SSS-Knight in a Hero World-Chapter 96: A tiny battle

Among the times when he woke up with either sweat, hunger, or fatigue, this one was the least difficult and was even better than sleep.

It took him a while to remember what happened a moment ago, but when his thoughts finally kicked in, he stood straight up.

I can't see anything... Ferris began to worry. He noticed that his body felt more suffocating than usual, and his breathing became noticeably restricted, as if a pot of molten metal was dropped on him, with his head as a cast.

. . .

Wait, it's just the helmet. Ferris dismissed his overthinking and took the helmet off.

His first sight was the bedrock around him. He knew that he was at the bottom of the valley where he got the suit in the first place.

He didn't sense anything around him, and he didn't feel any hostile intent directed toward him, so for now Ferris focused on what happened while he was unconscious.

The first thing he noticed was the sluggish feeling he had, but it wasn't exactly sluggish in the sense that he was weaker.

The armor's dead. No wonder the mask wasn't displaying anything.

This greatly worried Ferris. In a sense, it felt as if he had just lost 90% of his strength. But at least he didn't lose it while he was fighting Tianqin.

While observing the helmet devoid of power, Ferris felt a minuscule amount of essence being released.

It definitely wasn't caused by the helmet itself, but something else.

Thanks to the quietness around him, he could almost hear someone calling out to him from inside the helmet before disappearing.

He's finally free. I wonder what will happen to him, since there aren't any world trees around?

Ferris worried for that piece of his former teacher that got stuck inside a suit of armor, but as knights, they were taught to never worry about what happens after death, so the fear of what happens is nonexistent.

But Ferris thought about the implications of that. Just like before, when Yaromech affected the armor to exceed its capabilities, he must've done something when Ferris was knocked unconscious.

Anyways, at least I don't feel subservient to Lilith right now. Looks like whatever she did failed.

While he was still considering the true outcome of the battle, he instinctively gazed upward to see how the egg was doing.

I put a lot of strength into that blow. It shouldn't matter if I was knocked unconscious or even died before the moment of impact. The momentum my arm carried would still damage it.

Ferris nodded. That fact was indeed true, as the egg had now lowered its altitude, and not only that, there was also a cleaved mark on the outer shell.

But by the looks of it, he only managed to shatter the hard shell and not the soft membrane.

Regardless of the result, at least it wasn't sucking up essence anymore, so the thought of it leveling the entire city as a bomb was no longer a possibility.

Then there was the sky, which had lost a bit of its red color, turning it into something close to pink.

He had no doubts the Prodigy Prince was staring closely at the scene using one of their private satellites, and the Hero Association must already be coming up with ways to break through the barrier.

Even now, they could be close to breaking through.

This was now merely a waiting game for the heroes.

The two proctors had their own objectives and had left the city through unknown means, and with a leader like Elizabeth, he doubted that any of the scrub villains had a chance of even slaughtering them all.

A victory, if you ask me.

Lilith was the only threat he could consider.

If only I can confirm her status.

Fortunately for him, he easily confirmed it when he turned around.

"She's dead?" Ferris couldn't help but say it aloud.

In front of him was Lilith's corpse, turned away from him. She laid on the dirty bedrock in a frozen pose that depicted her in a state of shock.

It's definitely another illusion, Ferris thought, before kicking a pebble at her.

Surprisingly, it bounced off her, and she didn't react to it.

Some kind of sick joke? Ferris understood the implications of a dead body.

He hesitated before getting close to it, but it seemed like he had no other choice.

Turning her over, Ferris saw her terrified expression, which was enough to even unnerve him.

Then he pressed his fingers on her wrist to check her pulse.

No heartbeat, but her body's still warm and hasn't gone under rigor mortis yet.

Thinking about the cause of death, he instantly had an idea of what might've happened.

She must've died from falling. It would explain why I was lying on the floor too.

I don't know what Yaromech did, but I owe him one... in the afterlife.

Ferris waited silently for a few minutes to confirm Lilith's death, and when nothing happened, he finally sighed a breath of relief.

The three people he stood no chance against were finally gone. All that was left now was the person who was controlling Kerios' corpse.

Knowing that man's habits from their various encounters, Ferris had an idea of what was gonna happen next, but he wouldn't allow it to play out naturally.

"The pests are gone, and my armor's dead.

Isn't it about time for a rat like you to appear?"

There was a moment of silence that filled the area, but he knew that the silence was merely that man deciding when and where to come out.

I still have some essence to squeeze out.

Ferris did his best to hide his twitching muscles, his sharp senses scanning around him at all times. Right now, he was a spring under pressure, just waiting to release all that energy until a certain condition was met, that certain sound of a zipper opening.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Zzzzzzzzzzz!

Behind.

Twisting around, he plummeted his fist onto the half-opened zipper mouth, which destroyed the bedrock around it into a crater.

But he quickly noticed that it was a decoy. Though he expected it regardless, he acted accordingly.

Without even needing to hear the sound cue of that man's blessing, he decided to plant his hand down behind him.

This is the real attack.

In a terrifying display of raw instinct, Ferris' mark was correct as a line of zipper appeared where he expected it.

When the zipper was opened enough, Ferris did not hesitate to chuck his entire arm inside and grab onto anything he felt.

"There you are."

Ferris dragged the man out of his safe space and held him by the throat with a grip strong enough to cut his airway.

"!!!" Judas?

Due to everything that happened in such a short time span and the dangerous usage of essence steps at a high layer, Ferris' mind was at its most sensitive state, a sort of heightened battle awareness that lasts and sticks longer compared to something such as adrenaline. However, it comes with the drawback where his mind's basic cognitive functions that aren't important to the battle aren't used at their optimal levels, like memory.

So, for an instant, Ferris genuinely thought it was really his friend that he was killing.

But because of his heightened state, problems like that were quickly resolved.

To think he's using his skin as protection. "You sick degenerate—

Bang!

A golden beam of light shot straight through his chest area, leaving a gushing wound.

The degenerate laughed hoarsely under Ferris' choke. "I'm not alone, you fool."

Once Ferris' grip was weakened enough, the man pushed himself away from Ferris.

A bullet wound... Ferris gasped for air, but it felt as if only tiny breaths were being taken despite breathing long and hard.

He turned to the direction where the shot came from, and there he saw a familiar woman he knew. "...E—

"Shhh." Miss Evening placed her index finger on her lips and smiled.

Ferris was left speechless, both by seeing her and by being shot by her.

In that moment of trance, Evening took aim once more and fired another round.

Bang!