"That's…" Angele immediately realized what was happening. After all, he had seen this kind of situation several times already. "Concept gear?!"
Green light appeared on him, and he could now move again. He wasted no time in aiming at the woman's head in retaliation.
Bam!
An explosion of light occurred between the two. The large axe landed on Angele's forehead, causing him to be blown away. Making good use of this chance, the woman successfully leaped away.
The woman was so fast Angele failed to see what she just did. He felt dizzy after taking on the attack.
"Didn't expect you to know about concept gear," the woman slowly walked toward Angele with the axe in tow, "However, you're up against a person who not only knows about concept gears… You will lose and never touch upon the secrets of the cores."
Weng!
She lifted the axe up high.
"It's over. Fissure of Despair!"
As if it was just a normal strike, she chopped down.
Intense light streaked in the air, engulfing all things within its encompa.s.sing area.
In the secret chamber.
"That's it. Fissure of Despair has a similar damage output to a spell cast by a rank 4 wizard. The damage it can do is terrifying," the female voice echoed in the room.
"I don't think Swordsman can withstand the attack from a concept gear even if his body is strong," another black shadow sighed and chimed in, "Sadly, if it wasn't Hunter who had invaded this rift, Swordsman would have won easily. He's just unlucky."
The two other black shadows shook their heads, too.
"Yeah, there wasn't much he could do."
"What do you think, Descartes?" one of them looked at the one who hadn't given their opinion.
Descartes was that man who thought that Swordsman would not lose so easily.
He was focused on the screen. Although white light had covered the broadcast image, it seemed he could see through it.
"I think Swordsman is still in. I trust him."
"Huh?" the other looked surprised upon listening to his reaction.
"Let's just watch how it goes. The winner is either Swordsman or Hunter. They have so many complete cores on them, and the only thing we need to do is to wait. The rule is simple — the wizard who carries the highest number of cores will win," Descartes spoke in a meaningful tone.
It was still amid the explosion of light, and the earth was continually shaking. The river water had evaporated, revealing a dried-up riverbed. The mud, gra.s.s, and rocks had all since disintegrated before the white light.
Several minutes later, the light faded away.
What remained at Angele's original location was a deep, dark fissure.
The woman stood beside the fissure and took a look, but there was nothing but darkness there.
"He must be severely injured, or dead." Holding up her right hand, the axe transformed into a streak of light and vanished.
"Tals!"
The white plate reappeared behind her and spun. A rune flashed and flew into her hand, turning into a white longbow — the same bow she wielded earlier.
"Arrow of Light." The woman lightly pulled the bowstring.
The dark fissure was gradually being illuminated by the arrow-light, and it almost looked like the light had coated the walls of the fissure.
Booom!
The earth shook again when the light was brought to it. Then, a white shadow jumped out of it and tried to attack the woman with his fist.
The woman quickly leaped away in retreat and dodged the strike. When she looked at the white shadow, her expression turned for the worse.
It was the man who had taken several attacks from her head-on. But right now, the man was bare-naked with his long, red hair covering his private parts. He was gazing at the woman before him with complete focus.
She could see the fractured bones through the deep wound in the man's chest, but it was healing at an incredible rate.
Angele gazed at her gravely. This experience where he had no way of fighting back was his first, and all his clothes were burnt to ashes.
His chest wound had been in a worse state several minutes before, but after hiding in the fissure, it was now looking much better.
The woman's equipment and spell level were much stronger than his. When he used his bloodline merging technique, all of his bloodline power aided him in transforming into his true form, but he could no longer activate any bloodline power after that. And although his lava ball technique could contend with wizards at a similar level as him, it would not work effectively the same way on the woman. He was certain it would just be a waste of energy, so he had rather used the energy to heal.
Before he could possibly do anything, the woman would definitely take this chance to stop him. In addition to that, the crystal scorpion and the Metal Mastery stood no chance against her.
I have to utilize my body wisely.
Angele planned things out in his mind and then he took a stomp forward and left a large hole in the ground.
He charged with his fastest speed. At first, he considered holding back since he desired to know where she obtained the concept gear. However, when he discovered that she was in a whole different league, he decided to utilize all of his energy and power. Angele struck at the air with his fist, releasing an invisible energy-fist toward the woman.
Bam!
A huge crack appeared on the mountain; mud and rocks splashed everywhere.
But, the fist missed.
The woman's body blurred for a second and disappeared from the original place. In the next second, she was already behind Angele.
"How are you still alive! How about this?" She switched away her weapon, and a wavy, white dagger appeared in her hand. The dagger-tip was coated with a white flame.
This flame looked a tad unalike compared to the other white flames she used. It was much denser and stronger.
The woman lightly flicked the dagger, and the flame on the dagger-tip became even much denser. Her face, however, had turned pale due to this skill costing a great amount of mentality.
"Die!" Her hand and the dagger being held suddenly vanished.
The next moment it appeared, the dagger had already sunk into Angele's back completely.
Angele didn't have enough time to react. The woman had been so fast he had no idea what had happened, and there was nothing Zero could do for him.
His attributes were high, but the dagger had easily stabbed his back as if it was stabbing b.u.t.ter.
Yet, no blood came out of the wound.
Angele looked down, only to see that the dagger had long since pierced through him. And due to an unusual power, he could not move an inch and could barely think.
The woman in her white armor blinked away once more, moving to the peak of a small hill more than 30 meters away while she watched Angele get penetrated by her dagger.
Chi!
A white light-cylinder fell from the sky and landed on where Angele was. It was more than 10 meters wide, and almost seemed like the sky and the land had connected.
The world regained its color after the light-cylinder appeared.
The river continued its flow and the air regained its circulation. The wizards who were spectating finally gained the chance to watch what happened.
"That's my strongest skill, Purification Judgment…" the woman muttered, "You'll be purified and gasified within 10 seconds…"
"Ugh!" She suddenly covered her mouth when she coughed out blood. White light-dots were mixed in the blood.
Inside the secret chamber.
"Now it's over. There is nothing Swordsman can do anymore."
"All right, Hunter shall be the winner of this compet.i.tion."
"Now we only need to wait for the final results from the other divisions."
Four of the black shadows were having a brief chatter.
Descartes faintly sighed. He had thought Angele could find a way to make a comeback. "I never knew Hunter could use Purification Judgment… She's almost rank 4, I think. d.a.m.n…"
"Wait…!" Suddenly, one of the black shadows shouted, "What's going on?!" He pointed at the screen with a startled face.
The rest of the black shadows heard him and quickly turned to look at the screen. They suddenly became bereft of speech.
In the live feed being broadcast, a blurred shadow jumped out of the white cylinder and charged toward Hunter.
"H-He's still alive!" a black shadow spoke with a shaky voice.
The man had taken so many attacks and sustained grievous injuries, but he was still alive and actually had escaped the Purification Judgment…
The chamber was, at present, deadly silent. When they saw Angele charge toward Hunter, they could feel chills running down their spines.
Angele's upper body had been burnt black, and there was a gaping b.l.o.o.d.y hole in his chest. There was barely any flesh left on both of his arms, and a large part of his waist was missing.
The man seemed to be a burnt zombie, but he was still charging really fast as if nothing had happened to him.
Hunter was still puking out blood, her face pale. She immediately turned upon seeing the man rus.h.i.+ng toward her and moved about 10 meters away from where she originally was in a breath.
Because she did not have much mentality left, she almost fell. However, she turned and tried to flee again.
Chi!
Red hair locked onto her right arm and pulled her backward, preventing her from fleeing.
"Run?" Angele shouted hoa.r.s.ely. His long, red hair could not be affected by the light-cylinder. It was swiftly expanding as it headed toward the woman.
Chi! Chi!
The woman was lifted up in the air like a puppet, and his red hair formed a huge web that ceased any further movements. The rest of his hair was still flying about in the air.
Angele walked to her and saw her still vomiting blood.
"All right, now it's over," he spoke in a low voice, "You are the first person to injure me to this extent."
There was despair amid her helpless eyes, as she looked at the burnt zombie quietly. At this moment, her huge chest, long legs, and slim waist looked strangely enticing when she was lifted up by his hair.
"Haha…" Angele chuckled.
He approached her — the wounds on his shoulders had already healed.
Angele grabbed her by the chest with both of his hands.
Psshhh!
Blood and innards splashed in the air.
From the middle, the woman's body was torn apart.
Angele stood in the rain of blood and dropped the corpse to the ground.
The woman transformed into black light and streaked into the air. Meanwhile, six black cores flew toward Angele and began revolving around him.
This was the hardest battle he had ever fought since recently. He had no way of retaliating, and had the woman been a rank 4 wizard, he would have died. The one reason he won was due to the woman having no enough mentality left in her.
