Buster Call

Crash!

With the sound of a beam being pushed aside, Nojiko staggered to her feet from the rubble.

At this moment, the war hammer in her hand no longer gave off the dazzling red glow it had before. Instead, it looked extremely dim, clearly having consumed a great deal of the energy it normally stored.

Likewise, the injuries she had sustained in battle erupted all at once, leaving her looking exhausted and pained.

Kalifa, who had been prepared, immediately handed her a bottle of healing potion. "Here! Drink this. It'll make you feel a little better."

"Thanks!" Without another word, Nojiko took it, tipped back her head, and drank it in one gulp.

Only after vitality flowed into her body, repairing and nourishing her damaged organs and cells, did the pallor finally fade from her face. Without even looking up, she asked, "You were watching from the side the whole time?"

"Yeah! More or less! And not just me. The BOSS was here too."

As she spoke, Kalifa glanced from the corner of her eye at the figure standing atop the clock tower in the distance.

"The Captain was here too?" Nojiko was startled at first, but quickly regained her composure. "What did you think of my performance just now?"

"Performance?" Kalifa stroked her chin and thought for a moment before smiling. "How should I put it? In terms of combat tactics and technique, it was barely passable. Your determination to win was the only thing worth praising. But considering you're still a novice, you did pretty well."

"So it was barely satisfactory, right?" Nojiko put away her hammer and shield, sighing helplessly.

After going through that battle, she finally understood why nearly everyone in the Demon Pirates trained their speed and reactions like their lives depended on it.

Because