"[Sun Obliterating Charge]!"
Her armored foot stomped the ground, and then Andrea's body accelerated, smashing against the reinforced undead like a golden meteor.
That undead could not react and had to meet with Andrea head-on.
A giant explosion occurred, blasting the undead flying into a terrible state. Andrea's halberd had cleaved it in half, and the impact's strength had broken most of its bones.
Right after her impact, Andrea was swarmed while Wu Rongyao sent an enhancing aura across his undead army. Andrea looked around and moved, her face filled with determination. 'One down, 799 to go.'
Andrea was not phased and unleashed her skills one after another.
Like a goddess of war, her Battle Intent and Perseverance intent worked in tandem, gradually increasing her strength as her combat skills shone as bright as her flames.
[Warring Sun Battle Art] skills flew one after another, allowing her to combine into an army-battling fighting style. With the occasional [Sun Molten Pillar] to control the angles, undead people were allowed to attack her, and [Sun Obliterating War Dance], Andrea's proficiency while smashing creatures increased severalfold.
Her large weapon seemed weightless as Andrea swung it at every undead that came her way.
A step forward was accompanied by a large swing that split two of them in half. Using [Searing Solar Prominence] and [Solar Domain], massive arcs of molten material that were then superheated burst from her surroundings, as if the undead were not walking on land but on the Sun's surface.
One fell, then another, then another. Andrea needed to take time to defend against their barrage, but slowly and steadily, she continued dwindling down the numbers.
After destroying around 80 of them, they suddenly changed tactics, as five of them threw themselves at Andrea without caring about life and death. Andrea snorted and used [Sun Obliterating Charge] again, pushing through into the undead army while blasting off those who came in her way.
Then, to clear some space, Andrea used her entire body to release a powerful [Sun Burning Palm] forward, summoning a massive wave of magma that drowned around twenty undead under a searing magma bath.
However, Andrea was not satisfied. 'Faster. I need to go faster!'
Her weapon moved as if it had a mind of its own, and her feet constantly moved her around the battlefield and in between the enemy ranks. [Sun Chasing Steps] allowed her to move with precision and swiftness while her War Dance guided her body to the rhythm of slaughter.
While she was thrashing the army left and right, Andrea was not making much progress toward her objective. Her current situation was similar to the one Kali's enemies often found themselves in.
She was constantly killing undead, but from time to time, Andrea could see a few of them being rebuilt by Wu Rongyao's energy, slowing the pace at which she destroyed the entire thing.
While Andrea had experienced fighting Kali a few times, her face became solemn while feeling the sensation of being suffocated.
To motivate herself, she shouted. "I'm not done yet!"
Wu Rongyao looked from afar, and his stiff lips arched a bit. 'Not bad.'
Meanwhile, Andrea rushed forward, ignoring everything but the creatures before herself, and she began spinning and hitting everything with her large halberd.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The warrior woman piercing through the army while tanking every strike like an absolute juggernaut depicted the imagery of an undefeated flaming general.
Her skills constantly increased the inferno building around her, and her every strike was calculated to allow her to advance. 'Forward, forward, forward!'
Wu Rongyao was surprised to see that the attacks on Andrea didn't wholly penetrate her defenses. 'Very sturdy. But... even the attacks that had pierced once then stopped piercing even if they landed on the same spot. What's happening?'
What the Corpse King didn't know was that Andrea's body had various layers of defense. Her outermost layer consisted of a solid energy defense barrier created by the pure heat radiating from her. While it was not powerful, it would ensure that low-level attacks didn't even touch her.
In short, our heroic woman was able to just walk across low-level battlefields and suffer no damage with just this outermost layer.
Then, Andrea had the [Obliterating Chromosphere], a layer of thick magma covering her entire body, making her look like a monster made of pure molten material.
Additionally, a cape made similarly of molten substances added to her overall defense, making her back not a weak point but her most armored part.
Below the layer of pure molten material, Andrea's quasi-transcendent armor stood like a solid wall. Most attacks that managed to cross her outer layers were instantly blocked by it.
Moreover, as a high-level item, it had regenerative properties that were activated by consuming heat. So, even if an attack managed to pierce the armor's defense as well, hitting in the same spot would be met with the renewed armor instead of Andrea's body.
Quasi-transcendent items were really strong, but to bring out all the strength of an item, one also needed to have enough cultivation level, or bringing out an equipment's strength would not be possible.
Mirrory was a great example, Angel was not even able to bring out a part of her real body, making her mostly useless for the current Angel other than the weapon spirit helping her.
Of course, Mirrory being able to help Angel was an advantage any cultivator would want, and hence, having high-level equipment was not completely useless, but you understand where I'm going with this.
Speaking of Andrea's defense, the layers mentioned were only the physical ones, as Andrea had the [Sun Obliterating Armament] skill, which further strengthened her defensive and offensive abilities.
When you add skills like her [Sun Obliterating War Dance], and the escalating strength her intents and [Solar Body] gave her, you would understand why Andrea was such a hard nut to crack.
So, as the weapons of the undead landed on her while Andrea charged forward, the worst injuries were some deep cuts of lucky strikes that managed to pierce all her defenses.
Still, those places were later reinforced by energy, deflecting other attacks that landed on the supposed weak point.
Wu Rongyao naturally didn't stand still in one place and moved together with her army, creating distance between them as Andrea shortened it.
This chasing game went on for around ten more minutes, making Andrea begin to breathe in roughly. Her magma armor was torn in a few places, and the number of Undead was still at around 300. Her body under her armor was marred with cuts, and blood stained her skin. But if Wu Rongyao had been able to see below her helmet, he would've seen Andrea's eyes constantly monitoring his movements.
Nevertheless, as time went on, Andrea's momentum and strength constantly increased.
While at first, one or two undead would be blasted flying by her swings, now four or five would become soaring shattered charred bones and flesh that rained on others.
Moreover, Wo Rongyao realized that the heat of the battlefield had reached a high enough point that some of the weaker undead were starting to get significantly affected. Even he was feeling the heat enough to need to protect himself with death energy consciously.
He couldn't help but praise again in his mind. 'Amazing skill set. If we were on the same level, I probably would be unable to win.'
Of course, admiring was one thing. Not acting against it was another. 'Let's finish this quickly. Wu Cang Ba was clever in that regard; instead of giving time to his opponent, he chose a swift battle result. These girls can become dangerous if given enough time.'
And so, for the first time, Wo Rongyao stepped forward toward Andrea. Below Andrea's helmet, her light green eyes flashed.
"[Corpse King Royal Aura]."
BOOM!
Like a black curtain swallowing the day, the temperature plummeted, and all the undead roared as strength filled their weakened bodies.
But Wu Rongyao felt strange; the effects were much stronger than he had anticipated. 'Hm? All the heat is gone? Shouldn't a clash between both auras have happened?'
Suddenly, a signal of danger hit his soul as the middle of the blackened arena was illuminated with radiating golden light.
The presence of this miniature Sun felt as if his opponent was telling him that while the day was swallowed, the Sun still appeared, shining brighter than ever before.
BOOOM!
A golden meteor shot through the undead army, completely piercing through with unstoppable force. Moreover, as Andrea exited the mob of undead, she jumped and roared. "[SOLAR DESCENT]!"
A few moments earlier, Andrea had been observing Wu Rongyao. She knew this was not his entire strength because it felt lacking compared to the previous undead.
When the massive aura of death inundated the entire place, Andrea's expression didn't change. She had long since expected that the summoner would have something like this hiding up their sleeves.
As soon as he covered everything with his presence, Andrea used her [Sun Devourer] skill to swallow all the heat energy around her and increase her strength monstrously for a brief time.
Her body, glowing like a miniature Sun, was able to bulldoze through the army, and she used her gathered strength to jump at him, becoming a golden streak that divided the darkness that had just descended.
Wu Rongyao's lips arched wildly, and he waved his staff as a welcome. "GOOD! [Corpse King's Defense]!"
BOOM!
A massive explosion of sun energies created a fireball that consumed everything. The enormous fireball expanded outward and dissolved the closest undead while also damaging some further away, killing around 50 more undead and damaging another 60.
After the effects passed, you could see Andrea in the middle of a small crater, breathing heavily while looking at the broken wall made out of skeletons in front of herself.
Beyond the wall, Wu Rongyao stood with a few burns but mostly unaffected. The wounds looked grievous, but it was not something that could help Andrea reverse the current battle situation.
Of course, Andrea didn't surrender. She would fight until defeat, as that was her character and base as a person. Even if you can't do it, try! You will probably be met with failure, but if not? You would've completed something you previously deemed as impossible.
Wu Rongyao immediately cast a few offensive spells, sending crescents and orbs of Death energy at Andrea. And while he kept her busy, the undead army arrived while stepping on the seriously heated-up material.
The following fight was Andrea struggling to continue fighting as Wu Rongyao used all his means to corner and defeat Andrea. Battle Intent and Perseverance Intent went into overdrive as she fought, fought, and fought again.
Of course, escalating intents had the advantage of making you grow in battle. However, if one would say their disadvantage, it was them consuming more and more energy as they gained that strength that shouldn't belong to them.
Finally, 15 minutes later, Wu Rongyao managed to use a combination with his summons and cornered Andrea enough to approach her at a melee distance and touch her forehead with the staff.
Andrea stopped, and every creature present also did so. With a tired smile under her helmet, Andrea chuckled. "In the end, I could only land one strike, huh? Hahaha, it's my loss, senior."
Wu Rongyao grinned. "Well fought, junior. You've gained my admiration."
The judge appeared and shouted. "Winner, Wu Rongyao!"