The Villainess Returns with a System-Chapter 108: Vivian vs Natasha

As far as everyone was concerned, Natasha Ivanov’s trail had gone cold a few days after it was lost in the Sump of Waterlow. Like many others, House Moore was traditional in its methods. They would send out their soldiers and agents, beat up a few crooks, knock down a few doors, and if no results emerged, they would put wanted posters all across the city.

However, the problem with the Waterlow district is that it is a completely lawless part of the city, ruled by the law of man by day and the law of the jungle at night. Since Natasha disappeared there, little could be done except keep watch over the area and offer a reward for her capture.

Still, the ruler of Waterlow was a man who was not to be trifled with; some called him the King Under the Sump, but he was commonly known as the Underking. This ruler of the night was the only one people such as Natasha would turn to in order to escape Archester without attracting the authorities’ notice. He was also the man who made a deal with the Prince’s Faction to move unauthorized Royal Treasury Convoys through the city.

With his power and authority, just what kind of price did Natasha have to pay to gain his favor and get a ride outside town in that secretive convoy?

All of these questions would be answered in time, but at that moment, Vivian was coming face to face with Natasha, and she had no idea who the Underking was.

BANG! BANG!

Two bullets, two hits.

Even most 1-star silver knights would be at death’s door from such lethal accuracy. Natasha, however, merely covered her face and looked at Vivian with hostility.

"Don’t tell me you killed my brother with these lousy shots," Natasha said with a mad smile, perfectly blending the word’s two meanings.

"I blasted his face with the best gun I had. I wouldn’t waste that on you, though!"

Yet, contrary to Vivian’s expectation, Natasha wasn’t provoked in the slightest. She had a triumphant laugh as she spoke:

"I can’t believe it! The hawk’s hatchling is a real snake, it seems," Natasha said as she walked towards Vivian, ignoring Voros, who made himself scarce. "But little princess, you’ve wasted all your bullets on me. You don’t truly know how the world works..."

« 40 SP used for Auto Reload! »

BANG! BANG!

Interrupting Natasha, Vivian fired two more shots from Romeo and Juliet, and with a smirk, she taunted:

"You were saying?"

Natasha covered her face with her arms again, and her smile vanished. She peeked with one eye from between her arms and looked angrily at Vivian.

"Bitch, I never run out of bullets." Vivian spoke with obvious mockery.

The red-haired woman stepped forward angrily towards Vivian, clenching her fists, and ready for a fight. Her skin was as pale as a sheet of paper, and as evidenced by the four bullets she had just parried with ease, it proved impervious to bullets.

Still, the reflex of protecting her face meant that those bullets were not entirely ineffective, and she was still afraid. Also, this wasn’t even the best firepower Vivian had brought that night.

Natasha was watching Vivian, waiting for her to reload the pistols to charge, but before Natasha could even realize it, Vivian was aiming her pistols again and firing. Unable to comprehend the mystery of the futuristic pistols Vivian was using or the secret of their reloading, Natasha decided to go for a different approach.

She picked up a large piece of debris from the ground, and with superhuman strength, she hurled it at Vivian.

Seeing this slow action, Vivian was surprised by Natasha’s newfound power, but it gave her ample time to shoot and dodge.

Natasha tried to give chase, but Vivian was indeed faster and better at maneuvering. However, a strange momentum was growing within Natasha as she pursued Vivian. Terrifying as it was, Vivian still had the upper hand as she skillfully kept her distance.

Natasha was wearing a ragged commoner dress that kept exploding whenever a bullet hit her. Soon, Natasha was partially naked, with her shoulders and legs exposed, which brought her both shame and anger.

"Such an undignified sight you are! Did it escape your mind, when you created your super drug, that this clothing would be an issue?" Vivian asked.

"Why would I?" Natasha replied with obvious spite. "I would have had the wife and daughter of Count Moore and the daughter of Count De Clare at my beck and call. A powerful fabric would be a necessity for all women in my new world."

"Your what now?"

"What do you take me for, little princess? A villain with some evil scheme?"

"The nerve of you, woman! You don’t see yourself as such after distributing poison to people?"

"Poison?" Natasha became enraged as she punched the wreck of a carriage near her and made it move and resonate with metallic vibrations. "Gratia was meant to free us women, to give us back what was rightfully ours!"

"Such a blatant lie for a spy to say."

"I may have been a spy, but I was a prisoner just like you and every other woman. Men are the reason behind all the suffering in the world, and they hoard power for themselves. They scowl at women who learn Aura and call them mannish; they discriminate against women who learn magic and call them witches; even a gun-wielding woman like you received the worst treatment just for defending herself against a man. They give us knives just to kill ourselves if their fragile honor is to be touched."

"Give me a break! The poison you were selling was no more than a temporary boost, and you almost sacrificed all the women who trusted you for it."

"Oh, but you were wrong, princess. You didn’t see the full picture; you never had the chance to, sadly," Natasha said, appearing confident. "What did the twerp Matilda tell you? That this was the only thing she worked on for me?"

Vivian frowned upon hearing what Natasha was saying:

"What are you talking about? There was more?"

"Gratia was just half of the equation, my dear," Natasha said with a grin. "While it was considered poison on its own, there was another product, an enzyme meant to balance its effect. Matilda created it on the fly, like some academy project, when we were trying to balance the effect of Gratia."

Natasha’s words angered Vivian. It was expected that Matilda would withhold crucial information such as that, but deep down, Vivian wanted things to take a peaceful approach with the heroine. While it was manipulative of her, when Vivian put herself in Matilda’s shoes, she would realize that she had done the right thing for herself.

As for Natasha’s version of the feminist revolution, she proved to be an even more dangerous woman than before, driven by desires and misguided idealism rather than materialism. If her silence could be bought, the Moores would be more than happy to pay, but this... this was problematic.

"So... done buying time?" Vivian shook off the thoughts in her head and looked at Natasha coldly as she asked.

"Heh! Let’s see how far you can survive this."

Natasha commenced round two with more vigor than usual, having fully come to terms with her newfound powers.

BANG! BANG!

She took the bullets Vivian fired as if they were nothing, even though they would make her flinch and stagger from their power. With all her power focused on her hips, Natasha leaped at Vivian, crossing an incredible distance like the wind, and punching with all her might. Vivian had to make a side roll as she recognized the power behind those punches just from the sheer force in the air.

BANG! BANG!

Knowing she would be wasting bullets if she kept shooting without a proper goal, Vivian started targeting every vital point she could. Having impervious skin didn’t mean what was beneath it was also impervious. With enough blunt-force trauma, a lot of damage could be done.

The problem here was that Vivian’s pistols lacked the kick needed to harm Natasha, which led Vivian to decide upon a melee engagement. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

Natasha was as powerful as a raging bull if her momentum was maintained, and luckily for her, Vivian gave her all the space she needed. The two women were playing a cat-and-mouse game of speed and finesse. Natasha was steadily improving; the more she attacked, her strikes becoming faster and more precise.

Similarly, Vivian decided to discard the pistols and switch to the sword she called Long John Silver. The sword was a marvel at how it operated: retractable into a dagger, and extendable into a sword. Vivian found fencing with it to be perfect, almost to a surgical degree. Vivian focused on what she knew—stabbing—which she used systematically to pierce Natasha’s weak points, such as the throat, albeit to no avail, except for learning that Natasha still felt pain and feared it.

As the two were improving, Vivian was the one on the losing end. She tried everything she had, but nothing worked, while Natasha was improving with every strike and learning new patterns. The mental aspect of the fight kept going back and forth until Natasha finally managed to land the first clean hit on Vivian.

"HAAA!"

With vigor, Natasha punched Vivian’s abdomen, but Vivian was already retreating, so the blow was softer. Still, she felt her insides twisting from the power of the punch. The force of that attack pushed her back a few paces, and she jumped backward, creating a significant distance between herself and Natasha.

Just then, Natasha noticed that Vivian was in a tight spot, literally. She was between a broken carriage and the debris, with no way to retreat. A charge towards Vivian at such a moment would be the death of her.

But just then, a small keg flew right in front of her face as Natasha charged like a mad bull, and with a skillful shot, Vivian shot the gunpowder keg at the most critical moment, causing a loud...

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Right in her face, Natasha was blown back with a splendid explosion. With that, she landed a few meters backward, lying flat on the ground with all her clothes completely burned. As for Vivian, she managed to use her Aura-star to protect herself and her senses, as she wasn’t particularly close to the keg. However, she was blasted off nonetheless.

As for Natasha, lucky was not the word to describe her state. People were meant to die from coming close to explosions like this, but if they survived, their suffering would not be light. For Natasha, anything her magic balm hadn’t touched fell victim to the thunderous blast.

Blood poured from her eyes, nose, and ears. The blast’s concussive force reverberated through her, leaving her shell-shocked and disoriented.

Vivian’s state was much better in comparison, but she was stunned as well, with no visible injuries. As she was blasted away, she hit her back hard and couldn’t move for a while until she slowly started to recover.

The sensation of being this close to the blast was shocking in all aspects. While her Aura was enough to guarantee her well-being and prevent internal injuries, she felt as if her heart was about to explode from her ribcage, and her lungs started to ache. The heat and the flashing light also took their toll and disoriented her, and there, she saw something that truly unnerved her.

In her hazy vision, Natasha Ivanov was standing right in front of her, unfazed and unbothered. But that hazy vision seemed to have caused Vivian to see doubles—no, doubles of doubles, of doubles. Even when she managed to regain her footing and look around, there was more than one Natasha present in that place.

"The fuck!"

Then it hit her!

Of course, it was like that from the start!

Natasha wasn’t alone. There were multiple women with the same appearance as her: pale, porcelain-like skin and faces like marble statues.

There were many, too many.

As for the real Natasha, she was there too, being helped up by those other women who seemed to have discarded their shame and fought in thin, white clothing.

But that wasn’t all.

From all over the place, whistles were sounding, and footsteps started to approach as a hundred police constables were coming from the north, the south, the east, and the west.

Vivian Moore, Voros Goldheart, Natasha Ivanov, over twenty of the White Furies—as the gazette would call them the next morning—and one hundred constables armed with batons, muskets, and pistols.

The Brookwell Crossing Scandal was something that would have a devastating ripple effect, contributing to the downfall of some of the strongest people in Elgard.

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