Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Chapter 589: Challenges Daimon & Nethereal sisters version (part 4)

Unlike what Daimon expected, the battle between Reyne and the enemy's queen didn't immediately start, in fact they were both restrained to not be able to move past a certain distance, by an invisible barrier which covered enough space to encompass the magic beast corpse they chose.

"We have to turn the corpse into the pawns we'll use, only after their fight is over, we'll be allowed to directly fight", explained Reyne, apparently the objectives, rules and other things related to the challenge were just transmitted to the queens and he the king could basically do as he pleased as long as he didn't interfere with other people's fights.

"Okay, you just focus on your own thing, I'll guard for you in case someone wants to play some tricks", casually said Daimon making Reyne slightly blush and nod.

"Mm~".

And so, with a happy smile that didn't match the fact that she had to process the corpse of a magic beast, Reyne summoned her knight's lance and put hands to work.

Daimon on the other hand limited to chuckle before focusing on the ongoing battles, starting from Calvin's side.

From earlier Daimon's attention was drawn by Calvin, why you ask, that explosion of mana caused by him and the two knights with which he was fighting, included sand and unlike his aunt… Calvin couldn't use the sand attribute.

Instructor Richard had already said it, just like his grandfather, Calvin can't use the usual fighting techniques of the Grish family, which focus on crowd control and deceit by using the advanced earth related attribute of sand, instead he is a "black sheep" that has learned the Rock Dreadnought fighting style that his grandfather created.

The previous is because Calvin's attribute is not sand but another advanced version of earth element, rock, it's similar to the most common earth element as in it is used to create or manipulate earth, but it exchanges the maneuverability of earth element for a higher density and defense property.

A simple way to see it is that Zia for example can easily shape earth in whatever form she wishes so, hands, walls, spikes and the like, while Calvin on the other hand is limited to much more unrefined things such as piles of rock for example.

Now that doesn't mean he was completely unable to use sand, but like anyone else that doesn't have sand affinity, he could only do simple and basic sand attributed spells, which led to him be rather criticized within the Grish family.

Or at least that used to be the case until now.

"Hahaha, so this is what me and the old man were missing!", before the dust that was raised from the clash of mana from before could dispel, Calvin's wild laugh could be heard coming from all over the place.

The two knights who managed to escape from Calvin's grasp by releasing their mana at the same time and also using the instant movement ability granted to them as knight pieces, looked around trying to discern from which side was Calvin's voice coming, but couldn't pinpoint his location.

"Damn it, what nonsense is that bastard spurting out, where is he!", said the water affinity guy to his companion.

"Protect me, I'm going to blow away all this damn dust", said the other one as he pointed his right hand towards the sky, making a fierce gust of wind raise from the ground and extend in all directions.

"Raising Current!", the wind easily started to disperse the dust floating in the battlefield, but very much to the caster's surprise, his spell was stopped in cold as if it had hit an iron plate, what followed were clear and sharp tinkling noises from all over the place.

Listening to the continuous "clinks", the wind affinity mage frowned.

"What the hell is going on, I can't disperse this dust", he said with a wary voice, to his companion, as knight pieces they were supposed to fight head on against the enemy, the boost they got only applied to close combat as well, so having their visibility reduced like this, was a really bad thing for them.

The "dust" which the enemy wind mage couldn't dispel was actually sand summoned by Calvin, as to why it wasn't being blown away by the enemy's spell, that's because as a rook, his spell's defensive properties were enhanced.

"Come on, where did the spirit you showed when you were eyeing my Loren, go", Calvin's mocking voice came from the left side of the battlefield, making the wind mage shoot a wind slash on that direction where he could see Calvin's shadow, only for it to pass through the previously fortified dust and disappear into the distance, hitting nothing in its way, apparently Calvin could control the density of the sand at will.

"Where are you aiming, idiot!", this time Calvin's shadow appeared in multiple sides and his voice came from every direction, making both enemies shoot spells in every direction, unfortunately, each of the attacks passed through those shadows, without doing anything besides making them waste mana.

Daimon who was observing the whole thing couldn't help but be surprised by Calvin's change.

'To think that the simple-minded Calvin is now using a divert tactic, did being captured caused such a change to him, or is it related to the fact that he now also has sand affinity', he wondered.

As much as carefree as Calvin appears to be, Daimon could clearly see that both Miachael and him were furious after they were captured by the women from the Black Night clan, not because of themselves, but because of Haylee and Loren.

While their lives weren't at risk at any moment since they had some hidden tricks, without relying on their last resorts, those two could have escaped if they really put their everything into it, but they would have had to leave Haylee and Loren behind, which wasn't an option, so that experience seemed to have helped them advance quite a bit.

"Let's get the hell out of here, find a point to break out!", shouted the water affinity mage as he dashed away in a random direction, only clash head on against the sand that was surrounding them and be sent flying back right away.

"Aghh, what the hell is up with this sand!", the water affinity mage heavily landed on the ground, he looked at his right arm which was the part that directly made contact with the seemingly calmly floating sand, just to see abrasive wounds all over his shoulder and hand, a part of his skin was peeled away just now.

"I don't care anymore, go die you annoying bastard, Fierce Wave!", the water mage immediately lost it blue mana exploded out of his body as a large amount of water rose behind of him, his companion also lent him a hand by adding wind to the wave to increase the current in a try to break through the floating sand barrier.

Unfortunately for them, the moment the wave reached its destination, the sand actually fell to the ground, allowing the water to freely follow its way.

And the surprises didn't stop there, the ground below the feet of the two enemies suddenly changed its structure, turning into a sand pit, naturally the first instinct of the two mages was to use the teleporting ability of knight pieces, but to their horror a hand coming out of the sand held on their ankles each, before Calvin's head popped out of the sand.

"You can't teleport when you are in contact with your opponent, right", he said with a mocking voice, making the two mages want nothing else but punch him on the face, but then an impending sense of doom came from above, making those two look upwards, their faces paled on the spot.

"Abrasive Storm", with a simple sentence, an insane amount of sand rotating at high speed rained upon not only the enemies but also Calvin.

The two mages immediately used mana to protect their bodies, their visibility and hearing became null, everything they could see and hear were the light brown tone of sand and the sound of the little grains clashing against them, wearing out their defenses.

They couldn't even think straight enough to coordinate and teleport, such was the effect of the sand storm, and there was something else to fear besides that, they could feel Calvin's presence close to them.

"You are crazy, even if you kill us, you'll die too, not even the defense of a rook can keep up with this kind of damage!", shouted the water affinity mage, as his mana started to dwindle and his body started to bleed in many parts.

Only to be met with a mocking laugh as Calvin placed his hand on his shoulder, making the enemy feel as if a mountain had landed on top of him.

"Blegh!!", while the enemy vomited blood, Calvin whose body was also being assaulted by the fierce vortex of sand, limited to say.

"No problem, my skin is thick enough", he said, small cracks appeared along Calvin's arm as a layer of his "skin" was peeled away only for it to be replaced by another one as countless grains of sand were drawn towards his body and then compacted against his skin.

The enemy didn't even have the chance to scream, his body was grinded into a pile of dust, leaving not even his bones behind.

The water mage who was holding up better since his affinity had some advantage over sand, was terrified, cracks continued to appear all over Calvin's exposed skin, it was certainly a strange thing to witness.

From the enemy's point of view, he was cruel enough to suffer in order to get rid of an enemy, the classic "allowing the enemy to cut the flesh in order to cut the bone", what he didn't know is that Calvin had many thin layers of rock covering his body all the time.

But Daimon who observed the fight did know it.

'I guess this fighting style suits him better, it might appear to be a crazy thing to pour his everything into a spell that is devastating enough to even harm its caster, but he is actually maximizing the advantages of his innately high defense and the fighting style which he learned from his grandfather, while also applying the deceit and control aspects of the sand element at the same time, it seems like an annoying guy got an annoying power', he thought.

In simple words, Calvin surrounded the enemy with sand overloaded with his mana, then transformed it into a sand storm and used the rock armor to be able to abuse the enemies caught in his trap.

As to why he could still orient himself in such a chaotic situation, that's thanks to his grandfather's training, in which he had to "get close" to earth, which basically consisted in being hit with rocks by his grandfather or being imprisoned or abandoned in the depths of a mountain for days.

Back at the fight, the water mage saw Calvin walking through the sand storm as if it was nothing and he screamed in despair.

"You dual affinity monster, you were playing around in the previous rounds!", he exclaimed making Calvin raise an eyebrow.

"So, you guys were in contact with each other, whatever the truth is that I don't know any proper sand spells, I originally was just going to drown you in a sand tsunami but I suddenly got this interesting idea", casually said Calvin as he shrugged.

Apparently the enemy armies could talk with each other, which is something that Jasmine, Sarah and Reyne already took into account since they were the same, so they reached the consensus to not take the previous fights seriously, well Calvin rarely took anything seriously to begin with.

"…", that answer rendered not only the enemy but even Daimon speechless, Calvin deserved some praise since this "Abrasive Storm" turned out to be an original spell created by him, but he also could also empathize with the enemy whose eyelid was trembling out of anger.

"No, I refuse to be killed by an idiot like you!", shouted the water mage, unfortunately his head was squashed by Calvin who extended his hand and manipulated the sand to surround his arm in a rough shaped form to then crush the enemy into meat paste.

While his attack wasn't increased by the rules of the challenge, his defense was, so for the enemy it was like being compressed by countless metal plaques at the same time, he turned into a puddle of blood and flesh which was dried and dispersed by the sand storm.

"Phew, what a shame others can't see my glorious victory, I wanted to impress Loren with my new finishing move, oh well, I guess next time I'll make it more refined… damn, the old man is going to make me train my ass off when he notices my second affinity", said Calvin as he dispelled the sand storm, revealing the result, besides his clothes getting a bit worn out, similar to how he looked when Daimon met him at the classroom back then, he was perfectly fine.

As for the enemies, the only thing left from them were piles of sand that altered the surrounding landscape, Calvin had created a miniature desert around him.

[Two knight pieces were eliminated from the game, congratulations to the Red Queen], an emotionless voice followed by the trumpet that always announced the start of a battle, echoed through the battlefield and then Calvin whose fight was over, was transported out of Reyne's battlefield and joined the others who were observing the current battle from afar.

While Calvin feigned to be in a bad state so that he would be taken care off by Loren, a plan that miserably failed the second Michael told on him, Daimon changed his focus to the next fight.

It was impossible for him not to do so, since he was "participating" in a sense, as it was the turn of the Fire Crane girl, Leslie, who could now store a whole 10% of his mana into her wings, the one who was causing the biggest ruckus among the battlefield as of current.

On one side, since the Risha sisters could now store more of his mana, it was obvious that their prime status could last longer, but that wasn't all, Daimon saw how Leslie flew around while raining destruction in the form of round after round of feather shaped fire projectiles, all over the battlefield, making it obvious that she was paying less attention to the consumption of mana after going through whatever challenge she faced.

'Is it me or she is consuming less mana to use the spells exclusive to the "Feather Massacre" state', thought Daimon.

Her opponent, a water affinity knight who was playing the role of a rook, could only summon walls of water battle aura to block her restless assault, because every time he used the long-distance spatial movement ability granted to him by the rules of the challenge, to put up some distance between them, he was immediately caught up by Leslie who could fly and use short distance teleport thanks to her knight role.

Such was the advantage of superior mobility thanks to the ability to fly, something that let alone a star ranked mage, but even a Lord rank, shouldn't be able to enjoy under normal circumstances.

"Damn it, she is not even at the middle stage Mortal realm, how is she flying and why the hell is her fire fiercer than before, she is cutting through my battle aura with mana of an element that should be at disadvantage against me!", cursed the enemy as he dodged the next round of fire feathers that landed on the ground where he was standing a second earlier, turning it into a fire inferno and leaving behind scorched deep cuts on the ground.

"I didn't think you were crazy enough to even rake a punch from me in order to hide your real ability for the real battle, you guys are a bunch of psychos", said the water knight as he took a defensive stance.

Leslie who was flying above softly snorted in response to then say.

"I wanted to know my new limits, I'm now sure that I can deal with knights in a similar realm as mine but crossing realms without going all out is still a bit too much, meaning that I still have a long way to go if I don't want to be left behind… besides the one to whom I wanted to show my progress hadn't arrived yet back then".

Leslie who somehow could feel Daimon's attention was on her, softly smiled at his direction and then made a quick turn on the air before landing in front of her opponent, her wings were absorbed back into her body and she then took out her weapon, a pair of metallic sharp fans.

The water knight visibly relaxed the moment he saw Leslie's wings disappear, in the information he got from the ones who fought the other two girls that seemed to be related with the fiery orange haired girl with which he was supposed to fight, there was nothing about them having the ability to fly, with reaffirmed confidence the water knight also took out his weapon, a chain with a spiked mace on one extreme.

"Heh, I knew it, there is no way you can sustain such a reckless fighting style for too long, you even used extra mana to reinforce that little fire of yours and now you are forced to fight head on against a knight, bad luck…", the water knight who had started to spin his chain to attack Leslie, was interrupted by a burning and sharp painful sensation on his right cheek.

The knight touched his cheek with his left hand and saw the scorched bits of blood that stuck to his fingers, with awe.

'She cut through my automatic defensive martial art just like that!', he inwardly screamed as he saw Leslie pointing one of her fans towards his face.

"He was right villains die because they talk too much", said Leslie referring to Daimon, also a slightly wild light flashed through her eyes, making Daimon who was observing her fight raise an eyebrow.

When those three used their legacy spells to manifest their wings, the first time, they suffered some extreme changes in their personalities, a side effect of stimulating their lineages, Leslie went from being a bubbly and shy girl to become rather violent, Yvonne went from being a serious and strategic person to a much cheekier and playful version of herself and lastly the cool and aloof Liliana became sensible and even timid.

But that ended after they supposedly took Daimon as their "center" a concept that even to this day is a quite vague since their mothers hadn't explained everything to him, however what Daimon does know is that when using his mana for his wings, they should be exempted from going through those personality changes, but now they seem to be back.

On the other hand, he also noticed a difference, despite the clear desire for violence that burned in Leslie's eyes, she was still in perfect control, she didn't even take the initiative to continue her attack and instead made the knight angry so that he would engage first.

And her plan work, the water knight angered at the fact that he was wounded so easily by a young slender girl who is also a mage, swung his chain, aiming the spiked mace at Leslie's chest, only to be amazed at how the momentum of his attack was redirected by Leslie skillfully rotating her body.

Her movement was elegant and swift and before the enemy noticed the spiked head of his chain was smacked against the ground and Leslie had appeared right in front of him, her metal fan which had bright orange flames coating it, moved like a flash and cleanly cut through the enemy's defense opening a twenty centimeter's long wound on the knight's chest.

"Aghh!", the enemy felt a scorching sharp pain which returned him to the real world, his first reaction was to punch with all his might towards Leslie's head, but she simply twisted her body and then jumped backwards, her pretty flame wings spread out of her back helping her levitate on the air, before she elegantly landed, right where she was standing before, making Daimon chuckle.

"This little girl, you wanted me to know that you can now deal with a water knight solely relying on "Phoenix Dance" without using your wings unlike before", he said, certainly back then Leslie had trouble against a knight with water element, but now her fire had grown stronger.

That being said, there was something else behind all this, Daimon could see that the mana circulating through her body was different than normal.

Normally, his mana is only stored in the mana circuits on her back, it only moves through those specific circuits when her wings are manifested, which is why the spells related to Feather Massacre originate on her wings, like those rains of fire feathers, the same applies to Yvonne and Liliana.

But now, it seems like the mana circulating through her whole body has some traces of Daimon's mana mixed into it, the amount is really small yes, but it is still slowly but surely changing to the explosively strong mana that conforms her wings, but in a bigger scale.

'If all her mana becomes like that in her normal state, then… how much will her battle prowess increase when she uses her wings', wondered Daimon.

Still for now that was only an idea, even if it used small quantities unlike manifesting her wings, to make the previous happen, Leslie still had to rely on the mana given to her by Daimon which was stored in the mana circuits of her upper back, so while she can maintain this new status longer, she will still reach her limit at some point.

Like she mentioned, Leslie just wanted Daimon to see how much she has progressed, now that she had achieved her goal, the water knight had no use for her.

Leslie's body exploded in fiery mana which was then injected into her wings, causing a change on their composition, the origin of the flame feathers became of a much more darker orange tone nearly reaching red tonalities, while the extremes suffered a contrary change, turning brighter and lighter in color.

The result was that her wings looked like flames dancing behind her back, creating a magnificent visual illusion, that wasn't all, red mana particles were being expelled by them, she had clearly overloaded her wings with mana causing this phenomenon.

"Phoenix Wingfall", all the mana on Leslie's wings was liberated at the same time, creating the beautiful image of an orange bird which the flapped its wings, behind of her.

The water knight's scalp went numb, he poured everything he had into defending, knowing that he didn't have enough time to use the long-distance teleportation ability given to rooks, a water sphere of fifty meters of diameter, surrounded him on the spot, only for it to be impacted the next sect by an orange flash.

"Boooom!", a late explosion echoed through the battlefield, it wasn't caused by the clash between them, but by Leslie breaking the barrier of sound the moment that flame bird projection flapped its wings.

The result was that the water sphere which was now boiling due to the high heat, also dyed red, Leslie had cut the knight in half with her fans.

The orange fiery flash in which Leslie had turned, disappeared, revealing her now slightly tired self, her wings returned to normal and then the water sphere lost its integrity and flowed in every direction, meaning that it had stopped to be sustained by its caster, for a valid reason, he was dead.

[A rook piece was eliminated from the game, congratulations to the Red Queen], the trumpet and the announcement came just in time and Leslie still had the time to gaze in Daimon's direction with a "praise me" look on her pretty face, before she was retired from the battlefield, allowing her to return with her sisters.

'Well, if you still had any doubts, you can't escape from those three anymore, I wonder how are you going to explain their mothers that their mana has been "corrupted" thanks to yours~', jokingly said Evangeline from within Daimon's mind.

This time Daimon couldn't help but agree with Eve, this for sure was a new thing in the history of the Risha family, well according their mothers there has only been two generations that successfully awakened their wings, previous to them, the ancestors of their families and the mothers of the Risha sisters who found a way around the restrictions, by using themselves as the center of each other instead.