Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

It wasn't enough.

The Child deflected Alzara's blade with the hand that wasn't trying to break Zach's nose. He then backhanded Alzara like he was an abusive father.

Zach bit the Child's hand hard enough to draw blood.

That was enough. It distracted him to the point where Nora managed to sneak up and stab him in the thigh. Or maybe she just wasn't strong enough to make him wary of her presence.

After all, her dagger did not pierce his scales. It didn't even scratch them.

She was also sent flying with a nasty crack as the Child's hand collided with her skull.

Zach recognized that crack. It was not the sound of his barriers breaking.

It was a sound that the human body should not make. His heart sank.

He punched the Child in the knee, forcefully bending it backward.

"Fuck!" The Child screamed in half pain as his knee joint was made to do things it wasn't made to do. His anger surged.

It had been the right call not to get hit by Zach's punches so far. They hurt more than Zach's durability or strength had led the Child to believe they would.

The Child bent down and straightened out their leg with a cracking sound. Zach dared to sneak a glance in Nora's direction. She wasn't moving. He met Alzara's gaze. She nodded.

Instead of rejoining the battle, she was going to tend to Nora. Her attempt just now had proved that she couldn't do much against the Child anyway.

Alzara's heart was bitter.

This was her element. They were in the desert. This was the place where she could exercise the most of her strength. Yet, she was as good as useless in front of the Child.

She had trained and sparred with the others. She had trained her cursed energy. She had trained her body. She did not understand why she was so weak!

She was a familiar, and Zach was the summoner. She was supposed to be the one Zach could rely on, not the other way around.

But now wasn't the time to lament or drown in self-pity. She had to check on Nora.

While she couldn't store many potions on her body, she could at least carry enough restorative potions that she hadn't run out yet.

Seeing Alzara kneel down next to Nora, Zach focused whole-heartedly on the Child. He could feel his heart heat up and his insides tingle.

The sight of Nora not moving after receiving that blow unnerved him. He did not even want to imagine the worst outcome. But he didn't need to for his world essence energy to start resonating with his body again.

Kicking up a cloud of sand, Zach stepped out of the holes the Child made when knocking him into the ground. He looked at the Child with blood dripping out of his nose. He wiped it with the back of his hand.

The Child bent and extended their leg.

If there was one thing Zach appreciated about the Children of the Hydra, it was the fact that they didn't have the regenerative abilities he had gotten used to while fighting the Underworld. If they got injured, they stayed injured for more than a few minutes.

The hit he landed on the Child's leg was a lucky strike, and he was going to make the most of that luck. The Child's mobility would be extremely limited. Your journey continues on My Virtual Library Empire

Zach might be able to catch up.

"These fucking summoners…!" The Child cursed while glaring at Zach. "Always, always getting in our way…!"

Zach could feel some pent-up and misdirected anger coming his way from the Child. He didn't care and only chalked it up to the principal doing stuff in his youth again. Still, he reveled in the Child's anger.

The angrier and more miserable he was, the happier Zach was.

It was time to turn the tides of this battle.

Unfortunately, in his state of desperation, Zach had forgotten about one key factor in this fight.

The Children of the Hydra weren't limited to only their innately strong physiques. They had another powerful card up their sleeves.

Fire.

Orange sparks appeared around the Child's fingers, and smoke slithered out of his nose and mouth.

Zach's eyes widened. The next moment, the Child raised his hands and doused Zach in a shower of flames. Zach sprinted to the side, but the Child just followed him with the flames, bathing the area in fire.

Zach gritted his teeth.

The flames were hot enough to distort the air and make it hard to breathe.

Zach took a deep breath and stopped running away. He altered the structure of his barrier slightly to make it more temperature-resistant before turning toward the Child.

He would only lose by putting distance between them. Unlike the Child, he didn't have any long-range attacks, after all. He had to stick close to the Child.

Zach rushed through the flames and right into the waiting fist of the Child. Unlike Zach, whose vision was obstructed by the flames, the Child saw right through them. He used that to his advantage and prepared and ambush that would have succeeded if he hadn't been mistaken.

Ordinarily, Zach couldn't see through the deep flames. With his Eyes of Truth, he could. He saw clear as day the Child's silhouette move on the other side of the flames. That was why he could duck under the Child's fist and levy a heavy fist straight into his abdomen in one swift movement.

Sturdy scales blocked most of the fist, but the Child still grunted.

A fist enveloped in flames dove straight for Zach's face. He was too close and out of balance to dodge. He accepted the punch but not without returning it with a strike of his own.

The Child was slightly taller than Zach, and he was in a good position to keep going for Zach's head and face.

Zach was slightly shorter than the Child and was in a good position to keep going for the Child's torso.

Instantly, it turned into a messy dogfight. Both of them bet on them being stronger, having better defenses, and being better at hitting the enemy.

Only one could be right.