Chapter 363: Honorable Battle
Jasmine had never stared death in the eyes before. It had all happened in the blink of an eye—she had been entirely focused on holding the frontline as Serena had instructed when a spike in Qi drew her curiosity. She hadn't even had time to process the spectacle of a miniature blue star manifesting between Celeste Starweaver's fingers before she pointed at her, and there was a flash of light and an immense force that slammed into Jasmine's entire body and swept her off her feet before sending her spiraling through the air like a ragdoll.
Instead of being graced with death, Jasmine 'bounced' off the arena's wall with enough whiplash to leave a dent and almost detach her limbs before she hit the ground hard and tumbled a few times across the grassy sands before finally coming to a stop against a rocky outcrop.
Blinking away the stars in her eyes and groaning, Jasmine rolled over and tried to stand on her shaky legs. Her whole body felt numb and refused to respond. How am I not dead? Jasmine wondered as she looked at her still intact arm shrouded in the light shield. I doubt this light shield can block having a star hurled at it. Jasmine thought back and realized the dark water rushing around her body was gone. Serena's shield must have saved me.
Jasmine managed to move her body enough to peek over the stone outcrop she had been thrown behind, and her jaw dropped at what she saw. The arena was practically divided in two by a meter-deep trench of molten rock and glass. It looked like a path to hell as the grass on either side was ablaze, throwing up plumes of dense smoke mixed with a haze caused by water pouring into the trench and instantly turning to steam.
Master warned me that I might not last long against Celeste as she's a half step into the Star Core Realm, making her almost a full realm above me, but to think the gap between us was this vast. I didn't even have time to react before I would have died. Jasmine gulped. If Master is another realm above Celeste, and then Ashlock is another above that... Just how powerful are Nascent Soul Realm cultivators?
Jasmine deeply respected her Master, but sometimes, she forgot just how powerful Stella was.
Stella often acts quite lazy, and I rarely see Master go all out in a fight. If she were to join the battle, would Celeste even last a second? Jasmine pondered but paused as the ground trembled. Following the feeling, she glanced to Serena Blacktide's side of the trench, and her eyes widened in disbelief as the smoke parted to reveal a churning wave of black water surging upwards and looming over the arena like a rising wall.
Jasmine expected it to crash toward Celeste's side of the burning trench. But instead, the water reared up, towering as if pressed against an unseen barrier, its dark surface churning ominously. What is the point of this... oh. Jasmine received her answer as she looked toward a whistling noise from the sky and saw multiple fiery chunks of rock descending from the heavens like the wrath of a vengeful god, each one trailing embers and cosmic dust. The meteors slammed into the churning water with thunderous force, hissing violently as they gouged through the inky black waves before crashing into the earth below that now looked like the sea bed of an ocean.
Jasmine had to catch her footing on the rocky outcrop to avoid falling over from the following earthquake. Though unable to completely halt the meteor's wrath, the water had blunted their impact, sparing the arena from utter devastation. Jasmine couldn't even imagine what would have happened without Serena's defensive measures. Would a shower of molten sand and rock rained upon me and ended my chance to do anything? This is ridiculous. How can cultivators be this powerful?