I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 453: An Exhausting Battle

The Sun King was a fearsome summon, wreathed in golden armor. It was a good thing that the sun here was not perpetually out. The North was a region of vile cold, the sun almost never showed, but day came anyway, and night came even faster.

Somehow, the world was not recovering from the darkness that had shrouded it. Even after the thunderbolt had landed and the dark clouds scattered, the sky remained somewhat dark, and that darkness was getting deeper as time went by. Dusk was quickly approaching.

Anyways, in all of it, the Sun King was walking towards me. He held no sword; instead, he tightened his massive hands.

And for a moment, I thought.

‘I’m gonna get hit by that? No way.’

I had to dodge his attacks at all costs. While that was not a problem, after fighting Fairywind and having a small showdown with Sulin, I was sort of already exhausted. There were gashes and wounds scattered all over my body, and even my breathing was ragged.

I tried to look for Kassie. She was somewhere far away, but the place was shrouded by a terrible snowstorm.

And beyond where Kai and I were, the red-haired girl that had attacked me was shooting around in red and black blurs. The battlefield around that area moved too fast for me to even notice anything.

The Sun King had finally entered my perimeter, and now he was pulling back a punch.

As his hand came, I leaped back, followed through with my hand shooting forward, but slowly, just enough to touch the edge of his fist. As I did, an explosion of flames wreathed his entire hand.

But the summon did not recoil or show any sign of pain. It only acted as usual, like a goddamn robot. His hand flew forward regardless of the flames and connected with my stomach. The white flames transitioned to golden flames and detonated against me.

I was sent flying into the sky, rolling.

Beneath me, Kai ran forward with insane speed. He leaped on a small rock outcrop and lunged into the sky—where I was flying towards. He held his fists together, raised them over his head, and slammed down on my head.

Everything blurred, and I crashed straight into the snow. For a moment, nothing registered except for a sharp, endless ringing and jolts of pain that seemed to be making a mapping movement across my back.

I couldn’t even react, buried in snow.

‘Ah… fuck… I’m tired…’

I still had to give it everything.

But I was pretty much exhausted already. Everyone was. I had been fighting, Kassie had been fighting, and I wasn’t sure what Brunhilde and her master were doing.

This addition to the battle, while I would have welcomed it anytime, most certainly came at a bad time.

Still, I raised myself up. I didn’t see a way out of this except fighting back. Even though my entire body was about to give up on me, there was no other way out of this except to fight.

So, I commanded myself to get up.

I layered the commands on each other.

“I have strong muscles; they don’t give out easily. My ligaments are stronger. So, stand the fuck up.”

At the same time, I released Emperor’s Presence and paid more attention to the world around me. That was because I wanted to make sure Strategic Apex was doing its best.

And because of the attribute at work, I knew that this was not the time to fight. What I needed to do right now was run.

And recuperate.

Kassie needed to recuperate too. Everyone needed to. So that was what I was going to do.

‘There’s no shame in running away…’

It was a pity that I wouldn’t be able to kill this bastard a second time.

Kai was walking towards me now with a distasteful smile on his face.

I pointed at him weakly.

“You know, you are one lucky son of a bitch.”

He paused and looked at me.

“Here you are… going to be spared once again. Because I really can’t afford to fight you right now.”

He tilted his head.

“Are you announcing to me that you’re trying to run away? Isn’t that a poor move?”

I scoffed.

“What are you going to do? It’s not like you’re going to be able to stop me anyways. You’re too goddamn weak.”

He straightened and shook his head, looking puzzled.

“I just don’t understand you. Are you that far removed from reality? Look at you, Cade. Look around you. This is your grave. You will die here today.”

I looked around like he had instructed and then smiled and shook my head.

“I think I would prefer a more… green grave, something on top of a hill with a very nice tree sitting there, growing over my resting place. I hate to admit it to you, Kai, but this is not my grave. There’s no way I’ll ever get buried somewhere like this.”

I gave him an irritated look.

He combed his hand through his hair and laughed.

“Alright then. Let’s see about that. Aurelius!!”

His summon, like a wave of light, surged through the snow, literally splitting it and spilling a fog of snow everywhere.

And he approached me with the full force of that movement.

Simultaneously, though, I also released the full force of my abilities.

A crimson fog rolled over the snow, and instantly it combusted. Red flames ran mad across the entire snow, catching even Kai with them.

As the summon’s impact collided with my own, a wicked and devastating shockwave ripped the landscape apart, pushing us into a wide crater.

A wall of flames held in front of me, and that was the only thing that kept the summon’s fist from tearing through and destroying my face. But his hand pushed against the wall of flames. Whatever repelling force the wall was creating was certainly not going to last much longer.

And here, I was out of options.

A loud and uncomfortable screech suddenly tore through the sky. With how tormenting it was, it sounded strangely familiar.

I glanced up out of curiosity, and there it was, something that looked like a white dragon. It descended with its legs raised, and the wind was being drawn towards it.

Suddenly, it pushed those hind limbs down, and a vicious shockwave wrenched everything apart.