Two Sword Princesses

The moment Sonia realized that the Starry sorcerers' primary goal was the annihilation of every last participant, and that new sorcerers would continually be thrown into the fray so long as the stage-clearing fragment remained unclaimed, a chilling realization dawned on her: the Starry sorcerers were choosing not to proceed to the next stage at all. Instead, they were gathering in force to systematically encircle and slaughter any newcomers who barged in! This tactic was unquestionably the most efficient and reliable of open conspiracies. After all, gem fragments were precious; the Starry sorcerers could not guarantee one for every man, making it impossible to advance into the next stage as a cohesive army. More importantly, even if they managed to advance as a small squad, other sorcerers were not fools. Seeing a disciplined sorcerer legion with such seamless coordination, they would naturally form temporary alliances to wipe out the greatest threat first. Holding a single stage, however, offered boundless advantages. First, whenever a lone sorcerer arrived mid-battle, two fists were no match for four hands. The Starry sorcerers could ruthlessly exploit their overwhelming numbers to swarm and crush the newcomer in moments. Second, other Starry sorcerers could also be transported into this same stage and absorbed into the legion. Their numbers would continually swell, rendering any resistance from newcomers utterly futile. Yet a hunting ground could not be chosen at random. A convoluted urban landscape was ill-suited for such an operation, but across this vast, level grassland, the sorcerer legion could unleash their numerical advantage to its absolute limit! No wonder the Divine Lord of Stars had left a backdoor for the legions to enter. In a chaotic, randomized brawl like this, the Starry sorcerers—swarming in massive, coordinated numbers—were bad money driving out the good. Sanctuary sorcerers operating like independent workshops stood no chance against such assembly-line butchery! "Sword Princesses, you have five seconds to consider. Five, four..." The name of the Sword Princess rang across all of Jialesi, and the Starry sorcerers instantly recognized her as a Sanctuary sorcerer of their own nation. Though they had no idea why there were two Sword Princesses, so long as they were willing to surrender their Holy Grail fragments and submit to command, they were Starry Sword Princesses. Sonia's breath came in short, rapid gasps. Lowering her voice, she murmured to Niya, "Don't be reckless. Let's play along first—" *Bang!* Niya kicked off the ground with everything she had, gripping her sword as she lunged straight toward the Starry sorcerers! "I knew it," Sonia exhaled a long breath and gave chase with an expression of sheer helplessness. The Starry sorcerers were not surprised. Even if this was ostensibly an edict from the Divine Lord of Stars, unless the Throne Room personally issued it to an individual, it carried no real weight. In comparison, the Rainbow Holy Grail was a treasure coveted even by gods; it was only natural that Sanctuary sorcerers would refuse to abandon such an opportunity. The Sword Princess, Sonia, was neither the first Sanctuary sorcerer to attack them, nor would she be the last. *Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!* Gunfire skimmed across the tips of the grass. The Gryphon marksmen seemed to have adapted their tactics against sword Sanctuary sorcerers, deliberately targeting their lower bodies where deflections were hardest to manage. The instant the two broke through the hail of bullets, an ironclad wall of shields and blades met them head-on! A quagmire. Sonia fought under agonizing pressure, feeling as though she had plunged into a bog beyond rescue—the harder she struggled, the deeper she sank. If given even the slimmest gap, she could strike down the sword-shield sorcerer before her or the Starshot Warrior at his flank. But no such opening existed. The suppressive fire of the Gryphon marksmen, the defensive screens of the sword-shield sorcerers, and the rapid assaults of the Starshot Warriors meshed together like teeth on a grindstone, denying the Sword Princess even a moment's respite as they ground her down stroke by stroke. It was not that their coordination was brilliant; rather, it was executed with mechanical, rigid precision. Yet stripped of the explosive power of sorcery spirits and relying strictly on swordsmanship, Sonia could not shatter their unyielding iron wall! The Starry sorcerers could not have prepared solely for sword sorcerers. They had undoubtedly rehearsed in advance, equipped with guaranteed strategies to neutralize Sanctuary sorcerers of any faction! The Reaching-Claw Sword Saint glanced toward Niya, who was locked in a brutal struggle nearby. Leaping onto a shield, Sonia propelled herself into a spiraling charge, slipping past the intervening sorcerers by a hair's breadth to reach Niya's side. "We can't fight separately—" *Clang!* Sonia parried Niya's sudden thrust and let out a sigh. "Do you really hate me that much?" "Stay away from me!" Niya gritted her teeth. "Or I'll kill you first!" The Starry sorcerers closed in once more. Seeing that their quarry remained standing after so long, the sorcerers stationed on watch joined the fray as well. The two girls were like ships caught in a tempest. Though they barely kept afloat, the slightest misstep would see them torn to pieces by the gale. Right then, Sonia spotted a blind spot behind Niya. She dropped into a slide, slashing her longsword upward and narrowly driving back a Starshot Warrior's backstab. Yet the moment Niya saw her move, she brought her blade slashing straight down toward Sonia! "I'm helping you!" Sonia's temper flared; she was never one to suffer quietly. "If you keep this up, you're going to die!" "I don't care! Mind your own business!" *Thud!* A sword-shield sorcerer slammed his tower shield forward, knocking them both back simultaneously. The Gryphon bullets pursued them like clinging shadows, forcing them to roll across the turf while parrying desperately. Before they could even regain their footing, a Starshot Warrior's kick was already barreling toward them! "You're not the first person to call me disgusting." Amidst the raging clash, Sonia suddenly spoke to Niya beside her. "When I was little, I was scrawny and weak, and I never liked playing with the others. The bad kids loved throwing bugs at me and calling me disgusting." Niya shot her a sidelong glance. "It didn't change when I grew up. When I started university last year, my roommates mocked me as a disgusting country village girl, freezing me out and laughing behind my back. I didn't just magically become beautiful, or elegant, or surrounded by friends... If anything, my temper used to be worse than yours. "But I refused to accept that! I wanted to prove that I was worthy of happiness, and that is why I clawed my way to becoming who I am today!" "Are you trying to mock me for not trying hard enough?" Niya scoffed. Sonia pushed on, "In your eyes, Yaxiu probably seems incredible, doesn't he? But when I first met him, he was just an ordinary guy who was terrified of loneliness and practically devoid of any will to live. You have no idea what he's been through—brushing past death time and again, toyed with by fate at every turn... Even if he turned into a twisted, dark-hearted freak someday, I wouldn't even be surprised." "You're incredible, you're all so incredible, are you happy now?!" Niya yelled hysterically. "What are you trying to say? Are you laughing at how pathetic and weak I am?!" "I'm only trying to say that your life might be bitter, but none of ours has been smooth sailing either." Sonia swung her sword with violent force, deflecting an ambush aimed straight at Niya. "As long as we're alive, we still have a chance to make things better. "I don't know what Yaxiu promised you, but I swear to you: I will do everything in my power to help you find happiness!" Niya snapped, "I told you, I don't care! Leave me alone!" Sonia shook her head, her tone dead serious. "You say you don't care, but have you ever looked in a mirror to see the defiance and longing written all over your face?" Right then, two shields came spinning down toward them from overhead. Niya was already hemmed in by a sword-shield sorcerer and a Starshot Warrior, while more Starshot Warriors converged behind Sonia. In the spark of a flint, the Reaching-Claw Sword Saint kicked away the warrior at her rear, sweeping her blade in a full, perfect circle to intercept the two spinning shields! *Clang!* In a duel stripped of miracles, the kinetic force packed into heavy bludgeons far exceeded what an edged blade could withstand. Sonia barely managed to deflect the shields aside—only for her sword to snap clean in two! A sorcerer could manifest a weapon through condensed knowledge, but that demanded at least ten seconds of undivided concentration. In a split-second battle like this, there was simply no opening! Driven to desperation, Sonia attempted to seize a weapon bare-handed. Yet the instant she clashed with a Starshot Warrior, she realized how reckless she had been—her proficiency in the Fist and Claw school had not even reached Silver rank! *Thud!* A heavy cannon punch rocked Sonia backward several paces, and the sight of a distant muzzle locking onto her made every hair on her body stand on end. She hurled herself across the dirt before the shot rang out, only to find herself trapped in a pincer attack between a Starshot Warrior and a sword-shield sorcerer— *Clang!* The Starshot Warrior was smashed aside through the air, and the sword-shield sorcerer was decapitated in a single, sweeping stroke. Sonia stared at the crimson-haired back standing before her. Before she could utter a word of thanks, she watched the girl catch the fallen sorcerer's sword and whip around, slashing it straight toward her throat! The blade halted bare centimeters from her skin. The tear streaks on Niya's face had not yet dried; biting her lower lip with a conflicted expression, she looked as though she had just wept her heart out all over again, messy as a scruffy kitten. Reversing her grip, she thrust the hilt toward Sonia and blurted, "Niya." Sonia froze for a fraction of a second, then took the sword to deflect an incoming barrage from the Gryphon marksmen, offering her own true name in kind: "Sonia." Facing the encircling Starry sorcerers, the two stepped back-to-back, facing outward. Sonia was accustomed to raising her blade level with her right hand; Niya favored a low-ready guard. Though their attire differed and their expressions were worlds apart, at this very moment, they were two halves of a single entity. The same crimson hair, the same ruby eyes—the sight gave the Starry sorcerers pause. At first, they had assumed two Sword Princesses was the result of some miracle, and that their infighting was merely a miracle's backlash. But now... Upon this battlefield, two Sword Princesses had truly arrived.