Chapter 7.5 - Facing One Another
"Can you even kill me?" Claudia spoke leisurely, seemingly not even having any intention of fighting. She had already tossed the extremely tattered heavy bronze armor who knew where, so right now, she only wore skin tight combat shorts, her upper body wrapped under cloth strips. Her brown skin shone with a gentle luster. Under the great tension of the bandages, her body seemed to be full of explosive strength, giving her a unique type of beauty.
Meanwhile, as for Su, apart from his extremely gender neutral face that didn’t have a trace of injury, his body was covered in terrifying wounds. Those injuries, along with his movements, began to slightly open up. He looked no different from a living corpse with extremely great vitality. Through his injuries, one could see that the organ systems within Su’s body were currently increasing their activity.
After completing his combat preparations, Su said, “I don’t feel the slightest bit of certainty, but if we don’t try, how will we know what ends up happening?”
Claudia looked at the injuries on Su’s body. She shook her head and said, “I’ve been following you all this entire time. It looks like none of them really knows how bad your injuries are, right? Apart from Madeline, the other three are just some ordinary people. Doing all this for their sake, is it worth it?”
“It’s not something you will understand.” Su said. Then, he began to move towards Claudia.
“How do you know for sure that I won’t understand? Before I turned fifteen years old, I also lived in the wilderness.” Claudia still didn’t seem to have any intention of preparing to fight, allowing Su to continuously close the distance. She continued to speak as if she didn’t notice his movements. “Before leaving the wilderness, I fell in love with a man, going crazy from love. For him, I was willing to do anything. For several years, I had to accompany different men to bed every single day, all for the sake of some food to feed him with. This type of life continued all the way from when I was ten all the way until I turned fifteen. Then, when I turned fifteen, there was not a single bit of food to be found in that entire region. More and more people died from hunger, and I couldn’t find anything to feed that man any longer. At that moment, the man I loved dearly wanted to eat me, and the past me, was extremely willing to be eaten by him as well.”
Claudia’s voice was extremely steady, as if she was telling someone else’s story. Su continued to close in on her, his entire being maintaining a combat stance.
“At that time, I met Lord Bevulas. He only gave me a single look, and then he decided to bring me away. He promised me that he wouldn’t kill me, and he would also give him plenty of food. To repay him, I devoted my entire live to him, and from then on became my lord’s sharp sword. The year I turned twenty years old, I finally understood how everything I’ve done really wasn’t worth it. In this era, love simply doesn’t exist, and there is no such thing as the word love. Even now, from time to time, I would think about that man. He should have died a long time ago in the wilderness, right?”
While Claudia was recounting her past, Su already closed the distance to 100 meters, and then he stopped, not moving forward again. This distance was the limit in which Su could safely avoid her extreme assault. Even though Claudia’s body was still in a relaxed state, who knew whether or not she had some type of special secret method that could immediately raise her combat strength to the peak? Moreover, today’s Claudia released a somewhat distressed aura, making her seem entirely different from when they fought in the past, to the extent where there was even a bit of brokenheartedness. From Su’s perception, the energy radiance her entire body released was a bit different, so it definitely wasn’t an issue of her mental state. This was also why Su didn’t dare risk getting too close.
“Su, just surrender, I really don’t want to kill you. We can then work for Lord Bevulas together.” Claudia suggested.
“That’s impossible.” Su’s reply didn’t have leave margin for discussion.
A trace of brilliance flashed through Claudia’s eyes. “All for Madeline?”
"This reason alone is already enough." Su replied with a smile.
Claudia nodded. She no longer tried to advise him otherwise.
Then, a battle instantly erupted!
Both Claudia and Su’s figures immediately became indistinct, and then they slowly disappeared. An energy storm suddenly erupted from the side of the lake, and then the calmly flowing river water also surged in response. The gravitational force of the earth seemed to have immediately changed directions. A screen of water suddenly smashed against the riverside, and countless mutated fish struggled madly in midair. Su and Claudia’s figures finally flashed past the lakeshore. Behind these two, there were still many afterimages that were currently slowly dissipating.
Claudia was still in the process of her extreme assault. Her left hand and Su’ right hand intertwined, while her right hand had already completely entered Su’s chest! Meanwhile, Su’s left hand firmly gripped her neck, the powerful force of his arm also causing her frail neck bones to release ka ka sounds!
The instant the battle began, Claudia, who used extreme assault already reached in front of Su, and then the tremendous momentum brought him into the air. The two bodies that were intertwined together simultaneously flew out with a speed that surpassed that of sound. One could imagine the damage Su, who took this attack head on, suffered.
Claudia finally found a point of balance under this type of high speed movement. Her right hand that penetrated Su’s chest immediately ruthlessly clenched. Su’s entire body immediately trembled, suddenly spraying out a mouthful of sticky and dense blood. With the two so close to each other, there was simply no way for Claudia to move out of the way. Her face was directly covered in the blood!
In under a second, the extreme assault already reached the end of its power. Claudia suddenly stood still, her feet drawing out two deep grooves into the ground. Meanwhile, Su, under the powerful inertia, was flung outwards, heavily slamming into the ground more than ten meters out!
Claudia stood in her place with shock. Her right hand slowly unfolded; blood, flesh, and internal organ fragments fell from her hands like a waterfall! The instant they separated, she forcibly tore out a huge chunk of flesh from Su’s chest! Only what left her shocked was that she didn’t find Su’s heart, nor did she crush it apart like how she had expected.
For someone like Su who had such shocking recoverative power, he definitely had to have a fatal weak point. For most mutated creatures, that weak point was the heart.
However, not finding his heart wasn’t that big of an issue either. After suffering such a heavy injury, not even a living corpse that relied on overdrafted vitality to increase their regenerative powers could survive, so how could Su possibly do so?
Claudia looked at her right hand that was still dripping with blood, feeling a bit of disappointment in her heart. She raised her head and looked towards Su who laid on the ground unmoving. Her memories of the wilderness occupied all of her mind insuppressibly like crazily growing weeds. In this era, regardless of whether it was Su, or her fifteen-year-old self, neither could live for a long time. In this mad world, there was simply no place for people like them to survive.
What was unexpected was that Su actually struggled to his feet again. His left hand held the enormous injury in front of his chest, but how could a single hand cover such an enormous injury? As soon as he moved, blood and internal organ fragments seeped out from the gap between his fingers and slid downwards.
Claudia stared at Su and suddenly said, “You don’t have a heart?”
“Yes, but it hasn’t been this way for long.” Su could unexpectedly still laugh even though blood continued to flow unendingly from the enormous hole in his chest.