Chapter 872 You Don't Know
The shield shattered, but it gave Lauren enough time to react. She oriented herself in the air, sending a kick flying at Sylas' head.
The timing was perfect.
Blades of fire were coming from all sides and the only path to escape was a leg wreathed in pink lightning, falling in an axe kick right toward his skull.
Sylas was cornered.
But he moved like he wasn't.
[Glassvolt Shift].
At some unknown time, the entire battlefield was surrounded by fluttering snow.
Arcane Storm.
Lauren's kick passed through nothing but air. Sparks of electricity danced, bouncing around the blades of fire and suddenly appearing before Jack.
A bolt of lightning collided against the ground, charring it through. Jack didn't even have the time to jump back before a fist slammed against his torso.
His inner armor trembled and then cracked. His bones gave way and his body shut down, his eyes bulging as spittle and blood flew from his mouth.
He keeled over right into a knee through the nose. His face flattened and his head rattled. In the end, he could hardly even keep control of the staff in his hands, it falling to his fingertips and nearly out of his hands entirely.
The exchange was so quick that it was only after Sylas slammed a foot down on the staff, burying it into the soil, that Manay finally reacted.
Being close by, Manay didn't send out another long-range attack. His sword became coated in vicious flames, lengthening just the slightest bit almost as though he too had gained a Class from the Giants.
His arms arched over his head and he swung down in a strike that contained not the slightest hole. It was like he had trained this swing millions of times, its very essence ingrained into the fibers of his muscles.
Unfortunately for him, that was precisely the sort of training martial art that Sylas was the best at dealing with now.
Sylas swapped from his Glassvolt Comprehension to his Mixed Martial Arts Comprehension seamlessly. His Dexterity reached a new level and he flexed out of the way of the strike with ease.
In one moment, he was comboing another attack at Jack, and in the next, he was flipping away.
He slammed a foot into the ground, his visualization picking up on Lauren recovering to his back.
Using the strength of his quad, he flipped into the air, arching out of the way of a whip and sword at the same time.
Lauren and Manay pincered Sylas from the front and back, whip and blade dancing as though to keep him entrapped.
But the coldness in Sylas' eyes was only growing deeper and deeper.
Then he found an opening.
BANG!
A hole was left in the ground as his legs and tail both propelled him forward. He closed the distance on Manay just as the latter finished a swing of his sword. He timed it perfectly, passing through the arch of flames just as the blade swept by.
The hole had been so small that Manay's eyes widened. His defenses had always been airtight, there had never been anyone who could find the space to attack him like this.
But Sylas had.
And because the timing was so perfect, Lauren wasn't in position to support.
A palm slammed right against Manay's chest as Sylas' free hand grabbed onto his sword-wielding wrist.
Manay was wrenched back and then forward in a single motion, his head suffering severe whiplash as he found himself flying off of his feet.
His eyes only had time to open wide before his inner armor shattered into a rain of ash, severe burns crawling across the skin before he collapsed in a heap of burnt bits in the distance.
BANG!
Jack's attack landed on air as Sylas closed in the distance on Lauren once again. He didn't even spare the light mage another look. He was too injured to do much of anything and everything was well within Sylas' control.
Lauren unleashed a roar, her whips snaking through the air like striking lightning and booming thunder. She seamlessly transitioned between the two, going all out.
To the side, the rest of the members of Legacy were trying to find a way to help, but it was simply impossible. The level the battle was at was simply beyond them, and with Lauren going all out like this, if any one of them got too close, they might die long before Sylas did.
And Sylas clearly knew this.
He struck out with a forearm and the whip lashed against his arm, wrapping around it tightly and binding him in place. Lauren didn't try to win a battle of strength with Sylas, simply sending out the second whip flying even faster than the first.
Suddenly, the trajectory of the second whip changed, going from aiming for Sylas' head to his knee.
However, in that instant, Sylas' tail moved again.
BANG!
The whip wrapped tightly around the tail and Lauren leapt into the air, driving two heels at Sylas' chest in a last-ditch effort.
Unfortunately, Sylas' tail pulsed.
Beads of silvery blue lightning overwhelmed the peels of pink. Like a poison spreading with a violent momentum, it crawled up Lauren's whip until it lashed out against her chest.
Lauren coughed up a mouthful of blood, her body convulsing as she felt her Will being corrupted. From the very start, her pink lightning was a unique quirk of her Will, and Sylas' own Will… happened to have a Poison Character.
Her telekinesis faltered and the strength of her whips plummeted considerably. Sylas' forearm pulled to one side, his tail pulling to the other.
Lauren had yet to realize her plight and didn't let go of her whips quickly enough. In that moment, her double heel kick spun in the air and she found herself looking at the ground while her feet flailed to the skies.
Sylas tugged again and a pair of red-gold wings appeared on his back.
In that instant, Lauren knew that it was over.
CHI. CHI. CHI.
BANG!
Lauren lost complete control of her body, her whip spinning around her until her heels were tied firmly to her back and she fell to the ground like a wrapped dumpling.
A choke came from her throat as Sylas stood above her, his foot pressed into her back as he pulled on the whips tightly wound around her neck.
Lauren's face went red, and she could feel her spine and windpipe collapsing beneath Sylas' strength.
However, just as she was about to experience the feeling of her head being ripped from her shoulders under the power of her own weapons, there was a flare of fire.
A burning pain ripped across Lauren's body, burning even into the delicate skin of her throat. In that moment, everything of value on her body was incinerated to ash and she ended up nearly in the same situation as Manay.
Sylas huffed out a breath, standing on Lauren's back with a foot, the intent in his eyes still blazing.
He reached down, pulling her up by her throat.
"Cassarae's necklace. Where is it?" he asked coldly.
Lauren coughed, a half-dead, burnt mess.
"You… don't know… what you're… doing…"
Sylas' hold on her neck tightened.
"Nosphaleen."