Immediately, Haldir's body began its transformation. The dark imp shed his disguise and revealed the abomination he truly was, uncaring about the consequences.
Even when the cocoon broke and revealed his figure, Haldir didn't move. Unlike the other two, it was clear that he retained his sense of self after gaining the unnatural power boost.
Coldly glaring at the three old men around him, Haldir raised his hand. A stream of black energy coalesced and shot out like a beam. Yin Jian's face paled as he narrowly dodged. If he had gotten hit by that attack, he definitely would have been severely injured.
Haldir's aura continued to rise. Even though it was clear his level was still at the peak of 3rd class, his aura was far above that. It might have been comparable to some entry-level 4th class beings.
Damien's face turned solemn. The strength boost Haldir received was much more than that of the other two. Not to mention, Haldir seemed like he could perfectly adapt to his newfound power.
Before his eyes, Haldir began to dominate the three old men from the Cloud Plane. Just like they had done to him before, he backed them into a corner with them barely able to put up a defense.
His claws were faster than their eyes could follow, black beams of energy charged toward them with the goal of obliterating their existence, and even Haldir's bat-like wings seemed to have razor sharp edges that attempted to raze them.
As Damien watched, Rose and Elena arrived at his side. They were stained with pitch-black blood, but their enemy was nowhere in sight. Damien raised his eyebrow as if asking what happened, but he didn't get any proper response. The two only smiled at him before watching the ongoing battle.
"Heaven-Collapsing Strike!"
"Wind Sunders the Sky!"
"Flame Emperor's dominion!"
The three old men let out a barrage of attacks, not wanting to fall behind their enemy. Yet, they weren't able to do significant damage to the opponent whose body now contained properties of Nox.
"Should we help them?" Elena asked with a worried look on her face. She had already been told their identities as otherworld invaders, but she still didn't wish to see them die. At the end of the day, they still helped protect the human race through Asgard.
Rose also looked at Damien. She had figured out by now that Damien had made some sort of deal with them, possibly involving him going to their world, but hadn't said anything about it. She didn't know why he did so, but she didn't question it. There would be time for that later.
Watching the battle, Damien slowly nodded his head. "Alright, I just wanted to make sure that monster's strength wasn't too great for us. Let's go help out."
The first to charge was Elena, followed by Rose and Damien. They entered a small formation around the dark imp, not giving him a path for escape.
Zara had concealed herself within the shadows. She was waiting for the perfect opportunity to freeze him to death.
'Girls, it's probably the wrong time to say this, but this guy will be great to give us battle experience. Let's not go all out for a while.'
A transmission entered their heads, causing the girls to smile. Even against an opponent that seemed disproportionately stronger than them, Damien still considered it as a training opportunity.
Rose drew her scythe while Elena did the same with her sword. The girls then began attacking the dark imp relentlessly. From the front, Elena let out constant slashes imbued with the purifying properties of light element, burning the dark imp's skin. She also used her superior speed to dodge the oncoming attacks.
However, the dark imp was also extremely fast. Elena was barraged with razor-sharp claws at every turn, being forced to parry continuously. Yet, her light element was still able to seep into the dark imp's body.
From range, Rose swung her scythe in a beautiful yet deadly dance. The winds around her kicked into the air before smashing into the dark imp's body. This attack was a new one she'd created, but its main goal wasn't to damage.
The wind moved rapidly and created a vortex of crushing pressure that crashed down onto the dark imp's body. He tried his best to subvert it, but his movements were slowed all the same. No matter which direction he moved, Rose would always accumulate and release her attacks to increase the pressure he was feeling.
Within this pressure, Rose would occasionally send sharp blades of wind, chopping off small pieces of the imp's skin. Each time any slight damage was done, Zara would freeze that fallen area to inhibit the imp's regeneration.
Damien watched this scene with pride. He didn't know how they had grown to work so well as a team, but he didn't care about that. He was just glad that their teamwork was enough to fight on generally equal grounds with such a powerful existence.
Still, they weren't able to make any serious wounds. Damien flicked his finger, causing a small burst of flames to gather at its tip. Then, he pulled his arm back as if aiming a bow.
Lightning coalesced in the space between his arms, superheating and forming a line of plasma that functioned as an arrow with that small flame as the tip.
Damien focused on the vectors that made up this arrow's composition. Its speed, velocity, acceleration, direction, and even the force it would create on impact.
Damien altered it all. Since he had first become a vector controller, this was probably the most effort he had put into controlling multiple factors at once.
Once the arrow had been given the specs he wanted, Damien released it. Without needing to be told, the girls dodged out of the way and the arrow struck true in the dark imp's chest.
If it was a human in his place, they would have immediately combusted, and if they didn't they would die from their heart being pierced, but these didn't apply to Haldir. His body structure was completely different.
Still, the arrow had its intended effect. Haldir was about to resume his attack when his internal body began to heat up. Scanning himself, he found a small almost imperceptible flame within his chest, growing bigger with every second.
His face turned serious. He tried to put the flame out, but he didn't have the ability to do so. Perhaps if his elemental affinities were a better counter, he'd be fine. But this wasn't the case.
Haldir was well aware of what this meant. If he wasn't able to kill them before this flame expanded, he'd die a meaningless death.
There was a famous saying that a cornered animal was the most dangerous, and Haldir proved it true.
He disregarded everything else as he aimed solely to kill. His body was torn to shreds since he didn't care to block, but he kept going.
His first target was the three old men from the Cloud Plane. They were in the distance recuperating their mana and injuries, but they were suddenly barraged with tens of black lasers.
One of them drilled directly through Qin Huo's shoulder, with him being unable to evade it in time.
"AGH!"
He let out a grunt of pain as he tried to revolve his mana and close the wound, but to his horror, he was unable to. The wound was charred black as if he had been burnt, but it didn't have the same properties as a burn wound.
Instead, it corroded his skin like darkness. The wound was steady in its proliferation, not leaving him the ability to deal with it. In the end, he chose to ignore it and continue fighting.
With the 3 from the Cloud Plane and the 4 on Damien's side working together, they were able to quickly deal with Haldir. Especially since he was already being burnt from the inside, the task wasn't difficult.
But it didn't come without a cost. Almost everyone was covered in bruises and bleeding profusely. Gashes covered their skin, ruining their powerful images.
Damien was able to quickly heal through his regeneration, while Elena healed herself and the other two girls through life magic.
As for the old men from the Cloud Plane, they took out small round objects that looked similar to balls of bubble gum and swallowed them. Their wounds began healing directly after this.
The only problem was Qin Huo. No matter what he did, he was unable to stop the spread of that vicious corrosion that started from his shoulder. At this point, his entire arm had already become withered and black, no different from a corpse.
Qin Huo had been inspecting his internal body this entire time. In reality, it wasn't just his arm that had been corroded. His organs were already starting to wither, and he felt the corrosion encroaching on his heart.
Suddenly, a foreign mana shot from the black mass of energy that was corroding him and entered his brain. Qin Huo's eyes widened, but he was unable to even scream in pain.
His eyes glossed over, becoming entirely black in color, with no pupils or irises to be seen. He began to let out bestial growls as he ravenously eyed the rest of the people around him.
And then, he fell to the ground, dead.
Behind him, Damien stood with his arm outstretched, covered in Qin Huo's blood.
Comments