Chapter 278 : Chapter 278
Chapter 278. She Escaped
“BOOM!!!”
The explosion erupted right beside Heather, so close that she almost failed to maintain her prayer.
When Heather opened her eyes, she saw that Valerie’s arm and head had been marked by patches of charred black, and in those scorched areas, the layer of pale-blue gauze had long since faded away.
Valerie took a deep breath. She felt that she had underestimated her opponent a little.
Earlier, she actually could have chosen to trust that Heather would not be affected by that spear and simply charged straight in to attack.
But because of her confidence, and because the strength Fulan had displayed just now had only barely reached the level of a second-tier professional, Valerie had not done so.
At most, that red-glowing technique was somewhat intimidating, but Valerie was not afraid of it at all.
Her body could block that technique with ease, and with the overwhelming gap in Physique between them, the other side might not even be able to hit her.
She had originally thought that she could stop the spear without taking any damage and still evade the other side’s attack. She had never imagined that Fulan also had a trick that could make weapons explode.
Valerie took a deep breath, kicked off with her rear foot, and shot low across the ground straight toward Fulan before launching a ferocious attack.
She raised her left fist, drew it behind her, then whipped her arm forward. Carrying the momentum of a collapsing mountain, the punch tore through the air with an explosive crack and slammed toward Fulan.
Fulan merely placed her heavy blade in the path that fist had to travel and intensified the red glow around it.
After all, every force has an equal reaction. If Valerie punched straight into Fulan’s heavy blade, it would be little different from Fulan hacking brutally into Valerie’s arm with that blade.
What Fulan had not expected, however, was this: with an attack so heavy and forceful, the immense inertia should have made it impossible for the other woman to alter its course. She should have had no choice but to crash straight into the heavy blade.
Yet midway through her punch, Valerie suddenly pitched her body forward, and before Fulan’s astonished eyes, her entire body shifted direction like a fish swimming through water.
It was not as exaggerated as the one-hundred-eighty-degree turns Fulan could perform with Elven Swordsmanship, but the other woman seemed able to alter her attack path by applying lateral force.
Even so, that kind of attack was terrifying enough in real combat.
That fist, wrapped in pale-blue gauze, slammed directly into Fulan’s abdomen.
Her 【Hard Scale Rock】 shattered under that blow, and her insides felt as though they had been hit by a speeding carriage. Her entire body flew backward.
Fulan forced herself to hold on to consciousness while she was still in the air, only barely regaining her senses.
She spun with the motion, used Elven Swordsmanship to alter her direction, and only then managed to land steadily on the ground.
The moment that punch hit her, her whole body had gone numb, and she had been unable to move at all. It was only after she had flown backward a short distance through the air that strength gradually returned to her limbs.
She lowered her head and looked. Her black robe had been stained with reddish-brown blood, but beneath it, a faint light was shining.
This was Fulan’s trait, 【Light Within the Blood】, which could heal injuries automatically.
But Fulan had never suffered such a severe injury before, so only now did she truly understand the benefits of being an Emissary of the Lord of Radiance.
In only a few seconds, the body that had been numb and insensible was moving freely again, and during that attack, Fulan had clearly felt several bones break.
But now, when she touched herself, she could no longer feel anything wrong.
“Why are an emissary’s gifts all invested in healing?” Fulan could not help muttering.
Then she looked at the two people opposite her, her expression grave.
Time was almost up.
If this continued, Fulan would have no choice but to return to the Material Realm empty-handed.
Next, I need to find an opportunity and use Blood of the Furnace directly.
Fulan knew that the most important thing now was to leave the barrier as quickly as possible. Nothing mattered more than that.
She felt that if she did not use Blood of the Furnace, it was not as though she had no way to fight. After all, she had this powerful healing ability, as well as Aether’s endless endurance.
But what she lacked most right now was time. It would not be long before the ten minutes the Lord of Radiance had mentioned were up. If she did not leave soon, she would exceed that limit.
Fulan made up her mind, then raised her right hand into the air as though gripping something invisible.
Valerie raised an eyebrow. She was somewhat surprised. Why was Fulan still alive after taking that blow just now? That genuinely caught her off guard.
That punch of hers had not been some ordinary strike. After receiving the enhancement of Heather, an Emissary of a god, the effect of that punch was such that even a second-tier professional could have been severely wounded and knocked to the ground if it landed well.
Even if the other side had that defensive spell on her, one whose protective power exceeded that of most armored professionals, she still did not look like a pure close-combat second-tier professional.
Her own physical ability was not particularly high. There was no way she should still be lively and active after taking that hit.
And at that moment, Heather behind her seemed to sense something. Her eyes widened in confusion as she looked toward the place where Fulan had just been struck.
From that place where Fulan had been hit, Heather sensed a familiar fluctuation—the very thing that distinguished an Emissary of a god from ordinary believers.
That was divine power.
An Emissary of a god could preliminarily wield a god’s divine power. That was also why, despite still being only first-tier, Heather’s strength had already surpassed almost all other first-tier professionals. Divine power was simply too overwhelming.
She had only ever felt that unique fluctuation of divine power in the divine spells and prayers she herself used.
And now, this was the first time she had seen that fluctuation appear on someone else.
While Heather was still confused, a sphere of light suddenly appeared in Fulan’s hand, radiating a complete fluctuation of divine power. At that point, Heather became certain that the other party was also an Emissary of a god.
But just as she was about to say something, the sphere of light in Fulan’s hand suddenly burst open, releasing a blinding radiance that made Heather completely unable to see what was happening.
“What just happened?”
Fulan had directly used the radiance she had obtained from the Lord of Radiance.
After meeting the Lord of Radiance in the Emerald Market and negotiating the conditions for entering the central district, the Lord of Radiance had directly taken out a kind of radiance with which Fulan was already very familiar.
I originally wanted to keep more of it for the Material Realm and study it slowly.
This time, the Lord of Radiance had given her roughly three such motes of radiance, and had said that those three could be taken back to the Material Realm.
The deity had also said that if she wanted more, she would have to develop believers in the Material Realm.
Fulan knew this was the Lord of Radiance’s way of motivating her. The deity had clearly decided that Fulan would become interested in this radiance, which was why it was being used as bait to induce her into helping spread the faith.
The moment she received it, Fulan had wanted to return to the Material Realm and study this radiance carefully.
But driven by the lure of the Spirit Crystals, she had still decided to settle the matter of the Emerald Market first.
Perhaps she did not actually need to expend one mote of radiance in battle. She could have conserved it, found a close-range opening, and used Blood of the Furnace to instantly kill Valerie, resolving the entire situation at once.
But Fulan was not the sort to leave things to chance.
So she used the radiance directly, preventing Valerie from clearly discerning her movements for the moment.
Fulan rushed forward, holding the radiance in one hand as she charged straight at the Church Knight.
Even when faced with a situation where she could see absolutely nothing, Valerie did not panic.
She had experienced countless battles, and in a situation like this, she knew that the most important thing was to remain calm.
She steadied herself and listened carefully for Fulan’s movements.
She heard Fulan step forward, as though she were about to launch an attack against her.
Fulan held a longsword in one hand as she closed in on Valerie, then stopped moving once she had reached a certain distance.
Valerie prepared herself to defend.
But when Fulan truly struck, Valerie was shocked to discover that Fulan’s target was not her at all.
“Your Highness, dodge!!!”
Her warning came too late.
It was not because she had failed to warn Heather the instant she noticed Fulan’s movement, but because she had failed to predict Fulan’s intention beforehand and warn Heather in advance.
Fulan’s attack was fast—so fast that even after hearing the warning, Heather still had no time to react.
Heather could only lower her head slightly, and then she felt her body being torn apart.
That was the attack of the wind elements.
As Fulan had rushed forward, she had been guiding 【Howling Gale】 the entire time. In the current environment, the wind elements were extraordinarily active, so under this spell, unless Heather possessed some kind of healing ability, she was bound to return to the Material Realm.
And reality unfolded exactly as Fulan had expected.
Heather’s entire body was shredded away by the gale that arrived in an instant. The divine spell reinforcing her body completely failed to hold, and in the moment the gale carved through her, her whole figure became illusory.
The moment Valerie heard the sound of flesh being cut apart, she knew that Fulan had sent Heather back to the Material Realm.
With some difficulty, she said, “I’m going to have a fight with Her Highness once I get back.”
She still remembered that they were still on the battlefield, so she forced her eyes open with all her strength, trying to see Fulan’s position and movements.
But the instant she opened her eyes, all strength suddenly left her body. She collapsed to the ground, and from the corner of her eye, she could only see Fulan clutching her head and bending slightly at the waist.
Then she could see nothing more.
Fulan’s head was aching terribly now. This was the side effect of casting Blood of the Furnace.
She could not truly control this spell herself, so every time she cast it, it drained all of her Mental Power. That was something she could not regulate.
It’s over. Time to run.
Fulan roughly calculated the time and realized that there were still two minutes left before the agreed limit.
Only then did she let out a sigh of relief. After giving the ground only a cursory glance, she turned and ran straight toward the barrier.
This time, no one stopped her anymore.
So she ran all the way to the edge of the white membrane, drew a deep breath, and charged straight into the light beyond it.