Take a Hit

Pandora August.

The secret art passed down in the August family, known as Sword Shard Ashen Rain.

It is a secret technique that manipulates thin sword fragments like ashes.

This storm of sword fragments can tear through a person’s skin and muscles in an instant.

Thus, those who face the August family often find themselves in a pitiful state with their skin torn to shreds.

Zip! Zip zip!

As evidence, small wounds continued to accumulate on Haring’s body.

The skill she possessed, Invisible, was optimal for ambush and surprise attacks.

Naturally, in a head-on confrontation, Invisible was of little use.

Especially if the opponent was someone like Pandora who could launch an all-directional attack.

Pandora leisurely walked with his hands in his pockets.

Each time he moved, the sword dust circling him continued to press Haring.

At some point, Haring had dispelled Invisible and was using her dagger to fend off the sword dust.

She knew well that Invisible was meaningless against Pandora.

“The Lagrain family is one I hold in some regard. With the Poison King among the Ten Strongest Under the Heavens, and a poison effective even against World Erosion Species, it’s undoubtedly formidable.”

Pandora spoke highly of the Poison King as he adjusted his glasses.

“But his daughter seems to be a different story. Utterly pathetic. Do you think there will be many head-on confrontations in World Erosion with so many surprise attacks?”

Pandora sneered as he observed her inability to pierce through his sword dust.

Haring’s stamina was already significantly drained from the earlier battle with Libra.

Especially her wrist, which had been bound by chains, was in bad shape.

She couldn’t wield her dagger to fend off all the sword dust due to her injured wrist.

Zip!

And Pandora had no intention of leaving her injured wrist alone.

Blood splattered as the sword dust skimmed past her wrist.

“Ugh.”

Haring swallowed a groan and took another step back.

But she realized she had no more room to retreat.

Her foot had reached the end of the arena.

“No matter how much I think about it, I really don’t understand.”

The storm of sword dust began to swirl more violently.

From within that storm, Pandora looked at Haring and asked.

“Haring, a junior, why would an Imperial noble help a Starlon noble at a critical time when even the Imperial faction needs to unite their strength?”

Pandora couldn’t understand this even a bit.

It was an action that someone who revered the Empire like him could never accept.

However, Haring’s expression remained unchanged.

“In the World Erosion, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Empire or Starlon.”

She simply shared what she had directly experienced and heard from someone.

“I only know that someone like Kraush is the most reliable in World Erosion.”

That day, facing Decarabia with the Twin Sprout.

Haring confronted Decarabia with all her might.

And it was Kraush who responded with even more strength than her own.

If she had to fight in World Erosion, she wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with someone like that.

And more than anything, she wanted to help Kraush, who would surely do his best even in the future, not crumble.

That was Haring’s true intention.

‘I won’t let it end up like my brother.’

She wouldn’t let the same thing happen again.

Haring’s eyes shone with a clear purple light.

Seeing that, Pandora briefly swallowed a laugh.

“Oh, really.”

At that moment, the storm of sword dust suddenly halted.

The sight of the wildly swinging sword dust stopping in mid-air was more oppressive than expected.

“I wasted my time trying to enlighten you.”

With those words, the sword dust poured down on Haring.

The moment thousands of sword dust pieces flooded down, Haring’s body was sure to be torn to pieces.

But Pandora intended to give Haring a bitter taste this time.

To show what happens when someone from the Empire prioritizes people from another country over their own.

Just as Haring was about to be shredded by the sword dust.

A purple poison aura rose from Haring’s body.

By the time Pandora confirmed it, it was already too late.

Haring had leaped into the Sword Shard Ashen Rain without a hint of hesitation.

“This… insane!”

Pandora was flustered seeing Haring commit such a seemingly suicidal act, but he realized it wasn’t time to halt the Sword Shard Ashen Rain.

Because the poison aura from Haring’s body was melting the sword fragments flying towards her.

Pandora’s eyes widened.

He hadn’t expected a direct charge.

But no matter how accustomed to poison the direct line of the Lagrain family was, doing something like that would surely harm them as well.

And Pandora’s thoughts were right.

The poison aura of the Mandel Poison she used was so potent that it was harming her body as well.

Her skin was blistering, and the exposed wounds were causing pain due to the poison.

An all-out charge without looking back, sacrificing her own body.

It was a method very similar to that of someone else.

Sizzle!

The sword dust of the Sword Shard Ashen Rain began to melt.

Pandora, who had maintained the upper hand within the Sword Shard Ashen Rain until now, was finally fully exposed.

Pandora’s eyes widened.

Despite everything, Haring had broken through the Sword Shard Ashen Rain and was right in front of him.

Haring stomped hard on the ground and lunged at Pandora.

With poison-coated daggers, her arms extended toward Pandora.

Just when she saw the victory in her eyes.

Clang!

What echoed was the sound of swords clashing.

In front of the thrust dagger.

There was a sword formed from the gathered sword fragments of the Sword Shard Ashen Rain.

Pandora’s eyebrows twitched behind his glasses as if he couldn’t believe it.

Pandora had not been hiding inside the Sword Shard Ashen Rain.

He merely believed this would be enough and controlled the Sword Shard Ashen Rain.

Whether Haring closed the distance or not never mattered to Pandora from the beginning.

He was confident even if it came to a direct confrontation.

“…I did mention a head-on confrontation a while ago, didn’t I?”

Clang!

Pandora’s swung sword deflected Haring’s dagger.

With her severely injured wrist, Haring couldn’t withstand his strength.

Clatter!

While the deflected dagger rolled on the ground, Haring hurriedly tried to regain her stance.

But Pandora was already extending his other hand toward her.

In that hand gathered a condensation of sword dust.

Sword Shard Ashen Rain

Second Form

Sword Shard Bullet

Boom!

With a resounding explosion, Haring was swept away by the sword dust bullet.

Haring’s body soared into the sky.

And before her body could hit the ground, someone caught her.

Haring’s eyes slowly opened.

She faintly saw dark blue hair.

Outside the arena.

Before she hit the ground, Kraush had caught her.

“Rest now.”

Hearing those words, Haring closed her eyes gently.

Kraush lifted Haring lightly and handed her over to a Theology student who had been waiting.

Kraush turned his head.

There was Pandora, who was relatively unharmed compared to Haring, scoffing.

“Useless struggle.”

Kraush slowly started walking onto the arena.

“Do you really think that?”

When he asked, Pandora’s eyes opened slightly.

It was a response as if asking what he meant.

But at that moment, Pandora felt the scene before him splitting apart.

Simultaneously, his pulse became irregular, and his breathing grew rough.

“Ugh.”

Grabbing his chest, a bloody mixture of saliva spilled from his mouth.

He finally realized something was wrong with his body.

Unaware of when he was hit, bewilderment filled his eyes.

But Kraush pointed toward his arm.

“It must have been when you retrieved the sword dust.”

Pandora’s eyes quickly turned to his hand.

He saw a thin, sharp wire-like thread between the sword dust.

The thread was connected to the sword dust and wrapped around his fingertip.

Drip drip-

Blood dripping from the fingertip turned black.

A sign of poison infection.

When Haring first used Invisible.

Her purpose wasn’t hiding but concealing her actions.

Amidst the storm of sword dust, she scattered Lagrain family signature hidden weapons that released poison upon contact.

As a result, the wires, unseen due to Invisible, floated momentarily in the storm of sword dust.

Thus, Haring chose a frontal breakthrough.

To lure Pandora into returning the sword dust to him just once.

And that lure worked precisely.

With her body condition not normal, it was the best move she could make.

Haring executed that move brilliantly.

“Ugh!”

Pandora vomited from his stomach onto the floor.

He seemed to be in severe pain, clutching the ground.

“Referee, start.”

Regardless of that, Kraush unperturbedly signaled the referee to start.

The referee looked flustered, but according to the battle rules, one could only leave the arena after admitting defeat or fainting.

Pandora hadn’t yet admitted defeat.

And he wouldn’t be able to declare defeat.

Because the moment an Imperial noble admitted defeat to a Starlon, it would be the end in various ways.

Kraush knew that well, so he told the referee to start.

“Oh, okay, yes, start!”

The referee student, thinking it might be better to end it quickly, immediately announced the start.

At the sound of the signal, Kraush took a step back.

“Seems like you wanted to exhaust my strength.”

Simultaneously, Annihilation Erosion began to surge within Kraush’s body.

The tempering, which began internally, gradually increased Kraush’s heat.

And as the heat grew, the spectators sensed something was off.

One by one, they couldn’t withstand the heat and began to retreat.

Woosh!

The black flame surged violently, filling the arena.

And facing that black flame, Pandora’s face grew increasingly pale.

Crack!

Pandora’s glasses cracked under the unbearable heat.

The suffocating heat seemed ready to cause asphyxiation by burning up the oxygen.

Kraush slowly raised Rain Thunder Prime.

As he did, a scabbard of lightning formed over the golden blade of Rain Thunder Prime.

Crackle!

With the sound of bursting thunder, the Annihilation Erosion clashed within the scabbard, growing in strength.

Chill!

Dangerous.

Taking that head-on would be extremely dangerous.

Kraush’s face was reflected beyond his glasses.

Inside the eyes that resembled his sister, the colored light vanished.

Only then did Pandora realize.

He was the brother of Charlotte and even more relentless than her.

Those eyes, filled solely with the intent to kill, stared at Pandora.

Balheim.

The emotionless gaze of those born in that demon realm was akin to that of a reaper.

He would kill.

That guy might really kill him.

“W-Wait…”

Pandora hastily raised his hand, ready to plead for mercy, about to declare defeat.

“I’ll do as you wish.”

Kraush didn’t let him finish his sentence and only curled his lips into a smile.

And the scabbard of lightning shattered.

Crackle!

Annihilation Erosion

Third Form

Sky-Thundering Annihilation

A storm mixed with black flame and lightning swept across the arena in an instant.

Before the destructive power, far beyond Pandora’s sword dust storm, spectators screamed and tumbled.

Tsss, tatata-

In the arena, swept by the black flame.

Pandora lay on the ground, his head twisted back, unconscious.

The broken glasses, along with his outstretched body, were scorched by the black flame and left in disarray.

Though he didn’t take the Sky-Thundering Annihilation directly, he ended up in such a state.

His pant leg was wet from the glimpse of death at the last moment.

‘Still the same.’

Kraush clicked his tongue, recalling Pandora, who had been thoroughly defeated by Arthur.

Because Pandora had previously been beaten in a similar manner by Arthur.

For Pandora, Arthur, a local noble suddenly rising in the Imperial faction, must have been displeasing.

‘If only he had some skill, I could have beaten him more and taken it.’

Unfortunately, Pandora didn’t even have that.

But someone here indeed had a skill.

Kraush extinguished the black flame on Rain Thunder Prime and looked up.

Because through the smoke, that person was walking in.

The one walking out was none other than Arsoldar Freya.

With a fierce build befitting a child of Freya, he smiled broadly when he saw Kraush.

“Charlotte’s brother, I’ve been itching to fight while waiting.”

Kraush glanced at Arsoldar and lightly cracked his neck.

“Have you ever beaten my sister Charlotte?”

When Kraush asked, Arsoldar blinked.

Then he let out a hearty laugh.

“No, your sister is too strong. I couldn’t beat her.”

“Alright.”

Arsoldar seemed not to care at all about defeat.

Observing him, Kraush chuckled briefly.

“Then you won’t beat me either.”

Go ahead and lose to both siblings.

End of Chapter

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