As the tension mounted, Superbia sprang into action and made the first move, spinning her spear across in her hand and hurling it up towards Luxuria with immense force, a burst of wind erupting out of her hand and propelling the spear up with more force.
Luxuria quickly veered across to the right to evade it, grimacing slightly as a shallow cut appearing across her left bicep.
Her eyes then widened in alarm as Superbia created another spear to replace the first one and flung it up towards Luxuria with a rapid spin, the spear zipping through the air rapidly.
Luxuria formed a pair of Negative Energy blades and crossed them in front of herself, narrowly blocking the spear, which colliding against her shadowy blades and got deflected away with a sharp clang.
The force upon impact blew Luxuria's arms back, before she gasped in pain as a third spear came shooting straight up towards her, piercing through the middle of her stomach and bursting out the middle of her back.
So, yeah...while Superbia is the weakest of my Apostles in terms of Power Level, her high level of skill puts her well above both Luxuria and Invidia in terms of combat ability.
Both of them are extra cautious when they spar against her, I think having her instruct them should make for good training.
Initially, they both tried blasting her with volleys of Negative Energy, but her evasion and reflexes are really high level, and she's great at defending with her spears too, so avoiding and blocking those attacks aren't a real problem for her.
And unleashing barrages of blasts like that kick up a lost of dust, which Superbia makes great use of to attack them while she's out of sight.
Her perception and instincts are amazing, she might the most skilled fighter I've ever come across.
Despite losing all the offensive Skills she possessed when she was alive, it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.
There's the Javelin Skill, exclusive to Lancers, for instance, which involves throwing your spear at a target, it's a Skill that sharpens accuracy and throwing power.
And even though she doesn't have that Skill anymore, her throwing attacks with her spears generate a lot of force and she's got pinpoint accuracy with them too.
Furthermore, the fact that she can generate an unlimited number of those spears so long as she's got MP left, means that she doesn't have to be conservative with those throwing attacks.
If she had power on par with an X-Ace or Calamity Level Monster, she's be absolutely unstoppable.
"<Come on, I know you can do a lot better than that, Luxuria. You tend to panic when you get overwhelmed, you need to keep a cool head.
You could have deflected, or at least slowed down, my last spear with a burst of Negative Energy>," Pointed out Superbia, as Luxuria flew back down while staring at the hole in her stomach.
"<Yeah, but you would've just made a fourth spear and attacked again>," She responded with a huff.
"<Well, yes, but that's not the point. You let me throw you off-balance with my first spear, and while you managed to block the second one, that was the wrong option. Evasion or deflection would've been better options.
If you're faced with an attack that has more force that you can block without losing your balance, try to deflect it or dodge it instead. If you'd fired a pressurized burst of Negative Energy to either side, you probably could have dodged it>."
"<Fine, I'll keep that in mind. Master, I wanna go back to Earth already...having no internet sucks. It's been way too long since I got to have a proper goon sesh>," Complained Luxuria, as she flopped onto the grass with a huff.
"<You certainly are quite the little degenerate, aren't you>?" Responded Superbia in bemusement.
"<Yeah, well, it's better than being a beta incel fuckboy>," She sighed, as she glanced at Invidia.
"<Wha-...?! What the hell, I didn't even say anything! Why am I catching strays>?!" He snapped indignantly.
"<Fuck off, you emaciated cuck. Anyway, Master, when are we going back>?"
"No idea. It'll depend on several factors...how fast I can raise my stats to their upper limit, how soon we'll be able to locate and capture Fenelza, and how effective Command will be on her.
I did use Command on her when I fought her on Earth, and she broke free before too long...but next time, I'll be a lot stronger than I was back then, so the effect will be stronger too.
But best not to get too far ahead of ourselves. Let's just take it one day at a time, it'll all be for nothing if I get careless and end up getting captured myself instead," I responded with a wry smile.
"<In other words...it's probably going to be a while, huh>?" Luxuria sighed wistfully.
"Speaking of which, I wonder how people are going to react to you when we get back," I mused as I glanced at Superbia.
"<Don't worry, I'll make it clear to anyone who has a problem with it that I asked for this. I suppose I'll have to retire as Chairwoman of the Sanctuary Theta Union though, not that I'm complaining about that...I'll be damned if I do paperwork even in death>," She laughed in response.
"I mean, if you want to continue your work as Chairwoman, that's fine by me. I let these two out quite often, Luxuria is pretty addicted to digital entertainment, and Invidia goes to hang out with some friends of his from time to time," I informed her, before adding as I glanced up at Acedia, "As for him, he prefers to stay dormant, so yeah."
"<I see. I appreciate it, but I don't think I'll go back to my old duties. I only accepted the role of Chairwoman in the first place because I wanted to be involved in some capacity, I just felt so restless after I retired>," She admitted sheepishly.
"Well, in that case, if there's anything else you want to do whenever we have some downtime, just let me know."
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