"Elno! Get over here, or we’re all going to die!!"

Hmm?

Hearing the cry, the four people locked in a fierce battle behind them all turned to look.

When they saw the trail of bodies stretching for hundreds of meters and, at the far end, Wei’en and his group in a standoff, the two captain-level Extraordinaries burned with a towering rage.

Elno tried to advance but was blocked by a violent tornado conjured by Marco. "Kill him, Tiki!" he roared in frustration.

"Damn you, I’ll kill you!!"

Tiki, who was fighting Lisi, needed no encouragement. The moment he saw the bodies, he broke away from their fight without a second thought, his flailing tentacles smashing against the ground as he charged toward Wei’en.

Lisi also noticed Wei’en’s handiwork. ’He’s surprisingly capable... but I can’t let you hurt my subordinate.’

"Kase, Tefano, Vich." ’Dharma Seal—Duel Cage.’

A pitch-black chain spiraled out from her hand, the end forming a Bone Claw that glinted like metal as it seized the handle of a Two-Handed Axe.

Lisi then hurled the Two-Handed Axe. It shot past Tiki in an instant, and driven by the axe’s momentum, the chain wrapped back around, sealing the two of them together.

"Tiki, only one of us is walking out of this cage alive today."

"You’re courting death!"

His path blocked, Tiki’s entire body trembled with rage. His stiff head swiveled a full one hundred and eighty degrees, his dozens of pus-leaking eyes locking onto her.

"Heh, bring it on."

The corners of Lisi’s mouth turned up. She slammed her fists together with a resounding CLANG. At some point, a pair of dark blue metal gauntlets had appeared on her hands, each set with a red Gemstone on the back.

"The Ultimate Force of Montoya?" Tiki’s dozens of eyes froze for a moment, clearly not expecting to encounter such a formidable opponent here.

"It’s nothing compared to the Blood of Greed and Corruption of you Vazquez Race,"

Lisi held her head high and unleashed a burst of immense power. The fabric of her uniform strained tightly across her chest, and veins popped on her arms and neck.

"Come on, show me what you’ve got."

BOOM—

The moment she finished speaking, her figure blurred into an afterimage.

In the next instant, Lisi was in front of Tiki, her iron fist smashing into his grotesque face.

SPLAT, SPLAT...

A series of eyeballs burst in an instant, spraying out a shower of bloody pus.

"You, you, lunatic!"

Tiki had no time to react as his whole head caved in. His mouth, twisted from the impact, opened slightly. "N-no one has ever dared... to touch the Corruption..."

Lisi just grinned, as if the bloody holes being eaten into her flesh by the corrosive pus caused her no pain at all.

"Doesn’t matter. All I have to do is kill you."

She had no intention of getting into a protracted fight with Tiki; that was a surefire way to lose.

BOOM, BOOM...

Lisi’s figure was a blur as her fists flew, one punch after another slamming into Tiki’s body, each blow sending out a spray of shredded flesh and red-green pus.

"You, you, you..."

Tiki stood rigidly in place, his body repeatedly battered into pieces, his tentacles snapping one by one.

’Damn it, damn it... Why is she so strong?’

’Heal, damn it!’

Just as he was about to be reduced to a pulp, one of the eyeballs on his head would burst, and his body would instantly reform.

But before he could even act, Lisi’s iron fist would fall again, blasting his body back into smithereens.

"So this is the Blood of Greed and Corruption... You people really deserve to be wiped out."

Lisi’s face was a ruin of corroded, bloody flesh from the pus, but her eyes only grew more crazed. "Too weak... far too weak..."

Wei’en finished reloading, keeping a wary eye on the remaining three enemies while watching Lisi’s fight.

’Fuck, good thing I didn’t take a page from Marco’s book and act like an idiot in front of Lisi.’

’Otherwise, with the power of those iron fists, she wouldn’t even need a full punch. She’d have to kneel and beg him not to die on her...’

’So vicious, so brutal, so violent!’

Just then, Collins rushed past the Ceres Clan guards. "Captain Lisi, stop! Please leave him alive! We... we still need to question him."

BANG. BANG.

Wei’en fired two shots at his feet. "Butler Collins, please stay where you are. Don’t interfere with Captain Lisi’s fight."

He had no desire to get mixed up in the schemes of these Vasquez People, but both Marco’s and Lisi’s fights were at their climax.

He was the only one with any attention to spare, so he couldn’t very well let this Butler, Collins Vazquez, interfere and tip the scales.

Collins shot him a glare, his expression darkening completely. "Investigator Wei’en, you can’t—"

BANG. BANG.

Two more shots cut him off.

"You don’t want these people to get away, do you?"

"You? You have no idea what’s happening,"

Collins dropped all pretense, his voice tinged with urgency. "Captain Lisi, I’m ordering you to take him alive! They stole our Ceres Clan’s Guardian Divine Statue, and we must retrieve it!"

"I’ll... try," Lisi’s excited voice replied.

Wei’en’s finger paused on the trigger, and he shot her a helpless glance.

’You’re going to hold back when you look like that?’

’And even if you do hold back, Butler Collins won’t be the slightest bit grateful. In fact, he’s probably the one who most wants us to die here right now...’

"My thanks. The Ceres Clan will be sure to reward you handsomely."

Butler Collins breathed an inward sigh of relief, but he was also seething. ’Why did I have to run my mouth and ask these Ominous Ones to step in?’

’And that brat... killing so many Vasquez People. He deserves to die!’

"Wind of Chaos."

Meanwhile, Marco’s battle was also drawing to a close.

The raging storm he had gathered would periodically swirl around his Magic Staff, augmenting the power of his strikes and completely exhausting Elno’s stamina.

THUD.

Leaning on his scimitar, Elno dropped to one knee. He stared grimly at Marco’s tall figure, his body trembling as he gasped for breath, completely spent.

"D-damn you... Ominous Ones... The Black... the Black Pearl... won’t let you get away with this..."

"Why don’t you wait until your Sea Emperor can actually enter the Caster City State before you say that," Marco rumbled. "I suspect he wouldn’t dare."

"B-bastard... How could our Emperor not dare? You—"

THUD!

Before Elno could finish, a mangled, bloody head slammed into the ground nearby and rolled like a ball to his side.

All that remained of Tiki was his head. Of the dozens of eyes that were once on his face, only a single one remained, staring wide. The rest had burst into pools of green pus.

"Run... run... Aino, run!"

Tiki stared at him, gurgling the words through what remained of his throat.

"T-Tiki—"

Elno stared, at a complete loss. He wanted to reach out but was afraid that even the slightest touch would finish him off.

Marco returned to his normal form and turned, his long red hair falling around his shoulders. He stared in shock. "Lisi, are you alright?"

Lisi’s appearance was simply too horrifying. Only the upper half of her face was intact; the flesh from her cheeks down to her jaw had been corroded away, revealing the blood-red bone beneath.

The front of her uniform was in shreds, with a large part of her ample chest simply gone.

It was proof that in a fight, the most prominent features are always the first to be damaged.

Her lower body was a disaster zone as well. One leg from the knee down was nothing but bare bone, stripped of all flesh and blood.

"O-of course. I’m perfectly fine. I just need some treatment. You handle this."

Lisi gave a savage grin, pulled a No. 4 Magic Potion from her pocket, and poured it down her throat.

She had no choice; so much of her cheek had been eaten away that she couldn’t have held the liquid in her mouth otherwise.

Marco was still in good shape and nodded. "Alright. I’ll take care of it."

Seeing the fighting had ceased, Collins approached, forcing a smile. "Thank you, Captain Lisi. The Ceres Clan will most certainly—"

BANG, BANG, BANG...

Just then, the roar of a gun burst out, and a dozen bullets slammed into Tiki’s head.

"Whoops. My gun went off..."