RE: ZERO | CALM BEFORE THE STORM |

Surprise attack

Cutting through the white smoke, Elsa dashed forward with her black hair dancing behind her.

As she brandished her kukri knife and nimbly advanced, there was no sign of injury on her body. She had cast aside her cloak and was now only wearing the form-fitting black clothes she wore underneath it, but there was no change besides this.

―Countless lumps of ice formed one after another and were blasted all over the room.

Their sizes varied, the larger ones were about the size of a head, and the smaller ones were roughly fist-sized. They were all fired with the speed of a full power pitch, and it was clear just how dangerous they were.

However, even as she was surrounded by all of this ice, Elsa's movements now that she had lost her magic-negating cloak had transcended the realm of common sense.

She would twist her body, lower herself to the ground as if crawling, and occasionally even defy gravity by running the walls. She matched quantity with overwhelming quality, her skill was exceptional.

'BRUH, how is she moving so dam fast! It's like if you don't have some superpower in this world, you will die almost immediately in battle.'

About 50 more icicles were launched toward Elsa. But she just weaved all of them with no effort, even sometimes slashing them with her kukri blade if dodging wouldn't suffice.

'There's also the matter of how long the Puck can remain corporeal. Once the Puck is gone, the situation will change drastically. I'm still waiting for my turn to land a blow, because if I help in the defeat of the bowel hunter, I should get a reward from Roswal.'

'My chance to strike should be when Felt leaves for help. Since I've got this crossbow loaded, I should be able it damage her when he tries to stop Felt from leaving... But am I supposed to do it before, or after Subaru blocks her with the table?'

"―My leg."

The instant she tried to advance, she tipped forward and had to put out her hands to stop her fall. Subaru stared in shock at this unbelievable screw up, the reason for which was at her feet.

Elsa's right foot was stuck to the frozen floor.

The shattered ice had slowly piled up, and had now been used to trap her foot. Puck hasn't been randomly firing this whole time.

"I'm getting sleepy so let's finish this shall we?" He hummed in a delight, while Elsa pouted at this outcome.

"―And it was just getting good! Too bad I didn't get the chance to slice you open and see what your insides are like." She put her sadistic face full-on display and while she was yapping, Puck was done charging up his last attack.

He thrust his hands out in front of him, a pose that suggested he was about to use a killer technique, and started gathering up the largest amount of magic thus far― Even Subaru could see it radiating from him.

That magical power did not turn into ice, it was fired as pure destructive energy.

The bluish-white light froze everything in its path, and dyed the loot house white in one fell swoop. But in that same moment, the sound of a slingshot was heard, but not located.

When the area cleared, Elsa was seen with no legs whatsoever. There was a puddle of blood on the floor and Elsa looked lifeless... The scene was pretty gruesome.

'Hell yeah baby, take that you bitch! ―And why are these arrows so fucking big?'

Y/n had actually fired the crossbow at Elsa when she was about to amputate her leg. Elsa didn't know where the shot came from, even though there is an area that has suspiciously not been damaged...

He quietly loaded another set of arrows and prepared to shoot again, when the time comes.

The arrows he used actually had a magic affinity applied. The Incantation was known as Yin... this is why Elsa didn't regenerate immediately when her legs were blown off, the magic applied to the arrows, debuffed her regeneration for a short duration. (BARS)

'Ngl, the only reason I'm not making myself known, is because I don't wanna feel any type of pain that Subaru has. I don't think anyone does.'

Not even a minute has passed, Elsa's lower half started to spasm, It vibrated uncontrollably and made loud thumping sounds. Imitating a drum-roll.

―SPLAT

The way she grew back her limbs was anything but pleasant. It made a mushy effect and looked grimy. She stood up with only her skin-tight leggings, reaching her thighs, Like booty shorts. The way she stood back up, it was like she was a zombie. Even Puck looked disgusted.

"Puck, can you continue?"

"Sorry, I'm really sleepy. I underestimated her a bit. I used up too much mana, gonna disappear."

When Puck responded to her murmur, his voice had for the first time lost its composure. The cat on her shoulder, by her silver hair, started to emit a faint glow and looked as though he could disappear at any moment. He was out of time.

"I'll handle this somehow, so get some rest for now. Thank you."

"Should anything happen to you, I'll act in accordance with the contract. ― If it comes down to it, wring your Od to draw me out."

As if urged on by Emilia's tender voice, Puck's body suddenly scattered and vanished.

Every single person in that room lamented his retreat, but the one who was most disappointed was,

"―Aah, he's gone. How terribly unfortunate."

Elsa.