Right at that moment, a crisp "ding" echoed in Ronan's mind, and a new quest window popped up on his panel.
"Defeat/subdue the CP9 agent Lucci who has come to provoke you (B-rank quest, time limit: one hour, reward 80 Quest Points, failure: lose 100 Quest Points. Accept?)."
A quest. So Lucci's appearance had triggered a new quest.
But taking Lucci down was exactly what he needed to do anyway. Not just for the quest reward, but to make an example—to let the World Government understand that going after Beth and the others came with a price they could not afford. At the same time, it would crush his so-called elder brother's unrealistic schemes.
"Accept."
Ronan didn't hesitate.
"Beth." Ronan called out softly. Just as well—he also wanted to know the current gap in strength between Lucci and Beth.
"Yes, Ronan-denka."
Beth immediately understood what Ronan meant. She stepped forward, her gaze turning sharp as she placed herself between Ronan and Lucci. She did not draw the greatsword on her back, simply looked at Lucci calmly.
Seeing Beth's movement, a cold light flashed in Lucci's eyes. He stopped talking and slightly lowered his stance.
"Soru!"
With a low shout, his figure vanished from where he had been, reappearing at Beth's side at a speed almost impossible for the naked eye to follow!
However, even faster than his movement was Beth's reaction.
The instant Lucci's figure disappeared, Beth's head had already turned slightly toward the direction he was about to appear from. At this point she was already proficient in both Armament Haki and Observation Haki. Facing Lucci, who didn't even know what Haki was yet, Beth couldn't even be bothered to draw the sword on her back.
When Lucci's hand chopped toward the side of Beth's neck with a fierce knife-hand strike, Beth simply lifted her left hand in what looked like a casual motion.
"Pa!"
A soft sound rang out. Lucci's hand, which was easily strong enough to split rock, was caught at the wrist by Beth's palm and stopped dead, unable to advance even a fraction.
Lucci's icy pupils contracted abruptly. His Soru and that knife-hand strike… had been read and blocked that easily?!
No matter how fast one moves, under Observation Haki there is nowhere to hide.
"Tekkai!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Lucci immediately activated the defensive technique of Rokushiki. Every muscle in his body tightened like iron, while the index finger of his other hand shot forward, stabbing at Beth's throat.
"Shigan!"
Beth still didn't bother to dodge. Her left hand pressed Lucci's captured wrist down just a little, and the trajectory of his Shigan was instantly forced off course, grazing past her shoulder instead. At the same time, Beth's right hand lashed out like lightning, fingers clenched into a fist that slammed precisely into the center of Lucci's chest, which was still hardened with Tekkai.
"Boom!"
A dull impact echoed. Lucci's pupils went wide as his body staggered backward several steps, his chest heaved, his insides churning. For the first time, his face showed raw, incredulous shock.
She had broken through his Tekkai that easily.
Lucci had never expected his opponent to be this strong—she had not even drawn the long sword on her back. For someone as proud as Lucci, this was nothing short of a brutal humiliation.
"Rankyaku!"
Forcing down the discomfort, Lucci twisted his body into a rapid spin. A large, crescent-shaped vacuum blade shot from his kick, howling as it slashed toward Beth!
Beth watched the incoming vacuum slash and finally drew the greatsword from her back. But she did not use the edge to parry. Instead, she raised the broad blade in front of her like a shield.
"Screee—!"
The Rankyaku crashed into the sword's surface, letting out a piercing screech of friction. Beth's sword arm remained steady as bedrock; the sword did not even tremble.
The gap in strength was like a bottomless chasm.
Lucci's heart sank to rock bottom. His attacks couldn't cause the slightest effect on her.
In the instant Lucci froze in shock, Beth moved.
She appeared in front of him in a flash.
"Crap!"
Lucci hadn't expected himself to be distracted as well. He tried to spring backward to get away from Beth.
But Beth had no intention of giving him that chance. Still gripping the hilt, she drove it straight into Lucci's abdomen.
Lucci's pupils shrank violently. He wanted to use Kami-e to slip away, but Beth was far too fast. He didn't have time to make any move at all.
"Urgh!"
The tremendous force transmitted from the sword hilt into his abdomen and spread through every part of his body. He felt as though his bones had been ripped out; his body went limp as he dropped to his knees, both hands on the floor, panting harshly. Beads of sweat the size of peas rolled down his forehead—he didn't even have the strength to stand.
Seeing that Lucci had lost all ability to keep fighting, Beth withdrew and returned to Ronan's side.
Ronan had never planned to kill Lucci. This was a future ace personally favored by the World Government's upper echelons; if Ronan really killed him, the World Government would lock onto him, and there would be no peaceful days left in his future.
Lucci, kneeling on the floor, looked terrible.
Defeated. Thoroughly defeated.
He had not even been able to force out a fraction of his opponent's true strength. In that moment, Lucci's once-unshakable heart felt like it had been pinned to the ground and ground into the dirt over and over. This was the first time, in all the missions he had carried out, that he had felt such a deep, crushing sense of powerlessness.
After watching their battle, even though Beth hadn't gone all out, Ronan now had a rough measure of her strength. Claymore warriors—especially high-ranked ones like Beth—had physical abilities and combat skills far beyond what someone at Lucci's current stage could handle.
On top of that, after so many years of honing their Haki, the power Beth and her sister possessed now was probably comparable to a Marine Headquarters vice admiral.
And that was without releasing their Yoki. Once a Claymore warrior unleashed Yoki, they became even stronger.
He had already tested them releasing their Yoki before, but no matter how far they pushed it, they could never exceed fifty percent. That should be a restriction imposed by the panel in his mind. Ronan understood very clearly that surpassing fifty percent brought the risk of Awakening.
He suspected this was the panel's way of protecting them, allowing them to unleash their Yoki freely without having to worry about the risk of Awakening at all.
Right at the moment when Lucci was defeated—still conscious but with a body that refused to move—
A familiar sound rang in Ronan's head. The panel showed the quest as completed. As he watched his Quest Points jump to 180, before he could even fully react, the panel changed again!
"Quest: Subdue Lucci and make him your right-hand man (A-rank quest, time limit: one hour, reward 200 Quest Points, failure: lose 250 Quest Points. Accept?)."
Looking at the new quest floating on the panel and that generous amount of Quest Points, Ronan's heart couldn't help but pound a little faster. An A-rank quest—after that previous S-rank quest, this was another mission with a reward of over a hundred points.
(End of Chapter)
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