Chapter 985: Chapter 985: Intense and brutal clash (3)
"Aura transformation." Frost muttered under his breath recognising Rathborne’s current state.
Once a person reaches A-rank their aura can connect with their body on a much deeper level resulting in some unique effects and sometimes transformations.
Rathborne being of tiger beastman decent was able to unlock his ancestral ferocity, growing his physique and enhance his bestial aspects, silver fur rapidly grew and covered much of his body, if his face didn’t retain most of his Sapient features he could easily be mistaken as a beastkin monster like Khuno and his fellow Ronsos.
He had the feeling that Rathborne’s transformation was purer or far more impressive than the standard transformation a regular beastman A-rank would gain access to, seems he had far more talent than he let on.
Cavalish and Baron Glorfile appeared unfazed by his sudden growth, with a swift glance between them they nodded their heads and activated their own special abilities.
"Death God’s envoy." Cavalish’s enhancement conjured a dark deathly energy around his body and three pronged claws; his eyes even became completely white. An offensive ability that would invade his enemy, sapping their stamina as they battled while at the same time allowing him to view the world around him in a slightly different manner.
"Raptor form." Baron Glorfile on the other hand used a very common enhancement among pugilists like himself, his speed and the penetrating power of his strikes increased, simple in nature but once mastered quite devasting especially when using follow through combos, every additional hit would hit harder than the last, a momentum build.
Given his advanced age despite his slightly weaker progress in the early stages of A-rank his aura transformation or aura state as it was sometimes referred to had been mastered to a degree that even those in the mid stages would have to admire him. His direct strength now matched the other two and if you add on his vast experience the man was like a force of nature.
The three moved with purpose no longer holding anything back, unleashing skills worthy of their A-rank status.
Rathborne made the first attack or rather the first two attacks. The mace in his left hand targeted Cavalish while the shield in his right moved to intercept Baron Glorfile.
"[Temple guard’s smite], [Stele of the ancient temple]." A somewhat holy energy that promised to reign down punishment upon offenders, purifying them of their body and sins flowed through Rathborne’s body and wrapped around his large, brutal looking mace. This energy hummed, generating an illusion of prayer and the descent of something that could not be blasphemed. A large tiger beastman dressed in loose fitting robes, eyes radiating a purity that quickly shifted into fury and rage. The image conjured it’s own mace, following behind Rathborne’s swing as it targeted Cavalish and the deathly energy surrounding him.
[Temple guard’s smite] may not be his strongest attack but against someone like Cavalish who fostered dark, death aligned energy such power had a synergetic effect....the damage dealt would likely be 50% greater than normal perhaps even close to double.
Elemental weaknesses, boons and superior states plagued Nova regardless of one’s rank, even Gods could find themselves lacking when facing their natural nemesis....unless you managed to leverage an advantage defeat was assured in such circumstances i.e. fire will always triumph over ice at the same level, but the conditions become less lopsided when using cold flames.
Cavalish fully aware that such holy aspected energy could overwhelm his death aura didn’t back away in fear rather he doubled down. The air around him dropping several degrees as the stench of death and decay grew. A dark, black coloured power raising its head high in conflict with the holy energy summoned by Rathborne.
Light, Life and Holy energy under normal circumstances triumphed over darkness, death and impurity but that only pertained to mortal effigies....what if the darkness, death or impure energy was the aspect of a God? There would be no imbalance rather there’d simply be a difference in deployment and effect.
"[Death by a thousands slashes]" Cavalish with his death God envoy transformation pushed to the limit, allowing him to stand boldly before Rathborne with his own form of purity channelled an expert grade skill promoting speed and sharpness.
The form of a ghostly reaper wailing at the sanctified beastman apparition turned its blue, black hands into three pronged claws similar to what Cavalish was wielding. Their forms grew more distinct and imposing with every passing fraction of a second and when they became almost indistinguishable from reality the two attacked one another.
Rathborne cleaving downward with a single invincible smash and Cavalish rending out strike after strike, using quantity and speed to cut his opponent into ribbons promising to leave a gnarly, unrecognisable corpse.
This face off alone was enough to have Frost, Yuna, Findley and Khuno at the edge of their seats, the power held by these two was unreal. None of them even when working in tandem would be able to survive such destructive prowess yet for Cavalish and Rathborne this was considered standard, a simple use of their aura’s physical transformation and expert grade weapon skills.
Frost was able to understand almost instantly that beneath the pompous and flashy display Rathborne had a slight edge, the nature of his attack and his own strength put him a little higher than Cavalish, but this wasn’t a one on one duel no this was a match between three individuals.
Baron Glorfile was present and no less aggressive than his companion Cavalish but since Rathborne was armed with a shield instead of a second weapon his right hand side opted for a defensive measure. Although incredibly difficult to produce and incredibly taxing on his stamina, equivalent to using four expert grade skills as opposed to two Rathborne had the capability to split his focus and unleash two diametrically opposing skills at the same time.
While [temple guard’s smite] was fully offensive and targeting Cavalish [Stele of the ancient temple] was a fully defensive skill that required a heavy and durable shield to maximise its potential.
Cavalish endured the brunt of Rathborne’s anger as he felt that as a fellow hidden piece of the royal family this attack was orchestrated by him rather than Baron Glorfile from the neutral nobles but if asked who he was more wary of he’d definitely say the Baron hands down.
The man may be old, passed his prime and a resident of the light but his instincts screamed danger, he could not under any circumstance allow the Baron to land a clean blow thus his choice in who to attack and who to defend himself from was calculated logically rather than emotionally.
With the command words activated for [Stele of the ancient temple] helping direct his energy through specific paths another image formed behind Rathborne, occupying a space adjacent to the summoned temple guard. It was in the form of a massive, immovable metal stele decorated with ancient runes and emitting a strange chanting sound as it guarded the entrance to ancient temple, barring all those who didn’t have the qualifications to enter.
Rathborne felt the drain on his body as though he was being pulled apart in two different directions and sucked dry of his stamina, but it was a price he was more than willing to pay. If he didn’t make any reckless moves he’d be slowly exhausted in his battle against Cavalish and Baron Glorfile and inevitably killed.
A unique benefit of activating both [temple guard’s smite] and [stele of the ancient temple] was a synergy effect, each skill boosted the other by about 10% due to having similar origins and natures, this also made it slightly less demanding on his body thus allowing him to effectively utilise two skills at once without any loss in control or efficiency.....at least the first time he did it.
Rathborne’s shield radiated power as the image of the stele behind him imprinted itself on the shield’s face, making it several times heavier and several times more durable. With this he’d be able to withstand anything Baron Glorfile threw at him, of this he was certain.
However, Baron Glorfile seeing himself being chosen as the offender to be on guard against couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.
’Foolish boy, you should never entrench yourself against a pugilist especially not one of my level.’ There’s was a clear tone of contempt in his voice as he spoke internally, seeing Rathborne’s decision to act like a turtle in his presence as foolish, serving him over the hidden blade.
Baron Glorfile’s aura transformation/state was rather standard, simple and without an elemental nature and thus bereft of most weaknesses. Unlike Cavalish his transformation didn’t suffer when facing off against Rathborne’s sanctified energy therefore allowing him to bring out his maximum power without overextending himself.
"[Martial art: Purple sun’s descent]" Facing Rathborne’s shield that was quickly fusing with the ancient stele Baron Glorfile held out his hands and cupped the air as though holding an invisible ball. He roared and funnelled his energy into this space forming a small purple sphere. The sphere grew denser with every passing moment, affecting the air around it like a well of gravity, heralding immense destruction but the Baron was just getting started.
When the sphere was able to maintain itself without his support he retrieved his hands, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before suddenly tensing his whole body.
Fwoosh!
A right fist grazed past the sphere followed by a left then a set of kicks, knees, elbow strikes and all manner of martial arts. Dozens of moves encapsulating the sphere in a single second, making it spin and slightly deform, flashes of his attacks appearing within the sphere itself....a truly strange skill that Frost and his colleagues couldn’t make heads or tails out of...none of them were pugilists and thus had very little understanding towards their techniques.
What they could understand however was that this skill was strong, scary strong.
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