Chapter 257
Activating the appraisal the skill, Arthur only saw the name of the four beasts accompanied by a long row of question marks .
Copy of the Azure Dragon of the East???????
Copy of the White Tiger of the West?????????
Copy of the Black Turtle of the North????????
Copy of the Vermilion Bird of the South??????
What"s astonis.h.i.+ng is that they are mere copies yet they were so powerful and huge in size, just from the pressure he was feeling he knew that even Rozak could no naught against them . To win, fighting like he did against that Sovereign won"t do at all, he needs to go all-out from the beginning, aiming for a swift victory .
The more he drags the fight the worse it is for him as he didn"t know if they had Stamina or not, heck! Even if they had limited Stamina, they had the advantage in number, he couldn"t even think of a single advantage he had .
Hearing the growling of the turtle and the screeching of the bird, he knew they were about to engage, they won"t take turns or anything like that, they aim for destruction and chaos and from their point of view, it"s not someone like Arthur that"s going to stop them .
"Are you ready for the end, partner?"
Arthur"s words were directed to the dark blade vibrating in his hands, the blade emitted intense black flames that started affecting the air and corroding it . The intense vibration and the flames were a satisfactory answer for the smirking Arthur, he tightly held the blade with his right hand .
He had a large dark s.h.i.+eld on his back just in case as he knew his defense isn"t enough to resist their attack, especially the flames of the bird, which may affect him despite his immunity to fire .
There are different categories for the fire Attribute, just like there are ancient flames, there is the fire of the Vermillion bird, the phoenix flames and the golden flames of the three-legged golden crow .
The damage may be reduced but he"ll still be injured by these orange flames of the screeching beast, there was also the problematic dragon and the swift tiger .
Arthur took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and mumbled
"A heart bleeds, a man weeps, a soul burns, thence comes thy darkness to consume, yet even in the depths, the flames endures . "
His aura started growing and black flames enveloped the left side of his best from head to toe .
"Eternium!"
He looked way different than his usual appearance, with his left side burning with black flames and the right one having red flames enveloping it, creating a scary appearance .
Makaze was also divided into two sides, just like its master, it even emitted a weird grey fog . [Eternium] was a self-strengthening skill that drastically boosted his damage, whether he uses normal physical attacks or skills .
It is very practical, especially if he were to fight an enemy much stronger than him, however, such a frightening skill have horrifying side-effects .
Not only does it permanently injure Meridians, but it can also even cause one"s cultivation to go berserk if he isn"t able to control it . What it really does is augmenting the potential of the user, acc.u.mulating any future training that he would have done into this moment, thus, giving him unimaginable strength .
Using this skill made sure that Arthur won"t reach the G.o.d Realm any time soon, but that"s the least of his worries because if he doesn"t defeat those beasts, reaching G.o.d Realm would be a meaningless goal .
The first beast to engage was the Vermillion Bird, it flapped its long wings and flew straight at Arthur, just by moving it left a trail of flames that fell from the sky, similar to a fire tsunami .
It was a perfect chance for Arthur as his first target was none other than this bird, it had the deadliest damage, so he decided to get rid of it first and kill the turtle last since its defense is a huge problem and it"ll take a lot of time to penetrate it, much less kill it as it"ll not stand still while he attacks .
Fortunately, Arthur could use [Faster Than Death] to teleport to the side, dodging the bird, however, he did no such thing, instead, he rushed at the incoming bird, intending to meet it head-on .
The bird opened its beak and spat a humongous flame ball that was even bigger than the bird . Even Arthur was momentarily startled by the sudden appearance of this fireball, he didn"t daze for long as he grabbed the s.h.i.+eld that was on his back and protected himself .
At the same time, he used Makaze to slash at the big fireball, creating a huge dark arc that clashed with the fireball . Luckily, the slash was enough to create a small gap, enough for him to pa.s.s through and attack the incoming bird . He raised his s.h.i.+eld and defended against the flames all around him, the Dark Barrier that he put earlier was shattered instantly once it met with the flames, this proved how strong they were .
Using his new eyes, Arthur was able to see that the bird was going to spin around and wave its wing at him, aiming to send him flying away so he used [Faster Than Death] and teleported a hundred meters to the right, even after teleporting, he was still not out of the fireball .
He had his pain immunity on so he didn"t feel any pain but he could see his Health decreasing by a huge amount . His eyes glanced at the map to make sure the other beasts still didn"t move, only when he ascertained of that did he teleport again, finally appearing above the descending Vermillion Bird .
Without any hesitation, he swung Makaze down as he uttered in his mind
"[Heavenly Slash]!"
A concentrated amount of Dark Mana was unleashed from the dark blade, it transformed into a creepy looking dark skeletal head that was opening its mouth, ready to bite down at the back of the bird . The skeletal head was twenty meters in size and emitted a very ominous aura that even freaked out the Vermillion Bird, which screeched loudly did span its body, forcing Arthur"s attack to meet with its burning tail .
What happened after that left Arthur dumbfounded, it took him a whole second to fathom what just happened . [Heavenly Slash] was one of his three strongest sword-attack, even against the Sovereign, it would deal a lot of damage . Moreover, he gained Rozak"s stats and he was currently using [Eternium], so if such an attack were to hit a Sovereign, it would deal a considerable amount of damage yet when the dark skeletal head clashed with the bird"s tail, it simply dispersed immediately, it didn"t even last for a split second . As if meeting a metal wall, it was destroyed to easily, the bird didn"t even attack with its tail, it merely used it to block his attack yet it resulted in this .
Arthur didn"t remain dazed for long, for fear of being ambushed by one of them, he teleported two times, getting away from that there, however, just as he appeared three hundred meters away from the bird, he felt his head get really dizzy and before he could ascertain what just happened, a large white shadow appeared before him .
The problem with [Faster Than Death] is that it needs a bit of focus to be used, so this dizziness rendering him unable to teleport away . His instincts warned him repeatedly when the dizziness began, he subconsciously raised his s.h.i.+eld in defense and back away with great speed, unfortunately, he wasn"t fast enough as a big white shadow appeared in front of him .
Without even pondering about whether to use his skills or not, Arthur activated [Armageddon s.h.i.+eld Aura] and [Death"s Glory], reinforcing his s.h.i.+eld with death chains and increasing its efficiency . Despite the Dark-Star body strengthening technique creating a strong layer of defense above his skin, with the addition of the many pa.s.sives that are activated such as [Metal Body], [Earth Armor] and so on, the incoming attack seemed to have bypa.s.sed all of them .
It was just too strong compared to his meager defense and like a cannonball, Arthur was sent flying until he crashed into a tree, pulverizing it and creating a deep hole, where he laid there, bloodied and coughing blood .
The dark s.h.i.+eld wasn"t destroyed but it was cracked, many of his bones were broken and that blow took more than 30% of his Health Pool .
Just after a dozen of seconds, more than half of his Health was gone and his s.h.i.+eld was damaged, this showed the clear difference between four Divine Beasts and a lonely fighter with borrowed "power" .