Supreme Magus

Chapter 4017: Cursed vs Corrupted (Part 2)

The Firbolg had cut ties with his bloodline to join Orpal, and the Dead King himself only owned an enchanted armor for his human form.

To make matters worse, the thick layer of Zero and Ragnarök’s Reverse Flow enchantment hindered the Fae’s regeneration abilities. The frozen-solid right arm weighed Nuron down, refusing to both thaw or detach itself.

Regrowing the entire limb from scratch would have been a matter of seconds for the Fae, but Nuron had to get rid of it first. The extreme cold numbed the Firbolg’s tissues to the point he had no control over them.

The Griffon Fetters bound him tight, but Lith manipulated them so that the emerald chains would inflict little damage and use the arm as their anchor as they wrapped themselves around the rest of the Upyr’s body.

On top of that, Nuron had to devote his full focus on his remaining arm to stop the unrelenting assault of the angry blade. The cuts it inflicted healed slowly, and each one of them gushed lifeblood like a fountain.

’This wasn’t supposed to happen.’ Nuron gritted his teeth to withstand the pain. ’Becoming an Upyr should have made me stronger, not weaker!’

Fae had no heart or major organs. The only way to kill them was to find and destroy the Root they hid inside their bodies and that they could move freely even during the most frenzied battle.

That, along with their uncanny regeneration and their ability to absorb nutrients from the soil, made them nigh-immortal. Yet Nuron wasn’t a Firbolg anymore. He was a Fae-Upyr hybrid, which gave him organs, blood, and locked his Root in a fixed position.

Nuron had never bled before, and the feeling of weakness that accompanied every spurt of blood was new to him. For the first time in his life, the Firbolg-Upyr was afraid of getting hurt.

His fear grew into terror the closer Ragnarök got to his Root, and Lith read Nuron’s face like a map. The Indech gauged the panic in the Upyr’s eyes with each attack to assess how close he had gotten to the Root.

’Verhen knows.’ Nuron said as he blocked a series of strikes aimed at the exact location of his Root. ’The bastard knows, and for some reason, I can’t generate more Fire Soul. I don’t care about the Dead King’s plans anymore.

’None of his promises of greatness or threats of pain matter if I die here like a moron.’

After trying and failing one last time to call upon Fire Soul and get rid of the Indech, the Upyr let go of his bloodline ability to switch to Thunder Soul. The sea of fire looming over the merfolk village disappeared instantly, and arcs of sickly lightning streamed across Nuron’s body.

Lith had used Swirling Wind to filter the fire element, so he had no way to stop the Firbolg when he called upon the air element. Moreover, while Fire and Frost Soul effects manifested outside an Upyr’s body, Thunder Soul stored the corrupted lightning inside an Upyr.

Swirling Wind had no effect on the air element that Nuron had already absorbed, it could only stop him from taking in more. If that was Lith’s plan, that is.

Without Fire Soul and with Tista keeping the other Upyr busy, the merfolk snapped out of their panic and started helping each other.

"Don’t use magic at all costs!" Rem yelled with Mimicast from inside the tower, letting the sound travel from house to house until it reached the Desert Heart and from there spread to the rest of the village. "Bring those who need healing to the Verhen house!"

Morok and the others kept Spirit Blinking around the Starry Lagoon to rescue those who had turned into blocks of ice at the start of the ambush, and used their Spirit Magic to thaw them before it was too late.

The Tyrant still had a limited control over Swirling Wind due to the limits of his proto-wings, but it was more than enough to push the Frost Soul back and save his mana by using elemental magic.

Whenever Spirit Magic drained the cores of his friends, Morok moved to their position to let them use Invigoration without interrupting their job.

Lith kept two of his eyes on the ground to check on his companions, two more on Tista, and the remaining three on his opponent, ready to Dominate any Spirit Spell Nuron might conjure.

"Die, bastard. Die!" The Firbolg yelled as his scimitar clanged against the angry blade in a desperate parry. "Let’s see how long you can last!"

Nuron was still covered in wounds, and the Griffon Fetters trapped his dominant arm. The mass gap was unchanged, and the Upyr could only defend himself against Ragnarök, but the tides of battle were already turning.

Even though Nuron’s scimitar didn’t even come close to the Indech’s body, the Thunder Soul seeped past the Voidwalker armor and struck deep into Lith’s flesh with every one of his attacks that the Upyr intercepted.

The corrupted lightning flowed from Nuron to Lith through their blades, piercing through all kinds of protections it encountered on its path. The Indech used light fusion to heal from the wounds the moment they opened and darkness fusion to suppress most of the pain, but never relented in his attack.

’Thunder Soul can be used like this?’ He pondered. ’It’s better than I thought, but still has plenty of limitations. It’s useless outside of close-quarters combat, and the farther Thunder Soul has to move from its point of origin, the more power it loses.

’Even travelling Ragnarök’s length lessens Thunder Soul’s effects. If I were using Double Edge in my full Tiamat form, I doubt that I would suffer more than minor wounds. Also, if I didn’t have to protect the merfolk, I would only need to take one step back to make Thunder Soul useless.

’Or in this case, one step forward.’ Lith created an opening that Nuron exploited without thinking.

’I’m not dead! I’m not going to die today!’ In his frenzy, the Firbolg launched an attack with all his strength, walking straight into the trap.

His blade slid along Ragnarök’s edge until it struck the cross guard, transmitting almost the full power of the blow into the Indech’s hand. Nuron smiled as Lith’s flesh tore open and his bones shattered, but his joy didn’t last.

After putting all his weight into the overhead slash, the Upyr was out of balance and his chest fully exposed. Lith countered the Upyr with a front kick the moment their blades touched, shortening the Griffon Fetters to accelerate the enemy further and turn Nuron’s charge against him.

The kick landed on the Upyr’s abdomen hard, deforming Adamant and shattering bones, but Nuron didn’t care.

’Dumb move, Verhen. I can heal from a mere blow like this before you can blink, and we are still locked together. The moment your Griffon Fetters spring me back, I’ll return all this momentum to you with Thunder Soul and kill you.’ He thought, and he was wrong.

Lith let the Griffon Fetters extend freely, sending the Upyr flying far away from him and in the middle of the many still-active Jerak runes he had left behind.

A snap of his fingers unleashed multiple bursts of Zero.