Chapter 357 (1/2)

Alana felt on fire, moving and reacting, predicting and being predicted. The Ghosthound’s Style of fighting was not her own; where she relied on strength and breaking the opponent’s momentum, the Ghosthound seemed to steal the very momentum from her as she was moving.

Her spear flashed forward, aiming to inflict a strike on his shoulder, but he simply stepped forward and sideways, and his foot flashed upwards, catching her in the gut and sending her sprawling, the light about her dimming. Alana winced. That hit was like a truck, even after Child of the Sun took off a flat percentage of its force. God, how high were his stats?

“Attention up, you lost me.”

Alana blinked, and realized that she really had; the Ghosthound was gone. The air around was quiet. Instinctively, she raised her shield above her head and brought her spear across her body, her eyes scanning for an enemy. Then the world… seemed to darken, and she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

She gasped, or at least tried to, as she spun around, but she found that the air was stuck in her throat. Her chest heaved, but her lungs seemed suddenly cast from stone, unable to inflate and pump oxygen into her blood. Which just made her panic, and stumble, her head abruptly pounding at the pressure in her chest.

In front of her, standing about 10 meters away, was the Ghosthound, his eyes a brilliant emerald, seeming to pierce right through her, freezing her chest. Her eyes narrowed, and she forced the panic in her chest down. She would not break from just this.

She could feel streams of energy flowing to her, as the rays of sunlight were bent by her Skill, twisting towards her, making her warm and glowing with power. Then she struggled again, determined, and she felt the grip on her lungs flutter. Gritting her teeth, as her vision began to swim, and little bits of black unconsciousness ate away at the edges of her awareness, she pressed again, harder, throwing everything at that binding.

It wavered, then broke.

Her gasp was loud, and full of relief, but then her mouth tightened, because the Ghosthound had arrived. Inwardly, she cursed herself for showing such weakness, allowing her spear and shield to both fall away as she was so focused on her breath. Inwardly, she was aware that really, being deprived from oxygen for a short amount of time wouldn’t be that big of a deal, her body had the Stats to handle it.

But there was a raw, ingrained panic in her human body in response to it that she couldn’t overcome, when paired with the shock, and that had left her vulnerable.

The Ghosthound’s attack wasn’t overly fast, and it simply made her hyper aware that he was going easy on her, which was infuriating. But in the face of the evidence…

Still, going this easy on her, was a mistake.

“Solar Flare,” She whispered, feeling the rush of hot, extra concentrated energy fill her. It would only last for two or three seconds, depending on how quickly she burned through it, but it would be enough to give the Ghosthound a nasty surprise.

It was the Skill her Class had given her at Lvl 40, and it packed a punch.

Moving at double the speed she had previously, she brought her shield up and knocked away his attack, and then stabbed at his exposed midsection with her spear. His body seemed to flap in the wind, moving cleanly around the blow, his speed instantly adjusting to just a hair below hers.

Her hope plummeted. Even after this, he was only just a hair slower than her…? This time he clearly jumped up in speed, so he was likely forced to rely on his Skills, but still…

However… with her amount of Mana…

With the last of the energy from Solar Flare, she brought her spear across in a brutal Sweep, that forced him back a step, and elicited a grunt. He wasn’t unstoppable, just too strong, and too fast. So she activated Solar Flare again, and then again, in quick succession, and the two activations made her body scream and sing, and gave her a half second of invulnerable power.

Her spear ripped forward with the speed of a shaft of sunlight, and with the strength of an apocalypse.