I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 291 – Wind and Chaos

"Duck, Alicia!" Theo yells.

Alicia ducks in time, and the haelion’s swipe passes just above her. If she had still been standing, the haelion would have snatched her.

"Now, Alicia!" Theo yells again.

Alicia quickly gets back to her feet and makes a slashing motion with her bamboo sword toward the flying haelion while yelling, "Wind Slash!"

A crescent of wind shoots fast toward the flying haelion and hits it perfectly.

The haelion shrieks and falls to the ground, dust flying everywhere.

"Woohoo! I did it!" Alicia pumps a fist into the air, excited.

Theo claps twice from where he is standing, about ten meters from where Alicia launched the Wind Slash.

"Excellent, Alicia. But you do realize that you don’t need to yell anything, right? Even if you do, ’Wind Slash’ is not the right incantation," Theo says.

Alicia grins. "I know. Wind Slash is the name of the skill I just performed."

Theo looks at her like he is talking to a madwoman.

"You... gave it a name?" He looks flabbergasted.

"Well, yeah. That’s what happens in movies, right? Yelling out the skill’s name when the protagonist performs it," Alicia explains, still grinning, though her tone is completely serious. It is hard to tell whether she is joking or not.

Theo looks at Alicia, lost. His mind goes blank. He can only blink.

Alicia laughs.

She is obviously in a very good mood.

Theo kept his promise. He brought Alicia along when Arthur gave him a stack of level four dungeons to clear.

At first, Alicia had looked at Arthur like he had lost his mind, giving Theo a pile of papers filled with details of level four dungeons. Most of those dungeons had been open for weeks, with no one clearing them.

Private teams, knowing DEU was in trouble, had tried to profit by charging extremely high prices. DEU could not afford them, but those private teams believed DEU would eventually call them since they lacked the manpower.

When Arthur was put in charge, they came to see him, only to be shoved out the door by Arthur.

That was when Arthur had the idea of having Rhaenas clear the dungeons by maximizing Theo.

When Alicia first entered the first dungeon with Theo, even though she had already seen how powerful he was, she was still nervous. Fighting haelions was different from sparring with teammates.

But once again, Theo made Alicia’s jaw drop.

In less than fifteen seconds, Theo cleared that first dungeon.

Alicia felt like she had not even had time to take a proper breath before the dungeon was cleared.

They are now in their fifth level four dungeon of the day.

When they were in the fourth dungeon, Alicia had begged Theo to teach her how to use magic in combat. She wanted to help him clear the dungeons.

And Theo did teach her.

Now, in the fifth dungeon, she is trying her best to clear it under Theo’s supervision. She has just killed her third haelion, and is still buzzing with the excitement.

"You need to focus, Alicia. You can’t let it get to your head. There are still plenty of haelions here. They’re lurking," Theo warns her.

Alicia takes several deep breaths, trying to rein in her excitement.

Seeing her try, Theo nods.

"Alright, let’s go clear the dungeon. After that, we’re done for the day. We’ll go back home and rest, so we’re ready for another few rounds of dungeon clearing tomorrow," Theo decides.

"Ow." Alicia pouts slightly. She does not feel like going home yet. She has only just started.

Theo laughs.

"Tomorrow, you can clear the dungeon solo. I’ll just be your backup."

Alicia lights up.

"That is, if you’re up to it," Theo teases.

Alicia grins. "Of course I’m up to it!"

She knows perfectly well that Theo is only teasing, but she answers seriously.

Over the next fifteen minutes, Alicia kills a few more haelions under Theo’s supervision. At the same time, Theo kills the rest and clears the dungeon.

When they step out of the dungeon, Alicia looks at her watch.

"Oh wow. We cleared five level four dungeons in less than ninety minutes. If we count the travel time between dungeons, the total time is around four hours and twenty-three minutes."

She looks at Theo. "This is amazing, Thea!"

Theo smiles. "Yes, it is."

Alicia remembers the stack of papers Arthur gave Theo earlier.

"To clear all the dungeons Arthur gave you... less than a week?" she asks.

Theo looks at her, amused. "If I’m doing it alone, it’ll take three days, tops."

Alicia makes a face. "Yeah, okay, fine. That’s fair."

They continue joking as they head toward the Solarys DEU helicopter they have been using today.

The pilot looks at them in disbelief. He has been assigned as their pilot for the day, taking them from dungeon to dungeon.

He had expected to travel to one, maybe two dungeons at most, and that would be it. Because when he saw there were only two of them, it never crossed his mind that they could clear even one dungeon, let alone five in four and a half hours, even if one of them was Chief Lutherford.

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They are halfway to Solarys DEU when the pilot says to Alicia, "Chief, HQ wants to inform you that a level six dungeon has just appeared in Jade Lantern District. And it’s causing a lot of chaos, since it sucked in many people."

Alicia puts on the headset and speaks to HQ.

"It’s Lutherford," she says.

She listens and frowns.

"Chief Montrose, Thea and I can definitely check it out. We’re about five minutes away. Yes, we’re already in the air."

She nods. "Got it, Chief."

She takes off the headset and says to the pilot, "Drop us off in Jade Lantern District."

"Yes, Chief."

She looks at Theo, and he nods.

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Hawk walks aimlessly. His head is full of his encounter with the Baroness.

Hawk is actually no stranger to defeat. He has met people who were stronger than him, and he has suffered several defeats before.

No, defeat is not Hawk’s problem.

His problem is the feeling of helplessness.

Hawk was an orphan.

He was born and raised in a war zone. As soon as he was old enough, he joined the military. Not because he wanted to serve his country, but because he wanted to eat. He wanted to survive.

But he soon discovered that he was good at it. He had talent in combat and other military training.

During his time in the military, he learned that he was better than most of the others and became addicted to that feeling, turning him into someone arrogant and prideful. He still is.

He rose through the ranks quickly to sergeant, and he swore he would never again feel the helplessness and hopelessness that had marked his childhood.

Then he came across a civilian man who worked at a diner he frequented.

The man had one daughter, who was around eight years old.

The girl always had bruises on her face, or her arms, or her legs.

At first, Hawk did not notice. But as he kept going to the diner, he realized he had never seen the girl without bruises.

He heard stories and rumors from regular patrons and the diner staff that the girl was being abused by her father.

At some point, Hawk started paying a little more attention to the little girl. He paid a little more attention to her because she reminded him of another orphan who had always followed him around until she eventually died for reasons he never knew.

Hawk saw that the girl’s eyes were lifeless.

He recognized that look.

He used to have that same look.

Helpless.

Hopeless.

One particular night, Hawk passed by the diner without intending to stop, because it was already past opening hours.

As he walked by, he saw the girl being slapped by her father until she fell to the ground, one of her teeth flying out.

And Hawk saw red.

He attacked and beat the man until he lost consciousness.

Hawk’s comrades had a difficult time stopping him.

Two weeks later, Hawk was discharged dishonorably.

But he never regretted beating the man. He would always say that he would do the same thing every time.

Today, he felt it again.

And he could see the deliberate mockery in the Baroness’s eyes and understood that she had wanted him to submit to her.

She had wanted to humiliate them all, but because Hawk was the one who reacted while the others did not, he took the brunt of it.

Hawk sighs.

He cannot blame anyone else. He can only blame himself for losing his temper. It is a very hard pill to swallow.

He walks around, trying to calm down and put it behind him, since he will need to return and face the Baroness again in two days for training.

Suddenly, the wind picks up.

Stronger and stronger.

Pedestrians begin leaning into it, trying to resist.

Lighter people are dragged off balance and have to scramble for cover.

Hawk helps several pedestrians who nearly get blown away.

Then crackling sounds fill the air.

An ancient square stone gate, three meters wide and six meters tall, appears between the buildings and begins sucking in everything and everyone in the area.

Many objects start getting pulled in, but because the gate is only three meters wide, some larger cars cannot fit through. They slam into the stone arch and explode.

Screams and explosions surround Hawk.

Well, that can’t be good.