|
Lily-rose and Nell both nodded as Chronos looked at them for confirmation. At the same time, Lily-Rose took out a token with a top hat Icon on it before tossing it on the ground. Moments later, her doll appeared out of it.
‘Huh… So that’s how she summons it? Neat.’ Lucy thought with an internal chuckle.
“Yes.” She said.
|
“Oh, that can’t be good.” Chronos sighed. Shortly after, a tear in space appeared at the center of all of them. Inside the tear was a trippy mix of purples and blacks, which Chronos had identified as a spatial gate. Even if she hadn’t ever been through one before, she had heard that Witches capable of using spatial magic were quite sought after in the underworld for this exact spell.
Since the System was kind enough to basically outright tell them they were going to have to fight, Chronos and Lily-Rose were already prepared as the newest potential addition walked through the portal with a dangerous grin.
A woman in her early 20s appearance-wise. With black hair and silver eyes, this young woman had her hair tied into a ponytail with several star-adjacent ornaments. She wore a white dress very similar to that of a traditional cheongsam, although it was cut down one of the legs, revealing her long and slender legs.
She idly looked around at those who called upon her before her eyes landed on Chronos who appeared the strongest. Mumbling something to herself that the rest didn’t quite hear, she dashed toward Chronos at a terrifying speed, the Sentinel barely being able to block in time with her broom.
|
|
|
Pushing Mana into her free arm, Chronos slammed her fist into Altair, sending her flying back into the air. Altair easily recovered, twirling like an acrobat before landing on her feet.
“A Martial Artist? Change of plans, Lily! Stay out of this.” Chronos said, a little upset that she didn’t pull a 6th Tier HERO. It would have been far too perfect to get one of the highest tiers and someone of the same discipline.
Even without her title, it was clear that this Altair was someone who knew how to fight with her body by the way she moved.
“OH, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, CHRONOS!” Nell complained.
She was doing the thing again. Chronos was being stupid.
|
“I can do that?! I mean, yeah. I knew that.” Chronos nodded.
“The System is against me too…” Nell lamented.
“Oh? The Ruler of this land? It seems you’re quite the interesting one, your majesty.” Altair finally spoke while looking at the pop-up.
“Like you’re one to talk. Attacking your new ruler instead of introducing yourself!” Chronos retorted, feigning confidence.
‘I hit her with my full strength, yet she didn’t take any damage? Even if I didn’t increase my damage output with Mana, that should have still broken a few of her bones.’ Lucy mused inwardly, narrowing her eyes at her fist.
To conserve her Mana, Chronos never increased her physical power with Mana. Even after becoming a Sentinel, she didn’t do it out of habit. The only exception was during her battle with the Xin commander. With that in mind, she punched Spectral Yuki through a building with raw physical strength alone.
The difference between Yuki and Altair was clear, though. As a Sentinel, it was nearly impossible to destroy their body in any meaningful way because of their Armaments, but Altair just took Chronos’ hit like a champ.
“A mere child hiding behind a transformation is speaking so arrogantly toward me? Oh, you really are an interesting one. Alright then, Let’s play!” Altair cheered with a manic smile as she accepted Chronos’ duel request.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
|<3…>|
A countdown appeared above them, as Altair began giggling, giving Chronos a bad feeling.
‘I just poked the hornet's nest, didn’t I?’
|<2…>|
Suddenly, A magic circle appeared below Altair as she called out the name of a spell, “Celestial Agent!”
|<1…>|
“Oh good, she can transform… This isn’t going to go horribly.” Chronos mumbled.
While the transformation did seem similar to a full sentinel transformation, with her hair changing colors to white, her dress inverting to black, and her eyes gaining a crimson red color, Chronos could tell it was different pretty easily.
It was far simpler. Sentinel’s had a lot of moving parts when it came to their transformations but Altair’s didn’t do anything except have something external increase her abilities. Unfortunately, Chronos didn’t know what was doing it or how much the increase was.
|
With the timer hitting 0, both parties charged forward and quickly clashed, Chronos with her Tonfa and Altair with her fist—the immediate collision created a shockwave.
Making sure she had the initiative, Altair ducked down, attempting a low sweep against Chronos, only for her to retaliate by twirling her Tonfa, “Lightning; Infusion!”
Because of the lightning, Chronos’ attack was bound to hit first, forcing Altair to sink into the shadows much like that one Invader she fought. Only this time, Chronos dashed to a nearby tree before smashing the ground with all her force. “Discharge!”
The ground cracked, and Altair was thrown out of the shadow only to once again begin clashing with Chronos. “You actually managed to track me in such a short time? You’re not bad! Not bad at all!” Altair cheered.
“I’m quite sensitive to Mana. Such a trick won't work unless you can completely erase your Mana Signature!” Chronos commented as she got pushed back.
‘A darkness Mystic… And I can’t tell what Lore she’s from because of that odd transformation…’
“Star Call!” Altair shouted, a maelstrom of dust or something similar forming into a chaotic ball, which she punched and shot toward Chronos.
Sliding under it, the ball cut through strands of her hair with just a slight touch, causing her eyes to widen.
“Just what the hell is your affinity?!” She questioned, coming in twirling from above, her leg colliding with Altair’s arm as she blocked the attack, the ground underneath her cracking apart and sending her several centimeters into the ground.
“Hehe, Who knows? You’re not revealing what yours is either, aren’t you? Don’t tell me you only have access to lightning!”
With a single but powerful strike to Chronos’ gut, Altair sent the girl flying into a distant barrier created by the system when their duel started.
“Perhaps, but that’d ruin the fun, wouldn’t it? It’s not every day I get to fight another CQC specialist.” Chronos dodged the question after getting up from the ground.
She didn’t like the thought of utilizing Chronomancy here. Even if she had the Mana to use it for a while, it could still very easily put her into a disadvantageous position. The same goes for Manamancy as she didn’t have proper experience using it yet and her other affinities she hasn’t used at all.
Perhaps if it wasn’t a 1v1 and she had someone to watch her back, but in this situation, she had no such thing.
“Instead, let me show you something even more fun!”
Hopping backward, she reformed her Tonfa into a broom before charging it with dangerous amounts of electricity.
Before Altair could properly close the distance, she was already pushed back by the amount of Mana Chronos’ spell was giving off.
“Just how much Mana do you have?”
|
“Enough,” Chronos giggled, “Keravnós”
Like a lightning bolt, her broom shot at Altair, who couldn’t properly avoid being forced to block the attack. The sheer force of it was enough to push her back, not to mention the explosion that accompanied Chronos’ Lance of Judgement.
With her broom returning to her after the attack, Chronos narrowed her eyes in on the center of the explosion as the system didn’t give a notification about her winning the duel or gaining Altair’s recognition.
As she had expected, a few seconds later, Altair came darting out of the fog like a bullet, faster than ever, slamming her fist into Chronos with a manic smile.
She was battered and bruised. She looked to be on the brink of death after taking Chronos’s Keravnós with her clothing tattered and torn… So why did Chronos feel her bones quiver whenever Altair punched her?
She was once again sent into the air, her body crying out in pain as she hit the ceiling of the ethereal arena so hard that she fell to the ground in a crater.
Coughing up blood, she looked at her Mana only to see that 2/3s of it was gone after using her spell and reinforcing her body for that attack.
“Are you more durable than that damned snake? Please tell me you can’t regenerate after having your brains blown out, too.” She questioned, half-jokingly.
Knowing her luck, Altair was about to pull out a third form and enter into the second phase of a boss battle.
She deserves for something like that to happen after what she did to the Spectral girls, but karma wasn’t real! Right!