"I'm going to kill you!"
Just as Punk was admiring his masterpiece, a hoarse, furious growl suddenly erupted beside him. The voice was filled with resentment and hatred, as if it had risen straight from the depths of hell.
When Punk turned around, he saw a young warrior in light armor. She had just pulled her sword out of the chest of a Konola city guard and was now staring directly at him. Tears filled her eyes, and endless resentment burned in her heart.
It seemed that this beautiful young maiden, who looked as delicate as a flower, had climbed onto the wall in a fit of rage.
She gripped the hilt of her sword so tightly that it creaked under the pressure. Because of her grief and overwhelming anger, the violently surging battle qi around her body lifted her skirt slightly, revealing her blood-stained yet graceful jade-like legs.
"It seems your friend has unfortunately become… well… a soldier who died with honor," Punk said calmly, gently pointing toward a piece of scorched charcoal beneath the city wall.
"You bastard! You scoundrel! You killed Ckal! Despicable! I will never—never—"
Before the young warrior could finish her words, Punk activated the Fireball spell stored in his staff.
A blast of terrifying heat shot toward the young girl's head. In an instant, a whirling tornado of searing flames engulfed her and the surrounding soldiers. Everyone within range—friend and foe alike—was reduced to ashes in a single moment.
For a mage like Punk, it was essential to keep distance from melee warriors. Taking advantage of the moment when the fireball blocked the young girl's vision, he quickly retreated.
A few moments later, the young warrior burst out of the blazing smoke.
Although she had managed to resist Punk's attack, doing so had consumed a large amount of her battle qi. Now she was breathing heavily, her ample chest rising and falling rapidly.
Her armor was badly torn, yet this only gave her a strange kind of beauty—like a flower blooming on a battlefield.
But Punk had never been the kind of person to show mercy simply because someone was beautiful.
Even if there were a hundred such flowers, he would not hesitate to burn them all if they stood in his way.
The moment the young warrior emerged from the flames, Punk cast the spell "Catapult."
This spell was far stronger than the apprentice-level "Secondary Slingshot." Its projectile speed was terrifying—five or six times the speed of sound.
With a blinding flash, several gold coins—which Punk used as ammunition—shot straight toward the warrior's eyes.
Dang! Dang! Dang!
At the critical moment, the maiden warrior swung her sword with thunderous speed, knocking all the gold coins away.
Even after being deflected, the coins punched deep holes into the city wall.
"Wow, you're good."
Punk continued launching low-cost spells while simultaneously using swift movement spells to retreat.
As he moved, he deliberately chose paths where large numbers of ordinary enemy soldiers were present.
Because she had already consumed too much battle qi earlier, the young warrior could not use powerful battle techniques to close the distance. She could only defend passively against Punk's spells.
"You despicable bastard! Don't you feel ashamed? Your cruel methods insult the memory of brave soldiers like Ckal… and even your own comrades are dying from your attacks!"
Tears streamed down the maiden's smooth cheeks as she shouted in a hoarse voice.
"Unfortunately… although I know it's cruel…" Punk looked at the furious warrior with complete indifference.
"…I feel nothing."
He spoke quietly.
Those were the true words from the deepest part of his heart.
The maiden warrior seemed stunned.
She stared at him in disbelief, as if she were looking at some nameless, incomprehensible monster.
"Why do you care so much about that waste Ckal? Is he your lover or something? Oops… that's regrettable, isn't it?"
Punk gestured casually toward the charred bodies scattered beneath the city wall.
"Still, if you hurry, you might be able to gather some of his ashes. Of course, your lover didn't have any special features… it will be hard to find him among all that waste."
With a calm, almost playful tone, Punk mercilessly tore open the wounds in the young warrior's grieving heart.
Hearing these cruel words, the maiden clenched her teeth so hard that blood trickled from the corners of her mouth.
"I'm going to kill you!"
Like a wounded beast howling in despair, the young girl roared and raised her long sword blazing with raging battle qi.
She squeezed every last drop of battle qi from her small body and charged toward Punk, completely abandoning all defense.
"Aaaaaaah!"
With a roar filled with madness and grief, and driven only by revenge, the maiden warrior slashed her sword fiercely at Punk.
But the expected sensation of cutting through flesh never came.
The "Punk" she struck was split cleanly in half—then slowly turned into a fading illusion, dissolving into the air.
"Goodbye, unknown warrior."
When the young maiden realized what had happened, the real Punk was already five meters away, calmly watching her with indifferent eyes.
In fact, the moment Punk had stopped retreating, he had already cast a trainee-level spell called "Shadow-Light Illusion."
It was a relatively simple spell, easy to learn but difficult to master.
The spell allowed the caster to twist light and create illusions, but using it effectively required careful timing. If an illusion simply appeared in front of someone, no one would believe it was real.
The caster had to block the enemy's vision first, and even then a calm opponent might still see through it.
But the warrior in front of Punk had been completely consumed by rage.
With the assistance of the system's precise calculations, Punk's illusion appeared perfectly real to her.
Her final desperate attack had therefore struck nothing but air.
"Damn it… How could I… fall… in a place like this… I still haven't avenged Ckal…"
Tears streamed down her face as the young warrior tried to stand again, trembling as she leaned on her sword.
But Punk had no interest in waiting for her to discover some "hidden potential."
In this cruel world, such miracles simply did not exist.
A brief flash of golden light appeared at Punk's fingertip.
The next moment, a gold coin shot forward and pierced straight through the young girl's head, which was no longer protected by battle qi.
Under Punk's cold gaze, blood blossomed across the city wall like a bright red flower, while the coin smashed into the stone behind her, scattering fragments of rock everywhere.