F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 346: Award Worthy
Jolted awake by Elara’s voice, Daru quickly turned to face Lothara, then swiftly tumbled to the side upon realizing he was half a moment too late to do anything else.
The moment the maroon-haired Veshari hit nothing, she jumped back and faded into the background.
Daru’s eyes narrowed.
"Elara! The Veshari has turned invisible. Careful, she might attack you," he warned, then his gaze wandered.
To the left, then the right. There were no signs of Lothara.
’What a troublesome opponent...’
A few dozen meters to his left, Elara was having an aerial battle with Karzalkhatun. She was naturally disadvantaged in terms of raw strength.
However, her skills with the sword and her mastery of her strange combat style, which she could translate into aerial maneuvers to some extent, allowed her to fight on even footing, a faint smile on her face.
"Hoh, I can’t believe someone as fragile-looking as you can fight this well, Sigrun," taunted the female SSS-ranker Vyrrkan.
"I’ll take that as a compliment," Elara responded with a playful tone. "It truly is hard to be both mighty and gorgeous at the same time. Look at yourself, for example, excelling only at one of the two things I mentioned."
Karzalkhatun’s anger flared up a bit.
She was considered a beauty in Vyrrkan standards, but humans were simply inherently more tender to the eyes, so she couldn’t even dare to challenge her foe in such a disadvantageous field.
"Hmph, what use is your beauty when your world is destroyed?" the copper-scaled SSS-ranker Vyrrkan shot back.
"My, aren’t you getting ahead of yourself. Even if your brutish race wins here...which should be next to impossible given how brains are required to triumph, the consequence is only a world breach, not world destruction."
"Sharp tongue, but can you back it up, princess?"
"Why not try?"
After the short verbal spar, in which Elara won this time, the exchanges continued, flashes of silver and glints of copper accompanying the singing steel.
Daru, meanwhile, had already returned to observing the surroundings.
Lothara still hadn’t attacked, for whatever reason.
’Maybe taunting works here?’
"There’s more where that came from," he suddenly said, but no one responded.
’Strange...this worked on Skylar before...’
It was then, when he was a bit lost in his thoughts, that he suddenly felt danger from behind. Daru quickly turned, tilting his head to the side.
Unfortunately, he was a bit too late. Red cubic particles leaked from the moderate cut on his cheek.
He tried chasing Lothara with a Crescent Dicer, but the slippery Veshari had already disappeared again with a taunting sneer.
Daru exhaled.
’There must be something I ca–’
Before he could even finish his thoughts, an idea entered his mind, an obviously crafty grin emerging on his face.
Anyone would easily know he had a plan, his foe included.
A few moments later, a blood-scarlet wing with black accents grew on his back, and Daru flew.
Lothara observed from the shadows with narrowed eyes. If the hateful bastard thinks that his limited wings would outlast her stamina, then he was dead wrong.
Her invisibility drains a fair amount per second of usage, but it wasn’t to the point of being unsustainable for a few minutes, plus she can drink potions while invisible.
While that would reveal her position for a second, so what?
She’ll be gone for a minute or two more after that.
There was simply no way the wingroots would outlast her, even if rotated carefully. There’s no rush. She can prowl for as long as she likes.
After all, she couldn’t see her brutish, temporary comrade losing to that "princess".
Only, Daru’s plan was nowhere near what his foe believed.
The winds blew as he flapped his wings mightily, flying over the pearl and hovering atop it. There was no way Lothara would reach him here without summoning wings of her own.
That is the core of his plan.
But that’s not the entirety of it.
"Elara, hold that Vyrrkan off for me! I’ll subdue the pearl!" he roared, slightly affecting his comrade’s focus, though Elara chose to trust him in the end.
Lothara’s eyes, meanwhile, narrowed further.
After that disastrous experience in Kazuraga’s den, the maroon-haired Veshari didn’t dare underestimate Daru anymore.
But then, the bastard truly just rested his palm over the pearl and froze at the overwhelming information as he attempted to subdue it.
The first thing that swirled in Lothara’s mind was that progress was "resumable", which is why Onimaru Kunitsuna dared risk like this.
If he succeeded, they would be transported off the space-locked mound, like what happened two days ago, when she was forced to give one up to an SSS-ranker Aetherborn.
She could not let such a thing happen again.
Otherwise, the chances of her race truly losing the event would increase.
Lothara was aware that she was not the "ace" of their team, but she was still one of the five, and her help would be a significant boon.
She cannot allow two humans to proceed together, as that lead could snowball from there.
Retrieving a Robari Wingroot — the fastest of those of the Continuum — gray wings grew on her back, and she flew towards Daru in a hurry.
Her eyes glinted murderously as her weapon was veiled by a corrosive gray.
Karzalkhatun also noticed what he was up to, desperately trying to get past the annoying princess, but she wasn’t able to.
Elara performed her role well.
In fact, almost too well as she barely missed the zooming Lothara, eyes widening in worry as she thought she failed her comrade.
"Daru!" the princess called out.
Lothara, meanwhile, was bloodthirsty.
"Die, Onimaru Kunitsu– nnh?!"
Like a rooster that was grabbed by the neck mid-crow, Lothara’s eyes widened.
She suddenly lost feeling in her sword arm.
A few centimeters beneath her was her falling arm, and in front of her, grasping at her neck was her foe’s powerful hand.
"H...How...?"
But then, her pupils constricted as realization dawned upon him, fury and humiliation washing over her being.
Onimaru Kunitsuna...was merely pretending to subdue the pearl all along!
