of the embedded remnants of the hive. The fire blast was large enough and hot enough that Adrian could feel the heat from nearly a hundred meters away, it was quite impressive, but he doubted the insects shared his opinion, as most of their crippled brethren who had been injured when he had launched his first strike ended up getting roasted.

The exp was enough to get him to level up again but he ignored the notifications and instead focused on his Blade Projections and got ready to Dash into battle.

Adrian felt the world around him slow down as his SP began to vanish. He triggered his Dash skill and felt himself move through a corridor of altered space. It was a difficult phenomenon to describe but it was the same feeling he got when his perception and speed stats went up, amplified nearly a hundredfold. But the result was simple, he had suddenly moved from nearly a hundred meters away to 80 meters, then 60 and then 40 and then he was close enough for him to use the projections.

Adrian shredded his foes effortlessly. His telekinetically controlled swords meant that he didn't even have to move from his new location and Dash had allowed him to close the distance before the monsters had time to react, some of the insects that were closer to him originally had gotten through to his party, but that had been deliberate as he wanted to see how Andrea reacted to them. After all, the whole point of this exercise was to see how she dealt with them, if his goal was to simply kill them all, a third Sword Beam would have been a better solution.

His Blindsight allowed him to see Andrea pale rapidly, but then she moved forward, her expression shifting into a combination of fury and determination. Unfortunately, her fight lacked the skill and control that he was used to seeing from her. She managed to kill the first three but then charged towards the ones that were arriving. Andrea killed them easily enough but it moved her out of position, and Bellamy had to participate for the first time in this battle, using his prepared Light Lances to kill the insects that got past Andrea.

Andrea didn't even notice. Instead, she killed the insects near her, her rage blinding her to the ones that were about the flank her.

Adrian took care of these, he aimed and activated Dash, not to speed towards her but to get the perception enhancement, and then triggered a Sword Beam that lasted for less than a tenth of a second and was barely a few centimetres in diameter. It missed his target initially but a small sweep killed the insect that had been about to strike her.

Andrea didn't notice the insect nor his interference.

Adrian made eye-contact with Bellamy, who tersely nodded when Adrian indicated Andrea. Leaving her protection to Bellamy, Adrian instead focused on the remnants of the hive. By the time he was done slaughtering them, he found that the battle was over and the whole area of the forest was full of insect corpses with the distinct and horrible smell of burned bugs.

Adrian flared his Blindsight again, and after a moment of verifying that there were no nearby enemies, he focused on Andrea. He could see that her battle frenzy had passed and that she was feeling wretched, he felt a little bad as he considered that he may have very well traumatized the teenager in a different way. What an amazing achievement.

He walked up to her, noting that Bellamy had done his job quite well, she didn't have a single wound on her, then he used his sword and drew out a Stamina potion from its storage. She didn't turn to him when he offered her the potion, nor did she react in any way for a long moment before saying, "I failed."

"I dare say you did far better than the first time you faced them." he said, after considering Andrea for a moment," Immediate and complete improvement was not the goal remember? It was to see how you performed against the insects with some warning and preparation, and you did well."

"I lost control," she said, more strength in her voice this time, but more self-loathing as well," You were right Hero, I am a liability. What is the point of a defender that cannot defend well enough to protect anyone?!" by the end of her sentence she was shouting.

For a moment he wondered what the hell she was talking about, she had certainly not needed to protect anyone here. Then he slowly began to piece the puzzle together. Andrea had been more than strong enough to crush the bugs the very first time they had met, in fact, he would go as far as to say that with her skill and defences she could probably kill twenty to thirty of them with no backup at all, but if she had failed to save someone else during the wave then her behaviour made perfect sense.

"You did lose control." he admitted, trying to keep his voice as calm and matter-of-fact as possible."But that is not some sort of irredeemable sin. You improved compared to before, and in the future, you shall continue to improve as long as you are willing to be as brave as you were today."

"I will not pretend to know what you lost," he continued, torn between the two impulses to help this girl or to test her," but I have seen people recover from their losses, it is never easy, and in a way, you will never be the same as you were. Time, effort and support from others can help but the void is never filled but you learn how to recover with experience."

It was a bitter lesson that he had shoved down his throat by his mother and Edward. His best friend had been the one who had pulled him out of his depression after his father's death, Adrian had no doubt he would have been far worse off without the man's intervention. Adrian felt ashamed of using his friend's words for himself to manipulate this girl, and worse he felt ashamed for realising that he felt only shame because he was wielding his friend's words not because he was trying to shape this traumatized teen to his will.

For a moment after he spoke, he wondered if she would scream at him, but it seemed that something he had said reached her. For she just looked at him carefully, looking just a shade more relaxed than she had been a moment ago.

"Who?" she asked, and he didn't need any elaboration. He still hesitated to answer but gave it up in the end. It was a trivial fact in the grand scheme of things.

"My father," he said, trying to keep his voice level, and failing.

She nodded, and for a moment said nothing, then," I was near the Seaetto Region when the wave started. My team and I had just escorted a Merchant there." she took a deep breath and then continued," the wave just started...there was no warning. My team fought to protect the villagers, and I helped them get to a shelter while my team held the monsters off. It didn't work. The shelters were overrun before we got there and by the time I returned to my team after finding a safe place for the villagers, they were already dead." she looked at one of the dead bugs tiredly," these things were eating them."

Adrian found that all thought of manipulating the girl had faded from his mind by the time she had finished her sentence, instead, he felt his guilt multiply as her statement of the Seatto Region struck his mind. There had been another girl who was traumatized by the wave and had lived in the same place, a girl who was currently a slave, either in a cage waiting to die or being tortured by a nobleman. A girl whom he had disregarded utterly.

"I don't know if I'll be able to fight well enough Sir Adrian," Andrea said," but I'll try if you'll have me."

She sounded resigned as if her removal from the party was obvious, and perhaps it was what he should have done but there was only one answer he could give Andrea.

"You are part of my team, Andrea," he said," that has not changed and it will not. I have no intention of removing someone willing to fight the waves despite what you have gone through."

It was only after Adrian had spoken that he realized that his final sentence to Andrea had not been a lie.