Extra's Revenge: Reincarnated As A Slave-Chapter 111: A Desperate Battle For Survival

CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

The lightning barrier collision sent shockwaves through the narrow street, illuminating everything in stark white-blue brilliance.

Elara’s Curse Art shield held, but barely—cracks spider-webbed across its surface as the Spirit Art barrage continued its relentless assault.

’Damn it!’ Elara’s mind raced even as she reinforced her defenses. ’This level of destruction—it’s going to attract Guards immediately!’

The mysterious attacker pressed forward, not giving her time to recover.

Another scroll activated, this time unleashing a wave of compressed air that hammered against her weakening barrier.

Elara knew she was in trouble.

Under normal circumstances, she could defend herself adequately. She possessed sufficient skill in Curse Art and Soul Art, enough to handle most threats in the Dark Commerce District.

But using her own Ancient MajiK would leave behind her Ether signature—a mystical fingerprint that investigators could trace directly back to her.

And that was unacceptable.

Her legal identity was that of a modest auditor, someone with basic defensive capabilities at best. She also didn’t possess the permits required to use Ancient MajiK in public spaces, especially not at this level of power.

If Guards investigated this incident and found her Ether signature intermingled with the destruction, they’d arrest her immediately for unauthorized mystical combat.

’Artifacts and Scrolls only,’ she reminded herself frantically. ’No personal Ether, no matter how desperate things get.’

But that limitation put her at a severe disadvantage.

Scrolls required activation time—precious seconds to unfurl them, channel external Ether from stones, and trigger the stored Techniques.

In a fast-paced combat situation against an opponent who clearly had no such reservations, those seconds could be fatal.

Elara reached for her belt, withdrawing a defensive Artifact—a small medallion that generated a secondary barrier. She activated it just as her primary shield shattered completely under the sustained assault.

The new barrier materialized, absorbing a follow-up attack that would have caught her exposed. But she could feel the Artifact’s reserves draining rapidly. It wasn’t designed for prolonged combat against this level of aggression.

The attacker moved with disturbing efficiency, circling around her defensive position while maintaining constant pressure.

They threw something—a small sphere that detonated on contact with her barrier, releasing a cloud of caustic smoke that ate away at the mystical energy.

’They’re trying to deplete my defenses systematically,’ Elara realized. ’Professional. Experienced. This isn’t a random assault—someone sent an actual assassin.’

She pulled another Artifact from her collection—this one offensive, a crystalline shard that could launch projectiles of hardened energy. She activated it and fired toward where she’d last seen her attacker.

The projectiles cut through the smoke, but her opponent had already moved. Enhanced speed, probably from Artifacts similar to what she couldn’t use herself.

Another attack came from a different angle—a Technique scroll that released a barrage of ice shards. Elara’s barrier absorbed most of them, but several got through, slicing across her arm and shoulder.

Pain flared, but she ignored it, focusing on survival.

’I need to create distance, get to a position where I can properly defend myself.’

Elara activated a movement Artifact, one that granted a brief burst of enhanced speed. She darted toward the end of the street, trying to reach more open ground where she’d have better tactical options.

But her attacker anticipated this, cutting off her escape route with another devastating scroll activation.

This time it was earth-based Spirit Art that caused the ground itself to erupt upward, creating a wall that blocked her path.

’Trapped!’

Elara spun back, her mind calculating rapidly.

Her defensive Artifact was nearly depleted. She had perhaps two more combat-capable Artifacts remaining, plus a handful of Scrolls that would take too long to activate under these conditions.

The mysterious attacker emerged from the smoke, their dark clothing making them nearly invisible in the shadows. They raised their hand, and Elara saw the telltale glow of another prepared scroll.

No time to dodge. No time to activate another defense.

Left with no other choice, Elara made a desperate decision.

She reached deep within herself, not to her Ether reserves—those remained locked away to avoid leaving signatures—but to something more fundamental.

The Chaos Art Imprints that had been etched into her body.

These weren’t like normal Techniques that would leave obvious traces. These had been placed into her through channels in the Dark Commerce District, and consisted of abilities with delayed activation periods.

The best part was that they were made to be untraceable.

It was a last resort move, one she would rather not use due to how inconvenient it would be to have these Imprints replaced.

But death was a more immediate concern than such considerations..

"Very well, then..." Elara whispered.

Her body erupted with purple-black energy as the Chaos Imprints activated.

’Joint Technique: Spatial Collapse!’

Reality around Elara began to warp and distort. Space itself became unstable, folding in on itself in ways that violated natural law.

The ground cracked as dimensional stress points formed, and the air itself seemed to scream with the strain.

Everything within ten meters of Elara’s position began to collapse inward—not physically, but spatially.

Objects, energy, even light itself was being drawn into impossible configurations as space folded like origami in the hands of a mad god.

An absolute implosion!

The attacker’s prepared scroll never had a chance to activate.

The spatial distortion caught it mid-flight, and the magical construct simply ceased to exist as the dimensions containing it compressed beyond sustainable parameters.

More importantly, the spatial collapse was indiscriminate. It would drag in anyone caught within its radius, compress them into non-existence just as thoroughly as it destroyed everything else.

’Come on,’ Elara thought grimly, watching the effect spread. ’Get caught in it. End this.’

But to her frustration, the attacker proved just as capable of desperate measures.

They activated their own movement enhancement—not an Artifact this time, but what appeared to be a genuine Technique fueled from a mysterious Ether source.

The speed was incredible, far beyond what conventional enhancements could provide.

The mysterious figure became a blur, racing away from the expanding spatial collapse with split-second timing.

They barely made it beyond the effect’s radius, stumbling as they hit the street outside the danger zone.

But they had escaped.

Elara clicked her tongue in frustration, even as she used the chaos she’d created to make her own escape. The spatial collapse would continue for perhaps another thirty seconds before stabilizing, creating a debris field and mystical anomaly that would keep Guards busy for hours.

She activated her final movement Artifact and fled in the opposite direction from her attacker, using the destruction and confusion as cover.

Her enhanced speed carried her through back alleys and side streets, putting distance between herself and the combat zone.

Behind her, she could already hear alarm bells beginning to ring as Guards responded to the mystical disturbance.

’Too close,’ she thought, her breathing heavy as she finally slowed in what she hoped was a safe location. ’Too damn close.’

Elara examined her wounds—the ice shard cuts on her arm and shoulder were painful but not critical. She’d need medical attention, but nothing that couldn’t wait until she reached a secure location.

More concerning was what this attack implied.

’Someone knows about my investigation. They sent a professional to eliminate me.’

But how many people had access to her real-time location?

Just Lady Z and... him...!