Chapter 63: Herculean Tenacity

“Increased Healing… Is that your Unique Talent?” Amelia asked, sneering, still inside her ‘Stranded Hell Princess’ armor suit.

Scarlett’s burned skin turned olive and soft again, and although her armor showed sights of damage, it could still endure another round. “I suppose I cannot hide it any longer, huh?”

**So… she’ll keep regenerating if I don’t finish her off?** The demoness-looking Amelia thought. **If she combines that Unique Talent with the Berserk Active Skill, she’ll continue to grow stronger indefinitely. **

Amelia pointed her katana forward. “I could not ask for a better punching bag.”

“Are you sure about this, princess? You may get more than you can chew on.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Amelia waved her staff around her head, casting a fire snake that quickly became a metal dragon. The beast charged at Scarlett, who retaliated with a fire-engulfed punch.

“You promised me a melee fight, princess! Not this!”

Although the sound of such a tremendous hit could be heard from miles away, Amelia’s crafted monster only recoiled before snarling, annoyed.

Scarlett looked at it, perplexed. “What’s going on?! My Strength has finally reached Platinum E! This should have obliterated it!”

“So?” The demoness appeared beside her, katana in hand. “It’s not enough yet.”

Scarlett used her forearm to shield herself from the incoming sword swipe, expecting to reflect the steel, but the katana’s blade became incorporeal. The ghostly slice burned her chest again and part of her lungs.

“Freaking magic sword!” Scarlett grunted, releasing a burst of fire at The Stranded Hell Princess’ face, point-black, but besides the armor looking incandescent for a second as if it had absorbed the attack, it looked unaffected. “No way…” Scarlett muttered as the dragon behind her devoured her whole. Seconds after, the dragon’s jaws slowly opened, showing Scarlett between them, pushing them up. “I’m getting tired of this, bitch!”

“Come on, don’t be shy! I bet it’s pretty comfy in there!” Amelia shouted, kicking Scarlett inside the fake dragon’s esophagus. She then jumped back as the elongated monster glowed with intensity and exploded, deforesting the eastern side of Unus’ outskirts.

The resulting column of fire reached the clouds and suddenly stopped, as if it had been frozen in time, before rapidly imploding until it formed a 13 feet radius metal ball.

“Please… Tell me this broke your back,” Amelia murmured, before hearing distant knocks.

Scarlett’s fist came out from her imprisonment, now wearing golden spiked brass knuckles.

“Wow! I… I never expected to find such resistance here, in this bore of a town!” Scarlett smirked, locking eyes with Amelia. Although Scarlett’s glowing irises resembled those of a wild beast, her tone of voice sounded collected. “Ignoring the fact that you tricked me into believing we’d have a nice fistfight, I’m enjoying this. Truly! I’m having real fun…”

“Are you?” Amelia asked, using her ‘Eye of the Sage’ Passive Skill to examine Scarlett’s weapon and new stats.

**Those are of Platinum Quality… So she’s finally taking this seriously. The only reason she can fight so carelessly is because of that Unique Talent of hers. And… would you look at that… Her ‘Berserk’ state has skyrocketed her strength to Platinum C… Like, seriously! This skill combo is broken as fuck! But I wonder, with all of those buffs accumulated, will it feel the same as if I was fighting that stupid shortie?**

“I’ve figured it out…” Scarlett started saying, planting both feet deep in the ground, causing a slight quake. “That demon suit of yours is not for close-combat fighting, it’s just an extra precaution in case I manage to punch your pretty doll face… It’s durable as any of your other metallic creations, and it absorbs pyromancy, eh?” She clicked her teeth. “It’s pretty lacking for a so-called ‘Triumph Card’. Are you that afraid of feeling pain?” Scarlett sneered, before exerting a suffocating fire aura. “Path of the Berserk!”

**Oh, crap… Is she going Super Mode? I’d really like a challenge, but this would gamble Alan’s safety.**

Amelia fastly cast a fire spell using her staff: “Enhanced Dragonbreath!”

A pillar of blazing fire hit Scarlett, but she pushed it back with her right palm.

“Too late, Princess!” I’m Scarlett, the Crimson Light in the Sky… The Falling Satellite!” she proclaimed, as her chest plate and faulds changed to white and gold, and the armor around her limbs looked covered in reflective diamonds. Moments before revealing her new appearance, the ‘Enhanced Dragonbreath’ engulfed her whole, but Amelia knew it did not harm her.

**Crimson Light in the Sky? Falling Satellite?** Amelia repeated those Titles in her mind, shaking her head. Something about all of those words combined triggered a memory from when she was admiring the night sky with her sister and witnessed a bizarre spectacle years ago.

***”Look, Red! Hurry and make a wish!”*** Marissa cried with joy, watching hundreds of falling stars invading New London’s sky.

But Amelia looked at them with an expression of horror and disbelief on her face. She knew those were Earth’s last functional satellites, returning to the planet to die.

“W-Who the hell are you?!” Amelia cried, stepping back in terror as if she was watching the real devil in front of her. “Y-You’re not human, are you?!”

The super-powered Scarlett shortened the distance between them in an instant. “Princess… I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Amelia barely blocked a punch directed to her stomach with her left gauntlet, and her passive Overshield automatically blocked a second hit targeting her face. **She’s faster!**

“I warned you that you’d get more than you could chew on!” Scarlett shouted, starting a series of consecutive strikes.

As Amelia blocked hits with her gauntlets out of instinct, another punch would reach her body. She was hit in the ribs, chest, and on her left forearm. Although the magically constructed body absorbed the damage, Amelia could feel the painful impact of each one of them.

**At this rate, she’ll wipe the floor with me! Come on, Amelia! This form is supposed to beat Astrid’s gorilla fighting style!**

“Twisted Firestarter!” Amelia cast, blazing everything around them. The overwhelming heat was enough to melt the very ground they were standing on, but it soon ended when the flames turned into flexible metal.

Four gigantic arms were now bending toward Scarlett.

“It won’t work this time!” the warrior roared, punching each one of them, shattering them instantly.

**I got what I wanted,** Amelia thought, sweating cold. **Her brute force has finally surpassed my mana output.**

“Come on!” Scarlett laughed out loud, punching the demoness in the face. “Now that I’ve finally broken my limits, give me more of a challenge! After all, you made the long journey worth it! I never expected someone like you to hang out with that loser!”

Their fight leveled hills. Trees were like chopsticks getting in their way. Amelia released a breath of fire, but it would not slow down her enemy, not even when the burst transformed into arrows. Scarlett’s armor ignored any incoming attack every single time.

“Why are you doing this?!” Amelia cried after her left gauntlet broke. “Why are you attacking cities indiscriminately?!”

“I’m just here to make sure that everything will go according to plan! I was tasked to crush any opposition while Serenity catches our prey, and I’m fucking glad that you were here!”

“So you really are after Alan! Why?!”

“Stop playing dumb! You’ve already questioned my humanity. So guess what? Your instincts were true! I’ve stopped being human for a long time. I’m the Embodiment of Progress now!”

**I… I need a freaking break!**

Amelia sprouted bat-like wings and jumped upwards, away from her pursuer’s reach. But for Scarlett that was just an inconvenience.

“Rocket Jump!” Scarlett cast, propelling herself with a burst of fire from her feet. “A satellite’s place is up in the far reaches of the sky, you know?!”

Amelia looked in shock at the incoming menace and shut her eyes. **This is going to hurt…**

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