Chapter 354 The Masochist [Part 1]
The lady's single red eye narrowed as the black lance hurtled towards her.
In a display of superhuman reflexes, she whirled her spear in a dizzying arc, deflecting the projectile with a powerful strike.
However, not without sustaining powerful damage herself.
As the invisible cut force of black lance exploded, she was heavily propelled away, flying through the air uncontrolled like a deflated balloon, the air whooshing out of her as she flew back uncontrollably.
She landed with finesse, plunging her spear into the ground and using the friction to reduce her speed till she came to a halt.
The red flare in her eyes seemed to gleam brighter for a moment. Then from afar, she stretched her hand forward.
Northern narrowed his eyes.
'It's coming...'
Just after he said so in his mind, a panel appeared before his eyes.
[Do you want to Copy Talent: Erasure(B-Class) for 500 talent fragments]
'Bah! It's affordable, so why not'
[Congratulations, you have copied talent: Erasure(B-Class)]
Northern squinted his eyes.
'That's just it?'
He had expected to see something more because he thought this person would at least be a Sage rank or an Ascendant.
Caladhel was a Sage and so far so good, call him lazy, he'd rather fight Caladhel and beat his ass than fight the young lady here.
While he admired her level of intelligence, he rendered her too tough of an opponent to deal with.
At the same time, he was grateful for their meeting today.
However, he expected her to be more.
'She's not even a Savant!'
That meant she would at most be a Master. Seeing that the skill was fixed for five hundred talent fragments.
If she was any more, Northern wanted to believe that it would have cost more.
It didn't hurt but what the actual hell?!
A master is this strong?!!
What would happen to her should she become a Savant, a Sage... her strength would increase and so would her battle intelligence.
Northern stared at her for a couple of seconds and sighed melancholically.
Then he muttered to himself.
"It'd indeed be cruel to kill someone with so much potential."
If they met in the future, she was just going to be a catalyst to his growth again.
He fixed her a solemn look and said:
"My lady, it ends here."
Upon his speech, Northern activated his new ability which was not being affected by the lady's former activation of hers.
[You have used talent ability: Lock]
The lady suddenly trembled, her hand was still stretched but somehow frozen, like she could notice something wrong with her.
She looked at her hands, body shaking, and looked at Northern.
Who in the same instant, grinned.
"Gotchya..."
The moment he used her ability on her, her talent ability also got locked.
That is, the effect that they had on his had been erased.
Now, all of his talents abilities had returned and her Erasure talent was being kept locked for the time being.
Northern slowly walked towards her, saying:
"Today, now, I will show you the difference between the two of us."
He paused midway and looked at her, the next moment however, Northern disappeared.
The lady startled, staggering backwards, but Northern's voice reached her from behind.
"Where do you think you are going."
His hand was already on her back, he marked the area with precision, then applying Velocity Dash on only his hands...
They moved too fast for anyone to have known what happened... including us.
All that followed was the lady dark knight tumbling through the sand, rolling before coming to a slow stop.
She tried to stand up but Northern blitzed through the sand and kicked her at her side, throwing her into the air.
He appeared right above instantaneously and slammed another kick into her.
Before she landed on the ground, he was already on the ground, Gengar poised like he wanted to strike a golf ball.
As she fell, he smacked his blade on her with its flat surface causing her to yet fly away, but more diagonally this time.
She fell and stayed on all fours for a while, the darkness that shrouded her was glitching, revealing her normal figure slightly.
Blood drooled from her helmet, even though there was no demarcation for the mouth there.
After garnering her strength and grounding her teeth on the pain, the lady slowly got up.
But Northern was already walking towards her. His sword languidly swaying in one hand as he came closer.
"You moron, you were hiding your strength all the while."
Northern chuckled and made a serious face.
"Hiding? Me? No, you locked my talent abilities. I never hid anything from you."
The red light in her hand was blinking.
"Then how? How did you unseal it?"
"By copying your talent ability of course. While your ability could lock talent ability, it couldn't lock attribute. And that Black lance you deflected was actually an ability I have due to an attribute."
"Shut up! That's impossible. It's impossible for attributes to have abilities! Only talents do."
Northern shrugged proudly.
"I am the definition of impossible. Anyways, because I was sure you'd think Black Lance was a talent ability, I decided to use it on you, knowing very well you'd try to use your talent ability. Then I'd actually see you use it and copy it. I think I might have missed it the first time you used it."
The lady's legs were slightly trembling.
It made no sense what the young boy before her was saying.
But indeed her abilities were blocked. She had tried to use it multiple times but it was to no avail.
'This guy... can he actually copy abilities?'
The armor of darkness at this point began to fade off her body, returning to the ground beneath her feet.
"Are you sure though? Not having that armor to protect you means you are going to get seriously hurt," he said to her.
However, unlike what he'd expect, the woman's lips curled up.
That vile expression returned to her face as she grinned.
"Northern! It's Northern right! I love you!!! Please make me suffer?"
Northern felt his spit dry out.
'What?'