The Villainess Returns with a System

« Combat Mode initiated »

« Novice Infantry - 65% HP - Intoxicated! »

« Novice Infantry - 89% HP - Frightened! »

« Novice Brute - 76% HP »

« Apprentice Infantry - 92% HP - Prone! »

The Combat Mode flashed before Vivian's eyes and showed her things one wouldn't usually see in reality. Above each foe in her vicinity was a bar of HP, the enemy-type title, and some of them had what seemed to be status effects.

« You have 3 Character Points to spare. »

« Choose to increase any of the following statistics: Physical Attack, Control & Accuracy, Physical Defense, Speed, Stealth! »

Vivian was on the verge of tears knowing that after all this effort of focusing on her training, she had finally attained the First Level of Aura. She is no longer an ordinary human.

But in order to remain an ordinary human, she has to survive this encounter first.

"Sir System, put them all into Speed!" Vivian said and was ready to unleash her full potential as a speedster.

« Request Denied! »

« You can only add 1 point to each of the stats! »

"Shit! No min-maxing?" Vivian thought as she kept her guard up as the remaining 8 enemies were carefully trying to encircle her, "Fine, put them in speed, control, and stealth."

« Confirmed! »

« Adjusting the Medjay Aura Manual! »

« ATK: 1 — CTRL: 2 — DEF: 1 — SPD: 2 — STL: 2 »

A whole load of information started to flow through into Vivian's mind in a split second. The Medjay Aura Manual, which was formed when the System combined the Moore Knights Aura Manual with the Medjay Training Regime, was now starting to open its real content for her. She started to understand things she never thought possible and it all became clear to her what an Aura is and how to apply it.

Every single stat points she just distributed represents the power of a normal person. Her novice training phase was to make all her stats eligible to the value of 1, which is what an average human being should be. With the Aura training being seeded into her constitution, it gave her a powerful awakening as she now has double the speed, accuracy, and stealth capabilities of a normal human.

As for the Blackguards who were trying to surround her with the improvised weapons they picked up, something started to feel different about the young woman in front of them. Not only did her clothes magically change, but she now felt twice as dangerous as before.

But there were eight men and she was just one.

The odds are heavily in their favor.

"GET THE BITCH!"

All that was needed was one of the Blackguards to agitate the others and one of the group suddenly rushed her with bloodthirst and malice.

"Aura Ignite!"

Vivian's body took its proper form instantly and the footwork she learned from Logan while training on swords started to flow from her subconscious. She moved sideways to dodge the first attacker, leaned to the left, and her right leg kicked as she focused the Aura Star in her hip to empower this body part.

THWACK!

The kick landed on the man's side with the power of a wagon running loose downhill.

It was her first time using Aura Ignition and she didn't hold back a single bit. The man she hit flew like a toy and hit another Blackguard, pushing the two down on the ground.

"GOD!"

"WHAT WAS THAT!"

"That's Aura! GET THE WEAPONS!"

"RUN, STEVE!"

As the Blackguards panicked, one of them ran opposite from the other towards the door. But just as he was about to raise the bar handle…

Swoosh!

Tumbrbrbrbr! (A/n: supposedly the sound of the arrow vibrating after it was pinned on a hard target according to ChatGPT)

"AAAAAH!"

… an arrow came out of nowhere and pinned his hand with the door's bar to the frame

"SHIT! CAPTURE HER BEFORE WE'RE SHOT!"

The remaining six came at Vivian from every corner, this time, Vivian couldn't use the Star Ignition like before as it is a single-use thing with a cooldown even since she has only one Aura Star.

Immediately Vivian dodged the group coming at her from an opening and ran into one of the open guest rooms. The prostitutes inside screamed as everyone suddenly barged in but all that Vivian was trying to do was to narrow the area they could attack her from to a door frame.

The first opponent she ran into was a large-bodied brute who carried a chair as his weapon and rushed at her. Vivian immediately dragged a small table at her side by her right leg and placed it in his way before dodging as fast as she could.

The brute's charge ended with him stumbling and falling badly but before Vivian would even try and claim his life with her blade, the remaining Blackguards rushed.

Vivian held a chair by her left and threw it at the first attacker, staggering him for a second or two but the remaining four still kept going. She retreated even further until her back hit a table she decided to roll back on top of the table and then behind it to the end of the room.

As her back was to a wall, Vivian jumped up and used her two legs to kick the large table as hard as she could to send it flying at the four Blackguards to stagger them all at once. In consequence, they held onto the large table and pushed it all at the same time, aiming to ram and crush Vivian with it.

With her boosted agility, Vivian rolled on top of the incoming table and used the momentum to kick one of the attackers right in the face. At that time, the Brute and the other guard joined the group and Vivian picked a brass pitcher immediately before skillfully throwing it at the head of Brute and stunning him once again.

"Stop that bitch from moving! Aim for her leg!"

Realizing that she is more agile than them, the Blackguards who held brooms and cleavers suddenly attacked Vivian from a low angle but she was in a good position allowing her to jump from above them, performing a flip in the air and landing behind them at once as they watched in awe.

Vivian used the chance to hit the large brute with her sword trying to stab his side but the man held her blade by his bare hand, risking an index finger over a busted kidney. With his other hand, he held an object from the side and tried to hit Vivian on the head with it but she let go of the sword and ran immediately outside the room.

"After her!"

Just as she got out, she was faced with the staggering Blackguard whom she kicked with Aura on his face. This time, she felt like her Aura Star cooldown had finally ended, and with another Aura-charged kick, she attacked the man in the face, this time with a fatal accuracy backed by the momentum of her running speed.

It was safe to say that the crack that was heard from the man as his head hit the wall behind him meant his demise. The motionless Blackguard slid down on the wall to fall on his bottom leaving behind a red splash of blood from the area where his head hit the wall.

With that, half of the Blackguards were down.

The mob from the room before started to flow back into the reception hall once again, this time with chair legs from the broken furniture from the room they just came from. Vivian, whose weapon is now in the Brute's hand, had to think on her feet.

The six rushed her once again and like before, she flipped behind a couple of barrels and gave them a sidekick to make the mob lose its momentum and trip over them.

"FIRE!" She shouted and pointed at the Brute who was marching behind the others.

SWOOSH!

Another crossbow bolt flew with deadly accuracy but the brute sensed it and raised his arm before the bolt hit his head. The bolt hit his arm instead and he withered from the pain he cried from the immense pain as his hand let go of Vivian's sword.

Seizing the chance, Vivian charged the group but rather than attacking, she jumped like a fish from between them and landed near her sword with a flip, she took the sword right away and with a low slash, she cut the tendons behind the brute's knees, forcing the large man to crash down on them.

Vivian wanted to deliver the final blow to the brute but she was jumped immediately by a Blackguard who threw his body at her, forcing her into an awkward position as she fell down.

"DAMMIT! GET THE SHOOTER!"

Two of the Blackguards heeded the Brute's call and rushed with small tables ahead of them as shields but Voros shot one down right at his eye and then he put his crossbow and rushed against the other with two hatchets, engaging with him in melee combat.

Vivian had three Blackguards now trying to rush her and she barely managed to get back on her feet before another Blackguard slashed at her with a cleaver. She barely dodged that one and used the furniture once again to counterattack before running towards a corner in the room.

As the three pressed at her, she jumped against the wall on her right before bouncing herself at the other corner wall and flipping diagonally in the air, throwing her sword at the first Blackguard she could aim at.

The sword was launched with finesse and accuracy and it landed right into the chest of the Blackguard as he stumbled down to the ground.

Vivian landed and only two Blackguards were left, one ahead of the other. Her Aura Star became available once again to use and she reinforced her hip the same as before before delivering a straight kick to the first opponent, launching him at the one behind him for the two to fall badly on the ground.

Almost everyone was now down. Voros, who was not a good melee fighter due to his small Dwarven size, barely managed to break his opponent's leg with his hatchets and brutalized him with a series of savage chops that caused more screams to echo to rise from the prostitutes who watched the horror scene from the side.

As for Vivian, she retrieved her sword from the fallen Blackguard and walked to the last two remaining Blackguards, cutting them down before they got the chance to stand.

The entirety of the 13 Blackguards in this room now lay dead except for two, the Brute who was no longer able to stand and the Blackguard youngster who tried to call for weapons and reinforcements and got his hand pinned at the door with a crossbow arrow.

As for the brute…

"You… witch! You stay away!"

The brute, who could no longer stand, became as timid as the rest of the prostitutes, crawling back on his bottom, and throwing things at Vivian as they got away.

"We hardly know each other and you're already calling me a witch?"

"Stay the fuck back!"

"Oh, you see the problem here is that where I am heading, you just keep getting in the way." Vivian said as her eyes landed on the iron door the man was holding to.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" He said as he crawled sideways, grabbed a table by its leg, and tried to throw it at her.

It was a shit throw, lacking any power the man could muster in the past. As the table got to Vivian, she simply kicked it back and it flew as it hit the rest of the furniture behind him.

Unbeknownst to Vivian, a keg of high-quality liquor fell from the top of the barrel behind right on top of the brute, along the way, a candelabrum was also involved in the fall, and fire caught to the wood, which caught to the leaking liquor, and right away to the brute.

"No! No! NOOO! NOOO! STOP IT! SAVE ME! STOP!"

And the helpless brute was caught in fire and started to roll on the ground trying to put it away. He withered and cried from the pain he so much enjoyed inflicting on others with hot iron.

Vivian saw Voros standing over the burning man and looking him right in the eyes. She figured out that there was history and simply proceeded to the archives room.

After a couple of tries, she got the right key from the overseer's keychain and walked into the room. Looking left and right, there were a lot of documents, not all of them were important but currently, she had no idea which was the one from fourteen years ago and had no time to check one by one.

Hastily, Vivian walked around the small room, passing her fingertips over every ledger she could see to send them into her storage purse, and started to feel its weight becoming more than usual even with the weight reduction option. With that, she retreated right away and got out to meet Voros.

The Duergar seemed to have collected some of the liquor and started to splash it around the place, hoping that the fire would eat everything away once it spread from the area where the Brute was burnt. After that, he took out his knife and was about to kill the last surviving Blackguard who was pinned to the door.

"That's enough." Vivian called and approached him, "Our work here is done."

"Witness!" Voros pointed at the last Blackguard.

"Don't worry, those who saw my face are already dead. This guy was busy trying not to soil his pants." Vivian said and smiled viciously behind her face cover, "Let's go, people are already gathering outside the room."

Vivian and Voros retreated from the other end of the burning reception hall and returned to the spiral stairway as they descended one story down to reach the first balcony. On their way down, they encountered the prison guard from beneath who came up to investigate the noise but Voros dispatched him with a crossbow bolt to the heart.

The two took out their grappling hooks on the balcony, jumped down, and descended until they reached the street level and rushed to their chariot, escaping the area.

Vivian and Voros left nothing behind other than destruction and mayhem that night as well as two names that lingered for the remaining months as some of the most wanted criminals in Archester. The image of the dancing fighter lady, drenched in the blood of her enemies, and the horned man, who spread the flames of vengeance, earned the two of them two names unique in history. 

"The Bloody Swan and the Devil Man" would later appear in Archester a few times, reminding the city of darkness that when there is no good left in the hearts of men, God's vengeance will take many forms, even if it is that of the devil.

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