Chapter 971 Against Bloods
Skullius had accommodated the possibility of Demion's Dance being unable to kill off this creature in one move. He wasn't at all surprised when the blade was parried. Since he didn't have a way to sense how strong his opponent was, his enemy's feats would have to do as a measurement scheme. The Hybrid Luman loathed the fact that he had to find out in real time like this. Like a backward savage.
On the bright side, he judged that his opponent's reaction speed was way beyond that of even Maqian Masters at least, which meant that he was likely dealing with an opponent that scaled – at least physically – to the Incandescent Stage.
'What is that blood ability?' Skullius thought as he floated back.
Ashema drew the blood from the corpses below with style and ease. He painted a massive portion of the dark, aerial battlefield crimson, with part of the large volumes of the blood that didn't enter his gourd seemingly being rendered for basic attack.
Said basic attacks came in the next moment…
"Blooded Brook!" Ashema cried with glee, and the blood swimming in the air lunged at Skullius with great speed. It simply came as a tidal wave that aimed to smother him or perhaps knock him down to the ground.
The Hybrid Luman used [I Am The World] to zip away and appear right above Ashema, cocking his arm back which had the reddish black sleek armor over it, revealed when he pulled back the arm to his robe.
Ashema immediately looked up, his eyes livid with interest rather urgency.
At once, blood shot from his gourd with a terrifying bang noise erupting from its mouth!
…!
Skullius was a little surprised by its velocity. Shaped like an arrow, the blood whizzed through the air faster than Demion's Dance, and the Hybrid Luman only managed to dodge when it was almost jabbing at his forehead.
The click of Skullius' tongue in annoyance sounded a micro fragment of time later when he appeared right beside Ashema his fist already blowing back the stagnant air between him and Ashema's side.
The dark creature grinned a bit nervously. His scythe swung to block Skullius' knock away Skullius' fist or better yet, sever it, but it was a bit too late.
BAM!
The force that struck Ashema's side was much, much more devastating that he thought. It was enough to kill him outright.
And it would have…
Space turned bloated, then a ruthless shockwave rolled out in all directions. It rose and fell simultaneously, casting a terrible storm in the Aurora below which swept the several living individuals within it in numerous directions, regardless of their Stage!
This was the might of the capacity of the tons Skullius could apply to his physical power, but because he hadn't quite fully adapted to dodging the arrow of blood and attacking at a different angle than he had initially planned, the effect wasn't as strong as he had wanted.
Still, anyone on the receiving end of such power was doomed to explode into chunks.
And that was what should have happened, yet…
…!
Ashema bled from his eyes, nose and mouth, the grin on his face being marred by the red gushing from between his teeth. His armor – which looked like it was forged out of fallen beasts foreign to Aigas – was perfectly fine, even where Skullius' fist had hit.
It seemed…
'Did it absorb my attack?' Skullius questioned as he narrowed his eyes.
Immediately, he willed Demion's Dance to strike as Ashema vomited a mouthful of blood. The green hanger blurred as it once again aimed for the dark creature's neck.
Simultaneously, however, the flood of blood which had been cast earlier, had finally managed to dash back in time, covering Ashema and hardening into a massive, compact sphere!
By the time the cocoon rushed to close, Skullius had flashed out of the way, appearing higher in the sky. Demion's Dance, which hadn't been fast enough to reach Ashema shot up next to him.
'That armor. It took most of the force from my blow. It's quite resilient…' Skullius thought.
The scythe.
The gourd.
The armor.
The blood.
These were – so far – the most important points of this opponent.
'Funny. I thought I'd only have to worry about Territories and Creeds…' Skullius thought, considering how he should break the blood cocoon.
However…
CAW! CAW!
Skullius felt a large, dark bird appear behind him, and immediately after, an immense cloud of odd darkness was conjured around it, rapidly forming a black, spinning oval with a purplish centre. In the fractions of time that followed, Ashema sped from the whirling darkness – a portal of sorts – with alarming speed!
His ashen cheeks were inflated, his gourd in hand, but not his scythe.
He was five inches from Skullius when he rapidly spat shots of blood shaped like arrows right at the Hybrid Luman, a loud bang issuing from his lips each time!
As stunned as Skullius was, he managed to dodge the first shot, which had already carved lightly into his neck by the time the Preeminent Attegoth automatically cast [I Am The World] on his behalf.
'Those blood arrows…' Skullius thought as he emerged fifty meters away… only to find that seven blood arrows were already inches from his position again. 'Damn it!'
The Hybrid Luman's figure flashed from point to point, but the blood arrows accelerated furiously to reach him in an instant!
Skullius frowned.
What kind of attack was this?
He couldn't sense mana or anything in those arrows, but he could already tell that receiving them wasn't a good option.
'Is it the gourd… or is it just how he fires the blood?' Skullius wondered. The blood arrows were extremely fast, but just now, Ashema had spat them from his mouth. That said, last time, it had been the gourd that fired them off.
Skullius dodged and ducked as he soared… until he felt darkness gather above him and a large scythe issue from it at tremendous speed right when he had just evaded a blood arrow!
The scythe was wielded by a charred hand that didn't fully expose itself from the dark gateway.
…
As Skullius could fully automate the activation of skills through the Preeminent Attegoth which shared his skills, he could have dodged, however…
When the curved, ebony blade came, he faced it and applied the full force of both the gravitational effect of his own mana, and its <WEIGHT> property to himself.
MBINGGGG!
Other than attacking, the 1,7 million tons of weight Skullius had could be applied to defense, and that was exactly what Skullius did while also fixing his position in space.
The scythe bit into him, but could hardly even cause a scratch on his armor, thus the rough impact.
To retaliate, Skullius sent Demion's Dance soaring into the gateway, sinking within it to appear on what was reflected behind it and finally… it tasted blood.
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