The glimr across Berreta’s armor intensified, flowing like liquid light through every seam and joint. The flickering crimson and obsidian channels stabilized, locking into a synchronized pattern that pulsed with her heartbeat.
Adaptive Shell — Full Conversion Achieved.
Berreta inhaled sharply, feeling the shift.
The endless debuffs crashing into her body were no longer dragging her down.
She adapted, and they inverted.
Every curse beca clarity.
Every weakness beca a potency.
Every corrosive weight beca raw, surging strength.
The Dreadolons lunged.
Berreta stepped.
The first monster to touch her,
A mass of rotating bone-maws,
Exploded on impact, thrown back by the sheer rebound of her converted stats.
The second, a hovering mantle of black eyes,
was torn apart by the weaving wind pressure from her Katana’s swings.
Lily blinked once. Eyes sparkling. "Now it will be fun."
Berreta vanished and reappeared in front of her, katana carving downward with a force heavy enough to shatter the arena twice over.
Lily’s chakram was intercepted, but the shockwave sent her sliding several ters back.
Berreta pressed the assault instantly, her movents impossibly sharp.
Every attack she absorbed earlier now strengthened her physicality beyond the limit.
Her swings blurred the air, forming a lattice of blades that trapped Lily like a steel cage.
"Good," Lily said softly, parrying a blow in slow motion with her temporal distortion that cratered the floor. "This is how it should be."
Berreta didn’t speak.
She couldn’t—not while chasing the rising tempo of battle.
Dreadolons sward, but Berreta’s adaptive field repelled them.
Every debuff they tried to impose simply inverted, granting her new bursts of power.
Her speed grew.
Her strikes grew.
Her aura thickened into a violent storm of unstoppable montum.
BOOM!
She clashed with Lily again, this ti sending her skidding back on one knee.
The Regalons sucked in a breath.
"N–no way... she actually matched Lily?" Marcus muttered.
"She did more than match," Natalia whispered. "She forced Lily to defend."
"Here we go." Vier leaned forward, delighted. He glanced at Almond and Rudra, but they still seed carefree.
’Does she still have sothing?’ Vier observed the battle.
Berreta closed in.
Her katana’s tip grazed Lily’s cheek, a shallow cut, but the first blood Lily had shed.
Berreta’s expression sharpened.
"That’s one."
Lily touched the blood with her finger.
"Oh... good job."
Her smile widened, delighted. "Truly, good job."
Berreta didn’t wait—she attacked again.
This ti, Lily was forced into full motion.
Her steps folded into temporal ribbons, splitting and converging across fractured instances of herself.
Three Lilies appeared.
Five.
Nine.
Berreta struck each one with projections and bullets, splitting into dozens of phantom arcs that shredded afterimages like paper.
Lily’s eyes glowed.
She spun a chakram.
Ti bent and Voiderra shifted.
Berreta staggered as the ground beneath her suddenly aligned backward, then forward, then sideways, throwing her off completely.
Her adapted body resisted the distortion, countering it with fierce kinetic rebound.
The two t again.
CLANG—!!
Their clash cracked the domain itself.
For a mont—
just a mont—
They were equals.
Berreta’s montum beca a tangible force.
Her presence pressed Lily back.
And Lily...
Lily began to smile wider and wider, as if this rising difficulty was a sweet delicacy she’d been starving for.
"You’re strong now," Lily admitted as she parried a strike that would have severed mountains.
"But..."
Her chakram stopped spinning.
Ti stopped spinning.
Everything around her seed to freeze—
"Not strong enough."
Her second chakram fell into place.
A quiet bell-like chi rang.
Berreta felt it—not as sound, but as a shift in the world.
The Dreadolons, still swarming, suddenly roared in unison, each one emitting a pulse of... inverse decay. Not debuffs.
Sothing stronger.
Lily tapped her chest.
"Second Grim Tree. New branch. Want to guess?"
Berreta’s eyes narrowed.
Lily smiled.
"Debuff Inversion."
Berreta’s pupils shrank.
Lily continued softly, almost kindly.
"Now, I stack a myriad of buffs on myself."
For a heart-stopping mont—
Berreta felt nothing.
Then—
Her adaptive montum shattered.
Her kinetic engine stalled.
Her speed snapped back to limits.
Her strength plunged into the negatives.
A wave of weakness hit her so violently that her knees buckled.
"Wh—"
Lily appeared in front of her.
"You worked so hard," she whispered.
Her chakrams froze, sharp enough to cut the silence.
"Goodbye."
THRA-KOOOM—!!
A singular temporal strike hit Berreta’s torso.
She flew across the arena, crashing through two broken platforms and slamming into the far wall.
Her armor shattered.
Her consciousness flickered.
Her limbs broke. Back shattered, and spine bent.
One of the two domains in the battlering faded.
Lily stood at the center, chakrams slowly spinning behind her like twin halos of killing intent.
For a mont after she crashed, Berreta’s eyes were open, watching Lily. Next, they rolled upward as her Life Power reduced to 1%.
The busty dark elf Ceilina appeared next to her. From her finger, a glowing green leaf with golden and light green sparks fell, healing the visible wounds on her body.
"Scary." She looked at Lily with a smile. "Berreta stood no chance against you right from the beginning."
Lily grinned. "I would have loved to fight you, but I won’t get that chance, unfortunately."
Berreta woke up, rubbing her temples.
"You’re strong," Berreta muttered as she looked at Lily. "But not as strong as the two after ."
Lily lightly laughed and left while waving her hand. "See you later."
"I think she didn’t go all out," Ceilina muttered.
Berreta looked at her. Staring. "Really?"
"Yes." Ceilina smiled. "Well, it will be interesting if the other two are also as strong as she."
She left, arriving on her battlering as she looked at the trio. More specifically, Almond and Admiral Rudra.
"It’s my turn." Admiral Rudra chuckled and vanished, arriving in Ceilina’s battlering.
"So you are the strongest." Vier looked at Almond with a grin. "My expectation my rising. I hope you won’t disappoint ."
Almond smiled. "Maybe I won’t have to step in."
Vier looked at Admiral Rudra. "Nah."
"Hello, handso." Ceilina winked at Admiral Rudra. "You are my type, you know? Are you single?"
Admiral Rudra was visibly taken aback.
"A hot babe is hitting on the gramps." Natalia whistled.
Paloma chuckled. "Well, he is quite attractive."
"Indeed." Christina chuckled.
"Your thoughts are leaking out, grandmas."
"Shut up, imp."
Admiral Rudra looked at Ceilina and cleared his throat before answering. "Indeed, I am."
"Then let’s go on a date after this battle. Win or lose doesn’t matter," Ceilina smiled.
"I’ll think about it." Admiral Rudra knocked his knuckles as dark gold gauntlets with bright purple and blue crystal patterns manifested.
"Playing hard to get, eh? Fine." Ceilina chuckled as she tapped her staff on the floor.
In the next mont, both of their domains materialized and clashed in a colorful and violent symphony.
User Comments
0 comments from readers