Feylord didn’t seem to mind even though he was put on the spot. Lucy, on the other hand, frowned and looked at Leiu.
“You agreed to listen to me, did you not? Beat him.”
Even then, she didn’t look the least bit convinced. Lucy didn’t know Arthur on a personal level, however, she knew what he was capable of.
Isabella only had her ‘Immortality’ Skill but Arthur was a Parasite. Even without fighting him, Lucy knew her limits.
“I will not let you kill each other, so give it your all.”
Leiu backed away and crossed his arms, his dark eyes watching them with interest and anticipating.
Vermillion flames emanated from Feylord’s hands as he got ready to fight. As for Lucy, she mumbled something under her breath before raising her arms.
After waiting for a couple of breaths, Arthur, possessing the Cydian Knight Ant, struck quickly and decisively. His body blurred before appearing in front of Feylord.
The poor young man couldn’t react to his opponent’s speed and was hit by a side-kick, which blew him to the side. He crashed into a tree, snapping it in half before rolling on the ground, groaning in pain while holding his chest.
In contrast, Lucy was prepared for an attack; A blast of freezing Ice-aspected energy exploded from his hands, followed by a wave of flames.
Even then, Arthur ignored them and struck out with a fist, which she, unexpectedly, blocked with by covering her arms with blocks of ice.
The ice shattered and Lucy staggered, but she was still able to conjure a big fireball.
The golden ball of fire exploded in an instant, forcing Arthur to retreat. Parts of his carapace were slightly burnt, but the sustained damage was minimal.
Lucy’s flames were clearly special and more potent than normal Fire Magic, nevertheless, they still couldn’t break a parasite’s defences.
Several icicles whooshed in the air, aiming at Arthur, who tried to evade them only to see them chase after him. He swiftly changed tactics, choosing to let them hit him as he closed in the distance a second time.
Alas, Lucy was prepared this time as she froze the area around her and, putting it broadly, skated around, thereby increasing her speed. Moreover, she kept unleashing threateningly big fireballs.
Were it not for Leiu, who was using the Primordial Darkness, the golden fire would have already spread to the rest of the forest.
Lucy, seeing Arthur take out a sword and slice from afar, unleashing blasts of concentrated energy that countered her fireballs and even shot at her, jumped back while conjuring a thick wall of ice.
Her last-second Ice Wall succeeded in absorbing the incoming attacks, however, Arthur followed by [The Crescent Moon].
The illusory moon shone with a beautiful brilliance before exploding. Lucy was caught up in the blast, her body, like a ragdoll, spinning in the air before crashing into the ground.
She wasn’t defeated yet, hastily standing up and letting out a light-blue mist that obfuscated her position.
Arthur, who was going to finish this once and for all with [Sword Blast], was caught off-guard when ropes made of thin vermillion flames slithered in the air before wrapping around his torso.
Breathing heavily, Feylord held the flaming rope with both hands and used all the strength he could muster to swing it. His attempt was futile as his opponent remained rooted to the ground.
Arthur tried to use the rope to pull Feylord closer but, when he touched it, he felt a burning pain that forced him to let go of it.
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He had more than one way to get rid of the rope but, by the next second, it wasn’t necessary as the rope vanished.
Feylord couldn’t keep it for long, neither could he remain on his feet and fell to his knees and shouted from the pain. Ironically, using the Phoenix’ flames tired him and injured him more than Arthur’s earlier attack.
When he shifted back his attention to Lucy, she was already done preparing her spell.
Her face was deathly pale and her hands were shaking as a horizontal pillar of golden flames, akin to a cannon blast, shot toward Arthur.
[Exoskeleton Defense]
[Parasitic Insectoid]
[Law of Resilience]
Arthur crossed his arms and stood his ground. He felt a wave of heat crash into him, followed by an overwhelming pressure that seemed to tighten around his host. Lastly, an unfamiliar yet domineering power that seemed to invade his body, attempting to burn it from inside.
Lucy, barely able to remain standing, looked at the dispersing dust and smoke.
The Parasite’s silhouette was still there, arms crossed and heavily damaged. Her expression grew worse as she saw him still able to move and relatively undamaged.
She knew of his resilience beforehand but this was absurd.
“This is enough, right?”
This wasn’t a battle to the death, therefore, Arthur didn’t attack the exhausted Lucy. He looked at Leiu, expecting him to declare the winner.
In response, Leiu simply shrugged while pointing to Feylord.
The blonde youth was holding his head and gritting his teeth. He looked as if he was resisting something.
He looked even much worse than Lucy, especially with the unstable Phoenix flames engulfing his body and then disappearing.
[Law of Perception]
[Power Attack]
Since Leiu wasn’t stopping him, Arthur didn’t hesitate. He charged toward Feylord and swung down his sword, however, when he saw the blade literally go through his body, Arthur was startled.
It was as if Feylord’s body was made of intangible fire. The sword cut his arm, but at the same time, it didn’t as the flames repaired it.
When Feylord raised his body, his eyes were shining with a deep orange light. There was an eerie aura coming from him, which made Arthur instinctively distance himself.
Slowly, Feylord raised his right arm and clenched it. This simple movement made a spherical cage made of threads of fire to appear and trap the parasite inside.
[Sword Blast]
[Sword Blast]
[Sword Blast]
Arthur swung again and again but to no avail. His attacks were ineffective against the cage of fire. More worrying was the fact that it was growing smaller.
Seeing no alternative, Arthur positioned himself, threw a smaller host out of the cage, and then ejected his real body towards it.
This tactic, albeit clever, was ultimately futile as another cage appeared around his new host, which was that of a small lizard.
To make matters worse, Lucy cast more spells, bombarding him with sharp and high-velocity icicles.
As he was literally trapped, Arthur couldn’t evade. The cage kept growing smaller and the icicles struck his small body, riddling it with wounds.
“That is enough.”
Leiu’s Primordial Darkness cascaded on the cage of fire, extinguishing it in an instant. After that, he glanced at Feylord and nodded at him.
The Phoenix, which had been controlling him, didn’t respond. Feylord regained control of his body and fell to the side, still groaning from the intense agony.
As for Arthur, he possessed Leonis’ body while solemnly looking at the Nameless Knight.
“I was supposed to fight Feylord and Lucy.”
“And that’s exactly what you did.”
Arthur, looking pretty solemn, retorted,
“That wasn’t Feylord.”
“It is part of him. Now, your way of forcing me to help didn’t work. Go back to your friend.”
“...”
Arthur silently stared at the dark-haired youth for a bit before leaving. Feylord and Lucy were strong but he was, and still is, confident in defeating them.
Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing that there was a dormant, and powerful, entity inside of Feylord. It was probably the Phoenix, though its identity didn’t actually matter right now, at least not to Arthur.
It was clear that Leiu expected the Phoenix to appear and retaliate. Its help did take its toll on Feylord’s body, however, it guaranteed that he would win.
In fact, Arthur could have used a number of things during the fight. For instance, the artifact he had taken from Halric. It had worked against the Fire Spirit so there was a slim chance it would have gotten him out of that cage of fire.
Arthur refrained from deploying such extreme measures because, as much as he didn’t like to admit it, Leiu was never going to let him win. Even though the fight seemed that it was going to be fair, the victor was decided from the get-go.