Chapter 155: Chapter 224 – Sizzling Defeat

Asterios raised his right arm to the sky and his black armblade unsheathed itself with an already slotted token. The girls' eyes shot to the gem which started quickly becoming brighter, releasing a faint flash of deep darkness. 

Before they could react, a bolt of powerful black lightning shot out of it and hit the top of the protective barrier. It then crackled ominously and shot back towards the ground, splitting itself into numerous, thick pillars that began roaming the battlefield seemingly aimlessly. Yet, it looked like they had at least some aim as the scary columns moved toward everyone else except Asterios.

The girls scattered instantly, their goal clear. He had to keep feeding the Runic Chip mana for the spell to traverse the battlefield and the dark lightning to chase after them. But, it was almost impossible to approach Asterios when multiple threatening pillars constantly crossed their paths.

Selene, Tina, and Silvia had it a little easier thanks to their ability to fly but Miria was forced to move around the battleground on foot no matter how strengthened by her bloodline she was. She still could jump over many obstacles or even use them as footholds, but the fact that she had to expend a lot more effort to avoid the rays of death than her teammates was indisputable. Their only worry was the magic as barely anything else restricted their movements in the air.

Yet, even with that, none of them could find a good opportunity to approach or attack Asterios. Most of Silvia’s techniques required at least a little bit of build-up so she focused fully on using her fire to propel herself around. Selene tried to invoke a few of her spiritual techniques but they were often wasted on repelling the pillars instead. Tina planned to send Hydran out but decided against it in the end as he was her best safety measure in case things went wrong. Only Miria moved closer bit by bit as she ran around the arena, always picking her turns in a way to reduce the distance between her and her beloved master.

Unfortunately, the moment she found herself in a straight alley with Asterios still standing in front of the crater his fall had created, she realized that she was too late.

While they had been running around, he finished his preparations. The spell was nothing more than a distraction allowing him to feed his artifact sword more draconic mana mixed with Silvia’s energy. With enough time on his hands, he had managed to condense the size of the bi-colored flaming blade to that just slightly bigger than a common longsword.

His head snapped towards Miria and she shivered at his smile. Her instincts screamed at her to dodge as all the fur on her body stood up and Miria knew better than to doubt it. As she threw herself to the side, a merciless arc of sharpened flames passed through her previous location, slicing through all the metal structures on the sides of the alley she had stood in a moment ago.

She didn’t stop after dodging and continued to run, waiting for another opportunity, not giving up. Aware of what the other girls were thinking about, and receiving a few flashes of Ast’s movements through their eyes, she fully accepted her role as the unseen assassin and remained out of her master’s vision, doing her best to fool his senses too.

In the meanwhile, the lightning pillars disappeared since Asterios had no more use for them. The crystal token was launched out of the niche in the blade with a loud whizz and he immediately inserted another one in its place. Silvia wanted to delay him at least a little and sent forth a quick projectile in the form of four small coiling serpents with Dragon-like features. He regarded them with a lazy glance which caused the fire to diminish before reaching him. His crimson eyes shimmered fiercely.

The princess clicked her tongue and prepared to escape the counterattack. But, before he aimed the Spellslinger at her, a thick wall of swirling water rose around him and locked Asterios inside a blue dome. He chuckled to himself and swung the artifact sword to his right, noticing Tina’s position before his vision had been taken away.

His eyes then widened in surprise as the flaming arc he had sent out passed through the water easily and suddenly returned right after, heading back to him. Evading it at first, he used his authority over fire to destroy it before it repeated that action who knew how many times.

Not wasting any more time without knowing what was happening outside, he sank the flaming artifact sword into the metal floor and released the condensed energy currently covering its blade. Immense heat and fire burst out in waves and instantly evaporated the water dome. A complex spiritual barrier of the same shape appeared before him and he smirked at the ingenuity of his mates’ cooperation. Tina was already preparing another technique after her current one had been dispelled, making use of the brief moment he was still locked down.

Asterios quickly considered his options amongst the tokens he could use. There were a few that could easily deal with his current predicament but he didn’t feel like wasting them on simple training. They could be crucial during the real battles and they were powerful enough to guarantee the Runic Chips breaking into pieces after just one use.

Therefore, he replaced the previously inserted token with something else and hid the armblade for now, grabbing the enhanced artifact sword with both hands. He decided to try something else. With the knowledge of the fact that Selene could use this weapon too, he was curious if he could infuse it with something else than his or Silvia’s energy.

And, his guess proved to be correct as the amber-crimson sword of pure, condensed flames received a deep cyan strip of spiritual reinforcement over its blunt edge. The blade glowed in three beautiful colors now, and surely, the new addition wasn’t just a visual change.

With a small grin, Asterios hastily thrust his sword right into Selene’s barrier. It stopped his weapon completely at first, releasing powerful energy from the point of impact, but it passed through as he put more effort into it. The owner of the spiritual dome was amazed to see something pierce the shield this easily but she turned completely flabbergasted when Asterios swung his blade to the side and cleaved right through the entire barrier like it was made of paper by using a very familiar energy.

Unfortunately for him, there was no time to go after Selene as an immense wave of a ceiling-high tsunami headed right towards him from the very second he had freed himself. The deafening roar of the dark, violent water shook the entire arena as it swallowed obstacle after obstacle, discriminating against nothing on its path of destruction.

Then, an intricate formation of orange color flashed underneath his feet and amber chains surged out of them, tying his legs and waist down. He made a quick swing at them, but even his artifact sword bounced off the fiery restraints while releasing pretty sparks into the air. It definitely was possible to get rid of them with a stronger attack but he didn’t exactly have time for that. It looked like the girls took him very seriously after he had come out of the metal pit.

Sending a bunch of his mana into the Spellslinger, he activated the stored spell and dragged his extended hand from left to right. Multiple red spheres the size of a person formed alongside the line he had made, emanating powerful, sizzling heat which made the air around them shimmer.

He took a lowered stance, brought his sword to the right, and fed it even more of his and Silvia’s mixed mana. The flames erupted from the blade, becoming almost unstable, and Asterios fought to hold them down. Moments before the giant wall of water smashed into the floating orbs, he swung his sword with a shout, and an arena-wide flaming crescent shot ahead.

The rushing energy sliced into the crimson spheres, causing them to detonate instantly. The Hellfire Mines of Devastation exploded with merciless flames, growing multiple times in diameter just as the tsunami came in contact with them. An unstoppable wall of water met an immovable wall of fire and only a limited amount of the rushing liquid made it through.

But, the downside of that was the fact that the battleground became filled with thick steam reaching the very top of the barrier in the blink of an eye. It was so dense that Asterios could barely see a step ahead of him. And, it wasn’t just any random steam. Even his Draconic Sight had trouble seeing through it as it appeared as an azure smoke to him from being filled with mana to the brim.

He smiled to himself. It was seriously scary how smart Tina was. She perfectly knew how to fight against him and worked hard to utilize the strengths of all the other girls to bring her plan to life while inconveniencing him as much as possible. She was no short of a genius leader even if her preferred role was the first line of offense.

Suddenly, an intense sense of danger hit him and Asterios barely tilted his body to avoid a sword coming right at his head. A dark silhouette flashed past him and disappeared back into the disorienting mist. He looked around in awe. The attacker hadn’t made even a single sound while approaching him. They could also easily pinpoint his location while he had a hard time finding his bearings inside the steam.

Glancing down, he realized the reason and chuckled to himself. His flaming artifact blade emitted a combination of red, orange, and blue light. There was no doubt that it acted like a beacon on the stormy sea. Tina must have come up with this plan seconds after seeing him condense the flames in the sword.

He didn’t get to ponder too long over it as the mysterious attacker swung at him once more, with Asterios evading the slash at the last moment again. There were no sound cues this time either. And another blow came at him just two seconds later, right from the front, perhaps aiming to surprise him.

On the contrary, he managed to parry it and the fraction of a second that his slightly glowing blade illuminated his opponent before they jumped away was enough for him to recognize them.

It was Miria. And she intensified her attempts right away. While doing his best to dodge her ferocious slashes, he wondered why none of the other girls worked with her at taking him down. He then quickly realized that Miria was the perfect person for the job, without a single weakness.

Silvia’s Fire Magic would be as easily telegraphed as his sword; Selene’s powerful martial arts and spiritual techniques could disturb the steam; Tina definitely kept feeding the mist her mana so it didn’t dissipate into nothingness. They could only wait and rely on their feline friend.

Curious about how she would do without the source of light to guide her, Asterios released the mana from the artifact sword and returned it to its dormant state. His surroundings quickly grew darker. He kept looking around for a hole in the mana-infused mist with all his other senses primed.

But, even without the glow, Miria’s dual blades still came for his neck. She passed him like wind, silent and deadly. If he wasn’t able to notice her enter his close vicinity thanks to sensing the presence of her mana, he would be long dead or at least seriously injured. He was really curious how she was able to track him while he intentionally moved as silently as he could.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep playing this game of cat and mouse forever. They weren’t the only ones unable to see a thing in the mist Tina had created. The audience must be wondering what was happening inside too, and with their goal being to display their power to the spectators, as clever and amazing as the current situation was, it had the opposite effect.

So, Asterios dodged a few more attacks while fishing out another Runic Chip from his spatial storage and aimed for a good moment to activate it. After about fifteen seconds, he was pretty sure that he could more or less predict Miria’s pattern as she kept increasing the pace more and more. Right after she struck him the next time, he counted to three and the gem glowed purple.

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A powerful force began sucking everything toward the location of his Spellslinger and a shocked yelp reached Ast’s ears. The suction was strong enough to pull even Miria in and he positioned himself toward the source of the surprised gasp. Soon enough, the panthergirl’s body flew at him without control and he swung his sword at her.

Even in that state, Miria succeeded in blocking his attack, taking it onto her blades. The impact caused her to spin around and she made the perfect use of it to try to kick Asterios right in the face. He caught her ankle before her foot slammed into his nose and threw Miria down on the ground. She grunted and hastily rolled away, keeping herself low on the floor as his spell was still sucking everything in.

A moment later, their surroundings became clear as the entirety of the thick fog was removed from the battlefield. Selene had been waiting for this moment and lunged at him, engaging Asterios in close combat, preventing him from slotting a new token in place of the one that had just been ejected from his Spellslinger. Miria jumped up from the floor too and they began a deadly dance together. 

The fight soon reached the level of his battle with the Demon King as Selene pulled no punches and obliterated bits of the environment and the ground with her blows. Miria’s sharpened and extended blades left numerous marks on the metal too as she combined her attacks with her vulpine partner. The arena shook constantly as they jumped around the entire field.

When even Tina joined in the fray with Hydran shaped into her favorite scythe, it became obvious that they were buying time for Silvia to prepare something big. Asterios could barely repel the trio’s attacks while trying to pinpoint the princess’ location. He knew that she was already aware that massive techniques weren’t the best choice against him so she might be working on something truly dangerous. Silvia wasn’t the person to repeat her past mistakes.

Then, out of nowhere, five magical circles appeared on the ground, forming a pentagonal shape. A bad feeling overcame Asterios the very moment he lay his eyes on the intricate pattern. Not even a second later, five ethereal pillars arose from the marked spots and glowed brightly with ominous sigils and patterns.

An immense pressure descended onto the center of the formation, where Asterios was located, weighing on him like a mighty mountain that had just been dropped onto his back. The girls jumped away right before the technique had activated, getting out of its range in time. It had clearly been laid down much earlier, most likely when the mist had still been up, and all their recent efforts meant only to lure Asterios into the correct location.

As the almost unbearable spiritual pressure forced him to one knee, he realized that he had been mistaken about Silvia’s approach. He chuckled wryly as his eyes spotted an insanely quickly heating up spot in the thick metal wall right in front of him. It melted a moment later and a literal death ray shot at him at an unbelievable speed, crashing right into Ast’s body. 

Loud humming and sizzling noise filled the arena as Silvia kept feeding energy into the same spell she had used long ago in the Demon Continent, this time purely on her own, without Ast’s external help. The pillar of relentless heat and fire penetrated everything else in its path and hit the protective barrier at the far end of the battleground. 

The golden shield turned orange, then light red, and even bordered on a brown shade around the point of impact. People sitting in that area became worried as they had never seen it do something like that. The irregular flickering and flashing conveyed under how much strain the barrier truly was.

Thankfully, before anything serious happened, Silvia withdrew her spell, and the bright death ray dissipated into nothingness, leaving a bubbling, melted corridor behind, alongside a shimmering path of heated air. Miria, Selene, and Tina stepped closer toward the hole through which Asterios had been thrown back after taking the laser head-on.

“Did that get him?” the panthergirl asked, peering into the crater.

“Oh, gods… You can’t say things like that…” Tina shivered on the spot.

A deep, echoing chuckle traveled throughout the arena. With a slow flap of his draconic wings, Asterios flew up into the sky from the far edge of the coliseum. Gray smoke kept rising from his entire body, now covered in even more dark crimson scales which shimmered ominously. His pants and shoes had disappeared or had been obliterated by Silvia’s attack, leaving him just in his underwear. He had managed to hide his Spellslinger away before it got destroyed, fortunately.

“That hurt.” Asterios smiled while looking down at them. “Unfortunately for you, it also seems to be quite beneficial. Let me show you what real heat is.”

Tiny, crimson flames flickered all around his body at the lines connecting his scales together and suddenly burst out. Asterios spread his wings and arms wide, embracing the dark scarlet fire that quickly swallowed him whole. The girls watched in astonishment as the flames expanded and began taking shape.

“No way…” Tina muttered under her breath as her eyes went wide.

After a few seconds, they all knew exactly what that shape was. Perhaps not as big as the one they had met in the past, the fire that had surrounded Ast’s figure took the form of a True Dragon made of pure crimson flames. Its size was comparable to that of an adult Wyvern, which was still incredibly impressive.

The flaming Dragon directed its sharp head toward them and let out a booming roar. The girls were sure that Asterios would attack them right away but he flapped his wings and flew forward instead. They watched him gain speed and circle the entire arena right under the top of the barrier.

After making three test laps, he started spinning around his own axis and became even faster. In just a few moments, the crimson fire began leaving a visible trail behind his draconic avatar. Ast’s speed soon reached the level where a fiery ring hung in the air, with tongues of intense fire reaching out past its edge.

But, that was just the beginning.

The temperature started to spike sharply as the flaming circle glowed brighter and brighter. The girls gathered up and hid behind Selene’s and Tina’s joint barriers to combat the heat which reached the point of slowly melting the metal structures littering the battleground. As the shining ring of pure flames became bright enough to bask the entire coliseum in a scarlet shade, things began turning into liquid in the blink of an eye.

Even behind their barriers, the girls were having a hard time breathing properly. The air was just too unbearable, no matter how much effort Tina put into chilling it down with the help of her familiars. Their barriers weakened with every second and they would inevitably end up in a sea of melted metal soon if they did nothing.

Unable to see themselves coming out of their current predicament victoriously, or even leaving the still somewhat sufferable bubble of their creation, they decided to take the only possible course of action.

“We surrender!” Tina announced as loud as she could, straining her lungs to speak the word.

In an instant, the temperature stopped rising and began gradually dropping. They watched the arena-wide ring of flames slowly fade away as Asterios reduced the speed of his flight and ceased spinning around his own axis. After reaching a more or less normal speed, he glided toward them and the flaming Dragon landed in front of their joint barriers.

The draconic frame quivered and the spiritual avatar dissipated, revealing Asterios still in the same state of undress and with the abundance of crimson scales covering his skin still present. He resummoned his Spellslinger, slotted a white chip into the hole, and cast a chilling spell that reduced the temperature to an even more bearable level with waves of silvery mist.

Tina and Selene dropped the barriers and exhaled in relief. Miria giggled in excitement and lunged at him while dropping her blades.

“Awesome! Can I ride that, Master?!”

He chuckled as he caught her and let them spin around. The other girls exchanged glances and smiled softly at each other while shaking their heads. There was just no way for Miria to ever change.

 

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