Chapter 290 - 290 Burnt To A Cinder
"I... Actually, I was in a group with two of them a while back, before I joined the family. I think they hid their blessings almost entirely in the first match, they are both warriors."
Listening to her words, and looking to the timer for the resting period, which was second away from reaching zero, the two males stared at each other, before speaking in unison, "Why didn"t you tell this sooner?!"
"Eh." She froze, not expecting the way they answered. "I only just recognized them because they looked at me, they look very different from before!" she said, almost crying.
"I see..." Noah fell back, taking a breath as to keep his reason proper. "So, what is their blessing?" he asked.
"The shorter one can use fire to heat his blade enough it can melt through armor. The other one uses water to create thin strings that are very sharp and attack the weak spots. I think that"s all they do. But it"s been a while, so maybe they improved."
Noah watched as the healer stumbled on her words. He could feel no ill intent from her behavior, but something felt odd, almost like she didn"t really know for sure what she was saying. "So, you weren"t with them for long, right?"
"Yeah, I only joined a fortress with their group, it was awful, so I never came back," she said, fiddling with her fingers.
"I see, and they probably only showed you the bare minimum, since the groups didn"t trust one another, isn"t that so?" Noah probed her, though he was already sure what her response would be.
"Yeah..." she sulked, "but I know they did that stuff. Also, they did nothing last time, making ours think they just had body improvement blessings!" She regained her vigor by the end of the sentence.
"I see..." Noah muttered, before raising his voice, "Michael, comehere for a second."
"Yeah, what is it?" Michael retorted back, strolling towrds them with just a bit of urgency.
"She knows some of those on the other side are hiding their blessings! We better be careful," Noah warned, though keeping his voice completelyy flat and emotionless.
"f.u.c.k!" Michael shook his head while thinking as he reached the three. "Change of plans everyone!"he called everyone"s attention once again. "They"re hiding their blessings. Be wary at all times and always fight with an advantage. Do not hesitate to retreat." he issued the orders with seriousness, and the group started shifting the weight on their feet exitedly, as some cracked their bones. "Get ready, it starts in—" Before he could finish, the official countdown began, as the loud voice of the host filled their ears.
"It"s about to begin! 7! 6! 5!"
Noah watched in awe as all of this happened, thinking on the best course of action. He knew what the winged woman would do this time around fairly well, so there wasn"t much merit other than doing things swiftly.
His mind went over all the people he"d seen during these opponents" previous fight, and the best way to deal with them in a second. And so he thought, "That"s the easiest way... but it doesn"t look like I can make all that much damage to her like this."
"f.u.c.k it!" he muttered in his breath, as he gathered his resolve to just win without caring that much about what was happening. "If it doesn"t work I"ll just try something else, and get rid of as many as possible in the process."
"1, Begin!" While immersed in thoughts, he had not noticed the few seconds pa.s.s by, but the end of the countdown was enough to get him back on his tracks and focus on the fight ahead of him. The arena walls raised in two paralel walls, creating a wide corridor with just a single bend, directing both teams straight to the center with absolutely no cover. "It"s almost like this was inteded from the beginning..." he thought, as he mulled about the possibility of this arena being somewhat staged, and how this setup favored the other team, who would come out as the heroes who won a difficult fight against impossible odds, on their debut on the arena, at that. Noah clicked his tongue, seeing how the rest of his group stared at him with forrowed brows as they blindly ran towards the fight. Except for four people. Those who understood the gravity of the situation. The bearded warrior, Noah, the scout and the healer. Those stood behind, reading the patterns of the enemy and checking where they would go next.
But before he could act. A whissling noise caught his attention as an arrow flew from above straight at his chest. "Fast, but good timing." Noah thought, as he jumped up with all his might, vanishing in a ball of flames before the arrow could hur him. The familiar sense of bliss washed him over as he tunneled his way through the h.e.l.lish dimension, only to quickly emerge back to the overworld without any joy in it, other than his goal to further help his sister. "Touchè," he thought, as he caugh the flying blessed from behind, as she turned upon feeling the heat of the flames on her back.
The little momentum helped Noah predict his path, and land almost on top of her before starting to fall. But as she turned, a sense of incoming danger warned him that she had an ace up her sleeve.
"Demon!" she yelled, as her feathers pointed up into blades and she threw her wings at him.
"The f.u.c.k?!" Noah thought, as he realized she was also one of the ones who hid her true blessing. Her arrows were not being moved by the wind or whatever, it was the very feathers of hers at the hem of the arrows that could move and help correct its trajectory. But what surprised him was not this, but the s.a.d.i.s.tic smile on her face as she turned with killing intent. "Maybe it"ll still be worth it."
As the blade-like feather approached him, Noah prepared himself to take a decent fall, as he was already accelerating downwards steadily. When the feathers were about to hit, he rejoiced on the face of surprise as he threw a wave of fire at her, like a breath from his hands, before vanishing in that fire itself, only to show up back at his side of the venue.
The screams of agony of the flying blessed were terrifying, even for those on Noah"s team. Noah himself quickly looked up, surprised, after landing on his feet from what felt like a couple meters" drop. As he looked up, he saw a ma.s.sive ball of fire making its way towards the ground, as a particular message showed up in front if him.
[Absorbing fragment of divinity.]
This alone was enough to make Noah rejoice, seeing he would gain some 0f the attibutes from this blessed. But this still didn"t sate his amazement at how well she burned. It was like someone had set fire to gasoline, much more than any other person he"d tried burning until this point. It was clear by now that this woman was the worst sinner he"d encountered so far, and he was already worried whether he should stop before she even stopped screaming just in case as to not let her die, until a message he was eager to receive for a while showed up, renewing his resolve to go all the way to the end. The message showed up as soon as the fireball hit the ground, ensuring Noah she was already dead, and there was no good stopping now.
[Lucifer Descendant"s level is high enough to absorb the power from this sinner, commencing absorption process.]
Noah"s blood was boiling. This woman was so bad of a monster that he"d burned to cinders in mere seconds. Aside from the enemy"s healer, n.o.body understood what had just taken place, and continued their fights without any care in the world.
Only those who had stayed back understood the gravity of the situation when the fireball started to dwindle and vanish, leaving behind just a small pile of ash.
Ignoring the message that showed up by him, Noah rushed through and ran towards the battle, using his blade to help the Scout by his side to thin out their enemies. There was only one person standing between the victory and Noah"s desperate curiosity to see what exactly he"d received as spoils from this amazing contend. Noah"s small blade crossed the sword on the quick-attacker"s hand, before the man teleported back a little, taking the time to understand the battlefield around him.
It was only then that Noah saw panic overtake the man, as he saw his team healer"s terrified face, a small pile of ashed to the corner of the arena, where the concrete was stained by fire, and could not find the flying blessed who was the mastermind and backbone of his team anywhere.
"Where are you?!" he yelled atop of his lungs, in a fit of anger that could shake the heavens, but had no answer.
And watching completely silently from where they"d crossed blades a second ago, a demon in sheep"s skin smirked devilishly at an invisible box of text that had appeared in front of his eyes and he just now had the time to take a peek.
[Large fragment of divinity absorbed. Mana +10, Agility +5, HP +5.]
And before he even had the time to digest how ma.s.sive those boosts were, another message showed up that blew away his highest expectations for what had just happened.
[Skill: a.s.set Weaponization was absorbed by the skills h.e.l.l Flames and Devil Form.]