novel bin Chapter 1195: A Clash of Titans (2)
Chapter 1195: A Clash of Titans (2)
Chapter 1195: A Clash of Titans (2)
The Vindicators pressed their advantage, trying to restrict Erik's movement but failing spectacularly. Yet it didn't mean they stopped trying, especially because, if they did, they would be killed.
Erik already had to constantly move to avoid the invisible hands released by Bill, but at the same time also had to resist the elementalist powers. He was using wind to make it harder for Erik to move.
That meant Erik had to spend significantly more stamina than usual, forcing his wings to beat with greater force and frequency to overcome the opposing wind currents.
Erik had two alternatives here, two that would drain his mana faster. Either he could make flying easier by using telekinesis or create wind of his own to contrast that of the Elementalist.
He chose the second. The higher number of neural links made mana consumption lower, despite not being as effective as the first was.
Besides, Erik had to prevent the flames from spreading toward the plane.
But Erik was reluctant to make a new one. The power was not a simple one, and having multiple versions of himself inside of his mind was not something without repercussions. The system said that clearly, he could lose himself in all those minds.
The elementalist unleashed another firestorm, its power magnified by the barrier master's enhancement.
"Then why don't you try, prick?" Bill was starting to get annoyed now.
Erik's plants caught several soldiers, and more experience rushed to him.
The barrier master's face contorted with effort as she struggled to maintain her protective shields, sweat beading on her forehead as Erik's attacks increased in both frequency and power. Her mana reserves were draining rapidly, and small cracks began appearing in her barriers whenever Erik's strikes landed.
Since she was the only Barrier Master there, even with her vast mana reserves, she struggled against Erik's assault amid battle. Unlike defending the walls-where maintaining a single powerful barrier sufficed here, she had to create multiple smaller ones to protect troops scattered throughout the battlefield.
This meant she had to spend a lot more mana and much more focus if she wanted to succeed, yet Erik wasn't making that easy for her.
No matter how much she tried to protect them, Erik's power seemed to be unstoppable, not because of their might, but because of how insidious they were.
Erik's plants were especially dangerous because they could sprout from any patch of ground, making them nearly impossible to predict. While his tendrils attacked from one direction, roots would suddenly burst through the concrete floor in another spot, catching soldiers off
guard.
The barrier master couldn't see underground, nor could she predict the future; protecting everyone just because of this was getting hard.
Besides, Erik compounded this threat by layering illusions over his actual attacks. The barrier master would see a surge of vegetation coming from the left, reinforcing her shields there, only to have the real assault emerge from below or behind. These deceptions forced her to spread her barriers thin, trying to cover all possible angles of attack, and that made the barriers fragile and weak.
Yet something unexpected and alarming rattled Erik to his core-a sight that made him freeze in place and momentarily lose focus on the surrounding battle.
A massive explosion rocked the hangar, sending shockwaves through the entire structure. Flames erupted simultaneously from multiple points across the building-near support beams, fuel lines, and critical junctions.
The fire moved fast and burned hotter than normal fire, showing that someone had used brain crystal powers to make it worse.
As this was happening, Bill's face changed-he stopped looking frustrated and instead smiled like someone whose plan had worked perfectly.
"SHIT! What did you do?" Erik asked. It was clear the plane had been destroyed; the plants
protecting it had been crushed. That was simply too much weight, and the fact that the blackguards kept destroying them didn't allow Erik to fortify the section well enough.
Bill's grin widened. "You are not the only one good at sneaking his way around!" The hangar's structure groaned as support beams warped under the intense heat. The barrier master's shields protected the remaining soldiers from the worst of it, while the elementalist used his wind to keep the flames at bay, and at the same time making them worse.
The plane was totally destroyed. Its body was broken in half, its wings were completely
ruined, and its engines had melted down. All that was left was a pile of burned, smoking metal pieces spread across the hangar floor, surrounded by metallic plants.
The flames were so hot that they started melting the metal beams holding up the hangar. The steel turned red hot and began to bend and twist.
The extreme heat melted everything in sight-both the metal parts of the destroyed plane and Erik's metal-transformed plants turned into rivers of molten metal flowing on the floor. Bill's grin said everything. Now two things were going to change. The first was that Erik could completely focus on the enemy rather than protecting the plane. The second was that the troops below were going to do the same with him.