Chapter 197: A Stroll Through The Park

The first man never saw it coming. One moment, he was charging forward with the other 4-Star Master Knights, his blade raised high and mana swirling violently around him as they closed in on Valeria.

The next instant, a red flash sliced through his vision, silent, precise, and utterly merciless. His body split cleanly from shoulder to hip. For a heartbeat, he stood there, eyes wide in confusion, before his torso slid apart and crumpled to the cracked earth with a heavy thud. Blood arced outwards, splattering across the boots of nearby warriors.

Then chaos erupted on the battlefield. She vanished. A streak of crimson cut through the encirclement like lightning ripping through a storm cloud. The formation of Master Knights shattered instantly as the first boom rippled outward, its force flattening the ground beneath them. Shockwaves slammed into nearby trees, snapping trunks and sending debris spiraling into the air as if struck by an invisible hammer.

A second flash.

Bang.

Another body fell, its head severed so cleanly that it spun through the air before thudding to the ground several meters away, blood erupting like a crimson fountain. The man beside him instinctively twisted his blade forward, mana surging to launch a counterattack, but Valeria was already right behind him.

With a swift motion, her sword struck, cleaving through his spine. His body crumpled without a hint of hesitation from her. To Valeria, this wasn’t a battle; it was mere maintenance.

Her movements flowed with an effortless precision, driven not by anger but by honed instinct that surpassed human capabilities. Every step, swing, and weight shift occurred at the precise moment it was needed, no wasted movement, no needless exertion.

The disparity between her and the men surrounding her was not just about rank; it was about understanding. They fought with brute force. She fought with clarity.

Three Master Knights surged towards her simultaneously, their blades aglow with concentrated mana, striking from various angles. Their coordination was impeccable, their timing nearly flawless, this was an assault designed to overwhelm even the most elite warriors.

Instead of retreating, Valeria advanced. She slammed her shoulder into the first attacker’s chest with purpose, deftly redirecting his strike to collide with the blade of the second man. Sparks ignited, and mana erupted violently, sending shockwaves that scarred the battlefield.

Before the third could react, Valeria seized the first man by the collar, twisting his body into a shield as she pivoted away. His torso was impaled by the incoming strike instead of her, the blade erupting from his back. She released him immediately, stepped past his collapsing form, and swung.

In one seamless motion, two men were dispatched, one decapitated, the other bisected. Blood splattered her armor, darkening the crimson plates, while her expression remained cold and unflinching amidst the carnage.

Finally, the remaining Master Knights regrouped, spreading out and reestablishing their circle with disciplined precision. These were not amateurs; they were battle-hardened soldiers trained to fight monsters and veterans of countless skirmishes.

As they unleashed their full mana reserves, a suffocating pressure enveloped the area, their auras colliding and amplifying each other.

The ground shook. Trees were uprooted. The air vibrated with the weight of their combined power. And then they charged together, a flurry of strikes surging toward Valeria, blades slashing down, thrusts aimed at her joints, shockwave techniques unleashed to disrupt her footing.

Their attacks were quick, coordinated, and lethal, each capable of carving through stone and clearing out swathes of forest.

Valeria didn’t back down. She slipped through their ranks, her figure a red blur as she weaved between steel and shockwaves with unmatched timing, her instincts predicting their trajectories before they even fully materialized.

She didn’t just move where they aimed; she anticipated their next move. A pivot of the foot here, a half-step there, and a twist of her torso allowed a blade to skim past her armor instead of piercing through. With each step she took, another enemy fell.

A slash across the throat. A stab through the heart. A horizontal swing that reduced a man to fragments, his flesh and bone scattering like shattered porcelain.

BANG!

CRACK!.

BOOM!

Each impact sent shockwaves rippling outward, clearing trees and gouging trenches into the ground as if a massive blade had carved its way across the earth. The battlefield morphed rapidly, with the already devastated terrain collapsing further under the relentless violence.

One Master Knight roared as he launched a heavy overhead strike, mana condensing along his blade until it hummed ominously, enough force behind it to split stone. But Valeria caught his wrist.

The movement was subtle, precise. She twisted slightly, redirecting the blade’s descent toward the men behind him instead of herself. The strike landed with devastating force, cleaving through two of his allies and blasting a crater into the ground.

Before he could react, her knee drove into his chest.

CRACK!

Ribs shattered inward. Her sword followed, piercing straight through his skull. She pulled it free without looking back. Another charge.

Her battle instincts now fully engaged, she became cold and analytical. She dissected every pattern, every hesitation, every shift in their stance. Using their momentum against them, she forced them into each other’s paths, baiting attacks that collided mid-execution, turning their own power into weapons against their ranks.

One man lunged, but she stepped aside as he overextended. She shoved him forward into his ally’s strike, then grabbed him mid-fall and flung him into a third attacker, the impact staggering both.

Her sword danced through the chaos, and with two quick strikes, two heads fell. Blood rained down, and her speed increased even further. To the others, she was no longer a person. She had transformed into a streak of red light tearing through the battlefield, appearing and vanishing faster than the eye could follow. Wherever that streak passed, limbs flew, and torsos collapsed, as weapons clattered uselessly against the ground.

The soundscape devolved into chaos.

BOOM!

BANG!

CRACK!

Steel collided. Bodies hit the earth. Mana detonations echoed like thunder. The surrounding forest didn’t stand a chance. Shockwaves flattened entire rows of trees, trunks snapping as if struck by an unseen force.

The ground fractured under repeated impacts, fissures spreading outward like spiderwebs. Even the distant hills trembled as stray attacks landed, carving long ditches through both stone and soil.

Valeria kept moving. Untouched. Unstoppable. One Master Knight, desperate to contain her, condensed his mana into a defensive shell and charged at her, aiming to grapple and restrain.

She let him close in. Then, with a swift duck beneath his outstretched arms, she pivoted and drove her shoulder into his spine.

CRACK!

He bent forward as she seized him by the neck, swinging his body into the path of an incoming strike. The blade pierced straight through him, and the attacker froze in shock. But Valeria didn’t hesitate; her sword arced upward, slicing him cleanly from groin to chest. Both bodies collapsed to the ground.

She exhaled slowly, feeling as though this was just another day at the park.

Exhaustion lingered, and pain throbbed through her injuries, but compared to facing the Crimson Abyssal Lion, this was nothing.

The remaining Master Knights began to waver, their formation disintegrating as fear seeped into their movements. They were still formidable, each one capable of decimating squads of lesser warriors but against her, their strength meant little.

Another wave charged at her. She met them head-on.

Her sword became a blur of crimson arcs that sliced through armor and bone with precision. Each swing carried just enough mana for lethality without excess; she instinctively conserved energy, accounting for every drop and calculating each movement.

One strike.

Dead.

Second strike.

Dead.

Third strike.

Fourth strike.

Bodies piled up around her.

Blood soaked the earth until it turned slick beneath her boots. A man roared and swung wildly at her; she stepped inside his range effortlessly.

Her elbow shattered his jaw before her blade pierced his chest. She kicked him away, letting his body crash into another attacker. The battlefield transformed into a slaughterhouse.

Every death unfolded exactly as she intended it to: heads flew, limbs scattered, and blood sprayed into the air, painting the scene in violent arcs of red.

At the center of it all stood Valeria, a phantom of war moving gracefully in her crimson armor that gleamed under layers of blood. Her eyes remained cold and unwavering as she cut down one 4-Star Master Knight after another.

The sound of clashing steel never ceased; explosions echoed around them while the earth continued to shatter beneath their feet.

And still, she advanced.

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