Seeing Mo Baiwei strike at him once more, Francis dodged the blow with ease.
With her ribs broken and suffering from severe internal injuries, Mo Baiwei was at the end of her rope.
Double vision and hallucinations began to cloud her sight.
She felt that every strike might be her last; she was on the verge of collapsing.
Francis noticed that her speed had slowed significantly.
Realizing her current state, he spoke with a mocking tone.
“What? Already reaching your limit?”
“Tsk…”
A flicker of anger flared in Mo Baiwei’s heart, but her overextended body would not allow her to move any further.
Using the Glorious Throne as a crutch, she slowly slumped to the ground.
‘Is it going to end like this…?’
Soon, Francis felt the flow of mana within him return to normal.
His mana, which had been as stagnant as a pool of dead water under the seal, was finally free.
A smile appeared on his face as he walked toward Mo Baiwei with a leisurely pace.
“It seems I’m the winner, aren’t I?”
Stopping in front of her, Francis suddenly had an idea.
He reached out and patted Mo Baiwei’s head.
“Don’t touch me…”
Mo Baiwei felt a deep revulsion toward him.
Feeling his hand on her, she turned her head away in disgust.
“Tsk, does a half-breed really think of herself as some noble princess?”
Francis said, extremely displeased by her reaction.
He had just been pursued and beaten by this little elf, and he was harborng a ball of fury with nowhere to vent.
Since climbing to his current position, how long had it been since he had been humiliated like this?
Today, he had actually been hacked into this state by a half-breed elf.
Feeling the wound on his shoulder, a sinister look appeared on Francis’s face.
Slap!
A palm struck Mo Baiwei’s fair face, and a red handprint immediately appeared on her tender skin.
“You’re just a half-breed. Do you really think you’re precious? If it weren’t for that sword of yours, do you honestly think you could have beaten me?”
“To be honest, your strength is as pathetic as your birth. I’m guessing the reason you’re here is that there’s no place for you in the Elven Kingdom, right? You’re just like a pathetic stray dog right now.”
“A half-breed is a half-breed no matter where they go. The elves with their bloodline obsession think so, and our Holy See won’t welcome an outlier or an alien either. You have no value to us.”
As he spoke, a cruel smile appeared on Francis’s face.
“I originally thought about using you as a bargaining chip to trade with the Elven Queen for some benefits. But now that I think about it, those elves would never accept you. To them, you’re like trash they can’t wait to avoid.”
“Living like this just shows that God has never looked upon you with favor. Living as a rat in the gutter… it would be better for you to just die and be free.”
Listening to these words, Mo Baiwei, who had been trembling and trying to resist, suddenly went quiet.
She lowered her head and remained motionless.
Her tiny, fragile body was like a dead object, devoid of even a trace of presence.
“Tsk, why have you stopped talking again?”
Francis, seeing that his mockery received no response, raised his foot and kicked Mo Baiwei.
“Cough…”
Mo Baiwei coughed up a mouthful of blood as she was kicked into the bushes by the roadside.
If a doctor were to examine her now, they would find the inside of her chest in a state of utter ruin.
Broken ribs, hemorrhaging organs, and a heart struggling to beat under the pressure.
Her eyes had lost their luster as well.
Her emerald pupils, usually bright and crystal-clear, were now covered by a thin mist, making her beautiful eyes look dull and gray.
Mo Baiwei’s heart was already as cold as dead ashes.
‘Right, what am I living for? Is it just to be a rat in the gutter for the rest of my life?’
She didn’t even dare to reveal her identity as an elf in places where people were present, fearing she would bring trouble upon herself.
She could only rely on her pendant to live in a human body.
Every day was spent worrying if her identity would be exposed—living cautiously, living in fear.
‘If I died like this, would anyone even be sad?’
‘Probably not…’
“Hey, I’m talking to you! I know you can hear me. Don’t play dead with me.”
Francis was getting impatient.
He picked up the Glorious Throne, which Mo Baiwei had left stabbed in the ground, and walked toward her.
Stepping on her tail, Francis used the flat of the blade to pat her cheek.
A sharp pain shot up from her tail, but Mo Baiwei didn’t react at all, as if the tail didn’t even belong to her.
“Tsk, broken after just a few words? How boring.”
Francis curled his lip and gestured with the sword.
“I wonder, if I cut off your tail, will you finally react?”
Hearing this, Mo Baiwei raised her lifeless eyes to look at Francis before they drifted down again.
She didn’t possess the same resilience as Wei Bai.
As an elf, she was just a young girl who hadn’t grown up yet.
‘If Wei Bai were here, he would probably rather die than submit,’ Mo Baiwei thought as she touched her pendant.
Her eyelids were becoming increasingly heavy.
“…”
Francis was irritated by her attitude.
He turned around and raised the longsword, prepared to teach the little elf a lesson.
However, as he turned, he realized the tail had vanished.
“Hm? Didn’t this half-breed have a tail?”
Francis wondered.
In the next moment, his wrist went numb, and the Glorious Throne flew out of his hand.
“TIER 3 · INSTANT HEAL.”
A young man’s voice rang in his ear, cold and sharp.
Immediately after, a wave of sword qi swept through the area.
“Sword Technique · Resonating Air!”
Wei Bai snatched the Glorious Throne and executed a sword technique without hesitation.
Even though he had just used a Tier 3 Instant Heal, his body still throbbed with pain.
But he couldn’t afford to worry about that anymore.
He knew that if he didn’t act now, he would die here.
Taking advantage of the man’s lowered guard, he had put on the pendant.
It was a slim chance he had finally managed to seize.
If the fellow had kept his eyes on him, he never would have been able to transform from an elf into a human.
This was the last straw Wei Bai had to grasp.
A brilliant flash of sword light flickered as the longsword pointed directly at the stunned Francis.
Despite the surprise attack, Francis was still somewhat on guard.
He reacted quickly, summoning a wall of ice to block the strike.
Bang! The 0.5-meter-thick ice wall shattered as the Glorious Throne pierced through the entire structure.
Wei Bai utilized the remaining momentum of the sword to transition into his next move.
“Sword Technique · Moon Sweep!” The Glorious Throne shifted from a direct thrust blocked by the ice into a fierce horizontal slash aimed at Francis.
This time, Francis didn’t have time to summon another wall.
A gruesome, crescent-shaped wound appeared on his chest, and blood sprayed out.
“What?”
Francis was caught off guard by Wei Bai’s seasoned skills.
He hadn’t expected the youth before him to have such high mastery of sword techniques.
“Sword Technique · Wind Rise!”
Wei Bai wasn’t about to give him a chance to counter.
He immediately unleashed the strongest sword technique he currently mastered.
It was his finishing move!
As fierce winds gathered around Wei Bai, a wind field gradually formed, wrapping around him tightly.
Francis felt a surge of unease.
He had a premonition that if this move were completed, he would never be able to withstand it.
“Tsk!”
Francis swung his staff, and over ten fireballs formed above him, hurtling toward Wei Bai.
However, the fireballs dimmed rapidly as they touched the wind field.
By the time they were about to reach Wei Bai, every single one of them had dissipated.
This was the finishing move of the Unnamed Sword Technique, and one of the reasons why Wei Bai was able to become a Gold-rank Hero despite being in an era where magic was supreme.
This finishing move could block spells.
Among the Gold-rank adventurers in the Association, mages and archers were the majority.
Those who reached Gold-rank as a Hero were few and far between.
Using this almost bug-like technique, Wei Bai had climbed his way up by stepping over a multitude of mages.
Previously, in the elven form, Mo Baiwei’s physical constitution couldn’t withstand the pressure of the wind field, so he had been unable to release it.
But now, she had successfully reverted to Wei Bai.
The wind speed within the field grew faster and faster.
Francis could feel the gale tearing at his white robes like a wild beast.
“Are you that elf’s master?”
Francis was starting to panic and tried to negotiate.
Wei Bai blinked.
Since when had he become his own master? But on second thought, it made sense.
No one would believe that he was actually the elf from before.
Such a claim was too hard to believe; leaving the race change aside, how would he even explain the gender swap?
“We don’t have any deep-seated grudges, do we? My actions toward that elf—no, your disciple—were a complete misunderstanding! I can provide her with the Holy See’s best healing techniques and even the most high-end methods to hide her identity!”
Francis spoke quickly when he saw Wei Bai didn’t deny it.
He really didn’t want to take this terrifying-looking move head-on.
“Everything is negotiable. Besides, I am one of the Twelve Guardians of the Holy See. If anything happens to me, the Holy See will definitely investigate. That wouldn’t be good for you at all.”
“I can even act as your inside contact within the Holy See and help you avoid their eyes.”
Hearing this, Wei Bai stared at him calmly through the wind field.
“Sword Technique…”
“Why are you being so unreasonable?!”
Francis panicked the moment he heard those words and began to retreat rapidly.
He had to run.
He had worked so hard to become a Guardian and master the Dogma of Sincerity; he didn’t want to fall here.
Although he still had trump cards, he didn’t want to waste their precious uses in this situation.
Francis believed he could still escape.
“Cloud Surge!”
Seeing Francis’s panicked, retreating back, Wei Bai felt the charge was sufficient and unleashed his strongest strike.
A chaotic surge of air wrapped around a beam of sword qi and pursued Francis.
Along the path of the sword qi, walls of clouds billowed up on both sides, isolating the two of them from the outside world.
The cloud walls continued to spread as the sword qi sped forward until it slammed into Francis.
“Agh!”
Francis screamed in agony.
One of his arms was severed by the sword qi, falling to the ground in a bloody mess.
He didn’t even look back, fleeing desperately while casting a Haste spell on himself, terrified that he might be too slow.
Looking at Francis’s retreating figure, Wei Bai did not pursue.
The peak duration of the Instant Heal had passed.
Although his body was still slowly recovering, he had very little stamina left.
Coupled with his previous injuries, being able to execute the Wind Rise and Cloud Surge technique had already been a struggle.
As Wei Bai’s breathing grew heavier, the air currents gradually calmed, and the clouds dissipated.
Francis was nowhere to be seen.
‘Finally safe…’