What’s going on with her left hand? Lightning? Is that the angel bolt?
With a name like that, it’s too dangerous to let her use it.
[Weight of the Moon]
Oh! Here’s the Ogre one! I need to get rid of the small ones first.
[Celestial Pull]
[Repulsion]
That’s one… Wait, it survived?! And the light… That’s her healing skill? How many is she using at once?! What is thiiiiiis???!!!
Looking at her stamina going down by a point, Astelia started sweating.
This is going to be a problem.
Sofia tried to heal the skeleton Templar embedded in the wall to help it survive until [Sanctified grounds] was up. That did not work as Astelia grabbed the second templar that had barely stood up and sent it crashing into the first one. The already injured skeleton turned back to mist and the other came crashing down to the ground.
Right then, the ground lit up in holy light. With the two area spells creating light, it was bright as day in the open sky arena. The third Templar that had been charging up his [Light severance] finally fired it.
The slash of light closed in on the young girl, only to get waved off and sent crashing into a wall.
So she can also do that…
Six more seconds…
Sofia was going all out, multitasking with her skills, she was also healing the Templar down on the ground. The other Templar that had just attacked switched to casting buff skills on Pareth. And Pareth, whose area skill had finally gone off, rushed toward the vampire, shining light greatsword in hand.
The ogre closed in on Astelia, who tried to use her [Repulsion] on him, barely managing to make him flinch.
Pareth has [Higher magical damage negation], [Space magic resilience], and [Displacement skills immunity]. He’s a complete counter to a space mage like her.
Astelia was visibly surprised at the inefficacy of her attack, looking panicked, she floated back and multiple human-sized pink swords with green edges appeared, starting to orbit around her.
These are all orichalcum blades with mithril edges?! A single one of those swords had to be worth tens of thousands of gold just in minerals, and she has four!
Two of the blades swung in a circular arc toward Pareth, he blocked the one coming from the left with his sword, and the right one with his four [Flying shields of light], three of them shattering on impact and the last one finally stopping the flying sword.
There was nothing he could do as a third sword came for his legs. The impact did not sever his leg but it left a deep cut and sent cracks running through it, shaving off an insane thirty-four thousand health points.
Three seconds.
The vampire tried to fly around Pareth, deciding to rush at Sofia as she saw the lightning bolt forming. The two Templars still in the fight jumped at her to pin her down, but were blown away with a swing of Astelia’s hand, both crashing into the wall again, though with minimal damage.
Pareth took the opportunity to finally attack, the swords of the girl were still on their way back to her, not ready to be used again. She stopped Pareth’s blade with a wave of her hand, once, twice, thrice. Her concentration wavered as Pareth’s [Chains of the four seals] appeared around her.
Pareth’s sword split the vampire oracle in half at the waist. Astelia screamed. Red blood flew for the first time through the arena, catching on fire as it sprayed out. The injury on the separated parts of the vampire similarly burst up in flames, before snapping back together like two magnets.
Sofia’s skeletons reeled back from the explosion produced by Astelia’s forceful healing. Not waiting for a second, the girl used [Celestial pull] to grab the two Templars again, and sent them crashing into Pareth, managing to keep him away as she flew toward Sofia, her four blades now ready.
It’s time.
Sofia released the lightning bolt, sending it through the legendary [Midenicite catalyst] as it launched forward.
It was a direct hit. The explosion took over the whole arena, sending everyone including Sofia and her skeletons crashing against the walls.
She had lost sight of the vampire but there was no murder notification, so she had thankfully survived. Sofia had tested her bolt on Pareth and knew it only had about forty thousand damage points worth of power in it. Which was already mind-numbing numbers but nowhere near enough to take down the two-hundred thousand health points strong oracle.
As the first burst of the explosion cleared out, leaving the arena covered in blue flames, Sofia saw the girl, now grounded but still standing. She was bleeding all over and on fire from head to toe.
At this point, Sofia was unsure of what to do. Should I call it off here? But she kept her guard up.
The vampire girl disappeared.
Did I win?
Sofia felt wild mana movements behind her. She turned around and lashed out with the Spine, triggering a Solar burst as the whip hit Astelia across the face.
The four flying swords closed in on Sofia.
Pareth appeared between the two, stopping one, two, then three swords with wild swings of his own. But as he went to stop the last, the vampire disappeared again, reappearing on top of Pareth’s shoulder, holding his arm in place. Despite his best efforts, Pareth couldn’t move at all under the clutches of the flaming girl.
Sofia tried to dodge the last sword that Pareth had let through, not confident in her ability to parry it. She even emptied a large part of her bone storage in the way in a desperate attempt to stop the blade.
There was nothing she could do as the sword’s trajectory corrected itself to go after her. Held down by the girl, Pareth couldn’t even move, let alone teleport.
Fuck.
The sword pierced straight through Sofia’s heart.
Gasping, Sofia saw her health drop down to the low hundreds, then the scenery around her changed to a cushioned room with walls fully covered in ritual circles. The sword was no longer in her torso and the wound was closing by itself, her health slowly rising. Until Pareth appeared next to her and she was instantly back to full health thanks to [Greater Heal].
She got teleported again, back to the arena. The flames from her attack were already dying down. Astelia was also healing back up, on all fours on the ground. She was heaving loudly and spitting blood, but no longer on fire. An empty potion vial was rolling on the ground under her.
“Hey, are you okay, Astel?”
“...”
Astelia said nothing, breathing a few more times. She closed her eyes and let herself fall flat on the ground, her blades collapsing around her as well. “I win…” she mumbled, giving a weak thumb-up to Sofia as she passed out in exhaustion.
“You sure did…”
Sofia walked up to the collapsed girl, she was going to pick her up, but was interrupted by the footsteps of the level 300+ ‘butler’, Agran. “I shall take care of this. Beautiful fight, I hope you do not mind me watching, it is my duty to look after her.”
“As long as what we said in the salon was private.”
“Of course, far from me the idea of making the young lady lie. I have only come to supervise you when the alarm circles informed me that she had entered the arena,” the pale vampire answered as he gently picked Astelia up.
“Alarm circles?”
“These,” he answered, a finger pointing at two small ritual circles around the Arena’s door. “They alert me of people’s movements around the castle.” Shifting the girl around in his arms to make sure she laid in a comfortable position, the man led the way out.
Sofia followed, “Does she collapse like this often?”
“Not too often anymore. It used to be a common occurrence. Such power at her age and yet so little endurance, it is painfully easy to imagine how that went. She has developed a calmer personality over the years.”
“She does seem very mature for her age.”
“We all think so. A pity. It is the burden she bears, too great a potential deprived her of a normal youth. Yours was a tragic childhood as well, my condolences.”
That stunned Sofia for a second.
Saria…
She took another step forward and kept walking.
“Let’s… Not talk about that, please.”
It was the man’s turn to stop in his tracks. He lightly coughed. “My apologies. Then, perhaps you feel curious about something? Please feel free to ask if there is anything on your mind.”
“Then… Can you explain why, as she bled, Astelia’s blood set itself on fire?”
“This is merely a Vampire’s lot. As I understand, you conducted a status exchange with the lady?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must have seen it, the [Blood Curse]. It does not manifest in the same way for all Vampires, it offers both good and bad effects, which are passed down from a mother to her children. You may have a look at mine, as an apology… for this eventful night.”
What’s going on with her left hand? Lightning? Is that the angel bolt?
With a name like that, it’s too dangerous to let her use it.
[Weight of the Moon]
Oh! Here’s the Ogre one! I need to get rid of the small ones first.
[Celestial Pull]
[Repulsion]
That’s one… Wait, it survived?! And the light… That’s her healing skill? How many is she using at once?! What is thiiiiiis???!!!
Looking at her stamina going down by a point, Astelia started sweating.
This is going to be a problem.
Sofia tried to heal the skeleton Templar embedded in the wall to help it survive until [Sanctified grounds] was up. That did not work as Astelia grabbed the second templar that had barely stood up and sent it crashing into the first one. The already injured skeleton turned back to mist and the other came crashing down to the ground.
Right then, the ground lit up in holy light. With the two area spells creating light, it was bright as day in the open sky arena. The third Templar that had been charging up his [Light severance] finally fired it.
The slash of light closed in on the young girl, only to get waved off and sent crashing into a wall.
So she can also do that…
Six more seconds…
Sofia was going all out, multitasking with her skills, she was also healing the Templar down on the ground. The other Templar that had just attacked switched to casting buff skills on Pareth. And Pareth, whose area skill had finally gone off, rushed toward the vampire, shining light greatsword in hand.
The ogre closed in on Astelia, who tried to use her [Repulsion] on him, barely managing to make him flinch.
Pareth has [Higher magical damage negation], [Space magic resilience], and [Displacement skills immunity]. He’s a complete counter to a space mage like her.
Astelia was visibly surprised at the inefficacy of her attack, looking panicked, she floated back and multiple human-sized pink swords with green edges appeared, starting to orbit around her.
These are all orichalcum blades with mithril edges?! A single one of those swords had to be worth tens of thousands of gold just in minerals, and she has four!
Two of the blades swung in a circular arc toward Pareth, he blocked the one coming from the left with his sword, and the right one with his four [Flying shields of light], three of them shattering on impact and the last one finally stopping the flying sword.
There was nothing he could do as a third sword came for his legs. The impact did not sever his leg but it left a deep cut and sent cracks running through it, shaving off an insane thirty-four thousand health points.
Three seconds.
The vampire tried to fly around Pareth, deciding to rush at Sofia as she saw the lightning bolt forming. The two Templars still in the fight jumped at her to pin her down, but were blown away with a swing of Astelia’s hand, both crashing into the wall again, though with minimal damage.
Pareth took the opportunity to finally attack, the swords of the girl were still on their way back to her, not ready to be used again. She stopped Pareth’s blade with a wave of her hand, once, twice, thrice. Her concentration wavered as Pareth’s [Chains of the four seals] appeared around her.
Pareth’s sword split the vampire oracle in half at the waist. Astelia screamed. Red blood flew for the first time through the arena, catching on fire as it sprayed out. The injury on the separated parts of the vampire similarly burst up in flames, before snapping back together like two magnets.
Sofia’s skeletons reeled back from the explosion produced by Astelia’s forceful healing. Not waiting for a second, the girl used [Celestial pull] to grab the two Templars again, and sent them crashing into Pareth, managing to keep him away as she flew toward Sofia, her four blades now ready.
It’s time.
Sofia released the lightning bolt, sending it through the legendary [Midenicite catalyst] as it launched forward.
It was a direct hit. The explosion took over the whole arena, sending everyone including Sofia and her skeletons crashing against the walls.
She had lost sight of the vampire but there was no murder notification, so she had thankfully survived. Sofia had tested her bolt on Pareth and knew it only had about forty thousand damage points worth of power in it. Which was already mind-numbing numbers but nowhere near enough to take down the two-hundred thousand health points strong oracle.
As the first burst of the explosion cleared out, leaving the arena covered in blue flames, Sofia saw the girl, now grounded but still standing. She was bleeding all over and on fire from head to toe.
At this point, Sofia was unsure of what to do. Should I call it off here? But she kept her guard up.
The vampire girl disappeared.
Did I win?
Sofia felt wild mana movements behind her. She turned around and lashed out with the Spine, triggering a Solar burst as the whip hit Astelia across the face.
The four flying swords closed in on Sofia.
Pareth appeared between the two, stopping one, two, then three swords with wild swings of his own. But as he went to stop the last, the vampire disappeared again, reappearing on top of Pareth’s shoulder, holding his arm in place. Despite his best efforts, Pareth couldn’t move at all under the clutches of the flaming girl.
Sofia tried to dodge the last sword that Pareth had let through, not confident in her ability to parry it. She even emptied a large part of her bone storage in the way in a desperate attempt to stop the blade.
There was nothing she could do as the sword’s trajectory corrected itself to go after her. Held down by the girl, Pareth couldn’t even move, let alone teleport.
Fuck.
The sword pierced straight through Sofia’s heart.
Gasping, Sofia saw her health drop down to the low hundreds, then the scenery around her changed to a cushioned room with walls fully covered in ritual circles. The sword was no longer in her torso and the wound was closing by itself, her health slowly rising. Until Pareth appeared next to her and she was instantly back to full health thanks to [Greater Heal].
She got teleported again, back to the arena. The flames from her attack were already dying down. Astelia was also healing back up, on all fours on the ground. She was heaving loudly and spitting blood, but no longer on fire. An empty potion vial was rolling on the ground under her.
“Hey, are you okay, Astel?”
“...”
Astelia said nothing, breathing a few more times. She closed her eyes and let herself fall flat on the ground, her blades collapsing around her as well. “I win…” she mumbled, giving a weak thumb-up to Sofia as she passed out in exhaustion.
“You sure did…”
Sofia walked up to the collapsed girl, she was going to pick her up, but was interrupted by the footsteps of the level 300+ ‘butler’, Agran. “I shall take care of this. Beautiful fight, I hope you do not mind me watching, it is my duty to look after her.”
“As long as what we said in the salon was private.”
“Of course, far from me the idea of making the young lady lie. I have only come to supervise you when the alarm circles informed me that she had entered the arena,” the pale vampire answered as he gently picked Astelia up.
“Alarm circles?”
“These,” he answered, a finger pointing at two small ritual circles around the Arena’s door. “They alert me of people’s movements around the castle.” Shifting the girl around in his arms to make sure she laid in a comfortable position, the man led the way out.
Sofia followed, “Does she collapse like this often?”
“Not too often anymore. It used to be a common occurrence. Such power at her age and yet so little endurance, it is painfully easy to imagine how that went. She has developed a calmer personality over the years.”
“She does seem very mature for her age.”
“We all think so. A pity. It is the burden she bears, too great a potential deprived her of a normal youth. Yours was a tragic childhood as well, my condolences.”
That stunned Sofia for a second.
Saria…
She took another step forward and kept walking.
“Let’s… Not talk about that, please.”
It was the man’s turn to stop in his tracks. He lightly coughed. “My apologies. Then, perhaps you feel curious about something? Please feel free to ask if there is anything on your mind.”
“Then… Can you explain why, as she bled, Astelia’s blood set itself on fire?”
“This is merely a Vampire’s lot. As I understand, you conducted a status exchange with the lady?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must have seen it, the [Blood Curse]. It does not manifest in the same way for all Vampires, it offers both good and bad effects, which are passed down from a mother to her children. You may have a look at mine, as an apology… for this eventful night.”
