F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 334: Continuum

In the dense foliage of an overgrown, young fir, a silver-haired young woman hid.

Some distance on the bouncy ground stood her partner, a blonde young man, seemingly basking in the mild, afternoon sun for no reason.

Daru was, once again, the bait.

He even volunteered, since it would be easier for Elara to pin the attacker that way.

The chaotic skies suddenly didn’t seem so unsettling now.

Here and there, violent rustles, crashes, clangs, and furious screeches rang, but this time, he wanted them to be closer.

Daru couldn’t help but wonder why the half-birds are in constant war.

Was it territory? Food? Or do they simply hate each other?

He preferred to know, of course. But before he could even try, they had to go stronger first.

This method was their only option for now.

Daru believed it was quite promising, given how easily they took out the Emberchest Robari together.

Yggdrasil didn’t take too long to give them a chance.

The leaves north of where he was facing rustled, and a red blur swooped at him, both talons morphing into shortswords.

He turned to face the threat, then used Swift Tumble to evade at the last moment.

The Bloodscarlet Cardari’s sword talons stabbed into the mildly bouncy ground...but not too deeply.

The half-avian, too, couldn’t casually pierce the inner, rock-like layer of the strange land.

But that slight delay was enough for the clever hunters to catch the Cardari in their trap.

A huge silver sword fell from the skies, piercing the back of the red half-bird and pinning it to the ground.

[- 4,250!]

Like the sword talons, the manifestation didn’t pierce too deeply.

It didn’t need to, though, as the bait, suddenly turned executioner, immediately dashed in for the kill.

The Bloodscarlet Cardari struggled violently, thrashing...and screeching.

Black aura had already veiled Onimaru Kunitsuna by the time it was chopping down on the half-bird’s head.

[- 61, 385!!]

Harrowing, gurgling, death cries echoed as the head remained barely intact. Like the Emberchest Robari, the Bloodscarlet Cardari soon broke free, head rolling and bouncing around.

Daru, however, was more experienced this time.

He knew that even a full-powered Mountainsplitter strike to the neck was not enough to kill the unusually tough half-birds.

He quickly followed up with a Double Strike.

[- 2,560!]

[- 2,120!]

It was still not enough...but this was still within Daru’s calculations.

Before the Bloodscarlet Cardari could make it to the foliage of the nearby pine, a spinning cross-slash cleanly landed on its side.

[- 5,915!]

Blue blood spurted out of the half-bird’s wounds and orifices as it was shot down, going limp and falling head-first into the ground.

[You’ve slain a Lesser Swordspawn of the Continuum, Bloodscarlet Cardari Lv.82]

[You’ve obtained 34,000 Experience Points.]

[You’ve obtained (1) Bloodscarlet Wingroot.]

[You’ve obtained (1) Lesser Essence of the Continuum.]

Daru hadn’t even checked the notifications yet when, suddenly, an ear-piercing clang sounded from behind, and a silver blur rolled past him.

He quickly turned to the source of the noise.

The partner of the Bloodscarlet Cardari he had just killed had arrived and had probably tried to attack him.

Thanks to Elara’s timely interference, he was alive.

There was no other way around it — either he would’ve allowed the wounded larger Cardari to escape, or focus on killing it, which resulted in him failing to even sense the other attacker.

A trustworthy comrade having one’s back truly felt reassuring.

It didn’t seem like Elara was hurt, so he quickly shifted his attention to the smaller Bloodscarlet Cardari, but it only screeched furiously at them and then retreated.

Daru waited to see if it would return. It didn’t.

"Quick, let’s return!"

***

Inside the fir hollow...

"So, what goodies did you obtain?" Elara asked, her eyes sparkly.

"Well, a Wingroot, and a Lesser Essence of the Continuum, though I don’t know what the Continuum is..."

"Oh? I’ve heard about this Continuum once or twice from my father...But I don’t really know much about it. Maybe this is classified information one would only obtain for a price?"

There certainly wasn’t any free information about it on the NeoNet...

"Maybe...the description doesn’t give much information either..." Daru responded, reading through the rather generic block of text.

"Oh well, just keep it. You might find it useful later. I hope I get one later, too..."

As for the Bloodscarlet Wingroot, it was basically the same as the Robari one.

Only, it lasts three minutes instead of the Robari’s four.

All the loot for this specific kill goes to Daru. The reason for this was that drops were inconsistent.

So, to avoid unfairness in the distribution, they decided that no matter what one would obtain during one’s turn, there would be no hard feelings.

As for the experience points gained, it was automatically divided between the two of them.

Closing the item description window and his inventory, Daru glanced at Elara.

"How many seconds until your Silver Judgment goes off cooldown?"

"Gods...do you hate birds, or something? To answer your question, 240 more seconds..."

"No, why would I hate birds? I just want to level up before nightfall, that’s all..."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Who knows what will happen during nighttime? Those five attribute points might save our lives..."

Elara fell silent.

She wanted to joke around more, but the thought of nighttime in this way-too-alive place unsettled her, too.

So, while waiting, she just closed her eyes and boldly rested her head on her comrade’s shoulders.

"What are you doing?" Daru asked with a puzzled expression.

"Why, can’t a gorgeous young woman rest on the shoulders of a handsome young man?"

"Fair, but you must be careful in the future. Do not rest your head on just any man’s shoulders. They might take advantage of you, especially since you’re attractive."

Elara’s eyes widened, and she quickly raised her head, looking at Daru with a half-delighted, half-bewildered expression.

She definitely did not expect such words to come out of the boring young man’s mouth.

"Are you finally attempting to move this princess’ heart?"

But Daru only raised a brow.

"What do you mean? I’m just stating facts, nothing more, nothing less. As you’ve been saying, you are a gorgeous young woman, so I’m just saying that you need to be careful, because young men might take advantage of you if you give them such opportune chances in the future."

Elara blinked, bright red spreading on her cheeks.

"T-This princess will go out and check the surroundings for a bit..."