Chapter 52: I Can Handle it Myself! (1)
"She needs to be taught a hard lesson... As long as we keep her alive, the boss could heal her injuries, so let\'s beat her up until she\'s half dead!"
"..."
Kali\'s gaze didn\'t waver, keeping the two within her peripheral vision. She was waiting for the opportune moment to move. The two guys facing her also weren\'t simply rushing forward. Although they were talking big, they knew that they were weaker than Kali and, as such, didn\'t dare to attack her without making sure that they had the advantage.
*BOOOM!*
A secondary explosion, probably from a bomb that got blasted away before igniting, created a bright light, blinding Kali for a moment. She raised her arm across her face a moment later, but it was already too late. Her vision would take a few seconds to return to normal!
"Chance!"
One of the two, the one using twin pistols, quickly aimed toward Kali and pulled the trigger. He fired the left and right with about a 0.5-second gap between each shot, keeping his aim straight at his target.
*WHOOSH!*
But at the same instant that he pulled the trigger, Kali moved.
Even without her vision, she had already memorized the terrain in her mind. She ducked down, dashed to a large arc to the right, and started zigzagging, making sure that the enemy wouldn\'t get a line of fire toward her.
"Shit...! Bastard, stop screwing around! Aim properly!!!"
The one with the dagger cursed at the other one, seeing how all his shots missed their target. Fear gripped his heart as he imagined what would happen when Kali\'s vision returned. Although she was the one who lost her vision, it was they who were feeling pressured!
However, Kali\'s movement was too irregular. He was even barely able to keep her in his vision!
*CLICK!*
"...!"
And without even five seconds passing, he ran out of bullets and had to reload. Kali\'s ears picked up the clicking sound of the pistol, realizing that the enemy had emptied his magazine.
A ten-round mag!\'
She took note before changing directions, heading straight toward the enemy\'s position.
"Shit! Yo, go, man! Don\'t tell me ya scared of a blind opponent?!"
"... Fuck!"
Kali\'s ability was real. Even while blinded, she had complete control over her body and didn\'t trip on random pebbles and splinters on the ground. Her eyes were already half-recovered by then, and she was able to glimpse her opponent\'s contours slightly. In just a few more seconds, her vision would return to normal!
The man, wielding two daggers, dashed toward Kali, meeting her halfway. He was a rune bear beastman, so he was slower than her—but he made up for it with incredible strength.
*WHOOOOSH!*
A single swing of his dagger was able to create a whirlwind, enough that Kali was pulled off balance for an instant. Not missing a beat, the bear beastman swung his other dagger in tandem, aiming straight for Kali\'s face, but...
*TANG!* *SWOOSH!*
The powerful strike was easily parried by Kali. His dagger flew away from her, following the direction of his swing unhindered, which led him to expose his side—a fatal opening!
Even with blurred vision, Kali could simulate what would happen two seconds ahead of her. She took a firm step forward, stabbed the dagger on her right while her back was facing him, and pulled it right after.
A new breathing hole was opened on the man\'s side, just below his armpit!
As Kali\'s dagger had serrated marks on the face of the blade, the wound was aggravated completely.
Adding to the fact that the rune bear beastman had adrenaline speeding up his heartbeat and increasing his blood pressure, red liquid sprayed like a broken faucet out of his side.
Of course, it was impossible to predict how blood would spray out of a wound, so Kali ended up having some spray right over her eyes, irritating them slightly. She wiped it away the next instant, but her vision became blurry once again.
"Damn it...!"
The other man, who was still halfway reloading his pistols, cursed as he saw Kali move from his pal toward him. His breathing got even more ragged as his fingers trembled from fear and panic. But fortunately for him, he managed to reload one gun successfully before Kali made it to his location.
*BANG!* *BANG!*
He fired twice, the first one trying to aim right at Kali\'s head, with the second one firing almost at random due to the recoil. Kali methodically dodged the first bullet by doing a sidestep to the right, but as luck would have it, the second shot was aimed right where she stopped.
"Ugh!"
A bullet hit her right chest, embedding into her lungs and stunning her for a moment. The pain made her head turn white, but her body still moved even without her input. She was moving as if a robot, fully automatic!
She jumped forward, reaching right next to the man, and swung her backhand-gripped dagger up, like an uppercut. Her blade cut the man from his groin up to his chin, possibly splitting him in half if what she was holding was a bit longer.
The man fell on his back from the impact, with his stomach opening up and his guts spilling all over the ground as blood covered him in a flash. It was a gruesome sight, but Kali\'s senses had yet to return, so she at least didn\'t need to see it.
"Argh... fuck!"
She cursed as she applied pressure to her wounded area, which was stinging with pain. It was already difficult for her to breathe even before the punctured lung reduced her respiratory function to half.
She kept gasping for air while turning toward Cassy, who was still in the middle of a fierce battle against the man with the giant hammer.
\'I should help her...!\' Kali thought, but her state was far from being fit to help. In fact, she was now barely able to move!
While she was looking at Cassy\'s fight, the other party turned to her with a pale face and shouted in panic. "K! Behind you!"
*SQUELCH!*
But her warning was a second too late. A sword passed through Kali\'s stomach from behind, causing her eyes to open wide in shock.
"Looking away while fighting?! I\'m being underestimated, aren\'t I?!"
Things took a turn for the worse when Cassy momentarily lost concentration and took a solid blow from the hammer coming from her right side. Out of nowhere, they found themselves in a very precarious position!