Chapter 226 – The Infernal Beast’s Armor
Chloe Evenhart:
There were no people around . The port was emptying out as everyone likely retreated deeper into the city. This was the underground city beneath Evenhart.
The castle is an hour away from the city, and a ssenger raven can reach it in 15 minutes. A disturbance of this magnitude in the city automatically requires the presence of one of the duchess's royal guards. Which ans my mother will send one of the Legacies. So, in less than two hours, soone will be here to handle the situation. But I can’t rely on them. One day, I will be the one leading this duchy.
I stared at the man before .
This bastard hurt Kinue... and I’ll kill him myself.
He raised his hand high, a small fla flickering at his fingertips, which rapidly grew as his magic fueled it. The fireball swelled, pulsating as it absorbed oxygen, its heat making the air shimr. The sound of crackling flas lded with the whistle of wind he summoned to amplify the inferno.
The sphere of fire radiated a nacing intensity, expanding relentlessly, its heat suffocating even at this distance. The blazing light cast erratic shadows around us, creating an almost surreal atmosphere, as though everything was at the rcy of this roaring energy.
His eyes glead with a mix of determination and cruelty as he held the fiery orb aloft. "Let’s see if you can survive this!" he roared, his voice slicing through the dense, heated air like a blade, carried on the roar of the flas.
It’s a trap.If I get closer to force him to cancel the spell, he’ll detonate that thing right at . If I let it grow any bigger, it’ll wreak havoc and could even be launched toward the city. I’m at an impasse. This guy doesn’t care about the consequences of being captured or killed anymore. He’s fighting to die, completely ignoring the aftermath.
"Judging by your face, you’ve figured out the trap you’re in!" he shouted, pointing at the growing inferno above his head.
“Grand Explosion!”
The flaming sphere surged forward with fury, illuminating the battlefield in a brilliant blaze. Without hesitation, I launched myself into the air, using wind to propel my ascent. My hands glowed as I conjured a wind barrier mid-motion to intercept the fireball. The heat was stifling, and the surrounding pressure threatened to crush every movent. With my other hand, I created a secondary barrier, blocking the fire from behind, quickly layering multiple shields to seal the destructive power within a magical cocoon.
"Aqua Eagles!" I shouted, summoning water creatures to dive directly into the blazing inferno. The flas began to subside, consud by the conjured waters. But just as I started to relax, I heard Quinn’s sharp laughter cut through the chaos.
“Hahaha! You really fell for it!”
Suddenly, he surged forward, using the cover of steam and destruction to close the distance, his sword gleaming with magical energy aid directly at . He had masked his true intention behind the initial assault.
"Ice Art: Forest of the White Winter!" My voice rang out as a wave of ice spread in all directions. Trees of frost erupted from the ground, their branches gleaming with sharp, glistening snow. The entire area transford into a frozen wasteland. The temperature plumted, and the frigid air was so intense it beca difficult to breathe.
The cold seed to bite into every inch of exposed skin, and the battlefield was now my domain—a forest of ice, treacherous and unforgiving.
Quinn faltered, his sword striking one of the ice trees, shattering it into a thousand shards. But the forest continued to grow, surrounding him, cutting off his paths. I landed gracefully on one of the branches, my body aching but my resolve unbroken.
"Your fight ends here, Quinn," I declared, my breath visible in the freezing air.
Quinn’s sword closed in on with deadly precision. I raised a wind barrier in defense.
"Frozen Knight!" I shouted, summoning an imposing figure of ice from the snow. It wielded a crystal-like lance that shimred brilliantly, radiating an icy aura as it charged toward Quinn.
Quinn staggered back, but not for long. He spun his blade with practiced precision, conjuring a fiery tornado.
"Crimson Vortex!" he roared. A whirlwind of flas erupted from his sword, surging forward with devastating force. It lted the ice around him and obliterated the knight in a powerful explosion.
While he was preoccupied with the golem, I seized the opportunity to activate Icy Steps, sliding swiftly across the snow-covered surface. Each movent left trails of ice in my wake, reshaping the battlefield to my advantage.
Quinn’s eyes burned with fierce determination as he pursued , his heavy breathing punctuated by increasingly aggressive attacks.
"Ice Art: Cetery of Skeletons!" I cried, commanding the frozen ground to rise. From beneath the frost, skeletal figures of ice erged, rigid yet relentless, advancing on Quinn from all sides.
Quinn retaliated viciously, his flaming blade slicing through the icy figures with ease. Explosions of fire shattered groups of skeletons at once, reducing them to shards. But their purpose wasn’t to defeat him—they were ant to distract.
As the skeletons occupied his attention, I conjured spiraling ice pillars around him, weaving a treacherous trap. Taking aim, I launched frozen arrows, forcing Quinn to dodge with sharp, precise movents.
"Fire Tsunami!" he bellowed, slamming his foot against the ground. A massive wave of fire surged toward , illuminating the field with its blazing glow. The oppressive heat was amplified by the gusts of wind he summoned, making the flas all the more ferocious.
I didn’t hesitate. Slamming my own foot into the ground, I conjured a wave of water to counter the inferno. The two forces collided violently at the center of the battlefield, creating a deafening explosion of steam that blanketed the area in thick fog.
As the mist began to clear, I realized too late that Quinn had used the impact to propel himself into the air. He was coming straight for , a fire-imbued dagger in hand.
"Damn it!" I cursed, recognizing his change in strategy. With a lighter weapon, his speed and unpredictability had increased. Before I could react, he slashed my shoulder. Pain shot through like lightning, forcing to stagger back to avoid a fatal blow.
Quinn spun, preparing for another deadly strike.
I leapt into the air, conjuring a wind blast that condensed into a compressed air bullet. The attack struck him in the chest, sending him tumbling across the ground. He rolled but recovered almost instantly, his gaze now even more ferocious.
"You won’t leave here alive!" Quinn roared, hurling a barrage of fireballs in my direction.
I dashed across the battlefield, weaving through the fiery projectiles as they exploded around . Finding cover behind a partially destroyed carriage, I caught my breath, my shoulder bleeding profusely.
I tried to push the pain aside, assessing the situation with sharp focus. Each of Quinn’s moves was calculated, designed to keep on the defensive. But retreat wasn’t an option—not now.
"Co back here, little duchess!" Quinn snarled, his voice dripping with hatred as he unleashed blasts of wind and fire. Each attack ripped through the air with violent force, erupting around in waves of searing heat.
I was in a pitiful state. Every movent was a battle against the excruciating pain consuming my body. The wound on my abdon bled relentlessly, forcing to freeze it repeatedly to staunch the hemorrhage. The pain radiated with every conjuration, but the alternative was far worse. My left arm was burned and powerless, more of a burden than an aid.
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand. "You think this will break ?" I muttered, clutching the hilt of my ice-forged blade.
This fight wasn’t over—not yet.
My vision began to darken at the edges, my steps growing increasingly unsteady. The blood loss weakened my body with every second, and my breathing ca in short, erratic gasps. My legs trembled, threatening to give out at any mont.
"Damn it…" I muttered, tasting the tallic tang of blood rising in my throat. I spat, the crimson liquid staining the dirty snow beneath .
The explosion from the ship had caused severe internal injuries, especially on the left side of my body. Each breath felt like a battle, as if my organs were fighting to keep functioning. The debris hadn’t just left superficial wounds; the blows had inflicted deep damage, likely causing internal bleeding in multiple areas. With every movent, my body rebelled, screaming that it was at its limit.
I need to keep going, but I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.
I focused, trying to quickly assess the severity of my condition. Without a healing potion, I couldn’t stabilize my wounds, let alone recover enough to keep fighting.
If this keeps up, I’ll bleed out, and that bastard won’t even need to kill himself.
I sighed and pushed forward, but what I saw next made freeze in place.
Quinn was completely engulfed in flas. His figure had transford into sothing terrifying, as if he had rged with the fire itself. He had forged an armor of wind and fire around him, his every movent leaving a trail of destruction. The flas danced violently across his body, illuminating his face, twisted with fury. He looked more like a demon than a man.
"This is my Infernal Beast’s Armor!" he roared, his voice distorted, echoing like a monstrous growl amidst the heat and explosions. "My most dangerous spell! You won’t survive!"
Before I could react, he lunged at , a living sphere of destruction. I dodged at the last second, the searing heat passing so close it nearly burned my skin. The carriage behind took the full impact, exploding with a deafening blast that sent shards of wood and fire flying in every direction.
"His strikes have combined explosions of wind and fire," I muttered to myself, the dread growing in my chest. He was putting everything he had into his attacks, sacrificing his own safety to take down. It was reckless, dangerous, and utterly insane.
Quinn charged after , each of his steps causing small tremors in the snow-covered ground. Every blow from his infernal armor triggered devastating explosions, consuming everything in voracious flas.
"AHHHHH, hahaha!" His maniacal laughter echoed, a warning that he wouldn’t stop until everything was reduced to ashes.
I tried using the surrounding houses as cover, but he didn’t hesitate. As I reached one, I heard the impact before feeling the ground quake.
BOOM! The entire house exploded behind , flas and debris launching like a deadly storm. I dove through a window at the last possible second, rolling into the snow to escape the searing heat devouring everything around .
Quinn erged from the wreckage like an unstoppable force. Using wind to propel himself into the air, he spewed fire in every direction. The snow-covered streets lted under the intensity of the flas, and I felt trapped, my mind racing for a solution.
"Water Art: Great Blue Sea!" I shouted, summoning a massive surge of water around . Waves rose from the frozen ground, spinning at my command as I prepared my next defense.
The clash of heat and water created thick clouds of steam that blanketed the battlefield, obscuring both our visions.
"You won’t escape, little duchess!" Quinn roared, his flaming figure erging through the mist like a vision of hell itself.
His armor blazed brighter, the air around him shimring with raw heat. This wasn’t just a battle anymore—it was survival.
I clenched my fists, summoning every ounce of strength I had left.
Quinn leapt again, aiming a devastating kick at . I raised an ice barrier at the last mont to block him. As soon as his foot connected, the barrier shattered into a violent spray of frozen fragnts.
The kick still barreled toward , but I noticed sothing: the barrier had slowed its speed and force significantly.
“What!?” he yelled, startled.
Without hesitation, I lunged directly into the kick, bracing myself for the pain. Heat scorched my skin as I grabbed his foot with both hands, forcing it against my already injured abdon.
“You cauterized your wound using my firepower!?” he exclaid, both confused and infuriated. But before he could react further, I seized the opening.
“Sea Serpent!” I shouted, conjuring a massive water serpent that surged toward him with crushing force. The impact sent him flying, but even as he was thrown back, he continued laughing.
“You’re pathetic!” Quinn cackled, the flas around him roaring with even greater intensity.
Before he could recover, I unleashed another spell:
“Azure Swarm!” Tiny swallows made of water erged in a flock, striking him with shards of ice that exploded on contact.
Quinn, though being pressed back, only intensified the flas around him, lting through my ice attacks. He charged forward like a blazing monstrosity, propelled by the wind howling behind him.
“Avalanche!” I stomped the ground with all my strength, sending a massive wave of snow surging upward like a towering white wall.
“Frozen Coffin!” With a sweep of my hand, the avalanche transford into enormous icy hands that grabbed him, locking him inside a colossal sphere of compacted snow.
Wasting no ti, I conjured a rain of ice spikes, driving them into the sphere with devastating force. The pressure was so imnse that cracks began forming on the surface.
For a fleeting mont, I thought I had won.
Suddenly, the sphere erupted in a fiery explosion of blue flas that consud the ice entirely. Quinn erged, striding through the chaos, his infernal armor entirely intact.
“Is that all you’ve got, duchess?” he mocked, laughing as he propelled himself into the air with wind, launching toward like a flaming spear.
“Now!” I yelled at the last possible mont.
BAM!
A colossal impact slamd into Quinn from the side, hurling him violently into the nearby houses. He collided with the walls, shattering them as the structure partially collapsed around him.
"ROOOOOAAARRR!" My Soul Golem let out a deafening roar.
“You’re late,” I said, panting, doing my best to hide the relief flooding through .
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