Taking a deep breath while parrying the axe coming her way. Isabella managed to dodge the attacks of the peak stage cultivator she was currently in a battle with.
Unlike Noah's version of the stage, her version of the last stage featured 3 middle stage cultivators in the first batch, five in the second batch, and four with a peak stage cultivator.
It seemed the whole stage was customized according to the participants strength.
Performing a side step, she dodged the ball of water flying towards her. Glancing at her partner Leon, who currently had two middle stages fighting him, she furrowed her brows, and decided to go all-out.
She had been at it for over an hour but the peak staged cultivator seemed to have absolutely no weakness, which pissed her off, coupled with the lustful gaze he constantly had on her which indicated that the fight was just a fun game to him.
Jumping backwards, dodging the over head slash. A dark gas seeped out of her figure, going on to form ten tentacles that stretched towards the peak stage man at break neck speed.
Effectively dodging the tentacles, the man immediately got serious. His instincts told him that only death awaited him if one of the tentacles touched him.
Dashing forward with both her swords outstretched by her side. She waved them in a cross slash, but stopped half way, surprising the man.
Crouching a bit, she spinned her body while her swords were still outstretched.
CLANG! CLANG!
The man managed to block the strikes with his axe, going on to try and smash it on her head, though the tentacles attacked at that point.
Five tentacles wrapped around the axes' blade. Shock spreading in the man's mind when he realized that he couldn't overpower the tentacles.
The other five cracked at his figure, but he was gone by that time. Isabella clicked her tongue when she saw him jumping backwards.
"Incredible you almost got me there. And you are a darkness affinity user at that." The man mused, while he watched his only weapon melt from the tentacles grip.
A swallowing sound escaped his throat at that sight, if he were to get hit by those things, his half naked body wouldn't stand a chance.
The man gazed at Isabella's figure, he couldn't help but admire her. The black tentacles swimming around her, almost like tails, made her look valiant, coupled with her determined expression.
'I won't be leaving here alive,' he concluded. Without his weapon he would only be able to delay his inevitably death, and he didn't have any defensive spells.
Dashing forward with all his strength he decided that he would go out with a bang.
His body began to glow a blue shade, his body roiling with Mana, he had a few spells, but there was one which he considered his best. If it didn't kill her he wouldn't live.
A blue magic circle expanded beneath them, covering most of the cave. Isabella sensed danger, she immediately reacted casting another spell.
A black magic circle exploded below her, then black gas seeped out of it and encased her in a solid ball of darkness which also had corrosive features.
The man's spell began at that point, a small shining blue ball emerged from the magic circles middle, then...
BOOOOOM!
As though a river bank had burst open in the cave, liquid water exploded outwards ravaging the entire place.
inside this small sea of water were many constructs which varied from thick spears of water to knives or spears, each carrying power in the peak of tier 2.
The two other middle stage died instantly after being impaled by many of these weapons of water.
Leon managed to react in time by encompassing himself with flames. His barrier of sorts managed to protect him for a few seconds, before it was extinguished by the liquid, causing only a few water constructs to stab him.
Isabella only fared a bit better, her ball of darkness managed to proctect her for a few seconds, before cracks began to spread on it. But before the water could destroy her protection completely, she made it condense and formed a layer just above her armour.
That only managed to buy her a few more seconds before she found herself inside a sea of blue water, multiple weapons rushing towards her, while she drifted in the pools depth.
The spells effect lasted for around a minute until it seemingly evaporated instantly. During that period Isabella had managed to stay alive, but badly injured
Crashing on the ground with grace of a rock, she coughed up multiple mouthfuls of blood, while immediately drinking a healing potion.
Searching for Leon, she found his unmoving body a few tens of meters from her position. He was dead.
Intense sadness filled her mind, but she didn't let it overwhelm her. Taking mulitiple deep breaths, she calmed herself, while the many stab wounds healed.
A ding sound resounded as shock filled her mind, she had totally forgotten about her opponent. Her eyes searched for him, and to her surprise she found him in a pool of blood, a deep wound in his head, with multiple others scattered in his body.
The ground lit up with a yellow Inscription, then the five bodies present except for Leons', were teleported away, while a light washed over the ground, making it as clean as it was in the beginning.
'He died from his own spell,' she thought. 'Pathetic,' she concluded. Crawling to Leon's body she stored it inside her space ring, afterwhich an Inscription lit up on the ground, then the scenery changed.
Finding herself in the massive room, she was shocked to find Noah and his friend cultivating.
He opened his eyes, as she saw curiosity and fascination. She tried to say something, but before she could, Noah walked towards her, a sigh escaping his mouth. "How bad are you injured?."
She simply shook her head, not wanting him to touch her. Noah seemed to understand the meaning behind that gesture, but still persisted.
"Do you have any healing potions?."
A weak sigh escaped her mouth, Isabella was beginning to lose her consciousness. So she decided to let him help. Two bottles appeared out of thin air, and gently lay on the cream-colored tiles.
Noah shook his head and fed the bottles' contents to her. Her body glowed a green hue, then she passed out immediately.
Noah shook his head as a light sigh escaped his mouth. Inspecting her body he found that her multiple wounds were closing, but his eyes eventually fell on her exposed skin.
Noah instantly got mesmerized, but shook off that feeling, when he thought to who she was and probably somethings she might had experienced, coupled with the fact that he felt dirty staring at her thighs, Noah immediately carried her and placed her someplace near his cultivating position, though far enough to not be distracted.
Glancing at her peaceful figure, a smile crept on his face. Closing his eyes and sitting crosslegged, Noah went back to cultivating.
It barely did much, after all he had kept the skill on for over a month not a single level being gained. He simply loved the soothing feeling of the meditation.
Hours instantly passed, more people being teleported back to the room, most of which were badly injured. During that period, Noah did nothing but cultivate, he gained little insight on somethings he should do moving forward and getting stronger.
Eventually Isabella woke up, and also began cultivating, but Noah sensed something different about her during that time, first was the fact that Mana flowed faster towards her than normal, even pulling his own towards her.
Secondly, once in a while, he see the Mana flowing towards her change to a black color, Noah blamed this on her element, since it wasn't normal.
'Is this what a cultivation technique does,' Noah thought.