NOVGO.NET Chapter 383: Quick Switch of Moves
"...You're not bad at all, Eve. It's almost a waste for someone of your caliber to have emerged among the demons." The King of Angels speaks to me as we've already been fighting for a few hours. I don't feel Evelyn-sama and Shizuka fighting — I don't know what they're doing, but I'd better finish this soon.
"You, on the other hand, are weaker than I expected," I say, pointing my sword at him. He gives an arrogant smile and charges toward me. Our blades collide, generating a mild shockwave.
"Funny you should say that," he says as we exchange extremely fast blows. He coats his blade in an explosive white energy, and I coat mine in plasma.
When our swords clash, they create an explosion that throws us both back, but mine turns into a critical hit, unleashing a black and red wave that sends him flying.
I hit the ground sliding smoothly and recover, blocking a heavy strike in front of me as he's already here trying to pressure me.
Each of his blows is quite strong, but he's really weaker than I expected. Like, he has the same strength I do. For someone who stands beside that woman, I expected more power.
Our strikes have nearly the same potency. He's a little faster than me and has a bit more endurance, but his magic is less powerful and his attacks can't overcome mine.
A literal overall tie in power, which makes our rapid exchange of blows pretty well-balanced.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk — why all the hurry?" he says as the tip of my blade meets his when we both thrust. The friction of the two points combined with our power generates a shockwave that rattles our bodies completely, making us recoil.
The spot in the air where the blades touched got so hot that the air is releasing some kind of strange smoke, and the area is distorted by the heat.
"And why all the cowardice, King of Angels? Shouldn't you be braver and bolder?" I return his question with questions of my own. He's not even trying to win — he's just stalling this fight. What initially seemed like mere caution has now obviously turned into nothing but an attempt to drag this out.
"..." He doesn't answer, and that's frustrating, because if I take this fight seriously and go all out and he manages to endure, he wins the fight. If I keep this current balanced fight going, it'll take too long for us to tire out, and we'll both end up exhausted.
So it's all a gamble, and that's frustrating. Is he really that confident in his own wife's victory?
"You fight like a king," I say mockingly, which makes his expression crease with anger. Because he doesn't fight like someone who knows how to fight — only in a way that buys him one more second if necessary. A pathetic way to fight for someone of his rank who is in direct combat rather than a war of troops.
"You don't—" Before he can finish speaking, I let his sword pass, dodging by a hair and thrusting. Using the sword as an extension of myself, I build up a plasma charge directly at the tip of the blade.
I make the blade strike the center of his armor. The blow was aimed at destroying the armor — the strike and the impact release on his body shatter the armor's connections, hitting both the most resistant and the most fragile parts.
The attack sends him flying as his armor falls to the ground, shattered by the blow. The King of Angels drives his sword into the ground, managing to stop his momentum.
He then looks at his armor on the ground — the same armor that will no longer protect him — and it's proof to me that I'm improving with the sword.
"You're insane. That could have completely destroyed your arm," he says in a tone more irritated than actually surprised.
"Those who don't take risks in a fight will never be able to exploit openings, right? Ah, my mistake — how would a king understand that?" He gets more irritated when I say that, because it's an attack on his honor.
Normally, if a king fights, he would be treated as a warrior — someone worthy, who fights for his people, his ideology, and his race. But for him, who is fighting and continues to be treated only as "King," it's an attack on his pride and a way of calling him selfish and greedy in his reasons.
'He's so conceited and arrogant.' He tightens his grip on his own sword, betraying that he's being affected by this even as he tries to avoid it.
"Come on — why don't you attack me?" I provoke him to advance as he takes cautious steps toward me.
'I think it's better to force him. He's obviously going to keep fighting defensively. We've been at this for hours... even if I lose, he'll be too wounded to help the Queen of Angels...' I'll use what I learned from Shizuka — the transformation that I now know requires a clearly defined goal for me to transform.
"Since you're a coward and won't fight seriously, I'll either kill you for holding back or force you to fight seriously." I activate the Purple Plasma Phantom skill, watching my body transform as my goal is 100% to kill the King of Angels.
[Purple Plasma Phantom] Allows the user to transform, increasing all attributes by 50% and amplifying their strength and magic to their peak temporarily. As a consequence, they lose part of their rationality, gain wings, a tail, and horns made of plasma, and receive the limitation of being unable to deviate from the goal they had in mind when they transformed until the transformation ends.
"...!!!!" I charge at him, landing a heavy blow with all my power, pushing him out of the castle. The two of us crash through the castle's many walls, exiting it as I keep channeling energy into my sword, beating my wings hard and tearing through several houses of the kingdom with his back.
We cross the kingdom in seconds as his back slams against the kingdom's wall, and we enter the forest. I've never moved this fast before, but since my class is focused on speed, I managed to pull it off.
Finally, I stop as he slides across the ground, ending up with his back hitting a tree. The blade of his sword melted slightly at the point of contact, gaining a deep melted mark.
"You're a monster..." he murmurs, recovering relatively well, having used magic on his wings to shield himself from most of the damage. The air around us gets so hot that the surrounding trees start catching fire.
Thanks to the sword Evelyn-sama made and the clothes she improved, nothing melts, so I can fight without issues. Incredibly, the King of Angels' clothes and sword also withstand the heat.
"Haaa... looks like you've chosen to come at me with everything. You really don't know how to take things slower," he sighs, opening his wings. A large golden aura covers his body, forming a semi-transparent armor that envelops his entire body without any gaps or openings left.
He tosses his sword aside and draws another from his storage ring — a longsword with a fully silver blade, a black guard, and various patterns along the blade.
"Going to finally fight? What a surprise, isn't it? Looks like you're afraid of dying. Keep holding back — it's better for me. By the time you realize it, you'll be dead," I say with a mocking smile as my sword glows purple.
"You demons are so impatient. If you want to die so soon, I'll grant you that wish... I think gaining time is no longer necessary." In an instant, he's already in front of me. I deflect his blade with a strike to the side, touching his armor and firing a plasma wave from my palm.
He grabs my hand and twists it to avoid being hit, but I kick him in the abdomen, cracking his armor and sending him back. His armor regenerates, and I understand that it will keep repairing itself at the cost of draining his magic.
'If his armor keeps consuming magic... then I can exhaust him in a short time as long as I keep pressuring him...' The objectives haven't changed. I decide to focus entirely on destroying him.
"Let's see how many times I can break your armor before I kill you." I charge at him, swinging my sword and releasing all the plasma in a wave that fires in his direction.
His reaction time is excellent, and his gaze goes to the right spot, and the movement of his sword reveals he's going to try to defend.
He launches a Hikishin slash that meets mine, but mine passes right through his. The plasma doesn't maintain a direct solid form, so his slash just went straight through — and that catches him off guard.
With a sidestep, he moves out of the slash's range, but I appear in front of him with a kick that hits square on, pushing him to the side. I'm not going to let him have time to think of a good option to face me now.
He spins his sword and I spin mine, the two colliding as we try to pressure each other, spending magic without holding back. My wings open, raising the temperature of the area to try to overwhelm him over time, as the plasma begins to heat up even more.