"Amazing, Matt! Now this is a battle!" Zavi shouted from the commentators' booth.
"I'm floored, Zavi. I thought this was supposed to be a Rookie match, rankers though they are, such talent is astounding," Matt said. "SynnForessa's mana control puts me to shame. I honestly expected her to fall much sooner, but she held her ground against batch 4's number 1! What a woman!"
"Indeed. She had him on the ropes, but as expected, the demigod was a monster. I got chills watching him use Aura better than most people below Tier 3, except monsters like Riot. I wonder who his parent is. Either way, I'm sure big guilds will be lining up for him," Zavi said. "Speaking of guilds, did you see the look on Marcerio's face during the entirety of Blitzhunter and Vavuciadsforenkka’s battle? His team is missing a Flighter after all. I daresay that with his speed, any team would be lucky to get Blitzhunter for the Tier 1 league!"
There was a loud noise of both delighted screams and boos from the crowd. "I have a controversial take, Zavi. He is faster than some of the Flighters from last year's league. I'll make an even better wager: seeing how effortlessly he moved on that mount, he must be even faster on land. I daresay that if Langa Zulu got his health and defence up, I think he might even sub for a Tier 2 team," Matt said.
Zavi shook his head. "Whoa now, don't get carried away, Matt. He seems to have very little fighting experience. He barely managed to keep Vavuciadsforenkka off him. Granted, he made flying circles around him look like a caryon to a queen bee but it was still a struggle. "
"I'm not impressed, Zavi. The dragonkin should have had this in the bag. He's been flying his entire life, his Mana Pool is off the charts and his dragonscale armour is much better than Liv'Kungsadu's. Blitzhunter looked like he'd just flown for the first time today, yet he destroyed him. It was humiliating, and you can hear from the crowd's cheers that they loved to see Vavuciadsforenkka fall," Matt argued.
"Cut him some slack, he did well enough, but he was outmatched. Alright Towerpeople, it looks like another battle is on the horizon. It's time to see if Second Prince Vos can take down The Unrivalled's newest Blessed One," Zavi said, moving the commentators' box towards Team Kindaro's lighthouse.
While the commentators gave their opinions, a man sitting in a silver box smiled broadly as he watched Vavuciadsforennka die. "Look at him go, your uncle is having the time of his life," Pranav whispered as the crowd roared in delight, chanting the Blitzhunter's name. "Why aren't you cheering for him?"
The egg in Pranav's hands glowed, but he couldn't feel anything else coming from inside it. That was to be expected since it had been nearly 36 hours since he had fed it any lifeblood, but a response would have been nice.
"I don't want to draw attention to myself," the young woman next to him said, looking at her uncle with awe and pride. “He’s really in his element. I've never seen him so focused. This is where he belongs, in the sky, flying high and fast above the rest of us. Free from the shackles of our family.”
Pranav rolled his eyes. Khaya’s nauseatingly sweet love for her uncle was one thing the system hadn't changed about her. She was no longer the spoilt girl who clung to her brother and uncle, seeking a soft life with the people who loved and protected her. She was as fierce as the wind now, and she carved her path with a bloody sword. Still, seeing her awed expression made Pranav remember that she was still a naive young woman, and for the hundredth time, he wondered why she had chosen to stay with him instead of going to her beloved uncle.
As Langa lay recovering on the ground, Pranav wondered if he would be back up in time as Liv'Kungsadu ran on water towards him. "Why aren't you cheering for Liv'Kungsadu, then? You stalk him so often on the Dent, I thought you liked him," he asked, genuinely curious.
It was unfair that she glared at him in response. "Yeah, he's cool, but I'm not rooting for someone on the opposite team to two people I care about."
He decided not to ask what the hell she was talking about and watched Langa. Pranav still hadn't forgiven that bastard for getting him locked up. He'd been framed for something he didn't do, and his investigation led him to believe that Langa was behind it.
With Neo gone, nothing stood in the way of him getting his revenge.
He'd been planning on discreetly ordering a hit on Langa back on Earth, but the system had descended. No one fucked with Pranav and got away with it. Unfortunately, he needed to put his grudge aside for now since he needed Langa's help, just as much as he needed Khaya's. He promised himself that he would bleed Langa dry first before he destroyed him.
Pranav smiled. Yes, he would pay him a visit tomorrow, for old time's sake.
He stroked the egg gently, and the heartbeat inside it soothed him. There was only one more trial left and then The Hallow Reaper Cult would give him what he wanted. He had to win, otherwise, he would have sacrificed Neo for nothing. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to save the soul inside this egg.
Pranav watched Langa stand back up, trying to reach the lighthouse. “He runs like he is setting his whole self on fire, as if instead of blood, lightning flows through his veins. I wonder what would happen if I fed Langa’s lifeblood to-”
“It won't work!” Khaya snapped, her patience thinning. “The ritual clearly stated that it has to be Neo’s sibling or parent! Don't...don't you dare involve Langa in cleaning up you and Neo's stupid mess again.”
The venom in her tone made Pranav pause. He'd only been asking, of course, he knew that Langa’s blood wouldn't work. Her vehemence was totally unwarranted. She was getting on his nerves, and if he could kill her, he would, but she was one of his subordinates now, insufferable as she was. And he did not harm his subordinates unless they fucked up royally.
Fuck, he missed Neo.
His hand caressed the egg once more. There was still a long way to go.
The box shifted and Pranav was about to snap at Khaya to stop moving them around when he saw that she had moved them closer to the next battle. He sat up, watching The Hallow Reapers' newest recruit curiously. He couldn't help but feel bitter, as Vos Kindaro II was the only person accepted into the main guild without a trial.
*
Multiple monstrous lesser krakens circled the water and Vos Kindaro II held up his scythe, slicing a kraken in half in one go, a few metres ahead of Coraloa. She floated gracefully in the water, her siyotanka, the ice flute-trident, held in front of her, and wondered if the creatures would distract him enough that she could slip into the island and take over the shrine.
She was a bit worried because her crowd control skills were designed specifically to be effective against corrupted monsters and voidents, not neutral players, but she could handle herself in a fight.
Coraloa swam along the shore so she could reach the lighthouse quicker, but the moment she tried to land, Vos' Eye snapped towards her. A spectral viper emerged from Vos' scythe, and he rode it, landing in front of her.
“How is she?” Vos asked, and at first, Coraloa was confused about who he was referring to since there were only two of them there. To her surprise, however, her Summoner’s Link caught sight of something next to Vos. There was a floating spectre of a woman who appeared to be the deceased soul of a young moon-elf.
“Incompatible,” the spectre said. “You're never going to find a perfect one. I have told you multiple times to stop, Your Highness.”
“Pity,” Vos said, disappointment evident in his tone. “The body of a future Guardian Knight would have suited you so well. I guess that means I can kill her then.”
"Don't take her spirit energy, please," the spectre said. "I don't like it when you do that."
Coraloa frowned. Was that his bonded spirit? For dark elves, if they chose to bind with spirits, it was usually elemental or natural force spirits. However, he was bound to a deceased moon elf’s spirit, which was impossible with mere death magic. He was using some form of demonic soulfusion.
Demonic soulfusion was only possible if he killed the woman himself. In most cases, it had to be a traumatic death in order for the soul to bind to him and haunt him. That poor girl’s soul was forcibly bound to him, and she would free it. That was unacceptable, and anger rose like waves inside Coraloa's heart.
“How dare you kill and imprison a lost soul, denying her peace?” she asked, her Siyotanka raised in anger.
Having lived in a desolate world, Coraloa firmly believed that those who were strong had a duty to protect the weak. She would never accept the offence of someone powerful standing by and allowing injustice to happen without acting against it. This dark elf was the prime example of what was wrong with the multiverse; instead of using their power to help others, the strong used it to oppress them instead.
The spectre's eyes widened, and she stared at Coraloa with interest. “She can see me, V.”
Vos’ eyes narrowed. “Spare me your righteous indignation, scale-tailed dog of the saints,” he said calmly, his voice casual as if he were not just insulting her and her world’s constellations. "You know nothing of my life."
“Of course, you would resort to vile insults,” she scoffed.
For years, the saint gods and their constellations had battled the demon gods and their constellations, so it wasn’t strange that their morals differed. She was done talking. Vos' scythe cut through the air in front of her, souls shrieking inside it. Coraloa pushed air through her mana core, activating her Vibration Wave, the sound vibrations forcing the water behind her to move fast as a wave towards the dark elf.
She was hoping to either drown him or send him flying, but he floated away on the spectral viper, taking the fight away from water. Coraloa countered by holding her Siyotanka horizontally, infusing mana into the ice lucent crystal inside it.
Bullets of pure ice fired off from the three tips of the trident towards Vos, and she sent Sonic Blast into the ice bullets. The force of the impact knocked him back hard, a critical hit that sent him flying towards a nearby ridge of rocks.
She used the Temporary Blessing she bought with her Karma Points to whisper through the Summoner's Link and extend her control over a few of the krakens that had been circling her, coaxing them to attack the dark elf before he got up.
Another spectral viper emerged from Vos’ scythe, binding the creature's movements like a chain as he struggled to get back up. The spectral viper surrounded Vos, lifting him to his feet as he slashed through the beasts, moving with simple but elegant footwork. The krakens' bodies dissipating into mist as their souls were reaped by his scythe, and he absorbed the death energy.
Coraloa knew that this was her chance, so she jumped onto the land and activated the Vibration Wave on the ground so that she moved faster towards the lighthouse. She only needed to place the Sovorb inside it and guard it for thirty seconds. With Vos distracted, she neared the entrance, but her body suddenly got stuck in a sludgy barrier. The scales on her arm shrivelled up as if burned by magiscrill, eating away at her skin.
[You are in contact with a caustic ectoplasm barrier. -65HP/s]
Coraloa jerked back and pulled out her hand. The barrier was invisible, but when she tried to pass through a different spot, it seemed the barrier went around the lighthouse. Using her Summoner's Link, Coraloa saw the spectre from earlier hovering in front of her. She would have to use her divine skill to get through the barrier; thus, she first had to let her mana regenerate since she had used so many mana-consumptive skills consecutively. If she could just activate the divine skill for two seconds, she would make it to the lighthouse.
"I'm sorry, you seem like a nice lady, but I can't let you pass," the spectre said.
It seemed Vos was using her to protect the shrine.
“Why are you helping him? Tell me where to find your soulblood gem, I can get you away from him," Coraloa said, holding up her Siyotanka and shooting ice bullets at the barrier. "I can set your soul free." Another Sonic Blast made sure the bullets exploded inside the barrier, slowly weakening the death magic.
The girl shook her head and raised her arms. "If he lost me again, that would break the last shred of mortality he still has. I am his mortality, his power, his anchor, his everything." Three balls of caustic ectoplasm formed in front of her, and she hurled them at Coraloa.
The spectre lady's words made it sound like the prince was obsessed with her. "And what is he to you?" she asked, using her Vibration Wave to move back out of the way.
The girl smiled sadly. "The one who stole her life," Vos said quietly behind Coraloa.
Something hard and sharp slammed into her back, causing her health to ooze rapidly out of her, and Coraloa let out a startled gasp. She poured mana into her Summoner's Link and called forth her first summon. It was a large turtle named Gurini that grew in size until it was larger than her and stood in front of her. His shell acted as her shield, and he positioned himself between Coraloa and Vos as a shield. The scythe came down, getting stopped by the turtle's shell. If not for Gurini, she would be dead.
“Diminhtium,” Vos whispered, and the spectre lady let out a hollow scream that sounded like a wail of grief.
A fluid wave of caustic ectoplasm gushed towards her like a violent ocean storm, and it struck with a heavy blast against Gurini's shell. Acting quickly, Coraloa activated the Vibration Wave to push herself, and instead of being thrown back, she rode the wave back towards the water.
If he followed her, she could use the Vibrational Wave on the water, but the range of her skill wouldn't reach him from this far away, as the wave would lose power before reaching him. However, the dark elf wasn't baited to follow her and stood on land, watching her. Whether he killed her or not, he would receive points for protecting the shrine, but if she didn't go back to try and take over the shrine, her team would lose.
She could only summon another water beast once more today. She used the Vibration Wave to push herself towards the dark elf, Siyotanka raised. The ice bullets she shot from the trident were coated with the poisonous slime from Gurini's shell. Since she had bound to him during the tutorial, the turtle's poison did some corruption damage as well.
Vos erected a smaller ectoplasm barrier in front of him, trapping her bullets. She cast Sonic Blast into the stuck bullets, and they erupted in an explosion of ice, penetrating the thin barrier and striking the dark elf's leg.
Coraloa had to pour more mana into Gurini so that the poison coating his shell exuded more corruptive energy as it sprayed out. Vos rushed her, and ectoplasm covered his wounds, but they didn't seem to be healing, only sealed. His scythe failed to cleave through the turtle's defence as he kept striking at the shield without relenting. The more Gurini’s shield held up, the more mana the Summoner's Link took from Coraloa. Still, she continued to feed it because she had low health and she could see that Vos was exhausting his mana.
“I suppose you think you're in control of the battle. I'll show you how foolish you are for using spirit magic against me. Soul Possession,” Vos said, and suddenly, unceremoniously, Coraloa’s Summoner's Link to Gurini broke.
The spectre lady dove into Gurini's body, and the chord connecting him to Coraloa snapped, creating a backlash in the skill as it sucked her spirit energy and shook her mind to the core.
“What in the depths?” she asked as the turtle's eyes turned red, and instead of releasing its poisonous slime at Vos, the slime targeted her.
“No!” She would not allow her summons to be enslaved. Even though her karma protested at the injury to her spirit from the broken link, she reached into the Summoner's Link again. She tried and failed to desummon the turtle.
Dammit. He had only one sapient spectral soul. There was no way he could take control of two summons at a time. She decided to summon her two-legged blood koi-fish, and it appeared in front of her, its sharp teeth bared at Vos. He lunged at the dark elf, and he spun around, trying to cut it, but the weapon slipped through Koma's slimy skin. Instead, Koma latched onto Vos' arm and sunk his teeth inside it, consuming his blood. He was only thrown off when Gurini suddenly rammed into him under Vos' control.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Give Gurini back to me!” Coraloa shouted, instructing Koma to leech Vos' mana through the Summoner's Link.
"I don't want to," the dark elf said. But even as Koma pounced at him, Vos effortlessly dodged around, using the spirits from his scythe to shield himself, his keen eye fixed on her, reading her emotional state. There was a flash of interest in his eyes when he saw her determination. "Shall I test your resolve, Highly Blessed One?"
He was mocking her, knowing she couldn't use the Blessing of The Unrivalled against him since he wasn't corrupted. Gurini suddenly emerged from his shell, Vos swung out hard, and his scythe sliced through the turtle's soft skin, reaping the soul of the summoned creature and absorbing its strength along with the corruptive damage.
"Gurini!" Coraloa screamed, anger ripping through her.
The spectre lady, now outside of Gurini's body, wrapped herself like ectoplasm around the scythe. There was nothing in the dark elf's eyes when his scythe bubbled with poison as he turned it towards her. She could see a spiritual viper among other ectoplasmic spirits clinging to it along with the poison from Gurini's spirit. If she let that scythe touch her, she was sure to die.
She had to use her trump card, so she drew into her mana core. It was in the shape of an octopus, and she moved her mana along two of the legs before the core took over, regulating the mana into the magic circle for her divine skill. She believed wholeheartedly that Aquarius would not approve of the dark elf's actions, and she used that unwavering belief as Faith to fuel the divine skill.
She felt her body shift into a more unstable state. In an instant, she had the fluid body of a water spirit, and the scythe passed right through her, and she didn't even feel it.
[You are 100% immune to physical and magical damage as long as the skill: Rippling Body of Aquarius is active.]
It cost 150 mana per second, which meant she could only keep it active for three seconds before her mana was exhausted. She hastily deactivated the skill.
Anger burned through her like hot steam as she closed the distance between them. Still, her plan worked; Vos absorbed and assimilated the corrupted energy in Gurini's poison, which meant she could use her Siren's Song on him now. With her mana low, she tapped into a stat she rarely used: Stamina, and converted 85% of it to mana. She placed her Siyotanka on her lips, the water guiding her as she began to play Siren from her Siren Song, the haunting melody latching onto the corruption inside him and disorienting Vos for a moment. Her mana fell with every note she played, but she didn't stop.
His eyes went blank white as she continued to move and play simultaneously, willing the sound waves to confuse his mind so he would lose focus and be unable to think straight.
She could see the fog of disorientation in his eyes, so she directed the blood koi fish towards him, aiming to drain his mana through his life force. She used the Summoner's Link to steal his mana, using Koma to replenish her own.
She kept him disoriented as she activated the Vibration Wave, sending ripples of sound through her Siyotanka as she thrust it forward, trying to stab into Vos’ chest. His armour resisted the meagic, but she pushed a Sonic Blast through the weapon, pushing deep into the dark elf’s armour. Blood tipped the ice-white Siyotanka even as Vos’ scythe independently flew from his hand and struck him in the back.
"What?!" Coraloa asked. Red eyes flew open, and she jumped back. She wondered if Vos had high mental resistance, as it seemed he had injured himself to break free of her control.
Gritting his teeth against the sound, Vos seemed to focus his will, showing emotion for the first time since they started fighting. This time the wail of grief came from him, and the pain inside it was filled with fear, clutching his still-bleeding chest.
The scream reached Coraloa’s mana core with such intensity that it tore through her Siren's Song, releasing her grip on him. He unleashed a mass of death energy, his scythe turning blood red as the souls of the fallen lesser kraken he had slain gathered around him, sealing the wound.
“You've done it now,” the spectral girl whispered solemnly behind Coraloa. “There is nothing he hates more than mental magic.”
Sensing that its master was in danger, the two-legged koi-fish sprang for the dark elf, sucking away his free-flowing blood as Coraloa jumped back. She once again activated the Temporary Blessing she'd bought, using the Summoner's Link to instruct any nearby lesser krakens to attack Vos.
She had leeched enough mana from him to use Rippling Body again, so she activated Vibration Wave to push herself towards the lighthouse, while the koi fish distracted her opponent. Then she activated the divine skill, and her aquatic body easily passed through the ectoplasm barrier, incurring no damage. Surprisingly, the barrier was quite long and it took her nearly two seconds to get through it. Her mana plummeted again and the skill deactivated but thankfully, she was out of the barrier and could see the entrance to the lighthouse now.
Unfortunately for Coraloa, the moment she touched the door, it felt like her hand was stung by magiscrill once more as the entire door was dripping in a layer of clear ectoplasm. A wave of it travelled up her arm and she wished she had brought Fulimi to cleanse it, but it was too late.
[You are in contact with a caustic ectoplasm layer. -65HP/s]
"No!" she screamed.
"What's the matter?" A calm, quiet voice spoke from behind her. "Are you out of mana?"
Coraloa clutched her Siyotanka with trembling hands as she struggled to remain upright, her head throbbing from mana exhaustion, her arm aching with ectoplasm.
Vos didn't even have the decency to look smug. His face was as impassive as always as he limped towards her from behind, Koma at his tail. He was badly injured, his entire chest covered in ectoplasm, with blood leaking through the wound. Even though she could see the strain her Siren's Song had inflicted on him, she had no more mana to play it again, and the corruption from Gurini was gone from him.
Koma bleeding and battered latched onto Vos’ leg, desperately trying to leech more mana for her. Eyes bloodshot, Vos whispered, “Soul Extermination.”
If the possession had been painful, then this was pure torture. Inside Coraloa, the spirit of Koma screeched as it was torn apart, the pain passing through the bond, severing their connection as Vos reaped the soul of the blood koi-fish, draining its strength.
Tortured souls emerged from his scythe, and the spirits engulfed the blood koi-fish in death, before dissipating into nothingness as Vos absorbed them. At that moment, Vos brought his scythe down on her, but he made it incorporeal, a non-physical blow that allowed the scythe to pass through Coraloa's body, its tip resting next to her heart.
“Strange,” the dark elf said quietly. His face was calm and neutral, as if his scythe were not wrapped around Coraloa’s heart. “You are a decent mage, but nothing outstandingly special, so why is The Unrivalled interested in you?”
Coraloa gasped. Her skills worked better as support magic and for hunting corrupted monsters and voidents, rather than for PVP. If she could, she would use her attribute to show him why she had The Unrivalled’s favour. It was exceedingly powerful, but she couldn't use it on herself.
Ironically, if she used her attribute on Vos, it would only make him defeat her quicker.
“No matter. I’m guessing you can’t use whatever it is she sees in you. Perhaps the conditions have not been met yet,” he said. “Feast my dear Riman, I'm sure you will enjoy the unique spirit energy of a saint player.”
The spectre lady’s mouth opened wide, and uneven rows of skeletal teeth sunk into Coraloa’s throat. Her body was a vacuum, and it felt like her spirit was being sucked through her heart by the scythe. Blissfully, she received the message.
[YOU ARE DEAD.]
*
On the other side of the ocean, Langa’s body was heavy, and he was on the verge of collapse, but there was no time to catch his breath as Liv ran towards him. He wasn't confident he could defeat Liv at full health and stamina, so he knew there was no way he could do it now. He weighed his options. Was it possible for him to make a dash for the lighthouse and leave Liv in the dust?
He wouldn't know unless he tried.
Langa forcibly pushed his lightning mana down to power his legs and explosively ran towards the lighthouse as fast as he could, right into something solid. His speeding body collided with an immovable wall that not only stopped him in his tracks when he reached it, but the force of smacking into it pushed him onto his arse.
“Demonic Aura Territory,” Liv said.
Liv had slammed his scaly, demonic aura-covered hand into the ground, causing cracks to form in the sandy earth as a dark red aura seeped from his hand, crawling across the ground like a living thing. The aura rose, twisting the earth, its crimson darkness reinforcing an earthen wall that encircled both of them.
“Fucking hell,” Langa cursed, getting up and looking at the solid demonic aura barrier surrounding him and Liv.
“Leaving so soon? We haven't even gotten a chance to catch up yet,” Liv said sweetly, his purple eye glowing almost as red as his red eye.
Gods, Langa hated it when he acted cocky. Langa sighed and stood back up. If there was no running, he would have to show Liv how far he’d come since their spars in the tutorial. His whole body trembled. He was barely at 50% health, his mana was dangerously low, and all he had was his regenerating stamina, but he wasn’t going to back down from a challenge.
Liv must have seen something in his eyes because he raised his fists, taking on a fighting stance. “Come!”
“Pick up your sword,” Langa demanded. He didn’t intend to let the battle drag on for too long.
Liv smirked, picked it up, and sheathed it. “For you, that’s overkill.”
It seemed Liv hadn't changed at all since the tutorial. Blood, adrenaline and lightning filled Langa's legs as he rushed at him. He didn't like the fact that Liv always held back in his fights. He especially didn't want him to hold back against him.
"By the end of this battle, I will force you to use that sword," he declared. "That's my first step in surpassing you."
Liv’s guard was up, so Langa dropped low, stepping to the right as Liv’s fist struck the air above him, then he slashed upwards with Tonare but Liv's scaly left arm met the glaive’s shaft, the strength in it successfully parrying the blow and nearly knocking the glaive out of Langa’s hands.
He caught the twitch of Liv’s legs as he attempted to move in closer and reflexively stepped back quickly so that Liv’s foot whizzed mere centimetres past his face, its golden aura nearly blinding Langa. He breathed. That was close.
He’d neglected to take into account how much taller Liv was than him, which meant he had longer arms and thus longer reach. He had to extend Tonare’s shaft to 2 metres to maintain his distance, as allowing Liv near was too fucking dangerous. He thrust his glaive and twirled it at a speed so fast that his opponent didn't see it coming in time. The glaive sank deep into Liv's sternum, drawing blood, but he tanked the blow, not even flinching and changed his stance.
Langa instantly whipped around using his superior speed, so that Liv’s leg swung over his head. But the demigod was nothing if not well-balanced. As soon as he found his footing, a roundhouse kick covered in a red aura struck Langa's side, knocking the wind out of him. The dark, demonic energy seeped through the strike into his body and he felt one of his organs rupture, and he was bleeding internally.
[Critical Hit!
-101 HP]
“Fuck!” He was down to 20% HP again, so he couldn’t move as fast as before. This was the first time Liv had actually tried to kill him, and damn did it hurt. Langa couldn’t understand why he was grinning as he coughed out blood. No, he knew why he was excited. This was more thrilling than any race because his life was on the line.
“You think you can surpass me with just this power? Don’t mock me!” Liv’s sword came hard on Tonare and broke Langa’s defensive stance with brute strength. He Flash Stepped back, arms aching painfully, lightning dancing on his nerves.
He was huffing, and Liv was pushing the fight away from the lighthouse.
“Maybe my sights are set higher now!” he said, twisting around before he circled behind Liv, trying to use his speed to rush from the back, but Liv spun and nearly succeeded in backhanding Langa in the face.
But he hadn’t expected to catch Liv off guard anyway; his real purpose was to catch Liv off balance instead. Langa bolted forward, shrinking Tonare into its shortsword form and stabbed up into Liv’s unprotected neck, hoping for an instant kill with Thunderbird's Stunning Strike. But the demigod managed a last-minute guard with his arm, and Tonare sank deep into the arm, the skill shattering his Scale Armour and slicing through bone, reddish blood flowing out.
Dammit, if his body wasn't so sluggish, Langa would have been fast enough to slice through his neck.
“Higher than me?” It had to hurt, but Liv barely showed any reaction even as his shattered right arm hung limply at his side as his left arm elbowed Langa on his injured side. Thankfully, Langa was already pulling back, so the hit wasn’t deep.
“Yeah,” Langa said, pulling Tonare back and extending the shaft again. He infused his mana into it. “The Pioneer and all the other top rankers would make easy prey of you, so that’s who I’m chasing now.”
Liv suddenly crowded him, launching a series of fast aura-filled palm strikes with one hand while the other recovered. Of course, Langa didn't just take it. He used The First and Second Steps of his Spearmanship skill to evade, and retreat before Liv caught him with a knee on the abdomen. But he was not done, his leg extending instantly like a serpent's head, the power in his aura sure to be devastating. Langa had no choice but to block with Tonare's shaft held horizontally, lightning sizzling on the glaive.
"Forget about The Pioneer, The Unbound, Merreddyd, Anarchist, and all the other hidden and rising masters," Liv said as the force from Langa's block pushed him back into the demonic aura wall. "I will surpass all of them, so you just need to focus on me, and I'll lead you to the top."
Langa gaped at him. "You're a conceited arse," he said. "You do realise they might be watching this, right?"
"It's not conceit if it's the truth!" Liv's golden palm came down and Langa darted away.
"It doesn't matter either way because I'm not letting anyone run ahead of me, especially not you!" Langa’s Stamina had regenerated to a reasonable level now and he sensed that the life inside the demonic aura barrier was shrinking. Liv’s hand swiped towards him and Langa bent backwards to dodge so that he ended up looking up.
'Wait a second,' Langa thought, dropping and rolling on the ground to avoid a kick. 'Unlike his golden force field, this barrier is a circle, but not a dome.' It looked to be about ten metres high. If he couldn't break through the demonic aura barrier, perhaps he could jump over it.
"That's fine, Langa. Test your power and speed against mine. Walk beside me, fight against me, fight alongside me! Grow stronger until we are equal in power. I will always walk ahead of you so you don't lose direction or slack off in your path," Liv said. "Try to catch up."
"Can you shut your arse up for a second," Langa snapped. "I can't hear myself think."
"Wow, I didn't know that was something you could do," Liv said, charging towards him again.
If there was something Langa learnt from his battle with Vavuciadsforenkka it was how to creatively use his Jumper skill. He thrust the glaive into the ground and used it as both an anchor to the ground and a springboard to jump. Langa's feet landed hard on Liv’s chest, and he activated Jumper, knocking Liv back and letting the skill carry him high into the air and over the barrier.
He landed gracefully on the ground.
"Impulse Pulse," he said.
This fight had filled Langa’s body with adrenaline, and his heart was already overworking, so now that he was out of the barrier, he activated his attribute and Flash Step simultaneously. His mind reeled as time slowed to a crawl. Since his heartbeat was nearly double its normal rate, it felt like he was experiencing the world ten times in one second and couldn't keep up.
This was the second time since he unlocked his attribute that his mind struggled to keep up with his time perception as the world blurred by. This was a potential problem because, as his agility kept increasing, would his mind fail to keep up with his speed?
He pushed through the lighthouse door and slid into the shrine, ignoring his aching leg. On top of the large obelisk in the centre of the shrine was an orb slightly bigger than the sovorb Langa was carrying. He quickly infused his team's sovorb with his mana, removed the shrine’s orb and then placed the sovorb on the obelisk.
The sovorb lit up, and the fluid inside it started whirring, filling the entire shrine with three powerful essences as the countdown started.
[29 seconds left until Sovorb Assimilation.]
Liv would be here any second, so Langa had to guard the sovorb for the next 30 seconds to take over the shrine. If he had been allowed to bring his exploding orbs, he could use those to set a trap for Liv. As it was, he looked under the obelisk and found the shrine's three mana cores: a sun mana core, a blood mana core, and an ice mana core. He removed them to reduce the shrine's connection to Team Liv's deities, and the assimilation time went down drastically.
[14 seconds left until Sovorb Assimilation.]
Langa quickly pocketed the ice and blood cores. He didn't know if he would have enough time, but he began drawing the magic circle for Lightning Lance on the sun mana core since it was the closest to lightning, as quickly as he could. Fuck, why did the magic circle need to have over a hundred symbols? He'd never hated not having a mana core as much as he did now and he wished the Clash hadn't restricted the items he could bring. If he had Nitract's Page, it would improve his Casting Speed right now.
[6 seconds left until Sovorb Assimilation.]
Liv came bursting through the door before Langa finished drawing the magic circle. Langa knew it would take too long to finish the circle, as Liv wasn't going to just stand there and watch. He infused mana into Tonare and charged at Liv, slashing down at his side.
Langa's legs were on fire from how much he'd abused them in the last two minutes, and he knew without looking at his debuffs that his movement speed was severely reduced as Liv spun away from his attack and palm-struck him right in the chest.
“You reckless, crazy bastard! You're amazing,” Liv said, breathing heavily. “You have improved so much that it’s as if I’m fighting someone else entirely!”
He didn't even let the compliment sink in before he lunged from the floor and tackled Langa, grabbing him by the waist. Liv twisted in mid-air and arched the two of them towards the wall, easily angling Langa head first, into the wall.
[3 seconds left until Sovorb Assimilation.]
Langa's head screamed with pain and dizziness as his body hit the hard floor. He knew that he should be in unimaginable pain or dead right now, but everything was blurry, and the world spun on its axis. Liv’s entire body was on top of him, his right hand pinning him down, so he couldn't move. He blinked and saw Liv raise his sword and throw it towards the sovorb on the obelisk.
Langa's mind cleared. Shit, he couldn’t let the sword hit the sovorb and stop the assimilation, not when victory was so close. His stamina had fallen drastically, but all he needed to use Flash Step was 30 Stamina and one step.
His head was ringing, his health was below 5%, and his heart was racing. If the path of lightning was the track, then he was on the last lane, his opponent miles ahead of him. This wasn't a sight he wanted to see. No one was allowed to walk ahead of him. Who cared if his health and stamina were pathetically low? He was going to burn it all for this moment, this one win.
He was a nobody from a lost world, yet he was standing on the same stage with a half-god, half-dragon, and fighting almost evenly with him. This was it—the stimulation he’d been looking for his whole life. Those on the path of lightning had to have a calm mind and a burning heart.
In this life, Langa would live fiercely for that stimulation. He would burn everything—his mana, his stamina, his health, his karma, his soul, his body, his very existence—he would burn it until every fibre of his being surged with the fire of lightning, burning it until he consumed everything for this stimulation. If he burned everything and died in this high state, he could die happy.
He burned all the Stamina he had to push himself up, catching Liv off balance from throwing his sword, and it didn't hurt that he was using his injured hand to pin him down. That one moment was enough for Langa's foot to touch the ground, and he was able to activate Flash Step.
[1 second left until Sovorb Assimilation.]
He Flash Stepped in front of the Sovorb, and he felt the explosion of pain in his chest as Liv's sword penetrated deep into his chest instead of striking the sovorb.
[Sovorb Assimilated.]
Langa staggered and smiled at Liv. "I told you, I'd force you to use... your sword," he choked out as he crumbled to the ground.
[Congratulations! You have taken over Team Liv’Kungsadu's shrine!]
[Congratulations! You have won the-]
[YOU ARE DEAD.]