Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 523 - 33: Miscellaneous but Not Expert

"Having discussed Eleanor’s situation, let’s talk about you next," Aske said, after clearing the enemies on this level and turning to Peggy.

"Oooh, yes, yes! Teach me~" Peggy cooed, though her expression made it clear that she wasn’t in a learning mood, but likely just wanting to capture a bit more of her Squad Leader’s attention.

"Your case is different from Eleanor’s," Aske continued. "Eleanor’s Sequence is primarily passive skills, so her combat style is a combination of Martial Arts and Law Skills."

"Peggy, your Sequence mainly comprises active skills such as Flesh Transformation, Life Drain, transforming into a rat or bat, injecting Toxin or Plague, and so on. Coupled with the Undead Illusion Sword and the Death Law, it results in a disorganized tactical system lacking precision, preventing you from utilizing more than fifty or sixty percent of your potential strength."

"Of course, we haven’t encountered any formidable enemies regularly, so this weakness of yours hasn’t been fully exposed. However, as the Magic Tide continues to rise, the enemies we face will only grow stronger, so it’s best we address these issues sooner rather than later."

"Okay, okay," Peggy nodded incessantly like a pecking chick.

Aske sighed. Ever since the incident with the Death Law, Peggy had obviously become more affectionate towards him, maintaining her compliant and obedient demeanor, but occasionally she’d flirt like Medea, which he found somewhat overwhelming to handle.

Of course, as the leader of the Mercenary Group, Aske remained true to his principles. He ignored the hints of Peggy’s pursuit and continued:

"Let’s move on to the next level and continue with the training."

Upon hearing this, both Kapaxilin, who was watching an online class, and the Priests in the BI monitoring room, collectively breathed a sigh of relief, their focused attention finally relaxing.

Having witnessed his methods, they could now be certain of one thing: the man named Aske had an extremely profound understanding of how to apply Extraordinary Abilities in combat.

Furthermore, as he passed this understanding on to the members of his team, one couldn’t help but ponder—if all the girls in his team could achieve an equally terrifying proficiency in Extraordinary combat...

Add to that the special skills like Death Law, Unyielding Holy Sword, Undead Illusion Sword, and it seemed almost like cheating...

It was starting to make sense why Raphael ranked him as R4.

Kapaxilin found herself in a dilemma.

Professionally speaking, having her sister join his Mercenary Group could indeed bring a near-exceptional and substantial improvement in strength, as evidenced by her rise from an ordinary person to an R4 level in just one year.

However, from the perspective of love, how could an R4 compete with a group of R4s for the Squad Leader?

Frankly, Kapaxilin preferred Nora to live an ordinary life, to smoothly find true, unwavering love, and to happily live out her days.

Rather than becoming an R4 powerhouse feared even by the Church Court, only to fight to the death over a man with a bunch of other R4 powerhouses.

For the former, the Lixini Family’s resources could still lend a hand; for the latter, they truly were powerless. After all, beyond Level 10, piling up resources had little effect on advancement; in most cases, one had to rely on oneself.

The Church Court, on the other hand, didn’t have Kapaxilin’s concerns and simply felt a sense of relief, even grateful.

Thank goodness these R4s were not Keter-level, or it would be a real headache for the Church Court.

After all, just one of the secretly suppressed R3 projects could destroy the Italian peninsula and the Church Court dozens of times over if ever leaked, not to mention these personified R4s.

Some well-informed priests even connected it to recent rumors that, considering one of the R4 targets was the Valian Bishop’s sister, the higher-ups had started planning to groom her for the role of Cardinal...

That was probably a rumor because the Cardinals are actually representatives of external powers within the Church Court, similar to the Nobles in the Ancient Solomon Senate, who, due to being constrained by multiple parties and balanced by rules, don’t wield much autocratic power.

Assigning an R4 to be a Cardinal, what if she got into an argument with another Cardinal and then suddenly turned into a Keter-level threat? The rank of R4 actually suits a higher status, like being sanctified as a "Saint" something...

Just as everyone had rested for a moment and had about finished with their random thoughts, Aske and the others had reached the second underground parking level and, unsurprisingly, encountered another group of gang members stationed there.

As the gang members on the level above had been completely wiped out, the enemies here had adopted a mentality of tenacious resistance, using an abundance of cover and the dim light to take potshots, avoiding a direct confrontation with these formidable invaders.

Peggy hid behind a load-bearing pillar, quickly demonstrating all sorts of Sequential Abilities, Law Skills, and the Undead Illusion Sword. Due to her completely unguarded cooperative attitude, Aske easily plundered these abilities from her.

Thus, on the other side of the online live stream, Kapaxilin and the Priests all simultaneously held their breath once again.

The guy’s performance was about to start again.

"Since your tactical system is different from Eleanor’s, your combat style will also inevitably be quite different," Aske instructed, "Do you still remember the Punic Tactics I taught you?"

Punic Tactics, a special tactical doctrine focused on positioning and movement, was actually quite suitable for a Transcendent like Peggy, who possessed agility and mastered the Undead Illusion Sword.

However, as Aske said, past enemies had been too weak, so much so that there were no chances for her to use her Undead Illusion Sword, let alone implement Punic Tactics into real combat.

"Watch closely," Aske said calmly as he wielded his sword and quickly created a Clone.

That Clone charged straight ahead and, amid crossfire sneak attacks from the gang members, suddenly exploded!

Chunks of Flesh flew in all directions, swiftly obscuring the battlefield. At that moment, several more Clones branched out, taking advantage of the cover provided by the bloody debris to quickly scatter.

In the BI monitoring room, Raphael immediately highlighted the outlines of these Clones on the screen, allowing the Priests to see more clearly. Simultaneously, on the right side of the split screen, a map of the second underground level’s covers quickly appeared.

One of the gang members, hiding behind a frontline cover, ran out of bullets and quickly ducked down to reload. However, a blade suddenly struck from behind, piercing through his left chest.

For a normal person, the Clone’s sneak attack would have been enough to rupture the heart, causing instant death. But this gang member had been mechanically modified, his heart replaced with a mechanical pacemaker and relocated to the right side of his chest cavity, so he did not die on the spot.

The back of his neck suddenly opened up, with high-speed rotating blades unfolding like petals, instantly slashing the head off Aske’s Illusion Sword Avatar.

Unexpectedly receiving a sharp counterattack, that Clone did not immediately vanish. Through her Spiritual Intuition, Peggy, watching from a distance, keenly perceived that Aske’s Clone wasn’t actually bisected by the saw-blade teeth.

Instead, at the moment the blade came close, it controlled the Flesh to "proactively" cause the head to explode.

Whether exploding a head is done proactively or reactively makes a world of difference. Flesh Power practitioners have an incredible ability to heal their bodies, but they are not immune to damage; a Clone still vanishes into illusion if it takes physical harm.

But if it proactively explodes its head, then there is not a scratch of damage. The exploded head’s flesh sprayed onto the opponent, immediately corroding deep into him.

This is... Peggy was shocked. Was it the effect of the Toxin Ability? No, there was also the Withering Skill of Death Law!

The Blood Clan girl was not a fool; in fact, she was naturally talented and blessed when it came to combat. After briefly contemplating, she immediately understood the intricacies involved. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Toxins work best on flesh, but the opponent had mechanically altered his body, incorporating some mechanical parts that toxins would struggle to handle. Using Death Withering alone to kill (which she would certainly have done) would have consumed too much Spirituality.

Therefore, she secreted the Toxin, enveloping the splashed Flesh. Where it met flesh, the Toxin would corrode; where it couldn’t corrode machinery, it would trigger localized Death Withering, corrode the mechanical parts, then immediately cease the skill and continue to erode with Toxin.

With just this combination of a Sequential Ability and a Law Skill, and through refined manipulation and minimal Spirituality consumption, it straightaway killed the mechanized gang member on the spot.