Volume 2 – The World Sneered
The swarm of insects, almost moving as one big organism, opened their mouths and chased Ami.
“I gotta do it…… I gotta do it……!”
Ami talked to herself in a trembling voice.
She then created a big wheel in front of herself and spinned it at high speed.
“I’m gonna blow these bugs away!”
It was like an electric fan.
The sweeping wind blew the swarm of bugs away and cut them apart.
But bugs still came at Cutie from around her feet, and from above her head.
Ami moved back with the wheels on the soles of her feet while blowing the wind and distanced herself from Cutie.
But the swarm kept chasing Ami.
The bugs around her feet made contact, Ami backed off even further and dashed up a tree trunk.
The bugs stopped chasing her and ate into the tree.
They were individually weak, but a swarm of thousands destroyed the tree trunk in no time and the tree started to incline.
Ami jumped before the tree completely broke.
But winged bugs rushed her as if they were waiting for this moment.
“There, bring her down!”
“That isn’t gonna happeeen!”
Multiple wheels came out from both her feet and started spinning at high speed.
The wind released from her legs, and the ‘power spot’ warping the air smashed the bugs chasing Ami to pieces.
Then, she landed on top of soft mulch.
She almost tripped over, and the bugs crawling on the ground immediately surrounded her.
(I can beat Cutie in a power contest. But I don’t want to hurt her! How do I destroy all these bugs without attacking her?)
Cutie was unhesitatingly using the bugs that she did not like before.
That was how strong the hatred she felt towards Ami was.
As a result, she had the power to control even the air.
An army of bugs deployed in fixed intervals covered Ami’s view like a mist.
Around half of them attacked Ami, and the rest were deployed to stop her from going to the park.
Ami had to be ready to be hurt if she wanted to get through them.
She could not force her way through them by using wheels, but the scariest thing was the thought of the bugs entering inside her body.
They were big enough to eat her body from the inside.
If that happened, it would be difficult for Ami to fight for much longer without the ability to heal herself.
Even if by some chance, because of her body’s current circumstances, she could still live after her organs were destroyed, Calaria and Mary still awaited her after this.
In the end, overcoming this confrontation with Cutie unscathed was the minimum she had to do.
“That wind, that mobility…… so annoying. But it’s no problem, I have plenty of ‘ingredients’ here.”
Cutie stepped on the ground and the dirt she touched transformed into bugs.
No matter how many times Ami blew them away, Cutie still seemed to have more mana left.
“If you’re coming at me with numbers, then I’ll win by doing the same!”
Ami put 8 wheels she created between her fingers.
Then she threw them at Cutie.
The wheels did not fly straight ahead, but rotated, and approached their target while flying up and drawing a curve.
They then started to spin faster and caused a tornado.
“That bitch is so impudent……!”
Cutie lost her balance due to the swirling wind and put strength into her legs.
Her staggering body created a chance for Ami.
(I can break through now!)
Finding the ‘path’, Ami quickly sped up and tried to break through the encirclement of the bugs.
Then, a light shot towards her from the back at great speed.
“Calaria’s shot!?”
A long-distance shot in a forest with low visibility.
Ami was taken by surprise and instantly leaped to the side and retreated.
She put her hand on the ground.
She saw the bugs released by Cutie.
She created wheels on the palms of her hands, made them spin fast and created a wind to lift her body up.
Then she threw the wheels in the air, mowing down the bugs on the ground and in the air with a swirling wind.
She put her foot on a tree branch in the air, and moved while jumping from tree to tree using the strength of her legs and tried to distance herself from Cutie.
“I can do this, I’m good at climbing trees!”
Calaria’s bullet grazed her back.
Ami did not know where Calaria was shooting from.
“You’re like a monkey.”
“Hmph, I wonder if they always think of me like that.”
Ami was hurt on the inside by Cutie’s cold words, and when she was about to move to the third tree, she saw the eyes of an animal glitter in front of her.
Its mouth opened large and it attacked Ami with its sharp teeth.
“An animal – no, it’s a tree! Cutie’s power!”
Ami did not know when Cutie touched it, but the tree was under the power of Cutie’s Empress and had changed into a crocodile with a large gaping mouth.
Cutie had not touched the tree itself in the first place.
She only charged the tree’s roots under her feet with mana.
Ami did not try to get away from the sharp teeth in front of her.
She created two wheels from her back.
They floated up in front of her shoulders and started to spin, pushing Ami’s body with the energy they created.
“I’m gonna chop you uuuup!”
She charged into the open mouth while shouting.
There were numerous wheels on her right leg, which she pushed out.
They looked the same as the others, but they were not meant for movement; they were for cutting.
Ami used these spinning saws and split Cutie’s crocodile in two by simply speeding up towards the ground.
Its open jaw did not close and was split in two from top to bottom.
Ami’s feet stabbed into the ground.
“How can you be so cunning!?”
Cutie set her bugs after Ami in a rage.
Calaria’s bullet also flew towards her.
Ami shouted, ‘Alright!’, and pulled her feet out of the ground before unleashing a roundhouse kick.
“I’ll send it back! Hnnnnnh!”
She put all her strength into this one kick.
The shockwave shook the ground and shot up a lot of dirt.
Not only did the bugs get blown away by the wind Ami caused, but the kick also caught the bullet shot by Calaria.
Ami kicked the ball of mana back as if it was a soccer ball.
She was powerful enough to pull off such a trick.
Naturally, the boulders and such nearby were also blown away like bullets because of the wind.
One of them hit Cutie in the side of her torso.
She could not defend in time because of how unexpected this was, and her body was cut.
“Ah-”
Ami’s facial expression was painted in despair.
She saw exposed entrails and gushing blood.
The next moment, Cutie frowned in pain and crouched down.
“Cutie! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!”
Ami reflexively rushed towards Cutie.
But, naturally, Cutie glared at her with hostile eyes.
Then, something blocked Ami’s view.
A spider.
A spider dropped from above her head and clung to her right eye.
She reflexively winked, but its limbs already crushed her eyeball.
“Ugh, aaaaargh!”
Ami shouted in pain while pushing on her eye with her hand after a splash.
She put her left hand up in front of herself while the light ball shot by Calaria approached her.
Wheels appeared on the palms of her hands and around her arms, and she spun them to create a power spot.
The first shot – Ami’s power won, and the bullet swerved away after leaving behind a faint shockwave.
But the next bullet came right afterwards.
The power of Wheel of Fortune weakened when Ami stopped the second and the third shots, and her arm snapped at the fourth shot.
Then, the fifth shot.
It directly hit her left shoulder, and took away her left arm along with its root.
Ami’s left arm drew a parabola in the air while spinning.
“Uuugh, agh, aaaaargh!”
Ami opened her eyes wide and screamed.
But Calaria did not stop shooting.
Cutie did not stop either, of course.
The pain she made Ami suffer only strengthened her hatred and she used her powers with cold murderous intent.
The bugs controlled by her turned into a curtain covering the top of Ami’s head and poured down like a waterfall.
“Ah…… Ah, no…… Nooooo!”
Ami was confused and used the wheels on the soles of her feet to frantically escape.
She used so much power that the wheels slid.
Calaria continued aiming at her, blowing away the trees nearby and the ground around Ami’s feet.
Cutie’s bugs also kept chasing her.
“No…… No…… No, no, nooo!”
Ami opened her bloodshot eyes and continued desperately moving ahead with tears falling from her eyes.
She was already lost a while ago, but the forest only kept getting more dense.
Calaria and Cutie could not keep up with Ami’s speed and stopped their attacks.
Ami still kept going while dodging trees and went deeper and deeper.
She finally arrived in an open spot.
There were a few wooden houses lined up – it was probably a settlement.
The tension left her body and Ami fell on her knees on the spot.
“Ah…… Aagh…… Ugh, aaagh……! It hurts…… It huurts……!”
When her emotions calmed down, the pain of her cut arm instantly got more intense.
She pushed on the wound with her hand.
She lost a lot of blood.
She felt her body temperature fall.
Cold. Cold. Both her body, and her mind.
But, she was able to regain her composure a little thanks to the pain.
A wheel floated over her wound and the bleeding stopped.
“Aah…… Aaah…… Yeah, my body…… is not a normal human body, so……”
Her body could pull off some tricks.
She could not restore a lost arm like Mary could, however.
The only way was for Cutie to hug and heal her.
“My arm…… it’s gone. What now? I can’t fight those two with one hand. Even if I had both my arms, I ended up hurting Cutie, but she……”
Ami firmly bit her lips.
She strongly regretted hurting Cutie.
It was natural to be hurt during a fight.
But, this time, it was Ami who attacked Cutie and hurt her.
Was it reflexive?
Or was her own will involved?
That made a big difference for her.
“I’m faster. Do I take a detour and head for the park? But there’s still my sis. She’s probably protecting Elastis.”
Mary could recover even if she was hurt, but Ami still hesitated.
Her life existed for Mary.
Her body existed for Mary.
So it made no sense for her to hurt Mary.
Ami could not outwit Mary and kill Elastis with such half-hearted resolution, and even if she was determined enough, she did not feel like she could win.
“This is impossible. What am I supposed to do……?”
Ami held her head.
Then, an elderly man came out of a house nearby.
“Miss, you’re……”
He approached Ami and spoke with worry in his voice.
She looked up.
Their eyes met.
In that instant, she saw the man’s expression get painted in hatred.
“How…… How dare you show your face in this villaaaaage!?”
His face almost warped into the face of someone different, and he attacked Ami while shouting at her.
He choked Ami with both hands and tried to push her down, but she shook him off and distanced herself while rolling on the ground.
“Wha!? What!? What the hell!?”
Ami was confused as she held her neck with her hand.
Then, reacting to the man’s voice, the other villagers came out of their houses.
They then took in their hands the hoes and axes laying around.
“Don’t let her gooo!”
“Kill her! Kill heeer! Don’t let her get awaaay!”
They attacked her with clear murderous intent.
They were only commoners, so it was not as if Ami would lose a contest of strength.
But, being faced with such pure hatred that contained no other emotions made her feel cold and she ran towards the forest again.