CHAPTER 268: RUINED THE DATE [5]

The S-rank aberrant’s eyes burned brighter and molten ether spilled from its joints in molten streams.

"GRAARGHHH!" With a guttural roar, it stamped the ground, and the crater’s floor rippled like a liquid.

Black spires erupted upward, lancing toward Clarisse.

Her sword spun once in her hand and petals spiraled outward in all directions.

She dashed forward, weaving between the spears as the petals cut through any spears that closed in too fast.

The monster’s claws came down and she vanished into petals.

A rush of crimson light appeared behind the S-rank’s head and it sliced deep into the neck joint as black blood sprayed into the air.

The creature howled and spun, its arm sweeping in a backhand that could have flattened an average A-rank awakener.

Clarisse didn’t dodge this time.

She planted her feet, poured ether into her blade, and met the strike head-on.

CLANKKKKK!

The impact shook the crater like thunder and she slid back two steps, but the arm’s momentum shattered.

Her voice was calm "Crimson Sever."

The petals around her condensed into a cyclone, collapsing inward onto her blade.

The weapon blazed and the edge glowed white-hot with compressed ether.

SWOOSH!

She lunged forward so fast the afterimage of her petals lingered like a ghost.

The S-rank aberrant crossed both arms to block, but her strike tore through them like paper, splitting armor, flesh, and bone.

SWOOSH!

The force carried into its torso, carving a glowing seam down its chest.

The aberrant staggered and its maw opened wide, ether building into a swirling black-and-red sphere of beam.

Clarisse’s gaze sharpened, and she lifted her sword with both hands, petals erupting from the ground and the air.

"Full Bloom."

Crimson petal shapes appeared on her eyes and the petals shot upward in a vertical spiral, swirling around her like a tornado.

In the blink of an eye, they compressed into hundreds of spears, each tipped with blinding crimson light.

She swung her sword in a perfect diagonal slash and every spear launched at once.

SWOOOOOSSSHHHHH! THOOOMMMM!

They struck the monster from every angle, punching through armor and bursting inside its body.

Ether detonations rippled outward in a chain, shredding it from within.

The S-rank aberrant let out a final, distorted scream before the core in its chest shattered under the last blast.

The explosion lit the entire basin, sending a shockwave that blew back the remaining B- and C-ranks like leaves in a storm.

The storm clouds above fractured, letting pale light spill into the rupture.

When the dust settled, Clarisse stood in the center of a crater inside the crater with the sword tip planted in the ground, petals drifting lazily in the still air.

The S-rank aberrant lay in two massive pieces behind her, already disintegrating into ether mist.

Without turning, she called over her shoulder "Brandon. Clear on your end?"

He twisted his wrist, his dagger sliding along the inside of a B-rank aberrant’s forearm before plunging cleanly into its throat.

He pulled it free, spun, and split a C-rank in half in the same motion.

"Almost..." he replied and his voice was calm despite the carnage around him.

Astrid was still tucked behind him with her arms loosely looped around his waist, cheek resting against his back.

"Let’s go, boyfriend! You’re making this look way too easy!"

Another B-rank lunged from the left with its arm was already mid-swing when Brandon shifted his stance.

Ether surged through his legs, and gravity itself seemed to pull him sideways at an impossible angle.

His dagger traced a neat crescent through the creature’s midsection before he let momentum carry him into a second slash that severed its spine.

SLEESH!

Two more C-ranks darted in from the front.

Brandon didn’t even break stride and one of his daggers flicked up to open the first’s jawline, and the other swept low to cut the tendons of the second’s legs.

Both collapsed in unison, ether leaking from their wounds.

Astrid’s smile grew wider "Mm~ You’re even cooler up close, you know that?"

Brandon didn’t answer, his attention locked on the next wave.

A B-rank aberrant rushed in with reckless force, but he met it head-on, using a sudden burst of gravity to pull it forward into his strike.

The blades crossed at its neck and the head spun away before the body crumpled.

Clarisse, standing near the ruined remains of the S-rank, turned to look at him.

Her eyes narrowed slightly looking at his movements.

For a brief moment, her gaze softened into something like surprise... then shifted into acknowledgment.

’He has improved so well within months. It won’t be soon before he catches up with me.’

She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed faintly ’I need to train harder...’

Brandon finished the last C-rank in his immediate vicinity, his daggers dripping with fading ether, and straightened "Now I’m done."

Clarisse gave him a small nod before turning her attention to the core.

The battlefield had gone eerily quiet except for the faint hiss of dissipating ether where fallen aberrants lay.

The massive, pulsating core loomed ahead with its surface glowing in a dark, glassy sheen veined with blood-red cracks.

Clarisse exhaled slowly, her grip tightening on the hilt of her sword.

"Stand back," she said without looking over her shoulder.

Before Brandon could reply, her body dissolved into a storm of crimson petals and she was in front of the core.

The petals swirled around her, condensing along the length of her blade until it blazed with a deep, searing red light.

Each step she took toward the core shattered the ground beneath her feet as ether pressure bent the air before a lightning strike.

But the core pulsed harder, almost in panic.

From its surface, more B-rank aberrants began clawing their way out in a desperate attempt to shield it.

SLEECH!

Her blade traced an upward arc and the nearest three aberrants were bisected before they could even scream, petals scattering through their dissolving bodies.

The blade’s glow erupted outward in a massive, crescent-shaped slash.

CLANK!

It struck the core dead-center with an impact that rippled the air and the explosion of light was so intense Astrid flinched despite being behind Brandon.

The rupture walls shook violently and the twisted clouds above tore apart as if something had ripped the sky open.

Crack...

The core cracked with a sound like breaking glass, once, twice... before a final strike from Clarisse’s sword plunged deep into it.

THOOM!!

Ether burst outward in a shockwave that tore the last aberrants apart where they stood.

When the light faded, the core was gone.

Only drifting rose petals and faintly glowing embers remained, slowly dissolving into the air.

Despite that, Clarisse’s gaze narrowed as the rupture showed no signs of disappearing ’What is happening? I have already destroyed the core.’

Astrid felt a shiver run down her spine, as her skill sensed an eerie pressure around the rupture ’The rupture is dissipating... but something powerful is still holding the rupture together without a core?’

Brandon also looked around in confusion ’What is this feeling, something is definitely not right.’

In the next instant, time itself slowed, and a woman’s dark hair fluttered in the wind...