Chapter 0055: Slaying Anna

Even as her body still surged forward, Anna had already cast two or three bizarre sorcerous halos upon Mary.

Confusion Spell.

Sluggishness Spell.

One could disrupt the target’s mind, making it difficult for her to react in time. The other could slow the opponent’s movements, cutting her speed nearly in half. If the target could not resist or dispel these simple curse spells, her own strength would drop by at least thirty percent.

But that was not all. With a fierce shout, Anna extended her arms, palms aglow with twisted green runes. Immediately, her forearms transformed into countless intertwining green vines, lashing with a shrieking wind toward the motionless Mary.

Spirit Pact Summoning.

Anna’s summoning was somewhat unusual, allowing parts of her body to merge with the summoned spirit, granting her astonishing combat abilities.

Crack—crack—

The powerful green whips struck the hard stone floor, instantly splintering it into webs of jagged cracks. Amid flying debris, Mary’s crimson form blurred into a series of afterimages, appearing beside Anna in the blink of an eye.

Mary’s speed was ghostly, startling Anna. And this was after the Sluggishness Spell had already slowed her. If she hadn’t been cursed, would even her afterimages be visible? The thought of facing such a supernaturally swift adversary made Anna inwardly curse her own recklessness.

Damn it, I shouldn’t have tried close combat with someone like this!

With no time to retract her whips, Anna shouted sharply as a dazzling green halo spread swiftly across her body, quickly forming a suit of bramble armor around her voluptuous figure. With her core defenses complete, she swung her vine whips frantically to protect her head, shattering each afterimage that appeared before her.

Thud, thud, thud—

Although Anna’s defense was nearly impenetrable, the bramble armor flickered with ripples as blow after blow landed. Her chest and sides split open, revealing crisscrossing wounds, and her left whip-arm was repeatedly slashed by Mary’s claw-blades, losing whole lengths at a time. Though green sap oozed from the wounds, Anna still groaned with pain, stumbling backward.

Driven to frenzy, Anna forced a new length of vine whip to sprout from her arm, whipping up a storm of lashing shadows at any possible enemy in sight.

Where the real enemy was, she could not tell. All she could perceive were the strange afterimages left behind by Mary’s swift movements.

Clearly, Anna was not skilled in close combat, relying only on her spirit’s power to grant her limited fighting abilities. But when this meager skill met a seasoned close-combatant like the crimson-clad Mary, tragedy was inevitable.

Her frenzied whips could not touch Mary’s body, and her bramble armor could not fully deflect Mary’s slicing claws, but they served their purpose. At the very least, Anna’s wild attacks kept Mary from launching a relentless assault on her outer defenses. Though she still suffered wounds, they were seldom fatal.

Meanwhile, from the sealed tunnel behind them, blocked by earth and stone, a series of thunderous blasts erupted. The black-robed apprentice, lured away, had realized something was wrong and was now using every means to batter the tunnel.

The furious sorcerous onslaught made the whole passage tremble, sending cascades of sand and rubble from the ceiling. Jagged rocks and stalactites snapped, crashing down and filling the battlefield with choking dust.

Given enough time, the black-robed apprentice just might blast through the rock and open a new way in.

Expecting reinforcements at any moment, Anna fought all the more desperately, fully on the defensive, letting Mary rake her body with bloody wounds as she wildly flailed her whips.

None of these senior apprentices were to be underestimated.

They might not wield spells with wanton extravagance, but their arsenal covered attack, defense, interference, and self-enhancement, leaving few weaknesses for outsiders to exploit.

Judging by their duel, Anna’s combat prowess was clearly inferior to Mary’s ferocity and swiftness. Yet even Mary could not end the battle quickly without paying a heavy price.

Gazing at the fractured, crumbling wall behind her, Mary at last abandoned the fantasy of killing Anna alone.

“Damn it! Stop standing there watching and get over here to help!”

Dodging whips from both sides, Mary struck twice more, carving deep wounds into Anna’s flesh, but had no time for further attacks, retreating swiftly from the returning lashes. Each time she broke through Anna’s defenses, the wounds were soon covered again by intertwining bramble vines.

After several such exchanges, Mary could bear it no longer and shouted her complaint.

Anna’s face turned deathly pale.

Mary alone was nearly too much to handle. If another foe joined the fight, her fate would be sealed.

With this thought, Anna dared not hesitate. She bit through half her tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood, and her body suddenly expanded.

Earlier, only her arms had partially transformed into green whips. Now, her entire body began to swell, much of her skin splitting open to reveal masses of writhing green branches.

By forcefully raising the level of her spirit summoning, Anna’s whole form became a monstrous man-eating plant. Her feet sprouted into branching green roots, her arms into vine whips, her torso a bristling stalk, her head encased in enormous petals. Not a trace of humanity remained.

Transformed into the carnivorous, frenzied “Lash Brute,” Anna’s human vulnerabilities vanished. If only she could last until Gary broke through, then even this life-draining transformation would be worth it.

Watching from the shadows, Grim no longer hesitated. He resolved to intervene in the battle between the two senior apprentices.

With a faint tremor, the stone beneath Anna’s feet turned to slick, muddy swamp. Before she could scream and escape, a monstrous shadow rose up beside her, biting ferociously into her thick, vine-like waist.

Anna shrieked, lashing her whip-arms at the mud-armored croc, sending clods of earth flying. The head hidden within the petals gaped wide, spewing a glob of foul, sticky green acid.

The acid splattered across the croc’s back, instantly corroding and melting the mudman hunter’s upper body and head. If not for its control core in the chest, it would have been destroyed outright.

Hiding in the distant shadows, Grim shuddered with fear.

The battle between senior apprentices was not something a novice could interfere with lightly. If he hadn’t been careful, sending only his summoned hunter to engage, he might have been caught in that attack himself.

He had yet to master any defensive sorcery; faced with such a deadly blow, he would have had no escape.

Yet Grim’s croc-hunter’s intervention was enough to turn the tide.

Before Anna could wrench herself free from the croc’s jaws, Mary was upon her.

A series of stabbing, tearing sounds rang out as Mary clung to the petals, slicing open tough skin with her claws, driving her fangs into the junction of head and stalk.

As Mary drank greedily, Anna thrashed madly, lashing Mary’s back to a bloody mess, but could not halt the vampire’s frenzied feeding.

As her vital essence drained away, Anna’s blows weakened, her arms falling limp, her vines and petals wilting and cracking. Her head, hidden within the petals, closed its eyes in despair.

With her life ebbing away, Anna could no longer maintain her transformation. Her form shriveled, shrinking back into human shape. But as her life extinguished, Grim’s croc-hunter opened its jaws wide, swallowing both Anna’s body and Mary whole, then turned and began to sink rapidly into the earth.

Just as their forms vanished, a deafening explosion shattered the distant wall. A black-robed apprentice, wreathed in a blue-green storm, burst through the gaping hole.

Beholding the battlefield’s devastation and the stinking green blood spattered everywhere, Gary, the black-robed apprentice, roared in fury.

He didn’t grieve Anna’s death; he raged at the enemy’s cunning. To use such a simple diversion to lure him away and slay his companion under his very nose—this was the utmost insult!

“You bastards, if you have the guts, face me! Damn you, I’ve memorized your scents! If I ever meet you again, I’ll…”

He raged and bellowed for a long while, but sensing nothing amiss, Gary finally turned and melted back into the passage from which he’d come.