Chapter 127: Chapter127-Night Terror

All eight heads lunged at Mira, and its huge body surged forward, desperately trying to stop what was about to happen. But Mira was ready. With a sharp cry, she commanded, "Now!" In an instant, the flying swords shot forward, moving so fast they were almost a blur, each one targeting a different head of the serpent. Simultaneously, Lian fired his Blood Arrow. It flew straight, trailing a stream of red energy as it aimed for the serpent's exposed eye... Lian's Blood Arrow grew twice its size just before slamming into one of the serpent's eyes, exploding it in a burst of red energy. "Heechhhhh!" The serpent hissed in pain and anger, but with sixteen eyes, losing one didn't slow it down much. So, that was his special ability It doesn't seem all that impressive. The arrow only destroyed one of the serpent's eyes. If it weren't a snake, that might've been impressive, but Since it still has 15 eyes left, it's not much of a setback for the snake. While I was lost in my thoughts, Mira's authoritative voice echoed. "Go!" She sent her swords flying straight toward the serpent's eyes, similar to Lian's attack. However, the serpent was clever, dodging and weaving its heads to avoid the oncoming blades... Then, Mira shouted, "Release!" With her shout a thick black smoke began pouring from the tips of all the flying swords. Wait, is that...? I was completely speechless. What is her family even doing? The black smoke slowly drifting from the swords was none other than confusion gas. It's a rare gas extracted from the stomach of an Elite rank monster, the Crab Star. The price for this gas is ridiculously high because capturing a Crab Star is incredibly difficult. That explains my reaction. Seeing the amount of smoke pouring from the swords, it felt like millionsno, billionsof dollars were vanishing before my eyes. Even my family couldn't afford that much gas. How is her family getting their hands on it? Wait a second! Something doesn't add up. When did such a large amount of confusion gas even enter the market? And did her family actually purchase it? I'll need to investigate this once everything is done. For now... The serpent grew confused, not only from the smoke, but from the difficulty of managing all its heads at once. It's working... As the smoke spread, Mira's swords continued their pursuit of the serpent's eyes. But at the last second, the swords changed direction and, instead of striking the eyes, they slashed through the serpent's thick necks like a piece of cake. Oho... So, that was her plan. Three of the serpent's heads fell to the forest floor with horrible thuds, and blood sprayed everywhere as the creature roared in pain. Its remaining five heads flicked their forked tongues, and the ground shook under its enormous weight. Mira used the smoke to distract and confuse the serpent, then adjusted her attack pattern to target its neck. While the serpent was able to block 10 out of the 15 swords from hitting its neck, it couldn't avoid the last five due to the effects of the gas. "Hisss!" In anger, the serpent reared back and spat a blast of thick, green poison at them. Mira jumped aside just in time, avoiding the toxic spray that hissed against the ground. Lian tried to dodge too, but the serpent's huge tail swung so fast it hit them both hard. Mira twisted in midair, just barely missing a tree, and landed hard on her side, pain shooting through her ribs. Looking up, she saw that Lian wasn't as luckyhe crashed into the trunk of a giant oak with a sickening crack and fell to the ground. Blood was coming from his mouth as he gasped for air. Mira didn't shout as she had earlier and simply said, "Tia, it's your turn now!" Wait, Tia? I looked around at the two of them. Yeah, Where did she go? I was so absorbed in their battle that I totally missed that there was another girl with them... "Heechhhhh!" The serpent, now bleeding from the necks it had lost, roared angrily. Its remaining heads writhed, showing their fangs as they glared at Mira and Lian. It thrashed wildly, smashing trees effortlessly and turning the once-beautiful forest into a broken wasteland. The ground shook with its rage, and the serpent's blood formed pools around its still-moving body. The serpent came to a sudden stop, its massive body curling as it began gulping large amounts of air. Its chest expanded, and I immediately knew what kind of attack it was preparing. The way its throat swelled and its eyes sharpened made it seem like it was about to breathe fire. But obviously, it couldn't do that. Instead, I realized it was about to release something similara burst of poison from its mouth. But... "Wh-" Before I could finish speaking or the snake could unleash its poison, a sharp sound cut through the air. "Shiiiinggg!" With that sound, three more of the snake's heads dropped to the ground. I was still trying to make sense of what had just happened. For a few seconds, the area fell silent, until the snake roared again in pain, as a fountain of red blood poured from its severed necks. Six of its heads had been sliced off. The three most recent ones were twitching on the blood-soaked ground. A woman stood there, gripping a long saber in her hand. Her armor, along with the exposed parts of her body, was covered in the snake's blood. As she stood there calmly, it finally hit me what had occurred. Tiara... She had appeared out of nowhere beside the snake's three necks, swinging her sword with incredible speed and force, slicing through them before the snake could even react. Wow, that was seriously overpowered... Once again, the snake went into a rampage, thrashing its tail around and destroying everything in its path. Mira and Lian had already retreated to a safe distance, far from both the snake and Tiara, staying clear of its attack range. When the snake's tail lashed at Tiara, it went straight through her. No, it wasn't herit was just an illusion. A mirage? Where? Ohhh... She had vanished and reappeared behind the last two necks of the snake. Another sharp slicing sound followed, and the second remaining head tumbled to the ground. "Sheeechhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The snake let out a deep, terrifying roar that echoed across the battlefield, overwhelmed by pain. Its huge body thrashed wildly, tail swinging around wildly, trying to hit Tiara. But she was never where it aimed. It only hit her illusions, which kept appearing and disappearing. She moved like a ghost, impossible to catch. For the first time, I saw something I didn't think was possible: fear in the snake's eyes. It was gripped by pure terror... It-it... was as if he knew he was about to lose the fight. It swung its tail with all its strength, more frantically with each swing, trying to hit Tiara. Its mouth opened wide to spit venom in every direction where her illusions seemed to be, with droplets of poison sizzling as they hit the ground. But no matter how hard it tried, the snake couldn't touch her. After what felt like seconds of thrashing, the snake realized it was defeated. Its movements showed it had given up. It stopped its wild attacks and started to shudder as it tried to escape. It quickly turned and began to slither away, moving toward the northeastern horizon, trying to get as far from Tiara as possible. But it barely made it 10 or 20 meters before its last head, cut off instantly, disappeared. The headless body kept moving for a few more moments, twitching and convulsing, before it crashed to the ground with a loud thud. The ground shook from the impact, and the battlefield became eerily quiet. I was amazed by Tiara's fight with the Arohan snake. She took it down completely on her own, without giving it any chance to recover or fight back. Now, Tiara was on the ground, barely able to stand and using her sword for support. She was breathing heavily from all the exertion. Her ability must have really drained her. I would love to have that kind of power. She used it for what felt like two minutes, and it was incredible. Even though the sun had nearly set and everything was getting dark, that didn't stop her. She was still able to dodge all the snake's attacks, including its poison and tail swings... Whle she was panting, Mira with Lian were coming in her direction. As Mira and Lian approached, Mira called out, "Hey, Tia, are you okay?" Tiara gave a faint smile, her voice unsteady. "Y-yes, young miss!" Mira shook her head, sighing. "You're really not good at lying, you know that?" "But I just sa" Tiara began, but before she could finish, Mira tossed her a potion. "Here, drink this," Mira said. Tiara caught it with both hands and nodded. "Thanks, miss!" When they reached her, Mira glanced at the snake's mangled head. "Don't you think you went a bit overboard?" she asked, pointing at the lifeless body. "Whaght doooo youghhhu mghshhn?" Tiara muttered, still sipping the healing potion. Mira rolled her eyes. "Finish the potion first, then we'll talk." After Tiara drank the potion and stood up a little straighter, she asked, "Okay, miss, what is it?" Mira pointed to the snake's decapitated head. "Care to explain this?" Tiara scratched the back of her head with an awkward grin. "Well... I-I... He... it just kind of happened." Mira sighed again. "Now I understand why they call you 'Night Terror.' It's starting to make a lot more sense." Wh...at? I was completely shocked. What's happening to me today? One surprise after another? Wasn't Night Terror supposed to be dead? I'm pretty sure I read in the criminal history books that she was listed as deceased. So how is she here, alive and in front of me? Night Terror was a famous female criminal known for murdering thousands of people and monsters at night. No one, not even the Association, knew her real name. There was a saying: "Don't wander the streets at night, or Night Terror will find you." Ten years ago, she caused so much fear that the streets of Ambrosia were almost empty after dark. She would kill her victims in public and leave their bodies as a warning to others. The books said she managed to hack her smartwatch, which is how she avoided being caught by the police even when they were looking for her. I remember reading that after a decade of terror, she was finally caught by the Association about five years ago and was supposedly killed in an encounter. Yet here I am, seeing her face-to-face. Oh, her face. I might be one of the few people who have seen her face and survived to talk about it. She was also infamous for her crimes and for wearing a white mask that represented her criminal legacy. Then, something unbelievable happened as Mira suddenly shouted, "Lo"