I Only Summon Villainesses

My gaze shifted to this Altharion, then to lady Ilse. The lady herself seemed to be fuming but suppressing the rage that was boiling within her with folded arms.

While Altharion... was not smiling like the usual, instead had a stern look glued to the lady. The air around the two of them was tense, at the same time, it wasn’t any kind of tension but one that was charged with history.

”You dare...”

Altharion raised his chin, giving her a condescending look.

”I dare...” Then he let out a mocking scoff. ”Let’s not make this difficult for me, you know what I want. Information, in.. for mation. Spill it Ilse, who is he?”

She grimaced.

”Even if I had the answer to what you are asking, what makes you think that I would be willing to tell you.”

Altharion shrugged.

”That or you’ll be losing everything you have ever built to get here.”

He started to pace around her.

”Your estate, the Grimmwald forest, your trade rights, your resources, your reputation. I will not only destroy you Ilse, I will consume all of it.”

For a little bit of time there was silence. Then lady Ilse suddenly burst out laughing.

Her laugh went on for a while such that the atmosphere became awkward and Altharion’s calm look got slightly uncomfortable, but he was trying hard not to let it slip.

”You are a very greedy boy. I should have known since you refused the position of the Student Presidency of the Academy, only to always whisper into the ears of the prince, and affect his decisions, by playing board games and moving all of them like chess pieces, even managing to do away with people you didn’t like around.”

Altharion put on that polished, unreal smile of his.

”What is this? You’re suddenly singing my praise, my head might explode from how exalted I feel.”

”You’re a snake. You are not just a snake Altharion, you’re a thief, incapable of building from scratch, all you pride yourself on is snatching from people. How shameless of you truly.”

He was looking at her with a small smile, for some reason the smile did not bloom further than it would have. He didn’t exactly grimace either.

”I think this is it for you. And you know it, so you’re just going to keep rambling and rambling.”

He straightened and extended his hands.

With swirling sparks of blinding light, something was manifesting in his hands, both of them.

When the light dimmed, he was holding two medium sized axes in his hand. How heavy they looked, combined with how lean Altharion looked, I doubted someone like that should be able to wield two axes.

But at the same time, I had watched him handle one with an unbelievable speed and power.

Even though I knew what should not be possible, I had heavy doubts.

He did not however aim at Ilse, instead, he turned around and grinned at Brunhilde.

The first thing that came to my mind as I watched him was:

’Is this guy stupid.’

Brunhilde was Kassie’s master, I was not sure what summon-tier she was, but the one thing I knew was that she was going to be devastating and dangerous, so much so that a human wishing to fight her would simply be courting death.

’He won’t even last one second!’

Under the same timeframe of my thoughts, the forest moved and the two of them smashed into each other.

A great blizzard exploded outwards from their point of collision, it swept through the entire forest area with cold, biting winds. Everywhere was instantly obscured by the impenetrable white of the fog. The darkness sure was thick but its light had no chance making it into this fog.

For a dozen seconds, I did not know what was going on, and could register nothing but sounds.

And the sounds... they were unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.

Thunderous, ground-shaking, teeth-aching, gut-wrenching, sickening.

It was all kinds of sound under just a dozen seconds, and each one had a flow, a rhythm that dictated the terrifying cadence of the battle.

My eyes swept to the side as a furious crash came from that angle, followed with a chilling tremor, through the ground, into my bones.

The trees around that area tilted and crashed, releasing another flood of snow and fog.

Still within it, something was going on. Something that I was so desperate to see.

Not only had Altharion, this strange guy, managed to survive two seconds with Kassie’s teacher, but seemed to have survived a dozen... and he was surviving more.

And my head was raging with disbelief and a couple dozen questions.

A violent wind suddenly tore through the thick snow fog, ripping the whiteness apart and bringing clarity back to the night.

I vanished, appearing far behind before being knocked down by the shockwave. But for the trees around, they were ripped apart, as if some giant hand crushed through them with his fist.

I thought the force would have diminished if I went far behind but I was wrong, instead I was thrown far back, slamming my back against the tree.

I fell to the ground and coughed up blood before managing to lean on my hands. Even that, the striking pain on my back was vicious, and if I could release a tantrum in pain, wouldn’t call a rain check on it.

But the danger before me was far more imminent.

I swallowed the pain and raised myself up, holding my chest painfully.

Right in front of me, about three hundred meters away, the two of them stood against each other.

Brunhilde was holding a gigantic frozen sword, that was fairly five times her body, seven petals of icicles formed beneath her, and beyond the edges of those frozen petals, Altharion was standing, unscathed.

In fact... grinning.

While Brunhilde didn’t have so much of a smile on her face.

A wind of reprieve blew past the two and before the wind could even escape, they moved, blurred and clashed with each other.

A furious sound attacked my ears and shards of ice grew, the shockwave was being frozen before they could even escape and instantly, turned against Altharion.

But this guy had a strange and superior defense around him, that instantly returned the frozen winds to their initial state the moment they crossed a certain threshold towards him.

They moved around each other, Brunhilde’s great sword cleaved the air with brutal force, usually landing like a meteor. But what was more surprising was how Altharion was able to stop it.

I knew axes were a unique choice of weapon, and they were equally versatile, especially when dealing with heavy-damage-type weapons. They had the potential to kill momentum and cleave it.

But against the kind of frozen weapon Brunhilde was wielding, this should be unreasonable.

Yet, every time their weapons connected, Brunhilde’s weapon disintegrated into harmless wind with startling speed.

And Altharion was quite quick-witted, as he was tearing one down with one axe, the other axe was quite the opportunist. Brunhilde on the other hand, always evaded.

Even when his axe flew out against her face, her body simply froze and shattered and she was already behind him. But all her assaults were fruitless.

Frozen tendrils shot towards him, pillars of ice began falling on Altharion from the sky and yet, what fell on him was the wind, bathing him from all sides.

In the midst of it all, he hugged himself and shivered.

”Huusshh, so cold.”

I found myself dumb with words.

’This has to be peak baiting...’

Brunhilde, meanwhile, grimaced furiously. The past few minutes, she had been battling with a light frown on her face, but after the bombardment, it suddenly seemed like her cup was full.

”You wretch... to think that the likes of you are even allowed to exist.”

She gritted her teeth viciously. And glared madly at him.

While Altharion kept an amusing smile about himself.

”A summon that can talk, or not talk, a dead man is a dead man. Please, refrain from speaking while we are fighting, it’s infuriating to have a dead woman from ages ago walking, talking is unbearable.”

He flat out said to her. And before she could even open her mouth to retort, he vanished from his position.

That moment, Brunhilde didn’t bother talking, she fell into a tight defense. Her frozen sword exploded forward with devastating speed, and each time was shattered. But all around her, the winds were being frozen at an equal speed, making the task of bridging her defense quite daunting for Altharion.

But the fine bastard didn’t seem to mind. He wrenched her icicles and enjoyed every moment of doing so.

He was a reckless, destructive, offensive combatant.

He left no regard for his defense, and rained channels of brutal assaults of his axes on Brunhilde. His body movement and leg work flawlessly matched the savagery he moved with.

Her defense was near impenetrable, and scattered all around, with the aim to push him back. The icicles looked inexhaustible and she was using them so generously, as he was cutting down one ice, two more were sprouting with brutal speed.

But then...

Was it truly inexhaustible? After all, it was not like Brunhilde had an infinite source. In fact, I suspected that her source was far more limited.

Behind me, Lady Ilse was already huffing tiredly.