“Huh? Why should I save her?” Her tone was lazy as sun on dust, her smile a cat flicking its tail.

Nana Toki almost laughed, like spring water bubbling over pebbles.

Is the male lead short a few candles upstairs, like fog smothering a lantern?

Who asks something that dumb, like a goose honking at thunder?

This has to be a power-trip world penned by a hack, like paper tigers painted on silk.

Everyone’s got an INT debuff, lead and heroine alike, like mist dulling a blade.

Or are all male leads the System sends this brain-dead, like boats without rudders?

System: “...”

Nana Toki sat cross-legged, cheek propped in one palm, a slouch like wind bending reed.

Her look and voice said Bei Yuan was air, like clouds drifting past a mountain.

“I don’t owe her a thing, like a traveler passing a shrine without incense.”

“She’s nothing to me, like a name scratched on a tree, so why do thankless heavy lifting?”

“She courted death and got it; what’s that to me, like rain on a far roof?”

“Besides, I’d be happier if she died, like frost taking the last leaf.”

She leaned up a little, head tilted like a hawk sighting prey, then bared her teeth at Jiang Xinli behind Bei Yuan. “Well?”

“Does death biting at your heels feel thrilling and sweet, like cold wind on a fevered face?”

Behind Bei Yuan, Jiang Xinli flinched at Nana’s bright grin, like a rabbit seeing a snare.

She had watched Nana Toki raise a Colossal Axe and butcher every Corpse Devourer on the first floor, like wheat cut by a scythe.

That ruthless, blood-slick ferocity was new to Jiang Xinli, like nightfall at noon.

It felt like the Yu Xi she’d known at school was someone else, like a mask peeled from a statue.

This lunatic, like wildfire in dry grass.

Feeling the woman shaking behind him, Bei Yuan looked at Nana’s grinning face and felt provoked, like a drumbeat under the ribs.

“You should pay for your words and actions,” he said, voice cold as sleet on slate.

His fists clenched; lightning prowled him like restless wolves, nipping and pacing.

Crackling rose and fell, a chorus, and sparks popped in the air like fireflies bursting.

“Oh?” she drawled. “You wanna fight?” Her voice curled like smoke.

Seeing his stance, Nana Toki grinned, like a knife catching moonlight, and with her right hand she scooped up the Black Great Axe.

She pushed up from the floor, body unfolding like a spring, calm and eager.

Her handsome face lit with anticipation, like stormlight on steel.

“Come on. Let’s see who kills who first,” she said, voice sharp as sleet.

Whoosh!

Thwip!

Like an arrow loosed from a taut bow, almost on Nana’s last word, something moved.

Hiding in shadow, Misty Tide lunged at Bei Yuan like a ghost skipping between candles.

Two small white hands flashed like twin daggers, stabbing for his chest.

Sizzle!

Boom!

As if he’d foreseen the ambush, Bei Yuan didn’t even look back; his eyes stayed on Nana like a hunter on a tiger.

He flicked his right hand, and a searing blue-white bolt dropped from above like a guillotine, smashing into Misty Tide.

“Ugh...” Her small body jerked, struck by the unexpected thunder, and she hung in air like a kite with cut string.

She fell stiff as a stone, the drop straight and silent as winter rain.

Clatter-clatter.

Clatter-clatter.

The one bolt shattered glass throughout the mall like a sweeping tide of pebbles.

“Hah!” Bei Yuan gave no breathing room, like frost following snow.

His black eyes stayed on Misty Tide falling, cold as a well; he raised his right hand and seized an opening.

From his palm, a spear of braided lightning formed in an instant, like a serpent coiling from cloud.

Whoosh!

He hurled it, the air splitting with thunder, the throw swift as a hawk’s stoop.

The lightning spear moved too fast to see, like a needle of rain, only a thin blue-white line scrawling toward Misty Tide.

It was about to hit, like a hammer to cracked ice.

Suddenly.

Midair.

“Ora!” A shout rang, crisp as a bell.

Bang!

Boom!

A column beside Bei Yuan caved in with that cry, like clay punched by a god.

Inside the crater, earth went soot-black where the spear struck, still blinking with fine blue arcs like tiny eels.

A faint, purifying holiness clung there, like incense under rain.

His lightning awakening outstripped the original script, like a river breaking its banks; maybe the Heavenly Dao wanted the male lead to erase Nana Toki.

Sizzle-sizzle...

The stone pillar kept crackling, like bacon on iron.

At first the System thought Bei Yuan’s aim slipped, like a bowman with wet fletching; then it saw his face dark as thunder.

It looked up and realized Nana had leapt without anyone seeing, like a swallow skimming eaves.

She’d used the Colossal Axe like a bat and swatted the lightning spear back, like a star slapped from sky.

Misty Tide, who’d avoided the spear’s direct bite, hadn’t been caught by Nana either; she hit the first floor hard, like hail on tile.

She coughed a mouthful of blood as expected, like plum petals scattered by wind.

“Cough, cough... cough...” Each cough tore like paper.

System: “...”

Host, you really couldn’t catch the little girl, like a fisherman scooping a drifting leaf?

It stared at Misty Tide crumpled in the pit, breath thin as thread, and went speechless, like wind lost in reeds.

She’s a boss, sure, but still a little girl—can’t we be humane, like rain after drought?

Catch her my ass, came Nana’s cool thought; the bill for hollowing out my body isn’t paid, like a loan shark at the door.

“...”

Anyway.

“Where are you looking?” Her voice fell like a pebble in a still pond.

Landing light from the air, Nana stood with one hand on her hip like a queen at ease.

She slung the Black Great Axe back over her shoulder, not even glancing at Misty Tide, like a wolf ignoring a stunned hare.

Her eyes narrowed, a sharp line of sight shooting out like an arrow from a bow.

Her smile curved, mocking and baiting, like a hook under silk.

“Weren’t you here to fight?” Her tone rang like a gong.

“...”

“Where’d you get that weapon?” Bei Yuan ignored her, gaze glued to the axe like frost to pine.

In this world, brute force shouldn’t bat lightning back, like hands swatting thunder.

Yet she had done it; the only answer was the weapon, like a relic dug from a buried age.

That ink-black Colossal Axe looked simple as a farmer’s tool, yet it screamed power, like a waterfall wearing down stone.

Bei Yuan had seen famed weapons in his original world, like stars scattered on velvet, but now—

Staring at the Black Great Axe, he felt ignorant, like a frog at the well.

That axe was no common thing, like iron tasting of rain and moon.

“What, gonna kill me and loot me?” She caught the heat in his eyes and grinned, like flint sparking tinder.

She spun the Black Great Axe with practiced ease, like wind turning a prayer wheel.

“Wanna try?” Her voice was a blade wrapped in velvet.

H-Host, he’s blessed by the Heavenly Dao’s providence; we can’t win, like a skiff against a typhoon.

The System hovered in her mind, trying to stop the sparks, like a hand over a fuse.

But.

Nana was already charging, Colossal Axe swinging, like a comet dragging fire.

Bang!

Boom!

The axe hit the floor; white tiles exploded like ice under a hammer, dirt and chips spraying like startled birds.

Cracks spidered everywhere, ugly and deep, like lightning scrawled on dry riverbed.

Hard to imagine that axe biting flesh, like a guillotine falling in snowfall.

As Nana rushed in, Bei Yuan wisely avoided the edge, like a fox slipping past a snare.

Trading blows with an axe that bounced his power was stupid, like punching a millstone.

“...”

Dodging that first swing, Bei Yuan studied the Black Great Axe, eyes calm as winter ponds.

Its plain shape hid a wild bite, like a wolf’s fangs under snow.

Compared to old-world divine weapons, it was leagues beyond, like ocean to pond.

He wanted it more and more, like thirst in desert noon.

In his arms, Jiang Xinli shrank in a princess carry, neck pulled in like a turtle.

When that madwoman charged, Jiang Xinli thought she’d die, like a candle in a squall.

Is this really Yu Xi, like a peach tree bearing thorns?

“What’re you dodging for? If you’re a man, come brawl me one-on-one,” Nana jeered, voice hot as pepper.

Watching Bei Yuan juke left and right with Jiang Xinli in the mall, Nana ripped the Colossal Axe from concrete and followed, like thunder chasing rain.

Her face twisted more and more, a snarl like a mask of war.

“Come on! You a ball-less eunuch, afraid to trade hands with a woman?” Her taunt cracked like bamboo.

“Want me to give you a hand’s handicap?” Her laugh rang like chimes.

“Don’t run! Come taste joy!” Her words were knives wrapped in silk.

Boom-boom-boom!

Boom-boom-boom!

Boom-boom-boom!

Deafening impacts hammered one after another, like drums rolling down a mountain.

Pillars, tiles, shops, all the clutter—none lasted a strike under Nana’s axe, like straw before a gale.

Bei Yuan felt she put full force into every blow, like waves slamming a cliff, yet she never showed fatigue, not a drop.

If anything, her attacks grew sharper, like a blade honed mid-fight.

Even her style changed from crude cleaving, like a river finding a new channel.

As if everything before had been—

“Hah... warm-up’s over,” Nana said, breath smooth as a cold stream.

She suddenly stopped, and far off, Bei Yuan and Jiang Xinli exhaled as one, like birds spared the hawk.

Then Nana reset her grip, holding the Black Great Axe as if it were a sword, like a dancer changing steps.

“This time, where will you run?” Confidence lit her face, a sunrise over steel.

Bei Yuan’s heart flared with alarms, like temple bells in fog.

Almost on her last syllable, cold bit his soles and shot to his crown, like ice climbing a tree.

That feeling was—

“Die,” she whispered, voice a snow-edged blade.

The Black Great Axe flared with edge-light, stabbing his eyes like needles of sleet.

In a blink.

Like when Jiang Xinli was grabbed by Misty Tide, Bei Yuan came to and Nana was there, axe brutal and near, like thunder at the door.

Sizzle!

No time to dodge; facing that sweeping blade, he could only meet it with power, like a shield raised in hail.

Sizzle!

He shoved Jiang Xinli away and gathered everything into his hands, like drawing a river into a cup.

Bang!

The moment blade kissed lightning, a pressure burst like a bomb, air warping like heat over sand.

He thought he heard a sonic crack, faint as a swallow, cutting the air.

His hands felt a sharp edge, like gripping a saw; a single strike flayed pain like a thousand cuts.

The attack wasn’t only flesh-deep; that axe felt like it would split his soul, like an oar cleaving moonlight on water.

“Arrrraaaah—!!” His scream tore the air like ripped silk.

Rumble!

As he was about to fail, a blue bolt as thick as a well’s mouth dropped from the sky, punishing both of them, like a decree stamped in thunder.

Host!

The Heavenly Dao has intervened, like a cold hand on the board.