She closed her eyes to concentrate intensely, ignoring the destruction around her. Her mana gathered sharply at the center of her chest, forming an increasingly dense core of energy, then a deep connection activated within her.
< Wind Spirit: Sylphide >
The air around her vibrated abnormally. The atmospheric pressure changed drastically, making breathing difficult nearby. Then, in a bluish flash that illuminated the entire area, an ethereal silhouette erged from her back, floating gently.
It was an Epic-rank sylph spirit.
The creature barely stood one ter tall, with a slender, almost translucent body. Eight delicate, translucent dragonfly wings beat silently behind her, producing a faint, barely audible hum. Her face possessed a fairy-like beauty that was also adorably cute, with delicate features that perfectly mirrored Katrina’s, as if they shared the sa essence. Yet her expression was calm, almost serene, far from the cruel smile the half-elf usually displayed in battle.
For a second, the creature’s gaze t Kaiser’s, and in that instant, he could feel the imnsity of her power.
Then she rged into Katrina in a burst of bluish light, fusing with her body and soul.
< Spiritual Resonance! >
Katrina’s silhouette beca haloed in an icy glow that pulsed in ti with her heartbeat. Eight dragonfly wings made of frost and compressed wind appeared behind her, stretching majestically. Her white hair with black tips lifted as if in zero gravity, bathed in a swirling aura of frozen wind. Her icy blue eyes began to shine with tenfold power, almost blinding.
She was no longer just a half-elf at that mont.
She had beco a hybrid entity, a perfect fusion with a high-rank elental spirit.
She raised her bow without even touching it with her fingers, simply extending her hand.
The wind instantly condensed around the firing zone. Frost blended naturally into it, creating a swirling mixture. An arrow made of solidified air and ice crystals ford by itself on the string, dense, compact, but visibly unstable given the sheer power it contained.
Kaiser landed heavily a few dozen ters away from her after his jump, his boots kicking up a cloud of dust and frozen debris. His torso was marked with multiple bleeding wounds. His breathing was more irregular than at the beginning of the fight, interrupted by deep gasps. He was still bleeding from his shoulder and side, red trails running down his muscles.
"So you’re finally bringing out your true power..." he murmured while observing her, eyes narrowed despite the pain.
Katrina opened her eyes, now luminescent with a bluish glow.
She released the arrow without a word.
The projectile tore through the air while spinning on itself like a drill. Kaiser imdiately activated his Predation Eyes to their maximum, feeling his pupils tint red. The world slowed slightly in his perception, every detail becoming sharper. He saw the arrow’s initial trajectory, then the micro-variation of the wind around it that signaled an imminent change.
’Left!’
"No..."
It was going to veer sharply.
He pivoted at the last mont on his footing, and the arrow did indeed change angle brutally, grazing his arm so closely that it tore away a strip of his sleeve, then exploded behind him in a spray of ice. An icy shockwave threw him to his knees despite his attempt to stay upright, and the ground instantly froze up to his waist, trapping him in place.
He struck the ice with the black blade at full force, shattering the prison into a thousand pieces, and freed himself just in ti before the next attack arrived.
A new volley did arrive in the following second. This ti, several swirling arrows ford simultaneously around Katrina, ready to be loosed.
He activated his attractive aura to slightly alter their trajectories by pulling them off course, then his repulsive aura to completely deflect two others. Despite this double defense, three projectiles still hit him. One arrow deeply gashed his thigh, severing muscle. Another exploded against him, sending ice shards into his flesh. The third sliced across his clavicle, narrowly missing an artery.
He grimaced in pain, teeth clenched so hard they creaked, but he kept advancing toward her step by step, refusing to stop.
Katrina then spread her eight frosted wings and vanished in a wind movent so fast that he lost sight of her for a second. She suddenly reappeared behind him, an ice blade materializing in her hand.
She struck without the slightest hesitation, her ice blade descending toward him in a fluid yet devastating motion.
Kaiser turned at the last possible mont, his reflexes saving his life once again. The twin blades rose instinctively and crossed the ice sword in an ergency block. The impact was violent, so violent that his arms trembled under the shock. The air around them vibrated under the combined pressure of the two opposing forces, creating a shockwave that pushed away the surrounding debris.
She was extrely strong, far more than he had anticipated.
Even in close combat, when she was supposed to be an archer.
Every strike she delivered was amplified by the wind swirling around her limbs, making her attacks faster and more powerful than normal. Her movents were precise, difficult to predict despite the constant activation of the Predation Eye.
She chained a horizontal slash toward his right flank. He parried with the black blade, but the wind surrounding the ice sword hurled frozen particles into his eyes. He blinked for a fraction of a second.
She exploited that micro-opening.
She spun on herself, her frost wings propelling her into a rapid rotation, and her blade described a full circular arc aid at his throat. He ducked just in ti, feeling the cold of the blade pass a few centiters from his neck. The wind generated by its passage lashed his face like tiny blades.
He countered with the black blade thrust forward, a direct stab toward her abdon. She simply tilted her body, and the wind shifted her a few centiters to the side, just enough for the sword tip to graze her without penetrating. In the sa motion, she brought her ice blade upward, slashing his already wounded arm.
Kaiser grimaced: "Fuck!"
He followed with a knee strike toward her stomach. She blocked with her thigh, but the impact slightly unbalanced her. He seized that instant to chain a moulinet with both blades, a wide circular motion that should have hit her.
’She disappeared?’
User Comments
0 comments from readers