Blood Princess, Kill them All

Embracing You

In the room at the back, where Calaria had taken refuge, she could still hear the sound of Mary wreaking havoc at the entrance. The whole mansion was shaking, and little bits of debris were raining down from the ceiling.

After causing so much destruction, there was no telling how much longer the building itself would hold.

“They said the mansion was disposable, but I never thought it would actually be destroyed.”

Calaria had not underestimated the situation, but the scale of the battle had already surpassed her expectations. But she wasn’t just a mercenary who had survived countless battles for nothing. She still had plenty of means to continue fighting.

Calaria reached out for the nearby suitcase that had been conveniently placed there. “Your recommendations weren’t half bad, but I still prefer my trusted weapon…”

Just as she was about to unveil her weapon, she felt a presence behind her and instinctively unleashed a spinning kick.

Wham!

Before her stood a woman with long hair, her neck bent at an impossible angle from the force of the kick. A trickle of blood escaped from her nose and mouth, yet she remained standing and staring at her.

Calaria scowled, quickly distancing herself from the woman. “Who on earth is she? Is she even human…? She doesn’t seem like a doll either. Mary, is this your handiwork?”

Lowering herself and assuming a defensive stance, she observed the situation, but her opponent remained motionless. Calaria let out a little sigh of annoyance and kicked the ground, shattering the wooden floor as she boldly moved forward.

“Hyaahhh!” Calaria forcefully pounded her right fist into the woman’s chest. Her fist sank in, crunching ribs and obliterating the heart. The impact sent the woman flying, crashing through the door and sailing into the corridor like a ragdoll.

“Phew… Heart crushed… This must be Mary’s doing after all—a real corpse this time.”

Despite being slammed against the corridor wall, buried under the debris of the broken door, the woman’s gaze remained fixed on Calaria.

“Talk about clingy. It’s very unpleasant…” Calaria muttered in frustration. She strutted out of the room, assuming a wide stance, and surveyed the long corridor stretching out before her in both directions.

And then…

“Ah…” Calaria found herself at a loss for words as she laid eyes upon a horde of undead neatly lined up in rows before her.

Corpses of all ages and genders stared intently at Calaria. Even as someone who had seen their fair share of battlefields, this sight was enough to make her shudder.

Right before her eyes, the corpse of the woman she had sent flying earlier began to grotesquely melt away. And then, to her surprise, she felt that same presence behind her once again. When she turned around, there stood the very same corpse.

There was no doubt that Mary was behind all of this, but Calaria couldn’t quite grasp the intention behind these strange occurrences. The undead remained motionless, neither attacking nor employing any magic.

Is this some sort of mental attack or just pure harassment?

In the next moment, a sharp object sliced through the air, accompanied by the sound of walls shattering. Swiftly, it closed in on Calaria, and…

“A bone bullet!”

Mary’s bullet flew with precision, homing in on her. It pierced through the wall right in front of her, catching her completely off guard. But Calaria, ever vigilant, dealt with it using her strong fist.

“Wooooh!” She let out a roar as she unleashed her punch. The bone-shaped bullet twisted in response. With a well-timed strike, she was able to alter its trajectory. However, it was still a spell unleashed by an opponent with a magical evaluation exceeding ten thousand.

Calaria managed to avoid a direct hit, but her knuckle scraped against the bullet, leaving her bones exposed. The bullet struck the wall behind her, piercing through it and hurtling onward towards some some distance point.

The first shot was evaded, but in Calaria’s eyes, she could already see the second bullet following the exact same path as the first.

I can’t dodge it completely! If she had a weapon, in a spacious area—she dismissed such thoughts. She crossed her hands and prepared to catch it head-on.

“Guuuuuh!” As she intercepted the spinning bullet, Calaria’s body slowly gave way, pushing her back until she collided with the wall. Yet, the momentum of the bullet didn’t waver. With her body unable to move any further, all of its force concentrated on her arms, carving through her flesh and piercing her bones.

“O-Ohhhhhh!” Calaria winced, beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. As she continued to fend off the attack, she tried to wriggle her body free, her expression filled with desperation.

If it comes to this, I’ll have to let go of my left hand! I need to escape quickly before the next shot comes!

Unable to bear the strain any longer, her left hand snapped. In that instant, Calaria tumbled to the floor as if collapsing. Seizing the opportunity, the third and fourth shots were fired, aiming for her. She slid into the room, smoothly evading the bullets.

“Out of my way! Move!” With a forceful tackle, she pushed aside the woman standing in front of her. Then, grabbing the handle of the suitcase, she attempted to shield herself from the oncoming bullets. However, the fifth and sixth shots deviated from their previous accuracy and struck elsewhere, missing Calaria completely.

“I see, this corpse is acting as Mary’s substitute eyes, compensating for the vision she lost in the explosion…”

The woman, who had been sent flying by their collision, finally regained her footing and locked eyes with Calaria. In the very next moment, the seventh shot was unleashed, now taking precise aim at her.

But Calaria was prepared. With a quick roll to the side, she evaded the bullet’s path. Then, she popped open the suitcase. Inside, lay a vast array of weapons. From among them, she drew a long sword snugly sheathed in its scabbard.

Just as the eighth shot was fired, Calaria fixed her gaze upon it. She pressed her broken left hand against the scabbard, firmly gripping the sword’s hilt with her right hand. In the nick of time, she unsheathed the sword, its blade emitting a faint gleam, tracing an arc in the air like an afterimage.

The only sound that echoed was the faint clinking of steel. In a solemn silence, the slash cleaved through the bone bullet, effortlessly severing it in two, before finding its way back into the scabbard. The fragmented bullets collided with the wall behind Calaria, bursting apart in a small and brief explosion.

“Hoo… Calaria, calm down. Your shaky heart is messing with your blade. You won’t achieve anything with unsteady slashes. No need to worry. Relying on such a thing… it just proves Mary’s eyesight hasn’t returned. My advantage stands strong.” She mumbled those words to herself. Holding her trusty partner, the magic sword Mystica, her heart grew even more at ease.

In this current situation, going for long-range combat against Mary, who can maintain her vision with this freaky method in this obstacle-filled mansion, wouldn’t work in Calaria’s favor. It was, in a way, Calaria’s own mistake for momentarily separating herself from Mary earlier.

Since Mary’s vision hadn’t fully returned, the optimal approach was to engage in close-quarters combat, where the ability to perceive each other’s slightest movements would determine life and death. Luckily for her, Calaria had the perfect weapon for that.

Wielding her sword, Calaria swiftly dashed out of the room. The moment she entered the hallway, bone bullets shot by Mary whizzed past her feet. Calaria gracefully leaped and dodged them, her skirt fluttering in the breeze.

Mary continued her onslaught, firing bullets into the air, aimed at Calaria. She kicked off the ceiling, effortlessly evading each shot. Mary, like a skilled sniper, continued to take precise shots at Calaria as she sprinted through the corridor. However, not a single bullet managed to hit its mark.

“Ah, Mary, your aim is spot on. Almost too perfect, making it predictable!”

It was both a blessing and a curse. Mary was too much of a perfectionist. One could argue that it was understandable for an amateur like her. Rather than that, one should commend her for devising a method to compensate for her vision lost due to the stun grenade. But this was a battlefield. All that mattered were the results: victory or defeat.

Calaria reached the entrance hall and spotted Mary standing in the center of the first floor. As Calaria leaped down from the second floor, Mary panicked and changed her attack strategy. “She’s already this close!? Even with just one arm!”

With her eyes closed, Mary swung her makeshift tentacle, formed by connecting bones together, launching random attacks.

If it were the old Calaria, she would have had no choice but to retreat from such a relentless assault. However, the current Calaria had her “partner” in her hand.

“If I can’t handle losing just an arm, then I’m not cut out for the mercenary life.” Drawing her sword and tossing away the scabbard, Calaria charged towards Mary.

The swinging bone whip seemed impenetrable, no openings in sight. But by parrying a couple of attacks with her sword, an opportunity would arise.

“Why, why can’t I hit you!”

“Just accept that it’s your lousy choices, Mary Pulcherrima!”

The present Mary relied on the “field of vision” created by positioning corpses in all directions. However, this inevitably caused her reactions in close-quarters combat to lag behind.

Calaria finally closed in on her target, the path to the vital point—the heart—wide open. Pointing the tip of her sword at Mary, she took the final step and unleashed a powerful strike.

“I’ve got you!” The edge of the sword grazed her chest.

In that moment, Mary’s eyes widened.

Is she… laughing?

Her supposedly blinded eyes stared directly at Calaria’s face, and Mary’s body subtly shifted to the side, as if she had anticipated her heart being pierced from the very beginning. As a result, the blade didn’t strike a vital spot; it pierced through her lung. While it would have meant instant death for an ordinary person, Mary, being an Arcana user, wouldn’t be felled by such a blow.

Then, extending her arms wide and tightly embraced Calaria, Mary spoke, “So, did I perform well?”

“I’ve caught you,” Mary whispered with a sweet voice. It sent a spine-chilling sensation through Calaria, an embrace she had never experienced before in her life.