One Last System

"Wha...?!" Mia couldn't stop a small scream of surprise.

Someone managed to sneak up on her. That alone Mia would be willing to accept, clearly aware of her own lack of expertise in the areas of tailing, hiding, or scanning the surroundings.

But that someone... not only gave up on the advantage of a possible surprise attack... but he even managed to stop Mia's punch without any noticeable effort!

'Danger!'  Mia's senses screamed out as she leaped to the back.

'I know I didn't use all my strength for that attack, but still!' Mia's thoughts turned chaotic while she jumped to the back. 'I practiced that punch for so long, and it doesn't look like he was expecting it!'

Mia's legs touched the ground again, allowing her to stabilize her position.

And as if her mind followed the state of her body, Mia's thoughts calmed down in an instant.

'Retreat,' she thought, the look behind her eyes darkening. 'I need to retreat!'

The fact that the man managed to defend himself from her punch didn't tell Mia much on its own. Yet, it gave her enough hints for the girl to understand she was in no position to challenge the group.

'Even if my full-on attack would break through that man's guard, he isn't here alone,' she thought, casting a quick glance towards the other side of the hill.

Yet, rather than the sight of people rushing towards her while swinging their weapons or preparing some techniques...

She saw the group of foreigners slowly climbing back up to the top of the hill.

The blood in Mia's veins nearly froze all over.

'They don't even expect me to be able to escape,' she thought, clenching her teeth as she turned her eyes back to the man in front of her.

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"Isn't it rude not to answer a question but attack instead?' the stranger asked out loud, leaning his head to the side like a confused puppy.

"Isn't it rude to sneak up on a maiden in the first place?" Mia countered in a cold voice, raising all the barriers that she could simultaneously keep. "You could say I only paid you back in kind," she added, changing her footing... while actually retreating by a half of a step.

"Didn't you try to sneak on us first?" the man of extremely average features and no weapon visible anywhere on his body asked. His lips twisted into a small smirk as if he considered the encounter as a chance to have some fun rather than a potential danger. "You followed us for quite a while, didn't you?" he asked, resting his hands over his hips.

"Then maybe you shouldn't put chains on a girl you snatched from where I hid her?" Mia replied, a hint of wrath appearing in her voice.

'No, I need to calm down,' Mia thought to herself when she realized what was going on.

While not lowering his guard, the man's words served nothing else but to buy time. And with how determined the man was to force her into the conversation, it was clear that abiding by the man's wishes would only play against the girl.

"We didn't put chains on her, though?" the man stated, spreading his arms wide while pretending not to see how Mia escaped for yet another step to the back.

'I need to run,' Mia thought, desperate not to give the group a convenient hostage to trouble Arthur with.

Between the safety of her junior and Arthur's peace of mind... Mia didn't even need to consider her options as the answer was flat-out obvious.

She then glanced to the side for one more time...

Just to catch the men from the group suddenly dropping the pretense of just walking back as they rushed ahead, right towards her!

'Fuck!' Mia cursed.

She didn't bother to turn around as she jumped to the back.

Only when Mia couldn't accelerate within the short timeframe she was airborne did the girl turn around to face away from the potential enemies.

'RUN!' Mia screamed out in her thoughts.

She landed down on the ground, only to instantly kick against it while infusing her mana into her legs.

'I made a mistake,' she thought, blaming herself for how the situation played out.

"And where do you think you are going?" the same man from before asked, casually strolling with his hands behind his back, right by Mia's side.

'FUCK!' The girl angled her steps, using a slight unevenness of the terrain to change the direction of her escape.

'I can't run from them, and I don't think I can fight them,' Mia thought, desperate to figure out the way out of her current situation. 'I guess my best bet is to find Arthur or at least make those guys see the dragon and retreat!'

"Seriously, where are you trying to run?" the man continued to pester the girl while leisurely running by her side.

'He didn't even need a damned second,' Mia thought, cursing her fate as the number of options she had continued to shrink.

"Okay, that's it," the man said as he shook his head.

And in an instant, he disappeared from Mia's side, only to appear right in front of her.

'Hit, hit,' Mia imagined her muscles moving along their predetermined outline to execute the first two punches of her training routine. And as soon as her right leg kicked the ground for the last time, she forced her body right into the framework of fighting style!

"DIE!" she shouted, raising her leg high and using her voice to add even a bit more strength to her attack.

This time, however, rather than just using the strength of her body to execute her attack, Mia infused all of the mana she would add to her attacks in a real fight!

BANG!

Mia's foot struck the man right in the side of his head... Or rather, right against the guard he raised just in the nick of time to defend himself.

"UGH..." the man let out a small moan of surprise... Only to swirl his hands just fast enough to grab Mia's leg by her ankle.

Mia used all the momentum of her run to kick the man. As such, when the foreigner caught her leg, she had no other choice but to attempt to wrestle it free.

Yet, no matter how much Mia struggled, having her ankle within the grasp of that man's fingers was akin to having it buried into some sort of ancient, magical stone.

And as if to make matters even worse, the man didn't bother to look at her face, turning his eyes down instead, right where Mia's robes failed to cover the inner sides of her thighs!

"What a lovely view," the man commented, either not noticing or ignoring a spark of wrath that appeared on Mia's face.

The man then tore his eyes out from Mia's crotch only to raise them slightly to the side of Mia's head.

"Senior, look what I caught!" the man shouted over, only for another man to emerge from between the trees.

"She is indeed a fine piece of meat," the second man admitted with a thoughtful expression on his face. He then approached his junior only to cast the look in the same place his junior stared just a moment earlier.

"She will be a fine addition to my collection," he said as a lascivious smile appeared on his lips.

'You lowlives,' Mia's soul exploded with flames as her wrath took over her rationale. 'Only Arthur can look at that part of me!' she inwardly screamed out, the state of her soul momentarily reflecting in her eyes.

"Huh?" the man who was clearly senior out of the two ahead finally took notice. He raised his eyes towards Mia's face...

But it was already too late.

Sparks of electricity suddenly appeared along the skin of Mia's leg. Her face froze in an expression of extreme wrath.

Mia's mana surged, burning right through the pathways she formed in her cultivation in the past.

'I'm going berserk?' Mia thought when her mind momentarily cleared out. Her eyes widened as she couldn't help but make the association between her calm thoughts and the acceptance of death that she heard so much about back in her past.

And then, Mia's thoughts all swept aside when her mana finally found the right way to flow through her soul, flesh, and...

'Huh?' Mia couldn't help but mentally shrug when she noticed that something was wrong.

Her mana always flew through her flesh, even before she started to cultivate. She managed to make it flow through her soul when she reached higher levels of cultivation...

But right now, despite not being able to pinpoint the nature of it, she could clearly feel her mana flowing through something else inside her!

All those thoughts, all those realizations appeared in a single instant. A single instant that, for Mia, turned into ages.

But the same couldn't be said about the two men who just a moment ago adored the underwear that Arthur made for the girl.

For them, everything also happened in an instant.

Thin, blue strands of weird energy appeared along Mia's leg. Then, they spread through her entire body, burning the low-quality robes that Mia covered herself with.

And then, this strange energy suddenly exploded, covering the entire area in an outburst of energy that Mia had never experienced before.

The mana in the air dissolved, unable to withstand the attack. The mana within Mia's cultivation evolved, refusing to just dissipate.

And the mana within the bodies of the two men that assaulted her...

It suddenly stood in flames!