NOVEL NEXT Chapter 442: Checkmate?
The more they clashed, the faster Lillian ran out of her dashes.
Fortunately, it was only a single-minute cooldown. However, just that singular minute would be able to decide the result of this battle.
Luckily, she was able to last long enough to regain her dashes.
And as the battle went on, the more frantic the once indifferent Jungle Lord became, for like Lillian, it too had begun to accumulate damage.
Even worse, it wasn't able to increase the speed at which it was moving.
Because...
It had already long reached that limit.
Some people like Lillian, who had indulged in the joys of gaming, would even describe the Jungle Lord's situation as...
Capping its speed.
Like anyone engaged in an intense battle, Lillian had already devised a plan on how to get the Jungle Lord to bring out its second phase.
The Jungle Lord, enraged by the countless shallow cuts that slowly appeared on its body, dashed back—intending to increase the distance between him and Lillian, which he now saw as an irritating rodent that didn't leave it alone.
And that was exactly what Lillian did, she didn't leave it alone, even when it dashed back—for she had preemptively activated her last [Riptide Dash] for this moment, as though she was expecting it.
As Lillian's body shot forward, gliding over the surface of the 2-inch-tall water beneath her feet, the outer edges of her vision began to blur as she drew back her arm for a stab—a [Focus Stab] to be specific.
She was aiming for the centre of its chest.
The Jungle Lord sensed the attack coming and felt the change in Lillian's aura.
With its eyes, it watched as the mana around Lillian's body changed.
Her mana became dull, but as sharp as a sword.
Her mana became smooth, but as pointy as a spear.
It also gave off the impression that this attack would be a fatal one, especially at the speed she was reaching.
The Jungle Lord, in the span of a few dozen milliseconds, held up the flatside of its battle axe in front of itself as a makeshift shield.
However, it would then readjust its actions, finding that dodging would be the more optimal approach rather than blocking.
From its earlier clashes, it had concluded that the strange ability that Lillian had been using to momentarily match its speed—and barely match its strength—had a duration of a few seconds.
By avoiding Lillian's obvious stab, it should be able to hastily counterattack and behead her with its axe.
After deciding its sequence of actions, the Jungle Lord leapt back—intending to get out of reach of Lillian's attack before feeling its back press up against something hard.
Its beast-like instincts caused it to tense and stiffen.
What was it that caused it to react in such a way?
Quickly flashing a glance back, the Jungle Lord realised that... It was now up against the wall of its arena.
While the walls of its arena weren't simple or plain by any means, something like it shouldn't cause it to react negatively...
But it knew why.
It was because it was now open to Lillian's attack!
As it was about to dodge to the right, it was met with the sight of a monstrous head made out of water charging towards it.
And this was the same to its left as well.
It was locked in from all sides! Left, right, and front!
And all of this... Was all because of Lillian's ingenious planning.
Although she couldn't truly make use of her memory to anticipate its attack style/patterns, she could definitely make use of her knowledge about its behaviours.
She knew about the Jungle Lord's apprehension of being injured and used it against itself by forcing their battles closer and closer to the walls of the arena.
And she also knew that it would try to escape, given that such a blatant and simple stab from her should be within its scope of what it could avoid.
So, as a countermeasure, she needed to prevent it from escaping by locking it in between two liquid heads inspired by the Twin-headed Seawater Leviathan.
You may now be asking, why didn't she use her earring's enchantment to conjure plasma ones instead of creating water ones?
That was because...
She was saving them for a much more dire situation.
Time slowed down as she watched the Jungle Lord tilt its head towards the sky.
Was it thinking about jumping upwards to avoid her stab?
She smiled inwardly.
'It won't work.'
Lillian knew for a fact that it would take more than just a few dozen milliseconds for it to jump high enough to fully avoid her attack.
And even if it did manage to leap high enough, she would just control her water constructs to chase after it, since it would be more vulnerable midair.
But!
That would only happen if it were given enough time to initiate such a leap.
From Lillian's current distance between her and the Jungle Lord, she would have already arrived by the time it could even get an inch off the ground!
And that was the same if it were to be able to destroy one of the two heads charging towards it!
This was...
'Checkmate!'
The Jungle Lord, realising it had very few options of escape, let out an enraged and distorted roar as it finally decided on its move against her attack.
It raised its battle-axe as a shield and then stabbed out in retaliation with its spear—all of this happening in a blur.
SWIP!
Lillian widened her eyes as she quickly turned her body to the left and managed to dodge the spear that would've pierced through her entire right chest.
However, she couldn't say she dodged it fully as she felt the stone spearhead pierce through the side of her lower abdomen.
Her eyes turned bloodshot at the pain as she felt her body immediately heat up.
Gritting her teeth, Lillian pushed on with her attack and shot her arm forward with all of her might.
And pierced through the stone battle-axe, which was seemingly indestructible from previous clashes.
Her shortsword punctured a hole through the battle axe and pierced through the chest of the Jungle Lord—destroying its heart—while the two monstrous heads from the side crashed into its body like a tidal wave, biting into the Jungle Lord.
And in turn...
Causing the awakening of the monster's second phase.