Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 154 Do you know what true courage is?

Olvera, who was covered in wounds, took out the [Ashes of the Remnant Fire] from the item bar with an expressionless face and crushed it. Stars of warm fluorescent light sprinkled from the broken crystals, slowly healing her wounds and gradually restoring her HP value, which was on the verge of danger.

She used six pieces of [Ashes of the Remnant Fire] in one breath, restoring her HP to almost full value. The enemy, the giant wolf, was only a dozen meters away, watching the scene quietly. Although it knew what she was doing, it had no intention of stopping her.

"Although the flame is warm, it is only a momentary light in the darkness." He asked, "Do you know how to keep a fire burning forever?"

"I do not know."

Olvera replied stiffly, and then raised the holy sword in her hand again: "I only know how to make the darkness before my eyes disappear."

She said and dodged forward, closing the distance between them. From this angle, she couldn't attack the dangerous area of ​​the giant wolf, but the girl didn't care and swung the holy sword at the giant wolf's left front leg. His physical shield value was only half left, and as long as it was broken, he could seize the dawn of victory.

However, things were not as smooth as Olvera had imagined. The giant wolf, which had entered the second stage, had undergone a qualitative change in strength compared to the beginning - or in other words, it had exerted its true strength. With its huge body, it leaped back lightly, avoiding Olvera's attack with ease, while also increasing the distance between the two. Then, it exerted force on all four legs, stomped the ground hard, and shot forward like an arrow from a bow, leaving a dark afterimage in sight.

With the naked eye, it was impossible to capture his position, so Olvera could only rely on her intuition to make a judgment. When a certain string in her mind was tightened, sending her extremely dangerous signals at a frequency of hundreds of times per second, the girl rolled to the left without hesitation. At the same time, the dark afterimage passed by, hitting her body with an astonishing momentum, but passed through without any obstruction, just like a collision with an illusion, without any actual touch.

The 0.3 seconds of invincibility granted by the roll helped the girl dodge the charge. The timing was perfect. Even if it was a second faster or slower, it would not have been a perfect dodge. However, for the enemy who had already regarded fighting as an instinct, this performance was far from enough.

The afterimage that passed by at high speed failed to cause any harm to the enemy. It should have continued to sprint forward driven by the terrifying kinetic energy. However, the giant wolf was stuck in the same place in a posture that violated the laws of physics. The transition from extreme movement to extreme stillness was without any transition, which even made people doubt whether it belonged to this world.

The next moment, three slender and sharp phantoms tore open the darkness that covered the surface of the body, just like a poisonous snake lurking underwater tearing open the mud accumulated above its head, and attacked Olvera from three different directions, above, left and right, rolling up shuttle-shaped airflows.

The girl felt a sudden chill on her back, but it was too late to react. The rolling had a 1-second cooldown time. Under normal circumstances, 1 second might pass in a flash, and it was even more insignificant for Olvera who had been guarding the cage for a long time. However, at this moment, it was the key to determine the outcome of the battle.

A violent force came from behind, like a strong wind that swept the girl's thin and slender body into the air, causing her to lose control of her body. She tried to jump, but couldn't find any pedals to exert force. In the corner of her vision, she vaguely saw a dark stream of light coming towards her, dotted with silver-gray tracks, fluttering like the tail flame of a shooting star at night.

A stream of light flashed by, leaving a scar on the girl's body. The blood bar on the top of its head dropped a lot in an instant, and then it rushed to the ground without slowing down. The giant wolf landed gracefully, twisted its body as if it did not feel the recoil, and jumped up again, attacking the girl who had not yet landed, leaving another scar. Then, its four legs burning with dark blue flames kicked hard on the mottled and dilapidated surface of the towering round arch stone pillar, and its body turned around and refracted and attacked again... His speed was so fast that it was beyond the capture of sound and light, so that the previous light had not disappeared before the next light followed. Countless lights intersected in the sky of the arena, outlining and weaving into a dense giant net, in which a helpless soul was trapped.

The floor of the arena and the twelve round arched stone pillars rising from the ground turned into pedals, providing the perfect venue for the giant wolf's fighting style. When the elegant and proud figure leaped back and forth between the two pedals countless times, perfectly suppressing his enemies with high-speed movement and swift attacks, no one felt that they were facing a brutal fight, but rather like watching a gorgeous and wonderful performance in a theater, worthy of applause and cheers.

The only one who felt the pressure was Olvera, who was passively beaten. She had no power to fight back when she was thrown into the sky, and it was still the same even when she fell to the ground, because the giant wolf's attack was very rhythmic. When he sprinted and pounced, he would always retreat after one strike. Even if he hit, he would not pursue the victory, but take advantage of the momentum to increase the distance and prepare for the next attack, never leaving the enemy a chance to counterattack. Sometimes Olvera used the invincibility of rolling to avoid his attack, and when she swung the holy sword to launch a counterattack, she found that he had already retreated to the edge of the arena or the top of the round arch stone pillar. Even the light blade emitted by the charged attack could not fly so far to hit the opponent. This kind of attack rhythm is like a light that is close yet far away. It can be seen, but it cannot be touched; it is also like an endless wave, launching wave after wave of turbulent attacks, never leaving the enemy room to breathe. And Olvera was the one who was caught in the vortex. Facing the terrible storm and tide, she barely managed to hold on, but it only delayed the arrival of failure. She saw no hope of winning at all.

“Hoo, hoo!”

She didn't know how many times she had used her sword to deflect the giant wolf's claws, but the wolf's tail, as hard as steel, left new scars on her body. A flash of light flashed across the girl's vision, and then it disappeared in a flash, making it difficult to catch. She put down the holy sword in her hand in embarrassment and gasped desperately. The breath burned her throat, as if it had been tempered in a volcano, hot and heavy.

The body does not feel pain, but the psychological pressure is even greater. All the confidence she had before was shattered by the enemy's fierce attack. She suddenly felt very tired, her hands and feet were heavy, and she lost the strength to swing the sword.

"What should I do, Alice..." She murmured, "I don't think... I can beat him..."

No one answered, and her mind was dead silent and empty, as if even her own thoughts did not exist. Olvera realized that she seemed to have not heard Alice speak for a long time, and the last impression she had was that she reminded herself to be careful.

She has been reminding herself to think calmly and fight carefully, but I didn't listen to her, so is that why she is disappointed?
Even she gave up, perhaps it means that I am indeed a person who is not worthy of being saved. Then, returning to that closed cage, accompanied by the candlelight until the end of the eternal night, is the best destination?
"..."

The girl's eyes were blank, and she whispered something that sounded like a murmur. Her voice was so weak that it was blown away by the wind and could not reach anyone's ears: "The endless night of dreams is full of suffering and pain; the endless night is surrounded by thorns. The body is like a reed, floating with the waves; life is like a tiny fire, which is fleeting."

This was a song she had heard a long time ago, but she had forgotten when and who sang it.

She had been lonely for too long and had forgotten many things.

The distracted girl did not notice that the enemy's attack had stopped at some point.

The heroic and majestic giant wolf was standing on the top of the central stone pillar, quietly looking at the scarred girl, his eyes were so deep that it seemed as if he was looking at a memory from the past. Suddenly, he spoke, and in a completely different and kind tone, he asked the biggest mystery in the world: "Do you know what true courage is?"

"Olvera."

This was the first time he addressed the girl in front of him by her name instead of "Princess".

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)