The Branded Female Fencer

「Nia-san!」

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Fenna was the first to notice, and before she can shout, Nia jumps to avoid from the room.
As one would expect from beastkin with reflexes.
A large sword was lowered to the spot where Nia had just been.
The owner of the sword was a large soldier in full body armor.
Its helmet obscured its face and even the glint in its eyes.

「What the hell is this guy? Where did that come from.」

「I don’t know.
Lisa’s sensor did not catch it.
This is…」

Suspicious, Lisa concentrates more, trying to find out more.

「It was wearing full body armor.
How can it move without making a sound?」

「I’m sure that’s true.
This thing has no substance, only armor.」

「What do you mean?」

Miranda asks.

「It’s something called a living armor.
It’s the kind of thing that can be moved by magic.
It may also be designed to muffle the sound of footsteps.」

「This guy! Magic doesn’t work on this enemy!」

Fenna remembered when the village was raided.
And Alfiris couldn’t help but clicked her tongue.

「I see, that’s somewhat nasty… I wonder if my sword will work?」

With a crackling sound, the armor tries to force its way through the door.
With the size of the armor, it could not enter there otherwise.
And two more were behind it.

「I don’t have to deal with these lot.
They’re slow and they’re ignoring us! Everyone, out to the window!」

They all jump out of the window, with Miranda leaving last.
Then Miranda comes out with a smokescreen just in case.
It is not clear if the blinding effect works on the armor, though.
And just when they were about to escape to the southern forest as they had come———

「You guys don’t have to be in such a hurry, can you?」

As Nia was running in the lead, someone suddenly slashed at her from overhead.
Nia dodged the attacker by leaping sideways, but her path was completely blocked and she was stopped in her tracks.

Then, a woman stood in the path of Alfiirs and the others.
She was dressed in a very revealing outfit, almost like underwear, holding a curved sword in both hands, but she must be a veteran warrior, as she had countless scars all over her body.
Her hair us cut to shoulder-length, but her bangs are long enough to cover one of her eyes.
She was not a large, but the deadly energy she emits makes her appear larger than she actually is.

「Sounds like trouble.」

「Lisa, did you not notice the approach?」

「No, I noticed it, but it was too fast.
By the time Lisa realized that they were moving toward us from the eastern choke point, they were already cutting into Nia.」

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Fenna squeezes the grimoire in her arms.
The female swordsman glanced at her and grinned.

「Hehhh… that’s what they call a seal? I knew that dimwitted aristocrat just went outside,」

「Then, explain.
We never said anything about this being a seal.」

Miranda answers for Fenna.

「What are you talking about, holding it so dearly? Well, I’ll think about it after I take it from you… and!」

Nia kicks at the woman to interrupt the conversation.
It was a low kick aimed at the lower half of her body, as a kick to the uooer half would have a sword aiming at Nia.
But the woman conversely steps forward to shift the striking point and catches Nia’s kick with her foot.
She tries to hit Nia in the face with the hilt, but Nia dodges it as if to evade it, and next tries to strike with her elbow.

From there, the attack was too fast for all eyes to catch up.
For now, neither side seemed to have any effective moves, but after about five seconds of attack and defense, Nia took herself out of range.
The woman did not seem to have any effective blows, but Nia was bleeding everywhere.
Nia wonders if that person was faster than her, who was a beastkin.

「Ara-ara, you’re so smart, Neko-chan!」

「You’re the one with the bullshit speed.」

「Am I fast? Pftt, ahahahaha!」

The woman began to laugh loudly.
Apparently, something was quite on point.

「Surely, well, I’m the fast one… but before that, you’re too slow, Neko-chan!」

「What the?」

The contrasting composition was Nia’s bloodthirsty face and the woman’s goofy smile.
Clearly, the woman still has room to spare.

「So, have I had enough of stalling? Berno.」

「That’s enough.」

「! Oh, crap!」

《Fire Wall》

With a voice chanting magic, a wall of flame appears to block the escape route.
The wall of flames is quite extensive and high.
With that, it was no longer possible to escape to the south.

Both Alfiris and Miranda regretted watching Nia’s battle, but it was too late.

「You should have used the catgirl as bait to escape.
It was an error of your judgement.」

「Tsk, we’ll escape from behind…」

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「…I don’t think we can’t escape, Miranda.」

「Gufu—!」

Before they knew it, a huge man in full armor with a large axe in his hand was standing behind them.

「Lisa, is this another one of those approaching too fast?」

「No… Lisa’s sensor abilities are not working properly? Why did it…?」

「I’m using my magic to prevent it.」

A mage-like man, perhaps the first of his age, answers.
His face and body are completely covered by a hood, so there are no details or facial expressions to be seen.
Miranda, however, was to quick to judge.

「Alfie, take care of that mage.
The wall of fire will disappear after dealing with him.
I’ll take care of the back.」

「Okay!」

As soon as she said it, the two of them were ready to engage.

「A sound decision, but the strategy must be based on the strength of the opponent.」

「?」

「I’m dealing with you.」

The black mass leaped out from the side, and Alfiris quickly took up a position to defend herself with her sword.
Normally, she would have slashed it away, but her instincts told her to protect herself.

Giiiin!

A dull thud sounded, and Alfiris felt a strange floating sensation.
As it should have been, her bodh was blown backward.
She was slammed into a wall about five meters behind her.

「Guhh!?」

Without time to take a passive stance, she was slammed against the wall, and the impact made it impossible for her to breathe for a moment.
But even so, her eyes reflexively turned to the black mass that had slashed her.
Alfiris understand that taking her eyes off the enemy on the battlefield is the same as asking them to slash her.
However, what came into view was a man who was calmly repositioning his greatsword and showed no sign of trying to attack.
He is a rather large swordsman, dreesed in proper black armor.
He looked as if he might be a knight somewhere.

「Oh? You can’t take a sword if you’re a woman.」

「Why aren’t you coming after me?」

「I don’t think that’s necessary.
There is tok much difference in power between you and me.
You’re strong to enough to know that, aren’t you?」

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「Do you take me as a fool!?」

「Well, I wonder?」

Alfiris was unusually agitated.
She felt she had been completely licked.
This was the first time she had been treated so humiliatingly since she began her journey.
Alfiris is not a very long-tempered person.
It was all she could do to stop herself from wanting to release the curse brand and blow this man away.

On the other hand, there was a reason why this man did not slash at her.
He was a lickspittle, but he also thought it would be uninteresting if the fight ended with a single surprise attack, and something else made him hesitate to put his sword into this woman.
It may sound strange, but he felt that if he went for her, he would be the one who would die.
It was easy to imagine that he was the one with the overwhelming advantage and that the woman in front of her was probably in a state where her hands were numbs and she could not even hold a sword properly.

「(I’m not coward to not fight this woman… Hmph, interesting!)」

There is a kind of peculiar intuition that resides in those who have been involved in war for a long time.
Instincts tells him that this woman is dangerous, but reason cannot judge her to be dangerous at all.
He had experienced this kind of thing before, but this was the first time that instinct and reason were so clearly separated, and it momentarily dulled this man’s blade.
But,

「(If you fight, you will know.
If you die, you are what you were before!)」

That is not enough to make this man, a genuine fighting maniac, put down his sword.
The man readies his sword.

「Shall we continue?」

「…」

「Not good.」That was Alfiris’ inner thoughts.
Her hands showed no signs of numbness, and she was unable to use her weapon properly.
And it would take some time to activate the spell seal.
This man would not give her that kind of allowance.
To put it bluntly, there is no way out of this.

Albert was also a monster in general, but he was an ally and it was hard to imagine him coming to her with the intention of killing her.
She did not know the extent of the skill of the man in front of her, but she knew in an instant that there was at least a clear difference in skill between her and the man in front of him.
If they were to exchange blows, he would probably cut her in half in less than 10 seconds.
This thought was going around in her head, and she looked around to see if any of her other allies would come to her aid.

Nia is going at it with the female swordsman from earlier, but she is now so outmatched that she can no longer see clearly.
While the woman is not out of breath, Nia’s labored breathing comes in.
Additionally, blood is coming out of every part of her body.
There must be a considerable difference in skill between the two women.

And Fenna is frozen with the seal in her arms.
No matter how much of a bow master she is, that reaction is normal the first time she is in a real battle.
Even Alfiris has a memory of not being able to move properly at first, even when dealing with a ragdoll.
Training and actual battle are two different things.
And with an opponent of this level, there would be nothing she could do about it.
Lisa is trying to cover for Fenna, but she seems to be busy paying attention to the mage’s movements.
It was still fortunate that the mage showed no sign of fighting.

She had high hopes for Miranda, but she, as well, had her hands full from a few minutes ago.

「You!」

「Gufu—!」

Mace and axe are clashing with each other, making a tremendous noise.
It is hard to believe, but it seems that they are on equal footing with Miranda’s arm strength.
But Miranda’s skills seems superior.
Twisting her body, she dodged the axe and launched her mace into the empty torso.
The huge man backed up several meters, but without a moment’s pause, he rushed forward as if nothing had happened.

「What the hell is this guy?」

No matter how many strikes Miranda gave, it was the same.
It didn’t mean anything at all.
The armor is deformed, though, so there must be some damage to it.
Miranda then struck him to the face, but again, he didn’t seem to be affected by it much.
However, the helmet came off, revealing the face underneath.

「It was an orc!?」

「Gufu—!」

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The body under the armor was an Orc.
Judging from his considerable physique, she had assumed he was from the Giant race.
Even though many Orcs are also Giants, they are clearly two times larger than the standard Orc.
He was also slender.
Perhaps they have been training a lot.
But how is it possible for an Orc to train? It is more than that, the fact that Orcs are fighting with humans is unthinkable.

「I can’t believe an Orc is following the humans…」

「C–Captain is strong.
Ode, follows the captain.」

「Did you speak properly?」

Miranda’s surprise was understandable.
It was unheard of for Orcs to speak a language that humans could understand.
Orcs with such intelligence are a different species.

「Y-You… strong.
A s-strong warrior, I l-like it.
Fight more with Ode, fight!」

「Tsk!」

「T-Then, you’re a woman, too! Women… have twice the enjoyment, after a fight.
The stronger the woman, the better she looks when she loses!」

The Orc grins.
A chill ran down Miranda’s spine.

「I can’t say the same for Alfie… being courted by a monster!」

「H-Here we, go!」

Once again, a fierce exchange of blows ensued.
It was too late to help Alfiris.
What was to be done? While she was thinking about this,

「Alfie, look out!?」

「You’re distracted, woman.」

Lisa called out to her.
But at the same time, the man’s greatsword is right in front of her.

「(This is bad.)」

As quickly as she could, Alfiris reflexively gripped her sword with her numb arm and tried to defend herself against the greatsword, but she was not sure if she would able to catch it.

Giiin!

A metallic sound echoed through the air.
Alfiris meditated thinking she had been slashed by the whole sword, but no weight was was applied to the sword.
Fearfully opening her eyes, she sees another sword blocking the greatsword from the side.
Suddenly, she heard a voice she had heard somewhere before.

「We meet again, Alfiris.」

「…Rui…-san?」

The man’s greatsword was being held at his side by a dark-haired woman she had met in the town of Darv.