A system window invisible to Lumel’s eyes appeared. The translucent window displayed Lumel’s current status.
[Rumel van Holn]
[Level: 5]
[Remaining Stat Points: 12]
[Strength 1] [Agility 2] [Health 1]
[Mana 1] [Willpower 2] [Luck 5]
Looking at the current stats, Lumel’s abilities were not in a good state.
Even in the most generous assessment, barely at the level of a hero.
And not the level of a hero of a nation, but merely that of a city’s hero.
Previously, it was lower than Thor Mull, the male veteran spear-wielding mercenary she had killed.
However, that reality soon began to twist.
The divine power swirling and rotating around her body.
An unprecedented strength that she herself could not feel hovered before everyone present.
“Rumel…”
Phey’s low voice.
As if responding to Phey’s tone, Rumel lowered the crossed spear and sword.
12 additional stat points. A breakthrough of latent growth potential, a rule above rules.
Lumel couldn’t interfere with it.
The only one who could intervene in that growth was the original owner of the system window, Aslan.
At the moment, Aslan was greatly bewildered upon seeing the appearance of the system window.
But soon regained composure and acted calmly despite the confusion.
Aslan couldn’t understand Lumel’s situation.
Couldn’t determine what Lumel might need.
However, the judgment honed through 12 years of struggle didn’t allow Aslan to hesitate.
Aslan’s action. With a small movement of the fingers, the 12 points of divinity enveloping Lumel seeped into her physical form.
[Agility 5] [Health 3]
Health and Agility. Just the minimum necessary. In response to the divinity, Lumel’s physique grew stronger, and her reflexes became sharper.
And all remaining stat points were invested in Strength.
[Rumel van Holn]
[Level: 5]
[Strength 8] [Agility 5] [Health 3]
[Mana 1] [Willpower 2] [Luck 5]
Lumel could feel the rapidly increasing strength, the enhancement of muscle power.
It felt like watching a snowball grow larger as it rolled down a high hill.
That was unfolding within her body.
The overwhelming flow of power made Lumel exhale and close her eyes.
Just as her breath formed a hazy trail, it happened.
“Sigurd! There’s no time to hesitate!”
Caught between unease and impending danger, the Krabrige monster hesitated, while Leranda’s Knight quickly made a decision.
The instinct that failing to kill now might lead to defeat prompted an acceleration using four legs.
KWAANG!
In the moment of acceleration, Leranda’s Knight disappeared. The black mane cut through the wind, and the lance glowing white aimed for the heart.
Lumel slowly opened her hazel eyes and looked at Leranda’s Knight.
The moment their eyes met, Lumel moved.
Pressing her right foot firmly on the ground.
Hardly balancing her aching body.
She directed her verdict towards the thrusting lance and stabbed.
KOOOOOONG!
The thunderous sound.
Accelerated by increased strength and agility, the spear tip left trails of golden light as it collided with the white.
CREEEEEEEEEAK!
And at the moment of collision, it was the mounted lance that was deflected.
“…What?!”
Confusion from Leranda’s Knight.
He remembered how moments ago, the woman had struggled to properly defend against his lance.
But what about now?
The woman received the attack without even wrinkling her brow.
No, she not only defended but deflected it.
Against his full-force charge.
It was a clear anomaly, and Leranda’s Knight attempted to retreat, but Lumel moved first.
KACHAK!
Before the trajectory of the mounted lance completely escaped her, she wedged it between the Emperor’s Sword and her spear.
Using the spear shaft as a pillar, she pressed down with the Emperor’s Sword.
KAGAGAGACHAK!
Then she pulled.
Though Leranda’s Knight with four legs tried to resist, his legs couldn’t withstand that force.
Like being uprooted from the ground, Leranda’s Knight rose spinning around the spear and plummeted to the floor.
At the end, the woman sheathed the Emperor’s Sword and delivered a short thrust with her spear.
The spiral-tipped spear accurately pierced the side, causing Leranda’s Knight to fly helplessly backward.
CREEEEENG!
“Arne!”
Leranda’s Knight skidded across the floor. Seeing this scene, the Krabrige monster belatedly shouted and rushed toward Lumel, but she didn’t give him the chance.
Breathing out, lowering her stance, and charging forward, Lumel ran straight at the monster.
The monster saw her raising her spear as she charged and, considering her enhanced strength, intended to block it with his exoskeleton.
The distance was too far for Lumel’s spear to reach. If she tried to thrust further, it would lack power and be blocked. Her target was the neck.
The monster extended his thick forelimb with a tough exoskeleton to obstruct her path, but Lumel stopped her thrusting posture as is.
The distance where the spear wouldn’t reach. It could just barely touch if fully extended, but it would lose its impact.
When the monster awkwardly blocked her neck, Lumel swung her spear.
And watched as the spear slipped out of her hand.
The spear, flowing like a sword being swung, seemed ready to slip entirely out of her grasp.
A spear wasn’t meant to be swung.
The monster realized this and thus didn’t guard against it.
But that was a mistake.
In the final moment, Lumel grabbed the spear just before it slipped entirely from her hand.
And so, grabbing the end of the spear handle, she targeted the neck.
ZAPZAPZAP!
The spear coursing with electricity. When the monster belatedly noticed and tried to insert his wrist into the trajectory, his wrist was severed.
“Ugh…!”
The severed wrist flowed with electricity as it fell to the ground, and the monster glared at the woman despite his confusion.
‘The type of technique has completely changed!’
While confused, he thought he needed to adapt to this new technique. At that moment, the woman pressed down on the spear shaft with the Emperor’s Sword.
KARARAK, the rising sparks halted the spear shaft. She simply absorbed the recoil and thrust again.
A spear strike piercing from above, much like a scorpion’s tail. The monster had no time to defend against it.
ZIIIIIIP, BOOM!
The spear striking the head.
Accurately splitting half the head, condensed lightning erupted, scattering flesh and exoskeleton fragments around.
BOOM, BOOM, KRAKRAKRACK!
The massive body plunged into the softly piled snow, sending dust clouds spiraling upward.
Lumel stood there holding her sword and spear diagonally.
“…Asl, an?”
Phey, watching the scene alongside the monsterized soldiers, momentarily overlapped Aslan’s image onto Lumel’s figure.
The monsterized soldiers felt a similar emotion.
They stared at Lumel with fear and confusion, unlike the woman they had been overpowering just moments ago.
By the time the flying monster had regenerated its head and stood up, Leranda’s Knight had also completed his regeneration.
Both confirmed the woman standing straight ahead, looking directly at them.
“You…”
To the monster’s barely audible words, the woman didn’t respond.
She merely stood poised with a dignified expression reminiscent of Aslan, observed only by Phey.
With that dignity, both Leranda’s Knight and the monster exchanged glances and charged forward.
Straight toward Lumel.
Lumel greeted them standing upright.
Her two weapons hanging loose, her posture facing forward, standing straight.
This stance, used by Aslan and Phey alike, called the “Budonggong,” was a technique designed to deal with enemies while moving minimally or not at all.
The foundation of this stance was immobility.
Lumel understood the basis of the technique by mimicking Aslan and translated it into action.
The first to charge was the Krabrige monster. Its heavy forelimbs and grotesquely protruding exoskeleton.
Its adamant-like hardness. Reading it, Lumel evaded merely by switching the positions of her left and right feet, half a beat earlier.
KWAANGGGGGG!
The earth-shaking impact as it struck down. Amidst the suddenly rising cloud of snow, Leranda’s Knight lunged.
“Die, Holn!”
Charging forth with the signature mounted spear thrust. Lumel once again thrust her spear toward the mounted lance.
A thrust delayed by one beat, lacking sufficient power.
It was inevitable that she would be pushed back upon thrusting, yet Lumel stretched her arm fully, aligning her spear with the mounted lance.
KAGACHAK! As the spear was about to be deflected by the rotation, the spear tips intertwined like snakes.
She forced the alignment with slight adjustments, wrist rotations, and knee movements.
And having aligned them, she deflected the mounted lance.
KWAANG! The knight wobbled, emitting metallic sounds, but despite his unsteady stance, he spun around and delivered a back kick.
Lumel sidestepped the barely visible back kick as if she had anticipated it.
‘A move I’ve already seen.’
Thus, she wouldn’t fall for it again.
Retrieving the thrust spear while sidestepping, Lumel planted the spear shaft on the ground and unleashed lightning.
KRAKRALENNG!
And with that lightning, she accelerated. The spear, coursing with electricity from the ground, pierced through Leranda’s Knight.
“Ugh, GGRGGRK!”
The spear precisely piercing through the stomach and exiting the back.
Lumel immediately turned her body and hurled the knight at the monster rushing toward her.
The monster flailed with its four legs to catch the knight.
Having barely caught his compatriot and set him down, the monster awaited a technique among those Lumel could use—a powerful one.
The Spiral Spear.
A greater twisting rotation than the previous spiral spear, empowered by increased strength and agility, achieving a leap in destructive power.
KWADDEDEDEEK, BOOM!
It was only natural that the monster extending his arm to block the attack lost that arm.
The entire arm shattered, bone fragments scattering violently. The monster gritted his teeth at the sight.
“What kind of power…!”
Regrettably for the monster, preparing to counter after enduring the current attack, the assault wasn’t ending with just one hit.
Lumel lunged again. Crossing the snowy field, she drew back her spear and thrust it forward, unleashing a spiral wrapped in golden lightning.
KRAKRALENNG!
The lightning-imbued spiral spear.
KWAZIZIZIK!
As the spear accurately crushed the monster’s exoskeleton along with its upper arm, flesh and exoskeleton pieces scattered violently.
KUUUNG, the giant body collapsing.
Kneeling and clutching his chest while panting, the monster faced Lumel, who once again drew back her spear and thrust it.
The third spiral spear. Without any chance to evade, the monster was pierced.
With a sound like tearing flesh, the spear pierced through the chest.
Golden light staining red as it exited, the monster, resembling a leopard, spat blood in gurgles and dropped its head.
Kneeling, bleeding, and trembling his head weakly, the monster faced Lumel.
Toward the monster’s head, Lumel expressionlessly slammed down the Emperor’s Sword.
KWACH!
And so, the Krabrige monster, secretly operating in the Northern Empire for a long time, breathed his last.
The faint tremor subsided, and his soul returned to his master without rest.
“Sigurd!”
The Leranda’s Knight, who had flown out first, cried out for his fallen compatriot and prepared to charge.
Before he could, Lumel’s gaze was already fixed on him alone.
In that cold gaze, Leranda’s Knight faltered mid-charge.
Lumel clearly wasn’t in perfect condition.
Her side had been pierced, she had lost a lot of blood, vomiting it out, and her complexion was poor—pale.
Yet somehow, she gave off the feeling that she couldn’t be defeated.
That impression came from her dignified posture. Standing straight, exposing her chest to the knight, she radiated such an aura.
The Budonggong stance had such an effect.
Designed for one person to face many, instilling fear in the opponent.
A stance created to maintain the center and deal with multiple foes with minimal movement.
That was why Leranda’s Knight hesitated, and before Lumel even guessed the reason, she tilted her spear and threw it.
SCREAMING, KWAANGGG!
The golden javelin piercing through the body, Lumel approached Leranda’s Knight.
The knight reacted reflexively.
Precisely aiming the mounted lance at Lumel’s head.
Lumel didn’t perceive the mounted lance.
She merely discerned it through the faint afterimage she could see and her heightened ability to anticipate where it would extend.
KAGAGACHAK!
The mounted lance locking onto the thrown Emperor’s Sword.
Amid the ringing metallic sounds, the parrying hook and crossguard held the mounted lance in place.
KACH, GAGAGACH, CHING!
Lumel then tilted her sword, breaking the mounted lance.
As the broken lance shards flew, Leranda’s Knight glimpsed Lumel through the scattering fragments.
Meeting her gaze. The cold, settled hazel eyes.
At that moment, Leranda’s Knight realized his death.
The sword held in a low stance.
Lumel delivered a single blow, imitating Aslan’s sword strike.
The sword strike she had admired countless times.
SHAAAACK!
Left diagonal upward slash.
The severed head soared, the body collapsed, and the decapitated head rolled across the ground.
Lumel, before it, pulled the spear embedded in the knight’s body and slammed it down on the knight’s head.
PAJIK, PAJIZIK!
The head charring black under the golden current.
A pitiful death, hard to believe given the immense power shown just moments ago.
Because of that, by the time Lumel pulled out the spear, silence had fallen.
At the center of that silence were the soldiers.
Soldiers who had acquired monster-like bodies.
Soldiers who, once upon a time, tasted defeat at the hands of the founder of the Holn family and retreated.
They stared at Lumel with fear within the silence.
And Lumel slowly turned her head to face them.
A gaze tense enough to feel. Faces etched with fear. Lumel scanned each of their expressions and muttered.
“More?”
This caused a deep silence to settle heavily over the snow.
