Chapter 49: Growth and Pride!

Katana on the verge of shattering, and mana almost depleted.

With four more Mana Zombies remaining, almost anyone would have given up in such a situation.

However, in order to prove herself to her new saviors, Victoria remained steadfast, unwilling to take even a single step back.

"That’s it... if the katana is about to shatter, then let it shatter!" she whispered.

Looking at the cracks on her sword, her mana once again drained from ten percent to five percent.

"Damn, you zombies! Die for me!"

Dodging a zombie’s hand, she slashed the sword against its neck.

Unfortunately, this time its head didn’t fly off; instead, the katana shattered into pieces, it had reached its absolute limit.

"Grahh?" The zombie growled in confusion. Having seen its companions die that way, it wondered why it had survived.

However, its undead brain could not parse the reason, and it once again turned its attention toward Victoria.

Although it didn’t know what was going on, its desire to drain her mana core and evolve overshadowed everything else.

"Dumb zombie, did you really think I’d be that easy?"

Sensing the zombie recovering from shock, she dodged its fists and rolled behind it.

"Although my katana was about to shatter, five percent of my mana is still enough to pull some strings."

"Literally!"

Holding the hilt of her sword, Victoria pulled hard.

"Now die for me, you ugly thing!"

As she yelled this, the shards that had long since shattered seemed to be connected by a thin wire of ice.

It turned out that, realizing the weapon was about to break, she had connected all the cracks with a thread of ice during the fight, turning the once-sharp katana into a sharp ice whip.

Although this too required her mana to keep active, it was enough to take out these final zombies.

Bang!

Tugging on the handle, it turned out that with her roll just now, she had unknowingly wrapped the whip around the zombie’s neck.

Now, with a single tug, its head was neatly chopped off by the sharp shards of her ice whip.

"Amazing... is this really the combat sense of someone who has never been in a battle before?"

"Not only creating a sword and handling it so well, but sensing its destruction, she was able to turn it into another weapon."

"At this rate, doesn’t her talent come close to yours, Elena, Miss Martial Master?"

"Though in Victoria’s case, maybe we should call her Miss Weapon Master?"

Observing Victoria’s movements in the distance, Ethan was shocked.

Who knew that just as he was preparing to jump in and save her, she would once again surprise him?

The more he looked at her, the more he felt like he had hit the jackpot recruiting her.

And Elena, hearing herself being compared to Victoria, wasn’t angry; rather, her fighting intent couldn’t help but rise.

If Ethan hadn’t promised her another duel, and if she couldn’t sense that he was still way stronger than her, she would have jumped in right now and proposed a duel to Victoria.

Calming herself down, she looked at the blue-haired orphan girl in front of her, who seemed to have transformed into a goddess of war.

Her eyes filled with appreciation, after which Elena turned to look at Ethan, who was focused on Victoria. A mischievous smile once again crossed her face.

"Brother, Brother, Brother..."

"You know, if she’s this strong, I wouldn’t mind taking her as my sister-in-law."

"After all, it’s the apocalypse now. As the patriarch of the Smith family, you have to have strong offspring."

"She seems like a prime candidate for that!" Saying this, she ducked away from Ethan’s knock range, learning from last time.

"Hey, relax, I’m not going to hit you."

"And who the hell says ’offspring’? You sound more like Grandpa than Grandpa does," Ethan sighed.

"Also, now’s not the time to talk about relationships or anything."

"Take a look, it seems like we’re not alone."

Pointing toward Victoria, as she was dealing with the last of the zombies, a group of four people suddenly pulled up from behind her.

"Those kids... who are they, and why does that last kid behind them have so much hatred in his eyes?"

Sensing something interesting was about to happen, Ethan had no interest in stepping out just yet.

Although he could guess what was happening, he wanted to see how she would handle the situation.

............

[Victoria’s POV]

Boom!

Destroying the last zombie with her ice whip, Victoria wiped the blood from her face, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Haa~"

"I did it!"

"I, Victoria Sinclair, am not a coward!"

Struggling to remain standing, she breathed a sigh of relief as the ice katana, now an ice whip had completely shattered in her hands.

With less than five percent of her mana left and this being her first time experiencing battle, she had done the impossible and defeated thirty Mana Zombies all by herself.

Looking at the corpses all around her, a feeling of pride welled up within her chest.

Although her breath was heavy, her hair was stained with blood, and her stamina was at its limits...

Victoria felt like she was in a much better condition than before the fight started.

Most of her worries about being a liability had been washed away, and she finally felt like she wasn’t going to be a burden to her saviors.

Thinking of this, she couldn’t wait to go back to where Ethan and Elena were and ask how she did.

However, before she could do that, a group of voices suddenly rang out from behind her:

"Hey there, miss! Please don’t go!"

"Please take us with you!"

"Save us! Don’t leave us behind!"

Yes, noticing that Victoria had cleared all the nearby zombies, Alex and his group decided to come out of hiding.

Although they didn’t understand what was going on, none of them wanted to miss this opportunity to cling to such a golden thigh.

Only Terry, who was still in shock, couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

’Sister Victoria... is it really you!?’