“I want you to strike me with the full force of your lightning!” Dilan stated with a faint smile on his face.
He was actually not looking forward to being struck by a bolt of lightning but he wanted to test something.
“W-Why would I do that? No!” Kathrine immediately rejected, before halting in her tracks in the middle of the street.
She threw him a puzzled look, not understanding what had made him think of such a reckless idea. Dilan had expected a similar reaction but he quickly cleared her doubts.
“Don’t worry, your bolts of lightning won’t kill me. I’m not even sure if they will be strong enough to enter my body because of my Stone Skin trait and my high Health stat.
I just want to test out if I can upgrade my [Thunder Step] ability after being struck by a bolt of lightning. It may be one of the requirements to upgrade the ability. That is if my gut feeling is not completely wrong, otherwise, I will just be a little bit zapped through.”
Dilan kept smiling at her, trying to ease Kathrine’s mind. However, she was still against the idea of attacking Dilan.
Unfortunately, he was persistent and kept convincing her so much that she had to give up after they debated for a good 10 minutes..
“Ok Ok, I’ll do it. Just don’t die on me, alright?” Kathrine felt bothered by Dilan’s nonchalant behavior whenever he spoke about injuring himself.
It was as if he didn’t even care the slightest bit about his well-being. During the last few weeks, there hadn’t been more than four days when he was not overly exhausted, severely injured, in a weakened state, or something similar to all of it combined.
This was truly bothersome, especially for people, who genuinely cared about him.
They didn’t want to see him like this, which was only obvious.
However, Katrine could also understand why Dilan felt the need to become stronger. The Red Dragon’s appearance was something that had struck fear in her heart, and Kathrine knew that all of them would have died if the Red Dragon would have shown even the slightest interest in them.
It was not unlikely that many similar powerful existences such as the Red Dragon had descended on Milarn. There wouldn’t be many of such monsters, otherwise, Milarn would have long since been overtaken by them but the possibility of a few hibernating somewhere could not be ruled out.
That was also why Kathrine, her sister, and many other Ascenders had wanted to enter the Pagoda of Time, despite the apparent danger of possibly dying, and the fact that time passed much faster outside the Pagoda of Time than within.
‘If you’re happy after being struck by my lightning, I will help you…’ Kathrine thought, trying to convince herself that she was doing the right thing.
Activating [Compressed Lightning Strike], the Tier-1 ★★ ability that had evolved from the [Lightning Strike] when advancing to Tier-1, Kathrine used more than 15 Mana at once.
A huge bolt of lightning manifested right in the center of Kathrine’s palms. Charging her attack, an entire second passed before she released the powerful bolt of lightning, aiming straight at Dilan’s chest.
Her attack’s velocity was as fast as a natural bolt of lightning, which was why Kathrine closed her eyes the moment she fired her bolt of lightning.
She could clearly hear Dilan’s muffled grunt before he turned quiet. For several seconds, not a single noise could be heard, except the crackling sound of the bolt of lightning’s remnants that lingered on the ground and Dilan’s clothes.
Kathrine opened her eyes slowly, just to see that Dilan was still standing at the same position as before, seemingly unfazed by what had happened.
“Did you really use your Lightning strike in its strongest form?” He asked, feeling slightly confused.
A hole had been burned in his shirt, but there was nothing else.
‘I did not even wear the Ilran Chestplate so as to lower my Health stat and to let the lightning strike hit me directly…and it’s still not enough?’
“I used 15 Mana with my Tier-1 attack…my occupation’s special trait [Lightning blessing] enhances lightning attributed attacks as well. Even Silver Tier-1 monsters cannot survive this attack….Not just Silver but even Gold Tier-1 monsters would be severely injured by that attack…”
Kathrine tried to defend herself, to explain the situation to Dilan clearly. It was not as if she had held back…which was why even she was confused about how easily Dilan had blocked her attack.
“Well, I guess my Stone Skin special trait and a Health stat of more than 100 Units are the problem then. Your attack was not enough to meet any of the possible requirements I had in mind for the [Thunder Step] ability.”
Saying so, Dilan entered a deep train of thoughts. He was slightly confused about what they should do now because he felt that they had done everything correctly.
When Kathrine’s bolt of lightning impacted him, he could clearly feel that something about the [Thunder Step] ability was reacting.
The ability was engraved on his soul, or the Essence crystal in his head, and he could clearly feel that there was something about the ability, which he would discover sooner or later. The only thing he would have to do was to keep trying.
“Do you have enough mana to attack me once again? The same way as you did before?” Dilan asked. He got an idea and wanted to test it out.
“I have enough left for one more attack, but that’s it. Afterward, we might not be able to enter the Pagoda of Time. We shouldn’t waste the mana replenishment potions that we have with us… Are you sure that it will help you if I strike you with another bolt of lightning?”
Kathrine didn’t want to waste her mana, let alone the few potions they had. She was not sure how helpful it would be to attack Dilan once again either.
So she was reluctant to do so.
However, when the Blazing Serpentine Blade emerged in Dilan’s left hand and he cut the palm of his right hand with it until he started to bleed enough to satisfy him, Kathrine realized what he wanted to try this time.
“Are…are you sure that you want to do that?”
Dilan’s Stone Skin trait would be rendered useless if the bolt of lightning penetrated his skin.
Now that he had cut open his palm, only his Health stat that exceeded 100 Units would protect him from the lethal power of Kathrine’s bolt of lightning.
It was great that Dilan could think of a different way to be attacked, but Kathrine knew that the moment her bolt of lightning entered his body that he could die due to severe internal bleeding resulting from ruptured internal organs.
His muscles might tear apart, his flesh was likely to receive severe burns and it was unlikely for Dilan to overcome her attack as easily as before.
Dilan was aware of this. He knew how dangerous lightning was and that one’s skin was the most important protection layer when it came to surviving being struck by a bolt of lightning.
However, that was not something he could be bothered about.
“Attack me again, but use only a fifth of the Mana you used before.” He commanded. His expression turned grim as he lifted his right hand, the bleeding palm held straight in front of Kathrine.
“O…Ok…Don’t die on me, or I’ll kill you!”
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