Sallia watched in horror as Miria slammed into the wall with a wet crunch, before she slid to the ground. A wave of horror washed over her.
Was Miria okay?
Sallia felt a tremor snake through her sword arm as she looked at Miria’s crumpled form. For a moment, the world seemed as if it had turned white.
If someone died in the Market, they would lose another life. Losing a life meant that they wouldn’t be able to return to the Market after going to another world.
In other words… if Sallia, Miria, or Felix lost a life, they would need to fight for lives now, instead of next world. That was a huge change. Sallia didn’t think they were ready yet, and losing an entire lifetime of preparation could very well spell the difference between victory and defeat. There was no way Sallia would just… let Miria die. That was unthinkable. Sallia knew that Anise and Felix felt the same way… so if Miria had just died, they would need to charge ahead and pray for the best, even though Sallia suspected it would be hopeless.
Her budding anxiety turned to rage as she looked back at the monstrous girl, who smugly grinned as she looked at Miria’s crumpled form. White-hot hatred lanced through her brain. Without another thought, Sallia stepped forward, and activated {Timewinder’s Slice}.
Time froze. Or, more precisely, part of time froze. For a few fractions of a second, Sallia felt the entire world, save for her sword and the muscles in her body, slow down until they were moving at a glacial pace. At the same time, Sallia felt as if time was being compressed by her blade. In a single fraction of a second, Sallia’s blade flickered forward so quickly that it might as well have teleported. A moment later, Sallia realized that her sword had buried itself into the monstrous girl’s guts.
The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, before her entire body exploded into a puff of red mist. The cloud of mist sped backwards, before it reformed back into the monstrous girl a moment later. She glared at Sallia.
“That also hurt! You fucking transmigrators -” A blast of force slammed into her face, tossing the monstrous girl backwards. Anise’s spell hadn’t killed the monstrous girl, but it had certainly stopped her from talking.
Sallia also noticed that the speed of the girl’s words was much slower than before. Now it almost seemed as if the monster was speaking in slow motion. It was about 40% slower than before. Such a massive speed drop seriously reduced the threat of the monstrous girl, much to Sallia’s relief. {Timewinder’s Slice} might only be usable once per year, but it was incredibly powerful when it was used.
<Miria! Are you dead?> asked Felix, snapping Sallia out of her thoughts.
Sallia glanced at Miria’s prone body again. There was no response from Miria. She just laid there, slumped on the ground.
<Good. Miria isn’t dead, at least,> said Felix.
Sallia’s brain froze for a moment. Miria wasn’t dead? How could Felix know… oh.
Sallia’s upgraded intelligence helped her quickly follow the same chain of logic Felix had probably used. If Miria had died, she would have already sloughed off her body and lost a life. Miria probably would have started talking to them through the communication bracelet right afterwards. The fact that Miria wasn’t responding meant she was unconscious - which meant she wasn’t dead. She might still be in a bad position, but given how little Market bodies seemed to need, if Miria was still alive, she would probably be fine.
Unfortunately, Sallia’s glance towards Miria didn’t go unnoticed. The monstrous girl looked at Miria’s prone body again, before the smug smile on her lips returned. She turned towards Miria, completely ignoring the other three, and then raised a hand to point at Miria.
Sallia felt alarms blare in her head as the girl pointed at Miria. Just moments ago, the girl had pointed at Miria, and somehow flung Miria into a wall so hard that Miria was no longer conscious.
Sallia tried to reach for {Timewinder’s Slice} again, only for her mind to claw at empty space. The ability was on cooldown, and she couldn’t use it. Sallia nearly cursed as she tried to cut off the monstrous girl’s arm, but the sickening knowledge that she was too slow tore at her heart as she watched the monstrous girl’s finger point at Miria - only for Sallia to remember, at the last moment, that she had other abilities.
When they had last returned to the Market and customized their abilities, Sallia had customized her manifestation essence ability, allowing her to harden the air around her using essence - and to strengthen her body.
Sallia immediately slammed as much essence as she could into the air in front of the girl, and a moment later, Sallia felt something incredibly thin and fast slam into the wall of hardened air she had created. It was almost like a bullet from a gun. The girl’s eyes widened, and then the monster barely ducked out of the way of Sallia’s swing.
<She can use essence to mimic guns,> said Sallia. <Watch out for where her fingers are pointing,> said Sallia, as she slammed more essence into her own body and boosted her physical abilities.
The girl’s eyes widened as Sallia began an onslaught of sword swings. Now that Sallia knew what to watch out for, the girls’ attempts to fire essence-bullets at Miria or at Sallia’s friends were immediately met with walls of resistance. However, the girl was no slouch in close quarter combat. The girl’s fingers were ridiculously sturdy - they were like metal claws instead of flesh. Sallia’s sword couldn’t tear through them, so Sallia and the girl quickly fell into a stalemate where the girl’s claws couldn’t reach Sallia, and Sallia couldn’t chop the girl into pieces. The girls’ footwork was even more bizarre. It almost looked like she was dancing, rather than fighting - every single one of Sallia’s slashes that wasn’t deflected instead missed the girl by millimeters. Anise kept firing spells into the fight, keeping the girl off-balance and nearly hitting her, but the horrifying girl’s footwork just barely managed to keep her alive during the onslaught.
That was, until Felix’s message came through.
<Confirmed that Miria is stable now. I used a bit of metal to stop the light that was leaking out of her wounds. I’m moving to help you guys.>
Sallia felt a wave of relief at Felix’s words. If she had been more aggressive, she might have been able to defeat the girl in front of her - but Sallia had been fighting as cautiously as possible the moment she had noticed Felix sneaking towards Miria’s body. Keeping Miria safe was far more important than ending the fight quickly.
A moment later, Felix joined the fight directly. A storm of metal shards zipped through the air, causing the girl to dance out of the way - but Anise followed up with a fireball, aimed not at the vampire girl, but the ground. The girl neatly transformed her absurd maneuver into a grateful flip, while using her claws to deflect another wave of Felix’s metal shards. This finally gave Sallia an opening - which she put to use by ramming her blade into the girl’s eyeball. The girl shrieked in pain, but before Sallia’s sword could dig into her brain and kill her, the girl turned into a cloud of red mist again, and then reformed several meters away. Sallia noticed that her eye was still gone.
“Damn Transmigrators!” Snarled the girl “I’m going to -” A blast of force from Anise cut the girl off again. This time, the monstrous girl’s reflexes weren’t good enough. She took a full blast of force to the face, and was hurled towards a wall, just like Miria had been a moment again. She slammed into the wall, before her body scattered into mist and then reformed on the ground. The girl’s eyes were filled with hate - but her back looked messed up. Sallia didn’t think her spine was broken, but the girl was moving as if something was cracked, at the very least.
Sallia didn’t give her time to recuperate. She dashed towards the girl, and this time, the girl’s dance-like, graceful steps didn’t return as Sallia did her best to chop her head off. The girl deflected Sallia’s blade once, then again, and then grunted in pain as Sallia kicked her in the ribs and sent her right back into the wall. This time, she didn’t turn into a puff of mist.
<Don’t kill her! She’s the first monster we’ve seen in the Market who has actually tried to converse with us… if she’s actually a monster,> said Felix. <Knock her unconscious. But pay attention to your own safety first. If it’s too hard to incapacitate her, kill her.>
Sallia hesitated, as she looked at the seriously injured enemy in front of her. The girl’s eyes were starting to glow a bright red, and Sallia’s mind started ringing alarm bells at her. The girl was trying to do something, and Sallia doubted it would end well for her if she let the strange girl finish. She slammed the pommel of her sword into the strange girl’s head… and at last, the girl crumpled onto the floor. Felix quickly moved over to the monster’s unconscious body, and started tying her up so that she couldn’t attack the rest of the group. Sallia breathed a sigh of relief as she confirmed that the threat was dealt with and that Miria was still alive. Now, they needed to wait until one of the two woke up.