Eric smiled brightly while secretly feeling speechless at this girl's reaction. He nodded at Kimberly's confirmation, then turned toward Lyria and Livy, who were just one small step ahead of him on both sides.
His smile changed to indifference as he commanded, "Ly, Liv—don't let a single one leave this place alive."
All five members of the Shadow Claws mercenary group and Stuart were startled by Eric's sudden, comical order. They thought they'd heard wrong.
Hannah, Wilburn, and even Jarvis were frightened by those words—words that might provoke these terrifying people.
The guards and a few pedestrians at the gate were equally stunned, realizing those words held implications far beyond what puny mortals like them could grasp.
Just as the Shadow Claws were about to burst into laughter, Lyria and Livy vanished from their sight.
Before they could process the shock, Livy appeared beside the blue-haired, petite Kimberly and drove her high-grade Tier 2 dagger into the side of her throat.
The cloaks Eric, Lyria, and Livy wore seemed simple but were peak-grade Tier 1 with enchantments masking their tier and everything beneath. They were designed for instant combat readiness.
Among the six, Kimberly was the only archer, thus she had to be eliminated first. Even though the entire group didn't pose any real threat to either Lyria or Livy, since Bella Noll was watching, Livy decided to follow her teaching and prioritize taking care of the most troublesome enemy in any Apprentice Rank group encounter.
On the other side, Lyria appeared out of nowhere in front of Rufus and Milton, who were standing on both sides of Leeroy.
Before they could react, she plunged both her daggers into their throats, while gazing down at 'dwarf' Leeroy with a smirk—who was over a foot shorter than her and stood frozen in shock.
Leeroy and Narriah were horrified beyond belief. They cried out in panic and hastily counterattacked.
Leeroy punched at Lyria's heart, but she disappeared right in front of him, as if she were made of air.
On the other side, Narriah leaped back to create distance from Livy while reaching for the sabers at her sides, but before she could even draw them out, a dagger arrived at an impossible speed and pierced right through her defenseless heart.
Her expression froze with utter disbelief.
For a moment, time seemed to slow down for her as she realized what had just happened.
The long-haired lavender girl hadn't moved from her spot, yet threw her dagger with incredible speed and force straight into her chest. It was so precise, swift, and perfectly timed that Narriah hadn't even noticed until she was already stabbed.
No, it wasn't just speed! The exact moment the dagger was thrown coincided with her focus being on drawing her sabers.
To an outside observer, a veteran Rank 2 Warrior like her should have seemed formidable—yet here she appeared like an inexperienced fool. But the truth was, the lavender-haired girl had exploited an unthinkable opening.
It was that fleeting instant where she was midair and couldn't dodge, block, or even react—that was all it took. She herself wasn't slow at all, as she was fairly fast with her drawing of sabers, but that split-second distraction of drawing her weapons, normally insignificant, was weaponized with inhuman precision by the lavender-haired girl, almost as if she had used the same move millions of times to the point that even the smallest lapse in front of her was a death sentence for her opponent.
'What kind of inhuman reaction is this? Is this even possible? Do Master Ranks have this level of awareness? Or is it centuries of experience...? N-no! She's so young... So then... training?!'
Narriah flew backward from the dagger's impact and her own momentum.
She still couldn't comprehend what had happened. She had never imagined a mere Rank 1 could exploit such a negligible opening to kill her instantly—an early-stage Rank 2 with decades of mercenary experience.
After rolling lifelessly across the ground, Narriah's wide-eyed corpse lay frozen in shock.
"Rufus! Milton! Kimberly! Narriah!" Leeroy cried out in horror.
He couldn't process how four seasoned Mana Wielders—comrades he'd traveled with for years—had been slaughtered in seconds by two Rank 1s.
In a flash, he put on his hidden dark-metal claws beneath his wristbands.
He scanned the area frantically but saw no trace of the amber-eyed girl, which further terrified him.
Just how could a Rank 1 vanish like this?
What was happening?!
'Damn it!' Leeroy felt he must flee at full haste. Only after escaping could he have the moment to even think about what had just occurred.
He quickly leaped backward to put distance between himself and the battlefield—only for something long and cold to pierce right through the back of his skull, as if he had impaled himself with his jump.
By the time he registered, he was already dead.
Lyria wrenched her dagger free from Leeroy's corpse, which was dangling in midair.
She hadn't even flinched when taking on the strong momentum of Leeroy's backward leap and helped him stab himself with just her left-hand dagger. She just stood sideways, staring at Stuart Eldridge, whose face had gone deathly pale.
Even though Stuart Eldridge had barely managed to capture what Lyria just did, he still couldn't figure out a single thing about how she moved or what she even did.
After killing Rufus and Milton, she'd blurred behind Leeroy and stood statue-still—as if she'd predicted his back jump, the exact position his head would be a second before it happened, and even his death.
The entire sequence—from killing the first two to ending Leeroy—had taken barely a second or two. Yet to Stuart, who was watching helplessly, it felt like hours.
This sort of mental confusion created far greater horror within Stuart than if he had witnessed the same thing in real time.
Stuart tried to retreat, but his legs betrayed him. He collapsed onto his backside while muttering, "Impossible... Impossible..."
His vision was now filled with the amber-eyed girl's cold, glittering killing intent.
'W-what about my revenge?! Who can help me! Someone! Anyone!'
"Just end him," Eric commanded calmly.
There was no reason to keep Stuart alive. Eric was only pleased the man wasn't late for the designated time he had set for him eight months ago.
As expected of good guys—they were always punctual when someone manipulated them!
Before Stuart could utter another word, the same dagger that had taken Leeroy's life sliced through the air and pierced right through his forehead, ending his life.
Stuart could only open his eyes wide with unwillingness, but his life didn't give a damn about his constant nagging and had already left him behind, refusing to even give him the moment to close his eyelids.
Jarvis, Hannah, Wilburn, and the onlookers gaped at this unimaginable sight.
None of them fully grasped what had just happened, and all six formidable warriors died within moments.
The battle was not only swift—its execution was beyond their understanding.
It wasn't that they couldn't see what had happened; it was their inability to comprehend the unrealistic human movement and action that had left them thoroughly shocked and baffled.
Even if a battle had broken out between all the Mana Wielders present, there should have been loud clashing of blades, a drawn-out struggle, and so on—but nothing like that happened. All six died as if they were meant to die before they even appeared.
They didn't know why they felt that way.
For most of them, the current battle flew right over their heads and provided them with an unexplainable headache.
Even Jarvis, who was at late-stage Rank 1, was completely dumbfounded by the absurd skirmish that took place right in front of his eyes.
He had seen quite a few battles in his life—it may not have been something amazing, but all those battles brought great inspiration and understanding to him. Yet never in his long life had he ever witnessed a battle this unpredictable and incomprehensible.
And what was laughable was that this was the biggest threat he had ever faced and the most disadvantageous position he had ever been in—yet the result was equally unprecedented.
Two young adult girls took down a group of veteran Mana Wielders consisting of two Rank 2s and three Rank 1s, leaving Stuart out, as he was nothing in the current setup. These girls barely took a few seconds to completely eradicate all of them—while they themselves were just at mid-stage Rank 1!
What kind of absurd situation was this?
He had never heard of a Rank 1 defeating a Rank 2, or even a mid-stage killing a late-stage—yet these two little girls did this in a jiffy.
He had seen Bella Noll taking action, but even then, he had never been this astounded, shocked, and overwhelmed as he was at this moment.
Out of nowhere, a sudden thought struck him: If these three left the town, then perhaps in the future, Ringwood Town would either face destruction or receive lots of tourists from around the world!
Since he couldn't abandon his ancestral home, he decided that from now on, he would focus on developing the town's architecture and rebuilding it.
While Jarvis was making plans for an unknown future, Hannah and Wilburn's brains remained frozen from shock.
This was their first time watching Mana Wielders fight—and die—so brutally.
This massive, speedy movement and action also suddenly made them recall a certain incident a long time ago in a certain open-terrace tavern.
It made them feel both sentimental and melancholy.
Time sure had flown—and today, Eric, Lyria, and Livy were leaving.
After killing the six, Lyria and Livy swiftly searched for whatever valuables the five had on them and quickly took them away. They didn't loot Stuart's corpse.
They didn't find anything of value—just some odd identity cards and a few space pouches with barely three 'doors' available in them.
Eric, among all the onlookers, was the calmest spectator. He had long expected this result. Even if either of the girls had taken action, the result would have been the same—and that was without them using any abilities.
During this small tussle, neither Lyria nor Livy had even used their full stats. They only depended on what Bella Noll had taught and ingrained into them over years of training.
By Riya's rough estimation:
- An early-stage Rank 1 Warrior's three physical stats should be 25, and their Intelligence 15, excluding training stats.
- A Mage had the opposite—Intelligence at 25 and physical stats at 15.
- A Mystical Knight had all at 30.
All six were Warriors. The two Rank 2s probably only had around 125 in physical stats—if they had trained, perhaps 140 or 150—far lower than the girls' 210 in each stat. That was why neither Lyria nor Livy had to go all out; their skills were sufficient to handle people with even higher stats than them. Bella Noll's training and battle knowledge were no joke.
Eric turned to Jarvis and saw his thoughtful expression—and was speechless.
'He doesn't seem to be thinking about the battle...'
Eric felt it was better to ignore Jarvis's thoughts and decided to say his goodbye.
He clasped Jarvis's shoulder and smiled, "Old Man, we're leaving. If fate allows, we'll meet again—or perhaps this could also be our final farewell. Take care, and also..." He patted him a few times gently and casually encouraged, "Stand tall! Even if the odds are stacked against you, don't lose your backbone!"
He then proceeded to ignore the dazed Jarvis and turned to Hannah and Wilburn.
While gently smiling, he said his goodbye, "Farewell, both of you. Take care. I hope you—along with Wilhan and Nahurn—stay healthy and happy as long as you live. Also, don't drop your own training, even if you only have a single more day to live."
He waved his sole free hand toward the stunned couple, then turned and walked north without looking back.
Lyria and Livy gave one final glance at Hannah and Wilburn.
They opened their mouths but found their throats too heavy with emotion, so they just waved at the couple with wide smiles, wet eyes, then turned around and chased after Eric.
Soon, all three vanished from Ringwood's view.
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End of Arc 3: Ability Arc
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