*Bang*
The large head that was covered all over in shaggy hair rolled on the ground a few times.
Camila was right in her analysis of Absolute Darkness. Her timing and everything else was spot on. The only thing she couldn't quite figure out was its cooldown, but as Nasir had put it so succinctly before his head was forced to part ways with his body and tasked to fend for itself – a task which the copious amount of blood that was streaming out of the decapitated head would suggest it failed at – the cooldown didn't matter if they got their timing right. In truth, if Mane didn't have other elements he could use and was only a Darkness User, he may have been in some trouble from her analysis. Some trouble, but not enough to see him join the souls of the departed.
And that was because Camila and Nasir had no idea about Breaths. They didn't know that Mane didn't only have Absolute Darkness, but a Darkness Element Breath as well. This Breath was called The Dark Times.
Mane had used The Dark Times in an actual fight just once since he had comprehended it. He used it in a duel against his father to hide the effects of Takeover from his old man. Apart from that, he had never used it again, a decision that could be attributed to his choice to not rely on darkness so much.
The issue with The Dark Times was that its cloaking ability wasn't active. It was a passive effect of activating the skill. Once a person which in this case was Mane, activated The Dark Times, whichever skill they were using – as long as it wasn't of the darkness attribute – will have its true effects hidden.
However, the main purpose of The Dark Times was to augment darkness attributed skills, and this case, Absolute Darkness. When used with a darkness attributed skill, The Dark Times increased the skill's range. So when Mane activated The Dark Times, Absolute Darkness which had a time limit of just 2.5 seconds experienced an increase of a single second, moving its skill time limit of 2.5 seconds to 3.5 seconds. It seemed minute, but it was this one second that caught Camila and Nasir off guard and led to Nasir's death. However, that wasn't the only thing The Dark Times did.
The Dark Times not only augmented the range (time range) of a skill, but its capacity as well. And that meant it could increase the overall effectiveness of a darkness attributed skill. Absolute Darkness allowed Mane to phase through attacks and kill others with pretty much the very same mechanism. However, he couldn't do both at the same time. For the skill Absolute Darkness: Evasive Killing was divided into two right now.
Absolute Darkness was the first part of the skill. It caused Mane to be nothing but a shadow to his opponents, and that meant that they couldn't hit him even if they tried. It was this part of the skill that allowed him to phase through attacks
Evasive Killing was the second part. Evasive Killing allowed Mane to kill opponents by phasing through whichever body part he targeted, but destroying it in the process with little or no force. This was why it had the name it had.
This skill was amazing, and though Mane's darkness element comprehension was still in the Intermediate Stage, the glow, Absolute Darkness: Evasive Killing was a skill of the Mastery Level. Of course Mane could only use it at the Intermediate Level because of the command of his masters. If he could use it at the Mastery Level, its time limit would have increased. However, that wasn't the point. The point was, Mane couldn't activate both sides of the skill at the same time. He couldn't phase through an attack whilst simultaneously killing that person.
But The Dark Times made it so. It could combine both effects of the skill and allowed Mane to kill Nasir whilst evading the large Barbarian's strike. The drawback was that it drew out a large amount of Edict, and Mane had already lost about 40% of the energy he had absorbed through Devour. Also once it was used Mane couldn't use both The Dark Times and Absolute Darkness: Evasive Killing for an entire day.
The decapitated head of Nasir rolled to Camila's side and she was able to see its expression up close. The eyes of the head were largely tranquil, and a small smile was plastered onto its face. Even in his last moments, this person definitely didn't think he was about to die. His expression was too calm for that. He never thought that he would die so simply.
In that moment, time stood still. Camila watched dumbfounded as the head rolled around a few times. It was only after Nasir body joined its head and fell onto the ground as well, that she woke up from her daze.
*Thud*
Once that body fell, Mane seemed to come alive.
"Brimstone"
Golden yellow flames engulfed his figure as he deactivated the Glow and Breath of the dark element, and refocused his attention to the element that he loved to use in fights like these. With Night Mare in his right hand and Night's Kiss in his left, Mane charged at the confused Camila. The smile she wore from before was gone, and her eyes which were filled with the desire to avenge her people was largely extinguished. The shock that one death had brought her had her reeling. And Mane wasn't going to miss this opportunity. Why would he wait for his opponent to rediscover herself when he could strike now and gain the advantage?
"Prideful Sword: Dance of the Half-Moon"
"Bloodied Blade: Crazed Cut of the Blade King"
Night Mare and Night's Kiss released their respective battle cries as fire engulfed the blades and filled them with power. Although their cries weren't as ecstatic as they were when Mane resorted to using the darkness element, they were still power-filled. The two shone sharply with fire, and two thin sword lights were produced once Mane swung them towards Camila.
The fiery sword lights were powerful, and although they were as thin as a thread of fabric, the scorching heat they carried was a reminder of the threat they held. Camila's eyes crimson eyes grew a tad bit redder as she took her eyes of the dead body of Nasir. Her emotions were stirred, and the rage she felt subside when Mane killed her kin was rekindled. She couldn't feel the high temperature of the approaching flaming sword lights, for the fire that burned within her was far hotter and much more dangerous.
*Roar*
With an angry bestial roar, she span her axe before her like a windmill fan. The large weapon gathered the winds like a harvester gathering grain, and that small wind formed a small barrier between Camila and the sword lights.
*Bang*
Camila was pushed back a few meters once the beams smashed into her rapidly revolving axe. Mane's attacks were dispersed quite effortlessly, as the fire that could singe the brows of many from a couple of meters away disappeared. All the while, Camila had her eyes glued to Mane's figure. She growled like a hungry beast, her beauty nothing but an outwards appearance that failed to reflect the image within.
"She has changed," Mane grimly stated. He could feel Camila's aura gradually growing stronger. Even worse, the aura that seemed humanlike was slowly growing into the aura of a Battle Beast! No person was capable of this: perfectly embodying the aura of a beast. One could mimic it, but one will never get the full effects of perfectly copying the aura.
Beasts were naturally stronger than many other species in terms of battle strength. A beast at the 1st level of the Heaven Realm could handle a human at the 2nd level. And that was because they had sharper and more refined battle senses, in addition to their superior physical attributes. And that was why there were wielders who tried to incorporate the moves and abilities of beasts into their arsenal of moves. But to do that, one had to fully embody the aura of the beast. Now that Camila was revealing such an aura, Mane didn't need to be told that the fight was going to get much harder.
*ROAR*
With a deafening roar, the illusionary figure of a large Snake appeared behind Camila.
"What a powerful aura!" Hildegarde exclaimed. "Are you sure you would be okay?" she worriedly asked Mane. Although Camila was at the 9th stage of the Heaven Realmer before, she was merely at the entry level. But now, her aura had skyrocketed, and she was at the true peak of the Heaven Realm!
"I will be fine," Mane stated whilst keeping his eyes glued to Camila's figure. He couldn't afford to take his eyes off her and possibly lose her when she struck. Although Hildegarde couldn't see the large snake behind Camila, she could feel her aura change and was wary. Mane could see it because he was a Scholar, and that made him even wearier.
He couldn't attack her first because he was unsure of the kind of changes she was going through and he couldn't afford to make a mistake. All he could do was watch and analyse. But he didn't get to do that for long. For Camila's aura stopped growing when it reached the peak of the Heaven Realm, and she cast her dazed eyes onto Mane. In that moment Mane felt cold. He felt as though he was being stared at by a lifeless corpse with no emotions or desires apart from rage. And Camila's aura of life was the same. It was almost as if she was a living corpse!
"This is…" Mane felt some fear after realizing what had happened. And that was because he recognised this change. He had seen it before when he was back on Zandor. A masterful sword fighter he fought had merged with a rod user Abe was fighting to create and atrocity that was so difficult to kill. At the time he and Abe worked together to kill the beast. Mane fought the creature whilst Abe tried to locate the source of its immortality and strength. For it was only by destroying this source that it could be killed. But even that hadn't been enough, and they had come across this undead creature once again. Mane hoped he would never come across a beast like that. He hoped that he wouldn't have to go through so much torture to kill another creature. And that creature was even weaker than him by a large margin at the time. Yet he struggled against it. This time his opponent was different. Camila was very strong, and if it wasn't for his breakthrough back in the Crystal Monkey Cave, he would have lost to her once the fight started.
He didn't know how, but in some weird way, Camila had gone through something similar to Possession! And Mane knew that he was in serious trouble now.
As Mane dreaded the sudden turn of events, his senses failed to pick up a small fluctuation in space. With his senses fully focused on Camila and her strange transformation, he didn't see the small black dot that appeared about a hundred meters away. This black dot hovered several feet above the ground and watched the fight below.