Chapter 206: Chapter 206: 15-year-old Inglis and the Evil Hyrule Menace (11)

「Oi!! You saw the explosion, didn’t you? I’ve shown you that, with a single snap I can have them ram into buildings and explode……Do you know what that means?」

「It means that I should consider the people hiding within their houses has been taken hostages……I believe that’s what you want to convey.」

Responded Inglis, inviting a smile from Hallim.

「Correct! It’s great that you understand fast.」

「……?! That’s dirty! What, you can’t fight fair and square?!」

Rafinha barked.

「Hah! There’s nothing worthwhile about fighting fair! All I’ve done, I only do it for the sake of Lady Tiffany! She cares not about the means, only the result! In fact, should she see what I am doing, she would find it amusing!」

Spoke Hallim resolutely.

「What kind of Hyrule Menace is that!」

「I see now that Hyrule Menaces differ from one to another, but I still won’t believe this!」

「For us to be protected by Lady Eris and Lady Ripple, we surely are fortunate…」

Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte expressed their dislike to Tiffany, the Hyrule Menace they hadn’t even met.

「Fufufu……Meeting her would be a delight, wouldn’t it?」

For Inglis, though, that was all she took her as.

「Please, you will never see Lady Tiffany in person. Why, you will die here, after all! If you want me to spare the lives of the residents here, well…You know what I mean, don’t you?!」

「Kgh?! Th-, this is bad, Glis!」

「We can’t escape!」

「We can’t even fight back!」

If they ran or they fought back, Hallim would have his underlings blow themselves up along with the townspeople. Unless they decided to completely abandon the people, it wouldn’t be easy for Rafinha and the other two to make their decisions. Even if they did, it would leave a gaping scar on their hearts. This means the option left was…

「Of course I understand. In short…」

Inglis responded to Hallim’s ultimatum by stepping forward and holding her palm up to the sky.

「Strike them before they strike, isn’t it?」

「「「Heh……?」」」

——Ether Strike!

Kaboooommmmm!

The giant pale-blue sphere roared up and soared high from the ground to the sky.

Two of Hallim’s underlings and their respective Flygears were swallowed up in their enormous destructive power and vanished without a trace. However, she only took out two of them, while the huge majority was still well and kicking.

「Wha?! You dare! Now I have to make an example of…!」

Just as Hallim was about to throw Inglis a sharp glare, she was no longer there.

「Mu?! Where is she?! No, her position isn’t important! Do it!」

「Oh you don’t! Hyaaah!」

Inglis’ sound came from beyond the ongoing Ether Strike that had managed to engulf two of his men. The glow of Ether Armor enveloped her, and she was all but ready to unleash a kick.

Boooommm!!

As Inglis swung her leg towards the ball of energy, the trajectory of Ether Strike was bent, making it swallow another enemy soldier in its path, obliterating even their Flygear.

「F-, fret not! Spread out and attack individually!」

However, Inglis’ movements were even faster than Halim’s men could disperse and attack.

Kabooom!

The moment the sound of impact was heard, the trajectory of Ether Strike was manipulated again, as it swallowed yet another one of Hallim’s men.

Kabooom! Kabooom! Kabooom! Kabooom! Kabooom!

Every time the Ether Strike changed trajectory, the number of enemy soldiers decreased. Eventually…

「HYAAaahhh!」

KABOOOoooomm!!

「UOoohhhh?!」

At last, she shot the Aether Strike upward, letting it graze the tip of Hallim’s nose, and saw it disappear high into the sky. By then, all of Halim’s men were already swallowed by the Aether Strike and vanished. Of course, she could have done the same to Hallim himself, but she respected Ian’s request.

「Sh-, she really did strike them all before they could strike……」

「A-, amazing!」

「I-, it was too dazzling I couldn’t open my eyes for a second!」

「Believe me, I really wanted us to take our time in this fight, but with the circumstances you gave us, well……」

This was an opportunity for an actual battle. For Inglis, personally, no matter what the circumstances were, she wanted to fight in a way that would lead to maximum personal growth. She wasn’t a huge fan of this kind of method where she would use overwhelming force to instantly kill her opponents.

She couldn’t help but feel pity for Hallim’s men who were all but gone now. If only they were still alive, they could have fought her again…

However, given the situation where they could explode at Hallim’s whims, this was the only way to counter them. Ignoring the huge humanitarian issues, Hallim’s tactics were quite effective. She could see that he had a brilliant mind, as well as the fact that he was by no means a commendable human being.

「Well, I got to try out a new technique, so I guess it’s all good now!」

It wasn’t exactly a new technique per se, but rather an application of Ether Strike and Ether Breaker.

If she was facing an opponent that would self-explode upon being attacked, then the best option was to completely obliterate them using Ether Strike. However, it would be impossible for Inglis to endure firing enough Ether Strike to wipe out an entire colony of soldiers that had spread out like that.

If so, then she just needed to have the Ether Strike kill more enemies per shot. In other words, she would have the technique to fly as a guided projectile, instead of a straight line, to chase the enemies. However, Inglis didn’t have the technique to control Ether to such a high degree, as the power in itself was extremely difficult to handle. She couldn’t even bend a straight-line trajectory.

If it was Black Mask, the leader of the Ironblood Chain Brigade who was extremely skilled at controlling Ether, maybe he was able to do it…

Although, doing what Inglis just did was another option. That is, she could anticipate the trajectory of the Ether Strike and forcibly change its trajectory using Ether Armor, effectively turning it into a pseudo-homing projectile that would engulf as many opponents as possible.

「That was an absurd display of power, she kicked a bullet of light and forced it to change direction.」

「Well, if anything, that is very Inglis of her. Very…」

「Indeed……」

「I guess. My face is cute and I solve everything with my fist! That’s basically what Glis is.」

「How rude. What I want is to experience as many battles as possible, not resolving problems, okay?」

「No, no, that makes it worse, okay?!」

「Not to mention, it was pretty hard to do too, you know?」

It might look like a rough, physical job, but it actually required delicate techniques to pull off.

After all, if Inglis were to clash Ether Armor with Ether Strike without much thought, the synergistic effect between the two techniques would cause the Ether Strike to violently explode with several times the destructive power right on the spot. That was the technique that defeated the juvenile Prisma after all, the Ether Breaker.

To ensure that all she did was change the trajectory of the Strike and not cause the loop feedback to happen, Inglis had to consciously change the wavelength of her Ether. It was only recently that she had managed to accomplish that feat, albeit slightly.

As a result of helping out the Weissmall Troupe’s performance the other day, she was able to become more aware of the wavelengths and the streams of power as she worked with Yua and observed her advanced power manipulation up close.

And Yua, too, seemed to have taken in the powers of the Prisma when she was absorbed by it, instead of the other way around, so now Inglis looked forward to their next rematch. She needed to find another good reason, though, as Yua wouldn’t go along with her schemes at all unless there was a reason.

「Well, putting that aside…」

Inglis turned her gaze to Hallim who was now all alone.

「Kgghhhk! H-, how did you massacre all of them in an instant?! You m-monster?!」

Inglis gave Hallim, who was trembling in his feet, a smile.

「Now, please return to Lekrea and tell this to Ms. Tiffany, ‘I will be there soon, and I’d appreciate it if you could meet us.’ I can leave the message to you, can I?」

「Kgh! What, you’re going to let me go?! Fine, I will make you regret it!」

After saying so, Hallim’s figure distorted before he and his Flygear vanished. Perhaps he applied the sorcery that let him switch over to the subspace.

「Well, I guess that’s all for today.」

It wasn’t enough at all, but she was able to try out her newly thought-up technique, so it was good.

However, there were still those who couldn’t call it a day so easily.

「Sir Hallim, I can’t believe this……」

Ian dropped his shoulders and muttered to himself.

「Ah! Oi, Pullum! Don’t go out just yet!」

Lahti came out from the cargo of the Flygear Port, running after Pullum.

「Big bro you IDIOOOTT!! Why would you do such terrible things?! Learn from this and never come back!!」

However, Hallim, the person Pullum directed her anger against, was already gone from the scene, and thus there was nobody to answer her.

「Ouchie-chie……She kept struggling, it was hard to keep her hidden!」

Apparently, Pullum had been attempting to jump out to meet Hallim eye to eye, and Lahti was holding her from doing anything of the sort. It was a simple, but very important role.

「Must have been hard, Lahti…」

「Yeah!! Still, Hallim that b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! ****!」

For the three Alucard natives, today has been quite a devastating blow.