บท 491: Chapter 491
The massive arachnid monster falls into the ravine with its two severed limbs by its side.
Both Abby and Arie follow it downward with their weapons poised to kill.
The tendrils of purple Soul Energy still violently pierce through Abby's vital points, but they phase through her heart, head, and stomach as if nothing is hitting her at all.
The bright light green glow of her [Form of the Immortal Healer] ensures her physical body cannot take any damage at all.
Everything the spider throws at her feels like nothing but a passing breeze as Abby gets closer and closer with her glowing green spear of manifested rock raised above her head. She is in the perfect striking range but hasn't released any attacks just yet.
Behind her, less than 20 meters away, Arie charges up another one of his golden arrows.
This is the attack that severed two of its limbs before and left a large gaping hole in the monster's side.
He yells out as all three of them fall into the darkness of the ravine and approach the depths of the desert floor deep below.
"I have another attack ready! Abby! Give me some room to let it fly!"
She continues taking hits from the spider and forcing it to retreat downward. The monster is only moving away to avoid being stabbed through with the enormous glowing spear. However, Abby yells back with an unexpected reply.
"Shoot it now if you have the shot. Right through me!"
Arie's eyes widen at these words, but he doesn't hesitate to release the tension of the shimmering string holding the golden arrow.
The only thing between Arie and the spider's main body is the 6 Soul Energy threads and Abby.
The shimmering arrow rips through the air, then makes a direct hit with Abby's back, just as she asked.
Like all of the Soul Energy attacks from the monster, this too phases through her without shifting her form at all.
The golden arrow comes out of Abby's green glowing chest and shatters all of the purple tendrils that attack her without even breaking the golden outer shell.
It rockets down toward the spider's main body, and it reacts by directing its remaining limbs and energy threads to block just as it did before.
Abby takes this moment free from the arachnid's merciless attacks to jump to the opposite side of its body and her bright green energy form begins to flicker and pulse.
She deactivates the [Form of the Immortal Healer] and throws the stone spear covered in her offensive Soul Energy directly at the other side of the spider's body.
The golden arrow's outer shell begins to melt away and tear through two more of the creature's remaining arms before leaving another enormous hole in its side.
The creature begins to screech and cry while blood gushes out from it, then is speared all the way through with a green glowing weapon. Another two of its remaining limbs are sliced away in this attack, leaving only one limb remaining on each side.
It directs one of its last purple threads of Soul Energy at the woman who floats right above her head, pulling enchanted daggers from her sides.
As Abby releases two slashes of pure Soul Energy directed at the spider's head, a final two threads of purple energy with all of the 3rd ranked Dark Guard's remaining strength are thrust forward. One is aimed at her chest. It breaks through the soul energy shielding and creates an explosion of energy that pushes the spider down further into the ravine and Abby back up into the air.
The other purple thread aims for Arie, but it is further away so he has time to react, sending spirit and demonic arrows its way to slow it down.
The collision of Abby's two full-powered Soul Energy slashes makes contact with the creature's head and slices its brain into four even pieces in an X pattern, then rips through its main body as well, melting through its organs and piercing its heart.
The moment this attack makes contact and finishes slicing through, Abby reactivates her [Form of the Immortal Healer] buff and her body glows bright green again, unable to be injured by the aftereffects of the purple tendril of Soul Energy thread following her upward through the sky.
Arie, on the other hand, has shot over 3 of each of his arrows at the last remaining thread, yet it hasn't even shrunk to half of its size.
He fends it off as much as he can, but at the rate of its upward momentum, it is aimed to hit his heart before he'll be able to fully take it out.
A loud echoing thud can be heard at the bottom of the ravine, at the same time, Arie manages to release a partially formed golden arrow that shifts the trajectory of the final thread. It shifts away from his heart and pierces through his stomach instead.
He coughs up blood while level-up notifications ring in Abby's inner ear. The purple Soul Energy thread begins to fade entirely as the life of the 3rd Ranked Dark Guard fades away.
At the same time, Abby activates her first-ranked-up buff, [Area of Total Restoration] to spread a green aura around her over 100m in diameter, engulfing Arie inside it as they're both blasted upward by the violent explosion of purple energy from the bottom of the ravine.
The calming warm veil of Abby's healing magic washes over him as the hole in his stomach is restored almost instantaneously, and a wave of satisfaction washes over him.
He smiles and looks above to see Abby's bright green form.
"We did it..."
She replies as the upward momentum begins to slow.
"We did. That was quite the impressive shot. I wouldn't have had the opening to take it out so easily without the help of those golden arrows. I can't use any offensive attacks while in this Immortal Form, that went perfectly..."
Arie nods, then lets out a sigh and closes his eyes, allowing the green healing magic to completely take over his body. The enormous arm manifestations carrying the three bows on his back shrink back into his core and he lets her heal the rest of his fatigue as they continue to fly upward out of the dark ravine.
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Above the mountain range on the other side of the battlefield another deadly exchange is taking place.
Monk is surrounded in a pure white Qi energy form, while his master has turned almost entirely orange.
Every exchange that they throw back and forth destroys more of the desert landscape, and releases more and more of each other's power.
The shockwaves they send off after each collision are enough to send cracks through the desert ground for over a kilometer away from each of their strikes.
Not to mention, when one of them lands a solid attack, the other is sent flying into the rock ground to create craters over 200 meters wide and nearly 30-50 meters deep.
The scale of their battle is only growing by the second. Both of them are breathing heavily, and have landed over 10 solid hits each.
It's clear they're both at their limit, and any new blow the other throws could be their last.
They are truly evenly matched.
Monk speaks up as the last remaining visible essence of white Qi energy is sucked away and taken over by the orange borrowed Soul energy of the Lich King.
"Again, I am honored I have had the chance to show you my true strength that I have gained from your teachings master. It is a shame I could not get to fight you when you are using your true power as well."
He clasps his hands together, and the white aura around him glows far brighter.
Two enormous white hands manifest in front of him. They seem to be over twenty times the size of the energy form they are both using to fight.
With blinding speed, the two hands, each larger than entire buildings, come together and clasp around the orange form of the Soul Energy infected Qi-master. It creates an ear-shattering crack that sends a shockwave so powerful through the air that it ripples through everyone floating in the sky and spreads out over 5 km in every direction.
All of the remaining mountains are leveled in an instant, and it seems near impossible for anything to survive a devastating blow like that.
On impact, the white hands hold steady for a few seconds, then begin to fade away.
The body of an old man falls through the sky, an unnoticeable gentle smile forms across his face while he falls into the rubble below, trailing a weak aura of orange soul energy and remnants of white Qi behind it.
A single tear falls down Monk's cheek as he bows in the air and returns to his base form.
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After the death of the 3rd Ranked Dark Guard, and the desert-shifting crack that followed Monk's final attack, the remaining members of the 1st Dark Guard begin to step up their game.
The Guard with laser artifacts built into its arms turns to its side, watching the bright glowing form of their boss transform, then yells out to the one-armed club wielder.
"The Boss is already using his final form! And we just lost the Spider Queen. It's time to step things up. We cannot disappoint the Dark One any more than we already have!"
It shoots more high-powered laser beams down to distract Maria, making her dodge them all in the air unable to attack precisely at these high speeds.
The club user grunts and replies.
"Fine! I wanted to at least have some fun with this battle, but if you want me to finish things now I'll do it. Cover me."
The club user's body starts to glow just like the Boss. Its muscles shift and grow, and even the spiked club in its hands starts to vibrate and expand.
Maria sees this happening, but has no way to stop it as she is fully absorbed in dodging the barrage of lasers coming her way.
This spike club holder grows at a far faster rate than their boss, expanding over 5x in size in less than 5 seconds.
The white glow ceases and it towers over everything, still floating in the sky, but now over 15 meters tall.
Its arm is still missing, but the dark grey Soul Energy that covered its body before is now manifesting the image of an arm in its place so it can easily hold its club with both of its hands.
The enormous muscular humanoid cyclops lets out a murderous roar and charges toward the action.
The laser wielder lets out a laugh and retreats.
"That's it! Let her have it! Show this girl how strong the 1st ranked guard really is! If you can kill her before I level up to my final attack form I'll even give you some of my mass to make up for losing that damn arm of yours. Come on you brute, let me see what you can do!"
It roars again, not letting out any understandable words, but its speed and agility seem to have improved drastically as it zips through the air toward Maria.
It swings its spiked club like a bat and Maria has no time at all to dodge.
She activates her ranked-up buff [Ice Age] and swings her Soul Energy imbued sword back to block the deadly incoming strike, but to her utter surprise, the massive structure of ice is shattered in an instant.
The upgraded mental strength and immense dark grey Soul Energy that has been released in this final form is on a level far higher than it was moments ago.
The ice attack Maria threw could have easily taken off its other arm if it was launched just a few seconds earlier, however, now it is shattered and destroyed in an instant.
Maria's reaction time, agility, and speed were her primary advantage moments ago too, but now they are hardly even equal. This brute's speed outranks hers by almost twice as much as it lunges forward and swings its heavy club.
Her physical strength does not even stand a chance against competing either.
It was already at a lower state than this Guard before it upped itself to its final form, as Maria is hit by an unstoppable brick wall of force and rocketed backward over a full kilometer in the sky, she realizes she is going to need to bring her full power to the table as well to take on this mutated monster.
She coughs up blood while catching herself in the air and holding her sword steady, still looking 100% confident even after taking that brutal attack head-on.
As the club user speeds forward through the air, she whispers the name of her second ranked-up buff.
"Awakened Form of The Ice Goddess..."
The instant these words leave her lips, the entire battlefield shifts in temperature.
The troops far below on the battlefield shiver, and the entire sky looks as if it's been tinted in a veil of dark Royal Blue light.
Enormous amounts of swirling blue Soul Energy manifest from deep within Maria and begin to erupt outward to form the manifestation of a Goddess holding a long blue sword.
The manifestation of her goddess-like form grows just over 20 meters tall, towering above the approaching Dark Guard.
Her aura erupts outward like a semi-transparent blue sphere and collides with the aura of the approaching club user that roars in fury.
It swings its club at her, letting more of its dark aura seep from its body to strengthen the blow, while letting more orange soul energy cover the weapon itself to harden the metal.
Maria calmly stares forward with a cool icy gaze and swings her sword forward in a striking motion too.
As they collide, another shockwave multiple times stronger than the hands clasping of Monk's attack ripples through the sky, this travels tens of kilometers in every direction as the blue and grey soul energies show their incredible power.
However, this even clash does not last for long.
The cracking sound of metal breaking follows the shockwave, and the crackling sound of ice forming seeps its way down the club and onto the Dark Guard's body.
Not only is the creature's flesh frozen this time, but even the Soul Energy that swirls around it is frozen in place.
The enormous blue sword of the Ice Goddess's form breaks through the frozen club and shatters it to pieces while stabbing the monster in the chest, freezing its heart in an instant.
Blue ice takes over its entire body, moving quickly, and freezing all of the Soul Energy left along with any flesh that dares to move.
The massive green eye with a [1] labeled in its center turns to pure blue ice.
Maria twists her blade inside the monster's chest and its entire body shatters into shimmering icy glitter that falls down onto the desert battle below.
The sound of ringing level-up notifications echoes in her inner ear as she turns to face the other glowing and expanding creature to her side. It is manifesting a far more intelligent and dangerous aura than the club user she just killed in a single blow.
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Author's Note:
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