Chapter 108: The Ambush 4

Standing before the chamber entrance was a figure Bloody could discern as a maid even through the enveloping darkness.

The pale frills and pristine apron catching the moonlight’s glow.

The dignified poise exuding nobility befitting royal service.

While clearly no common servant, Bloody felt little apprehension regarding this unexpected obstacle.

‘A mere maid, not a soldier… Though it will take time for the troops to reach this area.’

Presumably stationed to either guard her mistress within or buy time for an escape.

Despite her non-combatant status, the maid defiantly barred Bloody’s path – prompting a light warning tinged with amusement:

“I have no time for your ilk. Stand aside promptly, and I shall spare your life. Refuse, and I shall unhesitatingly end it.”

Her sincere tone belied any intent to honor such mercy.

Yet the maid remained unswayed – her unflinching defiance seemingly daring Bloody to strike her down.

Channeling mana into her staff, Bloody scoffed at the impertinent servant:

“Tch. Choosing a swift demise over simple obedience? Your fidelity is admirable, but here you shall perish.”

Bloody closed the distance with measured strides, fully intent on a ruthlessly efficient execution.

As a Rank 10 archmage capable of obliterating entire armies singlehandedly, effortlessly slaying this hapless maid required but a whim.

At such proximity, Bloody could reduce her to a twitching, bloody husk with the slightest exertion of her supreme power.

Yet she refrained from such blatant displays – her mission’s covert nature demanding utmost discretion and minimal traces.

‘Keep it quiet and clean if possible. No need to reveal my true mastery unless absolutely necessary.’

Opting for relatively subtle Reinforcement magics, Bloody focused her will through the crimson mana-enveloped staff.

Despite its rudimentary nature, this basic technique ideally suited her purposes – leaving scant evidence of the caster’s identity while retaining ample lethality.

Her instrument now brimming with enhanced cutting power, Bloody steeled herself to swiftly decapitate this nuisance and apprehend her true quarry.

Until the maid’s chilling rebuke shattered her presumptions:

“I never imagined you would debase yourself with such pathetic flailings before me.”

“…What?”

Before Bloody could process that disdainful remark, the maid had already counterattacked – parrying her Reinforced staff with one of her own in a blur of motion.

“!”

-ZWWWWIZZZZ!-

Barely deflecting that whiplash strike by a hair’s breadth, Bloody gaped as an unthinkable reality unfolded:

The maid matching her Reinforcement spell – their magically-augmented staves straining against one another in a contest of raw power.

Reinforcement’s potency depended entirely upon the caster’s mana capacity and precision control.

Among the most fundamental yet demanding arcane disciplines, it starkly revealed a practitioner’s true capabilities.

And in this most basic showdown of skill, Bloody found herself steadily overwhelmed.

‘I’m…being overpowered? By this lowly…?! Impossible…!’

As stark disbelief gripped her, the maid capitalized upon Bloody’s momentary lapse:

“Gwaahh!”

A vicious kick slammed squarely into Bloody’s abdomen – the brutal impact sending her reeling backwards, nearly falling.

Though she maintained her footing, the unexpected anguish immediately stoked her fury.

“This wretch…! How dare–!”

Bloody prepared to retaliate with unbridled rage.

Until the maid’s knee crashed into her face with explosive force.

-CRUNCH!-

Staggering from the second devastating blow, Bloody collapsed in an undignified heap – blood gushing from her shattered nose as she sprawled upon the floor in a daze.

“Kuhahh…kuhh!”

As Bloody clutched her ruined face, the maid calmly smoothed her apron with an icy rebuke:

“Get up. Surely that pitiful display wasn’t the extent of your capabilities?”

That derisive prompting felt like a final insult severing Bloody’s last tether of composure.

Barely seconds after their encounter began, this mere maid had utterly crushed five years’ worth of her haughty pride.

Rising with a voice trembling like an erupting volcano, Bloody’s killing intent blazed forth unrestrained:

“…I’ll kill you…wretched girl…surely…”

With those ominous words, Bloody unleashed the full, catastrophic depths of her arcane might.

A blatant violation of her covert mission parameters – yet one she could no longer rationally weigh amid her all-consuming rage.

Her sole compulsion was to utterly annihilate this infuriating woman who dared defile Bloody’s person so contemptuously.

“I shall make you regret profaning my glory, foolish servant! You shall intimately taste the agonies of the abyss!”

As Bloody invoked her sorcery, its malefic influence immediately manifested – starting with a hapless rodent scurrying past her feet.

“Squeek?”

Having detected the ominous aura, the foraging mouse instinctively turned to flee into the shadows.

Yet it managed only a few frantic steps before…

“Sque–eeeeeeEEEEEEE!!!”

-SPLORT!-

…detonating in a gruesome burst of viscera – its mutilated remains briefly retaining the semblance of ruptured blood vessels lashing outward like crimson whips.

Then, as swiftly as they materialized, those macabre tendrils melted into spreading pools of ichor steadily seeping across the floor.

This served as the harbinger of Bloody’s true power:

Unfettered control over the very lifeblood coursing through any living being’s veins within her sphere of influence.

An instantaneous, unspeakably agonizing demise awaited any creature her hematomancy engulfed – their existence subsumed in an eruption of their own circulatory torrent before they could even perceive, much less resist.

And now, that same malevolent force turned its insatiable hunger upon the unflappable maid before her as a grim smile crept across Bloody’s lips – envisioning the imminent spectacle of her adversary’s liquefying oblivion.