Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

"...So that's how it is. She's the princess's personal guard. No wonder she has such strength." When Tora saw Noah appear, he understood that the masked woman in front of him was the princess's personal guard. Indeed, without such strength, she would not be able to protect the princess.

"To fight a strong man in front of the princess - nothing makes me happier than this." Tora's momentum increased instead. His excitement was not fake. He really wanted to fight Kuro for three hundred rounds and offer his loyalty to the princess with strength and blood.

"...Foolish," Kuro replied succinctly. "First, I'll beat you to your knees..."

Noah had said that Tora could not be killed, so no matter how unhappy Kuro was, he could only show mercy. However, Tora seemed to be aroused by blood rage, and the slashes of the long sword in his hand became more and more fierce. In this state, Tora was even stronger than when he fought against the Knight of Glory. What made Noah even more uncomfortable was that her body seemed to be awakened again by the opponent's roar. She desperately suppressed her body's response. She knew that she could not faint at this time - and she could not let that phantom appear again.

Otherwise, one side in this battle would definitely be seriously injured... or even die.

"Kuro! I allow you to use...your weapon." Noah said. She knew that if Kuro used weapons that concealed his identity, it would be difficult for him to exert his full strength. So Noah directly helped Kuro untie the shackles. The next moment, Kuro dropped the giant sword in his hand, and then pulled out two iron rods from the buckles under his suit?

Tora didn't recognize either weapon, but that didn't stop him from continuing his attempts to defeat Kuro. The next moment, the force of Kuro's iron rod startled him, nearly causing Tora to drop his weapons from the shock of the clash. The two weapons wielded by the opponent appeared to be solid metal rods, not rounded but angular. These weapons weren't originally from Casimir, but rather originated from the Yan Kingdom—double maces.

Many people don’t even know about this weapon and can’t use it... But once this weapon meets the right user, it will be completely different.

When Kuro took out her double maces, the situation changed instantly. Each of her strikes was extremely powerful, forcing Tora to retreat. The opponent had never used Originium skills, but her brute force and martial arts made Tora feel what it meant to be crushed.

That’s right, crushing—

In terms of martial arts, Kuro is already one of the top warriors in Terra - if you don't take into account some out-of-specification beings, she can now be said to be at the peak level of humanity.

Tora had to retreat step by step, not daring to resist even for a moment... If this thing hit his body, the armor would be useless, it could directly break his bones and even injure his internal organs.

"..." The situation had changed, and Tora had to admit that he had lost in martial arts. But he did not give up...

The next moment, Kuro, who was attacking Tora like a storm, suddenly frowned and immediately dodged to the side, avoiding the sudden backstab from the shadow behind him. The shadow appeared very suddenly, and suddenly appeared behind him. If he had not felt something was wrong, he would probably have been seriously injured.

This... is a Originium technique?

Soon, Kuro saw that the shadow not only appeared behind him, but also began to appear behind Tora. A black mist began to spread in the alley, and in the mist, the strange shadow began to appear and disappear.

Nightmare's innate spell... After Noah sensed the other party's aura of using Originium skills, he immediately made a judgment.

It was essentially no different from the phantom that suddenly appeared behind him. It was all... the condensation of fear, a unique spell of nightmare.

"...Sister Noya, is Sister Kuro okay?" Maria began to doubt herself. She knew Kuro had no ability to use Originium techniques, and in this situation, her disadvantage was truly immense. Furthermore, this was a small alley, leaving Kuro with no room to maneuver. She could only charge straight ahead to reach Tora, a situation that couldn't be more disadvantageous.

But the one who responded to this was not Noa, but Kuro himself——

And it wasn't just words, it was real action. The moment the opponent's phantom army took shape, Kuro's double maces had already begun to dance.

It was like a dance on the tip of a knife. Every swing of the double maces would shatter the phantom that appeared, but the blade of the phantom could not touch Kuro even once. The total distance was about five meters. Kuro waved the double maces and forced his way through the army of phantoms. When he rushed in front of Tora, he was not even hurt!

Tora swung his long sword and collided head-on with Kuro's double maces - and the next moment, as expected, the long sword slipped out of his hand and flew several meters away. Kuro also dropped his double maces and punched Tora's mask hard with his fist.

As the sound of the mask breaking was heard, Tora was knocked to the ground by the force of the punch. Just hearing it made people feel... very painful.

"...I didn't kill him, I just broke a few of his bones... Uh, he might need treatment." Kuro felt good about the punch, and after seeing Noya's subtle expression, he explained, "I was very gentle."

"...Okay." Noah covered his forehead. "Let's take him back first. I want to have a good talk with him. Maybe we don't need to be enemies."

"As you wish." Kuro nodded and pulled the knocked-out Tora out of the hole in the ground and carried him on his shoulders. Noya finally breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest... for a moment she thought Tora had been killed by Kuro's punch.

Fortunately, Kuro knew to show mercy—

Chapter 189: Golden Blood

——That’s a song.

A war song from the distant past, leading warriors onto the battlefield, its melody is melodious and full of sorrow.

While in a coma, Tora heard this song, the ballad he often hummed. He believed that this song once gave him strength, allowing him to embark on that long journey and endure the loneliness of the long night.

But he lost—

He was defeated completely, completely defeated in martial arts by the masked woman.

He originally thought that he would keep walking like this, until the end of time, until the end of this earth, to face challenges and complete his coming-of-age ceremony.

His blood calls him to go to the far north, to the land that has not yet been conquered by his ancestors, to complete the Khan's never-ending expedition.

Even though the Nightmare's army had been swallowed up by the burning winds and scorching earth of the far south, even though he no longer had any reason to move forward, he would rather die on the road than assimilate into this mediocre world.

Tora.

Your name means "grassland".

You should be proud of your bloodline.

Anywhere, anywhere, you should be proud of yourself.

Tora.

It's very simple for you to live as an ordinary Kuranta.

Study, grow up, learn some skills, and marry a beautiful wife.

……

His mother told him that he was born extraordinary, and his mother told him that he needed to learn to be ordinary.

However, he witnessed his mother die under the fangs of a wild beast. From that moment on, he could no longer be an ordinary Kuranta.

This was his nightmare, and he was often haunted by it again and again when he fell asleep.

A nightmare, actually being haunted by a nightmare.

Even he found it ridiculous, but he struggled for many years in this... country of knights.

But in the end, he was guided to this path in order to realize his final ideal.

His journey was a journey of self-destruction.

What he wanted to retrieve was something that should have arrived long ago, but never did...

He had indeed underestimated this country of knights. There were still strong men here that fascinated him, as well as warriors with the same faith and obsession.

But his journey...cannot stop here.

-

It's the sound of a heartbeat...

Noah noticed this at the first time. Tora's heart, which seemed to have fainted, began beating heavily again.

"Kuro!" Noah immediately reminded Kuro, but it was too late. As the black fog suddenly exploded with Tora as the core, even though Kuro dropped Tora at the first moment, he could not stop the spread of the black fog. In an instant, except for Maria who had been following Noah, everyone was separated by the black fog. Moreover, this black fog seemed to not only block the vision. When Kuro wanted to find Noah in the original direction, he found that he had lost his sense of direction and all reference points.

This is clearly a narrow alley, why...?

Kuro found that he could not lock onto Noya's breath, and the black fog could not be dispelled by his fists. Obviously... the black fog isolated all of them.

"Sister Noah!" Maria could only take out her sword and shield to protect Noah. Now Kuro had disappeared in front of them, and she was the only one who could protect Noah at this time.

I have long been prepared to become Sister Noah's sword, and at times like this, I must be by Sister Noah's side.

"...Maria, what happened?" Noah found that there seemed to be something wrong with his hearing. He could not hear Kuro's voice or Tora's voice. He could only hear the voice of Maria beside her.

"That nightmare created a lot of black fog that surrounded us. Now..."

"...Black fog?" Noah stretched out her hand, wanting to use her Originium skills to find the source of the black fog, but when her shadow sneaked into the black fog, she suddenly found that the black fog seemed to have life. It would wrap up her Originium skills, digest them, and finally dissipate into nothingness.

She had to retract her shadow. This mist might be some kind of innate skill of Nightmare... although she had never discovered that she had such a function.

"It's okay, Sister Noah, I will protect you."

"...Maria." Noah was not worried about herself. This nightmare seemed to have never had any hostility towards her. She was worried about Kuro's safety.

But she did hear it…Maria was trembling.

She was afraid, afraid of the unknown next second, and also afraid that she would not be able to protect herself...

Noah reached out and held Maria's shoulders. "Don't be afraid. Your fear will become his food."

The core of Nightmare's ability can be said to be the manipulation of fear. If you want to defeat Nightmare, the most important thing is to face your fear directly, otherwise your fear will turn into his power.

"Be careful!" Just as Noah said this, a long sword suddenly appeared at Maria's side and swung towards her. Maria turned and blocked the blow with her shield. The light that had been condensing in the sword in her hand suddenly burst out, like a flash bomb. She did successfully repel the attack, but the moment she was illuminated by the light, she saw countless blades coming towards her in the fog.

These blades were only revealed for a moment—

Maria swallowed hard, she had no idea how many blades there were in this fog, or how many attacks there would be.

In this dark fog that blocks out light, where is Tora...

"Maria, don't force yourself. He won't hurt me." Noah said, "Just protect yourself. It's okay with me."

"How can that be! I am Sister Noya's sword! I have been prepared for a long time. When Sister Kuro is not around, I must stay by your side!" Maria immediately rejected Noya's proposal, "Whether it is myself or Sister Noya, I will protect them both! When Sister is not around, when Sister Kuro is not around, I will definitely-"

Light--

Maria still had wounds on her body from the previous fight with Tora, but at this moment, the blood on her face was illuminated by the light.

Fragile, tiny, yes, if he tried his best, Tora was sure that he could kill the glowing little Pegasus in front of him.

Her frailty and weakness made Tora extremely disgusted. Compared with her sister, she was simply frighteningly weak.

But...why?

Why is it that at this moment, the blood on this little Pegasus's cheek looks like gold?

The light of the spell - makes the blood turn golden.

But how could a Pegasus that deserves to be recorded in history be so weak...is it a coincidence?

However, her light had become increasingly brighter, and at one point Tora even felt that something was growing in the body of this little Pegasus.

Was that the belief that he once despised?

Chapter 190: Nightmare Will Never Be a Slave!

no problem, no problem.

I will protect Sister Noah. In the past, it was Sister Noah who protected me.

Now, I can only rely on myself to protect Sister Noah.

Fear? There is no time for fear.

Hikaru... I know I'm not as strong as my sister, but please answer my prayers.

The golden light gradually illuminated the black fog. The light, which came from a belief that had never been so firm, was forcing the black fog back, and the evil spirits in the black fog were also dispersed along with the black fog.

Behind Maria, a shadow was emerging in the light. It was a golden Pegasus in the form of a centaur wearing armor and holding a sword, like a god descending to the earth.

Gazing at Maria in the light, Nightmare suddenly understood why the Khan had lost to the Golden Pegasus.

Indeed, there are too many things that need to be protected, which will drag down the power of the Golden Pegasus.

But it is precisely because they have something to protect that they can show their true brilliance.

The obsession with protection and the belief that is so firm that it is almost dazzling constitute the strength of the Golden Pegasus. At this moment, she is no longer the weak Pegasus.

She is a warrior worthy of respect.

He is a warrior who has the courage to face the darkness for those who need protection.

Dedication, sacrifice——

This little Pegasus seemed to be born with this almost self-destructive virtue.

Maybe she doesn't like fighting, or even wants to be a glorious warrior.

But whenever she is needed, she will transform into a true warrior as quickly as possible.

Nightmare saw Noah, who was being protected by her. She looked calm at this moment, but the dark figure behind her seemed to be standing side by side with the golden Pegasus.

Nightmare and Golden Pegasus... can actually fight side by side.

For Tora, such a scene is indeed very impactful.

And this is a situation where a princess with the most noble bloodline and the legitimate heir of the Golden Pegasus blood stand side by side...

"...Um...Sister, the fog seems to be dispersing." Just as Maria decided to fully charge the Sword of Repentance and give it a try, she suddenly noticed the black fog dissipating. Kuro and Tora's figures appeared almost simultaneously. Their positions were exactly the same as before the black fog spread. It was as if they hadn't moved at all.

Tora looked at the two of them with a complicated expression, then turned and left.

"...Huh?" Maria looked at Tora's back and was even a little at a loss for a moment.

"Tora--" At this moment, Noah spoke.

Hearing Noya's cry, Tora stopped and turned around. "Tianma, tell Knight Yao that our duel is only temporarily suspended, not over."

"...Huh? Oh!" Maria was stunned for a moment, then nodded quickly, "Let's talk about it after my sister finishes the game..."

"It's up to you..." Tora turned around. The damage Kuro had caused him before was not fake. Now his mask was still cracked, and half of his cold face was revealed in the fragments.