Chapter 398: Awaited Spar

Chapter 398: Awaited Spar

On the top of a hill in the 75th Plateau, Pronos snacked on random Wilden with a few of his heads at full size while spectating the battle ongoing in the distance.

A streak of aura with the same color as the sea clashed against a midnight-colored one. With each blow, a momentary apparition of a large winged werebeast and a giant shark manifested.

"[Blade of Rupture,]" Rakna's eyes flashed and he swung at Cura. The dimension-breaking art shot out in the shape of a crescent but was immediately broken off into two parts as Gulon ate the middle half. The rest struck the ground and sectioned the concrete into countless boulders.

'So, he can eat even that, huh?' The werewolf thought.

"[Unity Craft,]" Cura intoned and teal water was invoked in his free hand. It spiraled into the shape of a spiky sphere and began to release a strange and unseen aura of power. "[Tide Force.]"

Rakna's instincts promptly took over and with widened eyes, he wrapped himself in his wings and channeled their powers to defend himself right as the shark man crushed the sphere with his grip.

A muffled detonation echoed across the Plateau, and the sounds of ocean waves raged before being cut off right in the middle as if striking a wall. A shockwave stronger than anything Rakna ever felt before smashed into his wings.

⠀

❮ ◈ ❯ You have learned a new Sub-Technique Trait; Quantic Cage. ❮ ◈ ❯

⠀

A Royal Luquila's Wings could separate their owner from the space-time dimension and drastically reduce all forms of external influences. Yet, it easily pierced through and sent the werewolf flying toward the ground.

The activation of the Quantic Cage essentially transformed him into a living cannonball with more aerodynamics than most projectiles. The impact alone was reminiscent of a meteorite.

'Okay...' Rakna groaned internally, re-opening his wings and snapping his shoulder back into place whilst letting his Alkahestic body heal the rest. He mentally reallocated his attributes and released a burst of Neverwinter Aura that was then quickly reeled back inside by his Nephilim skills.

The debris all around him combusted and exploded away from him. The werewolf looked up with his eyes radiating a golden cross. 'That was a combination of magic and a Nirvana Skill... And both are rare types. Hadal Sea; a compound magic element that combines water with the pressure found at the deepest levels of the ocean. And his Nirvana is 'Force Vector'...'

"{Incredible,}" Fray exclaimed. "{The theoretically limitless weight and density of his spell is quite a cruelly efficient ability already. But his Nirvana Skill is also exclusively geared toward controlling the vectors of physical force, thus amplifying and controlling it beyond even those limits.}"

'No wonder I could hardly defend against it,' Rakna mused. 'There's no physical medium. The collision is somewhat inexistent and the shock spreads whilst ignoring defenses to a certain degree.'

As he thought that, he sensed another eruption of raw momentum and the next thing he saw was the sharp scales of King Gulon going right for his head. He counteracted by whirling his Guandao and deflecting the living weapon mid-spin with an application of Ghost of Rupture.Nnêw n0vel chapters are published on n0v/e/(lb)i(n.)co/m

Rakna had learned from Arimane the potential his Internal Art had to redirect the strength of his opponent. Without redistributing his attributes to Strength, Cura surpassed him by at least several hundred points, so he had no choice but to focus on evasion. Truth be told, he probably was one of the very few Hosts capable of enduring such a disparity in attributes.

Ripples traversed the air from where the weapons collided, the white scales scraping against the blade of Sonata before they were pushed away from each other. At the same time, Gulon could be heard laughing and Cura raised his fist, which Rakna mirrored.

⠀

"[Hadal's Hammer.]"

"[Fist of Rupture.]"

⠀

The punches struck and the dimension-breaking noises of the Rupture were rapidly lessened by a wave of water and a crushing pressure.

Rakna grunted, his Dusk Mane glowing faintly. 'How stifling. This really feels worse than gravity; it's like I'm drowning. Even Roias' 'magic' wasn't this unsettling,' he thought and separated himself from Cura with a burst of Intent. He flapped his wings and teleported backward.

King Gulon growled sullenly afterward and the werewolf snorted.

Gulon's body immediately stretched to eat it but before he could do so, a greatsword blazing with purple flames swung from behind and deterred the voracious creature.

"Can't let you eat that quite yet," Rakna's voice sounded and Cura immediately pulled on the handle of his weapon. The blue barrier flickered back to life and he swung at the werewolf whilst applying his Nirvana Skill to his movements.

The werewolf countered with an upward swing, attempting to deflect Gulon, but despite that, the scaled weapon did not change course, and the blue field swathing it briefly glowed.

'I see,' Rakna thought to himself before leaning back to dodge Gulon. He maintained the momentum and flipped his body, simultaneously using his tails as limbs to shoot five Star Flares.

The five arcs of Star Energy were swallowed by King Gulon in the blink of an eye and Rakna used that moment to activate one of his newest skills. "[Invert All Creation, Anastrofa,]" he chanted and a certain zone was established with him as the epicenter.

He gritted his teeth at the intensity of the dimensional force assailing his body and the area became somewhat dimmer, as if light was weaker all of a sudden. King Gulon growled warningly and Cura became wary.

"[Negative Field,]" he uttered and the blue barrier reverted to red.

At the same time, Rakna teleported face to face with him and swung his fist crackling with all the energies he had at disposition. "[Fist of Rupture,]" he struck forward and the ultimate blow of his Internal Art collided with the barrier.

Or at least, it would have if his fist hadn't stopped centimeters away from it. Rakna's arm trembled as he tried to push forward even a bit more, but eventually, his punch was completely halted and the power infused into it shattered.

"Magnetism... or a concept similar to it," the werewolf grinned. "Let's see how much it takes to get through, shall we?" He jested and filled the blade of Sonata with mana. The greatsword turned into a one-handed sword and shapeless power flowed along the edge.

"[10 000 Nights of Severance,]" Rakna triggered the perk and swung at the negative field.

Cura mirrored the attack and tried to counter with King Gulon, but at the moment of the swing, he stiffened in shock when he saw his arm angled somewhere he never intended to.

Rakna cackled and in the end, Sonata slashed the field and opened a thin breach. Before it had the time to repair itself, he reared his left arm once again and rekindled his Internal Art. However, he added two layers to it.

The Dusk Mane around his neck became agitated like orange flames and the Mark of Vindication above Cura flashed red. "[Fist of Rupture,]" he reiterated and punched forward with more than half of his attributes put into Strength.

It slowed down briefly when brushing against the red field, but quickly overpowered it and broke a hole into it, accelerating back to normal right after. Cura hastily lifted Gulon in front of him to act as a shield and when the fist landed, the Wrath Spell showed its true colors.

The Mark dissolved into Rakna's arm and the attack value of the Fist of Rupture doubled. Coupled with the momentum hoarded in the Dusk Mane, a blow several times stronger than normal struck the shark man.

The dimensions shattered like glass and the energies carried by the fist exploded outward, hurling Cura toward the ground in the distance at breakneck speeds. The force behind the attack was such that he failed to regain control until he crashed.

The shark man dug a trench with his body until he forced his body to move and plunge King Gulon into the stone to break the impetus. It took a few seconds for him to stop completely and with one knee down, he spat a mouthful of blood.

"...as expected," Cura mumbled and unearthed King Gulon. The creature seemed to be chuckling as if the attack had done nothing but amuse him. "Hey, Gul, this is pretty nice, huh?" The shark asked calmly and a huff was the reply.

He then stood up and a stream of transparent energy and water coiled around him like an aura. He gazed at the werewolf hovering in the sky with his four wings spread out and an uncharacteristic grin split the shark man's stoic expression.

"Very nice..." He whispered and lowered his body slightly. Then, with a resounding boom, he took off with strength that trampled the Plateau's surface even worse than his fall had. Another clash occurred up above and countless Wilden cowered away from the lethal winds caused by it.

This battle lasted until the evening after enough land to house many countries had been ruined.

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I guess the argument could be made that fight scenes are a strong point of my writing, but goddamn if they’re not a pain in the ass to write.

.

That’s all for the spar, by the way. Cura has more abilities, especially with Gulon, but I’ll probably showcase them in a last-boss scenario.

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