While the worm was transforming, the bolts of lightning that Arthur had thrown earlier arrived. She tried her best to evade them, but they were too fast. She could only block them.
But she was also struggling to block the lightning bolts. Even if she smashed them, they would explode in her face. The worst outcome is if she couldn't smash them before they reached her and let them strike her body.
The direct hit from a lightning bolt was enough to kill her. If not for the worm wrapping around her, she would have died many times over. Even then, the explosion shook her to the core.
The worm sucked her blood and used the energy within it to strengthen itself. The surface of its body had hardened into a layer of chitin that would make ants and crabs blush with inferiority.
This change to the surface of the worm increased its defense and was what was responsible for saving her life. But the worm had also undergone more drastic changes.
The small hair on the surface of the worm had elongated into large appendages that resembled whiskers. The length of the red whiskers was so long that they could reach beyond the range of her spear. So the whiskers took over the job of blocking the lightning bolts before they reached her.
Because the red whiskers were numerous, they were able to block every lightning bolt that Arthur threw at her. This and the incredible defense of the surface of the body of the worm directly increased her ability to deal with his casual attacks and made his attacks incapable of harming her, much less killing her.
Arthur was surprised by this development. After all, she had become capable of easily blocking his attacks. This isn't something that someone from outside the Blood Skull sect should be capable of doing, even if they are at the peak of the fourth mortal coil.
The disciples of the Blood Skull sect have their armaments, which double their power compared to their peers. This is why it is normal that the cultivators outside of the Blood Skull sect should not be a match for them and why she is an outlier.
He could tell that the source of her newfound and unreasonable strength was the strange worm. She was still weak, but the worm was growing stronger and stronger.
So he frowned and asked her, "What is this strange creature?"
His question made her laugh. Then she said, "Do you like it? You should like it because this is what we researched in order to destroy the supremacy of the Blood Skull sect."
She patted the worm and said, "This is why I dared to come to fight you. This is an opportunity to test my proudest achievement, so how could I miss it?"
Then she said with confidence, "Prepare to meet your doom. Your death will serve as the signal to the downfall of the Blood Skull sect."
Arthur sneered and said, "Just some fake strength. Let's see how long it can last."
She frowned when she heard what he said. But she didn't refute him.
She only said, "We will see how long you can remain smug. Let me see how long you can last before you begin squealing for help. If I kill you before I reach my limit, then it is not fake strength."
As she said this, she rushed at Arthur. She was taking the initiative to kill him quickly. This was because Arthur was right. She was running out of time to kill him.
Arthur wasn't afraid of her, but he didn't underestimate her either. He refused to let her come close to him, so he used the Lightning Net spell. This created a domain of lightning around him that acted as his shield as well as an attack.
In her bid to get close to him, she made contact with the net of blue lightning. The net went to work frying her immediately.
In no time, there were numerous explosions as the whiskers of the strange worm tried to beat back the lightning net. But the struggles of the worm were in vain. It failed to destroy the lightning net.
He hadn't even touched her, yet she was beaten black and blue by the net of lightning. She still didn't die, though. She was mostly frustrated that she couldn't get to him. So Arthur decided to up the ante.
He decided to increase the pressure on her, so he released the Storm of Blades. He also unslung the violet lightning bow and began to use it to shoot arrows of lightning at all.
The arrows of lightning that he shot at her were faster and stronger than the bolts of lightning that he casually used to attack her earlier. Because of their speed, the worm couldn't stop them with its whiskers like before. And when the lightning bolts struck her, they struck with the force of a hammer.
Aside from the physical impact of the lightning bolts, there is also the shocking and burning damage that they created when they touched her. All of these were going on as the storm of blades tried to bypass her defenses to cut her soft, weak body.
Arthur had truly increased the pressure on her. The combination of the two artifacts put her in a sorry state. She was even in danger of dying in the next few seconds.
She was unwilling to die, so she released her other pets. One of them was a tortoise, while the other was a large white tiger with golden stripes. The last pet that she released was a giant black porcupine.
She held the tortoise in one hand and used it as a shield while the white tiger lunged at her. As for the porcupine, it served as ranged support.
Unfortunately for the white tiger, his lightning net was still intact, so it was quickly submerged by lightning as soon as it tried to get close to him.