Supreme Monarch

Izabel— also feeling agitated by the constant parring of her attacks by the sluggish and slow opponent she was supposed to have the absolute advantage over— continued launching a ferocious barrage of attacks at the Dark elf before her, trying to overwhelm her completely so even her Foresight would become useless in the presence of absolute power.

Her simple strategy seemed to be working as her heavy blows kept pushing her back constantly, which occasionally made the Dark elf stumble but she was still somehow able to retain her balance and suddenly partied another one of her strikes which interrupted Izabel's barrage of attacks for only a brief moment.

However, that moment seemed to have been all Rain required as Izabel suddenly heard the resounding clap of Thunder. Next, the girl in front of her had disappeared from her view at some point in time and something flashed by her left ear.

Unable to react in time for the first time, a sudden impact rang through her body as her feet were swept off the ground and she was sent flying. Something Izabel could not predict had happened as it seemed like the dark elf had suddenly regained her full speed and in only the brief moment she had managed to interrupt her attack, the girl had moved behind her and kicked her by the side of her head.

The force from that single kick was enough to take her head off if it wasn't for the chaos aura from the amulet that enveloped her body in several layers of protection and enhancement. Still, the power from the kick had been too great that it stunned her for a moment. 

She had accounted for surprises in her plan as when facing opponents of this level, they always had a trick up their sleeves. However, this was insane. 

Looking at the dark elf who stood before her, Izabel could feel her energy skyrocketing as cracks of lightning danced across her skin. Her normally silky short black hair crackled with electricity as the base of her hair seemed to have turned white.

[Secret Technique - Thunder God's Descent]

Indeed it did feel like a lightning god had descended but not entirely as it felt like her technique was incomplete. 'Geez, this would be a lot easier if that damnable sister of mine had shown up as we agreed.'

Grumbling internally Izabel quickly stood up as Rain was the one to charge at her this time. The barrier should've surely weakened them by several tiers and without the use of their spells or skills, she should've had the ultimate advantage but it didn't turn out that way as Rain swiftly began assaulting her with her twin daggers. 

Trying to stay one step ahead of her enemy, Izabel used one of the skills the artifact around her neck possessed before the girl could figure out that the barrier did not affect the skills contained within magic items.

•Corrosive Blast•

The reddish-black chaos aura around her gathered around her clenched fist and turned into a purplish-grey ball that shot at Rain with the wave of her hand. Seeing this, Rain immediately recognized what the attack meant and the blade in one of her hands caught fire in a sickly green blaze as she swung the weapon and a giant ball of poisonous green flames shot at the corrosive blast.

Both parties immediately jumped back upon impact to avoid getting caught in the area of effect. 

Standing only a few meters apart, the chaos aura around Izabel suddenly shifted and formed into a comically large mallet in her hand as she dashed at Rain while swinging the seemingly weightless weapon.

Rain raised her weapon to block the mallet that came down on her when she suddenly heard Liz's voice in her mind yell at her. "Dodge that! Don't let that weapon touch you." With the improved agility the technique Thunder God's Descent provided her, Rain quickly changed her mind halfway and jumped to the side as the Mallet slammed into the ground.

BOOM!

The impact was massive but Rain had managed to get away from the blast unscathed. However, looking at the weapon's point of impact on the ground, Rain frowned.

"Oh wow, you noticed. And I thought I swung that light enough for you to feel like you could simply just block it."

The ground the mallet had impacted with slowly lost its color as the soil began to dry out and turn to dust. The snow melted and all the vegetation around had disintegrated.

•Disintegration Pulse•

A passive effect of the Chaos Hammer that slowly and fundamentally destroys anything it touches, be it physical or spiritual. The pulse could also be gathered until it was immersed enough to be called a wave, which was what Izabel had done.

Rain's expression sunk further. A secret technique could generally not be used for long especially a powerful one like hers and thus, she was rapidly running out of time as the moment her technique runs out, they would find it hard-pressed to survive. The fact that she had been unable to end this fight with her first kick was truly a disappointment.

Seeing the breathing of the so-called Thunder goddess get slightly heavier made Izabel smirk and lunged at her again only to stop short of reaching Rain this time as she used another skill from the Amulet of Despora.

•Soul Eater.•

The aura around her suddenly expanded outwards as it took shapes of soul-based monsters that extended towards Rain and tried to consume her soul. Naturally, Rain tried to move out of the way but this skill was a little bit special as one could not dodge it, only try to resist it. 

And while Rain was confident she could easily resist an attack on her soul, even something as simple as being momentarily stunned could cancel her technique and thus, this was a very dangerous situation for her.

However, just as the soul eaters were about to reach her, a thick layer of back clouds had formed in the sky and several massive tornadoes immediately began to sprout out all around them. The heavy winds pushed her away from the soul eaters.

•Lightning Storm•

Liz had finally decided to intervene after realizing that she could use the skills of her magic artifact, Iris Tear. This realization had really elevated her mood as she no longer felt useless or a burden to her friend yet again.

In the end, it was this single gift from Lord Ty that had saved her friend and she could not help but feel even more indebted and grateful to him.

Not wanting to waste her surprised attack, Liz gathered the lightning in the sky and released a single massive bolt of lightning at the young girl named Izabel.

As expected, the lightning passed through the barrier without any obstructions just as the tornadoes had done. The barrier seems to not affect any natural phenomenon which was a good thing for her.

Izabel clicked her tongue as her golden greaves and vambraces glowed and her figure blinked out of the way for the massive bolt of lightning that had immediately struck the ground she had been standing on only moments ago. It would seem like those were magic items as well which was not a surprise given she seemed to be from one of the Great Five and owning multiple magic items that possessed skills was relatively normal.

Her blink destination was only about 5 meters away which was probably the limit of the skill but it was still enough to avoid the attack showing how useful the skill was in battle. Before Izabel could even prepare for her next move, Rain had suddenly appeared behind her and another kick was sent her way.

Without hesitation Izabel quickly ducked and spun around, swinging her chaos mallet at the Dark elf. However, a sudden gust of strong wind had conveniently blown Rain out of harm's way and her mallet struck nothing but air.

"So annoying."

Izabel frowned slightly as she turned to glare at Liz who only smiled at her. She knew if she tried to attack her recklessly, she would be leaving herself wide open for the dark elf to exploit. However, not doing anything would lead to more problems in the future as she would be able to constantly save her comrade while Izabel steadily burned herself out.

Thinking of this, Izabel snorted and two balls of corrosive energy gathered in her fists once more as she shot them at Rain in quick succession, and before the attack had even gotten to her, Izabel turned and dashed at Liz, a move that had startled both girls.

However—

Rain quickly countered the corrosive blast with two poisonous flames of her own as she dashed at Izabel and to Izabel's surprise, she quickly caught up with her, and in one fluid motion that even she couldn't keep track of, she executed another Secret Technique even though she was already in the midst of using one.

[Phantom Kill]

Both of her dark blades shined in a deadly light as cracks of electricity danced on them. Her strikes were fluid and swift, without flaws or pauses as every one of her strikes was aimed at all of Izabel's vitals at the same time.

With a 100 fold boost to her attacks, this was surely a one-hit kill that would end this fight in an instant if it had connected. However, Izabel wasn't foolish neither was she that hard-headed that she would let her anger control her in a fight.

Her golden grew greaves and vambraces glowed once more and her figure suddenly blink behind Rain at the last moment as the chaos mallet in her hand shattered in a burst of disintegration energy that spanned a radius of more than 100 meters.

•Disintegration Blast•

The burst of energy slammed into the unsuspecting Rain as her technique ended and she was suddenly too slow to react in time. Perhaps it was a stroke of bad luck that the attack had come at the same moment her technique had ended but one needed luck in a battle this close so Rain could not complain.

Her body slammed straight into the ground several times as the disintegration blast had almost ripped her appearance. Even with all her resistances, she had only been able to barely survive that attack. Some of her bones were broken, her supple skill was now covered in cuts and bruises as the disintegration energy slowly began to destroy her body from the inside.

"Rain!"

Liz yelled in dismay as she ran over to the motionless body of her friend on the ground who was slowly bleeding out. To think she was yet again watching her friend go through pain simply because she wasn't strong enough even with Lord Ty's help. Her emotions ran rampant as she tried to think of a way to help her but couldn't.

"There's no need. Once the disintegration energy of my skill enters the body, it's only a matter of time before the target dies an extremely agonizing death. If I were you, I'll end her life right now to save her from the suffering."

Izabel said that confidently as she strolled towards the girls with a somewhat relieved expression on her face. To be honest she hadn't thought she would be able to handle both girls on her own without Citrus's help. However, with her sister being a no-show and there being not many opportunities to lay an effective trap. She had no choice but to suck it up and handle the matter herself.

However, everything had worked out somehow and now all she needed to do was capture the demoness before the time for the barrier ran out.

She walked closer to the girls and was about to use another skill when the air suddenly ran dry. No. It went cold. Something had literally frozen the air itself that she found it hard to breathe.

"Impossible."

Izabel's eyes went wide as she finally traced the source of the issue. The aura that surrounded the blonde demoness had suddenly gone all the way down to absolute zero as goosebumps run across her skin.

"You. You'll pay for this."