Chương 332: I Follow

This woman certainly had a very direct and simple approach to combat–Some honed their skills to outmanoeuvre their opponents, some learned refined and oddly specific spells to completely catch their enemies by surprise and exploit weaknesses that most didn't even realise existed, and then… There were those like this woman, who just used pure brute force.

Truth be told, there was definitely equal allure in all three options overall, which was preferable depending on the fight and situation, but it was indeed quite sobering to realise that just being a big brute was effective enough to get one out of most problems. Many weaponmasters would certainly scoff at the idea, but it is provably true that just hitting a problem hard enough, enough times, would often be impressively effective.

An adversary who was incredibly fast, resilient, and whose game plan was to go straight into you without even an ounce of technical thought in their skull. It usually made skill seem quite useless, since the skilled warrior would find themself utterly unable to even use all of their experience… In any case, the orc woman absolutely subscribed to the school of thought that winning a fight was all about who could deliver the stronger punch.

She took one look at the horrid nightmare entity and immediately rammed into it, before beginning to wrestle with the thing. Being that it was akin to a slime wearing a skin suit, it was quite resilient to blunt force trauma and could also use its large size to completely engulf and suffocate its targets–Today didn't seem to be its day, however. The orc's initial charge made its body ripple violently, but didn't actually do much, so the monster simply initiated its attack without care. …

Needless to say, considering the current situation, that had been a dire mistake. Though it doesn't seem like it mattered much, as it would appear that the monster had no intention of backing off anyway. Once both parties made contact, the orc woman simply began tearing into the monster, ripping as many of its arms as it tried to latch onto her, even biting and ripping some off.

That alone took several minutes on account that the sneaky fellow had actually been hiding way more arms between the spots where its skin overlapped. It bled severely as dozens upon dozens of disembodied limbs littered the floor, but I couldn't detect even a smidge of fear or anything similar from the creature–The emotions of nightmare creatures had always been a bit weird. Well, they are weird if compared to other kinds of living beings…

They seem like empty shells that are only capable of experiencing some variant of subservience and profound anger. Indeed, they are either in awe of my presence or mad beyond belief at the sight of anyone else. This guy followed this to a tee. Fighting the orc woman only made it angry. Being dismembered and clearly on the back foot did nothing to make it angrier, though. It seemed like it didn't care about that whatsoever. Only the presence of a trial taker seemed to matter. What curious creatures they are…

If it is truly guys like this that somehow make it to the outside world and start worshipping me, then… If I am their goddess, when did I tell them not to care about their own existence? There's no point in me being their deity or queen if they can't even keep themselves alive.

"You're a damned weakling!" Now, without arms to fight with, the monster could only try to use its weight and maw to attack, but it could never be effective without the support of arms to push itself toward the enemy. The orc grabbed the soft, elastic flesh and tore the creature apart with a swift spread of her arms, slamming the two uneven pieces into the steel walls, making the sound of the slapping masses of flesh echo far and wide throughout the ship.

"... Is it not dead even now…?" She muttered something to herself. She had probably felt the familiar trickle of experience when killing the previous monster, but not this one. Indicative that it was still very much alive despite its poor state. Heh, she sounds like someone who would fall for 'Trickster's XP Tank'. The trial taker prepared to finish the creature off.

"You're quite strong, aren't you?" The green lady flinched slightly upon hearing my voice, quickly turning around.

"You… Aren't you that woman who…" She stopped herself.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Whilst the orc girl might seem like a muscle-brained fool, being that I was able to sense her negative emotions directed toward me clearly, I could tell that she was on guard. Worried, apprehensive, suspicious, a little hint of confusion… And even some killing intent already. I suppose my charms are ineffective on her. If I were dealing with a man, he would have probably already walked up to me, thinking that I was in trouble…

A silly reaction, but that was definitely a reason why I had always figured that a marriage with a man would be right up my alley. Although they shouldn't be oversimplified, they were indeed simple. If they see a woman they think is in trouble, they are highly likely to come check on her. It is no wonder that the most successful assassins are women. The trap of the honeypot is an incredibly effective one… Alas, I am dealing with a woman who isn't falling for it. My heart-burning smile is without effect here.

"What else? I followed you, silly! Isn't it scary to go alone in this big and dangerous ship? I know well that even the toughest of girls have dents in their armour" Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Leou indeed could switch from the genius leader of a huge business respected by nobles to a purring, harmless feline within a matter of seconds. Neither of those sides was an act. They were both one hundred per cent Leou.

It was simply that most people didn't realise that contradictory thoughts, behaviours, or whatever weren't just possible. They were–In my opinion–The norm of all sapient life. Us not being contradictory on every ground would be a contradiction of our existence, or so I would say if anyone ever bothered to indulge in a conversation on the subject with me. Shouldn't I have been a philosopher, Nara? I heard those old men with big beards can be pretty damned funny… The orc wasn't having any of my bullcrap, though.

"What do you want?" I sighed in the most exaggerated manner I could muster.

"I am frankly a bit insulted that no one noticed, even if it is to my advantage…" With the index and thumb fingers of both my hands, I pulled my eyes as wide open as possible.

"The eyes are purple, green lady. Can you identify what kind of purple this is?"

"...? This is clearly dark… Deep… I mean… Indi… Vi…"

"What the hell?"

"Are the gears turning now? You're in a nightmare trial, the final trial, might I add, and there is a dark-haired, devilishly beautiful, purple-eyed woman amidst you lot, and no one thought: Huh, that kind of seems familiar?"

"I thought my face had made the rounds around the continent""You're Mara Nebulo?!"

"Exactly! If we continue like this, maybe a school will agree to teach how additions and subtractions work?"

"But…"

"But what?"

"But you're not flat!"

"... Excuse me?"

"You're supposed to be flat, like, super flat""Are you telling me that you did notice all that I mentioned, but took one look at my chest and threw it all out of the window because there was actual curvature there?"

"Yes" She's saying it with such confidence! That's not something to be proud of! Wait… Did I really never leave any witnesses when I didn't look like my regular human self…? Mari obviously never spoke of it to anyone. The mouse girl also seemingly decided to keep my secret intact–What a good girl she was–And I did look like my regular human self when I fought Rarelian… Gilepre also never had any occasion to mention my alternative appearance in his final trial…

The only person who might know that I can look different would be that System Fundamentalist from just before, but they probably didn't even get to see that I was a halfling, so… Huh… I guess I'm the one who had a false assumption. If the running belief is that I looked exactly as I did as a human in the nightmares, then I guess that any minute changes would indeed be capable of throwing people off. I guess no one really notices the oddities of my eye colours unless they actually try to think about it?

They probably just see it as some kind of purple at a glance. I do suppose that I don't often wonder about the technicalities of shades when it comes to people's eye colours.

"Anyway, that's the moment we fight to the death. Without me around, surviving this trial will be much easier, don't you think? Especially since I'll probably just slaughter everyone else once I come back, or should I extend things and kill them one by one, letting them grow suspicious of one another until they start losing their minds?"

"Don't think you're untouchable!" The orc lunged straight at me, quickly delivering a direct punch to my face. Since she was much taller than me, my head really was the most convenient target for her, just as I was hoping. I unfurled my head whilst subtly moving to the side. My opponent moved right past me, as I was sent spinning a little bit due to grabbing onto something as she passed by.

"What kind of monster even are you?!" She took getting her hand and half of her forearm bitten off quite well, but I couldn't respond as I was busy crushing my prize before bringing my head back to its normal state. All traces of the chunk I chomped down on were gone.

"I could give several answers to this question, actually. But it would be more accurate that I am the worst kind of protective creature: An older sister" My honest reply didn't seem to sit right with the orc as she immediately lunged back at me. No energy usage, Nara? None whatsoever Can she really not use mana even to a small degree? Since this form came accompanied by the same advanced knight strength I had possessed in some other final trials and also the A. R. DL.

I dodged under her kick and partly unfurled my face, allowing my spear-like tongue to rush and stab into the orc's thigh, but she didn't seem to care about my impressive aim as she barely even flinched and kicked me in the chest anyway, sending me flying backwards a bit. Her balance was off for that strike. It lacked oomph. I retracted my tongue and watched as she grit her teeth. I had hit a pretty important artery in her thigh.

For some reason, most people believed that getting hit in the legs was only a matter of losing mobility, and it might be the case with concussive force, but slashing and piercing? Oh boy, it creates some real nice crimson fountains. … To be frank, though, I kind of guessed on this one. I am not familiar with orc physiology at all. Glad I got it right, though. I would have looked a bit silly if my attack hadn't worked out. I pointed at her.

"You might want to end the fight quickly before you start losing strength" To punctuate my sentence, I spat out an impressively big mass of stomach acid at her, which she dodged because it was a rather slow-moving projectile, but her evasion was flawed.

With the wound on her thigh, she basically threw herself to the side, smashing into the wall and barely even stopping herself from losing balance, allowing me to swiftly close the distance and take a bite out of her other thigh by throwing myself at her like a predatory fish surging out of the waters to seize an unsuspecting bird flying too low. I rolled upon the ground quite ungracefully following my feral attack, but what mattered was that it succeeded.

Is it this particular sub-form, or is orc flesh actually that tasty? Heh, it's probably just me retaining my eating habits from the real world, but with a more fleshy body. Anyway… Let's see how she dodges my acid now.