Rise of The Strongest Monarch-Chapter 85: Airi Is Joining The Fight

Before I can turn to see who’s approaching I notice her white hair flowing as the wind blows past us. Airi is standing in front of me with her sword in hand again.

"I didn’t expect a hybrid to be hiding within that thing but it seems like a good thing that I work up," Airi says softly while looking ahead.

"Are you able to fight right now?" Amelia asks before I can.

"Your healing did wonders so I’m feeling perfectly okay," Airi assures her.

So Airi is joining the fight after all, can’t say I’m surprised in the slightest. She is quite a strong light bearer so it makes sense that she’d get back up.

Still have me quite the scare with the damage she took from that one attack before... But I guess I was worried for nothing.

"Now let me go give him a hand," Airi says while slightly lifting up her sword.

DASH!!!!

She disappears within an instant before either of us can reply. Just giving more to listen to in the distance as the clashing sounds like it gets even more intense.

I look down at my hands and then back up towards the distant fight.

I’m not able to help contribute to this fight... But I want to do something instead of just sitting around this entire time.

My speed is the biggest problem with the whole fight since they are all moving a lot faster than me. Speed and reflex is what I need the most to be able to make a difference here.

Even Amelia is a bit faster than me so what can I do to fix this problem?!

Grip!

I ball my fist as I feel the anger slowly brewing within me.

"What if I temporarily help?" Celeste asks with a serious tone.

How could you help me with the speed issue, yet alone reflexes?

"You’ve not seen what I’m able to do for you yet. I have only displayed a bit with healing and when I pulled us off the spike," Celeste responds calmly.

Will it be obvious to the others that you are helping me? That is the biggest problem with the whole thing since I can’t let Airi know I’m relying on you.

"Just trust me," She assures me.

Fine, I trust you.

Wriggle!

The sensation of something moving throughout my body is all I can feel as I stand there silently. The wriggle in my arm is now moving into my chest and up my neck.

I end up covering my right eye as pain begins to emerge from it for a few moments.

"Gah, that is a bit more intense than I expected," I say with pain obvious in my voice.

"Are you okay Liam?" Amelia asks with worry in her voice.

"Yes. I’m okay," I answer softly while holding back the pain.

After a few more seconds I can feel a difference in my body that I didn’t have before. I look back down at my left arm to see if anything is different but it looks the exact same.

Then I look down at my feet, nothing else seems to be different there either.

It seems I’ll find out in a fight instead of just inspecting myself for any physical sight of change. I just have to trust that I don’t have any appearance changes from what Celeste just did.

Airi will definitely lose her shit if she notices that I’m relying on the infection for anything at all.

But I’m not just going to let people save me from the enemy all the damn time, that is just not who I am... Not who I’ve become at least.

I pull out my sword and immediately dash in towards the sounds of them all fighting against each other. But I notice within seconds that I can actually see what’s happening now.

Zeno is now keeping some distance while Airi handles the close quarters combat. Yet, this doesn’t feel like it is going in there favor whatsoever.

The girl from before doesn’t look like she’s taken any damage since the beginning of the fight.

I flip the sword around to have it facing sideways before rushing in towards her.

CRACK!!!

The ground breaks underneath my feet as I push off of it, launching myself towards her.

SWING!!!!

She just barely manages to lift her arm up in time to block my attack as I start to push her back a few meters.

"I didn’t expect you to come fight me as well," The girl speaks with a surprised look on her face.

"Sitting around just isn’t my thing," I reply with a serious tone.

She looks a bit closer at me.

"I think I understand what’s going on with you now," She speaks with a smirk on her face.

Push! Push!

I continue to move forward before taking a step back and swinging my sword towards her once more.

SLASH!!!!

This time I notice it cuts right across her arm with no resistance, almost like she dropped her guard completely. Blood begins to drip down her arm as she stares back at me.

Airi and Zeno are both still coming to fight her as well.

But yet they can’t seem to get close to her at all now, what is happening?

SWOOSH!

Within the blink of an eye she appears right in front of me, our faces only inches away from each other.

"The infection inside of you is quite interesting, it makes sense why you are picking up in speed and power," The girl says softly.

Did I ever get her name? That is definitely something I can’t seem to remember but she also just closed the distance between us.

Why am I thinking about her name right now? None of that even matters since she’ll be dead soon enough... Just have to get through this brief interaction.

"Why do you even care?" I ask softly with a bit of curiosity.

"Humans aren’t usually able to withstand our blood," She answers without wasting any time.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

"Quit listening to her!!"

"Kill her!!!"

"DON’T LET HER IN YOUR HEAD!"

With that I push her away and immediately swing my blade towards her once again.

Slash!!!! Slice!!!!

I start to notice how much faster I really am since Celeste did whatever it was that she did. Even my reflexes feel a bit better but I doubt this is a permanent buff.

My sword begins to cut across her, spilling blood all throughout the area before she finally blocks one of the attacks.

"I forgot what it was like to lose my own blood. Thank you," She says with a smirk.

A huge gust of wind blows past me as the pressure from before suddenly returns, almost forcing me to my knees.

But she is just standing ahead of me with her hands down at her sides.

BANG!!!!! BANG!!!!!!!

A few shots from Zeno finally manage to reach her, piercing through her skin with ease. She even stumbles back a few feet as her attention shifts back towards them.

"This isn’t the time to let... Our guard down," Celeste struggles to say.

Is everything okay Celeste? The pressure is back and I remember the effects it has on you.

"I’ll be fine once we kill this bitch," Celeste replies with a bit of frustration.

Then I need to continue to rush her while she isn’t focused on us.

With that I grip my sword even tighter while rushing back towards her. Preparing to swing it with everything I have in me.

SLASH!!!!!

The blade slashes across her chest this time as she just slightly turns her head to face me again.

SPLURT!!

Blood spills out from her wound as she falls to a knee for a moment.

"I’m really trying my hardest not to focus on you right now so can you just go away," the girl says with a genuine tone.

As I go to swing my sword again, she pushes me away with the force of a truck ramming into my body. I can feel the air rushing around me as I soar through the sky towards whatever wall might stop me.

There probably isn’t something that I can use to stop right now, is there?

Think Liam, what can I possibly do to stop myself before taking more damage? I don’t really want to hit another wall right now since I’m barely healed from the spike.

My body is still recovering internally from the damage that I took from the spike.

"I have an idea for what you can do," Celeste speaks up.

It’ll need to be quick since I’m not far off from landing here.

A tendril comes flying out from my left arm and begins to drag across the ground, slowing us down in a couple of seconds before even reaching a wall.

Thud!!

My feet land on the floor after we finally stop.

That’ll definitely do for preventing damage so I’ll take it. Thank you Celeste.