192 Cilia (1/2)

Just as he was about to laugh, he feels a powerful impact right into his guts, and before he could even vomit a mouthful of blood rushing to his head, he found himself crashing against the wall hard. Within a broken wall, Rodrick laughs maniacally, not caring about the blood dripping out of his lips. Once again, before he could stand on his two feet, he received a powerful hammer kick right into his skull, prompting him to be swallowed deeper into the shattered floor.

It was only two moves, yet the result is so destructive that if even one of them somehow managed to hit normal people, no matter how tough their body is, they stood no chance against them.

\”I really don't understand. Why cause conflict when you stood no chance against me? Why the futile effort? Is it worth it?\”

However, the current Rodrick is different. Though it took a few minutes, he finally stood up among the rubbles caused by her unrestrained attacks. If one looked closer, they can see a glimmer of red surrounding his body, and in turn, the muscles all over his body become thicker and tougher. This was a sign that Sheila had seen before coming here, and as expected, there is a small crimson gem embedded on his forehead.

\”That hurts, alright. I'm honestly surprised, it seems your strength has grown much stronger than before or is it that you held yourself back because I was just a normal person? Thanks to your naivety, today, I'm here to achieve my revenge. I won't be satisfied until I make you suffer tremendously after what you had done to me.\”

\”What I did to you? That should be my question. If you hadn't taken any action against me, I won't have to do anything. Nevertheless, you did, and I retaliated in kind. What, do you thought that I would just stand there and follow your script like an idiot when your ill intent is as clear as day?\”

Sheila calmly replied. No matter how much she wishes to torture Rodrick to endless suffering, she needs to stay rational, or she might end up killing him in her wrath. If she did that, she would not be able to get the information out of him. There has to be someone behind all this, once she gets the information she needs, she can do all she wanted to Rodrick and even if he ended up dying, it doesn't matter. With that thought in mind, Sheila disappeared from her previous location before reappearing next to the motionless Ria.

\”Huh? What are you going to do with that corpse? I told you, she's dead.\”

Rather than letting more time wasted, Sheila promptly put Ria's body into her inventory just as she did to Luke's friends. Since it hasn't gone beyond thirty minutes upon her death, there is still hope, so she can rest assured. However, it doesn't change the fact that she's dead, which can be avoided if not for the carelessness. Perhaps, because she was already informed about the predictable future that would only happen years later that she let her guard down, yet again.

Even more, the four-defensive formation that she had set up back then, it should have alerted her about these people appearing in the district since they emitted a special aura differ from normal people. However, there was no such alert. This can only mean two things—One, they somehow managed to bypass the barrier surrounding the district by using a special power, or unique item in their possession. Two, they are so powerful, or skilled that they can easily hide their aura from being detected by the formation. Either way, it's bad news for her.

\”—What, the corpse disappeared?\”

After she has done that, Sheila stood up before immediately appeared next to Yuna, which the latter quickly took notice of while completely ignoring Rodrick.

\”Senior...\”

Yuna muttered in low voice with a grave expression on her pale-looking face. When Ria was having a frightening battle with Rodrick, she was surprised at their speed and strength, especially the former; with such a slim and thin-looking body, one would assume her strength to be on the weaker side, yet the punch Yuna had witnessed actually packs a punch, at the very least more than the average adult. Even Rodrick had shown her a fearsome strength that one would not have expected from his lean figure.

At first, Yuna initially thought Ria can take care of the problem on her own, however, she soon retracted her words when she realized the latter had been back into a corner. She really wants to help but, with her insignificant strength in comparison to their overwhelming might, it would just make things much harder for Ria if she intervenes in the fights. During their battle, Rodrick has been repeating himself to Ria for her to surrender, over and over. However, knowing what it would result in their defeat, Ria didn't give in to the pressure despite being so exhausted that just by standing is already taking a toll on her body.

Yuna really wishes to tell Ria to leave her here and escape on her own, however, worrying that her shouts might distract the latter during the fight, she decided to keep her mouth shut while feeling as if her heart was pierced by a spear each time she watched Ria getting hurt from shielding her. The feeling of helplessness overwhelming her.