Chapter 348: Greatest weapon
[Strength: 50]
[Speed: 42]
[Defense: 38]
[Intelligence: 36]
She was strong. There was no denying that. In his base form, Luke would have struggled to overcome her.
But under the moon?
CLANG!
Their blades met with a sharp ring of steel. Neither side possessed enough strength to overwhelm the other, yet Ilya could feel the balance slowly shifting against her.
She gritted her teeth as she met his gaze.
Those eyes held no strain.
Only amusement.
"A warrior as strong as you is wasted in a village like this," she muttered.
Without warning, she swept her leg toward his feet, attempting to throw him off balance.
Luke simply raised his leg, allowing her foot to pass beneath it. Then, with precise timing, he caught her leg between his own.
"Ah!"
Ilya’s balance vanished.
She stumbled backward, and the force behind her blade faltered with her footing.
Luke twisted his wrist and flicked his dagger against her weapon, knocking her blade from her grasp. He followed her descent, dropping alongside her before she could recover.
A moment later, Ilya found herself pinned against the ground.
Luke’s blade was embedded in the earth beside her face.
Heat radiated from the metal, searing against her skin.
She stared at him, her breath caught somewhere between surprise and disbelief.
"Do you know what matters more to me than hunting people?" Luke asked.
His voice was calm.
Ilya bit her lip as he leaned closer.
Then he whispered,
"The security of my family."
She narrowed her eyes before suddenly locking her legs around his torso.
Luke grinned. "What’s the big plan? Are you..."
He paused.
"Oh."
Only then did he realize what she had done. She had him caught in a deadlock.
And judging by the smug look on her face, she was anything but desperate.
Her hold was deliberate, practiced, and backed by years of experience. Quite the huntress.
Luke snarled and dropped to one knee. The sudden shift in weight disrupted her hold, and with a small exertion, he rose back to his feet.
Ilya stared at him, eyes narrowed.
"One tough bastard," she snickered.
Then she drew her head back.
"Ah!"
Her skull slammed toward his, but Luke tilted his head at the last possible instant, letting the strike pass harmlessly beside him.
In one fluid motion, he slipped his hand between her legs and his torso, gradually prying her grip apart.
"You are one hell of a snake."
Ilya knew exactly what would happen once he broke her hold. He would throw her down and end the fight.
So she changed tactics.
Her hand suddenly caught his shoulder, and she used him as leverage, launching herself upward.
Luke’s eyes widened slightly.
She had jumped far higher than he expected, one leg already arcing toward his chin.
But within his Lunar Domain, nothing escaped his perception.
He saw the attack coming before it reached him.
Luke simply stepped aside.
Ilya’s kick cut through empty air.
She clicked her tongue. "Stop slipping away and fight me like a man."
A frustrated growl escaped her.
Luke chuckled. "Or what you mean is, fight like a fool and let you hit me?"
He casually twirled his dagger between his fingers before crossing his left arm over his stomach, his posture almost insultingly relaxed.
That clearly annoyed Ilya.
Yet despite her frustration, she did not make a reckless move.
Luke studied her for a moment before asking, "You still haven’t shown me your magical abilities."
His smile widened.
"You do realize you don’t stand much of a chance against me otherwise, right?"
Luke had yet to use his full strength.
Nor had he relied on any of his magical abilities.
If he did, he knew he could end the fight almost immediately.
Truthfully, under the moon, fighting someone head-on made Luke feel almost broken.
It was as though the night itself had turned him into a completely different beast.
Ilya remained vigilant, already had picked her blade before she said. "Make me use it."
Luke sighed. "As you wish," and with that, he took the aggressive role. Hid blade moved faster now.
Ilya barely caught the first strike, steel meeting steel a hair too late.
"Tch."
She adjusted her grip, planting her feet wider, trying to anchor herself against the pressure building through her arms.
It didn’t help.
Luke’s next swing came from a different angle entirely, forcing her to twist her wrist awkwardly to block it. The impact rattled up into her shoulder.
She gritted her teeth and pushed back, driving her blade against his in a bid to create space.
Luke didn’t budge.
Instead, he leaned into the pressure, matching her force with his own, then suddenly withdrew.
Ilya stumbled forward, thrown off by the sudden absence of resistance.
Luke used the opening immediately, his dagger flicking toward her exposed side.
She twisted, barely avoiding a cut across her ribs, the blade grazing through fabric instead of flesh.
"You’re fast," she admitted through gritted teeth, retreating a step to reset her footing.
"You’re stubborn," Luke replied, an edge of amusement in his tone. "I’ll give you that much."
Ilya lunged again, feinting high before dropping low, aiming for his thigh.
Luke read it before she committed to the motion.
He sidestepped, and as her blade cut through empty air, he brought the flat of his dagger down against her wrist.
"Ah!"
Her grip loosened, just slightly. Not enough to lose the weapon, but enough for Luke to notice.
He pressed the advantage without hesitation, driving a series of quick strikes that forced her into pure defense. Block, block, block. She had no room to counter, no room to breathe.
Ilya’s arm began to burn from the repeated impacts, her movements growing a fraction slower with each exchange.
She could feel it happening.
The fight was slipping away from her.
Refusing to accept it, she tried one last desperate maneuver, twisting her blade in an attempt to lock his weapon and wrench it from his grip.
Luke saw it coming.
He let his dagger bend into the lock rather than resist it, then rotated his wrist at the exact moment her leverage peaked.
The motion ripped her blade clean out of her hand.
It spun through the air and landed several feet away, blade first, sinking into the dirt.
Ilya froze.
Her hand was empty.
Luke’s dagger hovered inches from her throat, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off the burning edge.
"Looks like we’re done here," he said quietly.
Narrowing his eyes, Luke continued, "It’s obvious where your limit lies, yet you still chose not to use your greatest weapon."
There was unmistakable annoyance in his voice as he pulled away from her.
Ilya simply watched him in silence.
Luke snickered and turned his back on her.
Forget it.
Then...
CHISKAAH!
A violent explosion erupted behind him.
Scorching heat crashed into Luke in waves, the sudden surge forcing him to turn around.
His eyes widened.
"You..."
A woman stood before him, completely clad in embers.
Wild flames engulfed her entire body, twisting and roaring around her like a living cloak. The sheer heat radiating from her was intense enough to scorch the surrounding air, while several nearby trees caught fire from the sudden increase in temperature.
Her face and body were barely visible through the raging inferno.
Yet Luke could still make out her silhouette.
More importantly, he could tell she was controlling it.
Not a single flame moved without purpose.
She had finally revealed her greatest weapon.
"You wanted to see it," she said. "So here I am."
She suddenly raised her hand.
Ropes of flame surged upward with the motion, twisting around her arm before lashing toward Luke.
His expression hardened.
He tensed and, in the next instant, leaped backward as a volley of flames tore through the space where he had been standing.
BOOOM!
The ground erupted.
Chunks of earth were thrown into the air as a small crater formed where Luke had stood only moments ago.
What shocked him most was not the destructive power.
It was the speed.
She had not chanted.
There had been no preparation, no visible buildup of energy.
Just a simple flick of her wrist.
[Host... she possesses a fourth-tier Pod. The highest grade there is.]
Even the System sounded stunned.
And for once, Luke understood why.
He stared at the woman surrounded by raging flames.
Somehow, in the process of pushing her a little too far, it felt like he had awakened a furious goddess.
With a feral grin, he summoned a spear in his hand before muttering. "Well, since you have decided to honor me with your full strength." Suddenly, waves of Gamma began to roll down his self, and his body began to glow faintly under the moonlight.
Both of them stared at each other, they both shared the same eager grin.
That night, the villagers heard the two hunters properly greeting each other.
~~~~~~
A/N:- I hope you liked the Chapter. Drop a comment.