[Spirit of Lust] Chapter 279: Difficult situation. (Patreon)

Will did not understand, but understanding was his last of his priorities. That man had been one of many mercenaries just a moment ago. He’d fallen to Belphegor’s power just like all the others instead of resisting it like Helga and the man in the suit. And yet now, after being woken up, the huge man irradiated an intense, frightening aura that shook Will to his core.

It felt like Ishtar’s and Belphegor’s power in terms of its nature. One could feel the lust and apathy in those two’s auras, and the blinding rage oozing from this man was just as clear. Pure, unadulterated rage… all aimed directly at Will.

He barely had time to react. The man rushed at him like a bulldozer, the concrete floor cracking with every one of his steps as he ran towards him. Will understood the difference in raw power immediately, and the only thing he could do not to die was put his arms close to his face and use any and all remaining aether in him to reinforce his body, focusing mainly on his arms and head.

The hook that hit him sent him flying out of the warehouse, the momentum making him drag and roll on the floor until he naturally stopped.

Pain. Sharp, agonizing pain in both arms and a ringing in his ears. The whole world spun around him and time seemed to slow. That punch had been comparable to the one Jack Evans had given him before, only this time Will’s defences were nowhere near as strong as they were back then.

The floor felt unstable, but he had to get on his feet. Time may seem to have slowed, but his brain still worked well enough to know that if he wasn’t dead, it wasn’t the end. However, his trembling legs failed him and he couldn’t use his arms to raise himself up. Were they broken? He wasn’t sure. How much time had passed? A minute? A second? Why was he not dead yet? He raised his gaze and saw the situation.

Aoi and Johana got in the raging man’s way. Both the amazon and his teacher were radiating a colorless aura as they tried their best to stop the bulldozer of a man. Johana grabbed both of his wrists and pushed back against his charge, keeping him in place. Meanwhile, Aoi steeled her resolve and swung her sword at the man’s neck from behind him. However, the blade didn’t go through. At most, Will believed he saw a spec of red, but the man was unharmed.

He threw an awkward kick backwards that Aoi easily moved away from, and the sudden shift in balance allowed Johana to lift the man over her head with a roar, smacking him down on the floor so hard he bounced on concrete.

Johana conjured her halberd and brought it down on the man on the floor. Somehow, though, he stopped it with his arms in front of his face, and his red aura created a sudden explosive force that made the two warrior women back away.

At the same time, the man in the suit was fighting Ishtar. He chased her while trying to land body blows, but Ishtar put her all in defence and kept backing away, just barely dodging those punches with good footwork and flexibility.

“Don’t you fucking touch this body,” Ishtar said with Reina’s voice, swatting away a direct punch to her chest. “I promised I’d keep it safe.”

“Release it, then, and I promise no harm will come to the girl.”

Ishtar jumped back to create some distance, shooting two blasts at him and aiming low, for his legs. The man zig-zagged in his approach and continued his pursuit of Ishtar like it was nothing.

All the while, the raging man was standing up. Johana ran behind him, held him tightly by the waist and lifted him up. Her grip could’ve crushed a normal person in two, but this guy, in all his screaming and struggling, tried to elbow Johana’s face to set himself free.

“Leave him to me! Save the princess!” Johana screamed before she began to spin in place and threw the man towards the very back of the warehouse.

Aoi sheathed her sword, frustration clear on her eyes, and ran to help Ishtar.

“Stay fucking there!” Helga shouted, grunting as she forced herself to summon two more of her human-looking soldiers to impede Aoi’s charge.

In the blink of an eye, the two aether constructs had their heads sliced. Aoi simply ran past them as she sheathed her sword again, rushing directly at the man in the suit who had his full attention on Ishtar. She’d probably be able to catch him by surprise…

However, Will noticed something strange. As she got closer, Aoi’s speed lowered dramatically and the aura she was radiating disappeared, leaving a fading trail. Instead of the supernatural speed that a strengthened body gave her, she ran with the speed of a normal athletic person, which in comparison looked like slow-motion. Maybe it was that she had to put in more effort to keep herself running fast, but the sound of her steps became louder, and that was what alerted the man in the suit.

He managed to look back just as Aoi reached him, and the counterattack was instinctual. The man in the suit was ready to launch a backhand at Aoi’s face, and with her magical strengthening suddenly gone, he’d reach her first and likely blow her head off.

Will’s heart was in his throat.

Then he saw Aoi’s katana being shot out of its sheath like a bullet, hilt first. She caught it mid trajectory and used its extreme momentum to guide it into an upwards swing from below. The sword’s blade seemed to glow, and not from reflecting any sunlight. It was unnatural. She aimed right at the armpit of the arm coming her way.

Whatever it was the man in the suit sensed, it made him switch from fight to flight mode, but it was too late to leave unscathed. His own aura flared up to its highest point, he reinforced his defences as high as he could and jumped away with fear in his eyes, but Aoi’s sword completed its arc regardless.

The splash of blood hit the floor first. Then, a hand. The man in the suit landed at least six meters away from Aoi, gritting his teeth in pain and holding his right forearm with the hand he had left.

“Aoi!”

“Go to Will!” the swordswoman shouted at Ishtar, holding her sword and keeping her eyes on the man in the suit.

“But you…!”

“What’s the objective, girl!? Who knows if Johana will be able to hold that thing for much longer? We need both you and Will at full strength, then we get out of here!”

Aoi reached into her pocket and tossed something at Ishtar. A small vial. Ishtar’s eyes went wide. She had almost forgotten that Nanami had given an extra elixir to Aoi, one to give Will a boost.

Ishtar grunted, but turned around and began to run towards Will.