Chapter 67 ~ What Arrogance
When that gaze like jade-green precious stone fell upon her, Erin felt her throat turn cold, as if pierced by an icy arrow, making her shudder and break out in cold sweats.
“Clang!” The poisoned arrow was once again easily deflected by Tilisa. The goddess behind Erin’s hair stood on end.
This time the aim wasn’t at the chest. The only difference seemed to be the absence of cushioning pads—Tilisa received some impact force.
So there was still no way to break through her defense?
The ranger goddess’s expression was grim as she swallowed hard. At her wit’s end, she turned questioning eyes toward Erin.
Looking at Tilisa’s spotless golden hair, shining with sacred luster under the sunlight, Erin’s heart filled with indignation.
A scheming bitch full of malice, pretending to look so righteous—who was she trying to fool?!
Having lost their only knight, Erin had to stand in front of the ranged ranger, acting as a knight herself.
She stared hard at Tilisa, knowing despite her anger that she had to bind both of Tilisa’s hands together to have a chance.
Maintaining distance would result in being sealed with one arrow by Tilisa’s light arrows. Without a knight to draw attention, Erin had to charge up and engage Tilisa in close combat, looking for opportunities to release her divine authority during melee.
But how could Tilisa not see through Erin’s intentions? With the ranged ranger reduced to decoration, the opponent had only this one fighting method left. With elven acuity, just paying a little attention would prevent Erin’s divine authority from hitting her.
Tilisa didn’t use her bow. She slung the longbow on her back and drew the light sword that had earlier pierced Laro to intercept Erin’s long whip.
Erin was inwardly shocked.
Seeing Tilisa’s exceptional archery, she had preconceived notions that Tilisa must be clumsy with close-combat weapons.
Devoting all energy and time to honing archery skills, she must rarely have practiced other weapons.
Erin’s logical thinking wasn’t wrong. Her biggest mistake was using human common sense to estimate Tilisa.
Whips had long attack range, but mastering them was very difficult. Especially in chaotic battles, under such mental tension, whips inevitably struck oneself.
Matching the difficulty was the whip’s unpredictability and hard-to-parry attack trajectories.
Erin’s whip head was covered with small barbs. Being hit would definitely tear off a layer of skin and flesh.
“Archers aren’t good at close combat”—harboring such stereotypes and thinking she had the advantage, Erin realized something was wrong after the first exchange.
Tilisa held her sword in one hand, using her other arm to push against the sword’s back, deflecting the aggressive whip in mid-air. Gripping the sword with both hands, she pressed forward, delivering a face-covering strike to close distance with Erin.
Erin was startled and quickly whipped her weapon.
Her domain effect was increasingly rapid consecutive strikes that became faster with each hit, overwhelming enemies.
Tilisa’s golden sword shadow deflected Erin’s whip and continued advancing.
Seeing the golden figure suddenly close in, the increasingly anxious Erin’s whip movements became more chaotic and disorganized.
Compared to archery, Tilisa’s understanding of swordsmanship was clearly much inferior, yet it was definitely not the skill level someone who had just encountered long sword weapons could display.
It was apparent that Tilisa was no stranger to sword-type weapons.
Her overwhelming offensive crushed Erin’s defenses like breaking dead wood.
“Clang!” A long, crisp sound rang out as Erin’s whip was knocked from her hands.
Erin still didn’t give up. When the opponent cut through her whip with the blade, she released her divine authority to bind the opponent. But her usually reliable divine authority lost its effect against Tilisa—the black vines extending ‘hands’ from the void were severed by Tilisa’s light sword.
With no options left, Erin’s knees went weak. Looking at the light sword pointed at her nose tip, she collapsed to the ground.
She couldn’t believe she had lost to a wild goddess. As a legitimate goddess, she couldn’t believe it, nor could she accept it.
“…Heh, congratulations. You got your revenge.” Erin raised her head bitterly. “How does it feel? Do you have that sense of complete satisfaction and pleasure?”
However, when she looked up, Tilisa said nothing. Her shimmering eyes held only purity and tranquility.
So pure that not a trace of impurity or defilement could be seen.
It was as if defeating her contained no personal emotion—merely self-defense.
This emotion couldn’t be faked. But how could this be?
…She had bullied her so much, so why didn’t she have any hatred or disgust toward her?
Erin was confused again. She didn’t understand why Tilisa appeared so indifferent after getting her great revenge.
Was she magnanimous? Or was she kind?
Looking into Tilisa’s eyes, Erin gradually understood.
Tilisa bore her no grudge. You could say she was magnanimous, or you could say she was kind, but none of this was the essence.
Fundamentally, Tilisa thought this was completely unnecessary.
To put it plainly, Tilisa felt this matter wasn’t worth mentioning, including Erin as a person—equally unworthy of mention in her eyes.
Someone who had never entered her consideration naturally couldn’t inspire hatred. Consider this: would humans harbor hatred toward a specific insect?
Not worth it. An insect that could be crushed with one finger wasn’t worth such complex emotions. So everything related to this insect was equally unworthy of mention, including so-called resentment and hatred.
In Tilisa’s eyes, Erin saw not feigned righteousness and composed calm, but a kind of purity—as if no one had ever entered her consideration.
She recalled what Tilisa had said before entering the secret realm: “Please guide me well”—equally devoid of meaning or emotional coloring.
“Until we meet again, Erin.” Tilisa gracefully performed a farewell bow toward Erin, appearing gentle, elegant, and quite polite. As the victor, she spoke no mocking words to her former enemy, yet the effect surpassed all sarcasm and ridicule.
In Erin’s eyes at this moment, Tilisa’s behavior seemed so ironic. Everything about the golden-haired girl’s conduct conveyed one message: she had never deliberately noticed Erin’s existence.
What arrogance… Compared to this, her ‘pride’ based on bullying the weak couldn’t even be called ‘pride.’
Tilisa gathered her strength and in one breath brought down her long sword, severing the token around Erin’s neck.
With a crisp explosion, Erin’s figure disappeared from the forest.
‘Team 57’s ranger-class goddess Erin Cardifen has been defeated by Team 30’s ranger-class goddess Tilisa.’
After eliminating Erin, Tilisa dismissed her knight’s light sword, picked up the longbow beside her, and drew the double-winged longbow to full draw. The charged light arrow aimed at the last member of Team 57 with any fighting capability—Mary. Under the girl’s pale complexion, she released the bowstring.
Two clean arrows hit the throat.
‘Team 57’s ranger-class goddess Mary has been defeated by Team 30’s ranger-class goddess Tilisa.’