Chapter 415: Barnes' Hesitation

Chapter 415: Barnes' Hesitation

Elda's sudden assault had torn her hood and gray robe, revealing her alluring face and a set of dark leather armor. The armor barely covered her vital areas, with a puffy, navel-baring vest-like chest plate on top and tight shorts below, exposing her fair skin. She held a double-bladed sword in each hand, each about one and a half meters long.

Unlike a sword, the double-bladed weapon had a long, curved design. The handle was in the center, with curved blades on both sides, making it extremely challenging to use without injuring oneself. However, if handled skillfully, it could be used for cutting, slashing, or spinning, making it a formidable weapon with unpredictable attack angles.

Meanwhile, her sister, Rain, was observing him with a focused gaze. She had just cast a Third-Level Shadow Arrow Storm, but only one arrow hit and was blocked by his protective magic. The subsequent dozen or so arrows were swiftly evaded by his incredible speed.

"Sister, this Rain has immense strength and speed. He feels like a knight, not a wizard as the intelligence report suggested," Elda communicated telepathically, not wanting to speak aloud.

"Indeed, sister. I'll cast a disability spell and a slowdown spell on him soon. Your speed is already superior to his, and with these spells, it will be even more so. Just be careful in close combat," Rain replied telepathically.

The sisters quickly exchanged strategies.

Rain, of course, wasn't idle either. With his incredible speed, he cast three spells in quick succession:

"First-Level Talent Magic: Metal Transformation!"

"Second-Level Magic: Iron Armor!"

"Third-Level Talent Magic: Steel Armor!"

"Combination Magic: Steel Armor!"

A thick layer of dark silver light-emitting armor covered his body. Without hesitation, he charged towards Rain, leaving the two women slightly startled.

Elda immediately understood Rain's intention: to eliminate the sister responsible for long-range magic attacks first.

She couldn't let Rain succeed.

Elda tapped her toes, causing the grass stems to explode. Her graceful figure moved like a ghost, and with a 'swish,' she dashed towards Rain, her right-hand sword flashing in an intricate blade dance before slashing down at Rain's lower back!

Her charging slash could easily sever a half-meter-thick steel pillar.

A typical Third-Level Defense Magic was as fragile as paper against her powerful strike.

"Clang!!!"

However, Rain's double-handed sword firmly blocked Elda's powerful strike.

Rain stood firm, but the impact sent Elda flying.

The recoil also momentarily halted Rain's movement, causing him to pause briefly.

During this brief pause, Rain seized the opportunity to cast a Shadow Magic spell, 'Disability Spell,' on him.

A spherical black mist appeared above Rain's head and quickly sank into his body, protected by the Steel Armor.

Rain felt a strange sensation in his body and immediately realized the opponent had cast a negative effect spell on him.

Although he had resistance, it still affected him slightly.

As he moved, his actions and agility seemed to slow down by about ten percent.

"Sister's Disability Spell is working!"

This revelation caused Elda, who had been knocked away, to brighten. As she landed, she spun three hundred and sixty degrees, and with another burst of leg strength, she appeared behind Rain in a flash.

Her sword danced in the air again, creating a beautiful blade pattern before she slashed at Rain's spine.

"Swoosh!"

A sharp sound of breaking the air echoed behind Rain!

But once again, Rain surprised Elda by not dodging or blocking. Instead, he held his double-handed sword and performed a 360-degree sweep, seemingly willing to trade injuries.

Elda couldn't help but smirk, her red lips curling upwards.

"Your speed was already fast, and now you're affected by my sister's Disability Spell. Yet, you dare to engage me in a direct confrontation?"

"I can hit you, but you can't hit me!"

Several thoughts flashed through Elda's mind in an instant.

Her sword moved even faster, with an additional three percent speed, and a black glow flashed through it. With a fierce slash, she penetrated Rain's Steel Armor.

"Pfft!"

But as soon as she struck, Elda felt something amiss.

The sensation from the blade was like cutting through a mixture of rubber and steel plates, and a strong resistance was transmitted through the hilt.

As her nearly full-force slash barely managed to break through Rain's steel armor defense, she was shocked to find that she couldn't penetrate even a sliver further.

This scene startled Alida.

"What kind of Tier 3 magic is this? How is its defense so strong?"

However, Alida didn't feel discouraged.

Because her attack wasn't entirely fruitless; after all, she had tested the defense of Rain's armor.

Next, as long as she infused her blade with an additional layer of Devouring Power, she would surely wound her opponent.

But just as Alida bent her knees and rapidly propelled herself backward to dodge Rain's incoming greatsword, something unexpected happened.

Suddenly, the double-handed greatsword in Rain's hands bizarrely elongated by twenty centimeters.

This caused Alida's eyes to widen in shock, her expression filled with horror.

She had just calculated her movements, and at this moment, as she sidestepped and retreated, Rain's greatsword should have been unable to reach her. But with the sword's sudden elongation, the situation became dire.

These extra twenty centimeters were just enough to slash through her slender waist and abdomen, and might even cut her in half!

"Sister!" Alida's heart screamed with a silent shriek.

In an instant, Rain felt Alida's figure blur before him, and then, Aida, protected by her dual magic shield, took her sister's place.

Rain narrowed his eyes, thinking, "As expected, Twin Shift!"

"Pft!"

However, Rain's movements didn't halt, and his greatsword flashed with a silver light of Sharpening, slicing through Aida's dual shields with unstoppable force.

"Ahhh!"

Aida's face contorted in agony, and a high-pitched scream accompanied a surge of powerful shadow energy that erupted from her body, sweeping through the surroundings.

"Boom!"

Rain immediately blocked the attack with his greatsword held horizontally across his chest, standing firm like a rock against the onslaught.

Aida, on the other hand, took advantage of the backlash from the shadow surge to quickly create distance between them.

Her heaving chest betrayed her unsettled state of mind.

Having swapped positions, Alida, now at a distance, was still in a state of shock. But she seemed to have realized something, as she pointed her blade at Rain and spoke with a trembling voice.

"Your innate magic is actually Metal Transformation?"

Rain smiled faintly, saying nothing.

Indeed, when an enemy reached a certain level of strength, unless they didn't use Metal Transformation, how else could they transform their weapon within 0.1 seconds if not through an innate magic ability?

In less than half a minute of combat, both sides had already resorted to using their unique innate abilities, something almost unheard of.

The sisters now wore expressions of uncertainty, scrutinizing Rain as if reassessing his combat prowess.

"When an opponent is this strong, unless they don't use Metal Transformation, it's rare for them to have it as their innate magic."

"Yes, sister, Rain is indeed formidable. There's a reason so many people from the sect have died at his hands."

After this brief exchange, Rain had a better understanding of the sisters' combat capabilities.

First, their coordination was impeccable, something he had rarely witnessed in his life.

Rain guessed that they might have some sort of mental connection, otherwise, it was highly unlikely for them to achieve such seamless coordination.

He had just repelled the sister, and as he was about to pursue her, the other sister's magic disrupted his offensive rhythm.

Rain glanced at the two Hellfire Golem Improved Types in the distant pit, considering whether to activate the golems during the lull in the battle.

But the problem was, even with Alida's speed and attack power, the two golems might not even be able to touch her shadow, and their defense would likely be breached, resulting in more losses than gains.

Additionally, his Hellfire Golems weren't designed to deal with Legendary-tier enemies; they would have to self-destruct to be effective.

"In that case, I have no choice but to do this." Rain made a decision.

Rain's figure flashed, and he charged towards Aida.

Alida, seeing this, lightly touched the ground with her long legs, and her figure abruptly vanished, reappearing the next second at Rain's left rear, her blade swirling with a whirl of slashes aimed horizontally at Rain's waist.

"Serpent Hair!"

Aida's eyes widened, and the hair behind her head instantly transformed into hundreds of black serpents, rushing towards Rain like a black torrent.

The snake hair of Aida was indeed different from that of Edmond, whom Rain had previously encountered.

A panicked beast, resembling a wild boar, suddenly rushed between Aida and Rain. In an instant, a slender black snake collided with it.

"Boom!"

The black snake suddenly exploded, instantly blasting the wild boar into a bloody mess. The beast fell heavily to the side, twitching on the verge of death.

Its power was evident!

Facing the combined assault of the two sisters, Rain's body suddenly swelled, revealing dragon scales, and his height surged to five meters—the first transformation of bloodline transformation: the Draconic Warrior Form.

Feeling the immense power within his body, Rain did not sense any rejection from the Mystic Realm at this moment.

This indicated that his strength had not yet reached the limit of what the Mystic Realm could accommodate.

Rain didn't even use his greatsword; he merely used his sharp dragon claws to slap against Alida's incoming battle blade with a force stronger than before, sending her flying.

At the same time, Rain pointed at the oncoming torrent of snake hair:

"Metal Transformation!"

"Cutting Net!"

"Sharpening!"

"Magic Technique: Multi-Cut Net!"

Three tightly woven metal nets, emitting a silver glow, suddenly appeared in front of Rain and rushed towards the torrent of snake hair.

Normally, a liquid-like killing technique would be no match for Aida's 'Self-Destructive Snake Hair,' and its power would be significantly weaker, even with Rain's strong metal affinity.

But Rain never intended to win with this move!

"Boom!"

The metal giant net and the snake hair immediately collided, causing a massive explosion, and dust rose all around!

As the explosion subsided, Rain disappeared from his original spot!

At the same time, not far from this place, on Flame Mountain.

In a dark, rocky area, a teenage red dragon over ten meters long lay in a pool of blood. However, a significant portion of its body had a strange, semi-transparent frosted glass-like texture.

It seemed to have been contaminated by some external energy.

This teenager red dragon had undergone a change in temperament due to the influence of Void Energy.

At this moment, a human figure was extracting something from the side of the deceased red dragon.

If Rain were present, he would immediately recognize that the person operating the thick syringe to extract the red dragon's blood essence, was Barnes, the most powerful of the three Dragon Scale Brotherhood members, it's a separate matter. Dealing with these Void-contaminated dragons can be tricky."

From the front, Barnes's chest armor and shoulder pads were visible, and he had clearly been in a fierce battle.

Actually, Barnes had been quite satisfied with his teleportation destination on Flame Mountain.

But before he could recover, he felt the sky darken and was attacked by the Void-contaminated teenage red dragon.

He had just managed to activate the second stage of bloodline transformation to defeat his opponent.

"Reagan and Bronson have only mastered the first stage of transformation so far. They might struggle against these Void-contaminated dragons."

"But according to our agreement, they'll join me as soon as they enter the Mystic Realm."

With that thought, Barnes took out the rhombic locator crystal Buchanan had given them and examined it.

"Hmm, they're not far, probably about half an hour away. They should reach me soon."

Barnes wasn't in a hurry; he was busy processing the teenage dragon's blood essence.

One of his goals on this trip was the blood essence of a Void Dragon.

Although the dragon before him wasn't fully transformed and didn't meet the standard, it was still worth collecting.

"Huh? This strong metal energy particle wave feels familiar!"

"Is that Rain fighting?" Barnes's expression turned from surprise to joy. He stood up, and with a flicker, he leaped onto a tall boulder beside him, looking down at the western valley from the mountainside.

In the distance, he could vaguely see the smoke rising from a powerful explosion in the forest.

Barnes's eyes flashed with contemplation.

He hesitated, unsure whether to join the fight now or wait for Reagan and Bronson.

Apparently, Rain was engaged in a fierce battle with an enemy.

If the enemy was strong enough to heavily wound Rain, Barnes could take advantage of the situation.

But if Rain easily defeated the enemy, then Barnes's intervention might be unnecessary.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end