The twinkling of abrasive, 'spiced' mana from the explosive attack, as well as chips of rapidly flying debris, with hints of cloud lazily gliding all the way from the second circle, blasted against Skullius' skin.
This kind of attack power was unreal.
It certainly would have scared the average contender shitless, and driven away their hope before Baddan could drive them away from the three circles.
The obscurity bellowing from the distance was quickly washed away by the mild hurricane, and strangely, the tunes still whistling from the ritualistic setup, gave a sombreness to the whole ordeal which Skullius didn't like one bit.
It was like a melody of futility, announcing that the three, had already lost, and were already dead.
Skullius was still alive, and Tallo certainly was, but Maxim's fate wasn't looking too good. After all...
'That was definitely a Super Skill...' Skullius thought gravely.
The colour of one's core determined what kind of skills they could use. White mana cores only supported Normal skills, Blue mana cores supported Normal, and Special skills. Purple cores could heave both the previous, in addition to Super skills, and Gold ones could activate all including Supreme skills.
It went without saying that there was significant jump in strength, as well as versatility and efficiency, with the ascension of a skill's rank. However, as Skullius had been hoping, Genuine Incarnations could counter mana, and mana-based skills, though, if the skills casted by the enemy had a higher quality of mana, for instance Super skills, against a Master who only had a blue core, the advantage wouldn't last long at the very best of cases.
Skullius sped towards the rising heaps of dust, and devastation. He had to see if Maxim was alive. She was likely his only hope, since Tallo had his own agenda, and wouldn't cooperate.
That said, he doubted that Maxim had survived an attack like that.
What had descended from the clouds, was a giant fish made of said dark clouds, the whitish coil of drops of rain, and sparks of thin bolts of lightning around it.
It resembled a large swordfish, and its many, cloud formed teeth looked more dangerous than the blade of the Bashful Abomination. Watching it dig down, and melt the ground with a flash of heat spreading wildly from the impact, was mesmerizingly heart-breaking. If not for the effects of the Super potion Skullius took, he doubted he would survive it himself, and even with that, he had little hope.
Flakes of mana manipulated to create such a violent effect touched his skin as he drew close, discovering, to his surprise, that all the pillars which had been in, and near the attack radius, were unscathed. The ground had been dug in comically deep into bowl-like shape, a nasty scorching glow that spanned to cover almost all of the second circle area overpowering the eye, but beyond that, everything else was intact.
'Tsk...'
Skullius scoured around, first for Baddan, but he couldn't find him.
That made his stomach churn, even though he didn't have one.
A cloak of Null Life Essence was around him, hardening his body significantly, but he wasn't sure it would hold if he took a hit. After all, it was the most basic type of Null Life Essence.
WHAM!
[Primal Caution] belatedly warned Skullius when he was already half way through the second circle, flying at a speed that jumbled his senses!
Before even considering what had hit him, Skullius used [Inferno Burst] – a skill which allowed him to travel short distances quickly by generating sharp bursts of heat – to reduce his momentum, and then flashed to the ground with [Destined Warp Steps]!
Sadly, the ground turned elusive for a moment because of the rapid whirling from the flight, and when Skullius landed, he had barely found his balance when he barely perceived movement to his right!
He wanted to summon the sceptre sword, which he had slotted in his storage after deciding to rush for Maxim, but that would be too slow!
As Null Life Essence rushed through his blood vessels, Skullius focused an outrageous amount of mana into the mana channels all over his body with vicious speed, gave himself the full 155,000 tonnes of weight through said mana, and planted himself to the flat ground with the full effect of gravitational force he could conjure!
A blow he couldn't understand hit him, but he didn't know where exactly it struck, because his whole body seemed to explode with a harshly vibrant sensation that punished the earth beneath his foot as well!
Skullius imagined this was what swords might feel like when they were forced to clash against each other.
He managed to survive the hit, remaining whole, with his feet to the ground.
But then...
....!
Blood burst from Skullius' ears, eyes, nose, and mouth in large quantities.
His body couldn't take the wrestling match between his rigidity, and the external force of the blow, and in addition, his bones seemed to shatter like wood!
Thankfully, Skullius couldn't feel pain, and as soon as he incurred the damage, he was already healing.
'Was that a raw punch?! I didn't sense mana from it!' he thought quickly. If all his effort just now was what it took to not be disintegrated by Baddan's raw strength, then this was a lost cause!
"You are... sturdier than I imagined. I had thought you were the weakest... in your group. Offering you to Appairitoni will be worth while after all..." Baddan's voice came from all around. Or so it seemed. "I shall use an adequate portion of my strength... against you as well..."
'Flesh that!' Skullius thought as he used [Destined Warp Steps] to flee immediately.
Unfortunately, in the midst of following the starry footprints that turns him into a breeze over a vast distance, his neck was suddenly gripped with a cruel force!
Skullius didn't think at all when this happened.
[Swordmaster's Quiescence] was activated, and like before, he channelled it into his immersion within mana!
As it activated, Skullius felt the point of a spear dig below his chin, going upward!
When the mana he called from his core had reached the mana channels close to his ankles, the tip of this spear had sunk close to eye level within his head. When the gravitational effect he intended finally roared out in full force, pulling Baddan to the ground, the spear had almost shot through the top of his head.
...!
Baddan felt the pulling force, and crouched down. But this was only because he was caught off guard!
Skullius didn't care for reasons why though, and had already sent a full power, full weight punch right at the creature's head!
PWA!
Skullius' hand exploded into bloody, bone chipped chunks, the desperate effort he had put in to at least damage Baddan, being insufficient when matched against the creature's raw toughness! It was like punching an iron mountain!
This was cheating!
He couldn't be this tough, right?!
"Curious..." said Baddan as he rose, stabbing Skullius again with the dark, lustreless assegai ten times in a moment. "You feel no pain... don't you?"
Skullius' body whirled, and he found himself smashed to the ground, Baddan's foot on his chest.
"A spear through the head.... and you did not flinch. Truly... I need you in this circle to even dream of killing you..."
Baddan started making another set of hand gestures, and the wind blowing around hurriedly flowed towards the two, becoming intense, with blade like shapes whipping through its body as it accelerated.
Then, Baddan spoke again, as [Primal Caution] pleaded for Skullius to run away before he was sliced to infinitesimally small bits!
"Flow, Tyakuta the Mournful..."
...!!!
As a mass of noisy wind vaguely shaped the dusty form of a large bear-like creature, the interacting gusts turning more chaotic as it moved to drop over Skullius, which, as he could tell, meant his dicey doom, the Hybrid Luman was finally ready to stop holding back for safety's sake.
If his body was eviscerated in a instant, only a Supreme potion had any chance of saving him, not a Super one.
'Flesh it!'
A golden white light had started to rise from his body, when Skullius felt that Baddan's foot was no longer pressing against him.
The silver-furred creature had risen into the air!
A set of mangled hands had wrapped tightly around his waist, and heaved him up, a loud, but muffled voice screaming furiously.
"You could have stabbed me anywhere else! Anywhere! Why the chest, you asshole?!"
Then a nasty boom shook the ground.
Baddan had been supplexed into the ground by Maxim!
She was alive, but, well...
Not a moment later, she screamed at Skullius.
"Kill him!"
Skullius once again, didn't think.
The bear-like creature of gathered, blade like winds collapsed – most likely because Baddan had lost his focus on it – and the Hybrid Luman, holding the sceptre sword had flashed to where Maxim still held Baddan's inverted body which was stuck in the ground from the neck up!
The sword carved through the air with a shriek, its blade sinking through the Sky Watcher's neck cleanly, decapitation him!
'Damn it...' Skullius cursed as Baddan's neck stump spat out dark red blood.
That was too easy.
Even Maxim, who was incredibly disfigured, felt the same despite her rage-stricken face.
She rolled away immediately, and Skullius prepared to use the [Ungodly Flames of Debauchery] stored in his Temporary Storage to burn the body, just in case it was in fact, the real one when... it turned into a clump of dark blue clouds!
The Hybrid Luman's face turned hard, and he turned to Maxim briefly.
She was panting heavily.
While not his intent, Skullius noticed how terrible battered she was.
Her hair had turned black with traces of pink, part of her head bald. Her face was molten, but a few patches of fresh skin slowly – very slowly – appearing on it, told of the fact that she was healing. Her sleek, black armour, with silver rings around the joints was caved, torn, molten, and mangled everywhere, some parts of it becoming one with Maxim.
Her legs and arms were like those of someone who had had them hammered down, before dipping them in acid.
Yet, she was alive.
Skullius didn't know what to say to her.
He didn't have the time to either.
From around them, clumps of clouds began to pop up, and they dissipated a second later revealing something where they had squirmed a moment before.
Baddans. Tens of Baddans.
All of them looked exactly, and felt like Baddan!
"You're kidding me..." Skullius said with a dark expression. Maxim smacked her lips and spat out a shot of blood.
With a closer look at the many enemies, Skullius managed to deduce that each of the Baddan clones weren't the exact same as the Baddan original. They felt slightly... slightly weaker.
He couldn't even tell by how much.
That didn't cheer him up at all.
One of the Baddans opened his mouth to speak.
"Please, do not assume me to be... complacent. I take all my opponents seriously..." he said, as all the clones dashed towards the duo.
Skullius grimaced, and shot to Maxim.
With a heavy tone, he then said:
"Hold on."
And in a flash, Skullius turned into a dark mass of elongated, mist-like ribbons that crawled speedily up high into the sky, Maxim hidden within it!
It was [Boundless Evil]!
Over large stretches of distance, it was more preferable, and much faster than [Destined Warp Steps], though it took a few moments to reach full acceleration.
The distance back to the innermost circle was covered in the blink of an eye, and Skullius and Maxim landed on the ground safely.
The latter had a surprised look on her face, but Skullius had a dark one.
While [Boundless Evil] was a skill only influenced by his Insurgent Magnus powers, making it stronger, and giving it a look a little reminiscent of [Evil Darkness], Skullius still hadn't wanted to reveal it.
Giving the circumstances though; against the fearsome Tier 14 Sky Watcher, he didn't seem to have the luxury of holding all his powers back.
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