Chapter 110: Bullseye… Not
The random gibberish being spouted by Eleanor just moments ago was still fresh in Lyra's mind, so after hearing her other lady's request, she immediately calmed down, this means that Eleanor's mind is not clouded by her anger due to her friend's demise anymore, after all, she judged that she is way inferior in speed to catch up to a speedster who escaped more than a kilometer away before she even realized it, at the same time, this request made her happy as that means Lyra can showcase her improvement to her two masters.
Even though she had Philo already and had moved on from the heartbreak of Sophia choosing another woman, she still wanted to brag about her development. With a smile plastered on her face, Lyra replied to the request.
"Don't worry my lady, I will take care of it."
Eleanor smiled and then saw Lyra law down in the direction that she had just pointed and then saw the undead's eyes glow, no actually, a slight aurora was iminating in them, like burning fire, Eleanor let her be as she figured out that she wanted to brag about her power to Sophia, she started to float towards the palace, the floating speed is not so fast, after all, for her, this is a newfound power that she has no idea how to fully utilize.
_I have to ask Sophia how to handle unique skills._
Eleanor, as the one recognized to be the weakest out of Urduja's adult children, knew her limits in this department.
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Lyra was not aware when her other lady disappeared nor did she care when Eleanor vanished, actually the moment her eyes glowed, all of her surroundings became boxes of useless eyesores as she focused on the man that is currently dashing away kilometers from her current location, if not for her evolved skill [Sniper], then she would not be able to see the man, this skill made it so that targets within 10 km radius with her as the center will be hit 100% of the time, her vision and accuracy as well as power will wane when the target pass through this threshold, this made the passive skill [Range] [Homing] more significant if the opponent is above what she can see.
She can hit her opponent with a non-lethal strike and with [Sprint] she can inch a little to adjust the radius into her acceptable range, better even, injecting the arrow with a curse so it can be lethal. Or at least that is what the battle style that she has devised, as someone who doesn't have a unique skill but doesn't have the expertise of Kabuto.
As Lyra's focus reached its peak, she finally saw the vampire stop shifting around as he felt that the distance was already safe, Lyra's expression remained that of calmness, no jeering, no bragging, no nothing, she just loaded her crossbow with an arrow infused with the "Death Curse" as she continued to stare at the head of her target several kilometers away from her, if not for Eleanor annihilating the whole force of Hebi Tsukaiza, she would have already been disturbed. Lyra's eyes continued to stare at the man and only after another minute did she pull the trigger and let the arrow loose, the arrow got enveloped in a white light that went straight towards its target as if it was a shooting star that was about to kiss its beloved, though the said beloved is the head of the unfortunate vampire that was treated as a shooting range.
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Ben Rover, a vampire from Valentine is currently running with all her might away from Heimdall and away from the accursed land of Gjallarhorn to somewhere that doesn't have a crazy lady that makes people explode while she was smiling, he did not know he was a coward, no actually, Ben is not a coward in the first place, if he is, then he would not be able to have the courage to be an assassin under the direct command of Loki, the other monarch of the Vampire and Devil Kingdom who is known for having a very competitive assassin/spy force because of Hebi Tsukaiza.
But when Ben remembered the cries of his comrades when they tried to fight the crazy lady as they bloated and exploded until they finally realized that they were no match and started to flee, he shuddered, cursing his courage and blaming it as the reason for his misfortune and his cause to become a rouge.
_Well, no one can blame, me... That woman... that woman was smiling as if she was cooking dinner when all of her surroundings were full of people exploding whilst crying like babies... everyone will feel scared when seeing that!_
While still running, the speedster Ben comforted himself, making it so that his already weakening will would not crumble completely, making it so that he would not be able to think of the relentless pursuit that would follow him from Valentine, Kamatayan, and Gjallarhorn and just sprint out of this perilous situation, he has to do this again and again so that he will not give up on himself, however, it was as if fate itself is against Ben as just as when he was comforting himself, he heard a large whistle on his back, such loud whistle was supposed to be caused by a large object forcefully breaking through air resistance, but when Ben saw the white streak of light that was encasing an arrow he paled.
_FUCK! SOMEONE IS SNIPING ME FROM FAR AWAY!_
Of course, under normal circumstances, Ben would be able to detect any bloodlust directed towards him, after all, if someone wanted to kill a seasoned assassin or any warrior in general, the weapon used by the assailant would be an indication of their intent, however, because his high strung mental state as well as the distance, he failed to do such a basic thing.
_WHY DID I BECOME A SOLDIER!?_
Ben started to curse random stuff once again as he immediately shifted his direction, but to his horror, the arrow followed his direction and did not even lose a microsecond of speed or power, it just kept advancing as if the inevitable scythe of the grim reaper has come to take his life, but of course, Ben did not give up, as he was already running at his top speed, he immediately started to run in a zigzag manner in hope to lose the homing ability of the arrow, but that effort soon proved futile because instead of the arrow, Ben started to lose speed instead.
_FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! NO!_
He struggle to keep his best speed but his depleted energy sealed his fate, after another minute of trying to use the power of friendship or some shit to reinforce his strength, his back was finally hit by the arrow and continued to pierce through his spine and into his heart before it imbedded itself to the ground, unceremoniously, Ben did not feel any pain, but still did not make him any bit elated as he saw the flesh in his hands turn into ashes leaving only his bones, this "ashes" seem to be like a virus as it spread throughout the body of Bed.
_Fuck..._
That was the last words Ben could muster before his brain and soon his whole body turned to ashes, whilst the sniper who had killed him heaved a metaphorical breath.
"Bullseye... not, I was aiming for the head."
At the same time that Lyra muttered those words a huge heatwave assaulted her and the integrity of the city and after a 4th of a second of such occurrence, a large explosion erupted, the epicenter was the unnamed forest adjacent to Heimdall.
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A few moments ago before the explosion happened.
Inside a patch of trees in the forest adjacent to Heimdall, Sophia is currently sitting on a stone that she has personally dragged to this place, of course, she did not just drag it because she was bored, this rock is also part of Sophia's battle plan against the master assassin of Loki, Hebi Tsukaiza, however, because she is the first one to arrive at this place, she has nothing to do and is now watching all of the fights that is transpiring in the streets of Heimdall.
_Eleanor's not supposed to fight, I even sealed her room but she destroyed the seal and even though I am quite proud that my wife can read my spells, the way she fought is just not like her, it's like watching a stranger with no moral shackles fight... fortunately, she controlled herself and did not attack Tsukaiza's direction._
Sophia sighed, in her previous life, people that she would call friends were just a few there were only two of them and because of the peaceful surface of her previous world, Sophia never imagined what she would do if someone killed one of those friends.
_Eleanor is already someone who was very humble and at one point insecure of her abilities, but death made her lose control of herself..._
Sophia did not want to imagine further what her current self would do if Manila or Apolinario died at the hands of someone and looked at Philo, upon looking at his very first subordinate, she was rather conflicted, On one hand, Sophia was impressed by the progress of her disfigured bunny, at the same time, she was rather grossed out by the splattering blood everywhere, forget about puddle, the bashing and slashing between the two enemies were so dragged out that the liters of blood started to clot and create mud that has some intestines and parts of stomach and bones in it.
Even she who is by now used to a lot of gore, felt rather disgusted.
_Philo should fight in full-scale wars from now on._
Sophia shook her head and was just about to look for Lyra, however, her eyes suddenly turned to her front as a smile appeared on her lips, she locked eyes with the woman in front of her, the woman can be described as purple, purple hair, eyes, even her tight shinobi outfit is purple.
"We finally met Hebi Tsukaiza."
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Hebi looked at Sophia with wide eyes, in her eyes, the rock that was being used as a chair was his subordinate, Flou.
Flou's face was full of signs that he was punched to submission while his whole body was trembling due to the weight of the person on his back, Sophia was relatively light, however the weakened student of Hebi obviously cannot hold on for long for his back was bent to the point of snapping into two.
"What the fu..."
Hebi was about to speak but was interrupted by the detestable lady in front of her
"You know, I was watching your students being dismantled by my wife and subordinates, and I got quite taken aback by how all of you managed to transform Eleanor into a 5-minute psychopath, you see, you might not get a warning against her but she is quite strong, one of my strongest actually, but she's always smiling and seem to not know how to get angry no matter what kind of stuff she's been through, I observed that she enjoys it when I put various things up her ass."
"But still, somehow, someway, the hero Hebi Tsukaiza angered my wife, and because of that, I commend all of you."
Sophia unceremoniously clapped her hands, breaking the painful silence of Hebi, it was as if she was not sitting on a person, and even worse it was as if Sophia was not in front of the strongest soldier of Valentine, this caused the building up anger of Hebi Tsukaiza to immediately overflow, for a moment she forgot her student's existence as she dashed towards Sophia, in top of her lungs, she shouted.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Seeing the riled-up expression of her opponent, Sophia's grin grew broader and undid the dark magic imbued illusion in the rock, Hebi's dagger slashed down, targeting Sophia's throat but when the dagger was already just an inch to its target, Sophia disappeared and the dagger stabbed the rock instead, the section of the rock stabbed by the dagger crumbled as if it was a tufo, but most importantly, Hebi looked at it and cannot find her student.
_FUCK! I GOT RILED UP BY HER!_
In her long life, few are those unproud occasions that she was angered so easily, she immediately put her guard up and started to sense Sophia everywhere, at the same time, she was thinking about the warning of her husband Loki towards Sophia.
"You shouldn't attack people that are praising you, you know."
Sophia's face was still plastered with a grin, she raised her hand and pointed her index and middle fingers into the air, a huge amount of mana gathered in the two thumbs of Sophia, Hebi immediately jumped to disturb Sophia but held no hope on it as her opponent is not using any magic circle, meaning the attack will not even be considered a spell.
Indeed, Hebi's attempt to disrupt Sophia was to no avail as Hebi saw her swung down her hand, however, Hebi's eyes widened and time seemed to stop for her as she saw a dense, black crescent streak of fire about 50 meters in length descending upon her.
With this attack, the battle between The Fallen and The Serpent sang its advent.