Chapter 99: Ruler vs. Ruler (1)

"*sigh* I knew it,"

The golden mountain bear queen was standing atop a white dragon's corpse. She hovered a white organ that looked like a heart, above her mouth. I was slightly hesitant at what she might do, but all she did was take a bite out of the massive heart that was bigger than her head.

Light red blood covered her face with parts of it dripping down her chin and neck. She already noticed me entering a crumbling stone building but continued to take large bites, out of the massive heart.

"Oh, did you not realize I evolved," I say, appearing right in front of the queen.

She was startled and jumped towards my previous position. I was now standing atop the dragon corpse while she looked at me from below and muttered,

"Age,"

The words sent a shiver down my spine as I felt the dragon corpse rumble a bit. Blood squirted everywhere because the dragon's skeleton was clawing its way out of its skin.

Of course, I didn't let it proceed any further as I swung my scythe, cutting the bones into thousands of tiny pieces. The queen was slightly shocked as I turned my head with a sadistic smile towards her.

This time I could see her. She looked almost the same besides the golden highlights in her hair were gone. The white part of her eyes had become black with her pupils becoming a lighter shade of gold with a dark ring in the middle. Also, her left arm was still gone and the wound had been cauterized shut.

Her usually pale skin was now deathly pale. On her back was something that looked to be her spine. It was like she ripped it out, flattened it, and then placed it on her back where it created black marks that spread to all 4 of her limbs. Even her neck wasn't safe as it created little edges on her cheeks made from just black marks.

『Status』

[Name: Queen]

[Race: Golden Mountain Bear Queen]

[Status: Calm]

[Level: 93/100]

[HP: 750/750 MP: 120/300 SP: 820/900]

[Strength: 230]

[Defense: 120]

[Magic: 100]

[Speed: 200]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 10]

[Skills: [Body Enhancement] [Forbidden Magic: Midas] [Gold Manipulation] [Earth Magic] [Contortion] [Boost] [Feral Claws] [Fire Immunity] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Enhanced Senses] [True Queens Dominating Presence] [Berserk] [Concentrate] [Army Control] [Summon: Golden Mountain Bear] [Necromancy] [Summon: Basic Skeleton] [Throne World: Necropolis] [Bone Spear] [Bone Spikes]

[Body Modification: [Deaths Stone] [External Spine]

[Titles: [Queen of Golden Mountain Bears] [Blessed by the Emperor Spirit of Gold]

…

"Necromancer… seriously? Your mana is so small and you think you can be a necromancer?"

"Does that matter when I'm about to evolve? Now that I finally activated the death stone, it should affect my next evolution and you… will be my nourishment,"

Skeletons, about 5 feet in height rose from the ground and charged towards me. The queen also charged towards me as the skeletons jumped in my direction and then throwing a myriad of punches towards me.

BAM

In a split second, I shattered all of the skeletons but was forced to retreat because the queen made a golden spear that lunged towards me. Barely deflecting the golden tip of the spear, I then swing my scythe towards the queen's neck.

She didn't even flinch as she carefully watched the scythes' ridged blade and ducked. I tried to pivot my swing downwards, but the queen threw a kick towards my gut, sending me flying off the dragon's corpse.

*cough* *cough* *cough*

I coughed up blood as I slowly stood up from my position.

"Hehehe… HAHAHA! THIS IS FUN! BRING IT!" I shout, using my scythe to support me as I activate [Forbidden Magic: Medusa].

Gray mist releases from my hand that was gripping my scythe. The queen looked down at me from the dragon corpse but wasn't about to let me proceed with a slight power up. Her pointer finger had been wrapped in gold while she lunged at me with the golden spear.

My sadistic smile only grew wider as I quickly injected medusa into my scythe, making cracks appear all over it and gray mist creeping its way out. In a split second, our weapons clashed creating gray and gold lightning bolts, zapping the surrounding area.

The queen's golden finger approached me, but I did a front kick on her elbow, cracking it and moving the finger from my direction. Though her arm was practically bent in half… obviously the wrong way, she didn't flinch as usual and did a spin around me, plunging the golden spear towards my arm.

tsk

[Forbidden Magic: Hermes]

This was my first time using this but I had a good idea of what it would do, going off the skills that I used to assimilate it.

It felt like the world around me slowed as I ducked under her spear and jumped up, elbowing the side of her head.

CRASH

She was sent flying across the crumbling stone building but I didn't let her have a chance to breathe at all. The world reverted to normal as she coughed up blood and tried to stand up but quickly received a foot in the gut, pushing her farther into the crumbling stone wall.

Suddenly the mana around her started to swirl and concentrate on her finger, signaling me that she is using Midas. She smiled in victory but before her finger could reach my ankle, I jumped back.

[Vampiric Bloodmist]

Red mist steamed out of the side of my mouth like a teapot that just reached boiling temperature. My eyes glowed a faint yellow and black color as my face was shrouded in the blood-red mist. A chill was sent down the queen's spine as she stomped on the ground, lifting her hands in front of her.

We were both smiling in excitement as I readied my scythe behind me while the queens stomp, cracked the ground with bone-like spikes plunging out of the ground towards me. Both of her hands were like that of a puppeteer as two massive bone spears floated under her palms.

I jumped towards the queen which dodged the bone spikes but two bone spears appeared in front of me which I narrowly dodged by a hair. She threw a punch at me which was enveloped with gold but I quickly parried it and threw a punch right back.

We continued to exchange blows but nobody was getting injured in the slightest until…

"*cough* *cough*"

The queen started to cough up blood and her cheeks started to shrivel slightly. She had a look of confusion as she gripped her chest in pain.

"Dumbass, did you think that red mist was for nothing," I say, lunging at the in pain queen with my scythe.

The queen just looked at my blade and narrowly blocked it with the handle of her golden spear.

Hmmm… let's test something out, shall we?

[Gold Manipulation]

The spear that the queen was using to block my scythe had warped slightly, allowing the blade through, causing a large laceration to appear on her chest. She looked up at me, showing an unfamiliar emotion that didn't suit her… anger.

She gripped the golden spear even harder before returning the spear to normal. Her pointer finger that was on the hand that held her spear, had turned to gold. The spear started to grow in size, becoming about the length of my scythe with a blade that seemed to be ones forged by the gods, er- great spirits.

She cracked her neck and swung her massive golden spear towards me. It was fast but I was able to deflect the blade easily while I cracked my neck as well. When I tried to use [Gold Manipulation] on it, I wasn't even able to budge it so I gave up the idea and used [Mystic Arm and Leg].

The purple exoskeleton doubled my power and speed so I was able to close the gap between the both of us in less than a second. Even though the size of her spear was big, she was still able to push the handle into my stomach as I almost got the wind knocked out of me.

She swung the spear down which I rolled out of the way and quickly got on my feet, then checking my status.

『Status』

[Name: Arpious]

[Race: Lamassu of Ancient Fires]

[Status: None]

[Servants: 6]

[Subordinates: 7]

[Pets: 1]

[Level: 39/100]

[HP: 460/700 MP: 216/500 SP: 398/500]

…

"Reassemble," I hear the queen mutter.

I heard the cracking of bones from behind me and when I took a quick look back. I saw the dragon skeleton had returned to normal. Its bones cracked, opened its jaws, and lunged towards me, but I had already cut it down.

SHING

The queen used the dragon reassembling as bait so she can land a "sneak attack on me"...

"Too predictable,"

I had caught the golden blade in my hand and before the queen could react, I swung my scythe at her neck, barely missing as she jumped back.

"Let's stop playing these games and finish it off quickly. I'm getting bored now," I say, throwing the golden spear behind me.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," says the queen.