Chapter 242: Hard Lizard
———Kenni———
<12: 02 pm>
*Leap* *Crash*
“Argh!” This guy is so fast that I don’t even have the time to react to him jumping right at me.
*Grab* *Zip*
“That was surprisingly careless of you.” Emmie said as she grabbed me and flew away from this rampaging lizard so I could get some breathing room after that collision. “We still have the advantage thanks to flight, but that’s only if our mana supply holds up.”
Both of us quickly landed back down while the big lizard man was still pursuing us.
“Maybe stay in the back from now on.” She said before looking straight ahead.
*Dash* *Slash* *Strike* *Block*
They’re both going at it and leaving me behind. Certainly not a good idea for that massive lizard. If he can’t be bothered to focus on more than one person, then let’s see how he’ll feel after getting hit by this?
As long as Emmie notices it coming, we should be able to wrap up this fight pretty soon, assuming she can keep up the fight against this superior opponent.
The only thing that gave her the advantage to fight evenly in a pure physical exchange is her massive scythe that by nature is always going to be her best weapon that compliments her fighting style, it gives her the advantage of range and she can use it without worry.
*Swat* *Dash*
Her scythe got swatted away and she quickly retreated while the big lizard man followed. Their speed is about equal from the looks of it, but I doubt she has comparable stamina to keep up the cat and mouse game.
*Spin* *Slash*
Suddenly the scythe manifested in her hands after seemingly being lost, and she turned around to confront him with a swing of her scythe right in his torso.
It’s hard to make out his expression with both that reptilian head and the long flowing hair that is rare for this type of demi-human, but the fact that he flinched and backed off makes it clear that strikes deal substantial damage to his body.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Slash* *Kick* *CRASH*
She then starts raining down bullets from her scythe as she runs towards him and does a second slash before kicking him so hard he flies into one of the abandoned buildings, going straight through it into another building.
*Shine* *THROW* *BOOM*
She then threw the scythe that is glowing hot red right towards it, and a massive explosion occurred where it landed, engulfing the area and that lizard.
“RAAAAHHHH!!!” A hellish screech roared from the crater of the explosion.
*BLAST* *Evade*
A massive energy beam emerged out of it and Emmie barely avoided the attack that dug a deep gaping trail where it hit.
“Emmie! Held him in place!” I yelled out since I finished preparing the spell and was ready to fire it off at any moment.
*Shine* *Weave* *Dash* *Wrap*
She quickly produces a bunch of light blue silks around the area that the rampaging lizard predictably ran into as he’s trying to run straight towards her, getting tangled by the surprisingly durable yet thin fabric.
*Crackle* *ZAP*
I threw out the spell from up above, a massive bolt of lightning that hit him like a ton of bricks and caused so much force that the area around the impact cracks.
The blinding flash of light cleared and what we see is the lizard’s corpse being split in half and still burning. Certainly a gruesome sight…
…Something’s off. Emmie still held on to her scythe, and it really doesn’t feel like the fight is over. In the back of my head, it’s still registering that there are three people on the battlefield, not two…
*Whirl* *Shine*
“What in the-!?” Suddenly a massive wave of pressure emerged from his corpse as suddenly the area was glowing brightly. Emmie looked at the situation without much of a reaction as she anticipated an attack.
*Dash* *Swing* *Parry* *Slash* *Leap* *Zip*
He ran right towards her, his body fully intact with his massive arm aiming to kill, which she quickly swung her scythe at to stop the attack from connecting before she followed that up with another slash and then jumped away, getting on her scythe before flying upwards.
“Looks like things ain’t gonna be simple on our ends.” I remarked as Emmie flew towards me. “Now this is admittedly quite bad. A potent type of regeneration that only has one requirement, that at least a part of the body isn’t destroyed. There is really no such thing as a fatal attack outside of outright obliteration.”
“A unique kind of punching bag, that’s for sure.” She remarked, clearly not feeling intimidated by such a dangerous opponent.
“Eh. It does explain why he’s running at us without a thought in his head. This certainly doesn’t bode well for us, a potent healing factor…”
“That’s assuming he can continuously regenerate without end. Most things have a limit, I’d rather test it out rather than running away.” She said while looking down at this creature that is staring at us from down below.
“Heh. It’s your call. I’ll be providing support as always, but make sure to contribute some big hits of your own, will ya?” I said before she descended back down to earth.
*Clash* *Slash* *Evade*
Once more she starts trading blows with the monstrous lizard. She certainly got no fears trying to fight blow to blow with a stronger foe. Anyway, I need to assist her. I blew a bit of my mana reserve from the last attack, so I should probably be a bit more reserve with my attacks right now.
*Kick* *Crash*
He managed to get the upperhand in this particular exchange and sent her flying with a kick that no doubt broke her dress. She needs a few seconds to weave it back up, and I can’t let him interrupt that.
*Zap* *Blast* *Zap*
I start raining down a bunch of spells to keep him busy while Emmie take the time to recover.
*Leap* *Evade*
“Ha! I ain’t gonna get hit by that twice, asshole!” I gloated at him seeing that he jumped up towards me, trying to tackle me out of the sky.
*Blast* *Crash*
“Oww…” Okay. Maybe gloating doesn’t work. He just used one of those energy blasts that hit me dead-on. Damn… that hurts quite a lot.
*Grab* *Squeeze*
“Ug…” He walked towards me and grabbed me by the neck, clearly trying to choke it out. He certainly got quite a sadistic streak to him despite clearly not being all there.
*Leap* *SLASH*
“Oof!” Suddenly Emmie jumped in and cut him with a supercharged strike that obliterated most of his body, leaving him as just the arm that held me up and the small bits and pieces blown away by the attack.
*Throw*
I quickly threw the arm away, knowing full well that he’s still not down to the count. The body quickly regrows back to perfect condition in a few seconds.
“Too bad none of us have a nuke option, right?” I asked just in case Emmie got a trump card she kept hidden. I am not in a condition to throw out an attack that would glass the area completely, unfortunately.
“Perhaps I have something like that.” She said, now that's good news. “Delay him for at least three minutes.”
“Guess we’re swapping positions then.” I remarked as I walked forward. Not exactly ideal to swap our roles considering our specialty, but all I need is to make sure he doesn’t aggro onto Emmie, I don’t have to tank hits if I don’t want to.
*Zap* *Zip* *Blast* *Dash*
I start throwing out more spells and start flying around him to make sure he keeps his eyes on me. It seems to work well enough as he starts to run at me at full speed, trying to keep up with someone who could fly and not care about the rough terrain of the battlefield.
*Slash* *Crash* *Crumble*
We got into an area still full of buildings, so I took out the healing staff and used it to cut down multiple buildings in the area to bury the man who doesn’t seem to care about being crushed by tons of concrete. That regenerative power clearly goes to his head, and that just makes things easier for the two of us.
Now where is he? The massive pile of buildings below me and I can’t quite be certain about his location. All I really know for sure is that he’s still buried there.
*Shine* *BLAST* *Zip*
“Whoa!” Suddenly a massive geyser of energy burst out of the mountain of rubbles. If it wasn’t for me sensing it coming I would’ve gotten vaporized by it, most likely.
*Leap* *Kick*
“Gah!” He immediately jumped towards me with a kick ready, launching me far and causing me to lose my balance. Just when will Emmie be done with her special move?
*Shine* *Mend*
“Hue…” I need to heal up, that kick hit me hard right in the ribs…
*Leap* *Slash*
“Not this time, buster.” I casually hit him with the sharp staff, halting his trajectory and sending him back down.
*Blast* *Evade*
Things rarely work twice, yet he goes for it anyway. He doesn’t seem to be tired, which is concerning.
Where is Emmie anyway? I want to be sure where she is so I can be sure to not get in the line of fire.
*Zap* *Blast* *Zip* *Grab*
I can’t really afford to do that right now, I need to keep him distracted. Now I’m blasting him with magic then grabbing him by the hair and flying up.
*Spin* *Throw* *Crash*
I then spin him around and throw him right into multiple buildings. I’m surprised he didn’t react fast enough to break off.
*Dim*
Whatever. I just need to slow him down a bit more. Take this!
*Throw* *BOOM*
I threw a condensed ball of energy that looked like a ball of pure darkness, throwing it right in his direction and causing it to explode with a bit of gravitational pull that sucked in surrounding debris. Definitely not on the caliber of a black hole, but that is above my current pay grade ain’t it…
*Leap* *Swing* *Evade*
Huh. This guy can actually suspend himself in the air instead all this time? Still not enough to catch me by surprise, that routine has gotten old.
*Strike* *Crash*
I struck him with the staff and sent him flying directly downward.
*Shine* *Crackle*
Suddenly I feel a strong mana reading from above, and I see Emmie floating there with a red circle drawn right beneath her.
Welp, time to make a break for it.
*Zip*
I quickly fly away and witness the spell from afar. Just its structure alone makes it clear this thing will wipe out the entire city clean. If there is anyone even remotely near this place, they might die just from the resulting shockwave and everything that came with it.
**BLAST** *CLASH*
Huh!? He actually challenged that with a magical blast of his own! That’s absurd! A spell casted in a few seconds cannot match the might of something that took tens of time longer.
Yet he is still halting the blast from reaching him. Is this the true might of someone classified as far stronger than us? How absurd. It doesn’t look like his mana is dropping either. Her spell might not be able to maintain itself for long enough to break through his defense.
The resulting clash alone caused the nearby buildings that are still defiantly standing to crumble just from the resulting force of the two spell clashing, it’s very much a battle of two titans. It’s a spectacle, that is something I cannot deny.
Unfortunately for him, I cannot really afford to let him stall out the spell. Let’s tip the scale in our favor and be done with this already.
*Shine* *PIERCE*
Concentrating all of your power into blocking such a large scale attack means you’re completely vulnerable from even a tiny attack like this. A small laser was all it took to break through his concentration as it pierce cleanly through his body.
*BOOM*
Losing his defense and immediately Emmie’s spell overwhelms him and the entire area, causing a massive explosion that engulf the entire area and I really need to distance myself from it before I get blown away by the gust of wind that is more akin to sharp blades.
It’s blinding and makes it hard to make anything out, but soon enough the light subsided and what’s left is akin to the crash side of a meteor.
Both of us landed back down and looked at the resulting explosion and the noticeable lack of that darn reptile.
“This place is completely unrecognizable. Even the underground pipes and stuff are nowhere to be seen. We really did a number on this place.” I remarked as I walked around. Her movement is rather sluggish from how much power she spent.
“Indeed…” She said as her legs look like they are about to give out.
I think I can see a little bit of the guy in the middle, but it just looks like a pile of ash at most. I think most of it is scattered into the wind at this point.
In fact, there is a lot of ash flowing about like a volcanic eruption just happened, the dust moving around.
“...Kenni.” Emmie is suddenly on alert again as she notices something. What is she…
The surrounding ashes start to gather up in one place… Are you fucking kidding me right now?
*WHIRL*
Suddenly a mana signature returned as the spot where he once was starts to let out a ton of force that pushed us back and created a strong whirlwind.
“How in the hell!? He was turned into dust! There shouldn’t even be enough of himself left to anchor his soul to! Even if he can still persist, he shouldn’t even be able to reconstruct himself! A soul shouldn’t…” A full body recovery like this shouldn’t be possible unless it’s… “An innate trait?”
“Seems that way. It’s hard-coded into his very being. As long as even a speck of him persists, he’ll continuously regenerate.” Emmie calmly said. “Only a full obliteration of all of his presence in this world and fully stop it. Worst of all, it seems like it’s just one of his many traits. Do you feel that power?”
“It’s not going down at all…” More importantly, it seems to be increasing. “Just like that Krusher guy, but even worse.”
“Continuous regeneration of both body and mana, and adapting and gaining strength as the battle passed.” Emmie spelled it out as the two of us are way too exhausted to get into the eye of the storm to stop him from regenerating. We’re being pushed back just from this alone. No way we can fight that guy in this state. “A lizard that’s difficult to destroy. The battle was determined from the start, it seems.”
“Guess we gotta use our emergency option. You can go back and call on her. I’ll hold him off.” She’s not in a state to fight at all. She’ll be killed in a few seconds once this guy is ready for round two.
“You’re probably faster than me with the state I’m in. I’m afraid you’re better off leaving.” Is this really the time to be arguing? I guess we can’t really stop with this kind of banter.
“Hahaha… Ahahahaha!” His regeneration is complete, now stronger than ever and clearly understands that we have no chance as we are. Even if both of us are at full strength, the result would’ve been the same, now that we know what his gimmick is.
*Dash* *SLASH*
Before one of us could move in to intercept the attack, no matter how futile that might have been, suddenly someone appeared right in front of us and easily repelled the attacker.
“Seriously. You two can never stop getting into trouble.” She said as her coat and white hair fluttered in the wind, her right arm held out with the rapier in hand. “But I guess that’s just how you two are. There’s no changing that, I suppose.”
Even the lizard seems surprised at the sudden third party crashing in to rain on his parade.
Well then. Looks like things took quite a turn.