MLiS – Chapter 12.5

I Suppose, I Am Truly in Love With You

With nowhere to step in the air, Luo Lan gradually exhausted her strength. She did not dare to fall to the ground, though. The beast’s wings were awaiting her. If she fell, the wings would entrap her. The result would be either crushed by its wings or torn apart by its two front claws.

The beast swung its claw and Luo Lan drew her weapon. It was a sharp and thin hexagonal dagger^[1]. She held it using both hands and aimed at the beasr claw.

Only by relying on her own strength, it would be difficult for Luo Lan to pierce it. But, the beast swung its claw and it added the momentum needed for Luo Lan to successfully pierce her dagger to its palm.

“Awo—”

The beast roared angrily. It shook its claw to get rid of the things that hurt it. Luo Lan was tossed aside like a broken kite and landed on a huge rock at the bottom.

Luo Lan coughed a mouthful of blood. The bones all over her body seemed to be falling apart, and it hurt everywhere. But, finally, she escaped from the beast’s encirclement. 

She quickly checked the dagger in her right hand. It was left only with its hilt.

With her right hand, she held the hilt and inserted it into the weapon belt tied on her right thigh. A sharp and thin hexagonal blade was inserted into the dagger’s hilt, creating a new dagger.

With her left hand, she pulled out another dagger from the weapon belt tied on her left thigh.

She crouched on her feet, daggers in both hands. She observed the Yanfeng beast’s movement. 

The beast folded its fleshy wings and landed on its forelimbs. The hexagonal blade in its front claw pierced deeper.

The beast lifted its claws, scrubbing it hard on the rock. It attempted to get out the things that had pierced its front claw. Sadly, it could conquer thousands of miles of rock forest, but it couldn’t pull out a small blade in its claw.

The beast howled furiously at Luo Lan. With a loud noise, it opened its huge wings. It swooped down from the towering rock and sped towards Luo Lan.

Instead of avoiding it, Luo Lan confronted it head-on.

One person and one beast met in mid-air. The beast’s wings fanned over, trying to overthrow her once again.

Luo Lan rolled to its left wing.

Noticing that, the beast slowed down the speed of its right wing. It didn’t want one of its wings to collide with the other.

Luo Lan verified her observation. Now, she could concentrate on dealing with the left wing without worrying about the other wing for the time being.

When she rolled just now, her body nearly got caught on the bone spikes on its wings. She grabbed the opportunity to use the momentum of the beast to insert two sharp and thin daggers into the fleshy wings of the beast.

“Awo—”

The beast landed on the nearby rock.

Its right wing trembled. Its left wing stretched to its maximum and swept towards the rock. The rock was smashed to pieces, the sand and rocks darted away in an instant as if a storm had come early.

Luo Lan knew if those things hit her she would be done for. She held her daggers’ hilt and skillfully dodged all the sand and rocks while still hanging on the beast’s left wing.

She carefully counted the time and pushed the daggers on her hands deeper to its wing. The blades separated from its hilts and she dropped hard to the rock below. 

Luo Lan struggled unsteadily to get up. When she fell just now, the bone spikes on its wing pierced places on her body. Her suit was full of blood and her right hand was dislocated.

At the moment, Luo Lan couldn’t be bothered by her wounds. She held her right hand with her left hand and snapped back the dislocated bone with a loud ‘snap’.

She panted and picked up the dropped hilts on the ground. She inserted both hilts into the weapon belts on her thighs. With a clear ‘click’ sound, two sharp and thin hexagonal blades were inserted into the hilts. The two daggers were ready for use once again. 

Holding a dagger in both hands, she crouched on the ground, panting and staring at the beast.

The left claw and left wing of the beast were injured.

Three metal blades remained in its body. It has no ability to pull out the metal blades for itself, so with every step it takes, it would only aggravate the injury.

Moreover, its injured places were both on the left side of its body, the left claw and the left wing. Its flexibility and balance were affected. Naturally, its attack speed was also affected.

However, Luo Lan was still far away from victory.

She was wounded in many places. She has no time to stop the bleeding. Her strength was rapidly depleting.

Even if she had the perseverance of ants swallowing an elephant; Even if she would not hesitate to injure herself, again and again, just to be able to stab the beast with her daggers, the beast was sturdier than her. Its skin was thick, the injury she inflicted on it didn’t bleed so much. If this continued, she would be the one who died in the end.

The beast seemed to understand that the seemingly wilted rose in front of it actually still had her thorn.

It didn’t make any move again to attack Luo Lan. It only stared at her and growled. Although the beast didn’t have the IQ to think and all of its action was based on instinct, the beast was not suicidal. It could kill Luo Lan. It was not terrified of Luo Lan. It was terrified of the serious injury that Luo Lan could inflict on it. In a cruel natural environment like Yanlin, serious injury meant death.

After a while, the beast began to retreat slowly, which seemed to indicate, Laozi^[2] won’t fight anymore! Anyway, Laozi just had enough to eat, it’s not worth fighting to death with you!

Luo Lan was confused by the situation, what should I do now?

Qian Xu’s voice came from behind her, “Let it go!”

Luo Lan obeyed his instruction and stepped back slowly.

The beast saw Luo Lan had no intention to pursue it. The beast unfurled its wings, jumped up, and glided from one rock to another. It disappeared in the rock forest and couldn’t be seen anymore.

Luo Lan plopped herself on the ground, exhausted. Comparing herself to the beast’s vigorous figure. She sighed, what a tough guy!

Qian Xu squatted next to Luo Lan. He carefully helped Luo Lan to attend to her wounds.

Luo Lan accepted Qian Xu’s help. She was crestfallen, “I failed?”

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Footnotes

1. Referring to its blade, the blade shape is not flat, but hexagonal. Images in Attachments. The characteristic of hexagonal daggers is that they all share a propensity for the cut.  Even the lightweight one. While it looks like a transitional rapier, it feels like a three-foot filet knife. Despite how thin the blades are, or indeed because of the acute distal taper they all exhibit, none of the blades feel ‘floppy’ or insufficiently stiff.  They are, however, quite flexible, especially toward the point.↵

2. 老子 – lǎozi; lit. Old Father. “I, your father,”  Prideful and arrogant way of “I.”  Commanding respect. Another variation of arrogant “I” is 老娘 (lǎoniang), which could mean “I, your lady.” Su Qi called herself using laoniang in Chapter 10.1.↵

Attachments

Hexagonal Blade

Hexagonal Blade

Amoeba’s Corner

She tried her best! Every failure is a step to success! There is still a chance for her! Even if the chance is so looooow!

I’m fine if there is no next time for her to advance to level A tho :) /no

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Oho~ Something interesting is happening next chapter?

Sneak-a-Peek

Qian Xu’s footsteps staggered once again, “Did you just propose to me?”

Obligatory Closing
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This chapter words count (excluding title, footnotes, and TL’s corner): 1185

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