Chapter 729: Fluid
Sylas could hear the sound of his breathing in his ears, the hollow beat of his heart echoing from time to time.
He could feel the hairs on his body tingling, a far greater pressure coming from Vaekra now than ever before.
Somehow, she had recovered, but he...
Something stirred within Sylas. It was a feeling like self-preservation, but far deeper than that.
This battle, no matter what, he couldn't run, and he couldn't lose.
Sylas' Mixed Martial Arts Comprehension seemed to activate on its own, lines of fog coming from his eyes as his focus seemed to haze over.
BANG!
Sylas vanished, the location he had been standing on erupting with piles of loose soil and shards of ice that came from his movement skill.
Vaekra nimble feet tapped at the ground. It looked as though her toes alone carried more strength than an entire system of quad and hamstring might. Every shift caused her to glide several meters as though she was riding the wind.
The movement of her arms were no less graceful. She pulled toward the quiver on her back in a single fluid motion, not wasting the slightest hitch between the pluck of her arrows and that of her bowstring.
Sylas' telekinesis wrapped around his body. Even without <Cryobane Elevation> and his Scorpion Warlord armor, his Effective Speed was over 3000 when his legs and mind worked as one. In fact, with how powerful his telekinesis was now, it was a waste of his time to use Aether on a movement skill at all in normal circumstances.
He left a blur of jagged, zig zagging lines through the smog-filled forest of red foliage, but the distance between himself and Vaekra wasn't closing. As fast as he was, he had to cover too much distance between running toward her and dodging her arrows. At the same time, her Speed and Dexterity were both approaching 2000, and that didn't include the boosts her Flesh Runes were giving her.
However, Sylas didn't seem to notice the problem in the slightest.
He dodged behind a tree, his tail suddenly wrapping around its body.
An arrow whizzed by the location Vaekra thought he would exit from, only for his tail to flex and send him back toward the direction he had just come from.
'100.'
The number flashed in Sylas' head just as Vaekra's toes tapped the ground again.
He reached out a hand and violently ripped it back.
Vaekra felt a powerful telekinesis suddenly envelop her, violently tugging her toward Sylas.
Her reaction was fast, a burst of Will shattering Sylas' attempt. But despite that, her backward momentum had been stalled.
Knowing the situation had just changed, Vaekra stomped a heavy foot toward the ground, Runes lighting up her leg.
BANG!
A curtain of soil blocked out both of their direct lines of sights.
SHU! SHU! SHU!
Three arrows ripped through the curtain, leaving large, gaping holes in the rain of black and brown.
They curved through the air, converging onto Sylas' position.
There was a deep resolve that flashed in the depths of Sylas' mind.
He cast <Glassveil Shift> once again just as the arrows were about to rip through him.
The homing arrows lost their target and Sylas flashed forward ten meters, entering Vaekra's range.
Danger signs blared in Sylas' mind.
But he was already prepared. He knew that he would never get a one on one battle with this
woman.
Someone had to have called her here, and from the very start...
He was ready for that.
A roar echoed through the air and the Basilisk King appeared. Its head snapped up toward the air and took the immobilized Professor Fembroise into its mouth once again.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Explosions erupted across the Basilisk Kings body, but it only seemed to be annoyed by the process, whipping out a tail and sending figures hiding away in the shadows flying.
At the same moment, Sylas burst through what remained of the curtain of soil.
On the other side, Vaekra was charging up a powerful attack. Concentric circles of pulsing Aether gathered, expanding and contracting beneath her control.
It was clear that she expected Sylas to be delayed for longer. But without a choice, she could only unleash the attack ahead of time.
A burst of green light came from Sylas' eyes. His every movement felt magnified in his brain as his all-out sprint ground to a halt with a stomp of his foot.
His heel drove into the ground so heavily that the soft soil buried his foot into its density. The weight of his hips dropped and his torso tensed.
All of his former forward momentum was transferred perfectly to his fist, a pulsing might transferring from the base of his foot to the acceleration of his arm.
<Psychedelic Punch>.
Sylas' fist seemed to roar, a pair of golden, slit eyes appearing to his back.
BOOM!
A fist imprint and arrow met in the air, clashing for a moment that seemed to extend to
infinity before they both exploded.
Pain erupted up Sylas' arm, but Hibernation Halo pulsed with life.
He drove his other foot forward, ripping his sunken heel out of the ground and cutting right through the volatile ripple of Aether.
The ripples cut across his body, but much of it bounced off of his crystal bone.
BANG!
Vaekra hurriedly raised her bow to block, Runes pulsing across her body as she repelled Sylas' blow to make some more distance.
But the fist she thought was coming turned into a grab at the last moment. Sylas gripped the body of her bow and yanked.
Vaekra reacted swiftly, twisting and pulling back as she unleashed a vicious kick. She had already seen through Sylas' injured arm, and aimed high and powerfully for that very sake.
Sylas' moves, however, were even more fluid.
Rather than retreating or letting go, he took a step forward, rolling his shoulder toward
Vaekra, and with a pivot of his hips, he blocked the kick with his rear delts and swept a hooked foot toward the back of Vaekra's planted heel.