Blanid bit her lips as her face scrunched with a particular brand of irritation that was completely unfit for the battlefield.
She fixed her stance, lowered Caladbolg's Shadow, holding it firmly in a two-handed grip and… twisted it so that she would be striking with the blunt side instead of the edge…!
*WHOOSH* *WHAM*
"GHAGH!?"
As the deofolized human was about to pierce her through with spell-enchanced spike, the girl twisted her body, barely dodging the attack while she swung her sword like a mace and struck her opponent square in the face, smacking it to the ground and forcing a gasp out of its nonexistent lungs…!
"YOU BRAINDEAD SHITHEAD! IF YOU'RE TARGETING PEOPLE CLOSE TO ROTSARD, WHY WEREN'T YOU TARGETING ME!?"
*WHOOM* *STAB*x12
The girl roared, re-summoning the ephemeral blades and making each stab through a joint of the metal skeleton, pinning it to the ground.
"I KNOW HE'S DENSE AND THINKS I'M A GUY, BUT EVEN SO IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS THAT HE CARES ABOUT ME!"
"Ghh…!"
*STA-* *SHING*
Blanid roared in fury, and as the deofolized human tried to use this chance to impale her on dozens of metal spikes it conjured, the black-haired girl cut them all down with a single devastating slash.
"HE CALLS ME CUTE WHEN I'M CRYING! THAT'S WHEN THE DISGUISE SPELL WEAKENS, AND MY ACTUAL FACE SHOWS UP, DAMN IT! THAT MEANS HE THINKS MY REAL FACE IS CUTE! BACK WHEN WE TRAINED FOR THE FIRST TIME, AND I SHOWED HIM MY REAL FORM, HE WAS DISTRACTED BECAUSE HE FOUND ME TOO ATTRACTIVE! HE KEEPS HELPING ME OUT AND GUIDES ME TO BE STRONGER! HE MIGHT BE DENSE BUT HELPS COVER FOR ME WHEN I'M ON MY PERIOD! HE MIGHT LIKE BULLYING ME BUT I KIND OF LIKE IT WHEN HE DOES! I UNDERSTAND YOU TARGETING MIRA AND AMELIA FIRST, BUT WHY DID YOU IGNORE ME AND GO FOR SOMEONE IN THE CAFETERIA!? I WANT TO BE INCLUDED IN PEOPLE IMPORTANT TO ROTSARD, FOR HEL'S SAKE!"
"..."
Blanid's outburst seemed to baffle the aggression out of the deofolized human, at least for a little bit, making it just stay there and stare up at her with its empty eye sockets.
"...who the FUCK are you in the first place…?!"
"!!!"
After a moment of silence, the doefolized human asked in utter disbelief, managing to enrage Blanid without actually intending to…
*WHOO-TWACK*
"YOU…! UGUACK!?
Blinded by her rage, Blanid raised Claldbolg's Shadow with no regard to her surroundings and ended up smacked to the side and away from the deofolized human by a wind spell!
"Ghh… EH!?"
Only that, upon immediately jumping up while gritting her teeth, she was faced with a sight of a metal spike that would have come from her blind spot and pierced right through her head if not for the wind spell.
"Tsk."
The metal skeleton clicked its nonexistent tongue and simply stood up with no regard to the ephemeral blades, showing off that there were, in fact, no joints in its gedwyld-corrupted body that could have been pierced to hold it down in the first place!
The wind spell didn't come from the deofolized human, after all, and wasn't an attack but a helping hand.
As for the one who cast it…
"Don't be stupid, Blanid, of course you are on her target list. You're just the most problematic one to deal with, so she had to come up with an underhanded tactic to get you."
Amelia Edemsworth, supported by her younger sister, Bernadette, and Mira Vultress, spoke up without lowering her hand that she used to aim the spell.
"Y-Young Miss…!?"
Blanid gasped, glancing at her with disbelief while still keeping an eye on the deofolized human who, despite not having an expression, had an aura of annoyance around it.
"Wait… you said, she…? You know who that was?"
"Of course. She didn't introduce herself, but made it quite obvious with how she acted… Well, obvious for someone who was blessed with the knowledge of the story."
"...!?"
Blanid gasped, and Amelia nodded with a confident smirk, causing the metal skeleton to recoil just as if it was flinching.
"Isn't that right, Miss Kyle Houndred? Or, should I be calling you Nan, just like Rotsard used to?"
"DON'T YOU DARE MENTION THE NAME THAT TRASH CAME UP FOR ME!"
Amelia raised her brow and smirked at the deofolized human, infuriating it, this time for real.
"Oh, no, you don't!"
*THUNK*
The former Kyle Houndred launched a metal spike at the girl who casually revealed its original name, but Blanid rushed in and deflected it with a spirited shout.
"Blanid. Stop. You have better things to do, wouldn't you say? Miss Kyle, sorry for making you, I might know your name, but I am not too familiar with your personal story."
"...!"
"...?"
Shockingly enough, Amelia stepped forward herself and admonished the petite black-haired girl, confusing her and the deofolized human.
"You are a 7th tier mage as well as a talented Sword Count. How does someone like you end up… in a situation… like this? It bothers me."
"..."
Amelia breathed out and inquired, causing the former Kyle Houndred to straighten its back as if acknowledging the praise.
"I did think that you would be the one to understand me, Young Lady Edemsworth."
"!?"
The former Kyle said, gritting its teeth, and Blanid was so shocked that she had to be pulled back by MIra and Bernadette to let Amelia occupy the deofolized human's attention.
"...the answer is the shackles of your family…"
"The answer is the shackles of my family, yes."
Just because of that earlier statement, Amelia was able to give the flawless answer that the defolized human wanted.
"I was a prodigy, a rising star of the Houndred family, but then that trash's father betrayed us and joined Vallhalls! That broke my father, who believed him to be the one to finally sever the chains of servitude Vallhalls had on us Houndreds…"
Ormer Kyle spat out with such obvious hatred that no facial features were needed to convey it properly.
"That alone would be enough to warrant any hate, but at that point, it only reinforced my conviction to become Houndreds' hope. But then that trash raised my father's hopes again. With Swordsmanship Magic System mastery so profound that it made Sword Emperor skills pale in comparison. Beloved by all swords so much that the actual physical blades would refuse to cut him as if they gained sentience…! At nine years old, he killed his father while wielding a training sword for the first time! My father didn't waste any time and pulled me away from training and used all possible methods just to put that trash in my care…. Only for all of that hope to go down in flames as that useless trash swore to never touch the sword again and actually stuck to it!"
"..."
While the former Kyle Houndred was spilling out all of its pent-up anger to Amelia, the other three girls were doing their best to safely evacuate all of the victims of the onslaught that erased the main building.