NOVEL NEXT 183 – Lord of the Titans vs Assassin Duo
Chapter 183 - Lord of the Titans vs Assassin Duo
Nathan Evenhart:
I launched an elemental blade toward the girl, the air hissing with the sheer force of the attack.
"You're pretty bold!" the man shouted, a wild grin spreading across his face as I landed back on the ground, readying myself for the next move. I glanced at the sword in my hand, feeling its familiar coldness and sharpness.
It’s not the Cursed Blade, but it'll do.
The man lunged forward with brutal force, swinging a massive axe at me with impressive speed. I raised my sword to block, and the impact felt like the weight of thunder.
"You really want to kill me!" I taunted, maintaining a firm stance as our eyes locked.
"I WILL kill you!" he roared, his strength fueled by seething hatred.
"Marvelous!" I replied, a smile breaking across my face. "I’ll match your level. Don’t worry, this is going to be fun." The thrill of real combat burned through my veins.
The man attacked with renewed fury, the axe cleaving through the air so forcefully that the ground beneath us trembled. Suddenly, a stone pillar erupted beneath my feet, launching me skyward. He followed immediately, swinging the axe toward me while three stone spikes shot up to impale me from behind.
A trap? I thought, adrenaline pumping hard. This guy is bold.
I was in free fall, with the axe closing in rapidly and the spikes nearly upon me.
Does he think he’s grounded my mobility by getting me off the ground?
I channeled all my wind mana, making it flow like a torrent within me. I thinned the wind armor around my body, making it more volatile, while gathering internal strength to shatter my own defenses.
The axe’s blade was inches from striking, and the spikes were almost piercing my back.
I closed my eyes, letting only the wind guide my movements.
So this is how you did it that day?
In a split second, I spun furiously in mid-air, propelling myself into a cyclone-like rotation. I unleashed all the wind pressure trapped inside me, deactivating my mana armor.
‘BAM!’ A devastating burst of wind erupted in all directions, scattering the stone spikes and axe. The 360-degree wind blast kept me suspended momentarily. I saw the man being thrown back, struck by the concentrated force of the wind explosion that emanated from me.
“Damn it!” he cursed, struggling to recover as he fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
I landed softly and pointed my sword at him. “That was a technique I copied from an elf who calls herself the Goddess of Battle,” I taunted, a cold smile forming on my face.
He rose, his gaze now burning with pure rage, and charged again, swinging the axe with bestial strength while launching a barrage of stone-spike balls at me.
I rushed toward him, bursting wind blasts to deflect the incoming spikes that came in waves.
"You're using another damned element?" he asked, surprise evident in his voice.
"I am!" I replied with a bold grin, spinning my sword and releasing a bolt of lightning that cut through the air toward him.
He quickly raised an earthen wall to shield himself from the attack.
"Too slow!" I mocked, but a chill shot down my spine as I sensed something behind me. A stealthy strike was about to land.
I instinctively swung my sword, deflecting the attack and redirecting it to the side.
The woman was thrown back by the impact, momentarily losing her balance from the force of my block.
Clever! I thought, but my attention quickly shifted to the sky. A rain of fiery arrows began to pour down toward me, each one leaving a blazing trail in its wake.
I leapt to dodge, running across the battlefield as more fiery arrows fell around me.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions echoed through the forest, turning the area into a chaotic scene of fire and destruction.
The fire arrows detonated all around me as I dodged them, each move calculated with deadly precision, my eyes locked on every detail of the battlefield.
"You really intend to kill me? It’d be a shame if the fire left me unrecognizable," I taunted, keeping my tone calm and mocking as I weaved through the burning trees amidst the chaos.
“That’s not a problem! We’ll heal your damn corpse with a healing potion, just to make you look nice for your funeral!” the earth mage retorted, his voice filled with fury and determination.
"Wow, you really thought of everything..." I replied with a cynical smile, dodging more fire blasts and the stone spikes raining from above. Adrenaline surged through my veins as my mind frantically analyzed the patterns of their attacks. I was trying to understand their reactions, their techniques, and any opening that could give me an advantage. But as mages, their movements were chaotic, unpredictable, and deadly.
With these guys, I can’t afford to play around. For the first time in a long while, I feel like I’m in real danger...
A brief laugh escaped me as I continued to dodge the explosions, using the terrain to my advantage. Each of my movements intensified the battle.
This just makes it more fun.
I rolled to dodge a giant stone blade and threw myself backward, using a tree as cover. The female assassin appeared above me, moving with the grace of a predator. She spun her leg in a powerful kick.
I raised a wind barrier to block the attack, but she conjured a cloud of fire that engulfed my defense. I was forced to retreat, leaping back and creating a cyclone that sucked in the flames. The intense heat scorched part of my arm.
“Keeping silent, are we?” I asked, provoking her as she leaped toward me with daggers drawn. I deflected the blow with my sword, the clash echoing in the air.
"I’m working here, excuse me if I can’t chat," she replied coldly, her tone focused.
“What a cheeky brat…” I commented, dodging a blade coming my way.
'Clink!' Our swords clashed, sparks flying from the impact.
“Brat? I’m older than you!” she retorted, quickly ducking and spinning to try to sweep my legs with a kick.
I propelled myself with the wind, leaping gracefully and landing in front of her. “No. I’m way older. From my perspective, everyone’s just a kid,” I teased, watching a mix of confusion and fury flash in her eyes.
Suddenly, ‘BAM!’ Several stone columns erupted from the ground around us, reshaping the forest into a chaotic scene of destruction, with trees being ripped apart like twigs.
The earth mage is up to something dangerous, I thought, my senses on high alert.
A massive figure suddenly emerged, charging toward us. The girl quickly placed her hands on the ground and propelled herself with a burst of fire, increasing her speed in the air.
Damn...
A huge ball of spikes was hurtling toward me, its sheer force making the air vibrate.
“Lightning Beam!” I shouted, channeling all the power of thunder into my hand and firing a straight beam of lightning. The ball of spikes exploded into a shower of fragments, but before I could celebrate, something unexpected happened.
"SURPRISE!" the earth mage emerged from the ball of stone, his axe in hand, ready for a brutal strike.
I tried to block with my elbow, but my wind barrier failed, and the blow landed on my wrist, sending a wave of excruciating pain through my arm. Using the centrifugal force of the blade, I spun my body and dodged to the side, propelling myself backward and landing among the trees.
"Oh, you hid inside the stone ball?" I asked, slowly rising. "Bold move..."
For a moment, I realized just how close I had come to losing my arm. I glanced at my bleeding wrist and immediately used thunder to cauterize the wound. The pain was intense, but necessary.
As I caught my breath, I noticed something strange. The earth mage was approaching again, but his form was subtly changing.
He's got more tricks up his sleeve.
His body began to expand grotesquely, as a massive stone armor enveloped his torso and limbs. The layers of rock fused with his muscles, creating jagged and angular protrusions, as if the earth itself was molding around him. Sharp stone spikes emerged from his shoulders, arms, and back, each one pulsating with raw mana, like stakes ready to impale anything in their path.
He grew taller, assuming a monstrous form, his muscles enhanced and coated by stone plates that resembled a living fortress. Only his face remained exposed, his eyes burning with cruel intensity, locked onto me like those of a relentless predator.
With a deep, thunderous roar, he gripped the axe in one hand, now even more massive in his monstrous form, as if the weight of the weapon was a natural extension of his newfound strength. His left arm transformed into a gigantic stone blade, covered in sharp, irregular spikes.
"This is my special forbidden spell," he announced, his voice echoing like an avalanche. "I call it 'Stone Beast Form.'"
His presence became overwhelming, a brutal fusion of flesh and rock that radiated crushing, primal power. Each step made the ground tremble, the cracks widening with every movement, while the axe in his right hand glinted with raw menace.
“Looks like this is going to be a bit more complicated than I expected…” I muttered, bracing myself for what was to come.