The Survival of an Inferior

"Rena?! W-What...are you...doing here...ugh..." says Aldan.

Rena looks at the two remaining demons. They stare nonchalantly at Rena and Aldan.

?

Rena goes to Aldan and helps him up. She notices something wrong with the demon's behaviour, they are too...collected for someone who witnessed a comrade's death. 

"The defence is barely holding out. But we can no longer take the continuous siege, we need to end this." 

Aldan coughs a little blood. "I-I...know what...you are thinking...but...run...you cannot defeat them." He says.

...

"Is that an order?" asks Rena. 

"You..." 

With trembling arms, Aldan points behind Rena.

...?

Killing intent bursts from behind.

!!

Rena grabs Aldan and jumps away, avoiding a punch that divides the very snow.

After the dust clears up, the dark silhouette is revealed to be Lei. Lei caresses his neck and smirks. "Miss, that hurts. Where did a heroine like you come from?" 

Rena clicks her tongue and looks at her left shoulder. Part of her skin grazed, and a stream of blood flowed. 

"R-Run..." says Aldan.

Rena knows running is futile and grips her sword tightly. 

She dashes straight at Lei. Lei tries the same trick on Rena, teleporting behind but it doesn't work this time. Rena continuously swings fast and power attacks at Lei, trying to prevent him from using spatial magic. 

Rena notices that instead of teleporting far away and bombarding her with attacks, Lei has been fighting close quarters using martial arts. She managed to deduce that Lei's spatial magic has some sort of restriction.

However, she failed to realise Lei's flexibility. 

Moonlight Art Second Style, Afterimage.

Rena's body engulfs in blue mana and rushes at Lei and slashes down. Lei jumps back to avoid it but Rena's strike came from behind. 

?!!

She left an afterimage of her slashing when in reality, she went behind Lei at extreme speed. 

"UGH?!" her sword pierces Lei and Rena pulls it sideways, creating a slit in his torso and cutting Lei's left arm off. 

From the open wound, black viscous liquid seeps out and spreads. It then engulfs Rena rapidly.

"Let's see how you adapt to the abyss..." Lei says, his voice echoing. 

...

"Huff huff huff..." 

The eternal darkness of the void spreads endlessly. The only she can hear is her panting fatigue catching up to her. 

Rena stabilises her breathing and closes her eyes. 

...

*THUMP THUMP* 

...

*THUMP THUMP* 

Her anxious heartbeat sounds explosive. 

Small sharp sounds swoosh behind. 

However, she felt small vibrations to her left.

???

Suddenly, something bashes Rena to her left. She manages to deflect that attack but another punch follows up to her right.

?!!

"Ugh?!" 

She rapidly slashes her right but to no avail. Her senses have been dulled in the abyss...

No...she realises something is off with the "cues" as if someone is purposely making those noises and vibrations to distract her. 

Random cues barrage her from all directions, confusing Rena; She is forced into a defensive stance. It didn't help at all. Lei's continuous attack grows faster and stronger indicating his recovery, Rena doesn't know what but Lei has a "recovery" skill or magic that can even save him from death. Is he not immortal at this point?

Does this guy have no weakness? 

Many questions ran through Rena's mind as she has no choice but to take the damage head-on.

*BAM!!!* 

Lei throws a hook to Lena's arm and sends her far into the abyss. 

The abyss subsides and Rena falls mid-air.

"Wha-"

Before Rena could react, a warp hole appears below Rena and above. Falling through the bottom warp hole sends Rena back to the top, initiating an infinite loop. 

She continues to accelerate down, increasing her speed until she reaches the terminal velocity.

Lei then creates another warp hole beside a mountain and throws Rena there. 

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!* 

The intense momentum crushed her internal organs. 

"ACK?!!" Her mouth spits out blood as patches of crimson pour out of her armour. 

Her body falls to the ground with a thud.

"Hey Lei! Wrap it up, we've accomplished our objective," says Kai.

...

Lei descends from the sky and stares at Rena. He looks at Kai and says "Alright." 

*Thud* 

?!

He looks back and notices Rena gone, bits of blood lead behind a rock nearby. 

...

"What's the hold-up?" says Kai. 

"She...escaped." Lei lies. 

"What?!...No, it doesn't matter. Let's go, we are all dead if we meet Marte!" Kai says and flies away. 

Lei gazes at the rock melancholy. 

"You are persistent...but it can only get you so far. We are considered sacrificial pawns in the lord's eyes. If you can't even defeat me, how can you protect Elvis?" Lei says to Rena. "Still..."

Lei smiles. "You are young and talented...let's see how far you will go. I've spared Aldan as well, good luck."

Rena grits her teeth drenched in blood. Tears flow down her eyes, mixing with the blood down her cheek. 

"Why am I still so weak..." she mumbles.

15 minutes later, after the retreat of the invaders, Radz and the army found Aldan and Rena unconscious in the mountains nearby. 

They were immediately attended to by every healer and potion there is before being swiftly sent back into Ikas for a more thorough recovery. 

It was later revealed that the nobles of Ikas demanded Marte escort them out of Ikas, abandoning the troops on the battlefield and his duty. Many people died because of those selfish bastards yet nobody can do anything about it...only watch as the disgusting parasites live like the world belongs to them.

================================= 

"Ugh...?" my head hurts. 

A cloth wraps around my mouth and eyes, ropes tie my hand and legs together. 

I can hear some people talking from afar. 

"Is this really that Samuel? I thought he died!" someone says. 

"Precisely! Guess how much the demon cultists would pay to get him!?" another man says. 

"Won't Rafi...say anything?"

"Nah, he pretty much approves of this anyways. Samuel was only a shield for us-" 

When the two men turns back to me, they see me staring at them with a big grin, the ropes snapped and cloth laying on the floor around me. 

"Go on," I say.

...