Second World

Chapter 1908. Three Against Three

Asmodeus' man-head observed his body. His scales had visible cracks on them. He also felt his defenses weakened. His devil body could normally shorten any debuff significantly. He had been expecting these cracks to start mending themselves, but it didn't happen.

This was due to Four Wind's Furious Cleave. Asmodeus' defense was reduced by one-fifth until the combat was over.

"Never mind," He muttered.

He returned his attention to the three who continued to hit him. His bull and sheep heads had been casting spells to repel the three, but the three were persistent. He was also assailed continuously by the elemental energies from Blackhole's elemental domain.

When the three attacked again, all three heads of Asmodeus grinned. The three were bewildered by the grin. Before they could make sense of it, Asmodeus split into three.

Arthur suddenly found himself face-to-face with a dragon with a bull's head. Leavemealone dodged a charge from a creature with a bird's body but the head of a sheep.

As for Four Winds, he suddenly found himself coiled by a giant snake. Four Winds was the closest to Asmodeus. The snake had crazy explosive speed. Four Winds failed to react to the ambush.

The snake's one end was a normal snake's head, while its other end was the head of a man. The head with the man's face was staring down at Four Winds.

"Surprise?" Snake Asmodeus asked with a devilish grin.

Four Winds and the others weren't surprised by Asmodeus splitting into three because Wilted had informed them about this ability, but they were still surprised by how suddenly it happened. They expected there to be a process before it happened.

Snake Asmodeus' man-head started casting a spell while its snake-head shot lightning bolts at Blackhole. The spell was completed. It caused a blast of chaotic lightning to Petunia and Aneid, stunning and paralyzing them. All the while, the snake's body coiling around Four Winds was getting tighter. Four Winds received damage every second.

"Grrh…!" Four Winds tried exerting his strength. He even used his pinnacle class' level 60 skill, God's Fury. This skill gave him a buff that doubled the effect of max-level Berserk without its drawback. This skill lasted ten minutes. One thing special about this skill was that after it ended, Four Winds would still receive 25% of the skill's benefit for the remainder of the battle. It was not stackable, though.

However, even after receiving the buff, he still couldn't free himself. The snake budged when he used the skill, but it tightened its grip again soon. Four Winds' boosted strength was not enough.

*

On the other side, Arthur's katana clashed with dragon Asmodeus. Arthur had to take a step back every time his sword clashed with Asmodeus' claws.

The bull's horns started crackling with electricity. Arthur backflipped when he sensed an attack coming. A lightning blast was emitted from the horns. It struck the ground and chased after Arthur. Arthur was not fast enough to continue dodging the lightning, so he stopped running and slashed at the lightning.

A thick crescent light was created following his slash. It was his sword art, Crescent Moon Slash. The energy of the slash somehow halted Asmodeus' lightning for a second. It then shattered, and the lightning struck Arthur. Arthur was sent crashing into the ground while suffering the Paralyze effect.

"Stopping lightning with a slash? Are you kidding me?" Asmodeus mocked. He rushed ahead. His huge dragon claw attempted to stomp Arthur while the swordsman was paralyzed.

Arthur used Primordial Punisher's level 70 buff skill, Lethal Punisher, before the claw hit him. The skill healed 50% HP and removed all status afflictions upon activation. The heal recovered him from all the damage he suffered earlier. It also increased his stats and all the damage he inflicted. While the skill was active, 50% of the damage he suffered was reflected back to the attacker. This included the damage caused by range attacks. The skill also had a 10% chance to inflict Fear status on any enemy that struck him. Unfortunately, Asmodeus was immune to Fear.

Free from the paralyzation, Arthur rolled away before the stomp hit. He still received damage due to the quaking shockwave from the stomp. Half of this damage reflected back to Asmodeus.

Dragon Asmodeus was surprised his prey could escape. Arthur made use of the surprise by dashing ahead and landing a hit on the devil. The hit was done using Primordial Punisher's level 60 skill, Punishing Oath. This skill was a short-burst offense that marked an enemy. Upon successful hit, all damage from Arthur against the target improved by 1% every minute, until a maximum of 100%. This mark lasted the entire battle.

This skill shone when used in a long battle. In less than two hours, every hit from Arthur would result in double damage.

Arthur kept up the pressure by using Shadowless Slash. Dragon Asmodeus couldn't keep up with the fast slashes. He tanked them and used brute force by shoving his claw through the net of swordlights. Arthur stopped his offense and parried the claw using his sword.

Arthur still couldn't contest Dragon Asmodeus' strength despite his buff. He was thrown by the impact. When he finally regained his balance, he found a lightning cage had been erected around him.

This lightning cage was cast by Dragon Asmodeus. It was the same spell that trapped Leavemealone earlier, but that spell was cast by Asmodeus' other head. Arthur slashed the lightning cage, but it was very sturdy. He was even electrocuted every time his sword hit the cage.

Dragon Asmodeus cast another spell while Arthur tried to free himself. A long dark purple lance materialized from the completed spell formation. This chaos lance had multiple sparks of lightning coursing around it.

"Let's see how you survive this spell," Dragon Asmodeus uttered with a mocking laugh.

*

While Snake Asmodeus had the highest burst speed, Bird Asmodeus had the highest maintained speed. He was faster than Chimeral Asmodeus. His speed was even slightly faster than Leavemealone under the effect of Supreme Reign. Leavemealone had to rely on his fast reflex and precise reaction to block Bird Asmodeus' every attack.

The two fought at high speed, moving all around the battlefield. Both on the ground and in the air. They caused loud shockwaves every time they clashed.

Their battle seemed like a tie. That was until Leavemealone lost his white tiger emperor form. His stats dropped significantly. He could no longer compete with Bird Asmodeus in terms of speed. Bird Asmodeus' claw struck him from behind and sent him crashing into the ground.

Bird Asmodeus' sheep head cast a spell upon the successful hit. Multiple lightning spears rained where Leavemealone had fallen.

Leavemealone blocked the lightning spears using Ki Shield empowered by mana manipulation. The supreme reign also buffed his defense while Suzaki's flames reduced the damage he received. This allowed him to survive the strike and the lightning spears. He countered the received damage by using meditation to recover his HP while defending.

Seeing his prey was not giving up, Bird Asmodeus resumed a melee approach. He zoomed to Leavemealone. His claw struck the Ki Shield and shattered it. When he was about to land a follow-up strike, he noticed a strange scene on his opponent. Several blurry afterimages were around Leavemealone. The outworlder himself was not moving. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Bird Asmodeus didn't think too much about it. He went along with the strike. However, when his bird claw struck Leavemealone, he didn't feel like he had struck anything. Leavemealone's blurry afterimages exploded in all directions. Bird Asmodeus' mana sense couldn't detect which was the real Leavemealone among these afterimages.

While he was confused, he felt an impact on his side. Leavemealone punched him using Supreme Punch again. He felt his inside explode as he skidded several steps away.

What Leavemealone had used to dodge was Supreme Fist's level 70 skill, Supreme Stance. It was a defensive skill that fooled an attacking enemy. Leavemealone was impossible to hit when this skill was active. The best thing an opponent could do when Leavemealone used this skill was to stop attacking and wait until the skill was over. Because if they did, they would most likely receive a counterattack.

Whether it was a melee or ranged attack, Leavemealone would zoom toward the attacker while the attacker was confused by his afterimages. All the afterimages had Leavemealone's mana signature so it could fool enemies with mana sense. Leavemealone combined it with his mana concealment, further guaranteeing the enemy couldn't detect where he would attack from.

Additionally, a counterattack performed after dodging an attack using this skill was guaranteed to always be critical.

Same as before, Bird Asmodeus was stunned by the Supreme Punch. Leavemealone didn't waste the chance. He used Ki Blast. The energy ball he formed was enshrouded by golden flames. The ball became much bigger than it was. He unleashed this golden flaming ball before Bird Asmodeus recovered from the stun.

The golden flaming ball struck Bird Asmodeus, and a fiery explosion occurred.

When the explosion subsided, Leavemealone sensed a sudden spike of mana. A chaos lightning lance shot out, which he dodged. He heaved a relieved sigh. From the mana, he knew he wouldn't be unscathed if this lance hit. But before his sigh was over, a lightning bolt shot out. This lightning bolt transformed into Bird Asmodeus right in front of him. Bird Asmodeus' claw struck his waist before he could react.

The strike threw him to the ground. Bird Asmodeus stepped one foot on him while his other foot kicked him repeatedly.

"Die! Die…!! Hahaha!" Bird Asmodeus laughed like a lunatic while kicking endlessly. Damage numbers continued to pop up from Leavemealone.