Cling!

  Dammit, he was faster than her and he was also ready for it, parrying her attack and sending her claymore upwards. Her arms are fully extended and while she has her feet on the ground, she’s more than wide open for a counter attack. Is it going to be the same as before? Of course not, this is Alice that we are talking about.

  Swoosh!

  The elder tries to take advantage of this however, Alice is faster than him, by using the momentum from the parry, she’s able to spin around by simply giving a step backwards with her right foot and then by using gravity and its natural effect on objects. She uses the falling claymore as a way to gain even more momentum for the spin as she forces the claymore to descend down towards the ground and then uses it to spin around while her claymore is scraping the ground itself. Once she has fully spun around, not only is she able to narrowly dodge a simple thrust attack from the Elder, she’s also somewhat to his right side. With another upwards swing, she tries to cut down the Elder body in half as his head is roughly the same position as herself or in other words, there’s not much that he can do in terms of blocking or even parrying as he has the front of his body slightly past Alice. This of course takes him by surprise but, still not good enough as he simply but narrowly dodges Alice swing by leaping forward a meter or so.

  “Inferno Rage!”

  That’s it Alice! Don’t quit now, keep at it!

  Right after she misses her swing, she quickly takes advantage of the leaping Elder to dash towards him and right as he lands on the ground, Alice is right on his nose, mere moments from slicing him in half with her attack. It’s another down swing but the power and speed is comparable to the attack she used in the first clash. There’s not much that the Elder can do right? He just landed, he can’t dodge it, he can’t parry and he can’t block it, right? While in a sense that is correct, we are forgetting something about him.

  Bam! Woosh!

  By using his tail and with a quick spin, one that was only half done since otherwise he would’ve gotten sliced and since he only needs to have his tail in front, he completely blocks Alice's powerful attack. He once again used the Martial Arts skill, Iron Tail, making the clash between them that much more violent than before. However, with this aggressive impact, a dark smoke cloud emerges from it as Alice's attack was basically a fire bomb ready to explode upon the one that was and is unfortunate enough to be the target, creating this phenomenon as I said. Not only that, both of them were sent backwards although Alice was basically sent flying quite the distance while the Elder was dragged backwards a few meters.

  “Huff... Gasp! Huff...”

  She’s holding her claymore with only one hand, her right hand to be precise not only that, said claymore is stuck in the ground and she’s actually barely holding onto it as the overwhelming strength of her own body is close to gone. Her left hand is also in the ground, but this one is supporting all of her weight as she uses it as a “pillar” for such.

  Drip!

  Sweat falls down her face and drips into the ground, right near her hand. She breathes heavily, the fatigue has finally hit her, her magic energies are low, not critical low but, low none less. On the other hand, her enemy still stands strong, even though he is covered by the smoke, with a quick usage of Magic Sense skill, she’s able to figure that out. It truly was a fantastic attempt on her part but, unfortunately, the Elder Black Wolf is simply that much stronger than her, and to add the Fallen Comrades skill on top of it, the difference is abysmal and yet, just as we have seen, Alice still stood upwards, confident but not arrogant, with a determinate look on her face but well aware of the foe in front of her, she had the odds against her and she still went against it nonetheless. She did everything she could to defeat him, she went above her current limits but she has been defeated. That’s a fact that is clear to anyone that is there, that has seen everything unfolding.

  In these cases, when the one standing up fails and hope has been lost with it, it’s the time where we witness the cruelty of human behaviour.

  I’ve said several times before but, reality truly is cruel and if it wasn’t enough that the Elder is still standing strong, the group of students make everything far worse. Their hope is now gone, defeated like it was nothing. From a Hero to a nobody in a span of mere seconds, they criticize Alice and her attempt at defeating the Elder. When I say criticize, I actually mean that, they threw their vile insults at her. Swearing fills the air, profanity towards her is heard even a few hundred meters from here as they are shouting at her, the students, these imbeciles are now blaming her, cursing her for failing. Some of them even run as their fear simply took over their body, while others fall down to their knees, weeping and lamenting what’s about to happen.

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  “Le-Let’s get out of here! I knew I couldn’t count on you! You just are all talk and nothing! You damn weakling!”

  Ah, just mere moments ago he was crying for “mama” and if it wasn’t for Kiana, he would be dead. What a coward. He stands up and shouts this towards the other students that are near them but as he sees them not moving a single muscle, he then faces towards Alice and shouts the rest of it at her, ignoring Kiana, his earlier saviour and Anya, who just got there. Once he got this out of his chest, he then grabs his fellow friends, pulls them by the arm, anything to make them get out of there and of course, to survive. Fortunately to him, he is able to do so as he gets more desperate thanks to the smoke clearing up, revealing the terrifying beast, one that is standing still, menacing looking at them and more than ready to take their lives.

  “Gasp… Gasp…”

  But even then, she tries to get up.

  Even with her fatigue telling her that it's not possible, she still tries to get up.

  Even with her body screaming at her to stop, she still tries to get up.

  Even with her wounds bleeding and begging for help, she still tries to get up.

  But even with all of her might, courage and will, she still ends up falling to the same position she was.

  “That’s enough Alice, I will take care of the rest.”

  It’s a cold voice that says this to her but one that we are familiar with, not only that, with a gentle touch, said person puts her tender and silklike hand on Alice's left shoulder.

  “You did very well, I’m really happy for you. You’ve grown stronger than when we last fought, be proud of it.”

  This person gets in front of Alice and crouches down to her level and from there, with the gentlest look on her face, she says this. Her doll-like face is captivating Alice's mind, but her golden eyes and their slight shine, it’s making her thought process stuck on this very person. Then, with her silklike lips stretching slightly to the sides and forming a small but beautiful smile on her face, it makes impossible for Alice to think of anything else and with her head slightly turned to the side, her right side, all of this creates a new memory for Alice, one that she will never forget about it.

  “Miss Florence! Are you ok!?”

  While this person in front of Alice gets up and walks a few steps forward towards the Elder, Anya on the other hand, with everything she has, runs up to Alice and with her, she has said plethora potions with her.

  Anya- Here, take this potion, it will heal your injuries and remove your fatigue at the same time.

  As quickly as she can and with a massive worried look on her face, she gives Alice a potion, one that has a peculiar colour on the liquid that is inside of it but, to make it even worse-

  “Ugh! Th-the smell of this! Just, just what’s this!?”

  Her voice is not loud at all, maybe it’s thanks to the fatigue but, thanks to the sheer bad smell from the “potion” of Anya, it’s more than enough to make her mind and her body forget said fatigue for brief moments.

  Anya- I know, it smells bad and it also tastes the same way but, it really is a special potion that heals your injuries and “cures” fatigue at the same time. If you also need, I also have this one for your magic energy although this one might taste even worse...

  With this, on each of her small hands, Anya has said potions on them, ready to give Alice any of them at any given moment and since she has a serious but worried look on her face, Alice has no choice but to trust her. She first takes the magic recovering potion, while it tastes that bad since it didn’t smell like the other one in fact, it had a neutral smell to it, she was able to drink it without too much troubles however, the results are something else, so much so that, she feels them in an instant. Her magic reserves were recovered by 50% in an instant but she still needs to drink the other potion as her body is still weak, tired and injured. With a colour that resembles something akin to a swamp and with the smell that resembles a corpse in the process of being decomposed, with all of her might she quickly grabs it from Anya's hand and brings it closer to her mouth. She then closes her eyes, pinches her nose in an attempt of blocking her nostril from doing their job, with all of her courage and might, she then drinks it.

  “Bleurgh! It really tastes that bad but…”

  The effects of it are simply astonishing much like the previous potion. Her fatigue, one that was making her gasp for air, gone in the very next moments after drinking it, her injuries and tired body, one that was stopping her from getting up and making her cry internally thanks to the pain, all of it, it’s also gone in that very instant. It was as if she never did anything at all, as if she didn’t get hit in the stomach, as if she never battled the Elder Black Wolf.