Episode(114) Ghost Trace
SOVEREIGN OF DEATH~(114)
The battle blazed fiercely, the two figures flashing and disappearing in a blurry haze of light leaving only sparks where they had clashed.
I swung the sword through the air and it was met with a spin of the scythe by the ghost producing a brilliant bloom of sparks.
The force caused the rocks and walls nearby to shatter as the grin on my face deepened.
Even though I held back, fighting a monster with this much skill while using a weapon felt fresh, it was a new sensation and before anything else I just wanted to enjoy this battle.
But, the sight of the ghost monster gradually being forced back by each of his attacks left only one impression.
Overwhelming!
This guy, no this creature was simply too powerful and no matter who saw it the ghost was outclassed.
Although it seemed to have grown after absorbing the hero's essence after defeating him, the monster was simply no match.
So what if it defeated a hero, what did that amount to?
The guy's very laughter seemed to arrogantly proclaim that even a hero was beneath him and he could shred this ghost in an instant.
Jaw dropping!
Seriously, the spirit queen had her tiny mouth so wide open that it wouldn't be strange if a fly family moved in.
The reality shoved in her face was just that baffling and she could not come to terms.
Was this even truly reality?
Perhaps she was even still sealed away and was just having this nonsensical dream to waste away her boredom.
Shuu!
As if reality itself was mocking her, piece of rack blasted away by the shockwaves of the two colliding grazed passed her just short of completely pulverizing her.
Cold sweat instantly covered her brows and she was pale.
This, it was undoubtedly reality.
Looking at the shockwaves blasting everywhere, the disappearing and reappearing act as if by teleportation and the sparks fluttering she looked towards the sealing recalling that stupid fellow.
[Just…why did we lose again?]
It was a valid question for herself.
Why had they lost? A hero and a spirit queen, the combination should have been more than a match for one floaty monster and yet-
No, the answer itself was obvious.
[Were we that weak?]
In truth, it wasn't that they were weak but they were a terribly bad match up.
Although spirits, fairies and ghosts had the same body composition that made them immune to physical attacks they had one thing in common.
Magic attacks caused them damage.
For spirits, only attacks wielded by a spirit of an opposing elemental spirit or a spirit of the same element but higher rank could damage them.
At the same time they were somewhat immune to human attacks but if the level difference was vastly superior then even spirits would lose, the same for fairies and ghost.
Ghost type monsters however received less damage from normal magic and more damage from dark, holy and light attributes.
But they all still received damage from magic nonetheless.
The problem was this monster, to this day she had yet to figure out what type of ability it was.
But apart from the hex, it also was able to easily evade magic attacks and even those holy attributed items did no damage at all.
This was why she felt, no she knew that even without the hex they would still have lost but they might have put up a better fight without it.
So, they weren't weak, it was just a terrible match-up.
At the same time, the battle between the ghost and Nagisa became even fiercer.
The ghost constantly used its aerial advantage preventing me from taking the momentum.
Although my attacks forced it back and it barely had resistance when I struck, I could only make a few attacks before falling prey to gravity again.
Mid fall, the ghost would take advantage of my weakness and attack, however thanks to my high level of bodily control I could move freely even while free falling and genuinely had no weakness.
As for the disadvantage of aerial combat-
[Guess it's time to kick it up a notch]
Kicking off the ground, I launched myself into the air.
My body flew high and when I reached the peak of my acceleration I began to fall, however I stepped out a foot.
There were no footholds in the air, nothing to use to launch myself again and yet-
<
As if there was truly solid ground beneath my feet I began to dash through the air.
[Ghost Trace]
After playing around with water magic and condensing the moisture in the air into fine particles, I managed to created a foothold capable of keeping me airborne from it.
The only problem was that it took a lot of concentration to compress the water magic while still keeping the form stable enough to become a foothold in the air.
And I needed to constantly calculate and move the magical energy in sync with my body so that I could form a foothold where my next step would be.
This was difficult.
At this level of the dungeon, battles occurred within the span of a second.
Having to focus not only on magical control for body strengthening but also calculating the various future paths was indeed difficult even for Nagisa.
Ghost trace was not a technique he wanted to use for a long time.
Even with his control of magical power having to focus on the enemy and his own movements while predicting the future and correcting failed outcomes was taxing mentally.
It was not a technique Nagisa could teach anyone, unless that person had even a tenth of his level of magical control and focus a normal person would not be able to learn this footwork technique at all.
Even then, it might take a lifetime to learn it if their comprehension was not strong enough.
Asking someone to spend years until they were grey and withered just to learn this technique did not seem responsible at all.
It's a technique I'll need to optimize later so the conditions aren't so harsh, but let's leave that for later.
For now, using ghost trace I managed to bridge the gap formed by the aerial advantage.
We clashed. Realizing it no longer had the advantage, whether or not it thought that it had a chance in close combat the reaper didn't avoid the collision.
After meeting the sword and slightly being forced back, with a spin of the scythe the blade trailed a path under my chin heading straight for my neck.
My eyes trailed the blade and with quickly mental calculations I had already created a foothold to my side.
Kicking out, I flung my body upside down as the scythe tore through the cave walls.
That scythe must be trouble. With its weak strength I did not expect the scythe to be strong however the scythe had to be good material to be able to damage the cave walls.
As I twisted upside down, the reaper had already spun the scythe swinging it back towards my neck before I could dodge.
In a moment, I controlled my body and twisted kicking off the air to avoid the follow-up.
The quick evasion caused the scythe to lodge deep in the cave wall and the reaper struggled to pull it out.
Using that moment as I fell back, I swung a magic infused blade straight towards its direction.
The repaper seemed to panic as it tried to pull out its scythe in a hurry.
Ghost type monsters, as explained had a slight immunity to physical and magical attacks.
And yet, this person using only body enhancement type magic constantly caused a severe amount of damage.
The reaper was baffled at this reality, but it soon calm down as if it had a reliance.
With that calm, it realized it did not need to use strength to pull the scythe from the wall. It was already a high ranking weapon.
Just channeling a bit of mana to flow into the scythe shattered the wall scattering debris and dust everywhere.
Damn!
I could sense it had avoided the first attack and was charging straight at me.
Hurriedly composing myself, I creating a foothold behind me and stabilized my posture then launched myself into the air while sensing the ghost's presence.
Feeling the eerie ghostlike aura, I swung my blade without hesitation into the cloud of dust below.
Yet, the next moment, the reaper had already arrived before me its scythe blade ready to poke out an eye.
Clang!
Swinging his sword quickly, Nagisa blocked the attack then stepped away in a flash with ghost trace somersaulting through the air.