A single shot from the Fairytale’s Bane was bound obliterate the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns.
It was a fated inevitability.
“Even if your HP can’t drop to zero, I’ll have to make sure that you’re erased from this world!”
Red carved the air with her blade before reaching into a tear in space. She grabbed the heavy slab of steel she called a sniper rifle and brandished it.
“ROCKIE! BIPOD! NOW!”
The sheer weight of the rifle caused her to swing it downwards like a club. But before it could strike the earth, Rockie slid right into action, catching it with its back as it let out an excited: “Brrrr!”
“Your envy verses my hatred. Place your bets, Queen!” Red smirked, a bullet of condensed hatred forming in the palm of her hands.
She loaded the bullet into the chamber and took aim.
“I remember that weapon. How it oppresses one from a distance. Not quite dissimilar from the flock in white or the fodder in red. You will not stop me, Red!”
“Red! Your gun might not kill it! And I can’t heal you if you end up losing an entire arm!” Snow warned. “
“But we gotta give it a try! It’s do or die Snow!”
Red had seen what her Fairytale’s Bane was capable of. The enormous hole it created in the cave and the way it ripped the Horseman apart were a testament of its immense power.
However, it came with a caveat that rung at the back of her mind like a bell as she pulled the trigger.
“CLOSE YOUR EARS SNOW! WE’RE KILLING THIS BASTARD!”
*KABOOM!*
licked the barrel of her firearm as a deafening explosion ripped the air. The bullet tore straight through the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns, hollowing a three-meter hole through her.
The malevolent larva that grew from within shivered as it was exposed to the air. Thousands of dark maggots swarmed around it like the nascent fluids that would guard a child within a womb.
But as quickly as the membrane was torn down, it was replenished by the immense amount of biomass available on this mountain.
“No… way…?” Red was in shock.
The Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns | HP: 30,945
Her bullet, which had notoriously eliminated the Still Unloving in a single bullet, did not even reduce this Corrupted’s HP by half. Her eyes trembled with uncertainty for what felt like the first time. The agony of mangling her right arm did not even register for her.
“Does it only do this much outside of striking a weakpoint?”
//////// < REMINDER > ////////
< Fairytale’s Bane deals 5x damage when it targets a weakpoint. This increases to 10x when the target is of the Folklore Origin >
< Otherwise… >
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“You get this. A dud of a bullet. Tch. Dammit! It… was supposed to erase her! But you’re an Original… Not a Folklore like you’re supposed to be!”
The bullet, after subtracting DEF values, did a total of 17,600 damage.
She tried to load another bullet, but the red particles were not able to form.
“Why!?”
< You may only use one bullet per Emotional State >
“It backfires on the user? How imperfect. I suppose you would, after all, encapsulate the very definition of wrath. A spiteful flame that eats away even the wood that carries it. We were both from the Folklore Origin. We were once tales in the form of monsters.”
“Tales…? Me?”
“RED! DODGE! IT’S GOING TO ATTACK!”
The weight of the Fairytale’s Bane made it impossible to move quickly. Fortunately for her, Rockie was able to clutch her into its fuzzy belly and roll away. One of the massive hands of amalgamated flesh slammed into where they just were a second ago, leaving an imprint that was quickly filled with blood.
< [Crush The Interlopers!] >
< Remove them from the pool >
ATT : 1,600 MAG ATT : 200
It was a devastating attack that would have easily shattered her body.
“I was never a tale! I’m… Red. Nothing and no one else!”
“Corrupted have to come from somewhere, don’t they?”
“I despise it.”
“That I was not born the correct way.”
Red was severely crippled in this fight now. Her ATT, right now, was at a total of 1,060. It was not enough to even damage the Queen.
“… Neither was I… But that doesn’t give me the right to kill indiscriminately!” She cried, clasping her arm as Snow attempted to heal it. “Humans… don’t do this to each other!”
“Is that your definition of humanity?”
“That you follow their constructs?”
“The essence of humanity comes from how they are arranged.”
“What they can do against what we cannot.”
The Queen spoke in a cathartic tone, reveling in this as though she was reciting holy scripture. Red wanted to refute, to argue and bark like a rabid dog but Snow quickly intervened.
It was also perhaps because of Snow’s presence that the Queen had not attacked them just yet.
After all, she wanted Snow’s body to remain as pristine as possible.
“Hold still Red… You need to start listening to me!” Snow shouted.
“Morality, civility, ethics, codes, standards – they are not purely human constructs.”
“And if they were, then a human would remain human even without them.”
Their combined voices battered Red, enough to cause her emotions to swell further than they already have. Rockie had also entered the First State, but there was only so much a Steel Bug could do.
Not only that, but she was also resonating with the emotions of Three Paw.
“I know… I know that I need to start listening to you! But going against what I’ve always known isn’t easy!”
“Who do you think you’re talking to!?” Snow cried, suddenly clasping the face of Red with her bloody hands. “I know that better than anyone else in this world! Red… Our instincts are going to be the bane of us both! So please, please… I’m begging you to put your faith into me!”
Snow trembled as tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
Seeing Red in such a state brought back the memories of their hopeless struggle to save Theron.
“I can’t tell you what’s right or wrong, because you’ll always be a better fighter than me! I can never fight. But I know that we can’t fight the Corrupted without information!”
A hand was drawn above them. It attempted to swat Red away, knowing that Snow would be unable to do anything by the virtue of her being a healer. However, that hand was temporarily repelled by Rockie, who shoved its back upwards with tremendous force.
Rockie Skill: Shell Bash
< Offensive-Defensive Strike >
< EFFECT: Attack received is negated by the total of both ATT and ATT DEF. IF ATT is greater than the target’s ATT, then parry the attack and Stagger the target >
“A hideous bug does not deserve to bathe in the same light of the stars as humans!”
It bought them time. But in the next moment, a second hand came crashing down. This time, it wielded one of the halves of the oversized scissor.
< [A Million Roses But One Must Blossom] >
< Only one rose may bloom in that garden >
< EFFECT: Send a devastating slash. Deal 1,600 ATT damage >
18 Chapters ahead over on the
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