Land of the Blades

35. Flash

The shadow servant was thrown against the ground by the force of the punch, but she was able to get back to her feet almost immediately. Her face was cracking, with some parts falling from it.

—Are you alright? —Antarc said as he put himself between me and the enemy.

—Yeah, no problems here —I managed to say, but my body was still overheated. I ignored the pain as much as I could, there were more important matters to deal at the moment—, where are Morga and Goshe?

—I send them to look for reinforcements.

—Good thinking.

—How dare you... keeping Anchin-sama away from me... —the snake lady said with spite in her words, the dark aura glowing once again around her.

I warned Antarc of the incoming attack, but he stood on his ground. The enemy threw fire against us, but before it could reach us, the ice that was covering Antarc's fist before turned into a small shield. It was barely bigger than his own hand, but it was enough to block the more intense flames.

—I see, the ice disperse the heat instead of absorbing it, and since it isn't part of your body, you don't feel a thing —I said, impressed—, but more importantly, how are you able to manipulate ice?!

—Hmmm? This? It's just simple magic.

—What? Since when do you know how to use magic?

—Caster taught some of us how to use magic while you were sleeping.

—Just like that?!!

—It's not a big deal, this is all I can do.

—Ugh... Why nobody told me.

—I had become so accustomed to it that I forget I couldn't do it before.

—Anchin-sama... —the enemy said as she briefly stopped her attack.

It seemed like she had realized just throwing flames against us won't be enough, but I wasn't aware what else she was capable of doing.

—Can you fight without a sword? —Antarc asked.

—I can't just stand there and leave everything to you, can I?

The thought of trying to materialize weapons out of thin air like Shirou did crossed my mind, but we were already on a dire situation for me to get distracted trying to pull a new skill that could be out of my reach. I also thought of reaching into Antarc's bag and use the gun as a weapon. It could still shot bullets in exchange of some of the user's energy, and in the worst scenario, I could make a ship drop over the enemy's head. But I wanted to keep that as a secret from the Lunarians, it would be our secret weapon. Using the alloy in my arms should be enough, as long as I avoided her flames.

The shadow servant jumped against us, Antarc still holding his ground and preparing to block the attack, but I sensed something off about it. I grabbed Antarc by the waist and moved both of us out of the way, just barely avoiding being slashed by the claws of the enemy. That attack wouldn't have been so bad, if it hadn't been followed by a sudden explosion. We were sent flying and tumbling away, fortunately the ground was covered in snow, so we ended up relatively fine. If that had hit Antarc's shield, it would probably had blew his entire body apart.

—Not only can it breath fire, it also can make explosions? That doesn't seem fair —Antarc grumpily said.

—She is also pretty though, the recoil from that attack didn't hurt her at all.

—Are you praising me, Anchin-sama? My skin is that of a dragon, so this much won't hurt me. Understand the situation you are and obediently accept your punishment.