The whole scene was shocking. The brief look of shock that registered on Valarie's face was a clear testament to the fact that even she had been taken unawares by the masked man's new growth.
But as a seasoned mage who had been tested by battle, Valarie quickly recovered. Like a cobra whose tail had been stepped on, Valarie prepared to strike back with an equally destructive attack.
But once again, her opponent surprised her. The masked man's theme seemed to be unpredictability, Valarie realized this with his next attack.
With the air charged with the unmistakable energy of battle and chaos, Valarie's vision was tinged with red. So, as she looked on, it was almost as if she was watching in slow motion.
The most logical thing at that instant was for the masked man to rush at her with his new ability, but instead, Valarie watched with a mixture of horror, disappointment and fear as he rushed towards her students. She clenched her fists as she immediately moved to counter him.
Praying that she would make it just in time to fend off his attack, Valarie cursed him inwardly;
"This sicko! What type of demented sycophant attacks defenseless teenagers!!??"
She was just about to find out.
Dahila's face twisted in a sick smile when she saw that the enemy had chosen to willfully ignore the super mage that was Valarie and had instead turned on the group. Judging by the look on her face, it was almost as of the ice queen was glad that the attacker was coming towards them.
As Alissa cringed and Zavier remained undecided, the proactive Dahila took the initiative as usual. She stretched out her arms as though she was gliding like a bird, then she lifted up her arms towards the sky like she was a shaman about to call down rain.
Her eyes turned a milky white and immediately, the temperature dropped by at least fifty degrees in less than a second. What followed was simply remarkable.
Even Zavier was impressed. He finally understood why she had been in such a hurry to attack her enemy surging towards them at lightning speed. Clearly after her last defeat at the hands of Shiranui, Dahila had refined her move.
Even the climate responded to Dahila's cold summons. Thick heavy storm clouds appeared overhead, blotting out the sun completely.
Then suddenly, what seemed like heavy hailstones shaped like arrows descended upon the masked man. Almost as if the climate had a mind of its own, angry looking ice prisms honed in on just the masked man from all sides like divine judgment.
Somewhere in the back, Alissa screamed in awe. Dahila merely kept the sick smile plastered on the lower part of her face.
"The masked man is finished…"
She whispered to herself in a congratulating tone.
The smile on Dahila's face quickly faded as she saw the impossible happen before her eyes. She didn't even have the time to reprimand herself for presumptuously announcing her victory. The masked man moved like lightning through a storm.
To Dahila, it genuinely seemed like time had slowed down just for him. Somehow, he dodged every single wave of Dahila's lethal ice prisms with a tarrying series of maneuvers.
In fact, not only had he managed to do that, he had gained a considerable distance on them within the blink of an eye.
Dahila wasn't quick enough to respond. In less than a nanosecond, the masked man who had been at last ten to fifteen feet away from the group suddenly appeared right outside the barrier.
Unable to keep up with his movements, Dahila and Alissa only knew that the masked man had struck the surface of the golden barrier when a shattering BOOM quaked their little protective space.
BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
The deafening crash came again and again with the unrelenting energy of a predator at the door of its prey. For those inside of the protective barrier, it was no joke at all. To Alissa, it seemed like her whole world was falling apart.
The very earth on which they all stood re-echoed the urgency of the situation.
Alissa's eyes flipped around wildly, hoping to find a little solace in the midst of the ensuing chaos all around her. She glanced at Dahila, the ice queen clearly still hadn't gotten over the fact that her ultimate attack hadn't as much as grazed the madman actively trying to break into their protective barrier. Alissa was too terrified to even cry.
At that point, the only struggle Alissa was involved in was having to fight back the horrible imaginations running through her mind.
She fought not to dwell on the unspeakable things the masked man would do if he indeed managed to break through.
Zavier on the other hand had his eyes fixated on the masked man. With his time-space eye, Zavier was able to detect a new mutation in the masked man's physiology.
Right on his left fist, on the very hand he was using to constantly badger the barrier, a hard, cone-shaped bone had formed in top of his fist.
The impact of this Cone-shaped bone on the barrier gave off a thundering BOOM. Each collision with the boundary sent maddening shock waves through the Barrier, weakening it and causing it the golden glow to dim.
The earth quaked beneath them.
Zavier knew that if just one of these attacks were to land on any of them, it would be instant death for them.
Valarie finally caught up with the masked man. From behind, she slashed at him with her golden palm, he didn't even as much as glance at her, the vicious assailant simply sidestepped an avoided her attack without lifting his head in her direction.
Valarie pressed on her advantage. She kept advancing, trying her possible best to keep as much distance between him and the barrier.
Valarie was convinced at the time that the reason the masked man had been so fixated on the barrier was that he was using it against her as her weakness.
But there was just something about the way he had so insanely unrelenting in his attacks on the three students.
Valarie noted that during that brief period of his attack, his animal-like resilience had been like a fox, fighting to enter a chicken's roost.
Clearly he was strong enough to go toe to toe with her but even now, after she had forced him back, he wasn't attacking her with the ferocity she had been expecting.
Valarie couldn't figure out why he was so fixated on going around her. So, she fought to keep him away from the barrier.
The masked man soon caught on to what Valarie was doing. That was when he snapped. Pale, rock-hard bones began to sprout not just from his fist this time, but from his torso. As they emerged out from his body, they tore through his clothes and rendered his apparel useless.
His new form was frightening.
The assailant now resembled a human porcupine with pale bones (the color of elephant tusks) sticking out of him like an acupuncture doll model. Valarie knew that he had taken this form because she was in his way of getting to the students.
This troubled her deeply. But she didn't have the luxury of being worried, at that moment, just when she thought things couldn't get worse, the sickening bones sticking out began to shoot out of the assailant's body like a real porcupine.
Everyone watched the atrocious sight as bones flew out of his body like arrows. The scene was cringe worthy.
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