Chapter 198: Round Two
Chapter 198 – Round Two
"Round Two."
As his words echoed across the battlefield, the two disappeared from their spots and shot straight toward each other.
Emrys was faster than Cassius, reaching him before Cassius even had time to halt his explosive speed.
His sword crackled with lightning as he slashed downward, burning the air in the process, going straight for a lethal strike.
Two crimson portals appeared to Emrys’s right, spitting out crimson chains that wrapped around and immobilised his right hand just before the strike could land.
Emrys’s eyes narrowed, then snapped wide open as Cassius landed a flaming punch square on his chest. Not once, but four times in quick succession, each one stronger than the last thanks to the compounding effect of the explosions.
Emrys’s chest cracked and caved inward, and a mouthful of blood spluttered from his lips.
At the last punch, Cassius used his Third Skill and placed a Weakening Mark and a Tracking Mark on Emrys’s body.
The Chosen One’s power was instantly lowered by 15%, before his body was hurled backward at blurring speed.
Cassius leapt, then shot forward with a burst of fire beneath his feet, following Emrys closely. He summoned his portals again — four of them — around Emrys to bind him.
However, Emrys was prepared this time. He backflipped through the air and regained his momentum and mobility.
With his mouth bleeding, he used his First Skill: Lightning Body — which had evolved into Lightning Incarnation — and transmuted into nothing but a crackling, spitting, sizzling bundle of golden lightning.
The crimson chains snapped shut and passed straight through him, unable to trap something that was purely essence.
Cassius arrived close by then, only to twist his body and duck his torso to the right just in time to avoid a golden thunder that came straight from the heavens.
However, Emrys had anticipated this and was already waiting on the right. Having regained his human form, Emrys’s sword was an inch from his face before Cassius even realised it.
Cassius’s brain churned, and he used his blood manipulation to increase the blood circulation throughout his body, even his brain.
His thought process sped up dramatically. In an instant, it felt as if the world around him had somehow slowed.
Yet even in that slowed world, Emrys’s sword was still unbelievably fast, nothing but a blur of lightning.
Cassius gritted his teeth and created layered, condensed walls of fire between himself and the sword to block it.
Before the sword could land on the defense, however, Emrys used his Second Skill: Heavenly Tribulation.
Seven bolts of lightning struck Emrys’s sword in quick succession within a single second, raising its lethality to a level that made Cassius feel he was about to die.
He slashed his own hand, sending his blood spraying in front of him, then detonated all of it while simultaneously yanking himself backward with the help of a portal of chains he had created far behind him.
But Emrys was relentless. He slashed away the explosion with his sword, dissipating it instantly.
At the same moment, a bolt of lightning struck Cassius while he was retreating, paralysing him for a brief second, giving Emrys the perfect opportunity to land a sword slash.
Cassius roared and lifted his left arm, coated in hardened blood, to block.
But the golden sword passed easily through his arm, severing it at the elbow.
Cassius’s eyes bulged with pain, going bloodshot. He swallowed an anguished scream.
He tried to detonate the blood gushing from his arm toward Emrys, but the Chosen One burned all of it away with his lightning, as if anticipating the attack.
The Last Born’s left eye grew brighter, then he spun in the air and kicked his severed arm toward Emrys. When the arm was an inch from his face...
"Explode!"
A devouring crimson flame erupted and swallowed Emrys instantly, burning away the lightning protection around his body and scarring his face.
Cassius finally managed to put some distance between himself and Emrys, breathing heavily.
He looked at his arm, knowing he could not regenerate it with his current skill. He gritted his teeth against the pain and used Bloodflame only to stop the bleeding and close the wound.
His face hardened as the explosion finally died down, revealing Emrys, his body burned, flesh slightly darkened with some parts peeling away.
The Chosen One wavered slightly, not having expected such high damage from Cassius’s crimson fire.
He lifted his eyes and looked at him, realising he was still underestimating Cassius. He could accurately feel that his power had somehow been weakened by around 15%.
To anyone else, Emrys wouldn’t have minded such a situation. But when his opponent was Cassius... such a weakening could be fatal.
However, he was not that worried. He could destroy the Mark the moment he used his Second Manifestation, let alone his Third.
But before that thought could crystallise in his mind, Cassius was attacking again. A portal opened behind Emrys, and one thick, crimson-black chain shot out from it.
Emrys ducked his head to the side, evading. However, the chain split into four parts, three of them snapping toward him like vipers and wrapping around his neck and body.
The fourth wrapped around Cassius’s waist, then yanked him forward toward Emrys like a cannonball.
Cassius was upon him before Emrys could free himself. Dozens of other portals erupted, and the chains coiled around Emrys, tightening and drinking his blood to feed it to Cassius.
His right hand holding the sword was twisted inward by the chains, making him lose his grip on the weapon.
The Chosen One gritted his teeth. Barely having time to use his First Skill, he chose the smartest option: to shift his position so he was on Cassius’s left side, the side where his arm had been severed.
Cassius smiled coldly, seeing this.
Fire erupted and wove a crimson flaming hand where his severed one had been. Added to that, chains wrapped around the entire hand, and especially the knuckles.
His arm increased in weight, and the blood absorbed from Emrys was summoned back to the tip of his knuckles.
Then the punch landed straight on Emrys’s left jaw, completely shattering it into broken bone, twisting the jaw entirely. And at the same moment of impact, Cassius detonated Emrys’s own blood in the man’s face.
Since it was his own blood, it was agonisingly effective. A shriek of pain erupted, high and piercing, enough to make anyone shiver.
In that moment, Emrys felt a pain never before experienced, his mind stalling in shocked surprise.
Cassius seized the opportunity and wrapped all the chains around Emrys’s right hand. He clenched his fist, and the chains were pulled back to their portals.
And as they retreated at flabbergasting velocity, they tore off Emrys’s entire right hand, making his mind go completely blank.
Then a scream erupted from his mouth, reaching a level so high that everyone in the entire Testing Ground heard it.
Cassius winced at the sound, which felt like thunder rumbling deep into his mind. He ignored the sensation and pressed on, wanting to end the fight, however —!
[CASSIUS!]
An existential threat gripped his soul. Eyes wide with shock, he propelled himself away from Emrys with a burst of flame and crimson chains.
It was never that easy.
The Heavens rumbled with wrathful fury. Golden, red, blue, and even purple lightning began to appear across the sky. The howling winds grew stronger, and a torrent of rain cascaded down.
Cassius could immediately feel that even one of those lightning bolts would wound him deeply.
The slitted pupil of his left eye narrowed until it vanished, and once again he was able to sense the essence all around him.
His heart skipped a beat as he noticed the entire surroundings were drenched in Emrys’s essence in a sphere-like formation.
That was when the pained, cold voice of Emrys echoed:
"Storm Domain."
Emrys Stormblessed had finally activated his Third Skill.
The numerous bolts of lightning, the winds and the rain gathered together as if moulded by some heavenly being, giving birth to a Storm Domain that completely trapped Cassius within.
Lightning began to lash out and strike his body every second, winds slashed his skin as if he were nothing but paper, and the horrific rain that weakened his flame skills poured down.
And within that domain, Emrys became a sizzle of lightning shaped like a human, punching and kicking Cassius from all sides.
In only two seconds, Cassius was barely standing. He was only alive thanks to the healing effect of his Bloodflame and his slowly increasing Adaptation.
But the situation would not last.
This was Emrys’s true affinity. Lightning was only part of it.
Emrys’s affinity was Storm itself.
And his lightning was too strong, and was slowly cooking him from the inside, with the wind and rain weakening him further.
At that point, Cassius knew he needed a way out. And the only way he could see was to obtain an Adaptation of Emrys’s lightning.
And so, a crazy, insane idea appeared in his mind. An idea that had more chance of killing him than anything else.
However...
’N-No choice!’ He bellowed inwardly, shakily, sensing his very brain about to fry.
He acted instantly, and tilted his head upward. When a bolt of lightning struck again, Cassius opened his mouth wide and...
[Cassius, are you crazy????]
...willingly swallowed it into his own body.
His Innate shivered, and Cassius could faintly hear the shocked hiss of the Snake.
In that moment, the Snake immediately understood what its host was doing.
From the very start, it had been the Snake pushing Cassius toward Adaptation at every opportunity. Now, it was Cassius pushing his Innate to adapt.
He was challenging the Snake while enduring something so tremendous that his mind began to fracture, an agonising scream booming out of him, only to be swallowed by the storm around him.
Yet even in that horrific state — even as everything inside him was being destroyed to nothingness, even as his right eye melted away — Cassius still lifted a finger upward and attempted a useless smile, his mouth sizzling with lightning, burning with fire, and dripping with blood.
Atop his finger, fire and blood gathered to form a small sphere. And in that state, as the Snake of Adaptation worked by leaps and bounds to adapt the lightning killing its master...
...Cassius forcefully gained an insight into the Lightning Path.
Just then, a wind slash powered by lightning landed on his right arm and severed it.
But the skill was already active. And by adding lightning to the fusion of his fire and blood at the last minute, a chaotic fusion of these three elements...and destroyed the entire Storm Domain.
—End of Chapter 198—