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Chapter 311: Cooldown
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FlowerLord was now using [Overdrive].
It was like a living lava but in the shape of a giant sword... 30m high, with its tip facing up as if it was trying to pierce the heavens. She controlled it with two hands and when their eyes met, she yelled with a loud cry of anger.
“Let’s see how you beat this!”
“Alright!” Siva blandly accepted the challenge. It’s not that he was calm because he didn’t put them on his eyes. He was calm because in his mind right now, what were running were calculations.
He wanted to try to face this attack head-on. He wanted to see if his designs were able to affect the things he wanted to happen.
Siva wanted to test the limits of his Black Master.
On the other hand, Hawkeye and everyone else had chosen not to join this clash. On the arena, Cramer, FlowerLord, and Siva are the only ones who remained.
Cramer is down but he was far from defeated.
Siva smiled and gave a thought command before he muttered to himself.
“Let’s try the other face of the Black Master…”
BlackTech was both a long-range and as well as a melee weapon. The damage it can deal was the same as long as the target(s) was in range.
FlowerLord’s BlackTech was a complete [basic] BlackTech…. a 10-form weapon.
It has a range of 30m from her and when it goes [Overdrive], its maximum damage output multiplies by 10 times and its effective range reaches up to 50m…. until 100m!
This was the reason why FlowerLord could ruin an entire building back in Dragona.
“Aaaaaaahhhh….”
FlowerLord looked like she was lifting something very heavy with both hands raised beside her, like Chelsea summoning her Frozen Castle.
(A/N: Ehem… Ahurrrmmm…..)
She extended a hand and the writhing lava behind her followed her command to unleash her first attack.
There was the sound of flowing water along the rustling of rocks falling from a high place.
Her attack was like a giant’s hand that crushed all obstacles as it went straight towards Siva.
The hammer-axe spun and using Orbiter Control, it changed form in the middle of its flight into a drill that clashed against FlowerLord’s onslaught.
And it all happened in just one second.
BOOM!
The ‘drill’ was rejected and there was a passing splash of the BlackTech but it was only for a bit of moment before it went straight back towards Siva.
“Strong!”
Siva was astounded. If he had to compare Cramer and FlowerLord’s damage capabilities, he would say with 100% certainty that FlowerLord’s attacks were indeed stronger than Cramer’s.
Cramer was only able to stand toe to toe with her in a battlefield because Cramer’s battle sense was 300 times ‘smarter’ than FlowerLord’s.
And while Siva wasn’t able to win against the two of them on their respective specialties, he was in second place. He may not win against them on a straight up clash but he still has the advantage of being in second place with them on these ‘stats’.
Siva is, after all, a Jack of all Trades.
“Tsk.”
Siva clicked his tongue and summoned back the drill that took the form of the hammer-axe again.
“Twenty three seconds before cool down.”
“Give me a countdown at five.”
“Roger.”
“Let’s see how I will fare with this.” While Siva was murmuring, Cramer raised his head and shook it, looking up then looking at his right… seeing the maw of black monster heading his way.
“No shit.” He quickly lowered his head back.
WOOSH!!
The BlackTech passed by the crater and ate the hovering Siva whole. Cramer saw it all happen and he was sighing inwardly, wishing that his favourite sparring partner wouldn’t fall down after that.
And to grant the wish, a moment after Siva was eaten, the BlackTech maw splattered and the axe in his hand appeared with a bright flash of bluish white lightning.
“Huh? Has he completed its Quest?” Cramer was on his back in the crater, afraid to become Efel’s collateral damage. He saw it all happen.
The lightning-filled hammer-axe made a clanking sound as if something within it came back on its original slot and while FlowerLord might not be able to see it, Cramer, however, saw it all.
“Shit… that’s ingenious!”
Of course he was familiar on the sound of their Godhammer’s «Hammer Blast» and he was sure that what splattered that attack was that very Special Ability of the «Mjolnir»… with an added extra feat.
The ‘axe blade’ that clanked back to its slot made that sound and the splattered BlackTech rushed back to FlowerLord as she stared at Siva who bid a retreat without taking a step back.
The three of them are now in a 40m wide triangle.
Siva was cursing inwardly, “So only if I use this would I stand a chance to parry that kind of attack from her BlackTech. And I can only use it every 25 seconds.”
The «Hammer Blast» is a Special Ability granted by the Mjolnir and only when he utilized that to the hammer-axe’s mechanical function, adding a surge of electricity, will he be able to at least ‘parry’ the attack successfully.
And while Siva could wait 25seconds before he could use this ‘attack’, FlowerLord could unleash her attacks without thinking about Cooldowns.
“18 seconds until cooldown. 21 seconds for the Hammer Blast.”
Cortana’s reminder was a bit annoying but it was necessary. She knew what he was thinking and she chose to report in because Siva needed it.
The head-splitting headache was slowly subsiding but the world was still spinning and it wasn’t good an experience when in the middle of a fight.
“Don’t run!” FlowerLord was the first to cry out as she dashed towards him, the black magma-sword behind her writhed in a manner as if reacting to the rage in side her heart.
When she was 30m away from Siva, Efel made a grabbing hand motion and four thigh-thick tendrils extended from the magma-sword behind her to go straight towards Siva.
The wind rumbled as the speed of these four wisps of BlackTech was as fast as at least half of a speeding bullet.
It reached him in no time.
Siva clicked his tongue as he clenched his left hand to ‘activate’ an E-Grenade to boost the Black Master’s [Generator] with electrical energy.
“I really don’t want to use BlackTech right now.”
While Siva murmured, Cortana chortled, “Men will die for their pride.”
The hammer-axe became a shield and blocked the tendrils, pushing him back, using that chance to go higher than FlowerLord’s range.
100m high…. he was looking down at the arena.
“Get down here you coward!” Efel was cursing.
By this time, Cramer was already up and of course he would be the first to recover since he was a fit in the streets while Siva… was just a teen thug if compared to him.
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Siva was buying time to recover.
“My analysis shows that you are indeed weak.”
“I know that already.”
“In this fight, without using BlackTech, without the Black Master Armament’s [Focus Integration], and with only your basic abilities against them… you’re no match against them in overall stats, boss… I’ve seen your fight against Sefirah from the videos in the Net, as well as your recollection of Gabriel’s intervention… if you don’t use [Killing Zone], or if you don’t summon any puppets to assist you, then you are really not these two’s match.”
That’s the reason why Cortana laughed at Siva’s “pride” earlier.
Right now, Siva was trying to fight them with his own abilities alone without using any kind of other helping hand.
Of course, if Siva did choose to go all out; use the Master Puppets, Killing Zone, his BlackTech, the Artemis MOD «Transcendence», Naiki’s Scepter of Divinity’s «Attention», launch Stun E-Grenades from a 20m distance from them, or even just use «Kamaitachi»… with anyone of these aces… Siva could easily trample these guys in under a minute.
But he didn’t choose to.
He wanted to train himself.
Those things may be part of his arsenal and is in turn his actual strength, but in the end, if he was not strong enough himself, then these things are not that useful.
His experience with the level of fight that could cross kilometers of distances in but a moment was imprinted strongly in his mind like a bubblegum on his shoe.
It was an irritatingly annoying memory.
“Boss, if it’s just any one of these two, you can win on him or her with your current default alone, but two of them together…”
“Kamaitachi is a cheat. Once all of the conditions of its activation were met, with the weight of Black Master, I can unleash wind-speed attack without reservation against them… and it doesn’t even cost any Mana so they’ll just fall without challenge once it happens. That’s not the training I want.”
“I’ve seen Sefirah’s [Sword Arts] from your mind, sir, and I say that Kamaitachi and that belongs to the same category of ability.”
Siva paused, “That resonance thing?”
“Honestly, sir, I don’t have enough data to answer that question for you. Your memories of that one time are vividly clear to me as well and my analysis only shows that you aren’t even close to 1% of their abilities.”
“…”
Siva couldn’t pull himself to think of anything else.
What else could he do, even he himself admits the fact that he was weaker than them in more than just a single octave.
Especially that single sword thrust that Gabriel had unleashed to expel Sefirah and Gyoolu from ‘his land’…. he can’t beat Sefirah but he defeated them both in but one sword thrust.
“Immortals huh…” Siva looked up and saw the big golden idol in the skies of the Fortress. “He isn’t complete and so can be considered weak but he’s a genuine Immoral. Even his current 1% is still not something I can defeat even with everything I got is put on the line.”
“I don’t have enough data to advice you regarding that matter, sir, but I can tell you that the stats and configuration of abilities you have in your arsenal is considered to be the best within the ‘mortal’ perspective.”
“Within the mortals, huh…”
Cortana don’t want to add more worries on Siva since she could tell that Siva is already motivated enough right now.
So she only gave him her report.
“Eight seconds until cooldown, Hammer Blast in twelve seconds.”
“Get down here!” Efel was still cursing below and all this time while he was exchanging data from Cortana, he hasn’t looked away and only looked down on the arena.
By now, the headache was almost gone and the world that kept on rotating around him was now in a much milder rate and still kept on healing.
Slowly, Siva fell down on the Arena and when he was 1m above it, the Hammer Blast cooldown time had already finished and so he hovered at the 1m height from the now partially shattered arena.
His figure there, floating like a deity, made Efel feel that she was being insulted.
Cramer, however, could feel something else in the shoulders of the man he considered his best punching buddy.
“You still wanna continue?” Cramer asked. That’s what he felt was lacking from Siva.
FlowerLord raised a brow and she looked at Siva with a delirious anger clearly drawn on her brows.
Sivas feet slowly lowered until it touched the floor of the arena and then he made a pose facing FlowerLord on his right side.
“Is that your full power?” then he faced Cramer, “I am going to go all out from this point on. I want to experience your best state.”
Cramer and Efel exchanged glances and without a nod made their ‘best’ states show for a final clash.
They will defeat Siva.
Cramer’s shoulders emitted a blue aura, a MOD, a [Special] grade MOD was activated.
The audience was surprised but not Thorn. He could only shake his head because that MOD was his and he couldn’t believe that Cramer’s foresight was actually able to reach the point where he was actually right about having the feeling that he might need it.
Thorn’s MOD was focused on defense. For the next 10 minutes, his defenses will be 10 times sturdier…. closing in to invincibility.
Siva was surprised but only for a moment. Efel on the other hand, pulled out a purple wand and when she did, a green colored aura seeped out of her shoulders…. that wand was equipped by a [Rare] grade MOD.
Everyone was shocked. Who would have thought FlowerLord actually has a MOD as well?
MOD ignites greed to every player in Terroa since they give players abilities that transcend the limits imposed on everyone in the planet.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that there was a little bit of green eyed stares from the members of Nine Dragon Gates, the Valkyries, the Ebony Sanctuary, and most especially… the thief, Pitou.
But that was just momentarily. When they thought of who FlowerLord is… well… those green tints on their eyes disappeared forcefully.
Who would like to mess with Efel anyways?
“This is the first time I’m pulling this MOD.” Efel was glaring at Siva. “This is the «Vesta MOD» and it doesn’t have an offensive ability like all MODs.”
WHOOSH!!
Once activated, the green colored aura expanded like an exploding star from her body and the aura of power changed the color of her BlackTech into red.
Siva almost felt like he was looking at real lava in the shape of a writhing sword.
Scorching heat was coming from her BlackTech.
“Its ability is to add elemental affinity to all of my attacks.”
Right at that moment, the blue aura exploded the same on Cramer’s body and he took a dash that sent him 10m instantly towards Siva.
“If this is how it is…” Siva gave it a thought.
Cortana swiped the air on her visions and a pop up window appeared on Siva’s vision.
Siva didn’t look at it because he was the one who ‘configured’ this list. There are twenty items in this list and all of them are taken away, recorded, and formulated from thousands of items suggested to him by Cortana.
All of the items in this list are Martial Moves. Be it from the movies, novels, anime, documentaries, news articles, or actual videos of masters… they were all analyzed, sorted, classified, categorized, and finally listed into two kinds.
1) Against Monsters
2) Against People
……with the number one on the twenty items on the second list being Kamaitachi…
It was the twenty most suited moves for Siva that was arranged by Cortana.
Siva was already poised to attack even before the two of them launched their assaults.
He only needs to choose a move from the list, just like how he did when he knocked down Cramer.
“I will fight you guys head on.”
Siva took a step and the wind wall trembled again.
On his left, Cramer jumped off the crater and followed suit, pulling a sturdy-looking black bow from his inventory and pulling two arrows, aiming straight at him.
“I haven’t done this for a long time.”
His bones shook in excitement as he, like how Loni had done it as always, cast a spell on his own pair of arrows.
Even Loni was startled by this. This was the first time that Cramer was using the Elven-style with the bow and arrow. Sure he was a professional hunter and sports in it as a career once, but he was known as a berserker-slash-brawler because of his head-on clashing habit during battles.
And so, aside from Thorn, almost everyone else was surprised by this development.
On the other hand, FlowerLord had lifted up the flaming lava-shaped giant sword behind her as she glared at the incoming Siva.
—all of this happening in a span of a breath, just almost at the same time…!!
“Eat this!”
She made her palms close into a praying gesture and the writhing black lava behind her created a three directional maw where two went from two sides and another came falling from above.
Cramer, just then, also released his arrows.
XU~XIUUUU~~~!!!
The arrows trailed off into two shining beams and went straight towards Siva’s back in two differing angles.
Siva was 30way from FlowerLord and just 50m away from Cramer now.
He was in melee mode right now and is receiving a pincer attack. Of the two offensives, the only one he’s wary of was the one coming from the front side.
The arrows were faster and reached Siva’s back in no time but to Cramer’s and everyone else’s surprise, it didn’t even do as much as make a tiny bit of sound as the arrows themselves bounced off his armor like two stones against a rock.
Siva didn’t even flinch. The magic embedded on the arrows shattered just as the pair of arrows themselves shattered into scintillating mote of blue lights on his back.
—no… in fact, the arrows didn’t even hit his back and was instead blocked off by just his cape.
“Cheating!” Coralline gasped, utterly dejected.
Her spells were strong against anyone else, but against Siva, they can’t even hit him. And her ultimate magic spell?
The Penta-Hadron Annihilating Barrier was Siva’s element and it was treated as food by his puppets instead so he felt dispirited by his existence.
Heller was the first to fall when his beloved all-cancelling protective magic couldn’t handle even a single round of clash against Siva.
And even when he used his Druid magic, it was not enough to prevent him from being crushed by the [Smasher] against his own tree.
Seeing this sight, they could only think of a single word in their unified impressions: this is cheating.
Arrows can’t breach his armor, magic can’t reach him for he moves too fast, and his array of attacks were shifting and ever-changing aside from them being devastatingly strong… so just when did he become this powerful? It hasn’t even been four days since The Archangel docked in the castle!
Not minding the differing reactions, Siva swung his double-bitted axe and met the three-pronged writhing black monster at the point where they and he were converging.
A diagonal slash rampaged against the physics of wind and the wind was torn apart, creating a wide vacuum of space that was violently filled with air at the next second, becoming part of the attack.
BANG!!
Hammer Blast activated.
Siva was pushed back but the red lava-monster was splattered, reforming back into that 30m large sword-shaped writhing object behind FlowerLord.
He spun on his feet, landing on the marbled floor with a heavy thud. But before he could raise his head and glare back at a dashing FlowerLord, a shadow was already behind him; an unfazed large framed Cramer descending a mighty blow of his lightning-wrapped Mjolnir at his face.
It was a very familiar feeling.
All Siva could see was the shadow of the Mjolnir falling straight at his face. He doesn’t have time to use his axe to defend himself and so he could only use his left arm to block it.
BOOM!!!
“Guh…!!”
A soul-shaking, calamitous blow hit Siva’s arm and the weight and momentum of the blow rendered the arm uselessly numb, as the Godhammer hit him on the shoulder and planted his feet on the marbled floor of the arena, making a small crater.
There was a 3m wide crater followed by rocks and small debris flying off to the sky upon the impact, and half of Siva’s lower legs couldn’t be seen as they were deep into the arena grounds.
“Superb!” Cramer was really joyful at this moment that his grin was wider than ever. “You didn’t even finch when you got hit with my Hammer Blast!”
On Siva’s left was Cramer, on his right was now a red magma writhing madly that surged into him like the coming tide in the middle of the pacific.
.
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Sometimes, pride is the name of a man…
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