698 Chapter 698

As his inner energy revolved in his body, the elderly priest channeled more and more of his power into the formation of the floating symbols, rune words. Each time one was completed, the rune flashed with a bright colorless blinding light before it seemingly vanished into thin air. Some blurred until it disappeared from sight, some were like smoke that was wafted away by the wind then again others shot forward like arrows shot from a bow.

Each rune, hummed with a strange, mysterious deep resounding sound, as it merged with reality and disappeared.

Worst of all, even though it felt as if the whole process took a considerable amount of time, in reality mere seconds passed by as the runes were formed in rapid succession, barely giving time to the two fair maidens to process what was going on.

Still, it wasn't as if Madam Dara or Lady Pyre would just watch the priest cast his mysterious spell without at the very least trying to interrupt it. As soon as the first rune word vanished from sight, both ladies were brought back from their reverie and sprung into action in parallel.

Madam Dara, since she was forced to stop her chant as well as use it only on a much smaller area, still had a bit more than half of her [Soul Power] reserve left to use in this battle. With that, she quickly began to focus on her inner core once again.

Her slender fingers danced to an unknown tune in the air, slowly turning blurry as a hazy dark fog began to envelop them. [Dark Essence] was circulated alongside with [Soul Power], forming a thin blurry cape-like veil that soon covered her entire body.

Madam Dara grinned viciously at the priest, and just as her eyes flared up with a deep, vibrant shade of crimson, her entire figure suddenly vanished, fusing together with the dark smoke that covered her.

In the very next instant, the same smoke emerged from below the ground just behind the priest, forming the buxom beauty. Immediately, not even waiting for the [Dark Warp] spell to fully finish, she glared madly at the robed elder's back and struck forward with her right hand. Her sharp nails were akin to the draconic ebony claws of her master yet at the same time were also vastly different.

Whilst Aiden's claws were best to pierce below the surface and tear through flesh and organs, Madam Dara's were more specialized towards slicing type attacks.

At the same time as Dara was in the motion of her backstabbing ambush attack, on the other side, Pyre was like an infernal maiden with how the particle essences floating in the air around her literally sizzled with all the active [Fire Magic] energy being circulated by her.

Her eyes were like a pair of burning gemstones, they focused on the masked priest. Her face contorted into a twisted, manic-looking grin, she felt exhilarated with the sheer thought of letting loose.

She raised her arms in the air and cackled with a tone that was quite uncharacteristic for her usual calm, coldness. It was emotional, excited, joyous… battle-crazed just like how a tall giant blonde amazon usually sounded in the heat of carnage.

"[Reptilian] You know… old man, you are not the only one that feels excited at the prospect of finally letting loose. I no longer need to hold myself to my own mental shackles and can finally shed these mental barriers, these chains that my family has forced upon me throughout my life…"

Her scales and skin gradually shifted color, her entire visage turned akin to a smoldering, glowing charcoal in the core of a burning bonfire. As her arms were raised at her sides, they were suddenly engulfed in flames. Fire that in a mere moment claimed her entire body, yet it didn't seem to cause any pain, or discomfort to her.

It was as if… she was even happier to finally be at the center of this hellish scenery.

"[Reptilian] … I CAN FINALLY LET LOOSE! FEEL MY FIRE!" She exclaimed, shouting her emotional battle cry as she closed her arms, in front of her body. From her palms that met at the base and faced towards the priest, a sphere was formed from the burning barrier and was shot forward like a projectile towards the opponent.

Though Pyre registered the presence of Dara behind the old man, she either didn't care or perhaps somehow knew that she would be unharmed. Either way, she didn't bat an eye when she fired her first [Fireball].

Like a miniature sun, the magical sphere rotated in the air as it traversed the not too great distance between them and rapidly approached his target. It hurled like a meteor ready to unleash its carnage on its prey upon impact.

The priest, now having thrown in the middle of potentially lethal, but at the very least highly dangerous attacks from both sides, didn't show any signs of panic. He was as calm as before, ignoring everything as he focused on completing the last rune of his spell.

He was confident as if knowing that neither attack would have a chance to cause him harm, he continued with his action.

Normally, such an action would have raised several flags from his opponents. How was he so confident? How could he ignore a hurling sphere formed from pure [Fire Essence] as well as a viper-like strike of another coming towards his seemingly unprotected back? Where did this peculiar source of confidence come from? What secrets did he keep for such situations?

The answers to the questions would have been easily answered if Galina or Granny would have been present. In reality, the priest wasn't chanting a single spell, but actually cast several smaller enhancements, enchantments, and even protective wards at the same time. With each rune vanishing it meant that another bundle of this secret gift was accomplished.

Only the very last rune that was drawn for the longest time carried the actual attack, the rest was just a protective measure.

As to confirm this conjecture, just before Madam Dara's nails could reach the linen fabric of the priest's robe, suddenly an invisible barrier appeared blocking her attempt and diffused all the momentum and energy in several ripples that distorted the reality.

On the other side, a similar situation played out, as the massive rotating miniature star exploded as it hit the same barrier. All that power, that momentum was diffused the very same way as the stabbing attack from Dara, sending huge ripples distorting on the surface.

"[Reptilian] Ahahaha… That was a good attempt, I suppose. However…." The priest sneered sinisterly, just as the last rune finally flared up and activated. "…now it is my turn!"

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