CHAPTER 393: FALL OF AN ALPHA? [11]

As her voice echoed, the Alpha slowly lowered its arms before blinking away the blood that had run over its eyes. It looked at the translucent, vibrant lines connecting it and Lillian.

It began to feel a sense of weakness. Was it because of these strings in the liquid wires?

It watched as the mana wrapped around its limbs began to dim. The Alpha widened its eyes and swiped at Lillian’s [Parasitic Lines], tearing through them.

Once the lines had been disconnected, The Alpha still felt a wave of both sickness and weakness. What was going on? What was causing it to feel this pathetic feeling?

Before it could figure out the reason, another barrage of water spears fell upon it—causing it to put up its guard once more and endure the attack that chipped away at its armour.

And when the barrage ended and another horde of translucent lines appeared once more, it felt enraged as the attacks pierced into its flesh.

However, in the midst of its anger, it failed to realise something growing in the corners of its eyes along its body, most predominantly on its flesh.

They were like pebble-sized warts that rapidly grew in size.

Lillian, who watched as the warts grew to the size of beach balls, grinned as she watched them pop into scalding hot water.

The Alpha jolted back as the scalding liquid fell into its open wounds, causing it to experience an extreme amount of pain as it scratched its claws along the ground violently.

And as though its situation couldn’t get any worse, the area where the warts had exploded began to sprout new ones at an alarming rate.

It was as if the Alpha had contracted a rather dreadful disease.

As Lillian watched it writhing in pain, she suddenly yanked the Black Maw out from its place in the wall and leapt down, dodging a boulder launched towards her location.

The boulder shattered upon contact with the wall like a firework, showering down its dust and debris as Lillian fell towards the ground.

She then morphed into water and nullified her fall. After reforming, she rested the back of the Black Maw’s blade on her shoulder with a snort.

She watched as the Alpha tore through her [Parasitic Lines] once more before lowering its body onto all fours with a burning light in its yellow eyes.

Lillian adjusted her feet on the uneven terrain before holding her blade horizontally out from her. She then pulled out a glass vial filled with an ominous dark purple mixture.

This was one of the few poisons Lillian had stolen from Marionette a while back. If she had to assume from an educated guess, this particular poison was of an acidic kind.

Pouring it over her black blade and watching as droplets dripped to the ground and caused a horrid vapour to appear, Lillian readied her stance.

And as she got into stance, the runes on her gauntlets glowed and a deep golden light—signifying the activation of one of its four enchantments.

[Rememberance]: the Enchantment where Lillian could completely copy a person’s combat style.

Of course, such an enchantment must have a limitation, and that was correct. It was an ability she could only activate once per day and could only use it for 10 minutes.

But not only that, but there was a hidden condition. She would have needed to have fought with the target for a long time.

And...

Who else had she fought for a long time and could always count on them to ensure absolute victory?

It was obviously her beloved Assassin, Marionette Von Roselle.

Lillian’s mind was temporarily injected with information on the Roselle family’s combat style, the Crimson Nocturne. And because of that, she now had near control over all 100% of her muscles.

And yet... The Black Maw didn’t even feel just an inch lighter compared to before.

Breathing in a deep breath and assuming Marionette’s usual stance, she watched calmly as the Alpha began to make its move.

Leaping over the uneven and rough terrain, the Alpha charged towards her with fury in its eyes as it grabbed onto another boulder.

Lillian leapt forward, charging straight into an incoming tossed boulder. Then, using the uneven terrain, she slid under the boulder—

SKR

...!

—narrowly dodging it as it skimmed the tip of her nose.

Feeling the sound of her armour grinding along the stone, Lillian quickly shot back up onto her feet as she blasted forward with both hands clutched around the hilt of her odachi.

The two charged towards each other with malice in their eyes.

And in just a few seconds, the two clashed.

Skillfully ducking under its swift swing, Lillian straightened her back and activated the enchantment of her boots, causing her to teleport 10 metres towards the direction she was looking.

Lillian blurred and flashed through the air, reaching the Alpha’s shoulder, which already had most of its armour peeled off.

Lillian then held her sword over her head and muttered quietly, "[1st Technique of the Crimson Nocturne: First Bloom]!"

As though empowered by her words, her mana rushed towards her blade, and the muscles in her arms tightened as blood raced through her veins.

With an overhead swing, Lillian’s blade curved through the air and bit into the flesh of the Alpha—eating and cleaving through its thick muscle strings with unnatural ease.

As Lillian’s blade cut cleanly through its flesh, an arc of blood shot out—forming a rough image of a rose opening its first petal.

The area that Lillian had sliced slid off and revealed the monster’s bone and muscles that had been infected with the poison she had applied to her blade.

It sizzled and burned the monster, causing it to feel unbearable pain as Lillian fell through the air.

Lillian quickly teleported out of the way, dodging the monster’s whisker that stabbed through her previous location.

Reappearing behind its neck, Lillian twisted her body around and faced the monster’s nape. She pulled back her odachi and pointed the tip of her blade at the back of its neck.

Holding her other arm out to act as a guide for her attack, her muscles bulged as her blade shot forward into a speedy stab.

"[2nd Technique of the Crimson Nocturne: Thorn’s Kiss]!"

Her arm blurred forward and, with surgical precision, she punctured a deep hole into the back of its neck and pierced through an artery.

The blood that spilt out from her stab formed the centre of a blooming rose to appear on its nape like a crimson tattoo.

Watching as the wound became infected with poison like her last attack, Lillian quickly teleported out of the way as Alpha suddenly spun around and swung its arm in a crazed manner.

After reappearing on the ground, Lillian watched her handiwork.

The total time of all of those attacks happened in the short span of 10 seconds.

The Alpha spun around and stared down Lillian. It then moved in for an attack, but was rudely interrupted by several scalding explosions on its face.

And while it was distracted, Lillian looked towards Viesta, who still stood on the platform, with an assuring look:

"Stay where you are, Viesta! Let us handle it from here onwards!"

Viesta looked down at Lillian with a baffled expression. Did she say... Us?

The Alpha, deciding to ignore the pain on its face, turned its body back to Lillian before finding itself squashed in between two large stone walls that were decorated with sharp stone spikes.

Lillian looked towards the ground beside her, finding a purple-haired woman with golden eyes rising from it like an earth spirit. Lillian grinned at her teasingly, "Oh? Are you getting a little bit more serious now as well?"

Millis smirked back, brandishing her sword through the air as she took a pose right beside Lillian, "How could I have gone all out when ya hadn’t yet? That’ll make meh look bad!"

"Is that just an excuse?" Lillian smirked teasingly. She placed her hand on the Heroine’s shoulder and connected half of her [Parasitic Lines] to the woman.

Lillian then commented while she did this:

"Also could I just say that your accent make this serious situation really had to take seriously?"

Millis, noticing an increased recovery rate in her mana, smiled widely as she saw the scratches on her skin disappear at a rapid rate.

With a huff and pout, Millis stated with a small smile, "Scold meh after we’re done pummeling this guy into the earth." She then leaned forward and bent her knees slightly, assuming a sword stance.

Lillian grinned and bent her knees as well, assuming her stance as the Alpha broke free from the spiked walls. "Then, let’s do it quickly. I need a pic of this rodent’s dead body as a trophy for Marionette."

Once she said that, the two sped forward, working in tandem to bring down the Alpha, tearing apart its armour with the help of large-scale attacks.