Relying on her nimble form, Estelle wove through the massive Skeleton Magical Beasts.
Their seemingly powerful collisions couldn’t harm her in the slightest; in fact, they even helped her.
She didn’t use the opportunities provided by their charges to attack. Instead, she intentionally drew these low-intelligence giants together, causing them to crash into one another.
Once these creatures collided, the Magic Protection enveloping their bodies would briefly dissipate.
Without that protection, the massive beasts were nothing more than fragile toys made of bone. Estelle’s subsequent attacks could then easily dismantle them.
Using this technique, Estelle destroyed more than a dozen skeletal beasts. When only one remained, she finally had to take the initiative herself.
Fortunately, this was still simple for her.
As the final Skeleton Magical Beast collapsed, Estelle stood atop its skull and pulled out the Gray Sword embedded within it.
“Phew…”
She exhaled softly.
If not for the Soul Sea Wind, Estelle could have handled things much more cleanly. The Soul Sea Wind forced her to keep her mind constantly tense to resist it, which was extremely draining.
Just as Estelle was about to hop down from the beast’s skull to find a place to rest and recover before heading deeper, an aura that felt incredibly threatening drew near!
Almost instantly, she readied herself for battle.
Holding her breath, she focused her gaze.
Reflected in Estelle’s pale gold eyes was a strange figure. It was a knight riding a skeleton horse, wearing heavily rusted armor, and holding a sword riddled with notches.
Yet, the aura radiating from this individual already surpassed the massive Skeleton Magical Beast beneath her feet.
[Magic Power: Fifth-Tier]
Estelle had already sensed the opponent’s strength, but she wasn’t quite sure why such a fellow would appear on the outermost perimeter.
‘According to my previous observations, this doesn’t make sense.’
The Skeleton Magical Beasts from before might have looked large, but they were just that—large. After all, there were many forests composed of giant trees in the Northern Mountains.
Magical beasts possessing Magic Power grew much larger than ordinary animals; legends said they carried the bloodline of ancient Beast Races.
These were things Estelle knew from books.
Those seemingly giant Skeleton Magical Beasts could be handled by an ordinary Third Rank.
A place where such creatures were buried shouldn’t have a knight sufficient to reach the Fifth-Tier.
However, even if she didn’t understand the reason for its appearance, she chose to grip her sword, prepared to face the powerful enemy before her.
Suddenly, the Skeleton Horse beneath the Skeleton Knight reared its front hooves.
After a silent neigh, it accelerated and charged toward Estelle.
The skeleton horse and the rusted knight were surrounded by thick, dark red Magic Power.
They made clacking and clanging sounds as they charged.
The murderous, tyrannical aura on the longsword revealed how overbearing its master must have been in life.
Estelle, meanwhile, was enveloped in a layer of pure silver light.
This was her using Magic Power to reinforce her body. Facing the Skeleton Knight’s charge, she did not choose to retreat; instead, she stood her ground.
Even if the bone horse was nothing but skeletons, it still gave off a tall and mighty impression.
It arrived right in front of Estelle, and it was only then that she truly felt the massive scale she had to look up at.
The longsword, carrying a dark red sword light, slashed down.
Swoosh!
The head of the Skeleton Magical Beast beneath Estelle’s feet was sliced into two halves by a 5 or 6 meters tall dark red slash. Estelle dodged the attack at the last moment and swung her own sword simultaneously.
A silver sword light slashed toward the Skeleton Knight as it passed her, but the knight turned its horse and parried the strike with a single swing.
Estelle’s pupils widened slightly.
The Skeleton Knight’s horizontal slash actually produced a 10-meter Sword Qi!
That terrifying Sword Qi looked as if space itself had opened a crimson maw, intending to swallow Estelle’s tiny body, which wasn’t even enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.
Seeing the crimson Sword Qi quickly approaching and filling her entire field of vision, it was impossible for Estelle not to react.
Hide?
She initially wanted to dodge, but the Sword Qi was too large; she wouldn’t even have time to leave the area of effect.
Estelle made her choice quickly. Holding the Gray Sword high with both hands, the silver light on her body dimmed, while the silver Sword Qi on the blade grew increasingly bright and dense.
As she swung her sword downward, a Half-moon Slash shot straight across the skeletal earth. It collided with the crimson Sword Qi, instantly causing Magic Power to surge and kicking up a violent wind. Estelle shielded her eyes with her arm, but her gaze remained locked on the dust and smoke.
The figure of the Skeleton Knight remained hidden, causing a flicker of doubt in Estelle’s heart.
At that moment, the sound of hooves crushing bone rang out from a direction very close to her. She knew the fellow was coming!
Just as Estelle was about to turn her head, she suddenly realized something was wrong and hurriedly used her sword to block her slender waist.
Ting!
Sword met sword, and sparks flew.
Estelle was sent flying by a force no weaker than the savage collision of a Skeleton Magical Beast. Tumbling over a pile of broken bones was not pleasant.
She stood up and immediately dodged a fatal downward slash, while simultaneously sidestepping a crimson Sword Qi.
Bang!
The ground was struck by the impact of Magic Power and Sword Qi, erupting into a towering flare of light.
Small bone fragments hit Estelle’s slightly perspiring cheek.
Although she looked a bit disheveled, her expression remained as calm as ever.
‘This Skeleton Knight’s intelligence isn’t low…’
From the human skeleton soldiers that could be called small fry at the beginning, to those skeletal beasts, and finally to this eerie Skeleton Knight—it seemed their intelligence grew higher the stronger they were.
‘No, maybe it isn’t intelligence… it’s combat instinct…’
Estelle’s eyes narrowed slightly.
She struggled to match swordsmanship with this Fifth-Tier Skeleton Knight that possessed rich combat experience.
Unsurprisingly, she was at a disadvantage.
This situation was caused by a lack of raw strength, as well as a lack of attainment in swordsmanship and combat experience.
And what she could gain here was exactly that experience.
Estelle worked hard to learn her opponent’s fighting style, supplementing what she lacked.
This was something she couldn’t get from practicing with classmates at the Academy.
She wasn’t a battle maniac; it was just that the thing she pursued, and the only thing she knew how to do, happened to be this.
Blade clashed against blade, essence and Magic Power competed…
In the quiet little ruined house, Estelle panted heavily while staring at the Bleached Bone Spear stuck in the ground.
She had lost…
After all, being inside meant she was limited by the negative effects of the Soul Sea Wind every second.
She had no way to exert her full strength.
Moreover, she was fighting someone of a higher tier; losing was normal. But she didn’t want to lose at all.
Estelle waited until her breathing gradually slowed. After wiping the fine beads of sweat from her forehead, she used her hands to prop up her tired body.
Just as she was about to reach out and grip the bone spear once more, a slender, delicate hand grabbed her wrist first.
From the look of the hand, it clearly belonged to a woman.
Estelle turned around and saw a gray-haired woman wearing a black-and-gray Long Robe.
The woman’s appearance wasn’t very familiar, but there was a sense of familiarity in the aura she gave off.
The newcomer was Enya.
“Ahem…”
Enya was currently wearing the Mask of a Thousand Faces. She didn’t want Estelle to recognize her just yet; she still needed to melt the ice in this child’s heart first.
After clearing her throat, she spoke softly.
“It’s me. Don’t you remember?”
“…Predecessor?”
Estelle remembered this voice. She used the title immediately.
She had been saved by this “Predecessor.”
And the bone spear had also been given by the “Predecessor” for her to practice her sword skills.
Estelle’s eyes softened noticeably, and the slight tension in her hand as she tried to pull away disappeared.
“Predecessor, are you back from being busy?”
“Yes.”
Enya nodded slightly.
Estelle looked at Enya with curiosity.
The last time she saw Enya appearing as “Predecessor Ain,” she had been an Armored Dragon Princess. But now, she looked like a Human?
The young girl tilted her head, her pale gold eyes staring toward Enya’s backside.
“Predecessor, where is your tail?”
“Predecessor, where are your wings?”
“Predecessor, where are your Dragon Horns?”
The smile that was about to rise on Enya’s face was pushed right back down by these questions. She thought for a moment and then made up a lie.
“I’ve hidden them. After all, when wandering in the Human World, one must disguise themselves as a Human to make things easier…”
“Oh.”
After hearing Enya’s answer, Estelle gave a flat response with an expression that looked like she understood but didn’t quite understand. Then, she silently withdrew her gaze.
However, she was still curious about how a woman of the Dragon Tribe hid her tail, so her peripheral vision kept drifting toward the area behind Enya.
This made Enya quite uncomfortable.
‘Silly girl, you can’t be this blunt with other girls outside! It’ll be hard to make friends that way!’
‘Luckily I’m your mother, otherwise I’d have to put you across my lap and spank you.’
Enya gave an awkward smile. She coughed lightly and spoke, bringing the conversation between mother and daughter back on track.
“Estelle’s performance was good. Now, I’ve decided to teach you some advanced techniques.”
What she had taught Estelle before were just introductory swordsmanship techniques, meant to give her eldest daughter a good foundation.
Now, what Enya was going to teach Estelle would be her Heavenly Sword Art.
Enya believed Estelle would certainly be able to learn it.
“It will be very difficult. Are you prepared?”
“Yes.”
Estelle felt like she had been acknowledged.
A strange feeling rose in her heart, making her feel comfortable and happy from the inside out.
‘Is this the “happiness” mentioned in books?’
However, she suddenly thought of something and asked Enya bluntly.
“Predecessor, do you know Enya?”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.