Ch.68XX Tina (13)

# XX Tina (13)

“Such cowards. Your cowardly ambush won’t work twice. Cowards! Your cowardly tactics can no longer pressure or corner me!”

“You must feel very wronged.”

Haona had been repeating the word “cowardly” for quite some time.

If he’d said it once, it might have been understandable, but as he kept bringing up various reasons to call them cowards, Esmeralda thought she could indirectly understand why his school days had been the way they were.

‘Good, let’s take one down while we’re at it.’

Regardless, Esmeralda had no intention of missing this opportunity. If she could eliminate a Legion Commander, a core force of the Demon King’s army, in advance, her journey would become much smoother.

Esmeralda raised her sword, feeling somewhat as if she were bullying someone weaker than herself, though she wasn’t sure why.

Why would she feel that way?

After all, Haona was a vastly superior opponent compared to Esmeralda.

“Come, Hero Party! I’ll teach you that no matter how much you struggle, I will be the ultimate victor!”

Haona gathered the sand that was already half-melted away.

Seeing this, the Hero Party prepared for attack from their respective positions.

Esmeralda briefly made eye contact with Tina, who had fled but returned.

Something passed between them.

Something they understood without words.

A bond.

Seeing this, Haona, who lacked such a connection, attacked with a roar.

“I’ll kill you!”

Watching them, Haona changed his objective from capture to elimination.

This meant he had been holding back until now. Haona, who had insisted on capturing the entire Hero Party alive solely to keep Lilith in check, now began to fight with his full power.

Kwaaaa!

The sand, infused with heat, once again swept over the Hero Party.

Esmeralda used her ice magic sword to push back the torrent of sand, while Tina slipped through the gap.

Though the heat was scorching even when merely brushed against, Tina’s body, transformed into a dragon race, had exceptional resistance to heat.

Esmeralda pushed forward steadily while Tina burrowed through the waves of sand with nimble movements.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Haona distributed the sand more finely, spreading it across every visible area.

The heat-infused sand spread widely like gentle mist from rough waves.

Though its physical force would be reduced, the sand, already near its melting point, was a formidable weapon in itself.

‘Using fire to melt my sand was your mistake!’

Haona concentrated, manipulating each grain of sand with precision.

This was a technique at the pinnacle of elemental magic. With it, Haona could maintain extremely delicate sensations.

‘What is this….’

Haona was able to track his opponents’ positions through the sand he controlled.

Yes, Esmeralda and Tina were still making their way through the sand.

Pushing through this heat, through a space like a wall of flames.

Esmeralda steadily, Tina with increasing speed.

Crack!

Finally, Haona found himself face to face with Tina, who had approached right before him.

“Got you…!”

Tina had become even more dragon-like. Not only wings, horns, and a tail, but dragon scales had also sprouted like armor over her skin.

Yes, the heat of the sand could no longer harm her.

“Kuk!”

Haona’s collar was grabbed by Tina’s dragon-transformed hand.

For a moment, memories of his school days flashed before his eyes.

“How dare you…!”

But he was different now.

He no longer endured humiliation.

Even with his collar grabbed, Haona immediately prepared to counterattack.

It was true that he had been miserable in the past, but now was different.

He had experienced such nightmares many times, but he had overcome them all.

The past was painful and hurtful, but it no longer intimidated him.

Whisk!

Haona grabbed the handle of the umbrella he was holding and drew it.

A thin blade.

Though he was a Mage, as a soldier, he hadn’t completely abandoned physical abilities. Yes, just because the distance had closed didn’t mean he would give up.

“I’m faster!”

Tina’s body weight was still shifted backward from breaking through the sand.

She had successfully grabbed Haona’s collar, but the dagger in her other hand seemed far from reaching him.

In contrast, Haona had made his decision the moment his collar was grabbed.

Though thin, his blade was much longer than a dagger.

If they both thrust, Haona would strike first.

Clang!

“What?!”

But there was something Haona hadn’t considered.

“You can’t do everything alone!”

It was Esmeralda’s support, breaking through the sand just in time.

As soon as she emerged from the sand, Esmeralda deflected Haona’s blade.

And Tina, as if trusting this would happen, drove her dagger into Haona without a moment’s hesitation.

“Kuk?!”

Haona hurriedly tilted his head back to avoid Tina’s attack, but it was futile.

Tina’s dagger pierced directly into Haona’s right eye.

A decisive blow.

“Pain cannot stop me!”

However, Haona, who had forcibly trained his body’s endurance since his school days, had unusual tolerance for a mage.

With the dagger still embedded in his eye, he jerked his head forward and knocked away Tina’s hand that was gripping his collar.

“Hup!”

Then he immediately used magic to repel Esmeralda and Tina.

Not sand magic, but a simple common spell with an excessive amount of mana poured into it to create an opportunity.

But for Haona, seizing that opportunity was impossible.

Immediately after pushing Tina and Esmeralda away, he fell to his knees.

He pulled the dagger from his eye and threw it to the ground, but he realized it was already too late.

“Poison…”

Unlike earlier when his head was hot with anger, now he was extremely calm.

Yes, he had lost. He could accept that fact clearly.

He was defeated. But it wasn’t the end.

“Next time will be different.”

Haona decided to flee.

If he could survive, he could challenge them again and again.

Grind!

While grinding his teeth, Haona immediately prepared his escape.

He whipped up the remaining sand while simultaneously moving away from his original position.

“Think I’ll let you escape?”

Esmeralda had noticed Haona’s change in stance early on and stuck close behind him.

An ordinary person might not expect a Legion Commander to flee, but Esmeralda possessed the ability to see the entire flow of consciousness.

Her [Emerald Tablet] was a trait with many applications.

‘He’ll clearly become a more troublesome enemy later. I need to deal with him now.’

What Esmeralda hadn’t anticipated before the battle was Haona’s insidious character.

Though he seemed pathetic at a glance, Haona was someone who had overcome all his struggles.

A strategist who didn’t fear defeat and prepared for the next encounter.

That was Esmeralda’s assessment of Haona, and it was obvious that if they met again, she would have a harder time than now due to his strategy.

One fleeing, one pursuing.

But in terms of physical ability, Esmeralda was several times superior to Haona.

“Kuk!”

“Got you!”

Just as Esmeralda’s sword was about to swing at Haona’s nape—

“Now, shall we pause for a moment?”

Esmeralda felt her body suddenly freeze.

No, not just her.

Haona, who had placed his hand between the sword and his neck, intending to escape even at the cost of his arm, also stopped.

And Tina, who had followed behind her, as well as Eirene Saintess and Millia Asrin, who had been supporting from behind with holy and elemental magic, were all frozen.

A moment as if time had stopped. But they knew it wasn’t so from the dispersing mana and the silhouette of someone approaching from the distance.

“Oh my, resolving matters with violence is too barbaric, dear.”

Esmeralda felt a profound sense of incongruity from the woman who approached.

An ordinary girl like one might find in a quiet rural village.

But examining her features closely, she was quite beautiful. Yet to perceive such a beauty as ordinary, and to judge her as ordinary despite being at this ancient site.

That was what felt strange.

[Name: Mara Pa…]

“Oh dear, I forgot. Introductions first? Hello, members of the Hero Party. And Legion Commander of the Demon King’s army. Please call me La•Pa for now, will you?”

[Name: La•Pa]

The moment the woman finished her introduction, the information in Esmeralda’s eyes changed in real-time. She wasn’t a demon race, yet she changed her name so easily. Moreover, nothing but her name was visible.

Esmeralda felt more danger from her than any enemy she had encountered so far.

“I’m the headmaster of the Eye of Truth… It seems my students have made a big mistake this time. I apologize. And while I’m apologizing, may I ask one more thing? Could you let that fellow go?”

“…Well, that’s fine. But why did you stop us? Don’t tell me you’re also affiliated with the Eye of Truth?”

A mysterious enemy appearing in the current situation.

Knowing that forcing the issue could endanger her entire party, Esmeralda decided to yield.

“Of course not. I just have something I want to confirm separately.”

“…”

Esmeralda stared intently at La•Pa, her body still frozen.

She couldn’t fathom her intentions at all.

La•Pa

The headmaster of the Eye of Truth. Her actions so far were suspicious.

First, she had done something strange to Tina.

She was hiding her dragon race identity.

However, she didn’t seem hostile to Esmeralda and even apologized on behalf of the scholars who had acted rashly.

Yet she was asking for the life of a Legion Commander from the Demon King’s army.

What could her purpose be?

Why ask to spare him?

“I understand. It’s upsetting to be asked to release a fish you’ve already caught. I’ll give you this in exchange.”

Thud.

La•Pa threw something she had been dragging to where Esmeralda could see it.

“I picked this up just ahead. It was struggling in a trap… This belongs to you, right?”

“…Pleased to meet you again, Hero. It’s an honor to see you once more.”

“Ah, yes, it is indeed ours.”

It was, for some reason, Lug, tied up with rope.