Chapter 58: Backlash

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: Backlash

From the corner of her eye, Asaro glanced at Jeremy standing proudly behind the blazing fire, and the inexplicable frustration in her heart finally vanished without a trace. She raised her hand, and the blood-red scythe accented with purple spun frantically around her wrist; a blinding purple light suddenly erupted.

"Underworld Ferrying."

Four cold, gloomy words spilled from the corner of her lips. In the blink of an eye, a black mist carrying endless death aura surged from the scythe’s shaft, rapidly condensing into a massive phantom of the Grim Reaper that reached the very top of the arena’s dome.

The phantom hovered behind Asaro, slowly raising its skeletal arm in perfect synchronization with her motion of holding the scythe.

A deep red slash tore through space and lunged forward. Wherever it passed, the wailing of ghosts and howling of gods echoed. The light of the flames was instantly swallowed by the black mist, and the giant magic blade, carrying a pressure that crushed everything, charged straight toward the nine fire dragons.

The concentration of gathered magic particles was so high that a fierce gale kicked up, blowing sand and dust across the arena. Yet Asaro remained completely unaffected; her long purple hair only fluttered slightly. Her blood-colored scythe paired with her cold, rippleless face meant that even someone who had never read the records regarding Sacred Covenants could easily recognize that the deity backing her roster was the Grim Reaper.

Jeremy frowned; how could he have expected her two skills to be heaven-defying to this extent? He gritted his teeth, ignoring the aching pain of depleted magic power, and forcibly summoned three more clones to maintain the formation. At the same time, the sub-skill of the Mirror Prison—Mirror Shards—was immediately activated.

Tens of thousands of silver rays of light appeared in a flash, instantly crisscrossing to form an airtight mirror space that completely enclosed the entire arena. The moment the swarm of ghost souls slammed into the mirror surface, the entire wall erupted with a blinding golden light. The light element concealed within the mirror shards collided with thousands of ghost souls, producing ear-piercing shrieks that seemed to want to puncture eardrums.

Jeremy looked up, his sharp gaze locking straight onto Asaro, who was enveloped by the power of the Grim Reaper, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly.

Just as Asaro was certain that Jeremy would use a devouring skill to stall for time, his thumb and middle finger lightly touched.

Snap!

A crisp snap of his fingers rang out.

"Backlash," he growled softly.

Asaro was stunned. She frowned.

Backlash? She hadn’t seen him use this skill in the previous matches... Could it be a stacked sub-skill?

Before Asaro could think deeper, the moment the word "backlash" faded, the reflective power of the mirror wall encasing the entire arena suddenly surged a hundredfold. Whether it was the thousands of wailing ghost souls or the slash swung by the Grim Reaper’s phantom, everything was absorbed by the mirror surface, compressed, and then rebounded completely intact back toward her.

The Void skill could not be cast continuously in a short time, so Asaro had no choice but to grit her teeth and brace herself to endure this devastating strike.

A deafening explosion rang out, and sky-filling magic particles shattered.

Beneath the veil of bright red blood mist, Asaro stood leisurely upright in the black mist, holding the scythe planted into the ground with one hand for support. However, fresh blood was bleeding frantically from her seven orifices. Her limbs and abdomen were all torn by the violent shockwave into several deep gashes that exposed the flesh. Even so, her face remained freezing cold and tranquil.

The grandstand could no longer maintain its calm at this point, and waves of exclamations rang out ceaselessly.

"What the hell... Is this the strength a six-star should have?"

"Jeremy’s first skill is too heaven-defying, isn’t it? Cloning, backlash, and devouring all at once?"

"Tsk, can’t you see Asaro is going easy? If she were truly serious, how could a bottom-tier trash fight back?"

"Idiot, shut your mouth! This time was clearly a misjudgment by Asaro. Otherwise, how could she let herself be injured so heavily!"

On the arena, Asaro truly did not foresee that Jeremy would launch such a decisive and ruthless counterattack. The intense pain pierced through her entire body, and the sensation of her vitality draining away with every drop of blood falling to the ground was incredibly real. And yet, not only did Asaro lack a single trace of fear or anger, her chest vibrated, letting out a soft chuckle.

As expected, she had not misjudged the person.

This tenacious existence was absolutely worthy of being her opponent.

In Asaro’s purple pupils, the boring tranquility was gone, replaced by a bizarrely maddening excitement. The scythe tore through the void; she twisted her hand, swinging out a devastatingly destructive attack. The instant skill ’Underworld Ferrying’ drained more than half her magic power, creating an enhanced version of the strike.

The atmosphere on the arena changed drastically; the breath of death was like an impending storm, suppressing every living creature on the field.

On the opposite side, Jeremy was faring no better. The price of the backlash skill hit him. His chest throbbed with pain, his muscles trembled, and blood continuously seeped from the corner of his mouth. His condition right now was even worse than Asaro’s.

Looking at the world-destroying strike about to crash down, Jeremy did not hesitate for another second. Draining the last meager bit of his remaining magic power, he stomped hard on the floor, retreating out of the arena’s red boundary line at top speed. At the same time, he controlled a clone to use a seven-star chain whip to tightly wrap around and yank all four of his teammates out of the attack range.

This time Asaro had clearly lost her mind and was going all out. If he stubbornly stayed to block it, it would truly be seeking death.

At the boundary between the red line and the arena, a protective barrier was set up to isolate magic attacks and ensure the safety of the audience. Stepping outside the red line meant safety, which equated to proactively admitting defeat and forfeiting. Asaro’s strike had exceeded the endurance limit of freshmen; holding on at this moment would bring no meaning other than becoming crippled.

Evelyn and the others were no fools either. The moment the chain whip wrapped around their waists, they immediately retracted their weapons and obediently followed Jeremy’s pulling force, flying out of the barrier.

The moment his toes crossed the red line, Jeremy’s magic power completely ran dry. The intense pain tore at his cells, and his vision went black. Losing his center of gravity, Jeremy uncontrollably dropped to one knee on the floor, his chest heaving violently.

Evelyn landed closest to him and hurriedly came over to support his arm. She didn’t utter meaningless words like "Are you okay?", but decisively took out a vial of blood-stopping magic potion and poured it straight into Jeremy’s mouth. Under the state of shared sensation, their group immediately felt how agonizingly painful the internal organs were tearing. With his current injuries, if he didn’t ingest the magic potion immediately, Jeremy would very likely go into shock from blood loss.

"Cough, cough... Thanks."

After the cold liquid flowed down his throat, Jeremy barely managed to maintain his consciousness. He raised his head, blinking as he looked at the arena, witnessing with his own eyes how terrifying Asaro’s destructive power was.

That strike ground all the mirror shards into fine dust. The rolling black mist swallowed everything. The arena floor, made of extremely solid obsidian, was plowed apart, with countless bottomless deep fissures appearing. Thousands of ghost souls frantically self-destructed; the explosions caused the arena’s protective magic barrier to shake violently, spawning a series of spiderweb cracks.

Looking at the ruined scene, the corner of Jeremy’s lips twitched slightly. If he had lingered for another half-second earlier, he feared he would have been turned into scum by now. He raised his hand to rub his throbbing temples, beginning to doubt his previous judgment. Saying there was no grudge... didn’t sound reasonable at all.

Amidst the ruins, Asaro stood with a straight back beneath the black mist. Seeming to notice his gaze, she slowly turned her head, projecting her vision through the barrier. As their eyes met, Asaro spoke in a flat voice, her sound transmitted through magic to his ears: "If you hadn’t dodged, I would have ensured you didn’t die either."

Her tone was calm and serious, holding no intention of joking, while the excitement in her eyes had yet to fully dissipate.

"..."