Chapter 279 - Welcome Back (1/2)
Awooooo!
Just as Horell was finished shouting the name of the Supreme Alliance skill, both of his hands were soon covered in crimson red energy, which was accompanied by the loud howling of a wolf. Not long after, the energy took on a deeper shade of crimson red as light gray wisps soon circled Horell's fists, giving off the intent that once the energy on his hands touched something, that item would inevitably crumble into pieces.
He then went ahead and started to punch out towards Argentum's direction, with each punch forming a part of what seemed to be a larger silhouette. While looking at the silhouette being formed as it gradually headed towards his way, Argentum could not help but feel like the silhouette gradually became familiar to him. Eventually, he found out that his hunch was correct as the silhouette had transformed into a translucent wolf that exhibited the same properties on Horell's hands a while ago.
Looking at this translucent wolf for a bit, a certain being that Aurus remembered very well surfaced in his mind, prompting to look at the wolf that was heading towards him with a slightly surprised aura as he muttered in disbelief, ”Chonk? How did he turn into this skill?”
Recalling what he knew about Chonk through Aurus's memories, he was a wolf that yearned to destroy the three alliances in Tempest Cliff in order to become its sole ruler. Unfortunately for him, that plan was foiled by Aurus, which was further brought to oblivion thanks to Horell becoming a double agent of the current Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance.
”I can remember that he died thanks to Aurus and Bell,” Argentum muttered, only to stop for a bit as he noticed that the translucent wolf was now a meter away from him. Without hesitation, he went ahead and ran at his full speed, finding out that the wolf was chasing him even if he ran away from it. With that observation, he made sure to maintain a decent amount of distance from the wolf before continuing with his pondering. After about ten seconds or so of pondering over what had happened to Chonk, the memory Aurus had regarding the question had finally surfaced in his mind, allowing Argentum to finally find out how Chonk had transformed into that.
In that memory, Aurus was brought to the alliance hall by Horell before going ahead and asking Herellia as to what the alliance had in store for Chonk's corpse. In response to that question, Herellia looked at Aurus and said, ”The plan is very simple. Using my Sanguine Arts, Harriott's special magic skills, and Cermalia's great mastery over illusions, we're planning to 'revive' Chonk and transform him into the greatest trump card of the alliance.”
She then added not long after, ”A controllable being capable of dishing out Animate level attacks.” Of course, to Aurus, he thought that using the corpse of their dead enemy as a trump card felt wrong. Then again, using corpses, in general, was wrong. But then, he thought that if it was for the betterment of the alliance, then doing something like this could be ignored.
”To think that instead of me using the trump card, it is instead used against me. How ironic,” Argentum muttered after he was finished recalling the memory, letting out a mocking chuckle as he felt that he had already run for long enough. In preparation for what he was about to do, he went ahead and focused his sense of vision onto Horell, who was currently looking at him with a vengeful aura radiating from him. Noticing this aura, Argentum could not help but lightly chuckle as he said to himself, ”That aura is definitely going to transform in an instant once he finds out what I'm going to do.”
Whoosh!
Without hesitation, Argentum went ahead and changed his direction of running to head towards Horell, which shocked the latter as he thought that the wolf was about to finally hit the being. But then, seeing that this being was getting closer to him, the vengeful aura he was radiating just a while ago had instantly transformed into fear, knowing very well of the implications that came with his attack.
”Stay away from me!” Horell shouted in a panicked tone, remembering the multiple rounds of testing the Supreme Alliance skill had undergone to reach its current state. At first, the skill could only emulate a small portion of Chonk's power at his peak, making Herellia, the elders, as well as Horell feel that the power behind it was lacking. They then continued to refine it for several days as all of them improved their strength in the meantime, eventually reaching the current level of power the skill had, which was at the peak of Rank 0 Animate.
In response to Horell's pleas, Argentum radiated a malicious yet playful aura as he lightly giggled. Naturally, he ignored his pleas, allowing the translucent wolf that was chasing him to come closer to Horell, increasing the amount of fear Horell felt. At this moment, the fear Horell radiated was at the level of becoming palpable, his thoughts filled with the hope that the wolf doesn't hit him at the last second.
Fortunately for him, Argentum did not have any intent to let the wolf hit Horell, stopping just a few meters in front of him before turning around and shouting, ”[Higher Ignis Magic: Ignis Burst]!”
Fwoosh!
In an instant, the aura radiating from Argentum had reached a new high, leaving the shocked Horell at a loss for words. While being at a loss for words, he could not help but remember the words he spewed out to make Argentum hit him. Only now did he realize that Argentum was not weak in terms of combat power, but rather…
He was a monster when it came to it!
”[Higher Algor Magic: Water Bolt].” Since Argentum had stopped running away from the wolf, that meant that the wolf gradually got closer to him. Unfortunately for the wolf, it would not even be able to fulfill its purpose as Argentum hastily conjured a bolt of water before throwing it at the wolf, dispersing the power forming the wolf in one hit.
Swoosh! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Although the power forming the wolf had been dispersed, only a small amount of power forming the bolt of water was exhausted, allowing it to continue in its trajectory before going ahead and easily boring a hole through multiple trees. With the help of his enhanced vision, Argentum soon found out that he had bored a hole through exactly 16 trees, making him scratch his head.
As he continued to scratch his head, he then turned around to look at Horell, who was currently looking at him with an aura of fear. Just as he thought that Horell was about to thank him for dispersing the wolf before being hit by it, Argentum instead got the exact opposite as Horell shot a beam at him without hesitation while shouting, ”Get away from me!”
Whoosh!
Of course, with the help of his movement speed boosting buffs, he was able to easily dodge a beam, even one that was fired close at him. Nevertheless, after seeing Horell's next move, he could not help but let out a light sigh as he thought to himself, 'Horell has lost it.'
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After that beam was a few more attacks fired out in desperation, ranging from beams to balls, to even weapons made out of mana. Naturally, since they were attacks desperately fired, that meant that their accuracy was at a level where it would be easy to dodge. In fact, during these attacks, the movement speed boosting buffs Argentum relied upon to dodge had run out of time. But due to the low accuracy of the attacks, he was able to activate all of them within a matter of seconds while making sure to dodge the attacks.
Eventually, the power behind Horell's attacks gradually became weaker as the amount of energy coursing throughout his body became less. At this moment, the energy making up Horell's body was as pale of a cyan as it could be, with his body even flickering in and out of existence at times. Noticing this, Argentum finally let out a sigh of relief as he muttered to himself, ”His energy is finally exhausted.”
Without hesitation, Argentum headed towards Horell, who unhesitatingly went ahead and tried to fire an attack at the being that was coming closer to him, but all of his attempts to conjure one ended up in a flickering failure. Seeing as he had finally reached his limit, Horell opted to radiate an aura that said 'I'll never give up' instead, making Argentum inwardly sigh as he thought to himself, 'I just want to enter the alliance…why is it so hard?'
”You've exhausted all of your energy,” Argentum looked at the flickering Horell before saying in a solemn tone. He then asked him, ”Will you admit defeat and let me enter the alliance?”
”Never!” Contrary to the deal Horell made before the fight started, Horell declined Argentum's wishes of entering the inheritance as the thoughts in his mind had now become jumbled from intense anger. ”You're going to destroy the alliance from the inside anyway!”
”Huh…?” Hearing Horell's words, Argentum could not help but let out a confused aura as his tone had changed to that of slight fury. Feeling like he was being wronged, he soon replied, ”The thought of doing that didn't even cross my mind! I've told you from the start that I was just here to meet up with Aurus!”
Just as Horell was about to respond to Argentum's words, telling him that his statement was a complete and utter falsification, he could not help but sense an intense aura of killing intent coming from him, which was accompanied by the voice of a female as it said, ”Hoh? Meet up with Aurus, huh?”