Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Chapter 727: Challenges, Red Haired Werewolf Girl version (part 3)
While the energy cloud resulting from the collision between the devil sea eel pirate and Arianna’s attack, blasted away everything in its vicinity, the water and lightning chain as well as the solid wolf’s claws remained in a stalemate ultimately repelling the other.
Well, the pirate willingly retrieved his chain because if the wolf got a hold of it like before, he might be forcefully dragged towards Arianna, naturally it wasn’t as easy as just him being able to take a step back when he wanted, the werewolf girl aimed to slash down the mana chain with the left claws of the giant red wolf before it left her attack range.
The devil eel pirate lashed the other extreme of the mana chain which he had kept around himself to smack the left claws of the wolf to block Arianna’s attack and this is also where the devil sea lizard pirate entered in action.
"Devil Tail Explosive Throw!", appearing next to Arianna as she was fighting the second extreme of the chain, the devil sea lizard pirate swung his newly acquired tail towards her, the spikes on the tail which were cladded in both steel and water devil mana detached from the tail, turning into projectiles that landed on the right side of the red giant wolf.
"Clang!", from the many dozens of projectiles, a few landed on the ribs and spine of the red giant wolf and were immediately rejected, producing sparks and the sounds of metals colliding, since the bone area had the highest defense, however the impact did make the red giant wolf move to the side a few meters.
"Boooom!", what’s more the remaining spikes this time went through the outer layer of the red wolf and got stuck into the muscles to then explode releasing the devil mana contained inside of them, which resulted in the wolf’s side having a few missing chunks, that were repaired as Arianna charged towards the devil eel pirate, not without thinking.
’The chain gained higher physical impact by making water and lightning mana violently react to the other, while the knives instead used the corrosive water to weaken the point of impact so that the steel can more easily pierce through the enemy’s defense’, now that they were properly combining their affinities instead of just using them at the same time but separately, the pirates had indeed become stronger, how much was the question though.
"Red Lightning Step", to the surprise of the pirates, the legs of the red giant wolf exploded in red lightning before the thing became a red stream of light that flashed towards the devil eel pirate.
’Are you kidding me, she can use spells on that thing!’, inwardly screamed the devil eel pirate as he activated his own movement technique, the reinforced version of the devil sea step from earlier.
"Devil Sea Storm Step!", with both lightning and water devil mana cladding the pirate’s legs, he flashed away barely avoiding being ripped in five parts by the red giant wolf’s claws which passed a few centimeters away from his body.
"Crack!", that being said, the sole proximity created a five slashing shockwave which the devil eel pirate had no choice but to block with his chain, resulting in some of the scales functioning as the nodes of the spell to crack while the pirate was sent flying into the distance, such was the strength granted to the wolf’s paw by the energy muscles, even without direct contact it could create such a strong impact.
"Devil Sea Heavy Step!", the devil sea lizard pirate came to the rescue, intercepting Arianna before she could chase after his teammate, the reason as to why he didn’t step in earlier is because Luis is faster than him, the reinforced version of his movement spell granted him extra speed since it now had lightning mana mixed in it.
As for Rigle, his devil sea step now had attack properties thanks to the steel mana mixed in it, his speed didn’t diminish but he couldn’t match up to when Ariana used a movement technique on the wolf.
"Booom!", descending upon the giant red wolf, the devil sea lizard pirate kicked its back with his legs that were clad in water and steel devil mana creating a thunderous shockwave that forced the wolf to crouch for a moment, he actually broke a part of one of the wolf’s lower ribs.
"Devil Tail Explosive Throw!", what followed were dozens of projectiles clad in water and steel mana that aimed to enter the wolf’s body through the area that now was missing a part of the rib to partially block attacks.
"Clang!", however, to the devil sea lizard pirate’s surprise, the tail of the red giant wolf which hadn’t been used for anything so far, suddenly got in the way of his attack, a normal wolf has bones and muscles up to a certain spot of the tail out of which its fur grows, so you can imagine the result.
"Damn it!", seeing his barrage of spikes being smacked away by the giant red wolf’s tail, the devil sea lizard pirate flashed away regrouping with the devil eel pirate who was returning to the battlefield after being sent flying away earlier.
"Are you okay?", asked Rigle to Luis as he saw the five cut marks that cut his shirt to which the devil eel pirate nodded.
"Yeah, though my defense is not as high as yours, the water scale armor allowed a part of the slash to be deviated, so cutting attacks are less effective against me, the impact on the other hand...", he said as he saw half of the scales functioning as nodes for his mana chain crumble apart the next second, before he replaced them with new ones which he regrew on his arms.
He could replace them as many times as needed, at the cost of mana of course, the same applied to the spikes on the tail of the devil sea lizard pirate which were there again after he threw them at Arianna earlier, the difference is that since that’s their natural function, the cost of mana for Rigle is minimized.
’She can now use the tail of the wolf as an extra limb to either defend the main body or attack so bait and attacker tactic won’t work against her, we have to fight head on at the same time’, said the devil sea lizard pirate in a voice that only they could hear.
Though their attacks had effect on the enemy, she still recovered too fast for them to reach Arianna through the body of the red giant wolf, what’s more while the wolf had a practically full skeleton now, the muscle fibers were concentrated in spread patches through the body, which changed position depending on where Arianna needed the extra defense and strength.
In other words, the wolf could still become way stronger and it was happening slowly but surely as the tail now being used for fighting purposes, suggested, so they shouldn’t hesitate to cut the fight shorter even if that meant having to fight like "muscle heads".
’Watch your back, we attack and retreat at the same time, if there is a gap, she’ll go for the one that is within her range’, said the devil eel pirate as he nodded, they had no other option anyway.
"Devil Sea Storm Step!".
"Devil Sea Heavy Step!".
You might wonder how is that advancing together when the first spells goes for a speed focused increase, while the second one has an attack focus instead, well, those two had ideated a plan to obtain the best of both worlds.
Choosing to sacrifice a bit of the extra speed, which was fine since Arianna wasn’t using her movement technique as of current, the devil eel pirate wrapped the chain around the body of his companion to "drag" him alongside, thus adding speed to his heavy focus.
As if the devil lizard pirate had become a projectile himself, he coiled his tail around his body at the moment of impact, which as he expected happened between himself and the wolf’s tail that was now being used for defense.
"Boooom!", the momentum gained by the movement spell combined with the water and steel mana clad spikes on his tail, resulted in a loud explosion upon contact with the wolf’s tail, as the thing was forced aside by the impact, but the important part is that they successfully remained in range so that they could support the other.
"Devil Sea Storm Seal!", with the signal of the devil eel pirate, the two extremes of the mana chain extended and multiplied in different directions to then wrap themselves around the body of the red giant wolf, we have seen him try to restrain Arianna this way many times before.
The difference is that, now that he had combined water and devil mana into the chains, there was a different effect that came to play when they entered in contact.
"Boooooom!", the violent reaction caused by the water and lightning mana clashing, resulted in a fierce energy explosion that was followed a barrage of projectiles, courtesy of the devil sea lizard pirate.
"Devil Tail Explosive Throw!", the muscle fiber patch which was damaged due to the energy explosion from earlier was directly pierced through by the projectiles which then released the mana contained inside of them, blasting a part of the wolf’s right side, opening a path for them to reach Arianna who floated at the center of the wolf’s chest.
’Finally, damn it!’, exclaimed both pirates at the same time in their minds, unfortunately their happiness was short-lived as red lightning which had gathered in front of the wolf’s mouth was then bit by the wolf, destroying it in the process.
"Red Thunder Howl", with Arianna’s order, the red giant wolf opened its mouth, releasing a deafening howl.
"Awooooo!", the sonic attack was accompanied by a shockwave result of the red lightning being destroyed by the wolf itself, which hit those two head on.
"Agh!", first the loud sound made their ears bleed before the shockwave landed on their bodies sending both flying towards the ground a dozen of hundreds of meters away.
"Boooom!", what’s more, the shockwave traveled quite far until it landed on the ground, creating a giant crater in the process.
’Mm, not bad, it still takes me too long to use an attack technique through the wolf, but the power is quite something’, thought Arianna as she repaired the worn-out mouth of the wolf.
She got this idea after seeing how Lyn increased the wolf’s power with her shockwave energy, of course she will never tell that to the sky-blue haired girl, otherwise she’ll never listen the end of it.
Originally, she wanted to condense a large amount of lightning and shot it as a stream from the wolf’s mouth, but she still couldn’t do that, apparently wide long range area techniques required for her control over her energy and vitality to be much higher.
Which is understandable, as that would be basically, she achieving the advanced stage of a knight’s battle avatar when they can increase the range and power of their martial arts by using them through their avatars.
Let’s not forget that unlike Lyn or Badr, Arianna is experiencing with power of the Arch rank for the first time, which is why she has been growing throughout the fight, also to begin with she had no attack techniques to use, her situation used to be somewhat similar to Daimon, she only became able to use lightning energy for attack techniques after she could manifest the red giant wolf, since lightning energy was the source of her strength and the Blood Prison realm makes it so that one has to make do with their weaknesses at the beginning.
Now that she had obviously turned her weak area into an opportunity, slowly but surely it was integrating with her original strong points, resulting in Arianna gaining huge potential for growth, as one could see from this fight.
"Red Lightning Step", having repaired the wolf’s integrity, red lightning exploded around its legs as Arianna flashed towards those two, only to be slightly surprised at the fact that not only they weren’t laying on the ground where they landed, but their wounds were gone and they even were radiating a fiercer aura than before.
Not like that made her stop her charge though, using the momentum and the claws on both of the wolf’s frontal paws, the werewolf girl pounced at the pirates who in response called out their spells.
"Devil Spike Shredding Rain!".
"Devil Scale Storm Chain Barrage!".
Unlike before, this time the devil sea lizard pirate not only swung his tail at Arianna, but he also pointed his palms towards her, the reason being that he now had spikes growing on his arms, around his wrists on his elbows and lastly on his shoulders to be more accurate, so the number of spikes he could shot at the same time had more than tripled.
As for the devil eel pirate, the scale armor that originally only covered his arms and chest, now extended from his waist towards his legs, both areas didn’t meet in the middle though, but the important part is that he now had more of those scales he used as nodes for the chain, growing at the sides of his legs, which translates to a second water and lightning mana chain appearing around him.
"Boooom!", their attacks clashed against the red giant wolf’s paws which had solid claws and muscle fiber patches in them, and the resulting collision blasted both the red giant wolf and the enemies in opposite directions, the difference is that those two did feel the impact, while Arianna was safe and sound inside the red giant wolf with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
Well to be fair, this is also because Arianna’s real body is saturated with vitality all the way from the inside, so unlike knights she doesn’t need to temper herself with battle aura nor use a reinforcement spell like mages to be resistant against inner damage in her current state, she can just take on heavy impacts without any problem.
Those two on the other hand, felt as if their innards were hit by a hammer due to the backslash caused by their attacks colliding with the red giant wolf, and in case you wonder why the hell have they not manifested their domains again after they used their altar spells, it’s not that they didn’t want to, it’s that they couldn’t.
A lot of people believe that having multiple affinities is for the best, but what they ignore is that to actually be able to properly exploit them, a lot of training is needed starting from the Arch rank and above.
These two might have originally have water as a secondary affinity which was present within their domains, however the effect was minimal allowing only for their domains to cooperate with each other.
After going through blood awakening, not only were their original affinities reinforced but their secondary affinities also became much more advanced, which is why their spells gained higher power.
However, all the previous added to the strain that their mana circuits will have to go through if they used their domains, so they instinctively knew that if they used their domains, they’ll probably turn into minced meat in a matter of seconds.
It was a similar but downgraded situation as what Daimon faced with his Manifestation, with the difference that they are suffering with only two relatively advanced elements, while he endures many more of them, as well as other secondary non-developed affinities, not to mention that in his case, this started from the Lord rank instead of the Arch one.
That being said, it’s not like there is no solution to the previous, just like Daimon had solved it by using his insane regeneration abilities to make up for the damage his body suffers when using his Manifestation, for the time being, those two also thought of a way to go around their current restrictions.
"Aghhhh!", with loud obviously pained screams, the two pirates exploded in water, steel and lightning devil mana, respectively as their beast traits which they had expanded already, were further stimulated.
As a result, the neck of the devil eel pirate enlarged giving him a "serpentine" appearance, as for the devil sea lizard pirate, grey scales covered his face and his mouth enlarged, they ended up in a mixed human and magic beast state, similar to what the magic beasts that don’t want to change to a permanent human form, attain.
Their mana which was limited to the early stage of the Arch rank also broke through to the middle stage, but more importantly for them as of current, thanks to their lineage’s reinforcement, their bodies grew stronger which in other words meant that their strongest state was available now.
’Let’s fucking kill her already!’, thought both pirates as mana poured out from their bodies gathering with the one in the atmosphere.
"Domain!".
"Devil Sea Storm Domain", black-yellow lightning as well as an ongoing fierce navy blue rain surrounded everything around two hundred meters of the devil eel pirate, this was the new version of his domain one which consisted exclusively of devil mana, also thanks to their compatibility with Marcus power, the size of his domain has grown more, going against the restrictions of the Blood Prison realm.
"Devil Sea Steel Domain", the devil sea lizard pirate on the other hand, had countless black steel spikes which protruded from a sea of navy blue water, it was the same size as their teammate’s domain as well.
"Oh, I honestly thought your bodies were going to explode the moment you used your domains, to think you overexerted your lineages to forcefully increase the strength of your bodies for that... fools", casually said Arianna as the red giant wolf approached those two by walking in the air towards them.
"What did you say you fucking bitch!", the sea devil lizard pirate’s eyes immediately got bloodshot, after saying that, he instantly charged towards the werewolf girl, making his domain move alongside him, this also meant that the previously four-hundred-meter sized domain result of the two individual domains cooperating with the other, was no more.
"Rigle what the hell are you doing!", naturally the devil eel pirate shouted at his teammate, they had discussed the plan previously, after manifesting their domains they were supposed to charge together at the enemy in order to finish the fight in the shortest amount of time possible.
Now imagine his surprise when midway through his charge towards Arianna, the devil sea lizard pirate’s body started changing, first his previously barely two meter height more than tripled, then scales grew all over the rest of his body and lastly his upright posture was gone, the result was that now an angered eight meter something lizard surrounded by a sea of navy blue water and black metal spikes was charging towards Arianna, who softly snorted in response.
"Partial Domain, Alpha Sky", red energy poured out of Arianna’s body creating a pilar of red light that raised high into the sky, dying a large patch of it of a red color before electricity of the same tone could be seen crackling around everywhere.
Then, a giant red lightning descended from above landing on the red energy wolf, which started... expanding, by the time the lizard reacted, a massive red energy wolf three hundred meters tall was looking down at it from above.
