"Heart touching."
Alarms went off in Xeola's mind.
She would've retreated if it's anyone else but this bastard was attacking her like a hound, even going as far as to injure himself to keep her engaged.
So, she did something else. She crushed his heart and punched up.
The fist blasted through his bones, rising right out of his shoulder.
The sight was incredibly gory as blood spurted out like water out of a pipe and chunks of flesh rained. The sweet smell of the flowers was tainted by the heavy iron of blood.
"Come on, keep attacking!" Xeola gripped his bloodied shoulder with her arm running through his chest and yanked down hard. "You weak loser!"
Like a paper cutout being torn, Varian's arm, right from the shoulder socket was torn off.
The princess' beautiful dress was now drenched in blood. Her pretty face, completely red, looked like a piece of eerie art.
Varian staggered back, a surge of weakness taking over his body. Rather than his torn shoulder, it was the hostile aura seeped in his blood that pained him more.
But he didn't have the luxury to pick and choose.
Xeola stepped on his broken arm, crushing it to pieces and raised her sword at him.
Even though he appeared weak and pitiful, she wasn't much better.
The woman's body was riddled with injuries. Except the region above her neck which she guarded, there were bloodied fist depressions everywhere else.
Each of these injuries were glowing with a menacing dark reddish hue. The power of death filled her body, weakening her every second.
Her strength fell by at least a third. Unless she took a break, she wouldn't be getting to her peak anytime soon. Of course, they wouldn't let her.
"If he didn't lay claim to your life, I'd have killed you already." Xeola growled in anger.
'What? Really?'
Varian's eyes lit up and without a second thought, he jumped at her, his only arm aiming for her chin.
The next few minutes witnessed the most brutal and gory fight in Cradle so far.
Fingers were ripped apart. Arms were torn into two. Chunks and chunks of flesh flew into the air. A small pond of blood was created despite the land actively absorbing the liquid.
"Haah! Haa! Haa!"
Varian's body, looking like one of the lab models of flesh and bones until now, began to recover and started to resemble a human.
"You beast!"
Xeola hunched over and panted heavily. Color was drained from her face and one of her arm was ripped off. Unlike Varian, she couldn't recover it due to the nasty death power that kept interfering.
"Why do you struggle so much? Even if you kill me, you can't stop him. Your death is inevitable." The princess' voice was gone hoarse and weak, but the certainity in it was unquestionable.
Hearing her words, Sarah who was kneeling in the distance, coughing blood clenched her fists.
With Varian engaging that woman, she managed to land a few critical strikes, dealing great damage. But Xeola wasn't an idiot. She nearly killed Sarah twice.
If not for Enigma pushing beyond her limits, things might have been very different. Due to those few interferences, Enigma was the most exhausted among the three.
"You are such an actor…concealing your strength until the very end," Preparing herself for her death, Xeola bit her lip with resentment while she steadied her sword.
'I'm not. I only grew stronger during the battle…but still nowhere enough to defeat you in your peak.' Varian didn't say that out loud.
Thanks to sheer grit and some luck, they managed to win this battle. But killing her was another matter.
'We'll have to hurry.' Varian glanced at his wives and they blinked in acceptance.
Sarah jumped in front of Xeola, arm still trembling from the hostile aura attacking her body.
Varian and Enigma jumped. Straight at the formations doing their job on the fortune spirit.
"Wait! What the fuck are you doing?"
Xeola tried to stop but Sarah blocked her off.
But the two didn't reach the formations as two auras that ventured off into the distance intervened.
Robert and Samantha, both heavily injured and exhausted, looked at them with cold eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"If you touch the formations, we'll both attack you."
Varian's body moved seamlessly in the air, shielding Enigma behind his back and glaring at the two.
The couple could fight the two. But the best they could accomplish would be killing one. The survivor would end them.
And even in a miracluous case where they both survived, the old soul would have waken up.
'Fighting is only going to lead us to death. Another way. Another…' Varian's brain spun fast.
"If anyone of you supports me, I'll help you fight your enemy."
"…"
"…"
His intentions were clear but neither Samantha nor Robert could outright refuse.
"Samantha, you want an equal society, right? A utopia? Support me and I'll help you kill Robert. He's the one standing between you and your dream!" Varian said in a passionate voice.
Samantha's body trembled for a moment and she almost nodded.
Robert spat some blood and glared at him. "Are you fucking stupid? If everyone is equal, then where will the geniuses come from? Who will become the pillars of the kingdom? The race needs geniuses! The race needs a powerful sub-class to guard it against all dangers!
What the palarians need is not less inequality but more! I have come prepared and I'll do the job!
If you have any common sense, support me and kill this lunatic!"
Samantha's eyes burned with fury.
Robert declared his reasons for coming here during their fight.
One, killing Varian for personal reasons. Two, capturing Enigma. Three, changing the distribution of anima and making it more extreme, so that Palarians could have more geniuses, improving the race's chance of getting a divine ranker and more rank 9s.
Of course, other than the first, the goals were actually set by Martial Saint Kong.
"No, support me!"
"No! Me!"
The situation turned around in an instant.
