Chapter 303 Rat
As the fight raged on, the power kept surging for the prince, and his body was getting more powerful and stronger. With the involvement of the crystals, he was able to attain the heights and even go through the roof.
Raphael was aware of that fact and had been observing the prince and his surroundings. Since before the start of the fight, he intended to let his opponent attack him as much as he wanted in order to strive for his objective, to get as much information as possible about the source of his powers and the effects of the remaining crystals.
Once Richard was done with his continuous barrage of attacks, it was Raphael's turn to take the offensive. For his first move, he decided to go with a sword art technique. Holding the hilt of his sword with both hands, he positioned his sword at the back.
"Sky Tearer."
In an instant, he swung his sword diagonally toward the hovering prince at tremendous speed. A crescent-shaped, incredibly fast, and sharp wave was created by the slash, and the Level 9 technique was flying at several Machs toward the prince.
"?! Bastion of Glory!"
Sensing the danger of the attack, the crown prince immediately deployed a virtually invincible barrier around him, and since he was not a warrior for starters, he instinctively covered his head with his arms.
The shield successfully blocked the deadly wave, but the impact still blasted the bubble along with him. The wave was so powerful that when Richard tried to look behind him, the clouds were even split in half. He let out an internal sigh of relief for barely making it alive.
However, that was just the beginning.
"Ugh...!"
When the barrier deactivated a second later, the prince suddenly felt that everything had gone drastically heavy. Raphael had cast Force Magic Level 5: Gravity Field around the prince and had him carry the force twice to the Earth's sun's surface gravity.
A few moments later, the powerful gravitational pull he was feeling really put a burden on his body, and he eventually lost control of it. He tried to fly away, but the gravity was immensely powerful, causing his body to quickly drop to the surface with a loud crashing sound. Not to mention, the ground below him seemed to burrow deeper due to the extreme compression.
"Ack! Let me get out of here, brat!"
Instead of responding to him, Raphael just walked forward before crouching down before his immobilized body. Typically, killing the opponent was one of the ways to win a battle, but killing the prince was not Raphael's purpose. In addition, he did not want to be called a royalslayer.
"But before I do that, let me ask you some questions. Where did you get those powers?"
His real intention was to conduct an interrogation of the prince. Raphael could just read his memories through Extra Skill: Mental Dive, but apparently, there was something that was stopping him from doing so. Which was why he ended up doing it the classical way.
"Ha ha ha! Do you really think I would do that?! I'd rather die than betray that person!"
"I see."
Richard just laughed at Raphael's inquiry. Raphael let out a sigh and stood up. Suddenly, Raphael cancelled the spell, and the heavy gravity Richard carried immediately disappeared. Not knowing the reason, Richard stood back and distanced himself from the young man.
"You fool! You just missed the golden opportunity to kill me! It was a one-in-a-million chance, and yet you let it slip!"
"That's a good one, Your Highness, but I think you misunderstood something. You see, the things you have been showing off were kind of, you know, boring to me. I am planning on killing you anyway, so I am giving you the last chance to entertain me a little more. Do you still have crystals with you, don't you?"
"Wh-wha—?!"
Upon seeing him smile sadistically, Richard suddenly felt anxiety and dread. Before he realized it, Raphael had been toying with him the whole time. That truly terrified him, and his views on Raphael changed. For him, he was like a cat staring at a cornered rat.
Various feelings and emotions were coursing wildly through his mind and body at that moment. But eventually, all his emotions were overwhelmed by his burning rage. He could not just accept that much humiliation, and all he wanted to do was crush the person who brought him down.
"You! You're going to pay for dishonoring me with your life!"
Fueled by rage, he took all three remaining crystals, whose hues were sage, onyx, and transparent, and crushed them all to pieces in his hand. Soon after, the effects simultaneously took effect in his body, and he became much stronger than ever before.
"So those are the effects," Raphael nodded as he checked his stats. "The white one seems to grant you magic."
"Shut up, brat! Mana Blast!"
With the power of the white crystal, which granted mastery to magic spells, Richard thrust his palm forward, and a magic circle appeared before a cannon of pure mana was unleashed from it. It was a frighteningly powerful Level 10 Pure Magic spell that could obliterate virtually anything, and it was fired toward Raphael.
There was a very small chance for Level 7: Anti-Magic Barrier to intercept the spell, so Raphael brushed off the idea. Instead, he silently cast a World Magic spell, Level 1: Anti-Magic, into his sword and slashed the Mana Blast in half in a literal sense, rendering the spell cancelled.
"What?!"
Unsure of what he just witnessed, Richard tried to fire the same spell again and again, but his efforts miserably failed. He desperately cast several spells of each element one after another, and the results did not change that much. The only thing he did was destroy the vicinity.
"What are you, a monster?! If so, you just have to face one!"
Upon his command, the effect of the black crystal was finally triggered, and thick, black fog surrounded the prince. All of a sudden, the fog was immediately blown away, and then Richard reappeared. Behind him was the Fire Dragon he just summoned through the crystal.
"O, great dragon, I order you to burn him—?!"
A few seconds later, the red dragon was summoned, its head separated from its neck, and it fell to the ground. The dragon might be powerful and tough, but it was only around Level 700. The dragon was so weak compared to Raphael that its neck did not show resistance when it was sliced by Raphael's fast, sharp, and silent Wind Magic Level 8: Wind Disk.
"What?! You killed a dragon in one shot?!"
"And you're next, although not in one shot, but piece by piece."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"I mean it literally."
"Eeek!"
As soon as Raphael started walking toward him, Richard could not help but step back in fear. He blinked once, and he suddenly disappeared. Thinking he was having delusions, he blinked again, and Raphael reappeared, but holding a severed arm. When the anesthesia subsided, Richard gradually felt the pain and realized his left arm was lost.
"Aaaah... AAAHHHH!!!"
Seeing his amputated arm, he screamed in excruciating pain. He reflexively let go of his adamantite longsword and held the end of the amputated arm. It was the last second decision that he remembered he still had an effect to trigger.
"Come on! Grow back!"
Almost immediately, his arm gradually regenerated and grew back in a second. That was what the green crystal could do, giving Richard the Infinite Regeneration extra skill.
"Oh, an Infinite Regeneration. With that skill, I could sever your limbs as much as I desire. This suddenly went more interesting."
"Don't! Don't get near me!"
From that moment on, the torture began.
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