Parrying the spear thrust along with other physical attacks, Shiro tried to slam her fist against the Harvester’s armour but it seemed like it was prepared.

  Every time she tried to go in for an attack, it would back off and counter with her spear.

  Strangely enough, it was almost as if it was learning from her attacking style since she could sense some similarities.

  ’If that really is the case then the longer this fight goes on, the harder it will be. I need to finish it quickly.’ Shiro frowned.

  After all, if the Harvester could really learn her attacking style, there was a high chance for it to find her weaknesses.

  However, there was also a strategy she could employ in order to win the fight and that was to force the Harvester to lower its guard.

  By allowing a few hits and making it seem like it has learnt her entire move set, she’ll be able to surprise it once it gets conceited.

  Continuing her struggle against the Harvester, she allowed herself to fail at parrying its attacks a few times as she was forced back against the wall.

  Stabbing her shield into the wall, she used it as a foothold to vault herself over the Harvester. Before it could collect the shield, she teleported it back into her hands since it would be bad if it also got her shield along with the spear.

  Seeing Shiro struggle and back off for quite a while now, the Harvester seemed to be enjoying the situation as the serpent head had a sneer on its face.

  What it didn’t know was that despite taking a few hits, she had not activated her Celestial Armour nor did she use her Celestial Raiment at full force. She could estimate that this Harvester could see their fight against the fake one outside and knew what she could do.

  In that case then the best way to go about it was reduce her energy usage so it seemed like she was out of energy.

  While the reality of the situation wasn’t too far off, once there was an opportunity, she could slam the Harvester with a burst of power.

  Just as she was about to try to attack the Harvester once more, she could see it using the spear as a toothpick of sorts as it was taunting her.

  *PUCHI!

  Feeling as though a vein had just burst, Shiro took a moment to calm herself since the boss was smart. Even though it was taunting her, it wasn’t ’conceited’ yet. The moment she rushed in, he’d attack back at full force. She needed some more time so that the Harvester thought she was desperate and out of ideas.

  Thinking about it for a moment, she had an idea as she blatantly glanced at the hole that she had made earlier and narrowed her eyes.

  Seeing this, the Harvester ’knew’ that Shiro wanted to attack its only weakness at this point and made sure to guard it well.

  Continuing the struggle, Shiro acted as though she was very tired. Her attacks were slow and her breathing was rough. Her footwork was all over the place as there were times where she would ’just so happen to dodge an attack or two’.

  Of course, this was all an act to lure the Harvester in but the monster didn’t know about that.

  Shiro had continued this act for around 10 to 15 minutes now as she had forced herself to sustain a bit of damage in order to bait the Harvester in.

  Just as she was about to go for another attack, she ’tripped on her foot’ and fell over.

  Quickly rolling off the side, she tried to crawl away from the Harvester. Acting as though she was in despair, her eyes seemed desperate but her mind was working its best to find the perfect moment.

  Due to her fall, her mask moved out of place, making it so that the Harvester could see her face filled with desperation and despair. Seeing the face of a maiden in a panic, a sadistic intent seemed to ignite in the Harvester’s heart as it chuckled and used the spear to cut other parts of her clothes.

  Naturally, this action pissed Shiro off but she had to endure it a little and allowed it to cut the parts of her clothes that wouldn’t show any too important. Only things like the arm or the belly but never near her chest or waist area.

  Thankfully, her patience seemed to pay off as the Harvester was clearly enjoying the situation and let its guard down under the assumption that Shiro couldn’t fight back anymore.

  There was a reason that people told others not to play with their food/prey since they could still fight back with their lives on the line. But since the Harvester was clearly born just now, it wouldn’t know that. At this point, all it knows is that it’s powerful and unbeatable.

  Understanding the situation and Harvester’s state of mind, Shiro knew that the opportunity was about to arrive.

  Just as the Harvester leaned towards her in order to humiliate her more, Shiro’s face became cold and serious as her aura changed from scared to bloodthirsty in a single moment.

  Leaping into action while the Harvester wasn’t expecting it, she activated her gauntlet as she jammed her arm inside the hole and released as much lightning as she could, paralysing the Harvester for a moment.

  Twisting her body, she reinforced her strength and slammed her shield against its arm, forcing it to release the spear.

  With her weapon retrieved and the Harvester temporarily paralysed, she knew that she had a short while in order to finish everything off.

  Stabbing the spear into the serpent head and pinning it against the ground, she switched her element and slammed the pommel of her spear with a piece of metal that forced both the spear and the serpent head into the ground and pinned it there securely. While that was happening, Shiro also jammed her right foot into the hole as she tried to tear it open with two opposing forces. With her arm going up and her foot going down, blood flowed out of the wound as it gradually increased in size.

  Of course, to avoid said blood, she activated her Celestial Armour along with her wind element so that a small layer of concentrated wind would push the blood aside. Should it somehow bypass that, the armour would then block it.

  *URAHHH!!!!

  Crying out in anger, the Harvester tried to attack her with its remaining arm and black tongues that erupted out of its body.

  However, Shiro ignored this and slammed her palm against the Harvester’s chest. A pulse of cold mist exploded out, leaving a layer ice over its body.

  Snapping her finger, the ice formed chains that connected to the walls of this room, forcing his movements to a halt.

  With the black tongues and its remaining arm frozen in their movements, the Harvester no longer had anything to attack Shiro with since its main weapon was trying to infect its opponent with its blood and infecting mist.

  Since Shiro had stopped his main weapon from working due to her preparations, it had actually been fighting at a disadvantage for a while now but the joy of forcing into ’despair’ made him overlook this fact.

  Unfortunately for the Harvester, it was now too late to realise his mistakes.

  With a perfect opportunity to end this all in front of her, Shiro didn’t mind using all of her energy in a single moment.

  Activating her Star and Void Star Celestial Raiment, she gathered energy within her palms as a glowing orb was formed inside the Harvester’s body. The burning power of a star and the consuming nature of the Void Star combined together as Shiro quickly made some distance with the Harvester.

  Snapping her fingers once more, a pulse of energy was released from the orb as it had even managed to push her back by a few steps.

  Suddenly, a giant suction force could be felt from the orb, ripping parts of the Harvester’s flesh off, ’consuming’ it and turning it into ash.

  As the Harvester was slowly being eaten away by this orb, Shiro tried to leave the room but the force was a little too powerful even for her since she had used quite a bit of energy and there wasn’t enough to reinforce her body nor was there enough to teleport out of the place.

  Gritting her teeth, she stabbed the spear into the ground and used it as a staff to slowly get away from the room.

  Glancing back a few times, she could see the Harvester collapsing within itself as the serpent no longer had any life in its eyes.

  Wanting to make sure that it didn’t come back alive, she waited until the orb completely erased the Harvester before deactivating.

  Once she deactivated it, her mind seemed to relax. Collapsing against the floor, her consciousness seemed to fluctuate for a moment as fatigue hit her like a bullet train. The last thing she saw was the cold dead walls of this nest before falling into darkness.

  [Quest Complete.]