Chapter 436: Fighting as a Couple
Further away, on a rocky eminence overlooking the melee, Jasper Del Luna remained motionless... His white blindfold was still perfectly in place over his eyes. For Jasper, sight was nothing more than a useless distraction. His <Moon Eye> and Luna senses allowed him to perceive every vibration of mana, every shift in the air with surgical precision.
He drew his longbow, a silver mana arrow materializing between his slender fingers. Lynn Of Lake stood right behind him, her arms wrapped around the archer’s waist. She closed her eyes, merging her own elemental water mana with Jasper’s lunar essence.
"Strike them at the heart of their formation, Jasper... I’ll handle the multiplication," murmured Lynn, her voice a cool breath against the albino’s ear.
Jasper released the string. The arrow split the space at a speed beyond comprehension. Thanks to Lynn’s massive mana contribution, Jasper activated his lineage technique.
< Reflection of the Moon on Water >
In mid-flight, the single arrow divided. It did not merely multiply physically; it created dozens of water clones, deadly liquid projections each possessing the power of the original... Every clone pierced an S-rank Lycht attempting to prepare a necrotic spell from a distance.
The heads of the undead mages exploded, their essences dissipating in inaudible screams. The arrows continued their trajectory, nailing entire rows of skeletons to the ground and creating an impassable safety perimeter around their position.
While Jasper and Julian held their lines, Nox Walpurgy found himself at the heart of the most dangerous zone: the absolute frontline... He fought like a man possessed, ignoring the superficial wounds that streaked his arms covered in black blood. His red lightning of destruction crackled violently around him, disintegrating everything that carried the slightest trace of evil mana.
He had just seized the skull of a skeleton with his bare hands, his fingers sinking into the empty eye sockets before releasing an anti-magic discharge that pulverized the creature into foul dust.
"Next! Is that all Spectrum has to offer?" roared Nox, his eyes shining with demented excitement.
Rosalinda van Spina, who was supposed to stay back to heal Nox, seemed to have lost all trace of her gentle and fearful personality... Her long green hair whipped the air like living vines. Dominated by her alter ego Lady Spina, she was no longer the healer. She struck the ground violently with her palms.
< Nature Magic: Savage Thorns >
A forest of black, sharp thorns burst from the stone. A thick vine, bristling with poison-impregnated thorns, passed a few millimeters from Nox’s neck, tearing off a shred of skin as it went... The thorn did not stop and wrapped around five elite skeletons, crushing them with such force that bone marrow spurted onto the ground before tearing them to pieces.
Nox jumped, bringing a hand to his bleeding throat. He turned toward Rosalinda, his eyebrows furrowed with rage.
"What the hell are you doing?" growled Nox over the roar of combat.
Rosalinda stared at him, her green eyes devoid of any compassion, shining with a cold and accusatory gleam. She did not heal his wound; on the contrary, she made new thorns spring up around him.
"Where were you this whole time, you filthy dog?" asked Rosalinda.
Nox used a lateral <Dash> to avoid a rusty axe while decapitating a skeleton with a backhand charged with aura. "Huh? But I was training in the deep rifts! This is not the time for your crises, Rosie!"
"You left me alone in this shitty Academy for months!" shouted Rosalinda, exploding a new row of thorns that pulverized a group of skeleton archers. "You were with another bitch! That’s it! I bet it was one of those Yggdrasil elves!"
Nox clicked his tongue in annoyance. He had to perform an aerial pirouette to avoid a thorn that seemed to target him deliberately more than the monsters. "You’re completely crazy!! Come back to reality, we’re in the middle of a war!"
"Your reality is a lie, Nox!" retorted Lady Spina, her hands tracing complex magical circles that summoned increasingly aggressive roots. "If I find a single trace of another woman on you, I swear I’ll turn your guts into fertilizer for my thorns!"
Julian, who had just broken the guard of a death knight a few meters away, stopped, his sword suspended. He observed Nox narrowly avoiding one of Rosalinda’s thorns that could have pierced his liver.
"But what the..." stammered Julian, completely bewildered by the scene.
He turned toward Norah who, for her part, seemed to find the situation extremely entertaining, continuing to burn skeletons while watching the duel. Julian shook his head, not understanding how these two could fight each other while an army of a hundred thousand dead encircled them.
’They’re really going to end up killing each other before we reach the bastion,’ thought Julian with a hint of worry. ’Jasper is right... the people from Babylon are complete psychopaths.’
Nox, cornered by a wave of skeletons and the thorns of his own girlfriend, released a massive shockwave.
< Aura of Destruction >
The gray energy explosion swept away the monsters and temporarily pushed back Rosalinda’s thorns. "Listen to me carefully, Rosie! If we survive this day, I’ll let you dissect me if it makes you happy, but for now, kill these bone sacks instead of aiming at me!"
Rosalinda let out a scream of pure rage, but she redirected her attacks toward a group of approaching Bone Golems.
"Tsk. You annoy me!"
Nox took advantage of this respite to dash toward a new Lycht, his red lightning tearing through the darkness of Tenebris.
Despite their quarrels and the surrounding madness, the Dark Tetrad and their partners advanced inexorably. The ground was now littered with debris, broken ice, and ashes. The Spectrum Bastion finally appeared more clearly through the mist.
***
The Dark Tetrad, accompanied by Lynn, Norah and Rosalinda, stood in the middle of a carpet of bones and frost. The silence that followed was short-lived. Julian Frostvine sheathed his blade casually, wiping a drop of icy sweat from his temple.
"We can’t waste any more time here," declared Jasper Del Luna, his voice as monotone as the wind sweeping the scoria. "The Bastion is right behind this veil."
Julian turned his head toward the three women. Norah Walpurgy seemed barely out of breath, her piercings shining with a provocative gleam under the purple sky, while Rosalinda, still under the influence of her Lady Spina personality, observed the remains of the Lichts with manifest contempt. Lynn Of Lake, for her part, was already maintaining a water barrier to filter the toxic emanations.
