บท 117: Laser
Being the first one to be hit in this fight so far and with his neck still twisted at one hundred and eighty degrees, things didn't look great for Axiolypito.
'What are my options?' He may have thought that he didn't know of a way to bring the Old Hadal King down but that wasn't quite the truth, more so that he didn't see his ideas working out.
This adversary wasn't like the Abyss Eater, a trained mage of his caliber wouldn't even be affected by Axio's illusions, for that to work he would have to place them way in advance and focus on making them better for a long, long while.
He had no such preparations here.
He looked at the entrance of the room, where he had come from, this wasn't the first time he glanced in that direction and the sight was the same, the door had shut and the craftmanship wouln't allow even his slippery self to get past it, there were no gaps.
He knew his own cards well, so his focus was placed on the hand on the king, he hadn't revealed all of his own cards for certain but he had shown a few still.
His authority over the surroundings.
The sheer pressure of his water magic.
His control over currents of incredible power.
Exploding droplets that sent what was pretty much water shrapnels.
Homing water slashes.
The water he had glided upon.
His barrier that could shred abyssal creatures like they were wet paper.
And lastly, his fighting skills up close.
It was already a lot and that was without mentioning the fact the he could cast spells from everywhere in the room.
He hadn't even began using multiple spells at once, he had only been testing Axiolypito, gauging him, probably wanting to get a better idea of his Abyss powers.
Axio hadn't shown much of it either, not by choice but because he had no reason to, he only had a few usage for it, three of them were useless right now, four in fact were, as the barrier blocked all of the blood.
The last one... He had an idea for it.
At the moment, he had no chance to put anything into motion as he thought the mage's eyes glowed brighter for a moment, nothing but his imagination thinking that as his instincts warned him of something.
The hadal king had been holding his staff in a reverse grip when he had stabbed it at Axio, in a moment, he switched his hold around to pull his staff back with greater ease.
Turning his neck back in the right position, it wasn't hard to see why his instincts felt that it was appropriate to be worried, growing from the bloody tip of the staff, made out of the same deadly water as the barrier, a blade that looked very much like a scythe had appeared with its sharp side staring right at him.
Without thinking he shrank, avoiding the loss of his head and immediately began running around the king.
The king had decided to step up his game, as he glided around, it was quite troubling to see someone move around like this, the man's legs stayed completely still but was zipping around the place.
He only moved once the monster was within his range, no longer simply using his body and weapon augmented by the barrier, he could grow claws from his hands at a moment's notice.
When he missed, the claws detached and began flying at his target as they turned into the water blades from earlier.
His staff was no longer limited in its attacks, as with the water, it could gain the parts of other weapons entirely, making evading close-up attacks somehow more difficult than the ranged ones.
Axiolypito retreated further from the mage, using the fact that he could change his direction any time he wanted to prevent having to deal with the king's staff, being more fond of the exploding droplets and slashes.
He tried to use the pillars to his advantage, the spells had no trouble going around that, so it really only was effective to put even more distance between them.
The Old Hadal King ended up stopping at some point, which only made Axio focus even more, knowing that something was up.
The time between the king coming to a halt and the instant he used his next spell was minuscule, most of the so-called 'elites' of various sorts wouldn't have even noticed him doing either of those before it was casted.
Barely visible, Axiolypito noticed a thin line, probably no thicker than some string from a small spider, heading straight for the spot in between his eyes.
Knowing that his size manipulation wouldn't be quick enough for this one, he arched his spine backwards, narrowly evading the spell, then without turning around, simply twisting his limbs, he rushed away as the laser of water followed.
Cutting through the pillars with intricate precision but stopping just before hitting the walls.
The condensed stream of water was coming from the mace head of the staff and just as he noticed that, two thoughts went through his mind in quick succession, the second disregarging the first before it was too late.
'The spell needs to be casted directly from the staff'
'That's a trick, he can surely cast it from anywhere just like the rest'
His quick thinking saving his life but still costing him his other ears, in its entirety this time as another laser came from right behind him and then many others.
Having to dodge all of this without being able to leave the ground was difficult but not impossible for him, he had to give up on some little bits of flesh but he was still alive when it stopped.
The Old Hadal King had noticed how Axio was growing more accustomed as time went on, before he was fully used to this particular spell, he stopped it, keeping it for later.
The two of them stared each other down without doing anything.
What was going to happen next?
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