“Ah?”
In that split second, Kabal, who was only looking at the barrier being split in half in front of him, lowered his gaze.
‘What is this?’
He eventually realized that the muscular arm lying on the ground was his. With look of disbelief, he turned his gaze to the front.
‘Why is my arm…?’
A gentle breeze tickled his face. He finally realized the situation he was in. He held his shoulder, where his arm had been – which was cleanly cut off – and started to take a step back.
“Kuuuuk!”
As he stepped back, Kabal stared beyond the barrier had just been split in half. There, he found Riley who was holding a sword. Kabal had no idea when had Riley gotten up and drawn his sword. Kabal gritted his teeth.
“As I thought, you were…”
Riley was holding the sword in his right hand. With the arm fully extended to the back, he had taken a standby stance. Facing Riley, Kabal exuded the purple light energy and started to swing the hammer in his left hand.
“You were the bastard!”
As if something snapped and he lost his mind, Kabal was charged at Riley like a beast. Nainiae, who was vacantly staring at Riley, showed a concerned look on her face for a brief moment. However, it was a baseless concern.
“Uuuk?!”
Only a moment ago, Riley was being held in Nainiae’s arms. Now, Riley was already standing and parring the hammer that Kabal slammed down. Nainiae watched this happen in front of her.
“Kuk! Petty tricks!”
Watching Riley quickly closing the distance and deflecting his own hammer, Kabal huffed and puffed as he changed the angle of the hammer and swung it with his left arm, as if he was going to send Riley flying.
‘Young Master.’
Watching Riley parry the strike again by pushing the pole portion of the hammer with his sword, Nainiae mumbled inside.
“…”
Although Kabal was missing an arm, the monstrous strength drenched in purple light was definitely not something that could be ignored. Despite this, Riley only maintained emotionless face as he moved his sword and deflected Kabal’s attacks.
It was as if he was testing something.
He parried attacks from above by having them sent below and he dodged the attacks coming from the side. Riley was dancing with Kabal, as if Riley was toying with him.
“You little!”
It looked like Kabal almost had him, but he didn’t. Somehow, in various ways, Riley was evading Kabal’s attacks. Infuriated by Riley’s belittling moves, Kabal looked at the ground. It seemed his target had changed.
‘The ground?’
Nainiae realized Kabal was about to smash the ground with his hammer to bring about a quake. She hesitated as she thought whether or not she should prepare her magic. However, Riley responded faster than the smashing of hammer on the ground.
“… Uuuu, uu?”
Raised high above, the hammer was just waiting to for the smashing motion to the ground. However, the hammer was stopped in that angle.
To be precise, Kabal’s body had become stiff.
Because of the deadly aura that Riley exuded, his entire body was not budging at all as if it became a lump of ice or a boulder.
‘It cannot be… Again?’
With his body immobilized, Kabal was not able to do anything but move his eyeballs to chase the culprit responsible for his current state.
‘Something petty like this…’
Like the last time, he was trying to use his strength to shake off the deadly aura that was suppressing his body. It seemed this was the right answer. His body, which was struggling, slowly started to move again.
“… Ha.”
Kabal shivered and started to move again. Watching Kabal, Riley snorted.
“That’s right. It’s done.”
“…?”
‘Done? What’s done?’
Kabal’s consciousness ended there.
“…”
Next to Kabal’s right arm that had been cut off earlier, Kabal’s head, which still had confused expression on the face, fell. After that, his body, and then his hammer, fell in that order.
“As I thought…”
Riley tossed the sword on top of the corpse and muttered. The voice was unlike before. It felt like his heart had become significantly lighter.
“… It’s such a bother.”
Afterwards, he turned to look at Nainiae. Seeing the look on Riley’s face, it seemed she felt relieved at last. She relaxed the anxious look on her face and put on a faint smile.
“Now…”
Having finished off Kabal, Riley walked to Nainiae, stared right at her face and said,
“I think I need to hear a few things from you.”
It seemed like Riley was not going to ask about the advice Nainiae gave earlier about the things that troubled Riley. As if he had things he wanted to hear from Nainiae that were unrelated to those, the expression on Riley’s face changed to refreshed look. He moved his hand toward Nainiae’s white cheek.