"Not good," Lunatic muttered, looking back towards DreadHaven. She didn't even care about her body being almost split in half.
"I can stop it," she thinks, forcing herself to stand up. Her regeneration kicked in, the detached part of her body from Irish's slash starting to glow with a faint light as it slowly began to reattach . But before she could even open her wings to fly, Scarlett was already ready.
She puts strength in her feet and—DASH!...
In one blink, she was just standing there. In the next blink, she disappeared, leaving a loud aftershock behind her, causing a gust of wind like a bullet train had just passed them.
As for Scarlett, she was suddenly near the DreadHaven, looking at the upcoming huge sword wave that looked like a massive black sea wave about to crash into the dreadhaven.
She clenches her fist, her knuckles white, ready to disintegrate it in one punch and save everyone..
But then, something unexpected happened.
A black smoky light shone from Irish's fist back on the battlefield. And the next moment, the whole sword wave starts stretching, like it was being sucked into a black hole.
It stretched like a rubber band, the end of it connecting directly with the smoky black light in Irish's fist. Before anyone could even understand what was happening, the entire massive sword wave was sucked back into her fist, disappearing as if it never existed.
"Phew... all done," Irish sighs, a small, tired smile on her face. She turns to look at Lunatic and everyone's shocked expressions.
"Of course I know the rules. Any kind of damage to DreadHaven's infrastructure will result in my elimination," she adds with a chuckle. The way she said it, laughing lightly while explaining , her insanity that she mostly hid deep inside was starting to show on the surface. Her eyes had a wild, unhinged glint in them.
But what shocked everyone more than the attack itself was the way she casually sucked her own attack back.
It was all thanks to her first unique skill, Predation. It acted like a digestive system, absorbing dead bodies or cores of the monsters she defeated. It could be humans or other species as well. And like nutrients, she gets a stat boost from them, and if she's lucky, skills in return. This was also the reason why she had a huge amount of rare skills.
But right now, she used her unique skill in a unique way. She attacked by using almost all of her mana at once, creating a giant sword wave. But she was not like Scarlett or Lunatic, who had an extremely huge amount of mana, And can do those kind of attacks several times.
So, she absorbed her attack back, retrieving almost all of the mana she had just wasted. It was like recycling her own power.
Of course, compared to how easily she did it with her own mana, it would be equally hard to predate mana from someone else's attack. It was like her body was designed to recognize and reclaim its own energy.
This way, as long as she got enough prep time, she could slam this level of attacks again and again, as long as she could handle the mental burden of channeling so much power at once.
"Now, DIE!" Irish shouted, raising her sword high again. Her black death aura enveloped the sword once more, its size growing with each passing second, threatening to unleash another city-leveling attack.
"Not today," Lunatic said, her voice a low growl. She immediately kneels on the ground, touching it with the palm of her hand.
Zzzzzzz!...
The whole ground trembled violently. Cracks started appearing like a spiderweb across the battlefield. The ground beneath Irish starts to puff up and shift, causing her to lose her balance.
Her concentration breaks, and her oversized sword shrinks back to its normal size with a disappointed hiss.
Lunatic immediately rushes at her, summoning a dark, glowing sword in her own hand. The two of them immediately engaged in a tough, close-quarters sword fight, their blades clashing in a flurry of sparks and ringing sounds.
At the same time, realizing the situation was under control, Scarlett also came back, appearing beside the stage in a blur and starts overseeing their battle once again.
"Phew, she shocked me for sure," she sighs, feeling a wave of relief wash over her.
Several chains with sharp, pointy ends come out of Lunatic's back, rushing towards Irish like a swarm of metal snakes.
Instead of defending, Irish just stops. The next second, several chains also come out of her back, but these were stained in a thick, menacing black death aura.
CLANG!...
Chains collided with chains. It was like these chains were just another part of their bodies, moving with their will, blocking and striking with a life of their own.
"It's not working," Lunatic sighs, panting even more. She was already quite exhausted after such a terrifying battle with Reiza, and this new fight was pushing her even more.
Meanwhile, Irish was also using many debuff kind of skills. Monsters usually have natural debuff things in them, such as poison, an exhaustion effect, mana depletion effect, bleeding, and mental effects.
After killing so many monsters, she had quite the collection of skills related to debuffs, and she was using them all. Invisible waves of exhaustion and mana drain washed over Lunatic, causing her to exhaust even further.
Lunatic, with no other choice, immediately rushes at Irish again, trying to close the gap between them so that she could use her unique skill, Vibration, directly onto her body.
And surprisingly, she managed to close the gap. She landed a direct hit onto Irish's belly.
Unlike last time where she only used it to blast away Reiza's clothes, this time she was on full offensive, pouring all her power into it to send Irish flying.
But just as the vibration kicked in.
Duhhhh!...
Irish's body bounced and stretched slightly, like her body was made of slime. The violent vibrations just made her wobble like jelly.
Irish actually had the natural nemesis of Lunatic's unique skill.
At the same time, Irish takes advantage of the situation and manages to touch Lunatic's hand.
Lunatic immediately feels a hole of pain, not from her body but from her very soul. Her hand turns a sickly black where Irish touched it, and the pain was so intense it felt like her soul was being poisoned. Lunatic instinctively retreats a few meters back, clutching her hand, which was slowly turning back to normal.
"Fuck, she literally corrupts the soul," she mutters to herself, panting even more, her face pale with a mix of pain and shock.
At this point, she knew she couldn't even let Irish touch her. She had to make sure that even when she attacked, the contact was for less than a second.
"Ahh! Fuck!" Lunatic was literally getting frustrated by how she was actually losing to a human. Of course, this situation wouldn't have come if she fought with everything she had, but she couldn't use her ultimate skill, and her mana was running low.
Irish takes the initiative, rushing directly towards Lunatic, a wild grin on her face.
The next moment, Irish's hand stretches like rubber, extending her reach by several meters. She slashes her sword at Lunatic, almost cutting her, but at the very last moment, Lunatic manages to dodge, the blade grazing her side.
"She can shapeshift too?" Lunatic was definitely shocked by it.
But what she didn't know was that Irish wasn't shapeshifting in the traditional sense. She was manipulating her soul structure to modify her body's shape.
"Hah! Now this is getting thrilling!" Lunatic sighs to herself. She was feeling frustrated by the situation, but now she was starting to feel the thrill of the battle, a feeling she never expected would come from a human.
Lunatic's hands transformed. One turned into a large, heavy war hammer, while the other turned into a sharp, gleaming sword.
At the same time, Irish copies her, turning both of her hands into solid, long swords made of her own soul-infused flesh.
Both of them engage in an intense battle, fighting with their own bodies. They were like living weapons, constantly changing their shapes, turning their arms into axes, spears, and shields, attacking and defending against each other in a wild, unpredictable dance of flesh and steel.
As they continued to fight, it was hard to figure out who would stand till the end. At first, Lunatic was very exhausted, but being a succubus queen, her body was starting to recover, her stamina slowly returning. On the other hand, thanks to her unique skills, and the various debuff skills she was using, Irish wasn't feeling exhausted either. It was a battle of attrition, and both were holding on.
"It seems I need to use my trump card," Lunatic thinks to herself, her mind racing for a plan. She couldn't win with brute force, not against Irish's strange abilities.
As she dodged another strike from Irish's sword-hand, she activates her unique skill, Shapeshift, once again.
Her skin and body started to shift, but instead of changing into a weapon or a giant, she actually took on an appearance, the appearance of Scarlett. The same flowing purple hair, the same mismatched eyes, the same white skin, and tall body. Although she couldn't replicate the same level of divine glow that Scarlett had, the resemblance was uncanny.
Irish stops immediately, her eyes widening for a second, her gaze fixed on the "Scarlett" in front of her. L
And this was exactly what Lunatic wanted.
"Perfect Dream!" she whispers in Scarlett's voice, her eyes glowing with the familiar dark purple and pink light.
Irish was caught completely off guard. Her body turns limp, and she falls to the ground with a soft thud, her eyes closed.
"It's over then," Ingrassia sighs from the stands, feeling a little disappointed that her friend didn't win.
But at that moment, the body of the fallen Irish started to disintegrate, turning into thin air and vanishing without a trace.
It was a clone, one of many of Irish's rare skills.
"Huh?" Before Lunatic could understand what had happened, she felt a powerful, killing intent from right behind her.
As she turns around, the real Irish was already there, holding her sword. The sword was filled with a thick, swirling black death aura, its size bigger than even Irish's whole body.
Although it was still very small compared to the previous city-leveling attack, that was because she had to fool Lunatic. She had divided most of her mana into her clone to make it more believable, to make her presence feel real.
"Alter Excalibur!" Irish shouted, descending her attack down with all her remaining power.
SLASH!...
The sword wave directly burst forth, striking Lunatic with immense force. She crossed her arms in a desperate attempt to defend herself, but it was too much. The power of the attack caused tremors everywhere, the ground shaking relentlessly with no end to it.
After a few seconds, as the shockwaves finally stopped and the dust settled, Lunatic was laying on the ground, back in her real body. Her clothes were half tattered, and her skin was slightly red and burned from the energy of the attack.
But she was still conscious, her breathing ragged but steady.
Irish casually walks over to her, putting her sword at Lunatic's neck, her gaze fixed on her, intense and unwavering.
Lunatic looks up at Irish's intense gaze and sighs lightly, a small, tired smile on her face. She raises both of her hands in a peaceful gesture, showing she had no more will to fight.
"I accept defeat," she said, her voice soft but clear.