Chapter 398 Rushing To The Throne Room (Part 2)
Chapter 398 Rushing To The Throne Room (Part 2)
Bryan saw the expression Mellie's pretty face, which mas completely indifferent toward them and he gritted his teeth, at first, he chased her because his mother told him to, if they were to become in laws of the queen, then it would be a huge advantage for the Keran family.
He who had the confidence to make any girl fall for him, was met with a cold and absolute reject for the first time in his life, which of course made him get genuinely interested in "getting" Mellie, and so he has been trying from that moment onwards.
'Even after all this, that bitch refuses to obediently jump into my arms, let's see how much time you can keep your princess act!', he inwardly swore.
"Ryan, the attacker first and then we bombard that turtle shell with everything we got, Daphne is charging that monstrous spell to wipe all of us at the same time, so be conscious of your surroundings all the time".
Bryan might be a piece of trash, but his capacities as a strategist were real, he could easily create a plan to counter Mellie and the others in a short term after all, so the others who were teaming up with him accepted his advice.
Ryan nodded and then they spread across the room, the crowned prince's vice-captain who was called Rudford and Ezequiel's vice-captain Dylan, followed the advice of Bryan and also ran in different directions, so that Mellie was now surrounded in four directions.
They all had a considerable amount of distance between them, so in case Daphne tried to ambush them with her Storm Stream, she couldn't attack more than one at the same time, which would be a waste for such a strong spell which required her both time to charge, as well as a huge amount of mana.
The four enemies reached a mutual understanding, since Mellie's realm jumped to the middle Lord rank, individually none of them were a match for her, so they had to cooperate if they didn't want to get eliminated.
The four aimed at Mellie and launched their respective attacks, to block her path and prevent her from attacking them.
"Pressure thrust!", Bryan started the barrage by pointing his sword at Mellie, from the tip of the sword a current of wind was shot towards Mellie, besides the ability of the Shooting Narwhal to create impulse, both the twin princes had wind affinity and so their spells had double the strength.
Still since his innate ability only allowed him to attack frontwards and horizontally, he has to be in a straight line away from the enemy, and so Mellie only had to dodge sidewards or upwards to avoid the current of wind, which she did.
But she wasn't fighting only against one person and so, the next attack came her way pretty fast, Mellie's eyes glowed as she saw a pair of nails fly using the current created by Bryan, the nails moved through the air as if they had a mind of their own, until they were aiming at Mellie from both sides.
"Precise Air Cannon", with Ryan's voice, a pair of magic circles appeared on the tips of the nails, and air gathered on them.
Mellie softly snorted, she used the bow of her fiddle to knock down one of the nails easily, the string was vibrating and to Ryan's surprise, the moment she made contact with the bow, his spell was interrupted rendering the nail useless.
But the other nail finished its charge and so the air cannon was shot at Mellie, who didn't even show any reaction.
"Booom!", a loud sordid sound echoed through the room, as a curtain of dust was raised, the twin princes smiled happy that their team work was as good as always, in terms of understanding what the other was thinking they were proud of their ability, they weren't twins just to show off after all.
But then Bryan's pupils contracted like needles, he jumped sidewards and barely dodged an invisible line that flew through the air and clashed against the wall, exploded a piece of it.
"Shit!", Bryan looked at his left arm, the whole sleeve of his shirt was cut by that attack, though his armor protected him, his ear was bleeding due to the vibration making him frown.
The dust was dispersed revealing a perfectly unscathed Mellie, who was pointing the bow of her fiddle at Bryan, there was a wall made out of amber bricks protecting her left side where the air cannon was shot by Ryan.
Chris who was on top of the watchtower softly snorted, though she couldn't engage in direct battle while using the legacy spell of her family, that didn't mean she couldn't interfere.
Unlike other mages who move around while throwing spells, the specialty of her family is concentrate almost all their mana to create a "mobile fortress", with a minimal amount of mana she can then manipulate the fortress to change its form at will, that's how she raised a wall to defend Mellie against the air cannon.
This spell was naturally created to perfectly support the Valas who had to take some time to cast their innate ability, as long as Chris had enough "bricks", she could construct whatever she wanted, it was a really strong mix between defense and control in a single spell.
Naturally it required its user to be able to react in time and have a good sight of the battlefield, and that's why the watchtower was at a high height, Mellie also made them take a corner, before the fortress was casted so that there was no possibility of being attacked from behind, she isn't Annete who is known for her strategic genius, sister, just to show off.
"What the hell are you two waiting for, if one of us gets taken out, you'll be next you fools!", shouted Bryan at Rudford and Dylan who were watching from the sides during the previous confrontation, they both smirked, naturally they served the purposes of their respective captains, so while they agreed to tag against Mellie, if the twin princes could be worn out and weakened while doing so, it was two birds one stone.
Unfortunately for them, Mellie had to intention of letting them off the hook, she slightly stomped her right foot on the ground and then dashed towards Rudford, who immediately let out his battle aura to protect himself, the ability of the queen is known to be quite domineering because even with armor one can get harmed.
Take Sting as the example, he was wearing armor and yet when she used that strange spell, the next time he tried to circulate his mana he vomited blood, since she directly affected mana, the same applied to Mellie, the difference is that she is limited to use a physical medium and instead of shattering spells or martial arts, she can only disrupt them, and there is a limit of people she can handle at the same time, since the rhythm required to it differs a lot, and she can't process as fast as Annete.
That's how she ignored Rudford's martial art as well as his battle aura to leave a cut on his face, as well as how she cancelled Ryan's spell, also that's why Vincent gifted her a peak half Stellar ranked bow for her fiddle, since that's what she uses for close combat.
As a Malleus Knight Lord, Rudford could shape his water battle aura in different forms, but unlike the main family from which Vincent and his cousin were, he only had three shapes, the chariot which focused on movement, an offensive and a defensive form, he could use them without the need of learning a martial art, since that was his innate ability, and they were also stronger than any form he could create with a martial art for the same reason.
"Ocean Heavy Shield!", water battle aura condensed in front of Rudford, in a try to block Mellie's head on assault, the scene of a knight being afraid to enter in close combat with a mage was quite a sight to behold, but the next development would explain why that was the case.
"Shattering edge", Mellie's soft voice escaped from her pretty lips and the bow of her fiddle cleanly cut through the edge, splitting it in half as she continued advancing towards Rudford.
Earth spikes raised from the ground at her right trying to take Mellie by surprise, but Chris who was watching from the watchtower softly snorted.
"Wanting to play tricks with earth within the range of my fortress, humph!", the ground around Mellie trembled and a half circular wall appeared at her side, blocking the earth spikes, unlike the spikes which were made out of regular brown earth, the wall was constructed from those amber bricks just like the fortress.
And to Dylan's surprise even if he is a Mage Lord, while Chris is an eighth star mage, in a direct confrontation, his spikes lost and were destroyed when clashing against those amber bricks.
Mellie never stopped moving and so she arrived in front of Rudford who was livid, he previously hesitated to use his offensive ability form, since the crowned prince ordered him to bring Mellie not to eliminate her from the tournament, but he now realized that the pretty "flower" his young master coveted was full of thorns, so unless he wanted to be chopped into pieces he had to go all out.
'Don't blame me for what happens young master, your royal mother specifically stated that you must win this tournament', thought Rudford, he extended his right hand and practically all his battle aura condensed on it, taking the form of a vague Warhammer.
This is the strongest form that the Malleus can create the Warhammer, the shape, size and property differ from person to person, and Rudford can only use it for a short period of time by using practically all his battle aura, because one of his parents is from the main branch.
"Torrent Warhammer!", the blue Warhammer exploded with water battle aura and then Rudford swinged it towards Mellie, who frowned.
Unlike the previous forms which she easily saw through and could disrupt with her vibrations, this one was harder to decipher, but she didn't stop advancing rushing against the torrent of battle aura led by a huge Warhammer that was aiming at her.
A few centimeters before the hammer clashed with her, the yellow vertical line on Mellie's forehead shone and she slashed her bow at the part on which the head of the hammer unites with the shaft.
Then to Rudford's disbelief, the bow cut the head of his Warhammer, which made the thing explode, as it contained an immense amount of battle aura, not only Rudford directly vomited blood after having his strongest ability interrupted, but the explosion hit him directly and sent his body flying.
"Aghhhh!", a pained scream followed by a loud explosion echoed through the room, Dylan tried to interfere and take the chance to strike Mellie down, but he was forced backwards due to the explosion of battle aura caused by the Warhammer breaking.
It took a few seconds for the wild blue battle aura and dust that resulted from the explosion to settle down, revealing there was a small pit in the place where Rudford used to be standing, right next to it, there was an amber brick dome, which returned to the ground revealing a perfectly looking Mellie, not even the corner of her clothes was damaged.
Rudford on the other hand... wasn't so lucky, he was laying down on the ground, with blood coming out of his mouth, ears, nose and eyes, his armor protected him from the explosion and the life-saving array prevented Mellie's bow to cleanly remove his head from his body, but the recoil of the Warhammer being destroyed made some of his mana circuits to break, also he was suffering from internal bleeding due to the impact.
He might be wearing half stellar grade armor, but he can't power the arrays and since he isn't an Archknight yet, his insides haven't been reinforced yet, unlike Daimon, so how could he not end up in such a miserable state.
Mellie turned around and gazed at the twin princes and Dylan as she pointed her bow at them, Dylan's face was specially pale he felt blessed to be an earth mage, since the floor is made out of earth, he doesn't have to create the element to manipulate it, there is no direct connection between his spells and his body, so even if Mellie destroy his spells he won't suffer any backslash, that was the flaw in using a physical medium for her innate ability, if she was skilled enough to do it like Annete, she wouldn't have to worry about that.
"So, what do you think, are you going to cooperate now, you bastard!", shouted Bryan at Dylan.
Dylan obediently nodded, Mellie was too fierce to be taken on even with two people, but with the princes they should be able to drown her in enough attacks to not give her the time to cancel all the spells, and land a solid hit on her.
Unfortunately for them, Mellie wasn't fighting alone either, she smiled and then Dylan as well as Ryan who didn't react on time were grabbed by their legs by hands made out of amber bricks.
Both of them paled as they were dragged towards the other, the moment when they were next to each other, the ground opened and Daphne who had a light blue sphere with green currents of wind around it, floating on her right hand, jumped out of it, Chris moved her through the ground using the last bits of her mana, just for this precise moment.
Daphne crushed her sphere on her hand and aimed at Ryan and Dylan who had no time to escape, then a wide ray of light blue light engulfed everything in their direction.
Even before the Storm Stream of Daphne hit them, the life-saving array activated to prevent them from dying, but that also meant they were eliminated from the tournament.
"Booom!", for a moment the whole room was illuminated in blue light, which forced everyone to slightly close their eyes.
Before the light disappeared, Bryan whose eyes were bloodshot right now after suffering a crushing defeat and being led by his nose, despite him being a strategist too, glared at Daphne whose breathing was heavy due to having used her ultimate attack to eliminate two Lord ranks at the same time and he unsheathed his sword and slashed towards her.
"How dare you get in my way elder sister!", sinisterly shouted Bryan as he slashed his sword towards Daphne's stomach, since the wound wasn't going to be lethal, then the array wasn't going to activate, he just wanted to hurt Daphne.
The light blue light which was illuminating the room was suddenly outshined by a purple wild light and the crackling sound of electricity.
Bryan's pupils contracted like needles, he felt his body shivering all of a sudden and he only managed to block with his sword, he then felt as if his body was hit by a mountain.
"Aghhhh!", not only his sword exploded in a ton of pieces, but a heavy fist landed on his chest, sending him flying, the array activated so that he wouldn't vomit broken pieces of organs, but Bryan still fainted and bled from all his orifices due to the impact.
"And that makes nine, one more to go", Daimon whose body was cladded in lightning, said, without even taking a second look at Bryan, he walked towards Mellie and the others, who had an amused look at his current appearance, since he was carrying all the other girls around.
"Is that some kind of ritual from your hometown or something?", asked Mellie with a giggle.
Daimon bitterly smiled, as he pointed at his back.
"Get on, Aisha is waiting for us at the throne room".
Daphne didn't hesitate, she was feeling a bit weak after using Storm Stream, so she silently held on onto Daimon's arm, next to the Risha sisters, her eyes expressed her thankfulness for the help.
Chris followed her friend, since she was also quite low on mana, and ultimately Mellie did it as well, only then she noticed the invisible layer of battle aura surrounding Daimon, she previously thought it was going to be hard to hold onto him, but as son as she entered in contact with him, she felt her body secured in place.
'You really are full of surprises', she thought.
Daimon then became a purple flash and left the room, he had picked up all his team with the exception of Aisha who was already at the throne room.