"Thank you for saving me!"
Once Spear recovered from her shock, she immediately thanked Noah.
Minister Chouri hurried over to check his daughter for injuries, and after confirming that she was all right, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude as well.
Noah glanced at him without saying anything. He quietly took a letter from inside his cloak and handed it over.
The moment Chouri saw the design of the envelope, he understood where the stranger had come from.
He stared at Noah in surprise and exclaimed, "You...!"
He stopped before saying anything more, but he had never expected the Leiden family to send someone to rescue him.
He had no idea where Leims had found such a powerful man!
"Oh? He managed to save her from Daidara?"
Liver was no longer content to stand back and watch.
He lowered his hands and stepped forward, while Nyau also lost his playful smile and became more alert.
"Hey, Liver! Nyau! Stay out of this!" Daidara shouted angrily at his companions. "This guy is my prey!"
He was convinced that he had only been caught off guard earlier. As far as he was concerned, he had not truly lost.
He wanted to defeat Noah himself, and make up for the humiliation he had just suffered.
Liver knew what his companion was like, so despite his reluctance, he asked, "Are you sure, Daidara?"
"I'm completely sure! Leave him to me!"
Liver sighed. "Very well."
"Good! Just watch me!"
Daidara immediately charged toward Noah with both enormous axes in his hands.
Since these three served Esdeath, Noah wondered whether killing them would cause unnecessary trouble.
He did not get along particularly well with her, but there was still no reason to make the situation more complicated than necessary.
He decided to limit the abilities he used and avoid any obvious elemental formulas that might reveal his identity to someone familiar with his fighting style.
"Let me borrow this."
Noah quietly took Spear's lance from her hands.
The weapon was well made, but it was still an ordinary lance.
If he tried to clash directly with a Teigu using it, it would probably break after one or two blows.
He immediately activated Enhancement, raising the lance to +3, and then reinforced it further with mana.
By the time he finished, Daidara had already closed the distance between them. N
oah stepped forward and met him head-on.
The lance collided with the two axes, bringing both fighters to an abrupt halt before their exchange immediately accelerated.
Daidara swung both axes as quickly as he could, but he could only barely keep up with Noah's lance, which moved around him in a continuous, controlled pattern.
Within only a few breaths, several shallow cuts appeared across Daidara's body. They were injuries caused by attacks he had failed to deflect completely.
Considering that every strike from Noah carried more weight than a city gate, Daidara had already done well to block as many as he had, especially since Noah was still not fighting seriously.
Noah ended the exchange with a sweeping strike.
Daidara managed to block it, but immediately afterward, his body gave out and he dropped to his knees.
Both arms felt as heavy as lead, and no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer lift them.
Blood ran down the handles of his axes.
His palms had been torn open so badly that they were almost unrecognizable.
"S-so heavy..."
Daidara could not understand why the lance felt so heavy.
For a moment, he wondered whether it weighed ten times more than his axes, but that was impossible.
Spear had been carrying it before the fight, and she would never have been able to lift it if it were truly that heavy.
That meant the weight behind the attacks came entirely from the man holding it.
What kind of monster could develop that much strength in his arms? It did not seem like power a human body should possess!
"Daidara, fall back."
Seeing his companion defeated so quickly, Liver stepped past him with a serious expression.
"Liver, this guy—"
"You're still too inexperienced."
After saying that, Liver swept one arm outward.
Moisture from the surrounding air and snow gathered around him, forming more than a dozen arrows made of water.
Seeing someone else use an ability like this gave Noah a strange sense of familiarity.
"Those who oppose Lady Esdeath have only one end waiting for them," Liver said quietly. "Death."
He commanded the water arrows like a ruler directing his soldiers, sending all of them toward Noah at once.
The arrows had been arranged so they would not interfere with one another.
Those in the center flew straight ahead, while those on the outside curved in from both sides.
If Noah had used Spellweaver, he could have broken the attack in hundreds of different ways.
Instead, he focused on his senses.
The moment the arrows entered his range, he recorded their directions and the slight delay between each one, then calculated a route that would allow him to strike them all down.
The lance spun smoothly between his hands until it resembled a small whirlwind.
Each water arrow collapsed as soon as it struck the weapon, scattering into droplets.
For the final sweep, Noah wrapped part of his torn cloak around the lance and used it to absorb the water from the air.
He had already noticed a limitation in Liver's power.
Whether it was because of Liver's lack of skill or the Teigu itself, he could not control the water inside another person's body, nor could he separate water from fibers once it had soaked into cloth.
After the water was absorbed by the cloak, Liver could no longer turn it back into arrows.
Noah looked at the ring on Liver's finger and used Appraisal.
[Water Dragon Possession: Black Marlin]
・Ring-type Teigu
・Created from the organ a water-dwelling Danger Beast used to control currents
・Allows the wielder to control liquid inside anything they have touched
・Cannot create liquid from nothing
・Its secret technique allows the wielder to control their own blood
・The burden on the user increases with the scale and strength of the manipulation, placing pressure on the organs and causing internal injuries
"So it has usage restrictions. I see."
Liver did not seem particularly disappointed that his attack had been dealt with so easily.
In fact, he still looked confident, as though everything was going according to plan.
That was when Noah noticed that Nyau had disappeared.
'A distraction?'
He turned and immediately saw Nyau slipping past him and rushing toward Minister Chouri and Spear.
For a moment, Noah wondered why neither of them called out for help, but then he saw the determined look in Spear's eyes.
She was afraid that asking for help would distract him, so she intended to face Nyau herself.
She was seriously underestimating him.
Liver took advantage of the moment Noah looked away and rushed behind him.
Without turning around, Noah swept the lance backward and struck Liver across the waist.
Several of Liver's ribs cracked beneath the impact, and he was sent flying like a ball before he could resist.
Noah altered the gravity beneath his feet and compressed the air behind him to create thrust, allowing him to catch up to Nyau almost instantly.
Before Nyau even realized that Noah was behind him, Noah grabbed his head and slammed his face into the ground, releasing a burst of crushing gravity through his palm.
Nyau let out a muffled groan and immediately went limp.
However, with Seeker active, Noah knew the boy was only pretending to be unconscious.
Noah grabbed him by the ankle.
Gravity Induction reduced Nyau's weight while Noah lifted him, then increased the pull and accumulated weight as he swung him in another direction.
The moment Nyau felt someone grab his ankle, he had a terrible feeling. Before he could react, Noah lifted him into the air as easily as a small animal.
'He isn't seriously going to—'
Noah swung Nyau over his head and smashed him into the ground.
The acceleration was so violent that Nyau's ankle cracked and the bones in his lower leg snapped.
"Aaaaaah!"
As Nyau screamed, Noah drove him into the ground like a stamp, spreading dense cracks across the earth around him.
Minister Chouri, Spear, and the remaining guards could only stare.
Noah had faced all three members of the infamous Three Beasts alone.
Despite being outnumbered, he had overwhelmed them with ease!
Spear looked at him with open admiration.
She longed for that kind of strength.
Had she been that powerful, she would never have failed to protect her father.