Chapter 378: Crabastrophy

The sound of ice striking against ice rang out in a continual cacophony as the two soverigns continued their fierce clash. Neither one willing to give up and accept defeat.

The battle had been going on for almost half an hour at this point.

Luna had long reached the peak of her power, her chain strike no longer allowing her to build up any more stacks regardless of how fast she rained down attacks.

Still that boost enabled her to actually cause damage to her foe. She had already managed to sever 2 of the beasts legs and one of its claws during the battle.

Yet the beast would not allow something as simple as dismemberment to prevent it from fighting, no, if anything loosing those limbs only made the beast more ferocious.

Its attacks had jumped in both viciousness and variety.

No longer could Luna score any free attacks, each time she moved in to strike up close she secured a retaliatory attack. It didn’t matter how significant or not that retaliation was, Luna was forced to endure it never the less.

By now Luna’s body was adorned in almost as much ice as the crab had been at the start of the fight.

Each layer of ice proof of the innumerable small wounds that she had scabbed over with her healing. Yet the crab was not the only one to loose a limb during this battle.

Luna’s from right paw had been entirely severed from a particularly ruthless exchange between the two combatants, Luna had managed to land a decisive attack against the crabs claw and managed to sever that, unfortunately the other claw had lashed out at Luna and secured an equal trade.

The pain was immense, yet not enough to deter Luna from advancing and continuing the fight, she too like the crab was too invested in the battle to give up over something so minor as a lost limb.

Besides Luna was content to simply manifest a spare limb with ice, enabling her to still move about with nearly flawless precision.

Still the fight dragged on, each one continuing to deal more and more damage.

The battlefield itself had also slowly shifted.

They had stared the battle besides a ice bridge, however after that had been destroyed, or disconnected from their slice of reality.

That had seemed to cause a chain reaction in the very environment.

The ground they had been standing on buckled, it groaned with etherial chimes that seemed to resonate with the world around Luna.

She felt an instinctive urge to look about, seemingly the crab did too as the pair of them momentarily paused their battle to observe their surroundings.

The ground they had been walking on seemed to split in two, each side folding into one another.

Luna tensed as she watched the ’floor’ fold in and head directly towards where she and the crab were currently fighting. She did not delay and rushed to the inner edge of the newly folded floor, the crab nary a step behind her movements.

As tier 5 beasts they could move with incredible speed, covering vast distances with ease, yet the twisted reality that had apparently been mildly broken was also moving at truly terrifying speeds, particularly when one considers that the thing moving was the very ground that they walked on.

Still even though the danger posed by this collapsing ground Luna and the crab were still in the middle of a battle, the world falling apart around them is not enough to truly halt their fight.

As such Luna felt no shame in unleashing a barrage of ranged attacks at the crab as it trailed after it. She had begun to lean towards heavy blunt weapons to deal damage to the crab, whilst she could not cut through the incredibly tough ice armour with blades weapons, simply smashing it with a hammer brought about more damage over all.

Plus in this instance the added force would help slow down the crab if she managed to land any good hits.

Annoyingly however, the crab once again seemed to ripple in place as it turned its body illusory for a brief moment. That short span of time was more than enough for the dozen maces and hammers to fly straight through its body and imbed themselves in the ground behind it.

Growling in annoyance it was then Luna’s turn to avoid a stray attack, still both parties ran at maximum speed.

Then the world around them shuddered as the twin twisted terrains impacted together in a cataclysmic collision. Luna was thrown off her feet, yet was able to rapidly secure her footing in the very air itself with the aid of her domain.

The crab was slightly less lucky than the leopard. A sizable chunk of debris had been launched from the impact, that Chuck had collided with the crab from its blind spot and taken of a good chunk of its rear end. It’s blue blood pouring from the grizzly wound like a small river.

Luna’s eyes gleamed in predatory delight as she instantly pounced on that weakness. She took a step and appeared right besides the crab, once more 4 illusions appearing around her as the world around her froze in place.

Anywhere between a minute and an instant later the crab was no more.

Luna had suffered a vicious cut on her shoulder, her left role now hanging uselessly as the entire shoulder bone had been nearly entirely shattered from the crabs final desperate attack.

Luna found herself collapsed on the ground as she took heaving breaths, her body screaming in both exhaustion and pain.

Her mana was near empty yet she still forced her beleaguered mana reserves to mobilise enough to begin the healing process.

Her frozen life skill slowly spreading a soothing chill across her body, the pain being mildly dulled as flesh began to knit together under its ministrations.

Then she turned to look at the system notifications with eager expectations.

[You have defeated Xracor. Crystalline Illusion Crab level 186. Participant no 8,375 of Chapion Beast Protocal. Exp rewarded.]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[New skill unlocked - Illusion manipulation]