The Exalt Cultivation Fantasy

Act 1: Blue Ocean Pavilion - Chapter 237: Lives on the Line

'Silver Lance'

Oscar thrust his lance to burst as many bubbles as possible, but a new one formed immediately to take the destroyed one's place. He jumped up and moved around to outrun the daggers and bubbles, but they somehow stayed fixated on him. More daggers stuck onto his arm before washing away into puddles, muddying the dirt.

His feet splattered on the slippery mud, and some flew out to stain his cheek. His eyes atop his muddy face remained clear, staring straight at Natasha's moving figure. Water soaked his body and dripped down the ends of his hair, a minor inconvenience compared to the downpour of daggers.

'Time's up.' Canceling his Adamasreis, Oscar invoked his 'Silver Sheen', a familiar coat of silver covering his body.

Natasha's eyes glinted, and her lips curled up as she marked down Oscar's timing, a full minute. A minute was the limit for his strange defense that solidified his arms and legs, and Natasha started a new countdown for Oscar's recovery when he would return to that state. Her hands moved fast with more daggers, but her rushed breathing betrayed the tiredness creeping up on her.

'I have to end this with the next cycle.' Natasha realized Oscar had not wasted as much Ein as she thought since his breathing was even and calm. Letting this continue would spell her defeat, and she did not want that. 'I'll have to give it to you; in a battle of endurance, you would have won, but let's end it with this.'

Oscar lifted his spell and used Adamasreis, continuing to defend. The time ticked as a minute passed, and Oscar released his Adamasreis.

'Now!' Natasha clenched her fist, and the bubbles shot toward Oscar.

Oscar threw his bulwark with all his might toward Natasha. He finally used his bulwark's special throw for the first time in this battle. The red menace spun so fast it could slice through an unsuspecting person, but Natasha was not one such person.

Natasha tried to dodge, but her body trembled, and her fingers quaked. Her body refused to move despite the urgings of her mind; she saw a link formed between her eye and Oscar.

'Stone Gaze'

Oscar used his grade-one spell just this moment to stop Natasha in her tracks, and his Prinstyct watched for the moment she would break free and dodge. As expected, Natasha broke free of his spell, and he predicted her movement to the right. Oscar knocked his arm at the ready and shot a single 'Silver Star' in her direction.

All this happened right before the bubbles bombarded him.

Natasha sidestepped the 'Silver Star' and watched as the bubbles came together and ruptured into a large explosion with Oscar in the middle. This move was the final weapon in her arsenal. The bubbles rapidly heated up and became steam explosions of large heat and force.

"You should be dead or wounded!" Natasha shouted. She aimed perfectly for the slight opening between the end of Oscar's strange power and the start of the silver armor. She breathed in relief, but her eyes suddenly shot wide open as blood trickled down her mouth.

"W-what?" A slight sting in her chest became a heavy agonizing torment that spread across her body. Losing all strength, Natasha dropped to her knees and peered down to find a gaping hole in her chest. She clutched her chest to stop blood from pouring, but it only ended in her hands dyed red, and her face became visibly pale, matching the whiteness of her hair.

In disbelief, Natasha turned her head to look behind. Whatever attacked her came from the back because she felt it there first. Her hazy eyes focused on the red bulwark placed by the steep cliff. "He reflected the silver ball off the bulwark."

"That's right." Oscar's voice resounded from the steam.

He stepped out into the clear under Natasha's surprised gaze. Silver fragments fell off his body and his deer anima.

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His uniform was ragged, and his skin was torn and burned in some areas, but his body virtually remained unharmed. Oscar coughed from the steam vapors filling his lungs, but his obsidian eyes remained on Natasha as his feet carried him toward her. His hand formed another 'Silver Star' to finish her off.

"It took some setup after you realized my timings, but I got you to be by the cliff. Once you moved to dodge my bulwark, I pulled it in the same direction and let the 'Silver Star' hit it to rebound toward you." Oscar brushed off the dirt that covered him. Oscar pointed the 'Silver Star' at Natasha's head; her Ein depleted quickly as her life faded, so she could not defend herself.

"Haha," Natasha laughed weakly through a mouthful of blood. "In the end, I was the one in the trap. How did you survive the explosion so unscathed?"

"Trade secret." He remained virtually unharmed because of a burst of 'Ripple Shroud' that allowed him to deter the explosion for a moment before his 'Silver Sheen' could take over. However, some of the explosions still got to him, but his body managed through it with his natural toughness. "Just know that toughness is my forte."

Natasha looked taken aback. "Hehe, it can't be helped. I would have lost either way." If this move didn't work, she would have lost from exhaustion. Natasha sighed and stared at Oscar, who had a pair of clear obsidian eyes, a powerful gaze within them; she put on a slight smile. "You know, I take back what I said. Your face isn't that bad after all. What a shame if only you were older."

Oscar lifted an eyebrow at her comment but then heard a crunch as Natasha bit something in her mouth.

Natasha erupted into white flames with a wistful smile. The flames consumed her body whole, burning into every bit of flesh and turning her into ash.

Oscar watched in horror at the speed of the flames and how Natasha could do it without hesitation. His eyes dropped at the only remnant of his troublesome enemy, a black patch of burnt ash and dirt sizzling with smoke.

The second time he thought to himself. Natasha was the second person he had killed in his life. But this was not the time to dwell on it; there was work to be done. His friends needed him.

…….

Moments before, during the battle between Elizabeth Raeven and the red-armored man, the two clashed in the air, wielding their swords and displaying their mastery.

Elizabeth noticed she could not get past the red-armored man's guard, and their Prinstycts met against each other. She clashed evenly against this person's calculated swordsmanship despite using the Raeven Sword Techniques. Elizabeth realized that despite being a Greater Knight Exalt, the red-armored man had been a Knight Exalt for far longer.

Each subsequent advancement increased the Prinstyct's potency by a magnitude, but even if someone didn't advance, they could keep training in the Prinstcyt. But it became progressively harder to train the Prinstyct without advancement to provide a boon. The red-armored man must have spent many years to become this advanced in the Prinstyct, but it also revealed his low-grade Exolsia.

With that information, Elizabeth made her move. It was time to finish this.

Elizabeth summoned her anima, a large gold cutlass like her armament, but it was soaking wet, formed from swirling golden waters that maintained its shape. Just its mere presence brought about immense pressure on the entire island.

"A grade-seven anima….how envious." The red-armored man responded with his anima; a burst of white Ein turned into hot flames and formed a white sword, similar to his armaments, and flame patterns moved on its blade's surface. The grade-two anima powers emanating from the blade diminished the fierceness of its fiery appearance.

However, the red-armored man slammed his anima onto his blades, and flames erupted in a wildfire, burning the very air. The anima shone and fused into his two swords, releasing a single spherical blast of fire.

Elizabeth did not back down and slammed her golden cutlass armament into her anima. The two had a similar reaction as the red-armored man's blades and anima, and the cutlasses fused into one, becoming a large cutlass, twice as long and wide, but fitting well in her one hand. Sharp churning waves of golden water spun around its edge like a buzzsaw, and she pointed the blade forward to pierce into the fire blast.

The flames extinguished in an instant, becoming nothing but hissing steam, but the cold golden waters coursed through the vapors, condensing them into a slight rain that fell into the ocean below. Elizabeth stared at the red-armored man's weapons, two swords with long hilts of white fire.

'Melding Stage….' Elizabeth squinted. The second stage of an anima past the initial Manifestation Stage allowed them to combine their animas into their weapons to increase their potency; however, the true purpose lay in the special ability that awakened from this fusion. The red-armored figure's mastery of anima to reaching the Melding Stage caught her off-guard, but Elizabeth held confidence in her grade-seven exolsia and the Ravaen Sword Techniques.

Her large cutlass let out a shrill sound from the high speed of the golden waters on its edge.

The hilts on the red-armored man's blades erupted with white flames so powerful they straightened out and seemed quite dense, releasing a low roaring.

Their eyes gazed into each other.

Their blades clashed once again in the next instant as fire and water continued their eternal struggle. White flames, gold waters, the elements coursed around their battle.