Chapter 301: Lightning Bolt Bombardment

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Thanks to the large golden beams formed by Herellia's [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia], the royal blue lightning bolts, which were previously taunting her and mocking her for not having enough range to deal with them, were now dispelled in an instant thanks to the sheer power hidden beneath the beams. Of course, this was Herellia's first time in using the skill, so her first shot of the beams towards the bolts were still not that accurate. Fortunately though, the number of royal blue lightning bolts she was able to disperse, even with her inaccurate shot, was still over half, shocking the remaining bolts frozen.

Taking their current states as a chance for her to dispel all of them in one go, Herellia took in a deep breath as she infused her energy towards the crimson petals once more, gradually intensifying the golden sheen on their surface. Just as the remaining bolts realized what Herellia was doing, another wave of beams was fired towards them, with Herellia making sure that all of the bolts would be hit by the beams.

And with that, the sixth round of royal blue lightning bolts was dispersed in the most tyrannical manner Herellia has shown so far, eliciting Herellia to let out a light chuckle as she muttered to herself, "Using this tactic ain't half bad."

After saying those words, she then glanced at the dark clouds, estimating in her mind as to how long it would take for the seventh round of lightning bolts to arrive. While doing so, she allocated most of her attention to the experience she felt while activating and maneuvering [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia] for the first time. 

Although she familiarized herself with the skill multiple times in her mind, a theoretical understanding of the skill did not give her that much of an advantage when compared to a practical understanding. Closing her sense of vision while her other senses were on high alert for the next round, she went ahead and tried to understand the skill even more, wondering if she could utilize the skill in other ways.

On the other hand, Argentum and Horell could not help but radiate an aura of awe and delight from the showcase of power Herellia did a while ago. To them, they thought that Herellia had reached the limits of what her evolution had given her. They were ready to go ahead and help Herellia out in the form of buffs, but after Argentum asked Herellia if she needed buffs, hearing her decline made Argentum realize that she was saving quite a few things from the evolution she had undergone.

"What a huge increase in power," Argentum muttered to himself as he compared the destructiveness of Herellia's crimson spear to her current crimson petals. If one were to factor in the flexibility and maneuverability of the skill to fit a situation, then it would be a given for the former to be chosen. But if it was pure destruction…

Then the latter would win hands down.

"It seems that we won't have to buff Herellia up for a while," Argentum said as his aura turned into that of slight glee, focusing his sense of vision towards Horell, only to see that Horell was radiating a slightly somber aura. Wanting to know the reason why Horell was like that, he went ahead and asked him, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

In response, Horell let out a sigh as he shook his head. He then responded, "Nothing bad happened. It's just that…I feel useless."

"Useless? In what way?" Argentum replied to Horell's statement with a question. Concurrently, he could not help but think that Horell secretly had a weak mindset. Although it looked like he was always calm, composed, and cheery when interacting with others in the alliance, Argentum finally realized right now that it was more or less a facade that shrouded his true personality. Nevertheless, he would not say this to Horell outright, in fear of hurting his feelings.

Answering Argentum's question, Horell replied, "Since Herellia has undergone an evolution, that means that her power has increased. Although that means that the number of buffs we cast on her is decreased, which in turn reduces the overall difficulty of the subsequent rounds, I can't help but feel useless that I haven't helped her out."

Listening to Horell's words, Argentum could not help but scratch his head as he did not know how to respond to such a statement. While doing so, he pondered on what he could say to alleviate Horell's feeling of uselessness, only for a thought from quite some time ago to surface in his mind. With that in mind, Argentum went closer and patted Horell on the shoulder before saying, "You won't be useless for long. Well, to be more exact, we won't be useless for long. Our time to help Herellia out will eventually come."

Horell radiated a confused expression as he listened to Argentum's words, wondering where he pulled such a statement. In response, Argentum let out a light chuckle as he said in a slightly mysterious manner, "You'll see what I mean eventually."

After that, the two of them focused their senses of vision back to where Herellia was, who was already finished digesting the experience she had obtained from using [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia] a while ago. Right now, she felt like she could now use the skill in more ways than before, wanting to test out her new ideas on the seventh round of lightning bolts.

Surprisingly, it seemed that the heavens sensed Herellia's yearning to test her new ideas out as the seventh round of lightning bolts came crashing down from the dark clouds as 700 Calamity-level bolts were now out to get Herellia. This time, the lightning bolts were split into seven groups of 100, making Herellia let out a light chuckle as she utilized her movement skill to hover in midair, wanting to take the initiative.

She then leaned forward to tilt the trajectory of the beams towards the lightning bolts as she found out that the petals could only rotate around her and not behind her. After feeling that her angle was suitable enough for the beams to hit the lightning bolts head-on, she then infused her energy into the petals as she simultaneously manipulated them to tilt forward or backward, depending on the location of the lightning bolt group she was trying to hit. Naturally, what came after that…was pure destruction.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Since the five beams from the crimson petals were now separated to target five different lightning bolt groups, the true power of [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia] was finally revealed, dispelling those five groups just as the beams had collided with them. Seeing that the five lightning bolt groups she had targeted were dispelled with only a single beam aimed towards them, Herellia now had a better idea of how destructive her skill was, redirecting the petals once more to dispel the remaining two lightning bolt groups.

And just like that, the next few rounds of lightning bolts seemed to be smooth-sailing for Herellia as she became more and more familiar with how she could manipulate [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia] to suit her lightning bolt dispelling needs.

Once the eighth round of lightning bolts came, Herellia decided to experiment with the skill and tried to cast another [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia], only to stop at three out of five petals for the second rafflesia as she wanted to get a better feeling of the burden brought about by a second rafflesia. Other than that, she was able to dispel the 800 lightning bolts brought by the eighth round in one go thanks to the three additional petals.

Not long after, the ninth round of lightning bolts passed through the dark clouds to smite Herellia down, bringing along 900 Calamity-level bolts eager to be the one to destroy Herellia's hopes of clearing her Existence Tribulation. As for Herellia, she went ahead and formed the remaining two petals needed for the second rafflesia. Surprisingly, forming the full rafflesia increased the burden she felt on her mind to a great degree, though it was still in the realms of what she could endure.

Naturally, just like the eighth round, the ninth round of lightning bolts was wiped out without a problem with the addition of two crimson petals. After she was finished dispelling the bolts as they turned into royal blue strands that enhanced the strength of her body, she could not help but look at the two groups of five crimson petals that revolved around her. Manipulating the crimson petals to move, she decided to combine the two groups of five into one layer of ten crimson petals, feeling that it was better to look at, as well as simpler to manipulate.

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Eventually, the tenth round of lightning bolts came to strike Herellia down…only for them to be instantly dispelled as the number of petals surrounding her was enough to destroy the 1,000 lightning bolts brought by the dark clouds. With such a situation like this happening, Herellia could not help but feel that her current strength was alien to her, muttering to herself, "Would a single evolution really result in a significant change in power?"

What Herellia did not know was that, the evolution she had undergone did not only change her appearance and species, but it had also changed her existence level. In other words, since she had evolved into a Pseudo-Animate lifeform, the amount of damage she was dealing was at least a thousand times greater than before!

Sadly, she never thought about it as she felt that she had just undergone a usual evolution of species. Nevertheless, she let out a sigh of relief as she had counted in her mind that she had survived ten rounds of lightning bolts. To her, that meant that the dark clouds would remain dormant for a bit to give her some time to rest and recuperate her losses. Since she did not lose that much stuff from the lightning bolts other than her energy, she decided to sit cross-legged on the ground and ponder over the experiences she had obtained from controlling [Gilded Crimson Rafflesia], wondering if it was possible for her to use [Gilden Crimson Rafflesia] and [Crimson Spear Brigade] in tandem.

On the other hand, Argentum and Horell looked at the current situation of the dark clouds with differing reactions. Seeing that the dark clouds had become dormant, Horell let out a sigh of relief as that meant that Herellia would be able to digest the combat experience she had obtained from the previous rounds and turn into her own strength. Just as he was about to persuade Argentum to relax with him, he noticed that an aura of contemplation was surrounding him, prompting him to ask Argentum, "What are you thinking about, Argentum?"

"It feels off," Argentum said succinctly, to which Horell replied, "What feels off?"

"The dark clouds," Argentum replied before adding, "They've gone dormant."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Horell looked at the clouds for a bit before responding. "That means that Herellia could rest for a bit and enhance her understanding of her abilities."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with being optimistic," Argentum went silent for a bit before saying, letting out a soft sigh as he had a hunch that the dormancy of the dark clouds was just a lead-up to something worse. Although the tenth round of lightning bolts was already cleared by Herellia, the system did not notify him that the trial was over, leading him to think that there was still a bit more to this trial than he had thought.

"Although it would be great if the dormancy is really a time for her to rest," Argentum said after a while, only to add, "But if we always think of the dormancy that way, that would be incredibly bad."

"So…what are you trying to tell me?" Although Horell was listening to Argentum's explanation, he could not wrap his head around the situation, prompting him to ask this question.

With a slightly grave tone, Argentum responded, "Herellia might need to face another round of lightning bolts."

Rumble…

As if the heavens were telling Argentum that his hunch was correct, the dark clouds let out a rumble far louder than any of the previous rumbles from before, even jolting Herellia awake from her session of improving her comprehension. Hastily standing up to look at the dark clouds, Herellia noticed that when compared to the last round of lightning bolts, wherein a few spots on the dark clouds would glow brightly, a great number of spots were now glowing brightly this time. This sight could not help but make Herellia mutter, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Bzzt…crash!

Soon after, the next round of lightning bolts was finally revealed to Herellia, not only leaving her at a loss for words, but Argentum and Horell as well. The two of them hastily went ahead and used all of their investigation skills and spells to count the number of lightning bolts that were about to strike Herellia down, making them feel immense despair not long after as Horell said in a stutter, "Four…thousand…"

"4,000 Calamity-level bolts," Argentum muttered to himself as he watched the lightning bolts cover the sky in a bluish glow.

"Man…"

"I should really stop jinxing stuff."

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