“Are you aware that you were committing a serious crime by openly using your magic in front of the residents of this world?” Merissa asked as she pointed her spear towards him.

“H-H-Huh, so what? I was going to kill him anyway until you interfered.” Marx stuttered as he began to panic.

“So, you’re just a scum, I see, I don’t have any qualms about killing scum like you.” Merissa stated as her gaze turned cold.

“Heh… don’t think you can simply show up out of nowhere and kill me. You think I haven’t noticed? You can’t use magic, I sense mana from you but for some reason you’re not using it, I find it hard to believe that a mage would simply rely on physical combat.”

“Do you think, I need magic to kill scum like you?”

That struck a hard jab to his ego but the summoner knew she wasn’t wrong, based alone on what he had seen he was no match for her in close combat. But there was a silver lining. If she really can’t use her mana, he still has a card up his sleeve which might guarantee him victory.

“Summoning magic: Nacla Units!” Marx screamed as he placed his palms on the ground. The next moment four magic circles formed around him from which emerged a Nacla each.

‘That again really?’ Merissa wasn’t particularly worried about fighting them again but it was simply annoying.

But Marx didn’t plan on doing the same thing. He removed a round brown colour pill from a sachet and gulped it down. This didn’t go unnoticed by Merissa.

“If I didn’t have this pill I doubted if I could have beat you even with this spell but fortunately, I do.” Marx said as a wicked grin formed on his face.

“This is my tier two spell! Nacla’s armour, Imso… raso… qila…” As he quickly chanted something the Naclas shape began to distort as they got sucked onto Marx’s body and covered it from head to toe. Not wanting to let him finish whatever he was doing Merissa rushed towards him. While one of the Nacla’s body was distorting she quickly impaled it with her spear causing it to disintegrate.

‘Shit! I need to kill the other three before they fully integrate with him!’ But time didn’t permit her this luxury as the energy from the Nacla’s began to take shape of an armour on Marx’s body. She quickly lunged at Marx to kill, the main source of power but she was a tad late.

Just before her spear could pierce his heart, Marx grabbed it with his left hand fully cladded in armour made from Nacla. He had grown in size as his arms and legs became bulky and large. He stood at almost 2 meter tall with only his eyes visible through his armour and his mouth.

“You managed to get one of my minions but three are enough for the likes of you!”

“Tch!” Merissa who was dangling by holding on to her spear used the motion to get her body in swing and kicked at Marx’s head but it had no effect.

“Your physical prowess is strong for a woman, that too human, my head might have even shaken slightly if I didn’t have that pill but it doesn’t matter now!” Marx then grabbed her mid-air and slammed her into the ground cracking the ground the below. The impact almost knocked Merissa out.

Using her free hand, she threw a small knife at Marx causing him to startle and doge it as he stepped back.

Merissa could feel her bones were fractured as she struggled to get back and stand up on her feet. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to die here, not now. She supported herself using her spear.

‘I wonder if he reached the school yet… He doesn’t even have mana; I can’t even tell how far he is… Should I run now- no I can’t risk this scum catching up with Alex. I need to stall him some more.’

Marx was surprised at seeing Merissa still standing. Anyone should have been dead from that impact by now or at the very least knocked out. This irked him. Releasing a battle cry, he charged at her. He launched a flurry of punches at her most of which were dogged while the others blocked with the blade of her spear.

Surprisingly the kalecien powder on the blade wasn’t disintegrating the Nacla made armour like before. Though it was being disintegrated to some extent it wasn’t nearly enough. Merissa might end up dead before she could do some significant damage to him. Her mobility was greatly reduced due to the earlier impact. Even normal movements were extremely painful.

“How long are you going to keep dogging?!” Merissa saw an opportunity as Marx’s irritation rose.

“So, you are still weak even after all that big talk before? How befitting a scum like you.” She mocked.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

Her provocation worked as Marx began to swing his hands out of control. Merissa backed up dogging them but fell on her butt.

“DIE!!” Marx screamed as he punched at her with all his strength. It was over was what he thought but this was her plan. Gritting her teeth and bearing the pain she quickly rolled back and stood to her feet dogging the punch. She then quickly jumped forward and onto his arm bringing the spear down with her.

“HAAAA” Releasing a shout to summon her strength she stabbed with all her strength.

The spear pierced through his arm and stabbed into the ground fixing his arm in place. Marx let out a cry in pain but Merissa didn’t stop there as she used his arm as footing to lunge at his head. Her hand was holding the last of her knife ready to thrust into his eye.

But she had underestimated his strength as Marx pulled his hand back with all his might breaking the spear in the process and swung his left arm at her following the momentum of his body from breaking free of the spear. Her arms went up in defence but were futile as her body was flung away like a rag doll.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

She began coughing nonstop as blood spurted from her mouth. Her blurry vision could make out a giant clad in black removing the broken spear from the ground with the blade attached to it. He then walked towards her until it towered over her raising the spear above his head to stab her.

Feeling this was a bad dream, her eyes closed not wanting to see it.

“Haa… Ahhaa… help… shit! Run… Meri…”

But the pain never came instead she heard noises but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Opening her eyes again she found someone trying to choke Marx from behind by grabbing onto their neck with all their might. Their hands weren’t particularly strong but they held on desperately, fighting for her. It had been a long time since someone held on for her so desperately.

Suddenly the screaming seemed to have stopped.

‘No… this isn’t a dream… get up!’ She told herself and began to sit up and indeed it wasn’t a dream. Someone did fight for her.

Their gazes met but only for a brief second before Alex looked down at the large fist which had punched a hole through his body. Blood coughed out of his mouth and trickled down his chin. The next moment he felt himself being thrown away as the world seemed to be spinning. Someone was shouting his name.

He caught a glimpse of Merissa running towards him before the world went dark.