Maruti's strike was certainly fatal, but it was not deadly enough to kill it.
Their surprise attack had failed.
And now, what awaited them was the full, unbridled wrath of a legendary creature.
The force of the impact sent Maruti hovering in the air for a few more seconds, her body spinning in a slow circle before she began to drift downward towards the ground. She was not happy with the outcome at all. All she could do was roll her eyes in frustration and brace herself for the inevitable, violent retaliation.
"Umm... Opps!" she muttered, and the very next moment—
The bone dragon didn't even spare her a glance. Its sharp claws, like scythes of polished bone, sliced through the air with terrifying speed. They passed through Maruti's wrists as if her flesh and bone were nothing more than flimsy paper.
Both of her hands were severed cleanly while she was still suspended in the air.
A spray of blood erupted from the stumps, oozing out and falling downwards in a sickening rain, pulled by gravity.
Below, the severed parts of her hands still gripped the ZK-20, the weapon falling alongside them.
"You!" Maruti roared, her voice a guttural scream of pure fury.
She didn't even flinch at the searing, white-hot pain of her hands being severed. Her face contorted into a mask of pure, undiluted rage, her eyes burning with a fire that seemed to rival the dragon's own malevolent spirit.
Intricate magic circles, Faintly glowing with faint light, appeared in the air beneath her feet. She stepped onto them, to step on the air.
Her muscles bulged and veins throbbed and popped out on her legs as she coiled them like springs. With a single, explosive push, she leaped high into the air, her body shooting upwards like a missile launched from the mid air.
She soared higher and higher until she was a small but deadly figure positioned high above the bone dragon, her comparatively small figure casting a huge shadow on the bone dragon.
SWASH!...
A brilliant, intense orange fire erupted from her right foot as she stretched it out, aiming it like a spear. And then—ZOOP!...
Her leg descended at a truly frightening speed, a fiery comet of pure destruction aimed directly at the dragon's massive skull.
Her hands being cleanly severed and her immediate, gravity-defying leap using her body weight to deliver a devastating kick—it all happened in such a blur of motion that there was barely any time for the bone dragon to react.
To make matters worse, she had delivered the attack from its blind spot.
BAAAMMM!...
The kick landed squarely on its skull with a deafening, bone-shattering CRACK.
The force of the impact was so immense that it slammed the dragon's head hard against the ground, making the very earth tremble.
The moment her leg connected, a pillar of roaring fire descended from above, amplifying her offensive power even further. The ground shook violently, and the air itself seemed to crackle with the raw, untamed energy of the impact.
"That was a good one—" Esdeath's face brightened with a flicker of hope, but the next moment, the bone dragon, in a fit of pure, undiluted frustration, whipped its tail around.
The movement was impossibly fast.
The tail struck Maruti squarely in the back with the force of a battering ram. The impact sent her flying through the air for hundreds of meters. Her body became a projectile of flesh and bone, crashing through several thick trees and massive boulders before finally skidding to a halt in a broken heap of splintered branches and shattered rock.
With one threat temporarily neutralized, the bone dragon raised its head once again, its burning gaze fixing on Esdeath.
In its severely wounded condition, it was clearly not at its full strength, nor could it summon its dreaded skeleton army anymore. Yet, the sheer death glare in its hollow eye sockets was enough to create a palpable, suffocating pressure in the atmosphere.
Opening its massive, bone-rimmed maw, it lunged towards Esdeath. But as always, Esdeath vanished into thin air, only to reappear on the ground, standing right beside where Maruti's severed hands and the ZK-20 had fallen.
Snatching the ZK-20 back into her hand, she immediately ran towards the bone dragon again, her movements swift.
"Gotta keep him busy till Predictor joins the fight again," she thought to herself, her mind racing.
THAM!... THUD!...
The bone dragon tried to stomp on her like an insignificant insect, its massive, clawed feet coming down with enough force to shatter solid rock. It swept its immense bony wings, creating powerful shockwaves that could cleanly slice through thick trees as if they were nothing more than butter.
But Esdeath, with her incredible agility, swiftly dodged each attack. Her body was a blur of motion as she weaved through the dragon's relentless assault.
However, a major problem was the dragon's natural suction force. The closer she got to its massive body, the more her own body was being pulled towards it, making it progressively harder to dodge its increasingly frantic attacks.
****
Raising its large, clawed leg once more, it was ready to stomp Esdeath into the ground, to turn her into nothing more than a bloody smear. But just as she was mere inches away from being turned into meat paste—
Dodging the attack at the very last fraction of a second, she caught the bone dragon completely by surprise.
Her body flickered for an instant, vanishing and reappearing in a different spot, leaving the dragon's devastating stomp to smash down on empty ground.
At the same time, she willed the ZK-20 in her hand to shift its form. The weapon flowed like liquid metal, reshaping itself into a wicked-looking scythe. Swirling it in a graceful, deadly arc, she directly struck the bone dragon's feet, landing her first solid hit of the fight.
But before even a triumphant smile could emerge on her lips, she watched in horror as the bone dragon continued to move freely, completely unaffected by her skill.
But before she could even process this terrifying realization and react—BAM!...
A powerful backhand, seemingly casual but filled with immense force, struck her with the impact of a falling mountain. The hit felt like a direct slap from a god, sending her flying backwards like a ragdoll, crashing through the rocky wall of the lair behind her.
CRUMBLE!...
The crash was so catastrophically hard that, by the time her broken body finally came to a stop, more than half of the lair had collapsed and broken apart, showcasing the creature's unfathomable and destructive power.
Meanwhile, laying motionless in a pile of debris and mud, Esdeath's jaw was half-thrashed and hanging loosely. Her neck had been twisted backwards in an eerie, unnatural way.
Both of her arms were dislocated from their sockets, and one of her legs was completely missing, while the other was bent into a grotesque 'U' shape, like a twisted, broken spring.
She was dead.
Or rather, that would have been her fate if she didn't possess the Echo of Restoration.
In the very next moment, a soft, ethereal glow enveloped her broken form. With a series of sickeningly wet, rapid clicks, her shattered jaw and missing leg regrew.
All of her limbs, which had been mangled and torn from their sockets, snapped back into their proper positions with a single, fluid, spring-like motion.
She was as good as new again, her body whole and unblemished, as if the devastating attack had never even happened.
"Damn it, it should've at least held him for a second and a half. If only it were a Rank A skill..." Esdeath thought to herself, a wave of bitter frustration washing over her. Regretfully, the Time Lock skill had hit its full potential; it simply couldn't be upgraded any further with SP points.
The way Time Lock worked now depended entirely on her opponent. If she were fighting someone at her own level, the enemy would most likely be frozen for a full three seconds. But the bone dragon's resistance was just too immense, defying her time skill.
"Guess it's time for round two—" She had barely gotten the words out when a blur of white bone sliced through the air, beheading her in one clean, effortless stroke.
A loud, enraged shriek echoed from the bone dragon—a sound of pure, undiluted frustration. Somehow, the monster knew that Esdeath wouldn't perish from only a bit.
Thus, It's attention was still on esdeath.
But once again, before her severed head could even hit the dusty ground, Esdeath caught it with her own hands. A faint, warm light emanated from her grip as she used the Echo of Restoration to seamlessly fuse her head back onto her neck.
"At least give me a second to—"
SLICE!...
Esdeath was sliced through her abdomen yet again, her body cut cleanly into two equal parts. The two halves were sent flying through the air like discarded trash, landing in a broken heap in the dirt and rocks.
Meanwhile, Maruti also began to pull herself from the wreckage of shattered trees and thick mud. Mud and blood were caked all over her face and body.
She possessed the 'Self Heal' essence stone, which, when combined with her own natural affinity with the light element, allowed her to heal even grave wounds.
First, she focused her energy, and a warm, golden light stopped the bleeding from her severed wrists. Then, with some concentration, she regrew her limbs at modest speed.
"Hold on, I'm coming!" She broke into a sprint, running towards the chaotic battle where Esdeath and the bone dragon were locked in.
******
Meanwhile, a grotesque competition of heal and damage was raging on between the bone dragon and Esdeath.
Every time the dragon sliced Esdeath apart, she would simply regenerate in a chilling, unnatural way.
Of course, Esdeath was at a severe disadvantage here. Every time she healed herself, it required a tremendous amount of mana, her reserves being drained with each regeneration. Meanwhile, the bone dragon only had to put forth a minimal amount of effort to slice her apart again, its attacks seemingly endless.
Esdeath gritted her teeth in frustration, her jaw tight with anger and exhaustion. "This can't go on like this," she muttered, her voice a low growl of defiance.
With no choice left, she had to use one of her one of the trump cards.
The flow of time in the nearby area slowed down by several times. The dust motes hanging in the air seemed to freeze.
She didn't waste a single precious second. The ZK-20 in her hand flowed and shifted, transforming into a huge white laser cannon bolted to her shoulder, the weapon was almost twice the size of her body.
Before she could shoot, she saw the bone dragon's head, moving in slow motion, turn towards her. Its massive maw began to open.
Yes, it was slow, much better than Time Lock, which had apparently had no effect at all. Still, the bone dragon was still moving quite fast.
Or more like it's natural speed was so fast that even after being slowed down, It still felt quite fast.
It gave the same chilling feeling as when she was against Lortell. Despite using the Veteran Shooter skill to slow down time, Lortell had still caught her, as if the skill had no effect on her at all.
"Tch!... Oblivion Nova!" she shouts, pouring huge amount of her mana into the attack.
WHITE! A blinding, pure white light spread through the surroundings as the huge laser beam burst forth from the cannon, a spear of incandescent energy aimed directly at the bone dragon.
Meanwhile, at the same time, a huge sphere of crackling, dark purple energy formed in the bone dragon's maw. And then—SHOOT!...
A dark purple beam, filled with malevolent, crackling energy, shot through the air, crashing against Esdeath's white beam of light. The two forces met with a deafening roar.
"This guy... Just how much is left in him after all the fighting?" Esdeath mutters to herself, her voice strained with effort. She was struggling to keep standing, her body trembling as she continuously poured her mana into the beam, her reserves dwindling at an alarming rate.
A few slow, agonizing seconds passed, and it became clear that the bone dragon was taking the upper hand. Its dark purple energy began to outshine Esdeath's Oblivion Nova, pushing her beam back inch by inch.
With no choice left, Esdeath had to act fast. She willed the ZK-20 to shift its form again, the massive cannon dissolving and reforming into a large, sturdy shield. She turned to defense mode, bracing herself for the inevitable impact.
"Fuck, I miss that mountain turtle essence stone now," Esdeath sighs, sweat appearing all over her body, her brow furrowed in concentration.
The Mountain Turtle was one of the best defense-type essence stones. It would have definitely helped her stop the bone dragon's devastating attacks.
The heat from the energy clash rose up intensely, so much that the nearby stones started melting like ice under the relentless assault of the dragon's power.
The bone dragon's energy beam felt never-ending, a constant, oppressive force that just kept pushing Esdeath back. She was having a hard time maintaining her shield, her arms trembling with the strain.
But to her immense relief, she saw someone running towards her at a slowed speed.
It was Maruti! She too was affected by the slowed time, but still, she managed to sprint between them.
She immediately raised one additional shield of radiant golden light, which was having a surprisingly good effect against the bone dragon's dark energy beam.
Light and dark elements were opposites of each other, after all. Maruti's shield of light was able to neutralize a significant portion of the dragon's attack, easing the pressure on Esdeath.
The time returned to its normal state after eighteen seconds. With both of their shields combined, they finally managed to block one of the bone dragon's most serious attacks, the energy beam dissipating into the air with a final, defiant hiss.
"Let me have my revenge for—"
Before Maruti could even complete her sentence, the bone dragon didn't even give them a moment to breathe.
SLAM!...
With a powerful swipe of its tail, Maruti was again sent flying through the air.
Who knows how far.....