MTLNOVEL Chapter 232: Crushed?
And then, with her sword, which was still embedded in his chest, she began to coat it with the parasitic element, as well. But instead of leeching his mana, she chose to plunder his stamina.
Now filled with mana, she had leeched off of the blonde-haired man; she began to steal his stamina, except it wouldn't be going to her, unfortunately.
Rather, it would be going towards her sword.
This wouldn't do anything for the sharp blade, as some might expect. And Lillian wasn't too bothered about missing out on a refill of stamina.
As her sword continued to leech the poor mage's stamina, her hand continued to tighten around the man's neck, strangling him as he was raised from the ground.
His hands, which were gripped around her wrist, eventually went limp. And soon enough, he was dead.
Once the glimpse of pixels manifested in the corners of her eyes, she pulled out her sword and tossed the fresh corpse to the side, watching as it disappeared soon after.
She flexed her hand, feeling her mana coursing through it. She smiled.
"Ah... Back to full strength. Or just about."
She then pulled her attention down to her sword, raising it to her eyes.
She gazed at the blood running down its sharp edge, squinting at it before facepalming.
She was only a vital stab away from unlocking its true form. Why didn't she take the chance to do it while Lincoln was still alive?
"How did that slip from my mind? How annoying..."
Muttering that, she drew her attention towards her surroundings. She should go hunt down the remaining enemy that was still in the vicinity.
However, as she was thinking this, she couldn't help but wonder:
"What direction did I feel from?"
She tilted her head, placing her finger on the edge of her chin as she pondered.
After realising there wasn't any point thinking about it too much, she chose a random direction and began walking.
It was only after a few dozen turns that she finally returned. And it was... Far different from the last time she was here.
Walking in between the trees, gazing at the countless strings attached to them. Almost as if a horde of spiders had arrived to claim this area as their home.
Added onto this eerie sight was an ominous silence—with her footsteps being the loudest thing in her vicinity.
She soon came upon a line of string, stretching thin as its body hovered slightly above the ground.
She raised an eyebrow, looking to the sides and finding it attached to the bases of the trees with other threads tied around it.
Was this... a tripwire?
Lillian gave a small hum before raising her foot and stepping on it deliberately. She was curious about what Paul's plan was. And without much of a wait, she quickly found out.
She heard a scrape, a crack. And then, finally, a snap followed by an approaching rustling of leaves. It was as if an entire bush was falling towards her.
Lillian glanced back, still curious to find out what it was. She then widened her eyes at what she saw.
Falling towards her was a 15-metre tall tree.
'Did this guy just fell an entire tree!?'
Dashing to the side and allowing it to crash into the ground, she coughed as a massive cloud of dust erupted from its impact.
She waved away the dust around her, coughing a bit and rubbing her eyes a little—irritated at some of it getting into her eyes.
As she was rubbing her eyes, she felt hurried footsteps coming in her direction. Breaking through the murky cloud of dust, Paul appeared with his dagger in hand.
Lillian clicked her tongue while also clicking her fingers as well.
The masked man raised his dagger, adjusting it into a reverse grip before bringing it down on the girl, who hadn't put up any defences against his attack.
However, that was until a dome of water erupted from the ground, swallowing Lillian inside before spinning at a speed that could prove lethal.
Paul quickly stopped, gazing at the dome as he stared through its blurry surface.
Lillian, who continued to rub her eyes, eventually sighed in frustration. Splashing her face with water and cleaning and drying it after, she got rid of the irritation she was feeling.
Flicking her hair back, she looked towards the masked man, slowing down the rate of her barrier so she could properly look at him.
"You almost had me... What a shame." She stated mockingly.
Once she said that—she bursted out from the liquid dome, darting towards the masked man with her sword raised. She just had to deliver one last stab to a vital area.
Just one more...
The masked man leaned to the side, allowing the blade to pierce through his shoulder. Lillian smiled at the blood spilt but soon frowned. It wasn't a vital area.
Her disappointed expression then soon turned to confusion as she watched strings wrapped around her sword, to her arm, and up to her shoulder, creating a sort of white sleeve.
As she was about to question the man's actions, a glint shone in the corner of her eyes.
The masked man raised his dagger, darting it toward her stomach and stabbing it through her body.
Lillian winced, feeling the cold blade travel through her body. It doesn't get any easier to feel something wriggling inside your body, especially something as sharp as a dagger.
Raising her other hand and coating it in her parasitic element, she shot it towards the man's throat, grabbing it in a tight hold and draining his vitality.
"Just stabbing me isn't going to bring me down..." Lillian muttered with a manic grin.
With her hand clasped around his throat, she failed to notice what he was doing in his other hand.
With his fingers wrapped in strings that led to different places, he made a fist with that hand, causing each individual string to tighten and pull against something.
And then, another sound of rustling echoed. This time, coming from all cardinal directions.
Lillian raised her head, looking towards the falling trees that cast pillars of shadows over them as though aligning themselves to spell her doom.
She looked back towards Paul, then her sword. Tugging at the handle, she found herself stuck as the strings wrapped around her arm kept it still like some stiff bandage.
She glanced down at the dagger stuck through her body, then at the blood leaking through the slim gaps. Finally, she brought her gaze to her hand around his throat before looking at his mask.
As she tried to pull away, she found that all attempts she made remained futile, well... Except for transforming her body into water.
But... She wasn't going to do that.
She tilted her head with a smile, staring at the masked man. Right before they would be crushed, she muttered with an amused smirk:
"Taking me down along with you? What a thing to do, you stinking puppet."
BOOM!
[You have been eliminated. Commencing respawn at a randomised location.]
***
[At the Colosseum]
Marionette, having watched Lillian's demise under a pile of trees many times her height, rubbed the gap between her brows.
She then quietly asked herself in disbelief that Lillian had been eliminated:
"Why didn't she escape?"