Chapter 4121: Frenzied Battle (Part 2)

Each lunge of his spear was weaker and slower than the previous due to the hooks’ gravity spell robbing Ashen Dread of its kinetic energy until it became slow enough for Crank to grab the spear’s haft.

"Get over here!" The difference in strength between the Bastet and the Hyperion allowed Crank to pull Akhton close and deliver a solid counter punch to his face.

The hooks covering the fist failed to pierce through the Bastet’s tough hide and armor, but they managed to lock him even closer.

"How can you still stand after taking so many hits?" Akhton asked while the Hyperion rained clawed punches and kicks without ever letting go of Ashen Dread’s haft. "What about my Thunder Soul?"

"It hurts like hell. I have to give you that." Crank replied. "But Hyperions can eat all nine hells for breakfast!"

The white crest across his spine lit up, and Crank released a tier five War Mage spell, Graveyard Shift, from point-blank after boosting it with Elemental Overload.

A deep pit filled to the brim with darkness opened below the Divine Beasts’ feet. The fall hurt neither of them, but only the Bastet was affected by the entropic energy surrounding them.

***

Solus sidestepped the Dryad-Upyr’s attack with a speed that surprised the plant folk and countered it with a hammer blow that punctured the Upyr’s lungs and squeezed the air out of them.

’Thank Mom I have the weight of a Divine Beast.’ She thought. ’We both have a deep violet core, but she doesn’t know I have the mass advantage!’

Knowing there wasn’t a moment to lose, Solus threw the Fury in a Furies’ Flight, ripping the Upyr’s head off and consolidating her advantage. At the same time, she wielded the Sage Staff and used it to conjure the tier four spell, Dark Ages.

Darkness was the bane of all living beings, while cold temperatures neutralized the plant folk’s regenerative abilities. The water in the vines that comprised the Dryad’s body froze and expanded, deforming her limbs.

She tried to reattach her head, but Dark Ages blocked the flow of nutrients and sapped her strength.

"You bitch!" She roared, dispelling her Thunder Soul bloodline ability and setting the world energy ablaze with Fire Soul.

The bloodline ability dispelled Dark Ages and hurt the Dryad, but without the ice, she healed faster than Fire Soul charred her body. Yet the pain remained.

The Dryad planted her roots deep in the ground to absorb the nutrients she needed and launched a barrage of fiery punches. With only Vital Storm supporting her, Solus was too slow to dodge them all.

On top of that, the reach gap and Fire Soul sealed her best moves. The corrupted fire set Solus’ constructs and spells ablaze, making the former crumble before they could solidify and the latter lose most of their destructive power.

She tried to conjure a few arrays with the Sage Staff, but with her size, the Upyr dodged them with a single step, foiling Solus’ strategy and wasting her mana.

’Size does matter!’ Solus cursed as she activated the Furies’ Flight enchantment again, the only attack against which the Dryad was helpless. ’I need to find her Root and do it fast!’

She conjured the Eyes of Menadion, obtaining her answer along with a massive headache that slowed her even further.

’Fuck! The Root is in her thigh, and I aimed at her midriff!’

"Let’s see how you like this!" The Upyr ignored the Fire Soul burning her flesh and the Furies breaking her bones since they were too far from her Root to be a threat.

She released a blast of corrupted fire that engulfed Solus and kicked at her with a foot the size of a truck.

Solus raised her arms and conjured a Spirit Barrier to block, but the Fire Soul ate at the emerald barrier, compromising its structural integrity. The Dryad’s foot smashed through the cracked barrier, Solus’ arms, and hit her like a freight train.

The impact sent Solus flying and skipping on the ground like a flat pebble on the surface of a lake.

"Solus!" Tista yelled as she stepped back to avoid the Upyr’s longsword by a hair’s breadth.

"You should worry less about your friend and more about yourself!" The corrupted Divine Beast laughed, pouring more Thunder Soul with each swing of the blade.

The Hekate ignored the taunt and took a deep breath. The Upyr charged forward to strike her before Tista would open her mouth, but that was exactly what she hoped. A twin jet of Origin Flames erupted from her battle claws, Firefang, and doused the Upyr.

The mystical fire stopped the cursed Divine Beast in her tracks and, more importantly, ate at the Thunder Soul. Tista pushed the longsword away with a battle claw while lunging with the other, drawing the first blood.

’It barely hurt, and whatever this woman is, she’s not a plant!’ Tista thought, watching the Upyr-Dryad raising her leg to stomp Solus to death. ’I’ll finish her off and go save Solus. If anything happens to her, Lith is going to die!’

Lith and Solus had never told anyone about the Bleed to protect Menadion’s reputation. The Hekate was unaware that the forbidden floor was currently saving both her brother and friend.

So, when the Upyr recovered and lunged at her, Tista used Ethereal Aegis to let the corrupted Divine Beast’s blade phase through her and stab at her heart and head with Firefang.

Her bloodline ability neutralized the edge of the longsword, but had little effect on Thunder Soul from so close and in so little time. The full might of the Upyr blow punctured Tista’s heart at the same time she killed her.

The Hekate fell to the ground, reverting to her physical form as blood gurgled from her mouth.

’This is not good!’ Protector’s speed allowed him to dodge the Upyr’s axes as if they moved in slow motion despite the Life Maelstrom empowering them. ’Luckily for Tista, Nalrond, and Solus, I took my time studying my opponent and kept an eye on the battlefield, or they would be in trouble.’

He rescued the Agni first, and saved Solus from being squashed underfoot like a bug next. Tista’s opponent was dead, so he kept her for last. The Skoll dodged the combined attacks of the two flabbergasted Upyrs with enough ease to employ Invigoration on his comrades.

"Stop chasing the dog, you morons!" Uragar, the Book of Knowledge, said. "He’s making us a favor. Now that they are all in the same place, I can kill our four little birds with one fusillade of spells!"

The cursed book opened to the page of the tier five Spirit Spell, Mana Storm, instantly conjuring a barrage of emerald bullets. Each one was as big as a nut, and thanks to Life Maelstrom, it carried the destructive power of a wrecking ball.

The Upyrs nodded and went to help their comrades.

"Do not come here. Salanoth and I will deal with Verhen!" Jorl roared, and the Ring of Space answered his call.

***

"Sorry, not sorry!" Phillard bolted like a serpentine bullet, alternating mad sprints to Blinks to escape the Upyr chasing after him. "If you can’t beat them, bomb them!"

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