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Last embryo Volume 6 Chapter 3 Part 4

(Well, it would seem that I was getting worried for nothing. Looks like she has this thing perfectly covered.)

Uesugi, who stopped being at such a high alert seeing how good Ayato was doing for herself took her hand off the handle of her sword, folded her arms on her chest and rested her back against the cave’s wall. It must have been all thanks to the fact that in comparison to that other day, her motivation was much stronger now, so it would be wrong of Uesugi to just step in and ruin her moment of glory where she could truly experience what the real battle at the height of her abilities was like, so she just smiled and observed how were the things going to unfold.

After Ayato blinded Byakko and Shen Gongbao with the thick layer of dust that blew in the air making them lose sight of her completely, Byakko clicked his tongue once more in frustration. This was definitely not how he assumed the things were going to be unfolding, and he did not like that in the slightest.

『Tch! I was not expecting her to come up with a counter to our charge so fast. Shen Gongbao, we should fall back for now and rethink our. . . . ! ! ! ! !』

「You absolute moron, do not stop moving!」

Once Byakko relaxed for only a short while, three arrows have been shot towards him in quick succession. Only then did her realize what was the true purpose of that dust smokescreen: it was so that he and Shen Gongbao would not notice in time that Ayato switched her weapons and had the time to adjust themselves to that change accordingly. Byakko dodged those three arrows by a literal skin of his teeth, but when he finished dodging them, he noticed that his breaths have been getting increasingly more ragged and his legs were getting out of shape.

That was Kudou Ayato for you: a fierce warrior who was not going to miss any chance to whittle down her opponents. Taking out her two spears, she threw one of them at Byakko and then immediately jumped after it while holding the other one in her two hands, launching a series of lightning-fast attacks until she reached the spear that she threw, changing the pattern of her thrusts and slashes in the blink of an eye. Now that Byakko was getting increasingly more exhausted he did not have enough time to react to that flurry of attacks properly, but that is where Shen Gongbao stepped up and intercepted Ayato’s spear attacks with her own spear thrusts, slashes and swings from atop Byakko’s back. Their respective weapons then clashed for the second, third and fourth times, but every time they did so, Shen Gongbao could feel intense vibration reverberating throughout her spear-holding hand as it was getting weaker and weaker, as a result of which she was getting pushed back slowly but surely.

(Just as I though. . . . .  she is not really used to handling this spear of hers, is she not? I can practically feel the clumsiness and awkwardness in her every strike.)

There was no longer any reason for her to hesitate. Showering her with a storm of attacks that she had no choice but to block, and when she occupied with that she went and targeted the other side of her spear, its handle, causing it to recoil back and knocking Shen Gongbao off balance, preventing her from reacting or switching the hand with which she was holding the spear.

「Khhhhh. . . . .! ! ! ! ! ! !」

Having no way at all to counter Ayato, Shen Gongbao’s front was now completely open and exposed to attacks, but inflicting any kind of physical harm was not going to do Ayato any good. After all, Shen Gongbao was one of the Immortal Sages, so no matter how gruesome damage would have been inflicted upon her and how fast it would have been inflicted, she would heal it all off in a matter of seconds, and that is why Ayato decided that what she needed against her was a different kind of approach.

. . . And this is where the hemp rope that she brought with herself here comes into play. If she cannot slash or pierce Shen Gongbao, then she simply needs to incapacitate her in a non-lethal way, and this rope should be just enough to do the trick nicely. Ayato swund it around in the same manner like she would her segmented sword, and it immediately coiled around both Shen Gongbao and Byakko, restraining them in place by digging deeply into their bodies.

『What is this. . . . . ? ! ! ! ! !』

「Hey, what in the goddamn fu. . . . . . ow! Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Hurts, it hurts, damni it!」

「That is enough, the match is settled! You have lost, Shen Gongbao!」

Feeling that this was the best possible moment for her to step in, Uesugi stopped leaning against the wall and got between Ayato and the members of 『Avatara』, declaring their skirmish to be over. And as for the result that they arrived just now, it was the best possible outcome that they could have hoped for. After all, that is how it usually goes with immortal beings. If you cannot hurt or kill them, the next best thing on the agenda is to capture them and seal their movements.
Shen Gongbao looked like she was about to say something along the lines of : 「The hell it is over! It is going to be over when I say so!」but her partner, Byakko, accepted that result without any major complaints.

『This bout is our loss, female knight. We accept our defeat and surrender ourselves to you.』

「W H A T ? ! ! ! ! H-Hey, wait a minute. . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! ! ! ! No, like hell we are! Who gave you the right to decide for the both of us, you cowardly kitten! ! ! ! ! ? I will not accept this outcome! This is not over yet! Not until I say that it is!」

『Says the one who had her carotid artery cut open so many times that you would have been many times dead beyond saving if it was not for your immortality? And do not even think about talking back, because you know even better than I do that I am in the right here, right? Since you have such an advantageous condition, you should have used to to give yourself the upper hand from the very beginning, but instead, you allowed your emotions to get the better of you and you dragged this fight more than it should have lasted, and because of that we have lost.』

「. . . . shut up.」

After being talked down by Byakko, Shen Gongbao has fallen silent, unable to find any arguments to refute his words with. Now that the battle was over, Ayato called her sword back to her side where she finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, even if she was determined to win and had the upper hand throughout this entire encounter, it does not change the fact that the enemies she was fighting with were one of the legendary Divine Beasts and an Immortal Sage who would not die even if she had her head knocked from her shoulders, or all of her limbs cut off from her body, got stabbed through the heart multiple times or got trapped at the bottom of the ice-cold ocean. If Ayato did not already knew about her immortality and had a general grasp of her combat capabilities from their earlier battle, the she would definitely have a much tougher time fighting her. But then again. . .

(I can understand why she admitted defeat just now even though she is still fuming with rage. It is because she does not want to reveal any information about herself to us, her enemies and other Players.)