“This isn’t going as we planned it! How are we going to beat him without her?” Mihr Orril asked in a panic. Starve Cleric girl planned everything so thoroughly, any element displaced would ruin the whole plan. Now that she left just like that, Mihr Orril was losing confidence.
He didn’t have a reason to battle with Marooner in the first place. He just wanted to loot his body and if he was lucky, he could find a dual elemental orb. If so, he would gift it to his grandfather. But ever since Marooner saw through their trap, he was hesitant. But it was too late to step back now. If he were to quit at this point, no one would trust him anymore.
“What is there to make a ruckus about? Aren't I here?” Eloise reprimanded him as flames rose from her body. “Time to show you what hunters really are.” She had a smile like a tigress ready to cut her prey into pieces.
An orb appeared in her hand and melted. What appeared was an—
“A freaking bazooka?” Miles looked at the tube like a weapon on Eloise’s delicate shoulder. It was looking so out of place on her slim body. But she was shouldering it with mastery.
“Frenzy-Rank is a whole other world!” She said as the flame around her body flowed to the weapon. From back to front, it moved as it got stronger. When it was at the mouth of the weapon, Miles felt a blade on his heart. He instinctively crouched. All he could see was the giant weapon’s recoil and a beam of light piercing where his head was a second ago. An explosion went off behind him where the beam of light landed.
The explosion was as strong as a normal rocket would cause. Miles felt that heat and kinetic energy forming behind him and clashing with his back. He flew forward with the blast, but he wasn’t out of control. He used that to hurl himself forward and arrived amidst the trio. The still shocked Mihr Orril and Tian Ling were too slow to react, but Eloise jumped away with ease even though she was still carrying a giant weapon on her shoulder.
Tian Ling and Mihr Orril weren’t ignorants of course. They had seen what Frenzy-Rank orbs and powers could do, but this weapon was still too strong for a Grace-Rank. Especially when considering Eloise hasn't leveled up yet. She could obviously use energy otherwise she couldn’t activate nor control the orb, but she could also change the form of her fire. All these dropped the confidence two felt. If they were peerless geniuses, what about her then?
Miles had no choice but to battle from a close distance. If he were to be close to Mihr and Ling, Eloise would beware of firing. After all, unlike Elfrun, Eloise wouldn’t dare to openly hurt two grandsons of influential people. Both Tian Ling and Mihr Orril had higher standing in their grandfather’s eyes compared to Eloise after all.
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As Miles predicted, Eloise aimed at Miles but still didn’t fire because Ling and Mihr were too close for her comfort. Miles kept them in the close distance while battling them with the sword he stole from Mihr Orril.
Mihr’s one hand was broken, and his weapon got stolen. He had no choice but to charge his superpower to attack with it. The light elemental superpower was super effective when it clashed with regular humans, but this Marooner was a beast who could dodge his powers with ease.
Tian Ling was also helpless. The situation escalated too quickly, and their close-distance fighter left them. Normally because of his superpowers, he had to fight from a distance since water pillars had great explosive powers but needed to gain momentum. Now that he was at such a close distance, he couldn’t attack at all.
Miles punched them all over their bodies but kept them at a close distance while doing so. He also didn’t use heavy hands lest he would get rid of them too quickly. He was actually kiting them to Eloise while fighting them, but unlike the duo, Eloise was an experienced fighter and could see through Miles’s intentions.
“Use your shields, I will end this battle,” Eloise shouted in distress as flames rose from her body like a wildfire. She looked like the goddess of fire.
Miles looked at the duo in panic and saw them fishing out barrier elemental orbs. Two melted at the same time and covered them. They still looked afraid and wanted to move far away from Marooner, but how could Miles let them go away easily. Using his superior speed, he moved behind the two and used them as two giant shields. He could feel how dangerous the next attack would be.
‘Should I use that orb? No, I can still defend this. That orb will be my ace in the hole.’
With his new buffs, he also circulated energy as fast as he could and canalized it to his two arms as he crossed them over his body.
He used the first step of the Exaltedness of the Creator and felt his body getting stronger, faster, and tougher. He also covered himself with the cape from head to toe. Just as he was done, the pillar of light as thick as Miles’s waist fired in his direction.
The pillar of light first clashed with the two meat shields in front of him. But Eloise’s aim was impeccable, so the piercing light evaded their bodies and only penetrated the empty area inside the barrier. The light beam hadn't detonated in the barrier where it first clashed but kept on flying towards Miles.
Miles was already hiding like a turtle. Pillar of fire, after it pierced the barrier again to exit, clashed with the spiky cape and pierced it too. From there to maroon armor. Because two arms were crossed in front of Miles's body, the pillar of hell stopped and entered the tug of war with energy protecting him.
Miles, even with his eyes blinded by the shining pillar of light, could feel that energy was keeping the fire pillar at bay. His intangible, invisible energy was criss crossing in front of him and stopping the fire.
Miles thought and realized that when he first canalized the energy, he was imagining a thorn mail protecting him. And as he imagined, or willed, the energy crisscrossed to take the form of a thorn mail. Miles looked at the energy in wonder. This was the first time he bent it at his will, and it took the form as easily as breathing.
“What else can I do with energy?” He had no time to ponder over it sadly. The fire pillar won the tug of war, and pushed through the energy barrier, by forcefully destroying it. It clashed with Mies's armor and exploded.