"Aaaaaaaa!"
Wilder released another battle cry before changing at Tuan with his remaining mana and all that he had. He had to admit that Tuan had pushed him to his limits. He was a lot tougher than he had initially thought him to be.
"Hahahaha! Tuan, I have to admit, you surprised me. You deserve to be in the Titus finals, kid. But your journey ends here."
Wilder opened his eyes that he had closed briefly and commented. Tuan could feel that something had happened to the barbarian when he opened his eyes. It was as if he had been given sufficient time to recharge himself.
*****************
Wilder had another barbarian class-specific spell he could use with the help of a class-intrinsic spell that acted on his body. For a brief period, he would be able to revitalize himself and use the environment mana as his own without having to channel it through his mana core.
The barbarian class had access to pretty weird spells. It also accommodated a lot of battle styles that ranged from raw to refined. But the class wasn't an exception when it came to having to deal with the aftereffects of one's actions.
The consequence of using this class-intrinsic spell was that he would be bedridden for a couple of days. His mana core could also be temporarily damaged by processing the environmental mana unfiltered.
Wilder's rage state would also be compromised until the residual unprocessed mana has gotten rid of. Pure mana in its surroundings would contain the will of the world. When he taps into the rage state while his unprocessed mana is still in his system, he might become a ranker who has lost their identity.
Wilder won't be able to make full use of his barbarian class even if he finds a way to heal himself using the help of potions. Normally, he wouldn't do something like this for Lily because they were only temporary allies.
But Lily had something Wilder needed. An earth-element armor artifact that allowed for enhanced healing after sustaining damage on any part of the wearer's body. It could pair well with the healing spell and his rage mod combo, making him forget about the self-harm tactics he used to get himself involved against his better judgment.
The artifact could also help him recover from the adverse effects of using the class-intrinsic spell. Lily knew that Wilder wouldn't try to save her under normal conditions. He would wait for Ketsu to be done with dealing with Kat before teaming up with him to take Tuan down. So she threw a bait at him knowing that he would bite. She only held on to the armor so she could get higher value for money from earth-element rankers anyway. But now, nothing was more important to her than staying in the Titus competition.
But both of them forgot about the possibility that Tuan might be using Lily as bait to make Wilder attack him. Often, being part of the colors prevents one from seeing the big picture.
Tuan allowed Wilder to approach him with patience and calm. On his face bloomed a cunning smile he had not previously shown to Lily's team. In that moment, Lily, who was closest to him, felt something was amiss. She tried to warn Wilder about it. But her neck was choked even harder than before as a result.
The next couple of seconds were kind of like a blur to Wilder and Lily. When he had approached Tuan, he had made sure that Katalina and Ketsu were far away from interfering in their duel. He didn't want the butcher to have any last-minute respite.
Yet, when he was just an arm's length away from Tuan, he found out that the butcher had disappeared along with Lily. Ketsu had appeared in their place with equally shocked expressions.
"Wilder….. Don't"
Ketsu cried and raised his flintlocks in front of him. He fired at the barbarian's thighs so that he would be stopped from taking any threatening steps toward him. But it was already too late.
Ketsu's sound bullet inflicted more damage to Wilder on top of the damage he was already suffering from. The round of bullets, however, could not put an end to the barbarian's momentum. Plus, a ranger like Ketsu wasn't proficient in close combat. He had poured all his efforts into maintaining his distance from Kat for the same reason.
Wilder could only divert his weapon's attack at the last moment in order to control the assault on his raid partner. And that's what he did. Ketsu was spared from having a life-threatening injury because of the guy he called muscle-brain keeping his muscles and brain in check.
Yet, the pain was unavoidable for both of them.
Boom!
"Fuck…. You fucking baldy…."
"Aaaaaaaaah… my brain...."
Ketsu and Wilder both cried loudly in unison. Wilder crashed onto the ground Ketsu stood on with his hands clutching his head. The muscles of his legs were affected by the sound-element mana invading his system too.
Ketsu was sent tens of meters away from the ground zero of the attack. They were both unaware that the butcher had placed a space element array even before Lily's team visited him.
The butcher had once seen the usefulness of a space element array in action when he was against Claho and his army buddies. She had used his space-element pendant artifact as the basis for creating a separate channel for mana to be supplied to him inside the array that was made to lock him from casting lightning spells.
The butcher had asked about the inner workings of the array Layla had used along with the way his space element pendant could be incorporated into it. Since the minimal damage it had sustained was rectified by Layla later on, it could be repurposed for space element arrays like the one he had used a few moments ago.
The butcher was yet to utilize the artifact the way it was designed to be utilized. But with his increasing studies and interest in the field of arrays along with his consultation with Layla and Alephee, he was able to draw an array that could pull off such a feat.
This was a contingency plan he had already told Kat about. She had led Ketsu at the right position for Tuan to switch places with him at the crucial time.
AN: The space-element array that is mentioned here is an altered version of the one created by Layla in chapter 403.
