Chapter 96: Spar (1/2)
Rakna grasped a shadow spear thrown at him and destroyed it in his grip with his claws before tilting backward to dodge one of Allan's kicks aiming at his neck. He activated Fabled Sight as the leg passed by and spotted an odd air disturbance around it.
Putting the detail in the back of his mind, he jumped back and performed a spin in mid-air with a grace befitting of a wolf whilst both swinging Sonata at Allan and avoiding the concentrated beams of gravity shot by Flavia.
'Those are tricky,' he thought as he saw the magic hit the ground in the distance and dig a perfect hemispherical crater. 'What a fearsome upshot…'
”Don't lose focus, Rak!” Allan shouted and threw a fist charged with momentum by his gloves; a pair different from the one he had in the Tutorial.
Rakna reacted swiftly and even took the time to judge the trajectory. He deviated the attack with the shaft of Sonata and proceeded to give a blow of his own to his friend's stomach.
His speed was much higher and Allan was unable to dodge it. But when the werewolf's punch landed, nothing happened, as if the force was dispersed on impact. Rakna's ghostly eyes shrunk in surprise.
Allan let out a small grin and his body became shrouded in wind. His speed increased momentarily and he threw his other fist. Rakna grunted and muttered, ”[Shadow Step.]” He melded with the darkness and slipped away with blurring speed.
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❮◈❯ Shadow Step has leveled up! ❮◈❯
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His skill disengaged two seconds later and the next thing he knew, a cage made out of shadows was built around him followed by Nyx's chant, ”[Bird Cage.]”
”[Apokalypsi!]” Flavia's voice resounded just after and a spiral of dark purple energy formed above the cage and he suddenly felt very heavy. This was considerably worse than the superficial weight that Anchor added.
”[Wormhole]!” Allan shouted and with a sudden spike of mana, a black orb appeared in his hand before swallowing his entire body and disappearing.
Rakna suddenly felt the air to his right being warped before the orb reappeared and spat Allan inside the cage along with him. He raised an eyebrow at the teleportation-like spell and swung his glaive at an incoming attack, moderately reinforcing his body with mana and pushing himself against the gravity.
The blade of his weapon clashed with Allan's fist and the latter surprisingly came out of it entirely unscathed. The blade was clearly pressing against his hand but it didn't seem to be affecting him in any way. Even the glove he was wearing was wholly undamaged.
Rakna frowned and then raised his arm to block an ensuing kick. He faintly winced at the power behind it. The blond brawler seemed to have put quite a fair number of points into his strength.
'Interesting…' Rakna thought as he was slowly pushed back against the bars of the cage. His Fabled Sight busy analyzing what was happening. 'He's somehow annulling physical blows. That must be some kind of application with void magi-!”
Before his train of thought could end, his instincts suddenly made his fur stand and in a moment of panic, he reached in what remained of his mana and used his Star-Make to construct a shield.
The second he finished making it, something invisible struck it and produced a loud sound. Rakna immediately turned on his soul sense and saw the identity of his attacker.
”I didn't know you could do this… Evelyn,” he muttered and shoved her assailant away and made the shield explode at the same time.
The invisible figure became visible again and the succubus emerged, wagging her wings to retreat from the exploding star construct. ”A girl has her secrets,” she said with a smirk and Rakna snorted as he was forced to parry another attack from the blond.
”Whenever you want, girls,” Allan voiced and the werewolf abruptly sensed a new surge of mana from behind him. He decisively unfurled his wings and shot out dozens of feathers to buy enough time to look behind him.
What he saw made him a bit nervous. Flavia was clasping her hands together as a purple and green sphere hovered above her. The very moment his eyes fell on that sphere, Rakna knew he had to stop it. But before he could act on that thought, black flames walled him and obstructed his vision.
He increased his aura's output to fight the heat and glanced at where Evelyn was a few seconds ago to see it completely overtaken by the fire. ”Hell Blaze…” He muttered to himself.
These dark flames were probably more than they appeared and he didn't want to find out what they could do. He flapped his mana-infused wings to temporarily douse the flames and his eyes widened when he realized that he was alone in the birdcage.
”That teleportation spell…” He mumbled. He was trapped inside a cage surrounded by flames with no way to see past them. He then heard Flavia's voice again.
”[Constancy leads to Chaos, Instability creates Chaos, Balance sustains Chaos.]”
”…I don't like the sound of that,” Rakna whispered and hacked at the bars of the cage with Sonata while injecting mana into the blade. They were easily cut apart by his weapon but the shadows promptly started knitting themselves back together.
He clicked his tongue. ”If I had a more mana to spare…”
”[Two-Fold Chaos! Pandemonium!]”
He ran out of time as he heard a loud buzzing sound. He opened his eyes wide as the black flames and shadow bars parted to allow the path to a green and purple wave of energy. In the split of a second, his mind went through everything he could do, and right before the attack hit, he pulled out something from his spatial ring.
When the freshly learned Chaos Magic hit the cage, the training room shook and a dome of erratic energy arose, releasing a powerful shockwave. Flavia covered her eyes as the sounds of the booming detonations reached her ears.
She was instantly filled with worry, thinking that they might have gone too far, but just like Allan, she trusted Rakna's ability with her life. And her beliefs were proved founded when the group of four heard a loud chant coming from within the exploding dome of energy.
”[Four of Clubs! Dreorin's Heritage! Dreorin Rage!]” A primal roar followed his words and they shuddered collectively. Their eyes widened in shock as they found themselves rooted in place, unable to move.
Then, they watched as the spectral figure of a colossal Dreorin emerged from the raging residues of the explosion. Rakna followed soon after with an ashen Greatsword shielding most of his head and part of his body. The rest that wasn't covered had been protected by a steel dome materialized by his Card.
He peered over the blade and used Artzpul, ignoring the subsequent stiffening of his muscles at the reckless move, to fly off toward his sparring partners while they were still affected by his sword's crowd control perk.
The person he targeted was Allan since he was the closest one. Normally, the duration of Dreorin Rage should have kept them stunned for at least a few seconds. While that felt vague, if taken literally, it would mean at least two seconds and he had been fast enough to be under that time frame.