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Lionel ran, following the path that had the most amount of corpses and destruction in its trail, rapidly nearing Rei’s general location, while gritting his teeth as he passed by the people he used to see everyday doing their daily activities in the palace.

'They most likely died trying to stop Yuusha from escaping, however how did they die so quickly?'

Lionel inspected some of the bodies, bringing his face in closer.

The guards were dealt with a blunt weapon and a blade, a conclusion deduced by observing the external damages on the bodies he had seen so far. A piece of the stone wall had been charred, most likely from the resistance of the palace guards, a sign that even magic was used to try and kill Rei, rather than just fighting with the goal of capturing her.

So that's why Lionel thought.

'They were simply outclassed.’'

That explains how they died so easily, however something else still bugged him.

'That still doesn't explain how some of their armour looked like it had been trampled on by a minotaur.' Lionel thought.

Yuusha had skin so pale that she looked like she had an illness. He could see how thin her limbs were even though they were hidden with sleeves, and not only that but Yuusha was a woman to boot.

In Gaiya, women had the same potential to grow as physically stronger as men, however in Earth, the world where the Travellers and the Heroes came from, that was not the case, as there was a very clear biological divide unless they were transported to Gaiya.

It wasn’t like Rei had the time to level up in Gaiya to build up her strength, so he couldn't at all fathom as to how a girl with such physical features could even cause such injuries. And the only option left was simply impossible, and that was mainly because …

"She doesn't have any mana."

Humans who couldn't use mana relied on petty tricks and schemes to defeat their opponents, that was what Lionel believed.

It would have been understandable if the guard's necks were cleanly slit, but a human causing such wounds without the use of mana was something incomprehensible to Lionel.

Then there was just one conclusion left.

*munch*

Lionel heard a munching sound, it echoed throughout the passage and sent a chill upon Lionel' spine, it was a sound that sounded like meat was being devoured.

*crack*

Then there was the odd, and very discomforting sound of bone cracking, but the sound didn't make it seem like it belonged to anything flimsy like a chicken bone.

With his somewhat decent amount of combat experience, he had audibly heard the sound of bones breaking before, and as such he could definitely tell that it belonged to a human.

It was the fact that he could clearly hear the bone cracking through the halls, and unlike bones which break normally, it was unmuffled, as if the meat around its body parts were torn off as the bone was cracked bare, serving to make his discomfort skyrocket as he sped up his pace.

And after a hard right turn there he saw it.

The once-serene girl who looked the most dignified out of the three heroes, despite being clad not even in mana, but a mysterious air that rose suspicions about her, now bearing fruit with her current form as one covered in blood, resembling a beast dining on its prey.

Her serene red eyes, now holding a certain feeling of wildness to them, eyeing the arm of a palace guard as she brought it towards her own mouth, and then …

Chewed on its bare flesh.

This action, one made within the split moment, made only one emotion flow through Lionel.

Anger.

Lionel already held enough hate, and even though the chance was little, he was hoping that just maybe the Heroine had been abducted by a demon, and that it was the said demon that went and left a wake of death and destruction on its way out.

However all that crumbled away as his eyes set upon the scene of core and blatant cannibalism.

There was no demon in the room.

‘No … that’s wrong’ thought Lionel.

There was a demon inside, and it was Rei herself.

“YUUSHA!” Lionel shouted, anger directly felt, and seething from his voice.

Rei in response, stared at Lionel silently, and muttered to herself.

“Oh, it’s you.” She said indifferently.

“Pick up your weapon Yuusha, before I lose my patience.” Lionel said, his words somewhat calm although still had a tinge of anger sticking to it, condemning Rei as he drew his white rapier, decorated with a bit of gold markings, looking more like a ceremonial blade rather than a functional one used in the field.

“Ahhh … the Third Rule of the Malthan Codex of Chivalry, ‘Thou shalt not strike down an unarmed opponent’ was it?” Rei replied, somewhat nodding her head in understanding.

“It seems as though you’ve read the book, apparently the rumours are true that you can read, despite other rumours saying you are incapable of translation magic.”

“Well, the book was quite eye-catching as well as the writing, it was so good that the knowledge came to me naturally!” Rei joked, giving off a loud laugh which only served to mock Lionel.

The Malthan Codex of Chivalry, the first book that Lionel had ever read when he was little, he regarded it as his life motto, and swore to stick to it at all times.

Thoughts of a man-eating beast like Rei touching the book and then basking in its knowledge absolutely disgusted him, and only served to further infuriate him.

However, the fact that Lionel was still sticking to the code of chivalry 'Thou shalt not strike down an unarmed opponent.' means that anger had not yet clouded his mind.

"But what about the sixth code? 'thou shalt not harm innocent women'? Can you really call yourself a knight when you're going to strike such a beautiful damsel down?" Rei said, trying to stall for time, trying to get his guard down, and even potentially just avoid what was coming,

"What defenceless woman hides a knife on her back and carries a spear on her right hand? And what beautiful damsel are you talking about? I see no such thing here …” A clicking of the tongue was almost immediately heard as she was found out, while Lionel continued.

“... only an unsightly monster!” Lionel snapped back as he rushed forward, bringing down his rapier in a downward slashing motion, making sparks fly as it made contact with Rei defending herself with her spear and knife.

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Rei responded with a low sweep kick that aimed to destroy his posture, however as if Lionel knew about it beforehand, he swiftly jumped up and kicked the shaft of Rei's spear sending her flying across the floor, Rei then let go of her knife, effectively performing an ukemi as she landed perfectly like a cat on the floor.

Rei looked at her hands as she held her weapon.

'So this is a mana technique!?' She felt her arms go numb when she clashed weapons, and even now her arms were still shaking and having trouble gripping her tools.

Even though Rei had read all about mana techniques in the books, experiencing up close was nothing short of horrifying.

It was like humans built up stimulants and steroids inside of them to make their hits no less inferior to an artillery shell.

‘Christ …’ The concept that literally anybody would make a city go up in flames just as long as they were born with enough mana terrified her.

‘Though, I guess one could say the same for Gifts in general.’ Rei comforted herself, even if by a little bit as she once more stared at Lionel who was gearing up for another clash.

‘But still …’

'What terrifying physical strength.' Rei thought as she got up from the floor.

Although Rei's physical strength had improved as well because of her fusion with the Essence of Gluttony, her senses having quite heightened past its previous peaks, even with her own body as a Gifted being the base, it was still far off from Lionel’s own.

There were three significant reasons for this fact.

One was that Rei, her mana not simply being too low for her to use magic, was completely rid of mana in the first place, barely not being able to use anything outside of her own strengths.

Second, like all Sin Essences, needed time to make it's host unmatched.

For example, Pride required you to compile people that you could trample beneath your feet and Greed required you to accumulate your possessions to make yourself more powerful, and for Rei who had just barely eaten just a few humans ever since the successful merging of Gluttony, not only was she not even an ant when compared to Reina just before she died, Rei was also still suffering from the drawback of gluttony as well, as shown by even in the midst of fighting, her nose tingled and her stomach ached in pain as if telling her to finish the fight as quickly as possible.

‘I’m … really in trouble aren’t I …?’ Rei thought, gulping as she resisted the urge to go for a snack mid-battle.

If it came down to pure technique, Rei was undoubtedly the better one, however the base stats and other abilities had to be considered as well.

Even a monkey who knew how to use a sword could never escape the sharp talons of an eagle.

But even then …

“Haaaagh!” Rei dashed forward, picking up the knife she dropped during her landing, and with but a fraction of a mere second later, spear and rapier were clashing in a violent torrent with Rei using her other hand trying to exploit an opening with her knife, although simply being parried away due to her inferior speed.

She was simply too outclassed in base stats, however, as if to rub salt on the wound …

The third reason, as to why Rei couldn’t hope to outpower Lionel at all …

“Kugh!” Rei’s body started hurting, impeding her movement as even if she willed her body to move, her body parts were simply too damaged to move effectively even if she ignored the pain.

Being only just recently damaged even before she came to the new world, and overworking her body, massacring guards in the Malthan palace, some of the dressings on her injuries have started to once more make a headache for her in her most crucial of moments.

“What’s the matter Yuusha? Are you already giving up?” Lionel asked, disgusted at Rei’s show of weakness, although somewhat wary that it might be a ploy as well.

Even still, he kept exchanging blows, dealing more wounding Rei even more as time went on.

If this went any further she would be dead, and both Lionel and Rei knew that.

She needed something to turn the tide around, and luckily she just had the tool for the job

Rei threw her knife and spear, and during the timespan Lionel deflected both with his rapier.

Rei backed away quickly, and pulled out a black metal object from underneath her skirt.

Projectile weapon? Check.

Armour Piercing Arrow? Check.

Quick Load Ammunition? Check.

'Face the power of modern civilization you primate!'

To be exact, it was the pistol model Glock 68, a standard issue for many militaries in the 23rd century, a prime example of what separates the sword-wielding savages of the past from the enlightened people in the contemporary period.

The superiority of arms.

“Try parrying this!” Rei shouted, unloading the entire magazine unto her sword-wielding opponent.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

"Wha--"

It was a voice that belonged to Lionel … not.

"How do you parry seven bullets!?"

Rei was, to put it mildly, in disbelief.

'Is something like this really even possible through training alone!?' Rei couldn’t help but think in frustration, as she didn’t expect that the stuff she read in the books were actually possible.

Lionel stared silently at Rei, but of course it was not like he wasn't wounded.

He had enough speed to parry seven bullets, However he did not have enough skill to parry seven bullets.

Lionel had deflected six out of seven bullets, and sliced the last one, a fragment of the last bullet embedding itself deep into Lionel's left shoulder, precisely hitting the gap of his armour.

The bullet had also effectively torn off the band of fibrous connective tissue connecting Lionel’s shoulder bone, thus disabling his left arm.

A person would be naturally overjoyed at this, however Rei still thought of a plan to get herself out of the situation.

By the way the fight went, only Lionel’s left arm was disabled …

However, he was right-handed.

And the weapon that Lionel was using, as well as excels in … was a rapier.

A weapon which was designed for only one hand.

"You've managed to wound me … I'll give you that …"

Lionel then started grinning from ear to ear, before saying … “I guess I’ll start to be more serious from now …”

Lionel had suddenly started giggling.

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