“Alright, I’m bored to tears anyway. There’s still some time before they could locate that b*tch whereabouts; I’ll just persuade you by crushing your last hope.” Alkrasha turned her head around and revealed a sinister smile.

“…besides, if you still plan on fighting other people so recklessly like this in the future… then, I’ll do you a favor and beat the crap out of you now.”

Allen looked around, confirming the situation.

The two of them were about 15 meters apart. As there are no monsters around nor dead bodies littered in the place, the 4th floor was completely empty, and there were no obstacles.

Allen wracked his brains based on the limited information he had.

What can I do? Allen’s head was a mess. No matter what he comes up with, all of them seemed to be useless in the face of pure power.

That being said, his nervousness vanished the moment Alkrasha move.

Once the battle was initiated, there was no room for further doubt.

--- ---

“Try to last a little longer, my dear human~” Alkrasha muttered happily and swung her right hand.

In that moment, “something” came flying at Allen with the sharp sound of it cutting through the air.

[ Silver Scythe ]. Level 2 monsters with only fist-sized creatures. They looked like praying mantis but were colored with silver. Each of their hands held sharp scythe-like limbs that could cut anything in their path and thus they called [ Silver Scythe ].

This monster was labeled Lv2 because, although they were strong and terrifying, they could only attack once.

Once they issued an attack, they will automatically die.

Bang Bang Bang……

Right when the fight began, Allen rushed forward. He pointed his gun towards the incoming insects and shoot.

Although he couldn’t see those insects properly, he could tell by the sound and distortion in the air.

He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it.

Allen sharpened his five senses as he tried to capture every detail by his eyes, nose, and ears.

Despite having a gun, Allen was undoubtedly weaker in terms of pure power. Yet, not only was he exposing himself to his opponent's attacks, he was accurately shooting down each of the incoming insects at a distance that the naked eye could barely ascertain.

Just this point alone was awe inspiring.

"Such courage!"

Alkrasha quietly gasped. This was pure, worry-free praise.

Bang Bang Bang

The series of gunshot continued.

Alkrasha was expressing her surprise, not because of his strength, but because he still managed to maintain his mental concentration despite suffering severe bombardment from his opponent. He managed to accurately hit most of the [ Silver Scythe ] and dodged the rest.

Such performance is amazing. Clearly more different than humans, she has encountered from this world or maybe… from all other worlds.

Yet — the one who was doing it; Allen...... was currently wearing a grim face.

Right now, both sides were still feeling each other out, but every step Allen took forward put him more and more on the defensive and subsequently, he was retaliating less and less and more on evading. This point was blatantly obvious to both of them.

“You have exceeded my expectations.” Alkrasha opened her mouth. “From what I have seen, it seems like you have experienced numerous battles before~”

“… …”

“- Unfortunately, it’s still not enough.”

Alkrasha smiled.

It happened at the same time. Suddenly Allen heard a sharp wind noise, only to feel a strong impact on his body next.

With a subconscious action, Allen instantly guarded himself with his arms, but while he rolled over the ground, he saw Alkrasha in the sky with her beautiful butterfly wings spread, not knowing how long she had been there.

She slowly descended onto the ground with her still warped smile.

“You can’t win.” She declared while looking at the youth sprawled on the ground.

Allen violently coughed up. His back was burning as if it was being fried in a griller.

“…You want to waste me?”

“I won’t take your life. But be prepared to lose a limb or two. Maybe you will stop having stupid ideas once you became all crippled.” Alkrasha coldly said. Her tone was cold and chilly but her expression showed concern. But it was a concern that for a master to her pet.

Stupid ideas…? Anger gradually swelled up inside the youth and shifted his gaze towards her.

“As if!!” It looked like he was planning to go all out.

“Ooohhhh!”

Allen roared, then strongly kicked off the ground and rushed at her.

The youth leaped into the air. His entire body was a blur, and behind him were countless afterimages of himself, and within a split moment, he had already crossed over a dozen meters.

[ Phantom ] his custom footwork. With the [ Dexterity ] skill he acquired from the goblin, his footwork was upgraded to a higher level.

Alkrasha surprisingly found that she could not capture his movement clearly. He was like a gust of the wind that seemed to go past her, and before she was able to react, he was already behind her back.

Allen raised his military knife and gun. But,

“Guh.”

Right before he could swing his knife and pull the trigger, he received an attack to his stomach.

Alkrasha was still showing her back to him and hadn’t moved. Then where did it come from?

Allen looked at his stomach. 'Something’ pierced it.

A stinger… no, it was a long tail with the endpoint looked like a stinger. Its width was around 2 – 3 inches.

Splash! Blood splatter from his stomach.

Alkrasha moved faster than he could think.

“…you managed to come closer to me, be honored human~”

Splash!

“Gah.”

Allen groaned as Alkrasha pulled off her tail from his stomach. In the next moment, he was looking up at the white dyed ceiling.

His body was thrown back by the force of it. He knew that wasn’t good, but it was already too late.

Unable to cushion his fall, Allen suffered a dull pain on the back of his head causing his vision to blur momentarily.

…I don’t see a chance to win. With no time to come up with a tactic, Allen eventually fell down forward without him reaching her even once. All he could do was just repeating his ragged breath.

Alkrasha looked down on the youth and like torturing him, she slowly attacked his arms, legs and back with an invisible shockwave making it numb in pain. Receiving these continuous attacks, Allen became unable to bear it and raised a short groan.

He could hear the groan and painful screams coming from his mouth.

But Alkrasha paid them no heed.

“Give it up, human.” Alkrasha’s voice resounded in the place. “You will only die~”

“I, I won’t…” Allen gripped his fist and struggled to stand up. His almost numb limbs were already crying in pain but he grits his teeth and endure.

Bam!

Allen’s vision suddenly tilted 90 degrees sideways.

“GAAA…!!”

Allen felt that he had been hit on the side on his head by some sort of metal; the moment he was aware, he was already on the floor again. He felt giddy and looked up.

Alkrasha was looking at him with furrowed brows.

“I’m giving you another chance. Give it up!”

The next kick sounded muffled.

This time, Alkrasha’s toes had not reached Allen’s gut. Just before they did, Allen had blocked it with both hands.

“…Shut up,” said Allen with a voice that seemed to come up from the depths of the earth.

Without letting go, he just gripped her toes.

[ Skill Replication ]

1 second.

2 seconds...

“What are you doing?” Alkrasha asked while looking at the youth who was holding her toes without letting go.

5 seconds…..

The countdown successfully finished. But,

Failure!

Allen groaned in misfortune. F*ck! Why?!!

Damn it all!!

“What are you doing?” Alkrasha lightly lifted up her right foot that had been blocked. It looked like she was just trying to remove it from Allen’s grasp, but instead of going in for another kick, she stomped the foot down on Allen’s upraised side.

The sound of the impact rang out.

“Gh…bh!?"

“So?” She softly asked. Her tone was as if she was just asking a longtime friend for a favor.

“N, Never…”

“You are weak, human. Very weak”

Alkrasha spoke.

Yes, I am weak.

As a matter of fact, I long realized how weak I was when we lost our last stronghold from the monsters. When all of my friends who supported me lost their lives, I realized I’m still really weak.

But even as weak as I was, I wanted to protect my precious people and tried to become stronger.

I couldn’t afford to stop. I couldn’t afford to fall. I couldn’t afford to lose.

He wanted to stand up again.

He was just barely able to move because of that.

Spitting out bubbles of blood, Allen’s eyes showed a strong will that no one had ever seen before.

Alkrasha looked bored as she sighed. She never treated Allen as her enemy.

“…Why would you go so far, human?”

She looked at the youth in front of her who was still struggling to stand up again with a strange expression that was beyond her control.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

While spitting out blood, Allen shouted.

“Because I can’t lose!”

--- ---