A deafening impact sound echoed through the area.
The red aura stopped by the defensive barrier turned into red sparks like lightning and scattered around it.
The red sparks either bounced back toward the red-haired woman or slammed into the surrounding trees and ground. Trees were blown apart into splinters, and large craters opened in the earth.
The aura wrapped around the woman’s right fist was no ordinary aura. It was attack aura imbued with destructive effects.
That was why the trees and ground struck by the red aura were destroyed. Her own body was excluded from the attack’s targets, so the rebounding red aura posed no danger to her.
Attacks using aura or mana often exclude the user from their own targets. That was why, even when reflected by a barrier or similar, the one who launched the attack usually took no damage.
If the user clearly intended it, they could also exclude other beings near them from the attack’s targets. However, those beings had to be close by.
Since Kazui had been near the red-haired woman, he too had been excluded from the attack’s targets. That was why she had been able to throw the red-aura-wrapped right straight at Vice without risk of harming Kazui.
Judging by the scale of the destruction the red aura caused, the power of her right straight was clearly considerable. An ordinary monster would likely have been defeated in a single blow.
But that attack’s power was completely stopped and deflected by the blue-glowing defensive barrier Vice had created. The defensive capability of the barrier far surpassed the strength of the red-haired woman’s attack.
The red-haired woman’s body slammed into the barrier as if she had body-checked it. The rebound threw her off balance; she screamed and tumbled across the ground.
"Oh... a Leona. How rare."
Vice’s eyes glowed blue as she looked at the fallen red-haired woman with clear interest and continued:
"If you returned to your original form, I might feel like eating you... but as long as you’re a Leona, there’s no way I can eat you."
(Is this woman’s name Leona? Does the succubus named Vice know her?)
Questions rose in Kazui’s mind, but there was no way he could find answers.
"Well, anyway... you’re in the way..."
Without even getting off Kazui, Vice raised her left palm toward the red-haired woman, who had already stood up and taken a ready stance. Pale blue light radiated from Vice’s entire body and then gathered completely into her left palm.
Immediately afterward, a large circular hole opened in an instant in the blue defensive barrier where her left palm was pointed.
"Get lost!"
Vice said it casually, and a howling pale-blue storm of light erupted from her left palm. The glowing storm passed through the circular hole with a thunderous roar and slammed into the red-haired woman.
The hole that had opened in the barrier was the equivalent of an embrasure or gun port in a city wall. Many magic-created defensive barriers could open such holes for attacking if the caster wished.
The storm was so powerful that a typhoon would have felt like a gentle breeze. It blew the screaming red-haired woman away like a leaf. It wasn’t only her — nearby trees, rocks, and earth were all blasted away one after another.
The storm subsided as quickly as a sudden gust of wind, but the area it had passed through looked as if a tornado had swept through. Trees had completely vanished, and the ground was deeply gouged into a thick trench-like scar.
(Magic? No... she didn’t chant a spell and no magic circle appeared, so is it an aura attack?)
Kazui analyzed the attack Vice had just unleashed.
(The pale-blue light looked like aura, and the attack resembled Aura Shot. But for an aura attack, it reached way too far...)
He couldn’t even tell whether the attack was magic or martial arts that used aura. And witnessing such overwhelming power left him completely stunned.
(Is there even an adventurer who could win against something like this?)
Vice had launched that ridiculously powerful attack as if it were nothing. Moreover, she was still straddling Kazui the entire time and showed not the slightest sign of seriousness.
If Vice ever fought seriously, Kazui couldn’t even imagine how strong she would be.
(It’s only natural that I can’t beat her... and even if help arrives like that woman just now, there’s no way anyone can rescue me from her.)
Kazui was forced to reaffirm just how desperate his situation was. From what he had seen of the adventurers in Aquila, even if they all teamed up they wouldn’t stand a chance against Vice.
Even if someone other than the red-haired woman appeared to help, he felt it would still be impossible for them to drive Vice away and save him.
(I wonder if that woman who got blown away is okay...)
He began to worry about the red-haired woman’s safety.
(I don’t know who she is, but she got hit hard because she came to save me. I hope she’s all right.)
"I never thought anyone would chase me all the way out here. I was a little too soft."
Vice muttered with a slightly awkward expression. Because they were quite far from the battlefield on the grasslands, she had assumed no one would follow and had tried to violate Kazui without deploying a defensive barrier.
She was reflecting on how naive that judgment had been.