"WHY??!!"
Beatrix repeated her query, more desperate this ti, her mind racing for an answer that wasn't coming.
In her desperation, Beatrix used her Space Warp Skill, distorting the very fabric of space around her. With a shimr, she vanished, leaving behind a sharp, tearing pulse of energy that exploded in all directions.
Evan grunted, caught off guard by the sudden strike, but tanked the damage, his body absorbing the shock. Artemisia, however, already knew of this and anticipated the move, so she shielded herself with a barrier of magic.
'Oh, now I want that!'
The Rogue Hero's eyes glowed and he turned in the direction of Beatrix who just reappeared. The girl barely had ti to catch her breath when she noticed Evan's eyes locking onto her.
He raised his hand and unleashed an everlasting chain, a shimring, ethereal chain that shot through the air at sonic speed. The chain wrapped around Beatrix's arm before she could react, keeping her in place.
"No!"
Beatrix gasped, tugging against it, but Evan yanked hard, pulling her toward him.
|Space Warp Acquired|
|Ultra-Rare Skills require one skill slot. |
|Two Skill slots remaining. |
'Well worth the slot!'
As Evan thought this, Artemisia dashed forward, activating her Queen of Evolution skill and having been her best friend for over a decade, Beatrix knew that it wouldn't end well for her if she let Artemisia's strike connect.
Her mind raced, and in a split second, she conjured a spatial blade, the light brown crackling at her fingertips as she sliced through the Everlasting Chain, severing it with ease.
Before the next attack could co, she teleported again, the space around her warping as she disappeared into thin air.
Reappearing a safe distance away, Beatrix was panting now, her eyes wide with both confusion and frustration.
"Why are the both of you attacking ?!"
She demanded, her voice rising with exasperation and Evan glanced directly at her, stealing another one of her skills as he spoke with a casual shrug.
"Because… Trigger."
Artemisia nodded in agreent, her expression as neutral as ever.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
Beatrix stared at them, dumbfounded and she shouted, her voice shrill with disbelief.
"No, it doesn't! That doesn't make any sense at all!"
But her protests fell on deaf ears. Both Evan and Artemisia moved toward her in perfect synchrony, their attacks already forming as they closed the distance.
"Weren't you two fighting yourselves just now?! Why do you suddenly have good synergy?!"
Ignoring her screams, Evan and Artemisia launched their attack once more.
|Ti Bomb Acquired|
|Rare Skills require one skill slot. |
|One Skill slot remaining. |
Evan teleported behind her, but Beatrix used spatial expansion to increase the distance between his incoming fist and her back, giving him more distance to cross and conversely, his attack took longer to reach.
It gave her the ti to disappear with Space Warp, but just as she reappeared, Evan spawned in front of her and she was buffeted with a surge of golden spatial power.
"Wait, what?!"
Beatrix's surprise was only just beginning.
She just barely stabilized her footing, shrugging off the damage when Evan closed in, throwing his palm forward with a golden orb of temporal energy within it.
"WAIT, WHAT?!"
Like Artemisia, she had no idea what the requirent to mimic skills was, so she didn't know that maintaining eye contact with Evan while questioning him earlier had been a bad idea.
Beatrix barely had ti to react before Evan and Artemisia's combined attacks were aid at her. Lightning crackled, and flas swirled as the two closed the distance and Beatrix yelped as she dodged the two attacks, rolling to the side as their energy blasts narrowly missed her.
"Oh, co on! This isn't fair!"
"You brought this on yourself."
Evan shot back and Artemisia also chuckled, a rare sight of her lips curled up in a smile as she twirled her hand with sparks of lightning dancing across her fingertips.
"You said we were childish, right? Well, let's show you how we play!"
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry! Truce! Truce!"
Beatrix cried out, holding her hands up in surrender, but the other two completely ignored her words.
Seeing that they weren't listening, Beatrix teleported away to avoid their attacks, reappearing with twitching brows as she spoke.
"Alright! You're on!"
She held up her hand and a spear coated in spatial power manifested. Her white hair floated like it had a life of its own and a starry light appeared in her eyes.
From her body, a burst of spatial power surged out and Evan quickly discovered that he couldn't use Blink anymore.
'I'd be damned…!'
Beatrix lunged first, her spear shooting forward in a blur, conjuring wormholes that unleashed five more spears around Evan, attempting to skewer him from all angles and turn him into a porcupine.
"Oy! You have that crazy ability too!"
Evan exclaid as he twisted his body at odd angles to dodge the spears, rembering that the sa ability Beatrix just used was the sa as that of the Demonic Hand's Seventh Finger's Spear, the Pledge of the Vanquisher.
He rolled, barely avoiding the final spear, but when he sprang back to his feet, sothing felt off.
The World around him beca extrely fast.
'No…I'm the one who has beco slow!'
The realisation hit him like a thunderbolt and just then, Beatrix appeared beside him and thrust her spear towards his chest.
Just as it seed the point would pierce him, Evan's body snapped back to full speed. His hands shot up, catching her spear in a move that left her wide-eyed in disbelief.
"…what?!"
Beatrix gasped, unable to comprehend how he'd regained mobility so quickly. Frost erupted from Evan's grip, snaking up her spear so she imdiately let go and backflipped, narrowly avoiding a sweeping slash from Artemisia that whistled through the air behind her.
'It's like she has eyes at the back of her head…'
Such a thought crossed Evan's mind as he saw Beatrix repeatedly jump back while avoiding all of Artemisia's elental skills, from above, below, behind and in front.
She seed to already be moving before the attacks even fully materialized.
Artemisia's lightning fell from above, and Evan aid a Burst Cannon from the front. But before Evan's skill could even unleash its condensed magic cannonballs, Beatrix had already conjured a spatial barrier, blocking both attacks.
Imdiately, the rather obvious reason for Beatrix's uncanny reactions got to him.
She was seeing the future!
But even a future seer could be defeated if you moved faster than they could react to what they'd seen.
Evan stomped his foot on the ground and spears of flaming light erupted from the floor—Elental Skewer.
At the sa ti, Vindiction's Strike opened a portal beside Beatrix, firing a beam of energy toward her. Following up, he summoned Hamrfist, sending a colossal flaming fist crashing down from above.
Chains—Everlasting Chains—burst from the ground, wrapping around Beatrix's arms and legs. Evan then teleported using her own Space Warp, appearing in front of her, the unleashed spatial damage throwing her off balance as he threw his fist forward, aiming for her stomach.
But before he could land the punch, ti slowed around him again. His body moved sluggishly, but Evan thanked EOTD for all the tis the man used Ti Stop on him.
His resistance made her power less effective on him and he broke out in barely a second.
In that sa second, Beatrix dealt with each of his attacks like clockwork. Her spear slashed through the elental spears, the energy beam was blocked by a tily spatial shield, and the Hamrfist phased through her body like she wasn't even there.
But just as her body regained physical form, Artemisia appeared behind her, grabbing her by the neck and flinging her into the air.
Artemisia used her Benevolent Lightning to unleash a devastating storm of bolts. Beatrix teleported away, barely escaping the onslaught, but no sooner had she reappeared than she sensed another lightning strike from behind.
"You too?!"
Beatrix yelped in shock and Evan's voice rang out.
"Artemisia's not the only one who can handle lightning, you know."
He activated his Blue Judgnt skill and thunder bood as a torrent of blue lightning cascaded down, aiming to strike Beatrix from all angles. She bent space again, warping the bolts away before they could touch her, saving herself from being fried.
But Evan wasn't done. As soon as she warped space, he stomped the ground, causing it to collapse beneath her.
Beatrix's eyes widened, and she hurriedly tried to teleport, but Evan's Everlasting Chain latched onto her leg, following her through space. Flas raced up the chain, searing her the mont she reappeared.
Stunned, Beatrix struggled to recover, but Artemisia was already there, moving at blinding speed. Her fist, charged with thunderstorm energy, shot forward, aiming right for Beatrix's face.
Beatrix summoned her spear which Evan had frozen in ice earlier, holding it up just in ti to block the blow.
"Arty?! Why are you aiming for my face?!"
"Well, I've always wanted to give you a little punch in the face, so…"
"Why?!"
Beatrix sputtered, a mix of exasperation and disbelief and Evan just laughed at the interaction.
Suddenly, a low growl echoed through the chamber, and the ground beneath them trembled. The noise was distant at first, but it quickly grew louder. Evan's head snapped toward the entrance of the cave network they had entered earlier.
"You hear that?"
Artemisia and Beatrix who had just dodged the forr's thunderous punch paused, both scanning the area with cautious eyes.
The growling intensified, and then the source of the sound beca clear. From the shadows of the interconnected caves, hulking forms erged.
Monsters crawled out from the darkness, their maws dripping with saliva, fangs bared as they charged forward. So had the appearance of massive wolves, while others resembled mutated bears, their bodies bristling with sharp, jagged fur.
"Looks like we have company…"
Beatrix muttered, twirling her spear with a sigh and Evan summoned his sword and ignited the blade with a mix of flas and ice—Frostfire.
"They're crashing the party. Let's show them how gate crashes are dealt with."
The monsters lunged, their instincts driving them toward the trio. But Evan, Artemisia, and Beatrix weren't intimidated.
Evan was the first to move, releasing a wave of ice with his Harbinger of Ice skill as he swung his blade, freezing the lead monster in its tracks.
Spears of flaming light burst out from below, skewering the two dozen bears that followed it and then he snapped his fingers, detonating the spears and blasting them to bits.
Artemisia joined the fray next, summoning elental magic with a wave of her hand. The ground cracked open, vines bursting through the stone as she used earth magic to ensnare the beasts.
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