456 Not Down Yet!
‘I knew it! It’s his mana. He can apply some weird effects with it! I’m guessing that’s how he defeated Stephin so easily. The arrogant idiot didn’t bother to take him seriously,’ Lemorine thought as she sweat, her figure fast approaching Skullius from her leap!
As an Energy Former, Lemorine was sensitive to energies and she had immediately activated her Genuine Incarnation when she got near Skullius.
The box shaped Genuine Incarnation around her expanded to cover Skullius within it as well, Lemorine’s figure reaching the Hybrid Luman as she wrapped her long legs around him and hugged him tight with her glowing hands!
The Hybrid Luman instantly felt his mana get suppressed, thought it struggled to break free. Lemorine also felt the push of the mana, which wasn’t surprising.
She wasn’t exactly sure what Skullius’ mana could do specifically, but it wasn’t basic and she could only keep its effect on her and the surroundings suppressed by giving her full focus!
‘Well, I thought my mana would be able to resist this but I guess it isn’t technically a high level concept like Distorted Gravity. The Master Stage is a problem…’ Skullius thought.
Him and Lemorine finally started to fall to the floor, the weaker individuals who were spectating now being able to see what the heck was happening from the beyond fast events on the ceiling.
The large glowing box descended while Lemorine hurriedly extended her arms behind Skullius, a golden flame being spat out which struck the floor, swirling in its firey might as it started to spin rapidly.
Skullius grasped Lemorine’s arms but she quickly set herself loose, her strength being higher than Skullius’ without his mana reinforcement!
“It’s too late,” Lemorine said with a smile that assumed triumph. “Just remember, I did take it easy on you.”
With those words, she kicked down Skullius who flew out of the falling box and into the golden flame swirling on the floor!
Within this flame, a huge maw suddenly appeared, jutting up to meet the falling Skullius who barely got even half a second to rest between being ejected from the Genuine Incarnation and being swallowed whole!
Lemorine spun in the air and landed a distance away.
The flames on the floor cleared to reveal a giant toad!
It was bluish purple in colour, its skin riddled with warts and bumps that oozed of dark pus.
The creature gulped disgustingly, and remained in place, its five meter tall mass just lazily standing there.
Lemorine calmed her heart.
Even though she hadn’t confronted Skullius for that long, just being in his presence had been intimidating.
Right now, despite knowing the extraordinary natural ability of the toad she had summoned, she was still unconvinced that Skullius was down for the count.
During the fall just now, she felt like the Hybrid Luman hadn’t even put up a fight. As if he wanted to see what Lemorine would do.
‘I’ve been using beasts that I was sure would counter his abilities ever since I heard he was a Mage but… if by some chance he manages to escape… My other heavy hitters can’t even fit in this room,’ the Tamer thought as a golden light started to gather in her hand.
Within the belly of the massive toad, Skullius was constantly being squeezed by tough muscles that forced him down, rivers of ooze trying to make him slip in well.
It was disgusting.
At the same time, he also felt his mana being sucked into these juices!
It freely flowed from his body at a rapid pace, flooding into the walls of whichever organ he had started to slide through now, and in the process, as it gushed out, controlling it became progressively harder!
‘No wonder I felt so much mana in this thing’s body. Anything trapped inside it will lose its mana as time passes,’ Skullius thought while narrowing his eyes.
This was truly a predicament.
The Tamer he was facing was definitely prepared.
In just the few seconds he was trapped in here, Skullius could already feel 30% of his mana gone.
He needed to act.
‘Well… since I decided not to use my Magnus abilities…’ Skullius said as he grinned, his hands coming together as he cast a skill while forcing his mana to obey.
Indeed.
That was one of the things he had decided on before engaging in the evaluation.
Using darkness and light was too risky, for a variety of reasons he had thought out, mostly to do with the history between Fulgardt and the three nations that he was slowly dissecting.
Lemorine had begun to relax when she suddenly felt from within her tamed beast, as she was linked to it, a sudden ignition!
‘I knew it!’ she thought as her Genuine Incarnation grew bright once again.
She extended her hands, a golden glow pulsing within them, tamed beasts ready for summoning at her finger tips.
On the toad’s belly, an orange hue manifested with a light sizzling sound in the shape of an oval, spreading rapidly as the giant toad croaked in the next moment!
The creature stomped down with its legs in pain, smoke jutting from its mouth as it gurgled and spat out a voracious red flame that dyed the entire room in its bloody hue!
The heat warped the air as the flame seemed to want to engulf everything in sight!
The figure of Skullius shot up also from within the flame, finally freed, as the fire had no effect on him, the Hybrid Luman looking down at the grumbling toad the he was a sufficient height!.
‘This thing is incredibly durable! I thought [Revenant Flames of Ecstasy] would be enough to fry it from the inside but clearly not!’ he thought as he brought his hands together again.
The Flames that brushed against everything in sight were pulled to the hands of the Hybrid Luman, under the command of an expansive aura that no one but him felt!
An aura of Null Life that he had witnessed Sila use to spam and mould the fires that dwelled within extreme pleasure and excruciating pain!
They were all pulled in as Skullius brought them between both his hands, shaping them as he desired.
Skullius truly loved having a blue core!
Since the mana generated by such a core could support the activation of Special skills, normal skills barely cost any mana to cast and with each cast, they were slightly stronger!
For the Hybrid Luman, because he had such a godly output of mana, this effect was further increased as each activation of a normal skill was akin to an explosion!
As the flames gathered, Skullius compressed them into a ball shape with simplistic wings at the sides!
The flame bubbled and bobbed, its colour shifting madly as it seemed to be trying to resist capture but Skullius held it firmly.
He had always been casting this skill while in his Penetrator form on the stout mountain, [Epiphany] passively increasing its efficiency and power by 90%.
(A/N: Refer to Ch.364).
As a result…
[‘Revenant Flames of Ecstasy’ has reached LV20. Would you like to evolve it into its next form]
“Flesh yeah!” Skullius roared as he glanced to his side in a slight alarm and immediately let the flame which started to change loose!
[‘Revenant Flames of Ecstasy’ has evolved into ‘Ungodly Passion of Debauchery’]
The once red flame, midway towards its enemy flared, becoming thrice as large with a blinding golden centre between the red which turned to a creepy bloody crimson, its descent calling upon a heat so great it sucked in the air and mana violently!
Lemorine who had been on her way towards Skullius, riding her lizard on the ceiling again, screeched to a halt!
She had thought there was a chance to save her toad, but that flame…
She watched as it descended onto her tamed beast with blinding light and atrocious heat that licked at her skin even from here!
She and everyone here, including Skullius were flabbergobgastersmacked when…
…!