Chapter 226 – The Infernal Beast’s Armor
Chloe Evenhart:
There were no people around me. The port was emptying out as everyone likely retreated deeper into the city. This was the underground city beneath Evenhart.
The castle is an hour away from the city, and a messenger raven can reach it in 15 minutes. A disturbance of this magnitude in the city automatically requires the presence of one of the duchess's royal guards. Which means my mother will send one of the Legacies. So, in less than two hours, someone will be here to handle the situation. But I can’t rely on them. One day, I will be the one leading this duchy.
I stared at the man before me.
This bastard hurt Kinue... and I’ll kill him myself.
He raised his hand high, a small flame flickering at his fingertips, which rapidly grew as his magic fueled it. The fireball swelled, pulsating as it absorbed oxygen, its heat making the air shimmer. The sound of crackling flames melded with the whistle of wind he summoned to amplify the inferno.
The sphere of fire radiated a menacing intensity, expanding relentlessly, its heat suffocating even at this distance. The blazing light cast erratic shadows around us, creating an almost surreal atmosphere, as though everything was at the mercy of this roaring energy.
His eyes gleamed with a mix of determination and cruelty as he held the fiery orb aloft. "Let’s see if you can survive this!" he roared, his voice slicing through the dense, heated air like a blade, carried on the roar of the flames.
It’s a trap. If I get closer to force him to cancel the spell, he’ll detonate that thing right at me. If I let it grow any bigger, it’ll wreak havoc and could even be launched toward the city. I’m at an impasse. This guy doesn’t care about the consequences of being captured or killed anymore. He’s fighting to die, completely ignoring the aftermath.
"Judging by your face, you’ve figured out the trap you’re in!" he shouted, pointing at the growing inferno above his head.
“Grand Explosion!”
The flaming sphere surged forward with fury, illuminating the battlefield in a brilliant blaze. Without hesitation, I launched myself into the air, using wind to propel my ascent. My hands glowed as I conjured a wind barrier mid-motion to intercept the fireball. The heat was stifling, and the surrounding pressure threatened to crush every movement. With my other hand, I created a secondary barrier, blocking the fire from behind, quickly layering multiple shields to seal the destructive power within a magical cocoon.
"Aqua Eagles!" I shouted, summoning water creatures to dive directly into the blazing inferno. The flames began to subside, consumed by the conjured waters. But just as I started to relax, I heard Quinn’s sharp laughter cut through the chaos.
“Hahaha! You really fell for it!”
Suddenly, he surged forward, using the cover of steam and destruction to close the distance, his sword gleaming with magical energy aimed directly at me. He had masked his true intention behind the initial assault.
"Ice Art: Forest of the White Winter!" My voice rang out as a wave of ice spread in all directions. Trees of frost erupted from the ground, their branches gleaming with sharp, glistening snow. The entire area transformed into a frozen wasteland. The temperature plummeted, and the frigid air was so intense it became difficult to breathe.
The cold seemed to bite into every inch of exposed skin, and the battlefield was now my domain—a forest of ice, treacherous and unforgiving.
Quinn faltered, his sword striking one of the ice trees, shattering it into a thousand shards. But the forest continued to grow, surrounding him, cutting off his paths. I landed gracefully on one of the branches, my body aching but my resolve unbroken.
"Your fight ends here, Quinn," I declared, my breath visible in the freezing air.
Quinn’s sword closed in on me with deadly precision. I raised a wind barrier in defense.
"Frozen Knight!" I shouted, summoning an imposing figure of ice from the snow. It wielded a crystal-like lance that shimmered brilliantly, radiating an icy aura as it charged toward Quinn.
Quinn staggered back, but not for long. He spun his blade with practiced precision, conjuring a fiery tornado.
"Crimson Vortex!" he roared. A whirlwind of flames erupted from his sword, surging forward with devastating force. It melted the ice around him and obliterated the knight in a powerful explosion.
While he was preoccupied with the golem, I seized the opportunity to activate Icy Steps, sliding swiftly across the snow-covered surface. Each movement left trails of ice in my wake, reshaping the battlefield to my advantage.
Quinn’s eyes burned with fierce determination as he pursued me, his heavy breathing punctuated by increasingly aggressive attacks.
"Ice Art: Cemetery of Skeletons!" I cried, commanding the frozen ground to rise. From beneath the frost, skeletal figures of ice emerged, rigid yet relentless, advancing on Quinn from all sides.
Quinn retaliated viciously, his flaming blade slicing through the icy figures with ease. Explosions of fire shattered groups of skeletons at once, reducing them to shards. But their purpose wasn’t to defeat him—they were meant to distract.
As the skeletons occupied his attention, I conjured spiraling ice pillars around him, weaving a treacherous trap. Taking aim, I launched frozen arrows, forcing Quinn to dodge with sharp, precise movements.
"Fire Tsunami!" he bellowed, slamming his foot against the ground. A massive wave of fire surged toward me, illuminating the field with its blazing glow. The oppressive heat was amplified by the gusts of wind he summoned, making the flames all the more ferocious.
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I didn’t hesitate. Slamming my own foot into the ground, I conjured a wave of water to counter the inferno. The two forces collided violently at the center of the battlefield, creating a deafening explosion of steam that blanketed the area in thick fog.
As the mist began to clear, I realized too late that Quinn had used the impact to propel himself into the air. He was coming straight for me, a fire-imbued dagger in hand.
"Damn it!" I cursed, recognizing his change in strategy. With a lighter weapon, his speed and unpredictability had increased. Before I could react, he slashed my shoulder. Pain shot through me like lightning, forcing me to stagger back to avoid a fatal blow.
Quinn spun, preparing for another deadly strike.
I leapt into the air, conjuring a wind blast that condensed into a compressed air bullet. The attack struck him in the chest, sending him tumbling across the ground. He rolled but recovered almost instantly, his gaze now even more ferocious.
"You won’t leave here alive!" Quinn roared, hurling a barrage of fireballs in my direction.
I dashed across the battlefield, weaving through the fiery projectiles as they exploded around me. Finding cover behind a partially destroyed carriage, I caught my breath, my shoulder bleeding profusely.
I tried to push the pain aside, assessing the situation with sharp focus. Each of Quinn’s moves was calculated, designed to keep me on the defensive. But retreat wasn’t an option—not now.
"Come back here, little duchess!" Quinn snarled, his voice dripping with hatred as he unleashed blasts of wind and fire. Each attack ripped through the air with violent force, erupting around me in waves of searing heat.
I was in a pitiful state. Every movement was a battle against the excruciating pain consuming my body. The wound on my abdomen bled relentlessly, forcing me to freeze it repeatedly to staunch the hemorrhage. The pain radiated with every conjuration, but the alternative was far worse. My left arm was burned and powerless, more of a burden than an aid.
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand. "You think this will break me?" I muttered, clutching the hilt of my ice-forged blade.
This fight wasn’t over—not yet.
My vision began to darken at the edges, my steps growing increasingly unsteady. The blood loss weakened my body with every second, and my breathing came in short, erratic gasps. My legs trembled, threatening to give out at any moment.
"Damn it…" I muttered, tasting the metallic tang of blood rising in my throat. I spat, the crimson liquid staining the dirty snow beneath me.
The explosion from the ship had caused severe internal injuries, especially on the left side of my body. Each breath felt like a battle, as if my organs were fighting to keep functioning. The debris hadn’t just left superficial wounds; the blows had inflicted deep damage, likely causing internal bleeding in multiple areas. With every movement, my body rebelled, screaming that it was at its limit.
I need to keep going, but I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.
I focused, trying to quickly assess the severity of my condition. Without a healing potion, I couldn’t stabilize my wounds, let alone recover enough to keep fighting.
If this keeps up, I’ll bleed out, and that bastard won’t even need to kill me himself.
I sighed and pushed forward, but what I saw next made me freeze in place.
Quinn was completely engulfed in flames. His figure had transformed into something terrifying, as if he had merged with the fire itself. He had forged an armor of wind and fire around him, his every movement leaving a trail of destruction. The flames danced violently across his body, illuminating his face, twisted with fury. He looked more like a demon than a man.
"This is my Infernal Beast’s Armor!" he roared, his voice distorted, echoing like a monstrous growl amidst the heat and explosions. "My most dangerous spell! You won’t survive!"
Before I could react, he lunged at me, a living sphere of destruction. I dodged at the last second, the searing heat passing so close it nearly burned my skin. The carriage behind me took the full impact, exploding with a deafening blast that sent shards of wood and fire flying in every direction.
"His strikes have combined explosions of wind and fire," I muttered to myself, the dread growing in my chest. He was putting everything he had into his attacks, sacrificing his own safety to take me down. It was reckless, dangerous, and utterly insane.
Quinn charged after me, each of his steps causing small tremors in the snow-covered ground. Every blow from his infernal armor triggered devastating explosions, consuming everything in voracious flames.
"AHHHHH, hahaha!" His maniacal laughter echoed, a warning that he wouldn’t stop until everything was reduced to ashes.
I tried using the surrounding houses as cover, but he didn’t hesitate. As I reached one, I heard the impact before feeling the ground quake.
BOOM! The entire house exploded behind me, flames and debris launching like a deadly storm. I dove through a window at the last possible second, rolling into the snow to escape the searing heat devouring everything around me.
Quinn emerged from the wreckage like an unstoppable force. Using wind to propel himself into the air, he spewed fire in every direction. The snow-covered streets melted under the intensity of the flames, and I felt trapped, my mind racing for a solution.
"Water Art: Great Blue Sea!" I shouted, summoning a massive surge of water around me. Waves rose from the frozen ground, spinning at my command as I prepared my next defense.
The clash of heat and water created thick clouds of steam that blanketed the battlefield, obscuring both our visions.
"You won’t escape, little duchess!" Quinn roared, his flaming figure emerging through the mist like a vision of hell itself.
His armor blazed brighter, the air around him shimmering with raw heat. This wasn’t just a battle anymore—it was survival.
I clenched my fists, summoning every ounce of strength I had left.
Quinn leapt again, aiming a devastating kick at me. I raised an ice barrier at the last moment to block him. As soon as his foot connected, the barrier shattered into a violent spray of frozen fragments.
The kick still barreled toward me, but I noticed something: the barrier had slowed its speed and force significantly.
“What!?” he yelled, startled.
Without hesitation, I lunged directly into the kick, bracing myself for the pain. Heat scorched my skin as I grabbed his foot with both hands, forcing it against my already injured abdomen.
“You cauterized your wound using my firepower!?” he exclaimed, both confused and infuriated. But before he could react further, I seized the opening.
“Sea Serpent!” I shouted, conjuring a massive water serpent that surged toward him with crushing force. The impact sent him flying, but even as he was thrown back, he continued laughing.
“You’re pathetic!” Quinn cackled, the flames around him roaring with even greater intensity.
Before he could recover, I unleashed another spell:
“Azure Swarm!” Tiny swallows made of water emerged in a flock, striking him with shards of ice that exploded on contact.
Quinn, though being pressed back, only intensified the flames around him, melting through my ice attacks. He charged forward like a blazing monstrosity, propelled by the wind howling behind him.
“Avalanche!” I stomped the ground with all my strength, sending a massive wave of snow surging upward like a towering white wall.
“Frozen Coffin!” With a sweep of my hand, the avalanche transformed into enormous icy hands that grabbed him, locking him inside a colossal sphere of compacted snow.
Wasting no time, I conjured a rain of ice spikes, driving them into the sphere with devastating force. The pressure was so immense that cracks began forming on the surface.
For a fleeting moment, I thought I had won.
Suddenly, the sphere erupted in a fiery explosion of blue flames that consumed the ice entirely. Quinn emerged, striding through the chaos, his infernal armor entirely intact.
“Is that all you’ve got, duchess?” he mocked, laughing as he propelled himself into the air with wind, launching toward me like a flaming spear.
“Now!” I yelled at the last possible moment.
BAM!
A colossal impact slammed into Quinn from the side, hurling him violently into the nearby houses. He collided with the walls, shattering them as the structure partially collapsed around him.
"ROOOOOAAARRR!" My Soul Golem let out a deafening roar.
“You’re late,” I said, panting, doing my best to hide the relief flooding through me.