On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

Out of the three girls, as I expected, Millonia performs the best. She is as strong as the crippled Niles Brontes, but she moves more agilely than he did.

The Knights are honestly surprising too. Just like what you expected from the escort of a Hero, they have the required skills to protect the Hero.

In terms of raw power, they are superior to Millonia, but she is superior in terms of combat technique. They are equals, overall; watching their fight is interesting since I can\'t surely tell who is going to beat whom.

I do like to see my girl—please, don\'t take it out of context—win though. This is her debut as my sidekick, so it will be quite sad if she loses.

"Layland, Millonia is good at using fire," Genelos, who is perching on my right shoulder, remarks.  "She is a little bit rough around the edges, but I think she and I will make good friends, if she can understand me, that is."

"She likes anything that explodes," I comment. "So far, only Fire Magic gives her the biggest explosion, which is why she likes to use it."

"We\'ll be good friends. She and I think the same."

Boom!

Right after Genelos said his piece, Millonia blasted a hole in the chest of the Knight she is fighting. She is the one who obtains the first kill and she looks quite excited about it if her manic grin is any indication.

Moving on to the second-best performer, Lunea, I find her struggling to decide which opponent to distract and which opponent to attack. She looks rather discombobulated but, fortunately, she can still send out her Spells accurately.

"Keuk… my stomach hurts!"

I am sure what she meant was solar plexus, which is where Mana Pool is located. The fact that she is feeling pain in that area means her Mana has almost been exhausted.

As someone who has a normal-sized Mana Pool, Lunea\'s biggest obstacle is her lacking Mana. She has mastered a lot of Spells splendidly, but she can\'t cast them well because she doesn\'t have enough Mana.

That is slightly unfortunate, but I think that is what makes us equal, as long as we don\'t do anything about ourselves, that is.

I have a way to enlarge her Mana Pool, so I am not too worried about the fact. What I am paying attention to is her attentiveness, which is honestly quite pleasing.

"She thinks fast. It looks like she is just throwing every Spell she managed to cast when the time comes, but all of them are predetermined," I remark. "Sadly, that is also her weakness. She is looking too far ahead that she misses what is before her."

Right after I said that, one of the Knights managed to pierce through her defense and enter her comfort zone. She instantly gets flustered and panicked, but she can put a Mana Shield before her in time nonetheless.

Crack!

"Ah! I am flying!"

As she is launched to the back, the Knight who has almost killed her chase after her body. The Knight will be able to kill her, so I lend her a hand.

Swish!

I throw Mike\'s rapier at the Knight, piercing his stomach with it. Since didn\'t intend to harm him that much, I can\'t help cringing inwardly while blaming him for being too incompetent.

"Ha-ha! This prey is mine!"

Like an eagle swooping down to snatch its prey, Millonia appears beside the Knight. With a swing of her fire-covered sword, she decapitates him and then bisects his body at the same time she burns it.

I clap my hand at the performance; not because of how quick it was done, but the fact that her mouth hasn\'t torn yet by how wide she is grinning.

Clank!

"Kahak! This bastard…!"

The clash and the rather manly groan attract my attention. Looking away from Millonia, I turn to Winerva, who is panting heavily as she uses her sword as a support.

She is only fighting two people at once, but the amount of injuries she has is quite alarming. Out of the three girls, she is the only one who has her own blood smearing her forehead.

"I respect you for your determination and will, woman. Tell me your name—I will honor it after you die," one of the Knights exclaims.

"This bastard … Don\'t act as if you can kill me!" Winerva retorts.

"I can\'t kill you, but I have to," the Knight replies. "Had you walked on the right path, you would have prospered. I would like to take you under my wings, but what is corrupted can never be salvaged. Because of that, woman, you have to die here."

Winerva grits her teeth as she stares at the Knight who is dashing at her. Her eyes still burn passionately even though she is in a perilous situation and that makes me wonder what she is going to do.

Stab!

Much to my surprise and bafflement, she throws her sword to the ground, planting the sword in it.

"Are you crazy, woman?" the Knight exclaims, representing my thought.

Uncaring to the exclamation, Winerva takes something out of her Spatial Storage. It is a long-shafted weapon like a spear mixed with an axe-like blade—a halberd.

The Knight is very baffled by the appearance of the weapon, so he stops in his tracks. Unfortunately for him, he stops in the attack range of the halberd and just as he is about to backtrack, the halberd hits him right on his side.

"Gahak!"

His body bends as Winerva sweeps him with her halberd. Even his armor is dented and that makes me wonder how much raw strength she has.

"Fredo!" the other Knight exclaims as he sees his friend flung to the side.

"Ha-ah! As expected, this is my limit," Winerva exhales heavily as she stabs her halberd into the ground.

The other Knight immediately dashes at Winerva who is already too exhausted to move, which is the better choice than going to check on his friend. I will like to meddle so she doesn\'t die vainly now that she has shown her potential, but I decided not to.

Someone is already there to save her butt.

"Don\'t touch my friend!"

"Lunea!?"

Boom!

The exiled Princess, with her perfect timing, blasts her chaser and the Knight who is going to kill Winerva away. The two can\'t even stand up from the ground for a couple of seconds since her Spell hit them just right.

"How about it?" Lunea turns around and grins.

"That was awesome," Winerva replies as she smiles faintly.

Seeing that Winerva is trying to right herself up, Lunea supports her body. "Ah, let me help you stand up. I can\'t heal you but if I cast an Enhancement Spell on you, can you still fight?"

Winerva turns to look at Lunea in surprise. "You can do that?" she asks, earning a nod from the Princess. "Sure, I will be able to fight again. It will definitely sting like hell later though."

"Very well, stand straight."

As Winerva supports her body with her halberd, Lunea does her job. She quickly casts an Enhancement Spell, which will increase a certain aspect of Winerva; which, in this case, I believe are strength and stamina.

The other Knights, of course, won\'t let them do it peacefully. While Millonia is fighting four Knights by herself, the other Knights are coming at the rest of the girls.

I will like to give them some thrill by not doing anything but I don\'t want to risk a mishap, so I decided to lend them a hand. As the four are coming at them, I call Mike\'s rapier back and then throw it at them.

The throw was by no means powerful, but the fact that the rapier previously belonged to a Hero makes them cautious. They stop in their tracks and stare at the rapier that is now planted in the ground cautiously.

"E-Eh, it flies!"

"W-Watch out!"

"Shit! I-Is it the infamous Possession Spell of the Demon?"

The Knights look like children who have just shat their pants the moment they see the rapier fly at me. I find this as hilarious as it is absurd, considering who they are.

First of all, although we have a Possession Spell, what I am doing is not it; every Blue Grade Relic allows the user to control it with Mana. The fact that they are Knights and they don\'t know about it says a lot about how much care the Kingdom put into them.

"You know. You may be the escort of the Hero on the surface, but you are actually no more than the cannon fodder provided to the Hero to give them more time to escape," I propagate loudly. "This is the reason why."

Using the ability of Mike\'s rapier—producing acid—I make a Mana Sword that has a slightly gas-like state but is solid enough to look like a sword. I send it to the two Knights Winerva has been fighting, who are already quite injured.

"Scatter!"

Swoosh!

The Mana blade hits the ground since the two Knights managed to dodge it, allowing it to carve a shallow trench on the ground. Unfortunately for them, that is not the only it can do; it explodes and turns to smoke, engulfing them.

"AAAHHH!"

"F-Fuck! Stay away from the smoke!"

As their two friends are being devoured by the acid, the other two Knights back off. At that exact moment, Winerva\'s halberd cleanly decapitates one of them.

Alarmed, the other Knight immediately turns to Winerva and swings his sword vigorously as he bathes her with his killing intent. Just before his sword touches Winerva\'s neck, though, he is hit by Lunea\'s Spell.

Squelch!

Winerva stabs his chest as he is pushed forward, killing him instantly. From then on, the battle flows in their favor; I can safely say their sidekick debut is a success.