As he took off to return back to the city, something stopped him dead in his tracks.
It was the head of the witch speaking to him.
“It’s not over yet, Nuon.”
This was the first time she had spoken and acknowledged his name.
“Turn around.”
Everything felt off. As if the shattering of reality was taking place. He saw the entire scene in slow motion and full of static. Slowly turning around, he saw the body that was previously knocked over, standing up.
Furthermore, from the neck up, all the details were being reconstructed. In a matter of 5 seconds, her entire head was back and the thing he held in his hand had died.
What is this?
Nuon was completely taken aback. Out of all his missions, this was the first time that he had ever witnessed this.- No, this was the only time he had even heard of something like this.
Demon it is then.
Fusha cracked her neck a couple times and stretched. “What kind of technique was that? I didn’t even see it coming. I’m impressed actually!”
She grinned.
Nuon switched out his daggers and pulled out a silver blade. This one was created with the purpose of relinquishing dark aligned creatures. It was even imbued with holy enchantments. If this woman was truly a demon, she won’t survive this next strike.
This time however, he did not cast the [Spirit of Former] spell. Instead, he got into a pose.
“Say your prayers demon.”
Manipulation Magic [Instant Pinnacle].
Out of all the adventurers thus far within the guild, Nuon was known for how quickly he finished his missions. This was due to this specific technique, [Instant Pinnacle].
Though Nuon was of a warrior build, he was born with an abnormal amount of aura. Thus, he placed all his focus outside of body building, on body enhancement techniques- Manipulation magic.
Manipulation magic worked by attaching an extreme amount of aura to different objects to increase their potential.
Unlike Mimicry, it does not change the body of things outside of adding aura to an individual. Rather, it simply changed the potential of an object with the amount of added aura to it. In short, one could change a butter knife, to the efficiency of a guillotine.
In this way, Nuon utilized manipulation magic on his own body, focusing all the aura to various important muscles on his body. By maximizing the muscles with ALL his energy for just a single moment.
This moment took place again, flying through and cleaving Fusha’s body in half, 6 inches above her waist.
He hadn’t casted manipulation on the silver blade for a single reason- to deal the full damage that silver does amongst dark aligned beings. The first time around, though stronger, the blade of his dagger never touched her. It was the aura around his blade that decapitated her.
This wasn’t the end of his assault. As Lusha’s body flew back, he sped up to catch up to the upper torso.
His silver dagger was launched, cleaving straight through her heart. Still refusing to end his onslaught, he had caught up to the body and grabbed onto it just as the knife had hit. His enormous hands grabbed her head, and with a small burst of strength, he had crushed her skull.
Blood and brain matter splattered all over his armor. This time for sure, the match was over. To be truthful, Nuon had hated blood. He wore red armor to minimize his ability to recognize it all over his body.
Having stabbed her through the heart with a silver blade, a demon’s body usually would disappear. Yet this one did not. Strange.
Perhaps I was fooled by illusion magic the first time around….
Nuon had quite a bit of trouble dealing with mind or sense altering magic. He actually was not even sure that he did not fall for it this time around.
He watched the scene carefully, awaiting to confirm if there was anything off with the events.
A moment of silence passed before, just as his suspicion was decreasing, it arose all the way back up.
The woman was reforming. That was instant Death! How she could have survived that still perplexed her.
In a matter of seconds, he saw the bones, the muscle and the flesh reform on her as she regenerated herself.
This was a feat that not even the greatest of healers could perform.
“…. Nuon.” Lusha spoke.
“You possess fine talent as a warrior. But I do believe that it is now time you stop playing around with me.”
“Only once you do so, will I stop playing these games with you.” She flared her energy intensely.
Nuon was one that held a tremendous amount of aura, but in the face of this much aura, he quickly realized, this woman was not how he had expected.
“I see… you were holding back..”
“Yes, as were you.” she replied.
“If you truly wish to defeat me, you’d have to use your strongest ability.”
Lusha prepared both her water and fire style techniques, charging them up far greater than she did at the guild hall.
Elemental Magic [Luck of the Water God], Elemental Magic [Anger of the Fire God].
She furthered this with one more technique Elemental Magic [Breath of the Wind God].
These four spells shook the battlefield. A torrent of wind, stirred everything nearby. The flames heated all in the area, and the water singed from the flames, spewing a torrent of mist 30 meters around her being.
Nuon smiled underneath his helm. Perhaps this was the kind of interest he was looking for. If she was truly using the pinnacle of her strength, perhaps this was the occasion to do so.
“Manipulation Magic [Absolute Pinnacle].”
He knew for certain this time that this was no illusion. There’s not a magic caster alive who could utilize 3 different techniques, while also maintaining their illusion spell. It took too much concentration for the human brain.
[Absolute Pinnacle] was a technique invented by himself, allowing him to convert every last ounce of his mana into physical energy. His body would be enhanced beyond capability, of course, this was not without great cost.With this much energy, his body could not even contain the enhancement of muscles and his armor began to chip off in various places.
Lusha blasted forward the fireball at Nuon. It was faster than he expected and collided directly with him, causing a huge explosion. However, when Lusha had checked the aftermath, what remained was Nuon’s after image.
Something was going wrong. Nuon was moving way faster than imaginable. After that afterimage trailed off, she was hit with a tremendous amount of force, sending her flying back several hundred meters.
This man…. Was too fast.
What’s worse, was that, when she had gotten hit, she was just then perceiving the still-standing afterimage as moving only one single step. One could surmise that she must have been punched various seconds ago.
300 meters later, Lusha had managed to focus her stability and gather enough counterforce to stop herself.
“Wrong. This assault is not over.”
Yet again, sending her launching a completely different direction was Nuon’s kick, knocking her to another 60 meters to the left.
With the amount of strength he put into that one, she would have gone much further, but the one that stopped her was none other than Nuon herself. Both the silver blade and steel blade cleaver in each hand, the amount of force he exerted as he pummeled her into the ground was incredulous.
With each movement, he shattered the ground and rendered her flesh to various individual pieces.
Immense speed and strength huh…what a dangerous combo. If I had known this I would have never…. I would have never..-
Whatever thought she was thinking was mute. She had died yet again.
Nuon however, was very much intent on utilizing his all.
This scenario did not bode well.
