The blast of the gold-haired woman finally caught up to its origin.
The force reached out to where the woman suspended herself in the air, only to then snap forward like a whip spun at so crazy speeds.
I could almost hear the integrity of that force itself eroding under its own inertia.
Then, the accelerated force found its way to the panther’s body, smashing into it like a shy teenager would smash their face in a pillow after a rejection.
For a single mont, nearly the entire front of the beast deford, the skull and flesh alike lting away under the onslaught.
Then, the world registered the attack and the panther shot to the back, crashing through several tens of ters of jungle before finally coming to a stop in a small crater filled with chipped wood.
All of that from the combined force of that gold-haired woman’s approach and a gentle sway of her delicate wrist that made the side of her sword slap at the air.
On one end, the brutal devastation one could expect from an oversized brawler. On the other end, however, there stood this woman with even her shallow, silent breathing overflowing with tact and elegance.
Thankfully for both her and yours truly, this wasn’t so sort of manga or ani where characters would fly through several walls only to stand up, dust their fit and get right back into action.
The hill-sized panther, once tapped by this golden woman’s loving touch, died on the spot.
Still.
As if to prove her professional conduct, she then swept her eyes across the nearby jungle, not letting her guard down in favor of so impractical celebration.
Which is when her eyes finally found , half-buried in the ss left behind by her attack, with my breathing so rapid, it felt as if my heart was about to jump out of my chest.
For all the awe and amazent this young-looking woman easily inspired in my soul, it was still a life-death experience for ! Heck, if not for the brave sacrifice of my useless, bugged-out system, she would have been just a mont too late to do a single thing!
And as her gold-tinted eyes locked in on my face, all I could do was gulp and swallow.
This young woman, however, wasn’t any better.
For a good second, she just stood there, her eyes slightly widening, her eyes locked... sowhere between my face and what was above it, or rather, what was supposed to be there.
Then, as her golden hair and eyes started to sohow fade from gold into just an intense silver, her eyes firmly locked on my face.
Struggling to figure out how to react on the spot, I could only try to make myself the least possible threat conceivable.
So, slowly, while making sure not to make any sudden movents, I unburied my hands from nature’s rubble and slowly lifted them up.
"Uhm..." I muttered as I slowly, carefully stood back up, "Help?"
Instantly, I got feedback as her face hardened.
A single calculation went off in my head.
An algorithm bound to weigh all my choices, all the directions I could take this mont in... and centered around the fact that without this woman’s help, I was dead.
Only if she agreed to bring out of this damned jungle and to a place with at least a semblance of civilization could I hope to see tomorrow’s sun.
Which is why my only realistic option was to go all in.
"I will answer all your questions to the best of my ability," I spoke out slowly and steadily while keeping my hands up.
There was no room for pride here or so false bravado. My best bet, as jarring as it felt to an avid reader of the genius-hides-his-strength genre, was to be as honest as I could.
"I’m here not by my own will or design. And if that’s not enough..."
I pointed my finger up to the empty system box lingering above my head, where the na of my system should be.
But now, even the "FFF-Rank Failure System" was gone, shattered by the slam of that massive panther. Right now, this box was all but empty.
This, I clearly didn’t have to comnt, even though it was quite the long shot for .
Right now, everything relied on one question.
Would she be intrigued or would she react like an inquisitor at the sight of a heresy?
And as I brought up the topic of systems myself, I couldn’t help but look up, right above the top of this woman’s head.
"..."
My face froze still.
’Right, so she’s soone I could be killed for even trying to talk up, huh?’
A sense of dread coursed through my soul.
Given the saintess part of her system, would she recognize , a systemless croak, as an existence offending whatever god she believed in? Whatever god that bestowed her with the title of saintess, one basked in the authority of the divine?
Tenser than ever before, I slowly looked down, away from this divine being’s title, trying not to cower away too much.
Yet, looking down only made things worse, for it forced to actually skim past her expression.
And it was still tense.
I closed my eyes and took a breath, not sure whether to expect a helping hand, an annoyed glare, or a sword staking my chest next.
"I’m giving you only one chance to speak," the sword saintess finally spoke, her voice proving to be as lodic as soone would expect from soone of such divine features. "Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get here in the first place?!"
I opened up my eyes and looked up, not even bothering to hide the look of surprise that soon morphed into one of excitent and dedication.
Sure, I took a mont to gather my thoughts, but when I looked up?
I’ve changed.
Now that there was a path ahead, even if in the form of just the off-chance I could keep intriguing this woman?
You could be damn sure yours truly would say whatever it took to walk this very path, all the more if it would lead outside of this damned jungle!
And after just a mont of second consideration over just how deep my truths should go... I went ahead and laid everything bare.
"Actually, just a few monts ago, I was summoned to this world by so sort of royals. I ended up in what looked like their throne hall along roughly thirty other people. And that’s when things started to get weird."
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