I Only Summon Villainesses - Chapter 264: Counterattack

Chapter 264: Counterattack

To be honest, I used to think traps were so easy to create and easy to fall into. I guess I was wrong. I had thought this guy would be greedy, that while I was busy fighting, he would run in to steal the kill. Then I’d unleash the beast on him. If the beast failed to deal fatal damage, I’d make sure I finished whatever it started.

But he didn’t even show any interest in my plan. It seemed like he had read me like an open book, or he just wasn’t the greedy type to begin with.

’Che… I’m so out of luck.’

I released the chain while the beast continued to push forward and let it run on free unimpeded acceleration, smashing itself into the rock on the opposite side and sending tremors across the entire structure.

Meanwhile, Kohen leaned forward and a wide unsettling grin settled on his face before he sprang off the ground like he was wearing propeller boots. He rolled his body in the air and landed on me with a kick. I raised my hand and blocked, but my knee buckled. The ground below cracked.

He rolled again in the air, this time vertically over his head, then landed, and it barely lasted a moment before he pierced forward with the speed of an unleashed arrow and came battering me with a throng of blows.

In a crucial time like this, I did well to listen. I listened to the sound of his style and trusted my instincts to follow exactly what he was saying. My hands flew in each direction that his came from, and I needed not to worry because I was keeping up with him.

When I blocked the first blow, a powerful burst of air rang out. I felt like my bones were going to be wrenched from the inside. The second attack was even worse, forcing me to stagger backward.

But he already followed through with a double punch. One almost landed on my face but I tilted my head, and the other found its way to my gut but I threw my stomach back to minimize the damage.

However, that was not what happened. Even though his fist didn’t meet me, the impact did. It exploded from my back and caused me to vomit a gout of blood before staggering some steps away.

As I staggered away, guess who was going to surprise me from behind.

Before I could allow the muscled elephant of a guardian to render my spine useless, I released waves upon waves of white flames while simultaneously using [Empero’s Presence] to intensify their pressure, so the advance and force of the guardian could be delayed even if it was for a moment while I gathered myself.

At the same time, I twisted out of the way.

As I suspected, the beast tore into the waves of flames with terrifying stubbornness and resisted the crushing authority of an Emperor that was supposed to weaken its will and reduce its stats.

It was as though this creature was completely immune to my attributes. Not that it was resisting all of them entirely. They did affect it, just not enough to make the difference I had calculated.

’Damnit, am I dealing with another high level?’

Before I could rest a moment after tearing myself away from the creature’s path, from my right flank this bastard appeared again. I instinctively released a storm of white flames thinking he’d back off, only for his hands to twist out of the wall of fire a moment later, grab my armor by the collar, and wrench me forward.

He met my face with a blow that crushed into it and folded it. My head flew back from the impact and my entire body followed, flying through the air and landing in a roll.

Before I could pick myself up, the gate guardian crashed against Kohen from the side. He blocked the strike with his bare hands and used the impact to soar through the air, twisting like an expert acrobat.

As he landed, the beast did not rest and lunged towards him again with vicious fury, its legs quaking the ground with every powerful step.

This time, he did not run. Instead he lunged towards the beast and dove between its legs, twisting and sending quick successions of blows into the guardian’s underbelly as he passed underneath.

None of those blows landed clean, but a detonating impact shot out of his fist with each strike and crushed into the creature, sending it flying and tumbling across the ground. Kohen twisted and landed low on his feet, one hand touching the ground, a cold unreadable look in his eyes.

His face was covered in sweat and grime, and his black and white hair flowed with the disturbance in the wind.

Sadly for him though, I was another enemy he had to face.

With the opening he gave me, I had already summoned my sword and descended on him like a tempest.

He crossed both hands above his head and blocked the strike with bare skin. But now that I was armed with a blade, it was pretty clear how he was managing all of this.

I released a short grin as I figured out his bloodline ability, or at least a part of it.

I drove a kick into his stomach while pressing the sword against his hands. He couldn’t block at two points, so he tore his arms apart and threw off my blade, but the kick had merely been a bait. I stomped my feet down and brought the pommel of my sword crashing into his nose the instant his hands dropped to block a strike that was no longer coming.

A satisfying crunch reverberated across the pit as his head snapped back and he staggered away, losing his grip on his balance.

Meanwhile, the gate guardian was already lunging towards him from behind.

My short grin widened but all of it went down quickly as a the bastard twisted his whole body and vanished in a moment and the next, I found myself in front of the charging guardian.