Chapter Four Hundred And Nineteen – 419Begin Challenge!
Rime Shaping!
Ice flowed upward, forming into a three-foot deep rampart ahead of Felix...and the Grandmaster smashed right through it.
"You'll have to do better than that!" he said, and fire streamed from the gray mage's mouth. "Burn!"
A cone of flame erupted from the Grandmaster's face, forcing Felix to speed out of the way. His Tempering Body surged in chaotic spasms, wildly propelling Felix through the fire head first. It hurt, eating through his already tattered Garment and charring his skin and muscle to the bone, but he didn't stop. If he stopped, he'd be dead.
Supercharged bolts of fire flung after him, screaming through the air before detonating bare inches behind Felix's mad dash. His Agility was high, but the advantage in Titles, Skills, and Stats was with the gray-skinned mage. Kicks, jabs, and brutal knee strikes flew from the Grandmaster, each one coming closer and closer. Felix threw up barriers of ice, drawing on his own Mana, but summoning ice before the towering heat of the Grandmaster was frustrating. Even with the water Mana emanating from the crystals all around them, it was like sucking mud through a straw and a vicious headache built rapidly behind Felix's eyes. Spikes and swirling nets hurled at the mage, but he accelerated through them without regard for his own Body.
"You cannot run forever!" Kel'lyv shouted, before landing a knife-hand chop. Felix cried out, hurled off his feet by the resulting explosion. He tumbled forward, ducking into a roll and summoning a whirling blade of ice.
Rime Shaping!
The blade swung with his rotation, dragged along the ground until it popped upward into the Grandmaster's path. It was thick enough that the two seconds it took the mage to demolish gave Felix the time he needed to regain his feet. His back was charred and bloody, but it was healing slowly. It wasn't anything like the damage the guy had inflicted on him previously, even with a glancing blow. "You are weaker," Felix said. His eyes flicked at the bronze sword across the chamber before settling on the mage again. "Without the Primordial's might, what happened to the Highest Flame?"
Kel'lyv bared his teeth. "Be more concerned with your own hide, Autarch. If you fall here, all of your Territory becomes mine...and I will enjoy ruining all that you have made, boy."
Relentless Resolution!
Adamant Discord!
Mantle of the Infinite Revolution!
Lightning blasted outward, slamming Felix into the Grandmaster faster than either could blink. At the same time, his Mana surged and spun, rotating wide and fast as the air turned into a frigid storm. Ice crackled and built in a flash, forcing the Kel'lyv's eyes wide in surprise.
Rime Shaping!
Wild Threnody!
Corrosive Strike!
A conjured fist of ice ripped upward, snagging around the Grandmaster's arms, just as Felix arrived foot-first.
The impact blasted ice and stone and corpses in all directions. Twenty-four hundred points of Strength hit the Grandmaster square in the chest, reinforced by ice and acid, and the gray mage was thrown back onto his ass in an arc of blood.
Felix did too, though it was a consequence of the rampaging energies in his chest. He convulsed once, before pulling himself back to his aching feet. His Body was still forming, and the addition of his Sovereign of Flesh meant his wounds were recovering faster and faster. He was pretty sure he'd broken his leg in several places with that kick, but by the time he mustered the breath to stand it had healed over. Broken skin shivered and pulsed, bones thickening and weaving tighter than before. His Body was changing, reshaping itself into something stronger as the Essence forced his Temper.
Only it was devouring his Essence supply, leaving none for him to activate his scales or claws. He had taken a ton of purified Essence from the Primordial...but so much more had been given to Pit and his friends. That decision was biting him in the ass. Thankfully he was surrounded by the smoking corpses of the undead.
Chthonic Tribute!
Felix shoved at the Skill, forcing it to activate while the Grandmaster was down, but barely absorbed a single wisp of Essence. His Hunger refused againthe rejection felt like a hot poker shoved into his gutsand Sovereign of Flesh couldn't pull on them either. Their flesh curse had been cleansed when he'd torn apart the Primordial, after all.
Work, damn you!
MORE, his Hunger demanded incomprehensibly.
That's what I'm trying, you idiot! Agony spiked his core space and the dark abyss became a solid wall of convulsing teeth.
The riot of pain distracted him for a dire instant, and the Grandmaster caught him fully across the face. Superheated air and an explosion of fire took him in the skull, throwing Felix down into and across the ground, skipping him like a pebble on a lake.
Before he could smash into the far wall, the Grandmaster was there, blazing hands grasping Felix by the scruff of his Garment. "You brought all of this on yourself, Felix. Remember that, as you burn."
Felix screamed as the world was dyed with flames. His Garment burnt to ashes, his skin cracked and charred, and the bloody flesh of him boiled beneath the Grandmaster's fury. A single, mammoth punch to his sternum sent Felix reeling back into the crystalline wall. The Mana crystals cracked, but mostly they torn into his fiery flesh too. Kel'lyv paused to breath in deeply...and torrents of the scorching Mana around him were sucked up and into the man. He glowed as it settled into him, just like how Atar would do it, and smiled.
Wild Threnody!
Arrow of Perdition!
"You have quite the store of Mana, boy." Kel'lyv's fists shot out lazily, deflecting his attack with one hand and blasting into Felix's shoulder with the other. Felix gasped, muscles tearing and bones snapped inside of him. "A trick that fool Atar never learned was that Strength Ignition, once Mastered, means you are no longer restricted to your own Mana pool."
The golden-azure glow of his Skill flickered and faded, floating off his fist before turning decidedly orange. It was pulled toward and into the Grandmaster's glowing Body. "Mm, yes. That is quite exceptional. I'll have the rest now."
Relentless Resolu!
Before Felix could move the Grandmaster laid into him. A flurry of brutal blows smashed into his chest and abs, cracking bones and pulping his muscles with incredible force. Belatedly, Felix ducked his head and lifted his arms to block, and the mage's fists shattered through his forearms. Bones snapped, blood flowed and boiled in the fiery heat, and he couldn't even manage a scream.
Felix! Pit sent as if from far, far away. Felix's Health dropped lower and lower, his regeneration overcome. He couldn't heal fast enough, and the Grandmaster didn't stop.
Last Cry Of The Chthonic Host!
Last Cry Of The Chthonic Host is level 2!
Energy flushed Felix's body, and more of his Essence and a huge chunk of significance vanished. His Health and Stamina skyrocketed, returning to full while every wound upon his body vanished.
Kel'lyv hesitated, eyes narrowing. "A healing Skill, boy?"
Felix swallowed, Mana coiling in his channels. "We've all got tricks."
Shadow Whip!
Adamant Discord!
Black shadow and blue-white lightning lashed outward, but Kel'lyv caught them both in a net of sizzling flame. Their Mana was subsumed and torn from Felix's grasp. "Tricks are useless before overwhelming strength."
This time the Grandmaster's counter blasted him a foot into the crystalline wall. Blood burst from Felix's throat, and he felt his sternum and shoulder blades shatter. Mana crystals broke and rained down on them, but the mage didn't pay them any mind. All of his dreadful attention was fixed on killing Felix, and his titanic, pummeling strikes increased to an all time high.
Felix's world became pain.
Sovereign of Flesh sang within him, repairing torn vessels and replenishing his blood as it ran like rivers from his chest and legs and obliterated arms. But for every bone mended and muscle reattached, another vicious hit tore them apart again. And again, until there was only heat and brutalized nerve-endings and reforming tissue.
Sovereign of Flesh is level 79!
Sovereign of Flesh is level 80!
Beef opened his eyes but everything was blurry. His Health hovered just above zero, but he was alive. That was all that mattered.