Sharpened blade

Noelle was angry.

There was nothing in particular she was angry at, she just was.

Actually, that's a lie. She was angry at everything. She thought she had escaped the constant fighting and danger when she ran away with Gabriel that night, but how wrong she was.

It only got worse from there, and it continued to slowly get worse and worse and worse... and worse.

And here she was, fighting against creatures that shouldn't even exist in the first place. The way they look would be enough to put the creatures in children's nightmares to shame.

So instead of letting those abominations put nightmare monsters to shame, she would just put them out of their misery instead.

She slashed and sliced her way through the crowd of horrible looking abominations, her scimitar acting as an unstoppable weapon of death.

But Noelle's anger didn't lessen, it only grew as she slaughtered more and more abominations.

She didn't want to be killing, she didn't want be fighting, Noelle just wanted to be in a safe place having a normal time. No danger, just a normal, average life.

But she couldn't have that, could she. That was all taken away from her, there was no way she could have a normal life. It was an impossible pipe dream.

At least, not until she killed Rashik. Maybe then she could have a normal life. As normal as her current situation could be.

Her blade stopped for nothing, it cut through flesh without discrimination. Be it abomination or human, she killed anything that got in her way.

It's not like it was the first human she had killed anyway.

But that still didn't lessen the bitter taste in her mouth.

Just as Noelle went to cut through a crescent moon abomination that was about to try and strangle her with its tentacles, an ear shattering roar came from her left.

Expecting it to be Kai mid transformation again, Noelle ignored it and killed the abomination without hesitation.

She then frowned as she gazed down at her bloody blade.

Kai wasn't to her left in the first place, and he probably wouldn't have roared if he transformed. That seemed like more of a one time thing.

Noelle quickly shifted her body as she raised her blade, placing a hand on its body to reinforce it.

And it was lucky she did so.

A gorilla like abomination, much the same as Kai and Wa'rak fought, though Noelle didn't know that, launched a punch at the unsuspecting woman.

It's meaty fist hit the body of the blade, sending shockwaves through Noelle's body.

She gritted her teeth as she tried to resist the blow, but the gorilla abomination must've had a much higher strength stat than her.

Noelle let out a cry as she was flung backwards from the strength of the abominations attack. Her bones creaked and her arms trembled for a moment as she flew through the air. She rolled on the ground a few times before cursing and quickly jumping to her feet.

Wiping a strand of hair from her eyes, she gazed coldly at the gorilla. Noelle lifted her scimitar once more, this time knowing that an attack would be coming.

The gorilla roared once more as it began charging at Noelle, its large, fleshy body acting like an ugly battering ram.

Noelle did not react, she took a deep breath and prepared herself for what's to come.

In her time in spent in her uncle's compound, she learned lots about various things that she thought would never be useful. Some theory, some practical.

One of the things that she learned, she learned on the night of her fifteenth birthday.

Mr Ganim was a big man, much bigger than Noelle herself, especially with how malnourished she was after her time in the cell.

It had been a mistake to even let him pin her in the first place, that alone gave him a huge advantage.

It had ended up alright that time, but Noelle learned from her mistakes.

If she did end up getting pinned by this abomination, it was over for her. That gorilla had to be much, much stronger than that old pervert, meaning it could instantly kill her should she mess up.

So in the face of overwhelming strength and size, the easiest way to win is to not get hit in the first place.

Noelle dodged to the side of the gorilla's charge easily, while the abomination was extremely strong, it was equally as slow.

She swung her scimitar and tried to dig it into the abominations fleshy body, but all the basic weapon could do was chip in a small bit, but ultimately bounce off harmlessly.

Noelle inwardly cursed. She didn't have a weapon that could properly deal damage. While she could probably dodge all of the abominations attacks, she couldn't deal any meaningful damage. It was a stalemate.

That was only if she didn't have any tricks up her sleeve though.

All of the solo training, all of the missed meals, all of the sleep lost, everything was done in the effort of fully learning the extent of the capabilities of her skills and innate ability.

And she had figured out some useful things.

Taking a deep breath, Noelle lifted her scimitar up and spoke. Only she didn't speak to the abomination before her.

"Sharpen"

The scimitar in Noelle's hand blade started to eminate a soft glow. It's shape altered slightly, but that was all she could manage with her current Will stat and proficiency.

The blade listened to her command, getting ever so slightly sharper. While her innate abilities description said she could command things that had a Will stat thirty-five percent less than her own, it also counted with some inanimate objects.

But sharpening her blade was all she could do with her current level. She might be able to add a second enchantment to her scimitar, but last time she attempted that she passed out after a minute.

And Noelle wasn't planning on passing out in a minute today.

Enraged that the small pest dodged it's second attempt at squishing it, the gorilla abomination roared and charged again.

Noelle got ready once more as she watched the gorilla charge. It seemed that all the abominations were mindless beings that followed the will of that creepy four armed abomination, meaning Noelle wouldn't be able to use her innate ability on it at all. While it may work on inanimate objects, it didn't work on beings that didn't have a will in the first place.

The abomination swung its right arm, then its left, then its right again, but Noelle dodged them all. She wasn't going to attack at any opportunity that she was given, she was going to wait for the perfect one. If it was anything other than a sure kill, it offered to much risk. One slip up was enough to have her squished under that abominations immense power.

Her scimitar waited patiently for that opportunity to arise, it's blade glinting with newfound power.

But with every second that passed, it got harder and harder for Noelle to keep up.

Just keeping her scimitar sharpened gave it power comparable to a high level common weapon as the blades they were given to begin with seemed to be below even common rarity, but it constantly took a toll on her mind.

It was rapidly draining her mental energy. While her innate ability did not require any Mana to uphold like Kai's, it was extremely tiring nonetheless.

So she had to finish this quick. While Noelle would definitely pass out if she tried to command her weapon twice after a minute, she wanted to finish this in less than that anyway.

A war wasn't a sprint after all, it was a marathon.

But Noelle was fine with sprinting for a bit of it.

Taking a deep breath, Noelle dodged another one of the gorilla's charges. The abomination was growing restless. It gave up on using its fists and focused more on just trying to crush Noelle with its body.

But Noelle's movements were too refined, too perfect at dodging. She's spent basically her whole life running away after all.

She dodged like a matador dodging a raging bull, but finally, after what felt like an eternity of dodging, Noelle saw her opportunity.

The gorilla had put all its monstrous strength into the last charge, meaning it needed a few seconds to steady itself and get ready for its next attack.

But it would not get those few seconds.

Without hesitation, Noelle dashed towards the back of the gorilla and jumped onto its broad back. Gritting her teeth, she gripped both hands on the hilt of her scimitar and thrust it downwards.

The blade dug into the neck much easier than previously, but it still wasn't enough. The scimitar dug in just fine, but Noelle couldn't move it or pull it back out.

Cursing, Noelle spent the last of the unnasigned stat points she had been saving and quickly put them all into Strength.

Then, with a roar of anger, Noelle gripped the hilt as tightly as she could and jumped off the gorilla's back. Using her bodyweight to gain pull the scimitar down easier, the blade cut through the abominations flesh with less resistance.

Until eventually, it's head fell to the grass below its body.

You have slain quarter moon abomination: Frenzied Charger

Noelle sighed, ignoring how much sense the name of the abomination made when you compared it to its fighting style in favour of getting a few moments of respite before her inevitable next battle.

All things considered, that fight could have gone a lot worse. One singular mistake was all that was needed for Noelle to die, yet she didn't slip up.

It faintly reminded her of that moment of pure focus she had when she beat Wa'rak in that second win, but she hadn't even able to achieve that state since then. It was like it was locked, all that she remembered was that she was extremely angry and-

Noelle froze as a shiver ran up her spine, her blood turned cold as she felt the claws of death brush against her.

Following her own mind before her body could even react, Noelle gave up control of her limbs and limply fell to the ground. It was the fastest way down after all.

A beautiful silver blade cut cleanly through the air where Noelle's neck just was. The sword would have instantly killed the olive-skinned woman should it have hit, but Noelle hadn't noticed anyone near her a moment ago.

It's like they had appeared from the shadows-

"Well, why couldn't you have just stood pretty and died like a good girl?"

Noelle's eyes widened as she recognised the voice. How could she not, after all, it belonged to-

"Rashik, it's about time you showed up."

Shaking off the subtle feeling of fear at the fact that she nearly just died, Noelle quickly stood up and glared at the man across from her.

Rashik wielded a beautiful silver blade in his right hand and his left was empty. He looked exactly the same as Noelle remembered him.

Ugly and smug.

But the suit of armour he was wearing was not as ugly.

A powerful looking set of obsidian black armour was covering Rashik's entire body. It looked impenetrable and eerie at the same time. Noelle couldn't help but subconsciously swallow at the sight of it.

But that was all she did, she quickly steeled her nerves and lifted her blade to face off with Rashik for hopefully what would be their last encounter.

"Rashik, I'm going to do something I should have done a long time ago."

Rashik grinned.

"And what would that be?"

Noelle snarled.

"End your fucking life."