Chapter 704 - 704: Challenges, Dwarf Princess version (part 2)
Seeing the black-pink flaming armor covering his upper body and feeling the power surging from within his body, which resulted in his feet elevating from the ground the next second, he had surpassed the Lord rank and entered the early stage of the Arch rank thanks to the armor her got from the altar.
What’s more, unlike the devil tree general, he quite literally got a power tailored to deal with the enemy in front of him, which was a huge advantage.
“You were enjoying tormenting me with those brutish attacks earlier, see how I snap your neck with my hands now, hahaha!”, shouted the lust nethereal, alongside his excitement, the flames burning on the armor increased their fierceness.
Which is understandable, it was a power that worked with in part mana coming from the altar and in part nether, which feeds on negative emotions, the interesting part is that, it wasn’t lust nether, but violence nether.
That’s normal, a nethereal might normally only be able to use one type of nether, but that doesn’t mean he or she lacks the other emotions, so this violence nether had fuel to burn, the important here is that the altar ignored all the troubles and procedures that would come with awakening a completely different type of nether, and bestowed it directly to someone, based on what he wanted, which was the capacity to fight at close range.
“And you, what are you waiting for… or perhaps you can’t use that ritual thing, because you used up a bunch of battle aura to condense that arm?”, mockingly said the dwarf princess, which made the violence nethereal grit his teeth.
Obviously, he wanted to use his altar spell, but yeah Femi was right, the nether he had gathered for it, was used to make this temporary arm, so he was unable to, which is why he looked at his companion with jealousy, he was now radiating two types of nether and one was specialized in physical reinforcement no less, when the lust nethereal is a long-ranged energy type mage.
“Don’t listen to her nonsense Ridge, let’s crush her head on”, said the lust nethereal, the barrier had lasted a few extra seconds, but it was about to end, so it was time to get back to the fight, still, it was enough for the violence nethereal, also called Ridge, to cast a boosting martial art.
“War Devil Shredder”, focusing on his aura condensed arm, and continuing onto the spear, fierce dark red nether crackled around Ridge, that should have been a full armor type martial art, but he turned it into a focused one, to increase its power, since he had to make up for the difference.
The moment the barrier crumbled apart, those three turned into flashes of different colors, one black-pink, one dark red and one grey colored, that was of course those two and Femi who charged directly towards each other.
“Clang!”, surprisingly, or not, the first one to reach the dwarf princess was the violence nethereal Ridge, but for a good reason, he used a movement martial art, while his companion was just using his normal speed which had increased permanently without the need to do anything else, thanks to the flaming armor.
And that metal clashing against metal sound, was caused by Femi’s left hand, colliding against the enemy’s black spear, head on, resulting in sparks and a fierce energy clash, which ended in a tie, the reason is that Femi concentrated all the energy clad of her arm into her hand, and that allowed her to equal the enemy’s attack.
“Grey Shinning Step”, with a few words, this time Femi used a movement technique and her speed surpassed the one from earlier, which in other words meant that she didn’t use a technique against the violence nethereal, as to why she used one now, that’s because the lust nethereal was trying to ambush her from above.
The impulse gained by her movement technique, alongside the energy clad of all her body gathering in her right fist, clashed against the left fist of the lust nethereal which exploded in black-pink flames upon contact with the enemy, resulting in… a deafening explosion.
“Booom!”, as if a thunder had gone off, when the reinforced fists of those two collided creating a huge shockwave that expanded in every direction, followed by an energy clash.
The lust nethereal was first displeased at the sight of Femi being able to take his attack head on, when he had reached the Arch rank, however, his expression eased up when he saw the combination of mana and nether burning in his fist, gaining the advantage over Femi’s metal energy after the initial clash.
As in the power that the flaming armor imbued into his attack was burning through Femi’s energy, reaching her pale white skin a second later.
‘Hahaha burn to death you damn bi…’, originally, the lust nethereal had obvious plans for the dwarf princess, because as unrefined and ruthless as her attitude is, she is a beauty in all the right of the word, however now that the lust nethereal, no, it would be better to call him by his name, which is Lionel, has been bestowed powers from the violence faction, his priorities have switched to that side as well, in other words, he was more interested in killing the dwarf princess in the most violent way he could, as of current.
“Huh?”, but then, the sight of Femi’s skin burning before her flesh and bones followed the same path, that the lust-violence nethereal Lionel was expecting to see, didn’t appear, though his flame nether was still gaining advantage over Femi’s grey energy, the only thing that happened is that Femi ultimately took a couple of steps backwards, which is to be expected, as she is facing an enemy with a higher realm, that has also received a boost specialized in close combat at Arch rank level as well.
“Phew”, with a soft blow, the dwarf princess casually waved her hand “shoeing” away the nether flames that were restrained to only burn the grey energy clad around her right hand, which had entered in direct contact with the enemy.
“Why the surprise, don’t you know that we dwarves are born and basically live in underground smithies that are active 24/7, this cold flame of yours is nothing compared to the magma that flows inside of my natal planet”, casually said the dwarf princess, there wasn’t let alone a burnt mark on her skin, even her nails were perfectly fine.
“Humph, so much for someone that is relying in someone else’s power, weren’t you guys “different” than us who work for Lord Marcus”, mockingly said the violence nethereal Ridge.
Apparently, he thought that Femi was using “Adam’s power” to cheat the rules of the blood prison realm, because if not, anything but the energy provided by it, should not be accessible to her.
“Ah right, you cowards didn’t want to suffer in the slightest so you don’t know, certainly at the beginning this place basically deprives you from any strength you are comfortable and familiar with, but that’s because the idea is to face and work in your weak areas, so the more you walk through that path you… reach your area of expertise, from another perspective though”, disdainfully said the dwarf princess.
These nethereals never even tried to participate in the challenge of this place, not only because they didn’t take initiative, but also because Reed, Byron and Aslan, in other words the Lords, from the very beginning made it so that they could access nether.
So of course, they haven’t experienced the hardships of the challengers, but at the same time, they haven’t experienced the rewards of the challengers, but the people in Daimon’s side is different.
Both Tessa and Femi have followed the rules, which is why they were on the run at the beginning, they also had to hide and avoid many dangers, but they used their weak areas to their advantage and continued to advance.
It might look like Tessa did everything since she obtained the help of the giant tree, which is what allowed them to resist against Marcus’s group, but that’s not true, because while it was thanks to Tessa that the enemies on the upper echelon were restrained, it was Femi who has taken care of the numerous subordinates which Marcus used to have, before the whole sacrificing thing.
These two, where the only ones among those below the Arch rank that didn’t get to clash against the dwarf princess, because Marcus kept their existence a “secret”, since he had planned to not use them as sacrifices from the very beginning, but that played against them this time.
“Well, that is somewhat understandable, but you have to be really dumb to just assume my energy’s affinity on your own, after all I don’t remember ever claiming it was metal”, she said which was like rubbing salt to their wounds.
This confused, embarrassed and angered the lust nethereal, how could he, a mage of the lust faction, meaning he has sharp senses, fail to see through the energy of the enemy.
“So, what, the flames can suppress your damn energy and I’m stronger than you, Ridge!”, with a loud shout, he lust-violence nethereal Lionel turned into a black-pink flash that zig-zagged around the dwarf princess, since he was faster and stronger than Ridge right now, then his job was to land the hit, while his companion was now in charge of creating the opening, basically their original roles had been reversed.
“Devil Piercing Step!”, as unwilling as Ridge felt, he as a warrior had to agree that the strongest in a team has to focus in landing his attack while the others are in charge of creating the opportunity.
‘Whatever, though my nether can’t suppress her energy like Lionel’s, I don’t lose in terms of physical strength, so it’s not like I’m losing anything by taking this role temporarily’, thought the violence nethereal as he shot towards Femi, in the form of a dark red stream.
Unlike before when he used a martial art that increased speed in general to maneuver, since he was aiming to fight and land a hit on Femi, this time the violence nethereal went for an instant explosive type martial art, which was a single instance kind of boost, but in exchange his speed far surpassed what previously was.
“Grey Shinning step”, and so, this time Femi also used a movement technique to catch up with the enemy, resulting in the two of them clashing after having gained impulse thanks to their martial art and technique, respectively.
“Clang!”, the black spear of the violence nethereal was met with Femi’s left fist this time, resulting in the sound of metals colliding as well as sparks flying in every direction, however Ridge already knew that he couldn’t overwhelm the enemy in his current state and that wasn’t his aim to begin with.
“Devil Spear Prison!”, the nether which Ridge had gathered condensed in a dozen of five-meter spears that descended around Femi, surrounding her from every direction, surprisingly this seemingly full-attack type violence nethereal actually had a control type martial art.
“Deceitful Devil Step!”, and that was the opening Lionel was waiting for, he who was zig-zagging around the area to prevent Femi from knowing where would his attack come from, suddenly vanished from plain sight.
“Deceit Flaming Mirage”, his voice could be heard coming from every direction, however this time one could see the origin, which were a dozen of “Lionels” that appeared out of nowhere, they all were burning in dark pink flames and they all called out the name of the spell a second ago.
That wasn’t all, they all descended at high speed towards the dwarf princess, it’s worth mentioning that Ridge barely had the time to get away, he suffered a minor burn on his leg, but that was fine since he had played his role perfectly.
Thanks to having used a movement spell, his speed had surpassed both Femi and Ridge’s ones, and the second spell was one used to attack, he didn’t use his bow, not did he use a wide area one, Lionel’s current biggest advantage is the fact that his physical body was reinforced thanks to the armor.
So even if the flames couldn’t do more than burn through Femi’s energy, he could still brute force his way through her defense, so he used a spell to create copies of himself, they only lasted for one attack, and they couldn’t use any spells or anything of the like, but they all had the same strength as the original.
“Boooom!”, a thunderous explosion echoed through the sky as a dozen of fists descended upon Femi, first destroying the spears that were restraining her, to then land on her grey energy clad which was expanding in order to block the incoming attack.
“Crack!”, after the initial energy clash, the flaming fists of the copies directly clashed against Femi’s armor, a few were stopped and simply burned through the energy, but others teared through her defense and reached the dwarf princess, for the first time.
There still was a second layer of concentrated grey energy covering her skin, but it shattered after blocking another couple of those attacks, so two fists still landed on Femi’s arms which she had crossed in front of her chest to protect herself.
As a result, the dwarf princess was sent backwards due to the impact, her feet didn’t leave the ground though, so she carved a trail on the solid ground as she was forced into the distance.
What’s more, by the time she managed to stop her retreat, there was a slight trace of blood, staining the previously pale white tone of the skin of her forearms, not out of wit but out of the bloodlust that was induced into Lionel, due to the violence nether of the flaming armor, he directly charged at Femi trying to secure another hit, taking advantage of the previous result, only for the dwarf princess to close her right hand in order to counter the enemy’s attack with a punch.
“I destroyed your defense a moment ago, what can your bare fist alone do!”, shouted Lionel as he further pushed his fist towards Femi.
“Clang!”, however his charge was stopped in cold as his fist was met with strong resistance.
“What!”, the clash was in a stalemate, however, there was… pain coming from his knuckles, the problem is that effectively while Femi’s body still radiated that grey energy, she hadn’t concentrated it around her hand like before, and even if that would have been the case, he didn’t feel pain just by clashing against her, until now, so something wasn’t adding up here.
Until after a quick gaze, Ridge managed to see a few brown-reddish sparkles coming from Femi’s fist, right before a chill ran down his spine, making him retreat on the spot.
“Humph, coward”, said the dwarf princess as she snorted to then gaze at her right hand as she renewed the grey energy clad around her body, under the watchful eyes of the originally lust nethereal.
“Hey Lionel, why didn’t you swarm her with those copies again, you could have taken at least one of her arms”, said Ridge as he reunited with his teammate, to which the lust nethereal shook his head.
“I managed to draw blood out of her, don’t question me and just play your part, there was something weird going on a second ago, maybe a life-saving trick she was given by the guy Lord Marcus told us about”, he said.
Ridge wanted to say something, but he swallowed his words after listening to the previous, certainly with their cooperation they managed to actually wound the enemy for the first time, his burn also healed already because it was just a superficial one, caused by him being a bit too slow at the time of retreating.
‘It’s the first time we fight this way, so it’s understandable that I missed the right time to move out of the way’, thought the violence nethereal as he nodded.
“Now”, with a single word, a second attempt to crush the dwarf princess, started, and while Lionel was using the same formula, in other words he was flashing around to prevent the enemy from knowing the spot from which he will attack, Ridge couldn’t do the same.
His speed is only equal to Femi, so she will always be able to react against his attacks, and now that he has used that tactic before, she’ll be able to anticipate to his movements, in other words, unless he wanted to take a punch to the face, he had to change things up.
“Devil Piercing Step”, that being said, he did resort to the same explosive movement martial art, however instead of going for a direct clash, he thrusted his spear continuously as he released an attack type martial art.
“Devil Shattering Meteor Stream!”, a huge nether projectile was shot from the nethereal’s black spear, however it didn’t aim directly for Femi and instead it half landed on the ground in front of her, making it explode due to the impact.
“Booom!”, a mix of debris, dirt and battle aura flew in every direction, creating a fierce curtain of dust which engulfed Femi on the spot, this was the tactic the nethereal was using, instead of restraining the enemy, he blocked her view so that the lust nethereal could ambush her.
Unfortunately, not only Femi didn’t fall for it, but she didn’t care about leaving her back open for the enemy and instead charged straight through the dust curtain, appearing in front of the violence nethereal, with her right hand already forming a fist.
“You think I’m afraid of direct confrontation!”, shouted Ridge with an angered voice, one thing was him playing his role as he was asked, and a complete another thing was him running away from a close combat fight.
“Booom!”, ready to feel some pain, since the enemy even forced Lionel to retreat earlier, Ridge met Femi’s punch with his black spear, resulting in a loud shockwave, but contrary to what he expected, the result was a tie, at most the hand with which he was holding onto the spear shook, but he withstood the impact.
“Lionel, sto…”, realizing that something was wrong, the violence nethereal tried to warn his teammate, but he was a step too late, the lust nethereal had charged the moment Femi “screwed up” by leaving her back unguarded.
And since the flaming armor boosted his physical strength the most, he of course aimed to punch Femi on a fatal area from behind, the base of her neck to be more accurate, trying to fulfill his previous threat of snapping the dwarf princess’s neck.
“Clang!”, unfortunately, the moment his fist made contact with Femi’s body, a loud metallic sound echoed through the sky, followed by… a scream.
“Aghhh!”, unlike Femi who didn’t let out a peep when she used her arms to block two punches head on, the lust nethereal couldn’t help but scream as the bones of his fingers shattered due to the impact.
Lionel tightly held onto his wrist as he flashed away, he isn’t used to suffer these kinds of wounds after all.
“Damn it, Devil Shattering Radiance!”, since he was left alone with Femi, the violence nethereal had no choice but to use not only all the nether he has been gathering, but also the one on his temporary arm, to release a huge explosion.
“Boooom!”, as grand as the sphere of battle aura that expanded in every direction, trying to rip the dwarf princess to shreds, looked, Ridge basically used it to buy a chance to retreat, and it worked he caught up to his teammate who was using a spell to mask his presence while channeling nether into his wound, at the top of a tree.
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