Chapter 318: A Servant of the Devil’s Bride

———Kenni———

<1: 02 pm>

*Clash* *Clang* *Strike* *Bash* *Smash* *Punch* *Smack* *Slash* *Sizz* *Crackle*

They are all still struggling against the horde of soldiers and monsters. Even though it’s one against four warlords, the man who commands the monsters manages to make this a stalemate. The amount of monsters he can command is numerous and make up for the numbers disadvantage. They are way more ruthless than humans, willing to risk its disposable life in order to kill its enemies. Certainly not something that could be said about human fighters whose lives can be considered more precious. No matter how the situation ends up, he’ll probably end up with less loss due to how easily he can collect wild monsters and add it to his fighting force. It seems to be an innate ability of some kind. While Innate Ability tends to have next to no downside, not all of them are so generous. Maybe they can be considered a side grade to a universally teachable skill. I had to wonder if he had anything like that. Emmie’s various abilities have none, but I would consider her a massive outlier when it comes to everything, so she is a bad example to bring up.

Even if this small war is still in a stalemate, it won’t remain that way for long if that promised threat comes to pass.

I am standing here on top of a building, watching them fight in this accursed land that was already filled with monsters. If it was anywhere else then the four of them would’ve had much better time than now, but they can’t just not confront him here, otherwise he would’ve captured most of the monsters to easily terrorize and threaten their territory. They can’t let him even get close to their area, so they are all here again.

Too bad Qyunda isn’t around for this. I don’t see a mission for it before I fly all the way here. I’m here hoping that they can actually manage, since I used up a good chunk of energy to get here, and I don’t want to waste any before my return trip. I do want to cause some havoc, but with that factor and the threat I am best left as an observer. At least it hasn’t gotten any worse. There should be enough time for the expected cavalry to arrive.

*Zap* *Crackle* *Sizz*

Very suddenly, multiple types of spells were casted all at once and wipe out a good chunk of the monsters, and the source of the caster is very obvious. On a shorter building right in the middle of all the fighting.

“Alright you heartless smug asshole! I’ve come to settle the score!” A woman’s voice rang out, clearly quite annoyed and there is a few drones flying around here, clearly meant to be cameras to record everything. She’s probably streaming right now.

Everyone is rightfully confused at the sudden appearance of the woman with white hair and blue tunic. Her archaic clothing does have a bit of charm to them, but that’s beside the point. She is very easy to identify, and some of the people down below might recognize her.

“Hah! I didn’t expect a cam bitch like you to come over here!” The monster guy yelled out. “I guess you really want to die!”

“Hmph! I don’t even need to lift up a finger against you! Let me show you a true strength of a true monster tamer!” Terry said before summoning something with her arms crossed.

*Flap* *Zip* *Slash*

Nrite seemed to command a flying monster towards her, but it was cut in half before it could even get close by the summoned monster.

What was summoned is a suit of armor colored deep dark blue, adorned with gold markings all over on its body, sword, and cape. The helmet visor is large but seems to be covered in black glass that makes it impossible to inside the suit, if there’s anything underneath there.

“Armoresst! Kill all the monsters and dismantle his army! Don’t even think about going easy!” Terry yelled out as she levitated away from the scene, making it so no one could even attempt to attack her.

*Leap* *Slash* *Slice* *Dice*

Before everyone else could process what is happening. The two commanders of monsters focus on each other, though it is best to say that Terry’s sole monster is going against an army of monsters and humans. The speed at which it is moving causes a powerful whirlwind to occur wherever it approaches, and with all the monsters being dismantled by a single swing, it causes all the corpses to go flying in all directions and cause any humans nearby to be pushed away or run away in fear. It moves freely on land and in the air with the agility of something that should be more than just a suit of armor. Even without directly targeting them the living armor tore down through the debris and abandoned buildings in its vicinity, and the humans allied with his tamed monsters were all wounded just by being in the blast zone. Its raw strength alone is clearly way above what the other monster master can command.

“Damn you!” He quickly loses his composure while the other four factions that have allied to take him down can only look at what is happening with bewilderment and fear. They are retreating due to the danger of being even near the living armor, pulling their army back and letting it become the tale of feud between two monster tamers. “You think one strong monster is going to be enough!? Why don’t you come down here and fight me yourself!”

Who is he even trying to fool with that uncomposed shout? He is clearly losing it from the absolute carnage just one of her tamed monsters managed to do. His legion all got shredded in less than a minute, all of that is just bravado. That is probably not even the strongest monster she has available. This is nothing more than a show of force, only a fraction of force.

Before long, his entire legion became nothing more but a sea of blood and carnage. Most of the humans weren’t directly targeted, but they were completely demoralized or became collateral damage. It’s a complete massacre.

I think it has roughly been… no more than four minutes since the slaughter starts, and now all that’s left is a single man without any support behind him, any sort of confidence he has quickly left his body with his expression still stiffened up to maintain some dignity.

“Weren’t you saying something about fighting you myself? Am I hearing that correctly?” Suddenly Terry appeared behind him, causing him to turn around in shock while the others quickly created some distance. With the carnage that has happened it’s no surprise they want to leave. The situation is clearly about to get even uglier.

“Come on, big boy, aren’t you going to put me in my place?” Terry said with a smirk as the living armor retreated and she drew her sword. It’s easy to think she’s weak because she usually relies on monsters to fight, but her combat prowess is no lesser to them. She rarely even gets to use her newly recruited monster in that collab stream.

“Don’t you mock me!” He screamed out as he powers up and ran towards her.

*Swing* *Evade* *Slice*

“AAAAH!?” He simply tried to punch her right in the face, but she sidestepped and then sliced his right arm clean off, giving him no time to react whatsoever. The gap between them is simply too vast. Her strength and agility is simply too much for him to handle, and ultimately he has to face the consequence. His movement is probably so slow to her eyes that she could’ve cut him into ribbons before he could even close the distance between the two.

“Pathetic.” Terry remarked with the drone cameras flying around, broadcasting a man’s sudden and anticlimactic end to no doubt a lot of people.

*Kick* *Thud*

“Aaah… Gruhh…” He groaned out in pain while clutching the bleeding stump, unable to even stand up after getting kicked right in the stomach. He’s not in the position to move wildly unless he wants the open wound to bleed out badly.

“You know, it’s quite funny. When it comes to both the strength of our monsters and us as individuals, it turns out my ‘bleeding heart’ self is superior, compared to a hardass like you.” She mockingly said before sheathing her sword. It’s overkill against him anyway, so nothing to take note of. “Anyway, dying will be too easy for you, so let’s try something. Unfortunately, chat, I can’t show what will happen next.”

She then presumably turns off the camera functions on them as they fly away.

*Swing* *Blast* *Leap*

“Whoa!?” I screamed out in surprise as a beam of energy was unleashed from her suddenly drawing out her sword, forcing me to jump out of the way spooked out of my mind.

By the time I land back down, the two of them have already disappeared. Did she teleport away? Regardless, it seems that despite the high ground and making sure to keep up my role as an observer, someone still notices me anyway…

I turn around to look at the four armies and they are all… looking straight at me. She seriously just left the mess behind for me to be the center of attention. It’s pretty rare for me to get played like that…

———Meesi———

<1: 13 pm>

“What the hell? Is that seriously the end of that?” It felt so quick and easy, like flicking a bug away.

“Like I said, it’s a clean sweep for her. It was never a real competition in the first place.” James replied. Yeah yeah, brag about that some more, why don’t you? “It’s a short but entertaining stream, but… Oh, she’s back in her room, guess she still has something to say.”

“The chat is going crazy.” A guy said, looking at the stream from his phone. The comments absolutely explode with all kinds of bewilderment. “Just who is this woman? How did you find her?”

“Probably the same way most people here did. That crazy collab stream where it felt more like some sort of crazy power fantasy instead of a legitimate dungeon dive attempt.” He answered. Right, that massive elephant in the room. All but one of them were monstrously strong and were clearly holding back. It’s clear that if they want to they can probably go down a few more hundreds floors and still won’t break a sweat, taking it nice and slow while looking like they were blitzing through them without a care.

“I have been watching clips of that. They look so… doctored.” Alsam said.

“It’s the camerawork and their absurd power and speed that make their fights feel so cinematic. If you were in their shoes it would’ve looked realistic, let’s just say.” James said, can’t help but to give a snarky remark.

“<Hm? Oh, you guys didn’t know about Armoresst beforehand, right? One of my stronger monsters that I have in the back pocket for a long while now.>” Terry said, no doubt responding to the torrent of questions of where the hell did that monster come from. “<I have a ton of cool and cute monsters you don’t know about. The ones I am showing off are the ones I am raising, fresh new ones from after the Eclipse.>”

“Huh?” I muttered in confusion at the very specific wordings.

“Hmm… Not all too surprising if you think about it hard enough.” James said, not losing his composure like the rest of us. “We should be all too aware that magic is not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination. There will be… elders that have mastered the art long before us. It’d be a miracle if we can find them to learn something from them.”

“Like that messy-haired swordswoman?” I asked, since that’s the one person he seemed wary of and had met in person.

“Exactly. As you saw, despite my own talent, the fact of the matter is that she no doubt had a massive headstart in comparison to me. No matter what, I'll end up looking like a toddler in her eyes.” James explained. “You would be very fortunate to find someone truly stronger than you and willing to spar with you, though you need some mental fortitude to expect a loss as well, begrudgingly or otherwise.”