"Any last wish, Nyx? I love the expression you have. It means you finally understood there is no way out for you," Harid was savouring his vengeance. He had vowed to make Kairo suffer after the surgeon was arrested. He wasn't going to stop in front of anything to reach his goal.
"I have no last wish since I'm not going to end here," Nyx said defiantly. Although the knights were incredibly powerful, they were slow—at least in comparison to Sifa. Using that to her advantage, Nyx wanted to forgo all her defense for one desperate move.
'This is it,' she thought. Stepping backward, she evaded another sword strike from the knights and stopped moving completely, causing Harid to frown in confusion.
"What do you have in mind?" he asked, his expression reflecting that of someone who smelled danger coming.
Nyx took a deep breath and channeled all her strength into Sifa. Sifa was a living scarf that could be said to be somehow sentient—although not to the level of reasoning on its own.
Through intense concentration, Nyx managed to convey what she wanted to it. With that done, Sifa hummed to life, spinning around her like a venomous cobra ready to bite and eat any of the frozen knights.
"Go," Nyx murmured.
Like a bolt of lightning, it cannonballed forward. Everything happened so fast that no one could react in time. Sifa was like a snake, undulating and skidding past the frozen knights with incredible precision, like gliding on water.
In a blink, it had crushed the distance between it and Harid. 'Sifa is incredible at grappling. I just need to touch you once with it to end this fight,' Nyx thought. Using her raised forearm to take head-on the impacts of the frozen knights, one after another they attacked like madmen, shattering their swords again and again on her white skin.
Harid, on his part, took a step backward, a wave of panic washing over his face. Using the Ice Tomb card, he summoned more and more frozen knights between him and Sifa.
"Stay away from me, damn thing!" he cursed.
But Sifa kept gliding with disturbing ease through the ocean of frozen knights.
With a sickening thud, it connected with Harid, the impact sending him directly into the walls of the submarine. His face twitched so much it was like he was going to vomit his intestines, turning white like snow. Sifa coiled around his entire body and neck, strangling him like a vulgar sausage mid-air.
"You seem pretty silent all of a sudden, Harid. Any problem?" Nyx asked. After managing to escape the frozen knights, she was certain the fight was over. With Harid now tied up by Sifa, she had held onto her promise.
"You... I..." Harid tried talking, but his words were choked in his throat, Sifa strengthening its hug each time he made a move. All over his body, his veins were slowly popping out as if he was going to explode at any moment.
The engineers stood out of their corner one after another. Although it was over, they still kept a good distance between them and Harid.
"You did it, Nyx. You're incredible," one said, his face regaining some color.
"We still have time. Excellent job, Nyx. The damage level has not risen above the 35% mark. We still have a way out of this," Camilla said with a deep breath. She had been on edge all this time, hoping for Nyx not to lose.
"You two, get ready. We need to quickly locate the origin of this and fix it," she began ordering her people.
'Now I can go looking for Kairo. I hope he is safe,' Nyx said, catching her breath.
However Her instincts screamed something was off. Instinctively, she called back Sifa. Just as the white scarf was rushing back to her, Harid's body turned red.
It imploded with fire.
Flames so dazzling that the entire hall was swept by a glowing hollow of energy. Even more disturbing was the effect the flames had on the ice-covered hall. It was like the two were fighting each other—the flames burned the ice with incredible strength, while the ice fought back with energy.
Covered in flames in the middle of the evaporating ice, Harid let out a deep breath, causing white smoke to escape through his lips. Like a deity of fire, he lifted his eyes towards the engineers. Their expressions changed drastically, the joy vanishing instantly like the ice had done in front of the fire.
"Am lucky I got this counter card in pocket. You almost got me, bitch," Harid said, his teeth almost breaking from tightening them in fury. Stretching his finger out, he flipped another card in his left hand while keeping Ice Tomb in his right hand. "Absolute Degree," he murmured.
"This card again," Nyx's face darkened when she saw those flames reappear. Instinctively, she held her wounded shoulder. It was this card that had wounded her at the start. Before their fight started, Harid had sneak-attacked her before she could use the pocket hourglass.
If it had been any other card, Nyx would have managed to escape in one piece, but the Absolute Degree was a nightmare for speed masters. For the faster the opponent, the faster the flames were—and the deadlier they burned
But she had learned something even more disturbing. Absolute Degree and Ice Tomb were counter cards.
'No wonder he wasn't using them simultaneously... he can't do that, 'Nyx thought. She had made some research on these cards and had figured out a few things in the past.
Counter cards are cards that, like their name suggests, oppose each other. Meaning these cards could never be active at the same time—like Nyx using Sifa and the pocket hourglass together. This type of card repels each other naturally.
It was because of this nature that Harid could free himself from Sifa. With his arms hugged by Sifa, Harid could not have activated his cards for two reasons. First, because cards needed to be in contact with any part of the body for the aura to be infused in it. And secondly, because the aura infusion didn't happen instantly. Although it was so fast that no one ever noticed, it usually took a millisecond or so. But for counter cards, there was virtually no delay. It was like the cards hated each other to the point they couldn't wait for the owner's aura.
"I was naive to think you would be defeated this easily. Now I will be on my guard, Nyx. My frozen knights, rise back to your feet," Harid declared. One after another, the snowy storm pushed out once more with Harid at the center, freezing the flames midway.
Winds so cold that Nyx felt her blood slow down in her veins passed through them. The frozen knights this time were not only bigger—they had a wide array of weapons now, ranging from swords to spears and bows.
Her heartbeat increased. 'Would I be able to hold them?' Uncertainty crept into her face.
The engineers all tumbled backward, regaining the walls in the corner. They were unable to stare at the frozen knights' eyes.
"Now you shall all feel it... go!" Harid ordered, and the army of frozen knights began moving, one after another. Unlike the first time, they acted like an organized battalion of warriors, walking in rows toward their target.
Although she had no certainty of being able to stop them all, Nyx stood in front of the group, ready to protect them till the end
' I can do it,' she kept repeating to herself. This was what she had done in the past when she felt lonely and afraid.
Alone in the room of her care center, she would repeat: You can do it, Nyx. You can do it. She had no one on whom to hold, thus she could only rely on that to stay safe—holding Sifa tightly in her fingers.
The frozen knights advanced like a dead legion. Swords raised upward, the first waves of hacks arrived in a flurry of strikes. Gritting her teeth, Nyx moved—but just as she raised Sifa...
A blinding light popped out from the side of the walls. Midair, the figure was like it covered in a cyclone of wind. He landed with a clean thud in front of the approaching army. "Wind Slayer," he murmured. Nyx closed her eyes and shielded them.
When the ghostly being waved its weapon towards the army of knights, its massive butcher knife cut like butter through them—one after another. The army was turned into smoke of ice in a matter of seconds, causing shards of white to rain in the room.
"I'm here now, Nyx," Kairo said.