'It looks like he took the bait.'
When Izroth witnessed Zareign's reaction to his blatant disregard after having successfully landed a single strike against him, it was sothing he had already anticipated.
Soone of Duke Zareign's standing only had to answer to the Night King and Night Lords. However, since both parties did not typically interfere with the way Malentansium was run, in reality, Duke Zareign was used to reigning freely over all those around him.
Additionally, Zareign was a legendary realm powerhouse who had grown accustod to being treated with a certain level of respect and fear wherever he went.
In the Duke's eyes, the fact that Izroth simply approached him of his own will could be seen as a great insult. Also, even though the strike was shallow, it was still considered a monuntal humiliation for Zareign to have been wounded by Izroth.
Though what pushed Zareign over the edge of his rage was that right after Izroth landed his blow, he imdiately retreated and went off to attack the Night Terror Shadow Beasts. That was no different than saying his opponent did not set him in his sights!
For a person to believe that they could afford to ignore him in favor of dealing with so re creatures that were under his control—how could Duke Zareign contain his rage in the face of such a grand affront to his pride?
Izroth, on the other hand, continued to ignore Zareign and focused on eliminating or incapacitating the Night Terror Shadow Beasts near any place the lightning strikes rained down.
'I was worried that the heavenly field would also be affected by the spatial restrictions that are in place; however, it seems my instinct was correct. It's a good thing that the essence I invested to extend its range did not go to waste.'
In the Night Lord's Crypt, the surrounding space was locked, which disabled many skills and items that included teleportation or required the manipulation of space.
But Izroth's Fourth State: Heavenly Field was not your typical movent skill. Instead of instantly teleporting to a spot as he did with his Prid Instantaneous Movent, the heavenly field temporarily transford Izroth into lightning.
Due to this, for a brief instant, Izroth beca a direct part of the heavenly field itself and was naturally connected to the lightning elent it brought forth. This allowed Izroth to instantly link himself to any of the lightning strikes and move to that position without the need to manipulate space in any form.
Of course, Izroth could have also utilized the heavenly field in his fight against Marquis Varokin and the Undead Night Marchers; however, he knew that Varokin was not the biggest threat in the Night Lord's Crypt. After all, there was no way a Marquis would be entrusted with the safety of a Night Lord's revival.
Since Duke Zareign was the only threat that remained between him and preventing the revival of the Night Lord Zarolas, naturally, Izroth had no reason to keep this hidden mobility card tucked away.
In truth, Izroth had already learned the Fourth State: Heavenly Field back during his ti in the Secret Realm after he defeated the Pillar of the West, Heaven's Strength Ourami. However, this was the first ti he had the opportunity to use it in an actual battle. And what better opponent than a person in the legendary realm like Zareign?
Though one of the things that surprised Izroth after he acquired the Fourth State: Heavenly Field, was the skill rank his Call of the Thunder God upgraded to—Unique-SSS.
This was Izroth's first ti seeing that skill rating. But, more importantly, the skill level itself was only at four out of five. This ant that there was still another rank a step above Unique-SSS!
The first thing that crossed Izroth's mind was the possible existence of a skill with the Pseudo-Divine rank. However, this was only speculation seeing as how such a skill rank had never appeared in RML before. At least not that any players were aware of.
As Izroth jumped around the battlefield using the lightning strikes from his heavenly field, the man around Zareign reached a critical level.
'It's almost ti.'
Needless to say, Izroth did not choose to ignore the Duke in favor of the Night Terror Shadow Beasts just to enrage him—that part was simply the byproduct of his true intention that Izroth anticipated.
Izroth's true goal was sothing else entirely.
Woosh! Gwraaah!
Izroth thrust forward with his Scorched Inferno's Fang, effortlessly blowing through the head of a Night Terror Shadow Beast.
〈System Alert: You feel your movents with the spear beco lighter with every swing.〉
〈System Alert: Your attack speed has increased.〉
〈System Alert: You have gained 1 Stack of «Madness». [Current Stacks: 65]〉
〈System Alert: Your next attack will deal an additional 520% damage!〉
〈System Alert: You feel your self-control begin to loosen.〉
〈System Alert: Your concentration has risen.〉
'It's not as much as I wanted, but it will have to do.'
In just a few seconds, Izroth had gained more than sixty stacks of Madness for his Reign of the Shattering Void!
During this ti, Izroth remained completely unaffected by the Madness stacks. But when Izroth reached sixty stacks of Madness, he started to hear faint whispering eerie voices. However, with his unnaturally high willpower and the Mind of Perseverance effect of his Spear of Perseverance passive, the voices were swiftly suppressed.
'The effects of Madness seem to increase exponentially after sixty stacks. Though only this much is not nearly enough to disrupt .'
If a few whispering voices were enough to throw him off, Izroth would have never even dread of reaching the top of this world.
Bzzzt...!
One of the lightning strikes hit near the middle of the staircase. At the sa ti, Izroth's body transford into lightning and instantly jumped to that point before he returned to his normal self.
The mont he reached the staircase, he dashed on a straight path toward Duke Zareign.
Though just as Izroth was less than a few steps away from arriving within strike range of the Duke, out of nowhere, a slow drifting feather appeared before his face less than a couple of centiters away.
The instant that feather erged, Izroth's Soul Sense went off full force, warning him of the potential danger.
Right as he was about to collide with the feather head-on, Izroth caught a glimpse of a lightning strike from his heavenly field out the corner of his eye and imdiately activated the skill's effect to escape the danger.
Izroth rematerialized a few ters away from Zareign near the top of the staircase. However, it was not over yet.
Izroth glanced upward and saw an abundance of scattered feathers floating above the whole room. With the current amount displayed, it was more than enough to cover every corner of the room twice over!
Since he used his ninth sword form to deal with the vibrations caused by Zareign's black orbs, Izroth could no longer rely on that to suppress the feathers.
Of course, he still had his Sixth Sword Form: Double Blooming Lotus, which could mimic the effects of the last sword skill he utilized. Using its effects, Izroth would be able to technically execute his ninth sword form a second ti; however, there was a problem.
The sixth sword form was only capable of displaying a small portion of his ninth sword form's full effects.
Based on the aura being emitted by the feathers, Izroth did not believe that a weaker version of his ninth sword form would be enough to suppress the attack.
Izroth also thought of using his Tenth Sword Form: Life Closing Raze which inflicted the Disintegration effect on all hostile forces and objects it ca into contact with.
Unfortunately, the tenth sword form, even if he were to pour in essence to increase its range of effectiveness, would not co close to covering every place his allies were gathered. Therefore, there was only one choice he had to make in that split mont as the feathers began to descend.
'I would have preferred not to do things this way, but it seems there's no other choice. If one charge isn't enough, then I'll just have to use more.'
As this thought passed through Izroth's mind, a terrifying sword intent encompassed his Sword of the Storm.
The next mont, Izroth infused so of his essence into his attack as he executed the Tenth Sword Form: Life Closing Raze.
Without pause, Izroth pushed his Flickering Steps skill to its maximum speed as he also employed the active effect of Light-Feather Footwork, granting himself even more movent speed. Along with the agility boost from his heavenly field, it was enough for Izroth to arrive at the outermost range of where his first strike of the tenth sword form would stop.
Once he arrived at that point, Izroth unhesitatingly unleashed yet another charge of his Tenth Sword Form: Life Closing Raze with a portion of his essence!
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