Chapter 78: Hammer

Without saying a single word, Karin jumps at Kalroth and attempts to deliver a kick to his head. Not only is she fast, but she also didn't hesitate for even a moment; it's as if she didn't need to think that she wanted to kick him to do it. If that had been me on the receiving end, I would have probably taken the hit right on the face, it always takes me a moment at the start of a fight to switch gears and begin defending myself. Kalroth, however, managed to raise his arm in time to block the kick. The ground around his feet seems to have been cracked from the strength of the impact.

After an attack like that, you would think that Karin would need a moment to recover. Her opponent was apparently thinking that as he seemed to be about to take the chance for a counterattack. However...

"Nya!"

The beastkin girl kicks the air and her body spins in a seemingly impossible way, leaving her facing her target. In that very instant, she throws a punch that she was already winding up during the spin. When Kalroth blocks that punch, she throws another one, and after that, a few dozen more. She really is amazing. 'Savage' is the word that comes to my mind to describe her fighting style.

That said, Kalroth is also amazing for being able to keep up with such a relentless assault. He blocks each punch while taking a few steps back, until he finally manages to take a war hammer into his hand that he swings at Karin, forcing her to jump away to dodge, allowing him to finally catch a break.

"Who the hell are you?" He stares angrily at Karin.

"I'm here to rescue everyone you kidnapped! I'm sure that I have the right guy this time, your wisdom is above 4 for sure!"

Kalroth's brain seems to stop working for a couple of seconds while he tries to process what he just heard. That's long enough for Karin to finally land a punch on his chest, and she doesn't miss the opportunity.

Even with the armor in the way that seems to have hurt him a bit, but it looks like he just got even angrier as a result.

"First it was that dragon, now there's some beastkin girl who also doesn't seem to know who she's messing with."

Now he's the one swinging his hammer wildly. Karin is dodging each attack, just barely, that looks like it would hurt a lot if it hit. How can she stay so calm? That said, with my 'battle analysis' skill I noticed that there's a tiny crack in the hammer that seems to be bigger inside. I don't know if it cracked from use or if it was poorly made from the start, but it looks like it would break if you hit it the wrong way...

Just now I confirmed that Kalroth's level is indeed 388. It's impressive how well Karin is able to hold her own against an opponent 84 levels above her. Since her magic is 0, her stats seem to be more focused on the physical side; that specialization seems to work well for her.

'Flash fire'

"Nyauch!"

But Kalroth can actually use some magic. It's not very strong, but aiming it to her face can cause her to lose her focus enough for him to land a hit.

As they continue to exchange attacks, it soon becomes clear that Karin is going to lose in the end. I should probably do something instead of just stand here watching.

"The prisoners are escaping! Get them!"

Oh, I didn't notice because I was focused on the fight, but some of the beastkin have left the cage and are trying to escape on their own. But some of the demons that came with Kalroth are grabbing them, this is bad... They might try to use them as hostages. A bunch of demons holding multiple hostages in different locations at the same time is exactly the situation I wanted to avoid the most.

"Where do you think you're going!?"

"No! Please!"

One of the stone demons is grabbing a beastkin woman and is about to smack her. But I rush to them and grab his arm in time.

"UAAAGH!!!"

Oops, it seems like I pulled his arm too hard and accidentally broke it. Since he's all covered in stone I expected him to be a bit tougher, but his insides seem to be organic and as soft as anyone else's.

"Aw, I'm sorry, did that hurt? Let me fix that for you."

"N-no! Don't do it! Stay away!"

Uh? He doesn't want me to fix his arm? Well, I'm supposed to be his enemy after all. Perhaps his pride as a warrior is stopping him from accepting my help.

The other demons are now looking at me and murmuring to each other.

"Did you see that?"

"She didn't even change her expression when she broke his arm..."

"Is that the queen of darkness?"

It seems like I got their attention.

"Why don't you all let those people go? I'm sure that you don't want to get hurt."

"Eh? Do you also want to rescue these beastkin?"

"Yeah, I- uh?"

Xania is tapping my arm, what does she want? She gets closer to whisper into my ear.

"If they know that you care about the captives, they won't let them go and will use their lives to threaten you. Just pretend that you don't care."

Oh, I see. Now that she mentions it, when I told them to let the captives go some of the demons put knives near the necks of the beastkin.

"Don't be ridiculous. Why would I care about some beastkin I don't even know? You can do whatever you want with them."

"Nya!? Were you lying before?" Karin somehow managed to hear me from all the way over there despite the fact that she's in the middle of a fight.

"Ah! No! I'm just trying to trick these guys so that they let them go free."

"Oh, I see."

It seems like I managed to convince her, but the problem is that the demons heard that too.

"I'm trying to deceive that girl, I don't really want to rescue anyone." This time I whisper to the demons in a really low voice to make sure that nobody else hears me. I don't know if I managed to convince them, but from the looks on their faces I seem to have successfully confused them if nothing else.

"Hey! I found this man wandering alone outside!"

At that moment, an orc walks into the courtyard dragging along a beastkin that I know. I told him to stay hidden until I came back, but it seems like he didn't listen.

"Dad!"

When Karin sees her father she lowers her guard for a moment, which allows Kalroth to smash his hammer into her side, sending her flying. That doesn't look good, I think that her arm is broken, perhaps a few ribs as well.

"Nyagh!"

She seems to be in pain, but still manages to ignore it and get back on her feet. But that's enough of this, I think that it's time for me to step in.

"And who are you? Why is Xania with you?"

I step in front of Kalroth and stare into his eyes, it feels weird to have to look up to see someone's face.

"My name is Luna, you might know me as 'the queen of darkness'. You have been bothering some of my friends, including Xania here. It might be better if you and your men surrender now, I don't think that you can beat me."

"YOU are the queen of darkness? If nothing else, you certainly do look the part. But you have to be insane if you think that I'm going to be afraid of fighting an elf of all things."

One of his followers approaches the demon lord with an appraisal stone. "My lord... look at her level. It seems like she wants the captured beastkin alive for some reason. It might be better to use them as leverage."

"Don't be ridiculous. Such an absurd level cannot be real, she must be using some trick to make the stone show the wrong number.

And even if it was real, I would never humiliate myself by using hostages to avoid fighting against an elf. Taking hostages is what cowards do when they don't think that they can win a fight with their own power. Do you really think that I would lose against this girl?"

"N-no, of course not."

It seems like he thinks that all elves are weak. I can understand that mentality to a certain point if he only knows about the elves that always stay in the forest, but I don't really have much in common with those guys.

"Watch how I smash her then!"

All of a sudden, he lifts his hammer and brings it down on me. Fortunately, I had already decided how to deal with this when I noticed the weak point in his hammer earlier, so I'm able to react in time.

I lift my hand extending my index finger toward the descending war hammer.

'Shadow nail'

Not a very powerful spell, but my 'battle analysis' skill allows me to aim for the tiny crack with almost perfect precision. The force of the swing actually does most of the job, getting the nail into the hammer and then shattering it into pieces from the inside.

"..."

Everyone stares at me with their mouths open for a few seconds. All this attention is making me feel a bit uncomfortable.

"D-did I see that right?"

"With only one finger..."

From hearing the demons whisper to each other, I don't think that they even noticed that I used a spell.

"Luna... what the hell was that?" Xania speaks to me in a low voice.

"Ah, no, that was not really a big deal. I aimed at a weak point in the hammer, so it breaking was not as impressive as it looked."

"That doesn't change the fact that you just broke the weapon of the strongest demon lord in the continent with almost no effort... and you say that was 'not really a big deal'..."

Kalroth seems to be lost in thought as he stares at the handle of his hammer. Unlike everyone else here, he's not showing any shock on his face. Then, he finally opens his mouth.

"As you can see, my men are holding those beastkin captive. If you value their lives, you better do as I say."

Well, that's going to be a problem. But to tell the truth, there's a part of me that's impressed by the fact that he was able to say that with a straight face after what he said earlier...

forli

Things are going to start getting a bit more serious soon, I'm always afraid when I get to these parts of the story...