Chapter 25: You have to increase your money!

On the left stood a tall, slender man, his eyes radiating a sinister gloom, while faint wisps of grey mist coiled almost imperceptibly around his fingers.

To the right was a noticeably shorter yet extraordinarily stocky individual, whose skin bore an unnatural, rocky hue, causing the ground beneath his feet to subtly indent.

“Radiance—!”

Sephilia cried out, her spiritual energy surging abruptly, her resonance rate instantly amplifying.

The arcane armguards covering her arms instantly spread to her shoulders, the hammerheads erupting with dazzling golden light, descending with unparalleled force towards the foul-mouthed bald brute.

Such was the momentum, it seemed poised to smash her opponent, along with the very ground he stood upon, straight into the abyss.

Almost simultaneously with Sephilia’s attack, Wain’s figure melted silently into the ground’s shadows, much like ink dissolving into water.

In the very next moment, a chilling killing intent zeroed in on the tall, slender man who was emitting the grey mist.

Shadows coiled around him like venomous snakes, a sharp dagger glinting with cold light, aiming directly for his back.

“You seek death!”

The bald brute, confronted by Sephilia’s furious assault, merely laughed instead of growing angry.

He let out a low growl, crossing his arms to block, his skin instantly turning scorching red, like a heated brand, as a wave of blistering hot air expanded outwards from his center.

His companion spirit weapon was clearly linked to fire or high temperatures, granting him formidable defense and amplified strength.

He actually intended to withstand Sephilia’s heavy hammer head-on!

The tall, slender man’s expression shifted slightly as he felt the deadly chill behind him, and the grey mist coiling around his fingers erupted, forming a blurred, continuously twisting grey shield at his back.

“Shadow Erosion!”

He shrieked, the shield appearing to possess potent corrosive properties, attempting to erode the encroaching shadows and dagger.

The short, stocky man with rock-like skin let out a sneering laugh and stomped his foot violently.

The earth and rocks beneath his feet seemed to come alive, swiftly encasing his legs and torso, instantly forming a thick layer of stone armor.

Like a rampaging rhinoceros, he charged fiercely towards the seemingly “frailest” Melina, accompanied by a rumbling tremor.

His intention was simple: first, to eliminate this opponent who appeared to have a low resonance rate and the most “normal” weapon.

The rock man’s reckless charge stirred up a muffled roar, like an out-of-control chariot, hurtling directly at Melina.

His body, encased in rock armor, exuded a weighty sense of menace, clearly intending to crush this seemingly weakest point with sheer brute force and defense.

“Melina!”

Sephilia’s startled cry was drowned out by the bald brute’s wild laughter and the clangor of weapons clashing.

A pang of worry struck her, yet the enemy before her was equally formidable.

The bald brute’s arms, like glowing red irons, unleashed astonishing power, somehow managing to parry her full-force hammer strike, imbued with over 20% resonance.

Boom—!

Amidst the deafening roar, golden light and crimson heat violently collided, sending shockwaves swirling that whipped Sephilia’s golden hair.

The armguards on her arms let out a faint, strained groan, and the intense recoil left her hand numb.

The bald brute, however, merely caused the ground beneath his feet to crack, sliding back half a step, his sneer growing even wider.

“Not bad strength for a little lass! Too bad, it’s still not enough!”

He suddenly exerted force with both arms, actually swinging Sephilia’s heavy hammer upwards, creating a momentary opening, as his other scorching red fist, whistling through the air, shot directly towards Sephilia’s face.

On the other side, Wain’s shadow thrust encountered an unexpected impediment.

Hiss—!

The dagger striking the twisting grey shield produced a grating, corrosive hiss!

The shadow energy attached to the dagger’s tip was visibly eroded and dissolved by the peculiar grey mist.

The tall, slender man, “Shadow Erosion,” his sinister expression transformed into one of smug triumph.

“Hmph, mere parlor tricks! Shadows are nothing but nourishment before my ‘Annihilation Miasma’!”

He flicked a finger, and more grey mist detached from the shield, coiling like vipers around Wain’s dagger and arm, attempting to spread upwards along the shadow connection to corrode Wain’s very being.

That chilling, intensely depriving aura caused Wain’s expression to subtly change, forcing him to pull back, his movement of merging into the shadows faltering for the first time.

“Annihilation Miasma”! This ability could actually counter his shadow traversal!

At this moment, the rock man’s charge had reached Melina.

A colossal rock fist, accompanied by a dull rush of air, slammed violently towards Melina’s slender figure.

He seemed not to be using a weapon conjured by his companion spirit weapon, or perhaps the layer of rock enveloping him *was* his manifested armor.

The rock fist descended like a collapsing mountain! The intense wind pressure whipped Melina’s hair, and her pupils instantly constricted.

‘Now!’

The thought flashed through her mind; no words were needed, for the bond deep within her soul instantly tightened.

Resonance—activated in an instant!

*Hum!*

The thorny black patterns on Melina’s wrist abruptly appeared, and a familiar, soul-rending agony instantly spread along her arm.

“Ugh—”

She let out a muffled groan, veins bulging at her temples, her vision even momentarily blacking out from the intense pain, yet her eyes, in that same instant, became incredibly sharp and calm, as if she were an entirely different person.

In that fleeting hundredth of a second of resonance, Melo’s battle instincts and experience, honed through countless battles and etched into her very bones, surged into Melina’s consciousness like an unrestrained tide.

The rock man’s seemingly unstoppable charge trajectory, the points of his power bursts, his defensive weak spots… countless fragments of information instantly coalesced, were analyzed, and judged within Melina’s mind.

The cost was the scorching red glow flickering from the thorny black patterns on her wrist, and an agony potent enough to make an ordinary person instantly collapse.

Melina bit down hard on her lower lip, tasting blood, forcibly suppressing the pain, her body moving entirely according to the instinctive reactions transmitted by Melo.

She chose neither to meet the blow head-on nor to clumsily evade the massive, wide-reaching fist.

Her body, like a fallen leaf buffeted by a gale, slipped precariously close along the inner side of the colossal rock arm, utilizing an incredible flexibility and a minuscule angle.

The rock man merely felt his target blur for an instant, his supposedly certain punch striking empty air!

Tremendous inertia carried him onward.

Meanwhile, Melina had already closed in, pressing against the side of his chest, where it was encased in thick rock.

That particular spot had relatively thinner rock armor coverage and was a blind spot, difficult to defend with force.

“Hmph!” Melina, leveraging the momentum of her slide, channeled power from her feet, through the twist of her waist, perfectly into her sword-wielding arm.

The previously dull golden knight’s longsword suddenly flared with dazzling golden light!

This time, the light was no longer restrained, but carried a sharp, unyielding will to cleave through anything.

*Screech—!*

It was not the heavy thud of an impact, but rather a tearing sound, like a hot knife slicing through butter!

The golden longsword pierced with incredible precision into a seam of the rock man’s side rib armor!

The sensation from the sword tip was not of hard rock, but of a deeper, tougher, yet clearly not invincible, earth-elemental energy defense layer.

Yet, this proved meaningless against the power unleashed in that instant, as Melina forcibly pierced through it regardless.

“Urgh—!”

The rock man let out a cry of unbelievable pain!

His proudly worn rock armor had actually been breached by a girl with a “low” resonance rate and an ordinary weapon?!

Intense pain surged from his ribs, accompanied by a sluggish sensation of his power being violently interrupted.

His forward momentum abruptly faltered, and the rock armor covering his entire body visibly rippled, as if losing some of its stability.

Having successfully landed her strike, Melina showed no desire to linger in battle.

The agony inflicted by the Thorn’s Kiss clung to her like a maggot in bone, continuously tearing at her nerves.

Using the recoil from her thrust, she nimbly leaped backward, creating distance.

When she landed, her body swayed slightly, her face ashen, sweat instantly soaking her temples, and her sword-wielding right hand trembled uncontrollably.

This was not merely physical exhaustion, but a physiological reaction stemming from forcibly enduring such intense pain.

“Damn it!”

The rock man clutched his injured ribs, where yellowish-brown energy light was seeping from the wound.

He glared at Melina, a mix of shock and fury on his face, “You… what kind of wicked trick did you use, you little b*tch?!”

He utterly failed to comprehend the exquisite precision and timing of that previous sword strike, dismissing it merely as some special ability.

Melina panted rapidly, offering no reply.

She struggled to maintain her stance, her cold, golden eyes, seen through the sweat, firmly locked onto her opponent, constantly wary of his next assault.

At the same time, she demonstrated through her actions that she was certainly not a soft persimmon to be casually crushed.

“Nicely done, Melina!”

Sephilia, fiercely entangled in battle with the bald brute, caught a glimpse of this scene amidst her frantic efforts, and her spirits soared.

Melina’s astonishing flash and thrust displayed combat prowess and calm judgment, just as she had during their very first encounter!

“No need to worry about Melina! Wain, focus on your target; that grey mist monster’s shield is peculiar, don’t try to clash with it head-on!”

Wain, of course, had also witnessed Melina’s success, and a flicker of something unusual passed through his gloomy eyes.

Confronted once more by the coiling Annihilation Miasma, he no longer attempted to forcibly breach the shield’s defense.

He flickered several times within the shadows, moving like a phantom at high speed around the tall, slender man.

The dagger in his hand created streaks of cunning, chilling light, its target no longer the opponent’s body, but the constantly twisting, defensive grey mist shield itself!

He was probing, searching for the patterns and weaknesses of this uncanny ability.

The battlefield situation, thanks to Melina’s entirely unexpected sword strike, was forcibly pulled back into equilibrium in an instant!

The three uninvited guests, clad in tight-fitting outfits bearing the lizard emblem, showed expressions of solemnity for the very first time.

They finally realized that this team, seemingly composed of a “young lady,” a “small attendant,” and a “gloomy kid,” was by no means a group of greenhorns to be easily manipulated.

It seemed, then, that once they dealt with these three youngsters, they would need to renegotiate the price with their employer.

‘Gotta get more money!’