Meanwhile, outside the BHA building, Lala had her hands full fighting the shadow elementalist.
When Luke and Lala first approached the building, the shadow elementalist immediately recognized them, as Lala made no effort to hide her face.
It was because of them. It was because of those two people in front of him that he suffered great punishment. He begged them to kill him, yet they threw him back to Joseph.
Even though Joseph trusted him to perform his duties without error as a subordinate, he hated him with every fiber of his being. The shadow elementalist was just that repulsive. He couldn't speak properly when talked to, nor could he fit into society. But when it came to covert missions, there was no better person for the job.
Of course, he couldn't help but act that way, as it was in his nature. Just like the succubus that Luke had killed, the shadow elementalist wasn't exactly a human either. But that's a whole other story.
In the past, Lala and Luke had had to combine both their efforts just to barely be able to capture him, yet now, Lala held her ground against him completely on her own.
While Luke had trained, she wasn't exactly sitting with her arms crossed. She thought about the shadow elementalist and Joseph and the abilities they'd shown them thus far. Luke had told her quite early in his training that he'd be the one to face Joseph, so all that was left for her was to come up with a plan against the shadow elementalist and anyone else who might show up.
They didn't even know if there'd be anyone guarding Joseph, but Lala prepared herself nevertheless for any unforeseen enemies.
And when the time came to knock on Joseph's door, only the shadow elementalist awaited. Lala was able to hold him down while Luke entered the BHA building without a hitch. He shot her a thumbs up and a grin before entering.
That was around twenty minutes ago at this point, and Lala still wasn't able to defeat the shadow elementalist. Even with all her planning, he proved to be an unpredictable foe.
They let him live the last time they had met, only severing one of his hands, but today would be different.
Today, Lala had the necessary determination to go through with what had to be done. Since he was Joseph's subordinate, his evil acts had to be too numerous to count.
As such, Lala would show him no mercy.
A pitch-black tip appeared from the shadow under Lala's feet. In the next instant, the tip grew larger as it exited through the shadow and straight toward Lala's neck.
Lala nimbly backstepped, hearing something slice through the empty air. As something slithered from the ground she stood on a moment ago, the tip was revealed to be the sharp end of a black scythe that extended for half a meter from the stump of the shadow elementalist's left hand.
He had numerous visible cuts across the dark skin of his face, and his pure black eyes threatened to explode from the large number of blood vessels that had popped inside of them.
"You, you, you, you, you! How dare you!? Stand still! Stand still and don't move! I need to make you feel the same pain, the same agony, the same torment, the same anguish, the same misery that I have suffered!!"
The shadow elementalist shouted and charged straight at Lala without even bothering to use the shadows to his advantage.
He swung wildly with his scythe, and Lala kept dodging or blocking his attacks, assisted by her water elemental. Each time an opportunity appeared, she made sure to at least cause a tiny bit of damage to her opponent.
Her plan was simple—she made this a battle of attrition. After all, she only had to buy time for Luke to take care of Joseph. Of course, if she could manage to, she would kill the shadow elementalist and go help Luke out.
By the pace at which this was going, the shadow elementalist would run out of mana way before her. She simply blocked, avoided, or otherwise stopped his attacks, taking care not to get injured. It proved to be difficult at the start, but as her enemy grew more and more irritated, his attacks proved to be more and more predictable as well.
But at that moment, a loud crackling noise and a flash of light exploded from inside the BHA building. The street shook from whatever was happening in there, and both Lala and the shadow elementalist got distracted by the sudden bright light, pausing their exchange of attacks for but a moment before continuing.
Inside the building…
The ball of thunder grew as beads of sweat flowed down Joseph's forehead. It grew large enough to cover almost the entire ceiling of the hall Luke and he stood in.
'I don't think that's gonna be enough to stop me, but…'
Luke wouldn't just wait for Joseph to complete an attack with such a long casting time.
Even more wind gathered around his legs, and he dashed to Joseph in less than a second, his sword already mid-swing.
Joseph didn't react, and just before Luke's sword cut through his neck, the ball of thunder disappeared without a sound.
Luke's wind-enhanced sword easily tore through Joseph's neck and separated his head clean off his shoulders. The head, now free from the constraints of his body, fell to the ground with a plop.
But weirdly, there was no blood, and the thunder surrounding his body still remained. The next moment, small strings of thunder emerged from inside Joseph's cut neck. They made their way to the head and attached themselves to it.
The head, dragged by the strings of thunder, found its way back on top of Joseph's shoulders, and in the next moment, the two separated parts became one once more. Even the line separating the two body parts was mended.
During this whole process, Luke just stood still with his mouth hung open.
"…Wasn't the big ball supposed to be launched at me? Where'd it go?"
Although Luke had already guessed the answer, he still played ignorant.
With a snort, Joseph adjusted his reattached head, making sure the soreness in his neck was gone.
"I told you, this is the part where I'll be sending you to hell, boy," Joseph said with a domineering tone of voice, as white thunder crackled stronger than ever around his body.
And for the first time in their fight, Luke got just a little nervous.
He jumped a few meters backward, making some distance between them.
'I didn't think I'd be fighting a Wolverine and Electro mash-up.'
Carefully observing Joseph, Luke was sure that there'd be a weakness or a limit to the overpowered ability he'd just used. It was just a matter of testing its limits.
Deciding he shouldn't hold back any longer, a strange blue glint shined in Luke's eyes as his lips curled into a wide smile.
"We'll see about that."
Luke's body grew completely surrounded by the wind, as if he were clad in armor. And through the gale, small red embers could be seen circulating around his body as well.
His sword shone in a color as red as lava as fire suddenly exploded from the hilt and surrounded the entirety of the blade.
Only the blue glint of Luke's eyes could now be seen through the gale armor.
In less than a quarter of a second, Luke dashed to Joseph and began slicing and dicing as fast as he could.
Joseph didn't even have any time to react because, to him, it seemed like Luke had suddenly teleported next to him. In less than five seconds, only little chunks of flesh were left. Even so, the cubes all emitted similar small strands of thunder and started connecting together like pieces of a puzzle. And again, not a drop of blood remained.
But Luke wouldn't just stand still. As soon as the chunks connected together, Luke once again cut them apart, over and over again.
'It's not doing anything… I'm just tiring myself instead.'
Luke tried a different approach. He surrounded multiple chunks of flesh with his wind elemental and crushed them into nothingness. To his surprise, thunder started crackling in the middle of the air, at the exact place he had crushed the pieces, and the thunder slowly morphed into identical chunks of flesh that were destroyed before attaching back together.
"Hmm… This is problematic."
Dissipating his armor and now cupping his chin, Luke waited for Joseph to completely regenerate.
It took less than a minute for all the pieces to reattach themselves, and the moment it was done, loud laughter resounded throughout the hall.
"Hahahaha! Luke, Luke, Luke! If you'd only gone all out from the start, you wouldn't be in this situation. But see, this is what being cocky gets you!"
'That shouldn't be the face of a man who just got butchered multiple times over. Does he not currently feel any pain? There also wasn't any blood. What's the trick here? Is it not a physical ability? If his soul is still intact, it would explain some things… Wait, his soul?'
And then, everything clicked.
"Hah, I see now. That's what it is," Luke said while shaking his head in disappointment. He was, of course, disappointed in himself.
'Ellios already drilled this into my head, and I already forgot it when it mattered the most…'
Joseph, on the other hand, eyed Luke suspiciously. He was sure that he couldn't have figured out his technique this fast. The only logical conclusion he came to was that Luke was bluffing.
"Yeah, keep talking, boy. That's the only thing you can do!"
Knowing that he couldn't hope to beat Luke in a fair fight, Joseph relied on his regeneration to tire Luke out and to either finish him when his concentration dropped or to make him retreat.
Killing him right here would obviously be better, but if he retreated, it wouldn't be problematic either. He'd just call in some of the favors that he had curried with his various contacts to hunt him down.
Luke still wasn't that powerful.
Joseph knew this for a fact. His ability dropped sharply with age, and he was pretty much subpar in his capabilities as an elementalist. He could hold his ground somewhat, especially around newbies, but what set him apart from the rest was the unique technique he had developed during his adventuring days. It was the very technique he was currently showing off to Luke. Some of his peers even compared it to a unique elemental. He used to be called Joseph the Immortal during his prime.
But a single scoff from Luke shattered Joseph's confidence.
With his background, he had a good read on people. That's why he knew that Luke's scoff wasn't just another bluff.
"Yeah, keep yapping. When I tear that shell off, you'll be done for," Luke said with a sneer.
Joseph's smile remained frozen on his face, but a cold chill made its way across his spine. He had a bad feeling.
Luke closed his eyes for a few seconds, but Joseph didn't dare move after what he just said.
Opening his eyes, a red glint had replaced the blue one from before. Something akin to black miasma started pouring out like smoke from his body.
The air around it seemed to grow stale, and the plants in the hall it touched withered and died.
Even though it wasn't anywhere close to touching him, Joseph was frozen as stiff as a statue. This time, his experience worked against him because he could instinctively tell.
In front of him, Death itself glared him down with contempt filling its gaze and threatened to crush him whole.