This was utterly nonsensical!
Skullius had never even heard of something like this!
Could swordsmanship really do this?
Skullius had been learning swordplay from Alaris for the past six weeks. Despite how reluctant the evaluation officer had sounded when Lady Ornamont had proposed that he take the Hybrid Luman as a disciple, he had actually taught Skullius a lot.
It wasn't an everyday thing but Alaris would find time to teach and develop what he thought was Skullius' perfect style, which, according to him was the combination of speed and precision.
This had become Skullius' template for growth. He was proud of it and had even begun to get a big head.
The Hybrid Luman breathed out the shock he had felt just now.
He had thought that at the very least he could clash swords safely with this sword demon. After all, even though he was outmatched in raw stats, he had skills that could compensate massively for the gaps.
For speed, there were three specific skills he had created for situations like these for goodness' sake, but still!
At this moment, as the trees that he was sure he had seen outside the Cluster before he came in fell into the lake with a loud splash, Skullius turned into a massive elongated mass of darkness and black ribbons that shot up into the sky in the blink of an eye, nearly touching his [Saint Lumis' Benign Arc].
His focus remained on Hobbu Bobbu who raised his head to gaze at his form which started to revolve around the perimeter of the lake with a sneer.
'Tsk. What an absurdly powerful sockethole,' Skullius thought as he circled around his enemy.
This dark mass he turned into was a peak level Special skill, [Boundless Evil].
It was a skill he created to cater for travelling long distance in short bursts of time. While speed was its strongest suit, it was also very good at charging and could repel most attack even if they were at the Special level!
It cost a large amount of mana but had a lenient cooldown and hour long duration. This was a benefit afforded by something that had become a trend for his Special skill, a component of his class as the Insurgent Magnus that granted such boons.
'Let's give it another shot,' Skullius thought before his lengthy dark mass shot down towards Hobbu Bobbu in a fraction of fractions of a second!
Right before he reached within a meter of his enemy, he reverted into his Hybrid Luman form and slashed down with a deadly skill he had awakened six weeks ago, [Parting Wave]!
A tall dark red slit was carved as Demion's Dance sliced down at Hobbu Bobbu, a whistle of air crying loudly in the process!
Contrary to Skullius' expectation, the Finite Sword god didn't evade or parry conventionally!
He simply... grew back to his original size, along with his Bashful Abomination!
....!
This sudden action alarmed Skullius, causing him to abort his attack. A set of silver footprints appeared behind him over a large stretch of distance. When he stepped on these, he vanished from close view.
"<Sighhh>," the Hybrid Luman landed on the water with a dissatisfied face, his senses giving him the full picture of a eighteen meter tall goblin that chortled softly at him, clearly entertained by his helplessness.
'I imagined my speed would count for something but no. The gap is too big. He's not even fighting me seriously.'
A blazing shot of heat came from in front of Skullius pushing him back another stretch of distance from Hobbu Bobbu.
He needed a little break.
This skill just now was also part of Skullius' trusted trio of speed skills, [Instant Blaze Charge].
He had forged it after taking inspiration from the Fire Breeder he had seen back in the Creeping Chill Cluster that used 12 lit flames behind his back to propel himself forward in the air.
(Refer to Ch.476).
Unlike that same application, Skullius chose to use a concentration of extreme heat instead of flames which would launch him forward at rapid speed but for shorter distances.
'I'm sure even Alaris would have a hard time facing this big sockethole,' Skullius thought. 'In as much as I would like to blame the sword, I'm certain this bastard is just that good with a sword. Everything in this Cluster seems to just be gifted with incredible Classes. Hmm. But if that is the case, what DOES that sword actually do? Harming anyone who looks at it shouldn't be its limit, right?'
Skullius was right about Hobbu Bobbu simply having astounding skill as his class implied. In fact, the goblin hadn't shown some of the more ridiculous abilities up his sleeves, most of which were actually being brought to the surface because he had a really good weapon. One that ensured that his specific intents were met.
The earlier stunt where Hobbu Bobbu created water enough to fill the crater was actually sponsored by his class. As a Finite Sword god, he could manifest components that created his 'ideal' battlefields. In this case, since there had already been a hole, he simply filled it up with water even though he had nothing among his abilities that could generate basic elements!
With such abilities, Hobbu Bobbu was very confident and frankly, he was interested in seeing what this opponent would churn out next.
Skullius saw the glint of amusement and was irked.
A voraciously amount of mana burst from his body, towering into the sky. As did, Skullius sheathed his sword with a harsh breath.
'It's decided then. The combination of [Elite Swordplay] and the ever incomplete [Swindling Death's Dance] isn't enough for a Sword god, heh.'
Skullius shook his head and brought his hands close together, locking his fingers.
The surge in his mana made Hobbu Bobbu expectant but the sheathing of Demion's Dance disappointed the goblin.
His opponent wasn't going to use his sword anymore?
What a pity.
The eyes of the goblin turned dull and apathetic once more, just as they were before the fight started but Skullius laughed out loud at this.
This guy was something else, huh?
Skullius finally exposed the thousands of tiny light spots around his mana core, swiftly revolving around it.
They were the reason the air was turning heavy, waves washing outward from where he stood.
A total 4,000 super compressed portions of mana were at the Hybrid Luman's disposal.
Since the incident at the Bryne Family Estate, he had taken the issue of lacking enough mana for his big moves very seriously and thus at all times, Skullius had a vast amount of spare mana for use.
Swordsmanship wasn't going to work here.
But what about this?
A radiant light suddenly bloomed violently from behind Skullius, covering a width of over 300 meters and taking to the sky. It maxed out at a height of 700 meters before taking a solid shape. A very complex shape.
It was gigantic mass of golden white bones made of light, thousands of skeletons making its canopy with variations in the number of their sockets depending on which height they were placed!
Mist hissed from their gaping mouths while large black leaves grew at the very top of this construct, lessening the lighting around the world.
The Precept of Light, the Preeminent Attegoth was here!
It was much larger than before and tremendously more powerful, exuding a vast presence that would make weaker opponents feel tiny physically and metaphorically!
Hobbu Bobbu's eyes grew lively once again as he saw this marvellous thing.
What was this?
A divine tree?
A sacred statue?
The goblin's instincts warned him and he fully released the authority he had as a Cluster beast of high calibre.
His purple core exhumed an ungodly, invisible pressure that collided with that of the Preeminent Attegoth, causing a cold, harsh breeze to set around the entire Cluster!
The world grew tens of degrees colder!
Hobbu Bobbu then got in a stance while cautiously focusing on Skullius who was laughing at him with ridicule.
"Now you want to take me seriously?" the Hybrid Luman cackled.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm feeling extra crazy today!"
Skullius wore a mad grin while his blind eyes opened wide.
VWOOOSH!
His mana growled!
Following this, shadows suddenly spawned over a very wide range, their forms circular in shape!
Thousands of objects were dropping from the sky, their masses comically colossal!
Hobbu Bobbu looked up as did the goblins from all over the Cluster.
The world hummed.
These objects that pierced through the veil of smoke had immense weight, so much so that breeze caused by Hobbu Bobbu's unleashed presence grew violent as they fell slowly!
What were these objects?!
Well...
They were enormous [Beads of Malevolence] the size of large towns!
Skullius had maxed out the skill [Bead of Malevolence] to Level 10 only to find that it didn't have growth potential at all.
But that was alright.
He just needed the same balls anyway as with enough mana and control, he could do things like this!
"Don't look away, sockethole," Skullius called in a cold voice towards Hobbu Bobbu who snapped back his attention at him. "I'm far from done."
From Skullius' spatial storage ring, stacks upon stacks upon stacks of weapons flew out, all branded with the mark of half a glowing golden skull!
Some were large.
Some were small.
But all of them were Unique to Legendary grade weapons collected from the Association, from Clusters and from human enemies!
Swords, spears, polearms, glaives, war hammers, shields, axes and even staves could seen!
Over them all, Skullius' mana bellowed around and within them, giving them immense amounts of weight!
Skullius could impart the property of weight even to mana that wasn't his own as long as he linked it to his mana core. However, distributing the weight property to the 15,781 items he had out right now drained his mana extremely quickly.
He couldn't maintain it for long!
To ensure durability and impact though, this was worth it.
Hobbu Bobbu frowned.
This was the calibre of fighter he was up against?
He hadn't expected that.
This was quite surprising but he wasn't too alarmed or afraid.
Skullius knew that this goblin was probably still confident.
Heh.
Luckily, he was also pretty confident. He knew each and every effect that all these items had. In fact, now that he had the [Omniscient Thought Cracker], the memory of these weapons' abilities were more effectively stored and used to form an elaborate plan!
"Go!" Skullius said as he gave a command that the Precept of Light executed quickly!
The massive [Beads of Malevolence] dropping from the sky slowly suddenly blurred, causing a deafening shriek in the air and thousands of explosions that erupted into calamitous gusts of wind all around the Cluster!
Before a breath's worth of time could pass, one of the massive balls was already upon Hobbu Bobbu with its immensity from the right!
At the exact same time, two hundred of the weapons hanging in the air also blurred, zigzagging intentionally as they rushed towards the goblin!
Also...
The Hybrid Luman moved, silvery footprints appearing in front of him that took him away at an atrocious speed!
This was Skullius' third and most powerful speed buffing skill, [Destined Warp Steps]!
With it, Skullius could manifest up to 100 sets of prints at once, placing them wherever he wanted to go – literally anywhere. The distance between each set of steps couldn't exceed more than 400 meters but as long as Skullius matched his feet with the first set of steps he created, he could move at 12 times his usual maximum speed, his movements following the trail he had set accurately!
At each set of prints, Skullius had half a second, devoid of the external time flow, where he could do whatever he desired before continuing with the sequence he had laid. This made instances where he appeared as multiple individuals possible!
This skill had had the tag 'Greatest' attached to it before it too was influenced by the power of the Insurgent Magnus like [Boundless Evil]. As a result, though, it had grown massively stronger than it was supposed to be.
Skullius' figure appeared high in the sky, holding a long brown spear in its hand.
He grinned with pure malice that bellowed out as Mortal Ruin around him as he cocked his arm and threw the spear with all his might at Hobbu Bobbu below!
The power of Gravity was applied!
The spear tagged with Skullius' mana was pulled by the ground underneath the water on which Hobbu Bobbu stood on, causing the spear to hurtle madly at its target!
This, the [Beads of Malevolence] and the two hundred plus weapons rushing through the air was the ecstatic Hybrid Luman's first full power assault...!
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