"You dare show your face before me!?" Louis roared, his voice cracking with a mixture of shock and long-simmering hatred.
"I dare to rip your heart out of your chest and offer it to my grandfather as a funeral offering!" Lancey's voice was as cold as a mountain glacier, vibrating with a killing intent that made the surrounding swamp air turn brittle.
"You think Liam was betrayed by me!?" Louis's face contorted, his blue eyes bulging. "He betrayed me! He betrayed my trust and hoarded the Claw Scorch Meditation Technique for himself! He reached Peak Rank 1 status and suppressed me willfully for decades. Everyone knew I was more talented than him, yet he suppressed his own brother? He even gave the head disciple status to you, a child!"
"You were nothing before my grandfather," Lancey spat, her feet hovering inches above the frozen mud. "He had more talent in his pinky than your whole wretched family has in their entire lineage."
"Just because of this jealousy, you colluded with outsiders to backstab your own flesh and blood?"
"He backstabbed me first!" Louis screamed, spittle flying. "He let my Jared to die! He did nothing to protect him, nothing to avenge him!"
"Hahaha... are you crazy?" Lancey's laugh was a sharp, jagged sound. "Jared fucked with an acolyte of the Lighthouse of the Night! A Rank 3 organization! We couldn't even afford to offend a Rank 2 force, and you wanted Grandfather to sacrifice the entire Academy for that fool?"
"And what of it!? He was an inadequate leader!"
"It doesn't matter how many faults he had; he was my grandfather, and you must die. And with you, I will bury the memory of this corrupted Raven Claw Academy!"
"Fucking bitch," Louis growled, his hands curling into claws. "You think I am a coward like your grandfather? I don't care who your backer is. I will beat you to the brink of death and let Fiona torture you into oblivion!"
"Oh, will you? That bastard whore who was born after my father fucked your daughter?"
"YOU BITCH!!!!!"
"Hahahaha! Your only direct descendant is an untalented whore, born out of incest!"
Louis's face turned a purplish black. He slammed his foot onto the ground. "Iron Maiden Cage!"
Countless spikes erupted from the swamp, extending rapidly before converging in mid-air to form a jagged, spherical cage that locked Lancey within.
From the surface of the prison, pulses of violet light circulated, and thousands of purple, barbed hooks suddenly emerged from the bars. The glint of the spikes caused one's heart to palpitate with primal fear.
The innumerable spokes shot inward like sharp arrows, making loud whooshing sounds as they closed in, blocking any route of escape. Magical runes flared on the surfaces of the spikes, a support spell designed to ensure they remained sharp enough to pierce through even the densest defensive barriers. With an attack of this caliber, any regular newly-advanced Magus would have been turned into a porcupine in an instant.
However, Lancey made no attempt to dodge.
Rumble!
From her body, a ring of icy blue, flickering flames emerged. The flames behaved like a liquid, flowing over her skin and solidifying into a layer of frost armor. An immense wave of coldness radiated outward, turning the stagnant swamp water beneath the cage into frozen ice.
As the spikes met Lancey's blue flames, they let out soft hissing sounds and froze instantly, exploding into small crystals.
Clatter!
The sounds of pearls dropping echoed as these balls struck the protective layer shimmering beneath her flames. They lost all kinetic energy and rolled harmlessly across the ground in all directions.
At the sight of this, Louis's expression became grave. A hint of genuine vigilance finally flickered in his eyes.
"You are already able to contend against me? Your rate of improvement far exceeds my expectations! I am now slightly regretful for being 'merciful' in the past."
"You were never merciful," Lancey countered, her voice muffled by the coldness of her armor. "You simply didn't have the men to spare to kill me. You were too busy protecting your stolen interests from the very people you needed to betray my grandfather."
"Still so glib."
His desire for Lancey's blood became a physical weight in the air. His eyes turned a dark, bruised red, as if they were about to burst and bleed.
"Transformation!" Louis muttered.
Immediately, rows of steely black feather runes lit up across his body. A dark, oily gas emitted from his clothes as a layer of black feathers began to ooze from his pores.
In seconds, he was transformed into a horrific raven-human hybrid. His head narrowed into a beak, and his right hand, the Raven Claw lengthened until each finger was a lance-like weapon of black bone.
He turned into a dark hurricane, a blur of feathers and bone, heading straight for Lancey.
"Ring of Despots!"
Lancey stroked a silver ring on her finger. Five emerald-green snakes made of pure energy lunged out, intercepting the hurricane. Louis roared, his clawed hand ripping the first snake apart with a single swipe. However, the other four coiled around his limbs, their fangs sinking deep.
A loud CLANG rang out as his innate feather-armor held, the snakes unable to break his skin, but their weight pinned him. Louis let out a piercing raven's screech; a powerful shockwave vibrated through his body, tearing the energy snakes into fragments.
Lancey, knowing his meditation technique specialized in close combat, used the distraction to unleash her true power.
She bit her lip until blue-tinted blood emerged, her voice rising in a frantic, high-pitched chant.
"Aquarius Tempest!"
A high-pressure stream of water, moving with the speed of a piston, blasted toward Louis. He opened his beak wide, spraying a torrent of cursed fire to meet it.
Red and blue slammed into each other. The resulting shockwave lifted the top layer of the swamp ground entirely.
Surrounding creatures, snakes, worms, and mice fled in a blind panic, sensing the imminent catastrophe.
A black ray emerged from the cross hanging around Lancey's neck, fending off the backdraft of the impact. Sparks showered from her barrier as she was pushed backward. After several exchanges, her expression grew serious.
Louis stood like an immovable monolith on the ground. He had clearly remodeled his body to the extreme; both his strength and speed were monstrous.
"Well, one thing is for sure," Lancey panted. "You didn't waste the inheritance you stole."
"You talk too much."
"Rampage Claw!"
Louis's right claw enlarged dramatically, the lance-like fingers glowing with a sickly light as he lunged. The sharp, pointed ends of the finger-lances became flexible, twisting like snakes to bypass her guard and thrusting toward her vitals.
Tss tss! Lancey winced as a portion of her barrier was chipped away, the kinetic force throwing her back into a pile of frozen debris.
'In close combat, even with the aid of the Minichip, it would be quite troublesome to deal with him!' Lancey thought, wiping the blue blood from her chin. 'But I have long planned your end.'
Xiu Xiu Xiu!
Countless tendrils of shimmering, brilliant light erupted from the shadows, encircling Louis and tightening with the strength of steel cables.
"A Light elemental spell Scroll!?" Louis shouted in disbelief, his dark nature recoiling from the radiance.
Lancey retreated hastily, raising her arm. Giant wind blades began to manifest above her palm, spinning with a deafening roar.
"Storm Blades!"
The blades fused into a single, massive crescent of wind and frost, flying toward the bound Louis.
"How can this level of attack affect me? NAIVE!" Louis bellowed. Dark gas oozed from his skin, manifesting into thousands of spectral ravens that formed a swirling shield around him.
Ka-cha! Ka-cha!
The wind blade collided with the raven shield. Spectral ravens were shredded into gaseous mist, but the sheer volume of them offset the attack's momentum.
The world seemed to stop for a heartbeat. Then, a massive energy storm exploded outward. In the center of the vortex, red flames and white rays of light battled for dominance, engulfing each other in a deafening, grinding roar.
Creak…