Chapter 338: Sacrificial Blade, Final Line of Defense

"Hiss..."

Wiping the wound on his chest, the vivid red and the pungent, bloody stench entered Wood’s perception; he was injured, and not lightly at that. Currently, he was sustained by the enhanced physique of the Scales of God state, but once the duration of his Inner Potential expired, this wound might very well cost him his ability to fight.

Waves of pain surged one after another like a tide, torturing Wood’s nerves, yet contrastingly rendering his consciousness and thoughts sharper.

It was almost impossible for him to forcibly take down the knight before him within the remaining duration of his Inner Potential. The crux lay not in the explosive bursts generated by the knight's swinging fists, but rather in the shockwaves automatically triggered whenever the opponent's body was torn apart.

He could not ignore such devastating shockwaves, yet the wounds sustained from enduring them were insufficient to strip Wang Yu—a fellow whose self-healing ability was incomprehensibly potent—of his combat capacity. Dragging the fight out like this would only waste away the duration of the Scales of God.

Watching Wang Yu sprint toward him at full speed, Wood retrieved a potion vial from the sturdy pouch at his waist that had survived the explosion, smashed it against his chest, and invoked a intricately structured magitech amulet gripped between his fingers just as the potion began to mend the wound.

The earth element conjured twisting, rising stone spikes that, along with a freezing chill, spread along the ground toward the charging Wang Yu. With the earth frozen over, Wood intended to temporarily restrict Wang Yu, this "human bomb."

"Creeeak!"

However, before the frozen earth could reach Wang Yu, the frost-covered path of stone spikes ground to a halt midway, and the frost atop it rapidly dissipated into thin air.

Wood stared in bewilderment at the twisted and deformed amulet in his hand; this powerful magitech tool had somehow been crushed into a lump of scrap metal by an unseen, invisible hand.

"Boom!"

Wang Yu’s descending fist missed Wood, slamming instead into the ground before him. The shockwave detonated, cratering the earth while dispersing immense force in all directions. The violent currents swept across Wood’s hastily dodging form, leaving his stance slightly unsteady.

Missing his mark, Wang Yu instantly spun and swept his leg, his blood-armor-clad limb kicking fiercely toward Wood. The high-energy blood coursing through his veins caused a brilliant light to gleam from the gaps in the armor; an explosion could erupt the moment it struck any target.

"Smack!"

An arm parried Wang Yu’s sweeping leg, yet no explosion occurred this time. Riding the momentum of Wang Yu’s kick, Wood relied on his strength and agility—both significantly higher than Wang Yu’s—to deftly deflect the attack with precise technique. Though they clashed, the impact was insufficient to trigger a detonation.

"Swish!"

Dodging sideways, Wood grabbed Wang Yu’s leg once more. This time, instead of smashing Wang Yu into the ground as before, he flung him away to prevent any explosion from engulfing himself.

Wood tossed aside the warped amulet. The item had naturally been twisted out of shape by Wang Yu using the power of the Chariot. It was best not to use most magitech tools against Wang Yu at close range, lest they be destroyed by the Chariot's power before their effects could even manifest.

The inexplicably damaged magitech tool further solidified Wood’s plan. He still possessed a few powerful magitech artifacts, but given this senseless destruction, he could not guarantee it wouldn't happen again. Engaging in a war of attrition with Wang Yu was an absolute mistake.

Eliminating that mage alongside Joey, and then joining forces to deal with this knight, was the true way to break the deadlock.

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Bursting forward at full speed, Wood paid no more heed to Wang Yu, who was catching up behind him once again. Instead, he turned and ran toward the battlefield where Joey and Elvia were engaged.

The explosion from the high-energy overload had also disrupted the buff spells applied to Wang Yu’s body. This severely slowed Wang Yu down, leaving him barely able to keep pace with Wood as the distance between them steadily widened.

Where Joey and Elvia fought, a tempest whipped up sand and dust, forming a clay-yellow tornado that reached the very ceiling of the space, cloaking a massive area.

Elvia focused entirely on tracking Joey’s position through her Perfect Fractal Lens, tossing earth-element traps into the tornado meant to obstruct his advance—traps that would fire rock missiles upon contact—while she used her modest knightly prowess to stay far away from the approaching Joey.

Within the sandstorm, Joey maintained his advance while swiftly slashing his daggers. The aura infused within them shattered the earth traps flying through the gale, preventing them from harming him.

With his eyes locked onto Elvia, who was maintaining her distance, Joey silently counted the seconds in his mind. Upon the dagger in his hand, the power of his Inner Potential was pooling; he was waiting for an opportunity—a moment to kill the girl in a single strike, whatever the cost.

Soon, that opportunity arrived. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Wood rushing over from behind, leaving the other knight in his dust. Joey instantly understood his partner's intent: cooperate, and slaughter the mage.

"Huuu..."

Taking a deep breath, Joey plunged the dagger in his right hand straight into his own left shoulder. Black flames snaked along the blade, spreading around the puncture wound until his entire left arm was set ablaze, consumed entirely within a fraction of a second.

His left arm vanished, leaving a smooth surface at the stump rather than a gruesome wound. This was Joey’s Inner Potential—the Sacrificial Blade. By sacrificing his own flesh for a time, he gained a corresponding special ability. At this moment, the power he required was magic immunity.

The force of the howling wind buffeting his body weakened as the specialized power flooded his frame. The turbulent wind elements grew docile the instant they touched Joey’s skin, and the earth traps swirling in the tempest crumbled directly into handfuls of dust upon colliding with him.

"Come then, troublesome mage. Let me slaughter you."

Whispering beneath his breath, the one-armed Joey broke through the storm, turning into a phantom as he charged wildly toward Elvia.

Wood, arriving from behind, reached the scene at this exact moment. Aura gathered upon his newly drawn dagger, condensing and materializing before being unleashed in a slash. A curved blade of aura emitting a blinding light completely tore through the storm, whistling through the air toward Elvia.

The girl's expression grew grim. She had already perceived the changes in Joey’s body; though she knew not how he achieved it, the attribute of magic immunity had indeed appeared on him, drastically increasing the threat. Fortunately, while she specialized in magic, she was also versed in witchcraft.

Her mental energy triggered the magitech bracelet on her wrist, instantly invoking the spell stored within. A thick earthen wall erupted from the ground before Elvia, hardening and solidifying. It clashed with the aura blade; rocks shattered and cracks spread, successfully blocking Wood's strike.

Following this, void energy surged, and several pitch-black spheres materialized between her fingers. Taking brief aim, she fired them at the phantom-like Joey—Third-Tier Witchcraft: Sphere of Dark Corrosion.

The small spheres spun and shifted in mid-air, curving and turning to trace several distinct trajectories as they pursued Joey. Joey originally intended to ignore these spheres by relying on his magic immunity, but the primal instinct of danger within his body caused him to dodge subconsciously.

He evaded most of the spheres, but the remaining two or three grazed his body, instantly flaying the flesh from his skin and leaving several shocking, crimson scars.

"Is this... witchcraft? Just how many abilities does this caster possess..."

An uncontrollable trace of irritation surfaced in his mind. His profession was meant to counter casters, yet he was suffering immensely facing Elvia. He had to be even more ruthless; no matter the price, he could not afford to give this caster another chance to act.

Facing the large quantity of Dark Corrosion Spheres Elvia continued to release, Joey chose the most efficient solution. So long as they couldn't deal a fatal blow, he refrained from dodging, letting the spheres carve numerous wounds across his body—which was far frailer than others of his rank—causing blood to spill everywhere.

Ignoring the pain, he closed in on Elvia’s position at maximum speed. Support from Wood arrived from behind as an aura blade tore through the air. Having shifted his position, Wood bypassed the sturdy earthen wall Elvia had conjured, releasing another long-range aura slash. This forced Elvia to pool her mana, preparing a defensive spell in the intervals between her witchcraft.

"Bang! Roar!"

Two explosive sounds rang out almost simultaneously. One was the booming roar of the Conqueror Alchemical Revolver firing a charged shot, while the other was the thunderous blast of Wang Yu unleashing a Dragon Roar.

A crimson light trail arrived a beat faster, striking Wood's aura blade dead-on and shattering it to pieces, while the pure shockwave blasted in a fan-shape toward Wood himself sent him flying back, stripping him of any immediate chance to interfere in Joey and Elvia’s battlefield.

No longer needing to divide her attention to cast defensive magic, Elvia immediately deployed a more complex spell. Pitch-black chains erupted from the void, dense and numerous like a swarm of wildly dancing serpents as they coiled and snapped toward Joey.

Sliding, leaping, dodging, and rolling, Joey pushed the agility he excelled in to its absolute limit, forcibly carving a path through the dense cluster of chains and closing the distance between himself and Elvia to a perilous degree.

Now was the time. Without a shred of hesitation, Joey plunged the dagger in his hand into his own eye. The blade pierced his eyeball, and black flames burned it away. In an instant, his left eye socket was left an empty hollow, but his form blurred and turned incorporeal, passing right through the void chains—an eyeball traded for a temporary immunity to void energy.

Landing, Joey was now less than three meters away from Elvia. The spatial magic radiance glowing in Elvia’s hand and the cloak covered in ice-blue feathers upon her shoulders had already entered Joey's sight.

Wanting to use spatial magic to distance herself from him? Don't even dream about it. In this regard, she was exactly like the casters he had hunted in the past; once closed in upon tightly enough, they could think of nothing but putting distance between them.

Stamping his foot down, the violent stomp generating immense propulsion, Joey’s body pulled into a blur of afterimages as he rushed Elvia. After carving a gash across his own abdomen, the dagger in his hand aimed straight for Elvia’s neck. With just a single slash, he would separate the girl's head from her shoulders.

At some point, black flames had ignited within his viscera, burning away a portion of his intestines, kidneys, and a few other organs that would temporarily not affect his combat capacity, translating them into Joey’s ability: Small-Scale Spatial Anchoring.

Joey had already witnessed the girl’s spatial spell, "Castling," and the raven-feather cloak she wore was obviously a life-saving item, highly likely to be a spatial transfer artifact. No matter what, he would not give Elvia a chance to flee.

The space anchored, and the spatial magic in Elvia’s hand collapsed. Joey truly arrived before the girl, the blade in his hand slashing toward her neck.

The Frost Raven Feather Cloak triggered, yet due to the spatial anchoring, it failed to dissolve the girl into scattering feathers. It merely unleashed a vast swarm of icy plumage that shot toward the Joey before her.

The attacks struck Joey’s body, frost detonating and the temperature plummeting as freezing ice crystals flew in all directions. However, due to the magic immunity enveloping Joey’s frame, they failed to effectively bind him, causing him to pause only slightly, carrying no further significance.

"Pfft-tchew!"

The blade sliced across Elvia’s neck, and scalding blood spurted out. Joey, his body covered in fragments of ice crystals, successfully carved a massive opening in the girl's throat.

An injury of this caliber was an absolute death sentence for a fragile caster. Joey had no intention of letting the mage before him off; following this strike would be a follow-up attack to sever her spine.

Yet, a trace of an bizarre sensation surfaced deep within Joey’s heart. The blood spurting from the caster's neck wound was somewhat strange—too vibrant, too full of vitality. No, this blood was moving! It wasn't the kind of spraying caused by gravity or blood pressure; it was acting on its own accord.

Without giving the nearby Joey a chance to react, the blood erupting from the girl's neck abruptly shifted its form and nature. While sealing the wound on her neck, it transformed into an arm, slamming violently against Joey’s face. Fingers carrying a wordless yet glaring fury gouged straight into the hollow of his left eye.

Whose bizarre blood this was had already become blatantly obvious. This was blood from Wang Yu—and it was the portion of blood within his body that possessed the most terrifying regenerative capabilities, the strongest capacity for autonomous action, and contained the greatest amount of energy.

Wang Yu had left all this blood within Evia, accounting for roughly a quarter of the girl’s own volume, providing her with vitality and regenerative grace in times of peace, while serving as a final bulwark in moments of crisis—a lethal stratagem that no soul could have ever foreseen.

"Squelch! Boom!"

With fingers hooked into the hollows of the eye sockets, he breached the most fragile reaches of Joey’s frame, and in the heartbeat that followed the infusion of his essence, he transmuted that energy into a murderous assault; the sparks that flared were the heralds of a cursed flame ignited.

The blood that had begun to ravage Joey’s interior and coat his skull erupted instantly into a conflagration of searing, baleful sorcery.

The sheer density of the energy contained within caused the flames to manifest as a crimson inferno from the very moment of ignition, bypassing the spectral green phase entirely, like a tempest of unbridled wrath.

"Pfft."

With eyes cold and a face etched in pallor, Evia thrust her blade of solidified void, a jagged obsidian shard, piercing through the skull.

She drove it deep into Joey’s chest, now fully engulfed in the roaring fire, annihilating his heart and skewering the spine that lay behind it.