Helena's Flaming Slash had scorched the spot where the masked woman had been standing just a moment earlier. The smell of smoke and burning still lingered in the air, but the woman now stood at some distance, gracefully and nimbly adjusting her gown. Even though her face was hidden behind a mask, a clear disdain for Helena could be seen in her eyes.
And now a question had also awakened in my mind—how was Helena, despite being a Sequence 1 Fire Nature Paragon, as powerful as a Sequence 2 Paragon? Perhaps it was because the axe in her hand was no ordinary weapon but a Hallowed, which might be providing her with some kind of extra capabilities. That could be the reason maybe Helena always kept that axe with her, and perhaps through some ability of that axe she became stronger.
But something else was unfolding in the fight now.
Helena did not stop. As soon as her previous attack failed, she tightened her grip on the axe and lunged at the woman once again. Because of Helena's aggression, the woman was only defending, perhaps retreating with the intention of exhausting Helena. Helena's every strike sliced past the woman's side, yet she slipped between those attacks like a shadow.
Then, perhaps at the woman's signal, the zombie-like workers attacked again. Those lifeless bodies lunged at Helena's back with full force. In response, without turning around, Helena struck powerfully with the back end of her axe, sending two workers flying into the air and crashing at a distance. But she did not injure them—she had merely cleared her path.
And just as Helena was busy pushing the workers aside, the mysterious woman made her first offensive move. She opened her palms in the air, and suddenly a gust of black energy burst from her hands. Her fingernails rapidly grew three to four inches long, sharp and black like iron. At that moment, those nails looked no less than daggers.
The woman rushed toward Helena with the speed of a wild beast. Helena had just shoved a worker aside when those sharp claws slashed toward her.
With lightning speed, Helena jerked her head back, causing the claws to graze past her face—but that movement left a very fine scratch on her cheek.
Now the distance between them had vanished. They could feel each other's breath. Helena understood that long-range attacks would not subdue this woman—she had to engage her in close range fight. On one side, the woman was striking toward Helena's neck and eyes with those poisonous claws, and on the other, Helena blocked the attacks with the golden blade of her axe. Every time the claws collided with the axe, sparks flew as if two metals were clashing.
But Helena was not relying on the axe alone.
When the woman made a very low-angle strike, Helena leapt into the air to evade it, and as soon as she landed, she drove her left knee straight into the woman's stomach. The woman barely managed to block the blow with her arm, but Helena did not stop there. She immediately delivered a powerful punch to the masked face.
The punch was so strong that the woman's head snapped to one side, forcing her to stumble back several steps.
But from behind, three workers again tried to grab Helena. Without looking back, Helena struck their chests with the handle of her axe and pushed them away. At that moment, Helena was fighting like a true warrior—deflecting the attacks of innocent workers with one hand and confronting the deadly claws of that dangerous Paragon woman with the other.
Then the same black energy began swirling again around the masked woman and her claws. She made a strange sound, and the twenty workers who had been forming a circle now lunged at Helena all at once like madmen.
For Helena, the situation had now become "do or die." The twenty zombie-like workers, whom she could not fatally strike, rushed at her together. From all sides, a web of lifeless hands advanced to seize her. Helena pressed her axe against her chest and took a defensive stance.
But before the workers could touch her, something happened that made the cold harbor air grow even heavier.
I saw suddenly the ground beneath Helena's feet begin turning deep black. As the workers took their final step toward her, shadow-like black tentacles burst out from the stone floor.
These tentacles were agile like living snakes. In an instant, they wrapped around the legs and arms of all twenty workers mid-air. It was clear that the tentacles were not harming them, but they bound them so tightly that they could not move even an inch. And this was none other than Vyuk's ability, which he had used when necessary.
Helena paused for a moment seeing this, but her gaze immediately shifted toward us . She realized this was not the time for questions—because she had been given an opportunity.
Seeing all this, for the first time the masked woman's eyes showed anger instead of calmness. She jerked her fingers back sharply, and her black claws grew even longer and more terrifying.
Then she lunged at Helena like lightning. She slashed repeatedly through the air with her claws, and to block those strikes Helena used both the handle and blade of her axe. Whenever the metallic claws clashed with the axe, sparks erupted along with a strange screeching sound.
"Your puppets won't be useful anymore!" Helena shouted.
The woman then launched a dangerous uppercut strike with her claws toward Helena, which Helena narrowly avoided by tilting her head to the right. In response—
Helena entered inside the woman's guard. With lightning speed she released her axe and grabbed the woman's wrist, pulling her closer.
Then Helena delivered a powerful punch straight into the woman's ribs.
As the woman staggered back, Helena did not let her recover and struck her shoulder with her elbow. The masked woman groaned in pain, but she too was a dangerous fighter. Twisting her body in mid-air and adjusting her gown, she delivered a roundhouse kick to Helena's chest.
Helena fell some distance back but immediately steadied herself by placing her hand on the ground.
She grabbed her axe from the ground again. On the other side, the woman was panting, and something like smoke was rising from her black claws. Between them remained only a few steps of distance, and the shadow-like tentacles still held the workers at a safe distance.
This gave Helena the opportunity she had been waiting for. The zombie-like workers were now far from the kidnapper woman, tightly bound in those mysterious shadow tentacles. The woman no longer had a human shield.
Helena wasted no time. She swung her axe above her head and struck the air with full force—"Flaming Slash!"
A massive wave of fire surged toward the woman. She moved like lightning, and the attack missed. But Helena was not stopping. She increased the speed of her axe.
Helena began firing one Flaming Slash after another. The woman retreated frantically, perhaps beginning to tire. The pressure of Helena's attacks was so intense that she could not even think about counterattacking—or perhaps did not want to. She kept retreating toward the edge of the harbor.
But then, suddenly, a terrifying change occurred in the atmosphere.
While fighting and watching from a distance (Historia, Vyuk, and I), we suddenly froze. Because something strange began floating in the air—very fine purple particles, glowing like fireflies, yet carrying a sinister aura.
At that moment neither Helena nor we understood where these purple particles had come from or what they were. But the next instant, I understood everything.
These were not ordinary magical energy or dust from battle. This was the woman's true specialty—a deadly poison she had silently and cleverly dissolved into the air.
She had not been retreating to escape Helena's attacks—she had merely been buying time so that this poison could fully spread in the air of the area. She had been waiting for this exact moment—when we were all within her range—to activate her silent killer.
As soon as this realization struck us, our hair stood on end.
"Cover your nose and mouth! Don't breathe!" Vyuk's voice boomed with warning.
We immediately covered our mouths tightly with our hands and cloths to prevent inhaling the poisonous air. Helena, being closest to the woman, grabbed her axe handle with one hand and covered her face with the other, leaping back a few steps.
Now the situation had completely changed.
The purple particles floated around the masked woman like a protective shield. The poison did not harm her—it had become her weapon.
The shadow tentacles binding the workers began weakening and dissolving. This was because some portion of the poison had entered us through our breaths. It was not strong enough to severely harm us, but for Helena, approaching for close combat was becoming impossible. Every time the woman shifted position, she left behind another cloud of poisonous particles.
Darkness began creeping before our eyes—not only because of the poison's effect, but because we did not know how long we could fight this dangerous Paragon without breathing.
The woman stood still in her place, and behind the mask her eyes shone with cruel triumph. She knew she had trapped us in a death snare where our own lungs would become our enemy.