Once again Entoma flashed out of the way, and activated her special ability.
“Ah!? Do you only know how to run?”
The war pick began rotating, creating a large vortex of wind which circulated above the manwoman’s head, ruffling her hair.
“Heh, do you like to spin things around and make woosh woosh sounds?”
The manwoman clicked her tongue in response to this jeering. When Entoma once again activated her skill, the hammer swung downwards from above. With some difficulty she managed to dodge and the war pick buried itself deeply into the ground after missing its target.
Entoma laughed at her using the same move. Her expression did not change, and the mocking gesture exposed their difference in strength.
That manwoman caught onto the overwhelmingly powerful Entoma’s carelessness.
“Get crushed!”
Having the spiked war pick as the epicentre, the surrounding ground began to collapse, or rather, the rocks scattered. It was like an earthquake had occurred. For the first time, Entoma was unable to maintain a leisurely posture, but the effect of the opponent’s magic item did not collapse everything.
Entoma saw the opponent uproot the sunken war pick.
She could not help getting annoyed.
She cursed her own carelessness.
Avoiding that previous attack had been incredibly easy. Humans would find it very difficult to escape the earth-shattering shock waves because the collapse of the surrounding ground would result in a loss of balance. However Entoma was a battle maid and all the magic items she possessed were high-class. This degree of destruction was insignificant to her.
However, there was one problem.
While avoiding the flying debris, the maid outfit she wore had become dirty.
Could such a matter be forgiven? This was high-class clothing bestowed to Entoma by the Supreme Beings.
So— it ends here then.
Hostility hidden under the mask of Entoma’s face emerged.
It ends here.
— Kill.
She embraced murderous intent, not the type of emotion that humans had when toying with insects. The war pick swung heavily towards Entoma.
Entoma thoughtlessly raised her left hand to block the hammer. Since she was not at the level of the Floor Guardians, simply using her left hand to block the hammer could not possibly leave her unscathed.
Then, at the moment of contact, the sound that rang out was not metal hitting flesh but rather the sound of metal colliding with a hard object.
A shield was attached to Entoma’s left hand. This was not an exaggerated metaphor. An eight legged insect had attached itself to Entoma’s wrist.
“Wh-what is this!”
“You see, I’m an entomomancer. So I can summon and use them at my will.”
She stretched out her right hand and an insect flew out from the darkness. A long bug resembling a broadsword attached itself to the back of Entoma’s right hand.
“These are blade insect and armoured insect. I originally did not plan to kill you, but you cannot be forgiven!”
Entoma took a step forward and thrust out her blade.
The manwoman’s armour cracked and blood spewed out, but this was far from being a fatal wound. She was completely unable to avoid Entoma’s serious blow but had only suffered a minor injury.
She had just declared herself to be a highest-class warrior of the Kingdom, and this was not an exaggeration. At her level, there were no longer any adversaries.
Although Entoma was not purely a warrior like Yuri, she was still a battle maid and possessed a strength far out of reach for humans.
She once again launched a slash, causing blood to spew and staining her cheeks.
This time the attack caused a wound much larger than the previous one, and was no longer a minor injury.
“Your movements changed! Is this the real you?!”
Manwoman roared again, swinging the war pick heavily downwards. However Entoma’s armoured beetle repelled the hammer. The powerful impact travelled across the manwoman’s entire body, rendering her unable to take a single step even with her full strength. As she struggled to move, her pride ignited fierce anger within her.
The manwoman mustered the burning rage within her, smoothly launching a combination of strikes. Her attacks raged like a violent tornado. The terrifying aspect of this was that it was created through the application of ‘martial arts’ unique to this world. However, Entoma wielded her armoured beetle and blade insect with extreme proficiency, and was completely uninjured by this fifteen-combo attack.
Entoma did not know that the previous attack was Blue Rose Gagaran’s slaying move which utilised many kinds of martial arts at the same time— a Super Combo. Each surging strike had the weight of her full strength. It was capable of even breaking the martial art ‘Fortress’, and only a small number of geniuses could use the defensive skill ‘Invulnerable Fortress’ which could resist this attack. However Entoma had only relied on her naturally grown muscles to block.
This was because of the level gap between the two individuals, and also due to the absolutely overwhelming disparity between the two race’s physical capabilities.
Desperation emerged in her opponent’s eyes, but Entoma felt nothing. She only wished to kill the opponent.
"— Fuuuu~"
The manwoman gasped for air as if she had just surfaced from underwater and stopped her flurry of attacks. The blade insect on Entoma’s right hand drew back like a bow and flew towards the manwoman’s chest like an arrow.
The target was Gagaran’s chest. The war pick rose in the air, but was as slow as a turtle. Entoma’s attack pierced Gagaran’s chest before she could respond to it.
Or so it was supposed to.
The sword cut through the air. Since the blade insect lost its target, it flew into the night.
With a “fuu”, Entoma turned her gaze to search for the intruder that had caused the interruption.
In the distance there was a girl clothed in black. Behind her was the heavily breathing manwoman.
“I’m sorry, Tia. I thought I was done for.”
“Surprisingly, it seems that the blood flowing through Gagaran really is red~”
“You rascal! You’ve seen me injured many times before!”
“I even thought you would bleed green blood. Power Up!”
“Rather than ‘Powerup’ that would be more like a race change!”
“Class change then!”
Hearing their relaxed conversation, Entoma could not help but feel anxious. As a powerful adversary herself, it was necessary to clearly demonstrate the difference in strength at a glance whilst at the same time quickly defining her own position.
“Well, it’s about time to end this. Did you say your farewells?”
For the first time, Entoma assumed a fighting posture. The manwoman — Gagaran — was not a frightening adversary; the problem was the newcomer— Tia. If her clothing was not that of an assassin, then it was that of a ninja. The pre-requisite of that job class was level sixty.
If she really was a ninja, then even Entoma would not be able to obtain an easy victory. Now was not the time to be saying “Ending this fight by holding back on full strength!”
“「Spider Talisman」!”
Entoma’s movements were even faster than the opponent as she activated the four pieces of talisman held in her right hand.
The moment the talisman fell onto the ground, it turned into an enormous spider.
The level of this spell was equivalent to a ‘3rd tier Summon Monster’ spell, because the creature summoned was not a powerful monster, but would already be a great help in testing the opponent’s true strength. Furthermore it would allow her to buy some time to prepare for battle.