CH 94.2

“Shedia? What are you doing?”

“Cloud’s instruction. If sis tries to barge in, stop her.”

“What?”

Katarina gave her an expression of incredulity. Wasn’t she seeing how bloody the fight had taken for a turn? That it could claim Cloud’s life? Grinding her teeth, she tried to walk around Shedia.

However, compared to Shedia, a trained assassin, there was no way Katarina, who was so weak compared to her, could root her out.

In the end, Katarina had no choice but to appeal to Shedia.

“Get out of the way, please! Cloud wil die if we don’t stop this madness!”

“Might as well…”

“What?”

“Uh, it sounds bad. But, he instructed me. I have to keep sis here.”

“Because of the moonstone fragments?”

Shedia nodded her head. Katarina let out a deep sigh and placed a hand on Shedia’s shoulder.

“Shedia. This sis of yours is requesting of you. Can you please get out of the way?”

“…”

“You can still acclaim the moonstone pieces later, no? You will listen to this simple request of mine, right? Surely the moonstone pieces are no more important than your sis’s request?”

Shedia’s eyelids quivered as Katarina’s tone turned colder. She swayed for a moment, then spoke avoiding Katarina’s eyes.

“…sis won’t be of any help there either way.”

“…”

Katarina wordlessly raised her head to look at Osner and Cloud as they fought. To her eyes, the limbs of the two people were a motion of blurring illusions. She couldn’t even predict where they were going to be the next moment.

There was nothing she could do, much less interjecting, just as Shedia had said.

Rather, she would turn into his burden.

Katarina felt helplessness. She bit on her lower lip.

‘I can’t just let it go on…’

Was there any method through which she could stop this fight? As she pondered desperately, she suddenly realized. What if she couldn’t work out something herself, no one was stopping her from enlisting help, was there?

‘Shedia won’t listen even if I ask.’

She didn’t know why, but Shedia was obsessed with the moonstone pieces.

Katarina turned her gaze to Leslie. The white-haired woman sitting on the floor blankly watching the fight. Noting that she was the one who created that huge dome of ice in an instant, she would be able to stop two of them as well.

“Hey, Miss Leslie!”

Leslie didn’t turn for Katarina.

Why? Wasn’t she listening?

Katarina decided to shout more loudly.

“The person fighting over there is your father, am I not right, Miss Leslie? Then why don’t you stop him? Any more and he could seriously get hurt, you know!”

Leslie didn’t answer.

When Katarina, frustrated, tried to shout over again, Leslie’s muttering reached her as if by the nature of force.

“Can’t.”

“Huh? No, hell no, you can do it! If you put up a thick wall of ice between the two of them, and g…”

“I don’t mean that.”

Leslie shook her head and continued.

“My father… he is smiling. He is so happy… I’ve never seen him… so happy before.”

Osner’s smile… Leslie never remembered him having one after his gaining age had pushed him away from his duties, responsibilities, and work. Leslie felt bitter whenever she thought about that lost smile. But he was laughing now. He was smiling freely even though his body was riddled with scars.

How could she stop him after seeing him like this?

“I can’t.”

Leslie didn’t want to deprive her beloved father of happiness.

Even if that road would eventually lead to catastrophe.

Of course, this was only Leslie’s circumstances and had nothing to do with Katarina. Hearing Leslie’s denial to provide help, Katarina was momentarily bewildered.

Had the girl lost her mind…

No.

“Isn’t this pure madness?! Hey! What does it have to do with me that your father’s having fun as my lover’s getting hurt?! Don’t let me get my hands on you. If Cloud gets hurt or dies, I’ll be the death of each one of you! Do you understand?!”

“Patience, sis. Even if you fight with her, you will lose.”

“Whose freaking side are you on—”

Bang!

The sound of someone being slammed into the wall drowned out Katarina’s voice. The walls of the arena thundered as clouds of dust rose. Cloud, who was stuck there, slowly pulled himself up.

His body ached as he took deep whoops of air in.

Broken ribs and punctured lungs, he instantly figured the former was causing the later.

‘I should be on par with Frillite, right?’

He had even activated the Ogre’s Glyph, stacking it on [All Bless], but was still pushed back in a simple contest of pure strength. That was considering his current physical prowess was scaling up to Frillite.

Of course, his technique was overwhelmingly superior to Frillite’s.

‘I won’t be fighting Frillite.’

And if he fought with such buffs, he’d be damned.

‘Though there’s no need for a fight to happen in the first place.’

Cloud smiled and looked up. As he wrenched himself out of the thick dust, he saw Osner standing from where he had just blown him away.

“Cloud!? Hey, Cloud, are you okay?!”

Katarina’s worried voice came from the side, but he didn’t search for her. It was stupid to distract yourself in front of an enemy.

“Your breaths are heavy. It looks like a broken rib stabbed your lung… still wanna continue?”

There was a strange worried intone to Osner’s voice.

Cloud smiled and took a deep breath and said, “I will put an end to this fight before it stops.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he kicked off the ground. He seemed to hear Katarina’s voice collapsing in real time with the sound of ‘Yaaaaaaaaaa!!!’, but he ignored it.

“You are full of confidence!”

Osner careened towards him with a somewhat relieved, yet joyful expression. A tendon sprouted from Osner’s forearm. He swung his fist at Cloud’s head, but Cloud ducked and dodged.

He was sorry for Osner, but Cloud was thinking of putting an end to this scuffle.

He stretched out his straightened right palm, inverting it.

[Breaker]-!

His fingertips dug into the left side of Osner’s chest.