Chapter 396: Day 824 (4) – A Dragon And A Tiger

Chapter 396: Day 824 (4) – A Dragon And A Tiger

I quickly purchased a restoration. I leveraged myself up and backwards, over the pillar doing a spectacular flip. I landed on the ground and faced my nightmare.

“Divine Empress,” I said trying to draw her attention to me while Doctor Katz ran for it. His guards were already dead and while she glanced at him, she didn’t pursue him. She was smiling slightly at me, but I could tell that her eyes were full of murder.

She slowly advanced while I backed up to keep the same distance between us. She didn’t appear to be in any hurry to start a fight, but it could be that I was near the pillars. I adjusted my retreat to be an angle. It would be a big circle, but if I was going to die, then another blast might just take her with me and she would be hesitant about using wide range attacks.

“It was quite a hassle to find you. I had to kill so many of your people and then I got lucky near that one city, what was it?” she asked.

“Neo Brasilia.” She gave me a slight nod.

“That cesspool of filth. To be honest, you kidnapping my child, robbing my treasury, impersonating me, killing my advisors, destroying my capital, pissing on my bed, and ruining my empire has made me achieve a state of inner peace I never knew I had.”

“No problem, always happy to help.” That did not sound good in the slightest.

“I want you to know, that you made me so mad, that it was impossible to get any madder. All that rage, anger, well it crystalized into a realization. That you were purposely trying to enrage me, just like the Avatar,” the Divine Empress said while still advancing slowly.

This was not good. A clear-headed Divine Empress was much worse than an enraged Divine Empress. I broke her and what was forged in her place was much worse than what was there originally. “In truth, you have managed to anger me more than the Astrologer.”

“Is he really the father?” I asked. Her slight smile flickered at that, but she didn’t slow down or speed up.

“Yes. And he will pay in time. But now, it is time to pay your bill. While I called you a dog before, I recognize you, Champion Michael.” Please don’t recognize me and go away.

“Thank you, perhaps we should call it even, after all you put a hole in my chest and you don’t want anything to happen to your child. You kill me, then he will be tortured.”

“I know. It will build his character just like it built mine.” She was playing hardball. This was not looking good. Her stats were above mine from what I could tell. About double if I had to guess. That meant I was outclassed in every way.

I had circled around and came to a stop in the middle of the pillars. “If I go, I am taking you with me,” I said and she paused in her advance. “No way you can kill me without collateral damage.”

We stood there facing each other. She carefully looked around and then turned back to face me. The Divine Empress began to advance. One step at a time. Each step felt like another pile of dirt on top of my grave, weighing me down.

The Divine Empress was like a beacon in my Sense stat. I brought up both my hands. Like I was moving to defend my self futilely. Acid Shot. I used that skill to make myself seem desperate. She slapped it aside with one of her barrier skills.

Her hand was outstretched to grab me. Just as it broke through the shell of water. I acted. Force Wave.

The wave of force energy came into being. With her hand almost touching me. I saw her wrap her arm and hand in energy she expelled and despite pausing and getting pushed back for a moment, it continued to reach forward. Her shoulder and body had entered my Aqua Sphere.

I saw energy gather in her hand and just as it was about to touch me, my two skills collided. There was a bright flash of white as I skidded to a stop. I cut off Aqua Sphere, keeping what little energy I had left. Had I done it? I quickly scrambled to my feet.

There was a wet plop on the ground. The Divine Empress’s right arm had been blown off, ending in a charred stub. Her clothing was burnt, and her flesh partially melted. But her eyes. Her eyes, were staring right at me, full of hatred.

She took a step towards me, and I couldn’t believe she was still alive. Just die! How are you still alive? “That was just my opening act.” I took a step towards her. She was frowning now and brought up the burnt up stub in front of her face.

“What is it you people like to say? It is just a flesh wound,” she replied in a slightly raspy voice. She didn’t advance and I didn’t advance. I had no energy left. I had to use everything just to make this point and wound her.

It was bullshit, that she wasn’t dead. Anyone else, would have instantly died getting caught in such a blast. Instead, she loses an arm and gets melted a bit. I took another step forward. She took a step forward matching me.

She couldn’t back down and I didn’t want to back down either. She could flee from me no problem, but if I didn’t try to kill her here and now, I knew I would always regret it. That was when I noticed she was slowly healing at a rate I could see as bits of burnt flesh flaked off of her and her stub was slowly growing.

It was very slow, but compared to regular healing, it was insanely fast. That was cheating. An annihilation should be a cursed wound. How was she healing from that? Probably a meta-point, but it was completely unfair.

I couldn’t let up the pressure for a moment and advanced. Even if she knew martial arts, losing an arm would hopefully throw her off. If I had to guess, whatever she was doing took energy and a lot of it. Perhaps it took energy to stabilize her.

Which meant that using skills would be too risky. She knew she had higher stats, so she would go into melee. I didn’t want to fight hand to hand, but I needed to put pressure on her until I got enough energy to finish her off.

I rushed forward in my bloody shorts, shirtless, and with a prayer to the Almighty System to help me out a bit right now. I kept my arms up in front of me and my hands balled into fists. I punched out and she juked to the side, kicking up at me.

I quickly focused on where she hit, while I felt it, I wasn’t blown away. I punched out and struck her face. It was like hitting a brick wall. Some of my fingers probably broke, but she stumbled back. I saw a bit of surprise on her face. While she had double my stats, with the way they worked, it was only a small gap.

That gap was small enough for me to have an impact on her. I didn’t let up and I advanced. Come on energy, regenerate faster.