FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife

Chapter 14: If its ugly but it works, it works



It took guts to boldly advance into a fight head-on. Real-life combat was never as strict and clean-cut as the math that the scholars back in the capital would deliberate on.

In a fight, two plus two didn't always equal four, and sometimes two could be more than three.

Or, as some of those scholars would argue, there were too many variables, too many different and unaccounted-for factors, too many moving elements for anyone to be able to cast a proper judgment over the battle's results before it would happen.

That's what scholars would say. Fighters themselves, however, had a different way to understand this principle.

In a fight, anything goes and everything can happen. Which is why, even for someone who took part in a thousand battles, to charge the enemy head-on took guts.

Even if charging ahead was the very foundation of their strategy.

'Unleash!'

Selia released the lock over her sword intent right at the very moment she jumped forth, making sure her leap wouldn't bring her any further than half a step above the ground.

No.

Rather than jumping up, she jumped forth, adding up a considerable amount of her sword-qi to the force created by her legs kicking against the ground to execute this physics-defying advance.

With her body advancing forth, so did the center of gravity for her energy. And by unleashing her sword intent a moment before she leaped into action, she created the full version of the effect she turned from a fancy parlor trick into the very basis of her day-to-day combat.

'Surge forth!'

Selia rested her hand down on the handle of her sword.

Her body twisted around while her knees moved up, already setting her up for the landing part of her initial leap. And as soon as she came close enough both to the ground and to the monster she was targeting…

'Go.'

The lingering force of her sword intent she released in advance surged as intended, rushing to rejoin the orbit of her core. Yet, right as it was about to slam into the mass of energy surrounding the sword saintess, she pulled her sword out and pointed it towards her target in one graceful motion.

Swoosh!

Already etched with considerable momentum, Selia's lingering sword intent failed to inject itself into the orbit of her core. Instead, it circled around it once and only gained more speed, only to then mix with the sword-qi coiling around her sword and fly forth as soon as she gave it a direction.

This was the full version of the attack that Selia grew so damn used to, she pretty much gave up on all the precision, elegance, and sword mastery expected from the sword-saints.

Sure, she could still wield her sword in that elegant way, but…

If slamming her opponents with a surge of sword intent that was even sharper than her actual sword, what was the point of swinging her metal all over the place?

BOOM!

The wave of piercing energy surged forth and slammed directly into the unsuspecting monster, cleaving one of its massive, furry arms along the line of its shoulders.

Dark-green blood instantly gushed out of the huge wound…

But Selia had no reason to celebrate, not just yet.

'I knew this wouldn't be enough,' she thought, gritting her teeth as she changed her footing, properly rooting her stance in the ground, 'but still, that stings.'

With the potency of her sword intent reaching unheard-of levels, Selia grew quite used to, if not outright reliant on, it. Before, a single swing of her blade would be enough to deal with anything stupid enough to bare its fangs upon her.

But the guardian of the jungle's border was a different kind of beast.

Its wound closed down in just about two seconds, with its dark-green blood exploding into flames and cauterizing the exposed flesh. But the gushing of the blood didn't stop there. With the protective barrier of the dried-out blood now covering up the gory remains of the beast's arm, it soon started to bloat up, as if the scab failed at its job of stopping the blood loss.

But there was something wrong with the way said scab bubbled up. It was too… orderly, too precise, filled with too much intent and detail.

'Shit,' Selia thought, doing away with the rest of her relaxation as she now pushed herself into full-focus mode, 'it can regenerate!'

Regeneration, on its own, wasn't a big deal.

Most of the monsters roaming the world could do just that. Some needed copious amounts of food to let their flesh regenerate, others used their stockpiled mana, while some, just like the beast ahead, had a physique designed to deal with unexpected loss of flesh.

With that in mind, the word "regeneration" was too broad for there to be any use for it. Which is why, in Selia's eyes, "regeneration" meant something a lot more specific. And it just so happened that this damned guardian had this very specific, elitist, and annoying-to-deal-with quality!

'I need to hurry and end it!' she thought, her feet already kicking against the ground to bring her closer to the beast while her eyes scanned her surroundings for all other possible approaches.

The beast, enraged by its pain and sudden hostility, swung around, its other furry arm flying through the air to slam into whatever pest dared to annoy it.

Selia's eyes twitched, only for the girl to lower herself so low over the ground, her chest nearly brushed against the undergrowth of the border's open plain.

Woosh!

The beast's retaliation went a few inches above the girl, failing to meet its mark. Still, just the raging current of the air created by the swinging of such a massive and heavy arm was enough to throw Selia off her path…

Only for her to skip to the side, switching to another path she painted out in her mind.

Feeling not the resistance of flesh in the path of its arm, the guardian turned its head to face the threat properly rather than just waving its arm to swat it away.

But by the time its eyes locked in on where the saintess was just a moment ago, Selia had already reached the blind spot behind its back, just beyond how far the guardian's eyes could reach over its shoulder.

'He was staring at my ass, wasn't he?' Selia thought.

The short exchange of attacks she had with the beast was enough to confirm her suspicions.

The border guardian was much, MUCH stronger than any of the beasts she encountered in the jungle, maybe with the local bosses and kings of the deeper areas excluded. And contrary to all of the monsters she was used to fighting, a simple, imprecise slam of her sword intent wouldn't be enough to deal with it.

But sword saints were never meant to be one-shotting massive monsters with just the weight of their sword intent alone.

Heck, doing so went against every principle of what made their class as much of a cheat as it was! And even though Selia had no love for the annoyingly precise and hard-to-pull-off techniques, not after all the effort she had to put in to properly learn them…

The dislike she harbored towards those techniques didn't mean she was incapable of executing them!

Which is exactly why, still in the middle of the battle, she allowed her thoughts to drift a little. And the moment she did, her mind inherently went back to the weird sensation she felt just a moment before.

On one hand, it was weird, uncomfortable, and gross to have a man pierce her backside with his eyes so much, even with her saintess robes tightly covering every inch of her lower body to hide it from undeserving eyes.

It wasn't the first time Selia was observed with such hungry eyes, making her somewhat resistant to the displeasure it caused.

On the other hand, though…

Just the memory of that sensation was enough to put a slight blush on her cheeks.

After all, back when they were crawling up to the guardian monster, it was by her own choice that her legs moved up further than they needed to continue the crawl or that her hips swung whenever she switched from one leg to the other.

'Wait, was I trying to shake my ass for him… intentionally?!'

Gulping her saliva down, Selia continued to scan the monster's increasingly desperate flailing, always staying right beyond the edge of what it could see. And in just a few moments, as the guardian monster swung its head the other way — likely hoping to surprise its opponent — Selia found herself in the precise spot she wanted.

'Maybe it won't hurt to show off a bit.'

With the blush still lingering on her cheeks just like the memory of being stared at lingered in her mind, Selia smiled a little, her fingers gripping the handle of her sword even tighter. And as soon as the beast relaxed its neck for just the slight moment before it would tense it again to look the other way—

Selia jumped up.


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