The World Is Mine For The Taking

Chapter 1504: Chapter 213 - Leon Vs. Pride (2)

Lucielle might have been far more than I had originally bargained for.

That realization had been sitting at the back of my mind for quite some time, and the longer this battle continued, the harder it became to ignore. As I steadied my breathing and tightened my grip around Ayuru’s handle, I found myself staring at the woman across the battlefield and wondering if I had underestimated her from the very beginning.

Lucielle stood calmly amidst the destruction she had created.

The ground surrounding her had been completely devastated. Massive cracks stretched across the battlefield in every direction, carving through the earth like scars left behind by some catastrophic natural disaster. Entire sections of terrain had vanished after being struck by her attacks. Some places had been blasted apart so thoroughly that it was impossible to tell what they had originally looked like.

Despite all of that destruction, Lucielle looked completely unaffected.

She wasn’t breathing heavily.

She wasn’t showing signs of fatigue.

She wasn’t even slightly strained.

If anything, she looked disappointed.

The expression on her face almost made it seem as though she had expected much more from me than what I had shown so far.

The shadows surrounding her executioners slowly drifted back toward her body before dissolving into darkness.

For several moments, neither of us made a move.

The battlefield became eerily quiet.

The silence felt strange after everything that had happened.

Then Lucielle released a quiet sigh.

"Honestly, this is becoming frustrating."

I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her.

"Oh? And why would that be?"

"You keep surviving."

"Well, surviving tends to be the objective in a fight."

"I wasn’t asking for commentary."

"That’s fair enough."

One of her eyes twitched slightly.

The reaction almost made me smile.

Unfortunately, only almost.

The darkness surrounding her suddenly erupted outward.

The pressure pouring from her body was noticeably heavier than before. The surrounding air trembled violently, while the earth beneath her feet cracked even further. Large chunks of stone began lifting from the ground around her and floated through the air.

The frightening thing was that she wasn’t even controlling them directly.

The sheer density of her mana was affecting the environment all on its own.

That particular observation did absolutely nothing to improve my mood.

Lucielle slowly raised one hand.

The floating debris immediately launched outward.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Dozens of explosions erupted across the battlefield.

The stones weren’t merely being thrown.

Every piece had been coated in compressed dark mana.

Whenever one struck the ground, it detonated with enough force to carve enormous craters into the earth.

I immediately dashed forward.

Remaining stationary seemed like an excellent way to get myself killed.

A massive chunk of stone exploded behind me.

The resulting shockwave chased after me.

Another projectile crossed directly into my path.

Ayuru flashed through the air.

The stone split apart instantly.

The darkness hidden inside erupted outward.

A violent wave of destructive mana surged directly toward me.

Guardian activated immediately.

The barrier flickered into existence.

Even so, the force of the impact still shoved me several meters backward.

Lucielle had already started moving.

The problem was that she wasn’t simply fast anymore.

She was absurdly fast.

The distance between us disappeared almost instantly.

Her fist shot directly toward my chest.

I twisted my body at the last possible moment.

The punch narrowly missed.

The air behind me exploded.

An entire section of the battlefield collapsed.

I glanced toward the newly formed crater.

"Yeah, that definitely would’ve hurt."

Lucielle didn’t seem interested in responding.

Instead, she attacked again.

Then she attacked again.

And then she attacked yet again.

Every movement carried enough force to devastate the landscape around us. Every missed strike left destruction in its wake.

One kick shattered the ground.

One punch generated a violent shockwave.

One palm strike erased an entire section of stone.

The battlefield was rapidly turning into an even more of a wasteland.

Meanwhile, I focused entirely on staying alive.

I continued blocking attacks whenever possible, dodging whenever necessary, deflecting strikes whenever opportunities appeared, and launching counterattacks whenever I found an opening.

The problem was that those openings were becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Lucielle was getting faster.

Much faster.

At the start of the battle, I could follow her movements without too much trouble.

Now she was beginning to blur.

Dark afterimages lingered behind her every time she moved. The air screamed around her movements as though reality itself was struggling to keep up.

At this point, even her executioners would probably have trouble tracking her.

Lucielle seemed to realize that as well.

A small smile appeared on her face.

It wasn’t the smile of someone feeling confident.

It wasn’t the smile of someone acting arrogant.

Instead, it was the smile of someone who had finally found something entertaining.

That was probably terrible news for me.

"You can still follow my movements?" she asked.

"I can follow enough to avoid dying."

"Interesting."

The moment she finished speaking, she disappeared from sight.

She hadn’t literally vanished.

She had simply accelerated so quickly that my eyes momentarily lost track of her.

My instincts reacted before my vision could catch up.

I immediately raised Ayuru.

CLANG!

A violent impact slammed into the blade.

The force traveled through my arms and shattered the ground beneath my feet.

Before I could fully recover, Lucielle appeared behind me.

A moment later, she appeared above me.

Then she appeared to my left.

Then she appeared directly in front of me.

Every position was accompanied by another attack.

BOOM!

CLANG!

BOOM!

CLANG!

The battlefield shook continuously as explosions erupted around us. Dust clouds filled the air, cracks spread across the earth, and several nearby hills of dirt and sand were flattened by stray shockwaves.

The frightening part was that Lucielle wasn’t even using techniques anymore.

Pure physical power alone was causing all of this destruction.

Then she suddenly jumped backward.

Darkness gathered around her.

A tremendous amount of darkness gathered around her.

The amount was enough to immediately make me narrow my eyes.

The shadows surrounding her condensed into dozens of floating spheres.

Then dozens became hundreds.

The sky itself seemed to darken.

That definitely wasn’t an encouraging sight.

Lucielle slowly raised her hand.

The countless spheres floated upward.

They continued rising higher and higher into the sky until they resembled a field of black stars hanging above the battlefield.

Then she pointed downward.

Every single sphere descended simultaneously.

The world exploded.

The first impact erased a section of earth.

The second obliterated another sand hill.

The third generated a shockwave powerful enough to launch debris hundreds of meters away.

After that, the explosions became impossible to distinguish from one another.

The battlefield transformed into a sea of destruction.

Dark mana erupted in every direction.

The earth repeatedly collapsed beneath the bombardment.

Massive pillars of dust and sand rose into the sky.

I continued moving through the chaos.

I jumped whenever necessary.

I dodged whenever possible.

I blocked whatever I couldn’t avoid.

Most importantly, I worked very hard not to die.

Explosions surrounded me from every direction.

Some descended from above.

Some erupted beneath my feet.

Others detonated only a few meters away.

Honestly, it looked as though Lucielle had decided that destroying the entire battlefield was easier than targeting me directly.

I couldn’t even say the logic was flawed.

One particularly large sphere crashed nearby.

The resulting explosion launched me backward.

I flipped through the air before landing on my feet.

The moment I touched the ground, I raised Ayuru once again.

CLANG!

Lucielle appeared directly in front of me.

Again.

She seemed strangely committed to that particular strategy.

My and her weapon, which is just a concentrated mana that had formed into a blade, collided.

Darkness surged around her.

Mana surged around me.

The resulting shockwave blasted outward.

The ground beneath us vanished.

For a brief moment, we remained locked together.

Then Lucielle pushed forward.

The force behind her attack increased.

Then it increased again.

Then it increased yet again.

The pressure continued climbing.

The earth beneath my feet cracked further.

Lucielle narrowed her eyes.

She didn’t look particularly amused.

Then again, I wasn’t entirely convinced she knew what amusement looked like.

Without warning, she retreated.

The darkness surrounding her expanded outward.

Large black wings made entirely from condensed mana emerged from her back.

The shadows stretched outward.

The pressure surrounding her intensified once again.

Then she rose into the sky.

I watched her ascend.

Lucielle looked down at me.

The wings spread wider.

The amount of mana pouring from them was absurd.

Then she accelerated.

The sky cracked with a sonic boom.

A moment later, she descended.

The speed of her descent was ridiculous.

The trail of darkness behind her resembled a falling meteor.

I immediately moved.

Lucielle crashed into the battlefield.

BOOM!

The resulting explosion flattened everything nearby.

A massive crater formed instantly.

The shockwave expanded hundreds of meters outward.

Dust filled the air.

Chunks of earth flew into the sky.

Before the dust could even settle, Lucielle launched herself upward again.

Then she descended once more.

Then she launched upward again.

Then she descended yet again.

Every impact generated another catastrophic explosion.

The battlefield was becoming increasingly unrecognizable.

At this point, calling it a battlefield felt generous.

It looked more like the aftermath of several natural disasters colliding with one another.

Lucielle hovered in the air once more.

The darkness surrounding her churned violently.

The black wings behind her spread to their full size.

She looked less like a person and more like destruction given physical form.

Then she slowly raised both hands.

Dark mana gathered above her.

The amount was enough to distort the surrounding air.

A massive sphere began forming overhead.

It continued growing larger and larger with every passing moment.

Its shadow covered a significant portion of the battlefield.

Lucielle stared down at me from above.

"You’ve lasted longer than I expected."

"Thanks. I think."

"It wasn’t intended as a compliment."

"That seems to be a recurring habit with you."

For the first time, Lucielle actually looked annoyed.

That counted as a small victory.

An extremely small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The enormous sphere continued growing.

The pressure radiating from it was ridiculous.

Even from where I stood, I could feel the mana vibrating through the air.

Lucielle slowly pointed toward me.

The sphere began descending.

The world darkened beneath its shadow.

The ground trembled.

The air shook.

Everything around me seemed to vibrate beneath its overwhelming presence.

I tightened my grip on Ayuru.

The massive attack continued falling from the sky.

As Lucielle watched from above with those black wings spread behind her, it became painfully obvious that she had absolutely no intention of slowing down.

If anything, it felt like she was only getting started.