Chapter 193 - Ancient Flame

"So you have met him. However, you underestimate me too much. That guy and I are on an entirely different level. He was nothing but a failed experiment, unlike me, a successful one! I'll show you now, the overwhelming strength that I have acquired on my path to vengeance!"

Right after his proud declaration, the crimson gem on his forehead started to shines vibrantly. She quickly noticed that it was much brighter than the previous guy, this must be what he meant by being a 'successful one,' or so she thought. If her actual aim is to kill him without gaining any information, she would have thrown the spear piercing right through him instead of watching him transform at this moment. If she didn't repeatedly tell herself that she needs information from him, she might have done exactly that. If one didn't know better, they might have thought she was scared when looking at her trembling hands, however, it is far from the truth.

'I have already spread my awareness to the whole building yet, I sense no abnormality other than this guy in front of me. There's no way he came here with only the guy that I have killed, there must be more of them. To begin with, what is their goal for coming here? This is a high school premise, there's literally nothing interesting here.' thought Sheila while watching Rodrick transforming into what she can safely assume to be nothing but a demon. As his body slowly growing in size, his teeth have also started becoming sharper like that of a monster while two noticeable horns prodding out his forehead with the crimson gem at the center of it. When he finished his transformation, the man known as Rodrick no longer look like a human, his previous self.

"Hahahaha! I see! So this must be the overwhelming power that man talked about! Behold, this is the power that I acquired just solely for my vengeance!"

Even his voice has started to change into a much deeper tone, which even the man himself took notice of it, however, he shrugged it off like it was nothing. After all, it didn't matter to him of what he becomes, the most important thing to him at this moment is that his revenge is nigh. With this violent strength, he believes it is enough to accomplish it as no matter how strong Sheila is, she is still human, unlike him. Though his aura is extremely oppressive, it is nowhere enough to overwhelm her. 

"Are you done? Then be prepared, I won't hold myself back like that time in the old building. I will show you that no matter how stronger you get, you won't be able to beat me."

With a couple of deep breaths, Sheila relaxed her body to the point that it almost seems like she was full of opening. However, that was merely an illusion to trick Rodrick into attacking her. If it had been a veteran fighter, they would have known at a single glance that this was nothing but a trap. Since Rodrick didn't have that much experience in combat, there's no way for him to realize that, and so, he fell into the trap and charge at her as soon as possible like an idiot. It was just as she expected. 

Though the man is an idiot, his formidable strength is nothing to joke around. Sheila managed to dodge his fist with ease mostly because she had seen that coming and quickly act on it, otherwise she might have been sent flying right about now. She was mostly fine, however, she still got a few cuts on her cheek due to the pressuring air around his fist.

After safely avoiding his punch, she quickly conjured a few fireballs within seconds before sending it toward him. Since she had maxed out the fire magic skill, there's no more cooldown for the casting time for a basic spell like a fireball. If it had been before, she could only fire it one at a time with a cooldown of 3 seconds before she can conjure another.

*BOOM!*

Even with such a deafening explosion, Sheila still didn't believe that was anywhere enough. And so, she soon opens fire with the APW now turned into a gun mode in her hand. With a bullet literally made out of mana, there was no explosive noise that one would have expected from firing a handgun. It's even quieter than a bullet fired from a normal handgun equipped with a silencer. After firing around 30 bullets, Sheila feels like it was enough and stopped her action as she stares at the smoke caused by the explosion in the distance.

"Hahaha! Is that it? It's not enough to take me down!"

With a laugh and mocking words, Rodrick easily dispersed the smoke away by simply waving his hand around. Looking at him, there doesn't seem to be any injury on him either by the explosion or from a bullet. This could only mean that his body has gotten tougher, or that his regeneration had become much faster in his current state, or maybe both. 

'But that was all within my expectation. I have a feeling that he didn't just acquire horns because it was cool or anything like that, it most likely has some sort of magical effect, something like strengthens his body even further perhaps. And I had to admit that his body is definitely tougher than my own, after all, I could still get hurt if I was in his spot a moment ago. With that said, If I have to assume his level based on that, it might be around 45+, which is much higher than my level.' No matter how one looked at the situation, she was clearly the one on the losing end. If she keeps this momentum, the chance of her winning against him is as low as 0.01%, a number one would quickly throw their white flag upon knowing about it. 

'Even if I have zero chance of winning, I would still fight him to death. Of course, it won't be my death, but him. There's no way I would lose my life here to a nobody like him. More importantly, I still have a few cards I didn't use just yet.' with that thought in mind, Sheila curls up her lips to a smile. 

"Hoh, you are smiling? Even after witnessing that I'm perfectly fine under your torrent of attacks? You still think you can beat me?"

"If you think that's the only thing I could do, then you're underestimating me too much. As promised, I will show you the strength that will overwhelm you at this moment."

"Emalf, O' Emalf..." 

As Sheila started to mumbling softly to herself with a strange language Rodrick never heard of, he didn't know what she was doing, however, he did have a feeling that whatever she was planning, it would be bad if he let her do as pleased. Rodrick kicks his feet hard on the floor, leaving a spider-like crack on the floor in his wake toward her. Though she appears to be focused on chanting the spell, she smoothly avoids his attacks with a skillful movement, annoying Rodrick by slithering around him like that of a snake.

"Htiw ym rewop a sa luef..."

"Damn it! Stop dodging and take my hit head on like a gentleman!"

Sheila didn't respond to his idiotic cursed and continue dodging his attack with ease amidst her chanting. Since she used 80% of her power to dodge his attacks and 20% on the chanting, she had no time to waste her word for him. And even if she did, it would be dumb to follow his word unless one has a screw loose in their head. Heck, she has b.o.o.b.s, not the third leg as most men do.

"Raeppa erofeb em ot nrub nwod ym seimene ot sehsa!"

The moment she finished the last verse of her chanting, strange phenomena started taking place as her surrounding's temperate rising to quite a degree. It was as if they were right on the scorching hot desert. However, to both of them, the current temperature is nowhere enough to cause them to sweat. Nonetheless, the fact that the temperature suddenly started rising to such a degree does raise a warning signal to Rodrick as he quickly put a distance between them just in case.

『 Ancient Flame! 』

As if lava suddenly manifests itself as a golden flame floating calmly above her palm, the surrounding temperate starts to increased even further than before that if someone were to stay closer to her, they would have sweats bucket. Even Rodrick standing in the distance could feel the heat c.a.r.e.s.sing his skin causing it to sweat. Even without having any special analysis ability, one could easily tell that the golden flame at the size of a football, hovering above her palm is nothing, but dangerous. 

Though the flame appears to be as hot as fresh lava at a dangerous temperature of whooping 1,700 Celsius, Sheila doesn't seem affected by the heat judging how she hadn't sweat a single bit from the very beginning. She didn't know why, but, perhaps it might be due to the skill level is already maxed, or that the skill itself would never harm the user unless the user lost control of their power. She had tested the skill back then in the Trial Tower, however, she never took notice of this up until now. Either way, no matter whatever weird rule applies here, now that it works better for her, it doesn't matter.

"You can feel it, right? The golden flame hovering above my hand, it is no ordinary flame. With this flame, are you confident you can tank it with your inhumane body? No matter how tough you are, a flesh is still flesh. This is a once in a lifetime chance for you, do you accept? Don't worry, I'll make sure it will thoroughly burn you, yet it won't kill you. Now, don't be shy and take it like a gentleman you are."

With a not-so-smiling expression on her face, Sheila slowly steps toward him with the ominous golden flame floating above her hand, threatening to swallow him whole just by staring at it. Though she said that he would only get burned without actually losing his life, there's no way he would believe her words when his own sense was alerting him of how dangerous the flame was. Even if her words held some truth in it, he didn't want to test it. Which sane person in the world would like to get themselves burn to their whole body? None! If there's one out there, they are most likely not sane anymore.