The blades of wind Mercury unleashed from his kicks burst against Penny's face, arms, legs, and chest. But she was unhurt.
Even if Mercury—one of the grimmfolk's Grimm of Destruction who so threatened the world—put his all into an attack, Penny wouldn't even bat an eye as she continued to move forward. It was as if he were just fanning a breeze to her.
If Penny still suffered one thousand years of degradation, Mercury might have been able to hurt her a little. But now that Naru had restored Penny to her full glory, Mercury had no chance of ever wounding her.
She walked straight through tornadoes that would've pulled out huge trees, roots and all. She treated bullets of wind coming from all directions like they weren't even there. And she never showed the slightest hint of wavering, not even at Mercury's greatest attack, which he'd sacrificed HP for.
On the other hand, every single one of the attacks Penny unleashed had the power to kill. If any of them had hit, Mercury would've been dead in an instant. She was shooting a cloud of death. There was no wiggle room with any of her attacks.
As time passed, Penny's aim was improving. She learned from her opponent's movements and compensated accordingly. But even this semblance of balance was razor-thin, since Penny was still holding back.
If she unleashed Brachium, everything would be over in an instant. The reason why she still hadn't was because Penny was still of the opinion that Brachium should be kept in reserve. In other words, the gap between them was so large she didn't think she needed it.
Everyone had the potential to become Naru's enemy, including the queen of Gjallarhorn. Penny always had that in mind, making sure she would always be ready to react if the need arose.
If Penny were to use Brachium, it would be unleashed against the entire country of Gjallarhorn instead of only Mercury. The instant they were to ever become her master's enemies, Penny would use Brachium to eliminate them, country and all.
That was the only reason why she had yet to fire it. But she was ready to at any moment.
Of course, even if the people of this country were to become her enemies, Penny didn't think there was anything they could do. They were so far removed in ability it wouldn't even have been a fight in the first place. But sometimes reality exceeded the imagination, and united, people could display unprecedented power.
"Just in case."
Penny had learned that the uncertain and unreasonable existed one thousand years ago. So she would no longer make mistakes. She would no longer allow even a one-in-a-million chance for that to happen.
If a seed was allowed to grow, it could rip apart soil in a flash. So Penny elected not to use Brachium. But even so, Mercury's life hung by a single thread.
"This won't do, will it? Looks like we're just not a good fit." Mercury's smile, which never faded, was belligerent like a beast. But he still sounded calm.
His entire body was covered in wounds. They were all minor, but the damage was definitely piling up. Mercury wasn't grazed. He was dodging all of Penny's attacks well, using all the evasion skills at his disposal. Even so, just the shockwaves from her attacks hurt him.
On the other hand, Penny had taken many attacks head on, but it didn't seem like she had been affected by them at all. She readied her blade with a relaxed expression as if saying she didn't even need to dodge.
Metal, or in other words, steel–the attribute to harden one's body like steel, cut apart tree after tree with a blade, and use one's weight to be unaffected by wind.
Iron could be melted by fire but would never be scored by wind.
From Mercury's perspective, Penny was taking no damage from his attacks, but every one of hers was lethal. She was his natural predator.
But still, having been able to hold on all this time was a show of Mercury's strength. Even among the Seven Grimms of Destruction, his mobility and evasion were far and away the best, which allowed him to deal with attacks even from stronger enemies.
If Penny were facing off against any of the other Seven Grimms of Purgatory—Vernal for instance—they would have long been turned into a corpse. However, being able to put up a fight was a far cry from being able to win.
All Mercury could do was hold on. His chances of victory were very close to zero.
"Doesn't look like I'll be able to claim victory here. I don't like it, but I'll be retreating now."
"…!"
After hearing her enemy declare his intention to leave, Penny immediately returned her left arm to its normal state, once again equipping the machine gun she had left intact.
If the enemy were to assault her, Penny could defeat them with the butt of her gun or her blade. But if they ran away, it would be up to flying speed.
Penny's maximum flight speed exceeded mach 5, but that was only in a straight line after having enough time and room for acceleration. Basically, in addition to not having as much instant speed, Penny also couldn't outmaneuver Mercury, who could freely manipulate the wind.
In other words, if he put all his efforts into running, successfully chasing him down would be a difficult task. Even if Penny managed to catch up, she wouldn't be able to capture him. So Penny judged that it would be best to add ranged attacks into the mix and try to shoot him down while he ran.
"Too bad. I'm more familiar with this place than you are!" Mercury ran off into the townscape, dripping with cold sweat.
Penny immediately gave chase, but the capital's buildings were built too closely together. It was like the planners never even considered that people would be walking through the streets. This place was only built for the flugels.
That construction became a maze which allowed Mercury to escape and hindered Penny's chase. Mercury ran around corners, inside buildings, and into crowds. He could maneuver much better in these cramped spaces and had the advantage. On top of that, Penny's knowledge of the layout of this capital was still incomplete.
No matter how different their maximum speeds were, Penny could not catch up.
For example, if you were to place an Olympic gold medalist into this complicated townscape and make him chase one of the town's children in a no-holds-barred tag match, it would probably be nearly impossible for the medalist to win. That was what was called the hometown advantage.
Penny concluded that continuing to give chase was a wasted effort. Even if she continued, the chance of capturing Mercury right now was close to nothing with their speeds and his maneuverability. Without complete knowledge of the town's complicated layout, continuing to give chase as she was now would only end with wasted effort on Penny's part. It would rather be more useful to take the information she'd obtained in the fight to her master as quickly as possible.
That was what Penny decided, and she ceased her chase.
"…"
With a small, high-pitched, machine-like noise, Penny turned her head. Her sharp hearing could even pick up the sound of a pebble rolling from several hundred kilometers away. Of course, in order to do that she would have to shut out all other irrelevant noise, but that was how sharp her hearing was.
Using those sensors, she picked up Naru's voice and the sound of her breathing before determining her location.
As for Mercury… It was useless. He was shutting off any sound he made by making a wall of air. That meant that there was no point in using hearing to track him.
"Current location: Black town… The temple."
I have found Master's location. At the very least, it doesn't seem like she is in battle with anyone at the moment.
Penny could also hear some other voice, but it didn't seem hostile.
Last night, her master had woken up with an elevated heart rate. Penny knew that humans experienced dreams, but she didn't really understand why. It was said that dreams were mostly to help one sort memories, and depending on the situation, the dreamer may experience some painful memories once again.
Master's response… That was most likely because she saw some sort of unpleasant dream, Penny thought. As I had expected, this country has a bad influence on Master.
And that was exactly why Penny wanted to eliminate any and all obstacles in her master's way during their stay in this country.
Penny would not be swayed by emotions. She would never be shaken by something intangible like dreams, and she would never lose her cool. That was because her true essence was that of a 'tool'. She found meaning in her existence by benefiting her master and removing all things that did the opposite.
She remembered the form of her enemy as well as the way he'd fought.
His level itself is low, but he's a slightly annoying enemy who can exert his evasion skills to dodge me. But there's no chance for me to lose. As long as I have some way to pin him down, victory is assured.
Unfortunately, he got away this time, but the next time he will not be so lucky. I will ready a weapon and a plan that will reliably put him down. The next time we meet, he will certainly breathe his last.
It would be over in an instant if I were to use Brachium, but there is no need for that. It would be more than enough just to threaten to use Brachium for intimidation. There is no need to actually shoot it, the doll, who had regained her duty and her master, thought.
What weapon would she need to kill her enemy? How would she do so? What would she do next? Repeating those thought processes over and over again, she continued to search for ways to benefit her master.
For that was the very meaning of her existence as a doll created by Lunaru Fenris.