"Hahaha, it's hilarious. Did you really think you could defeat me? Hahaha..." Niya laughed madly while staring at a panting Lilia.
Lilia glared at Niya, but she couldn't deny the truth in her words. She was struggling to keep up with her opponent. Her breath was ragged, and her clothes were torn in places, revealing her smooth white skin.
Objectively speaking, she wasn't in terrible condition, but her state was far from optimal.
One could argue that Alex had miscalculated when he chose to let Lilia face Niya alone; after all, the latter was at level 5, while Lilia didn't even possess a level.
He had clearly overestimated the capabilities of his dear wife, though, one can hardly blame him for doing so.
Alex had many reasons to have a blind trust in Lilia when it came to fights and among those reasons, two prime over the others.
The first one was the fact that just a few hours prior now, he had witnessed her slaughtering level 4 monsters like they were mere lambs and a few weeks ago he had also seen her battling all the level 4 of the branch in a one-on-one fight.
What he had forgotten to take into account was that during those fights, Lilia's opponents had to restrain themselves to just fighting hand to hand; they didn't use their abilities. Meanwhile, there was no way Niya wouldn't do so.
The second reason Alex didn't doubt Lilia's battle power, however, was because of a certain memory—the memory of their first meeting.
Back then, Lilia still had some of her powers, and the overwhelming presence she had at that time had etched itself in his mind. That's why, despite the fact that she doesn't hold as much power as back then, Alex still has a very high opinion of Lilia regarding her strength. There was also the fact that he had been thoroughly beaten by her, weeks ago.
However, as mentioned earlier, he had overestimated her strength, and she was currently paying the price for it. Yet, Lilia wasn't blaming him; she also believed that she could take on Niya, but it seemed she had bitten off more than she could chew.
'More than I can chew, huh? I must have really fallen low if I consider someone like that as more than I can chew,' Lilia chuckled in a self-deprecating manner.
'Still, I can't disappoint my husband, now can I?' Lilia thought as she firmly gripped her sword.
Lilia took a deep breath and lunged at Niya, moving much faster than a normal person.
However, Niya easily noticed her swift movements.
Pointing a finger at Lilia, Niya shot a wind arrow at her.
A split second later, the arrow reached Lilia, but she skillfully dodged it and kept running toward Niya.
"Haha, let's see how many you can dodge before one hits you," Niya laughed maniacally as she shot arrow after arrow at Lilia.
However, none of the arrows hit Lilia. Her evasive maneuvers resembled a dance, a graceful display as she slipped away from each arrow.
Barely a second later after the rain of arrow started, Lilia stood in front of Niya, swinging her light sword.
However, Lilia was too slow compared to Niya.
She easily dodged the sword and delivered a quick kick to Lilia's stomach.
Sidestepping, Lilia skillfully evaded the attack, then swung her sword again at Niya's neck.
However, Lilia's sword found only empty air as Niya swiftly crouched to dodge it.
Sensing an incoming attack, Lilia swiftly retreated, and in the blink of an eye, a wind arrow shot towards the spot she had just vacated.
'I have to say, I'm quite lucky that her ability is only an Elemental Derivation of wind,' Lilia mused.
Abilities that were deemed as Elemental Derivatives are those powers linked with one element but don't allow the manipulation of such element.
In Niya's case, her ability allowed her to create wind arrows, but she couldn't control them after she had launched them because she didn't have the wind manipulation like Jonathan, for example.
Many people are like Niya and only have abilities that are Elemental Derivatives, for example, it's the same for Talia.
Talia had two abilities; one allowed her to control water, while the other permitted her to turn anything she touched into water. Her second ability was a derivative of water, meaning she couldn't normally control the water that emerged after transforming something. However, Talia was fortunate to possess a second ability that granted her the power to manipulate water. Thus, the issue of her derivative ability was resolved, but it wasn't the case for everyone with a derivative ability.
People like Niya didn't have an additional ability that granted them manipulation over their element, from which their derivative ability resulted.
However, it wasn't to say that those with a derivative ability were weak; no, in some cases, there were people born with a derivative ability that allowed them to do something that someone with the ability to manipulate the same element could never achieve throughout their whole lives.
In a sense, it all depended on luck. You could gain a derivative ability that was incredibly advantageous, or you could end up with one that wasn't as impressive.
In Niya's case, she had drawn the short end of the stick, since everyone with wind manipulation, regardless of their talent, could at least create an arrow made of wind.
For her, it was a curse, while for Lilia, it was a blessing. She was already struggling to battle it out with Niya currently; imagine if the girl could manipulate wind like Jonathan!
'Well, despite that she is still dangerous, so I need to be on guard,' Lilia thought with a serious expression on her face.
Gripping her sword tighter, Lilia lunged at Niya once again, but she instantly felt that something was strange when the usual rain of arrows wasn't there to greet her.
Wary, Lilia slowed down her pace a little but still charged at the petite woman.
When she was near Niya, Lilia's instincts screamed at her to retreat, which she did, but before she could do so, Niya, who had been motionless for a moment, lunged at her.
"Hmm?" Lilia's brow rose in surprise when she came eye to eye with Niya. It was because Niya's pupils had transformed into slits, while her nails had elongated to look like sharp claws.
Niya swiftly closed the gap with Lilia and wildly swung her claws at her.
With a practiced move, Lilia sidestepped and slashed at Niya's head, only for her sword to be blocked by Niya's arm that was covered in scales.
'Scales now?' Lilia took a step back and tried to create distance between herself and her enemy.
However, she had underestimated Niya's strength and agility.
Before Lilia could take a step backwards, Niya appeared before her and swung her claws at her once again.
Even caught off guard, Lilia swiftly raised her sword to counter Niya's claws.
Clang
A metallic clash echoed in the corners of the forest as Lilia's light sword collided with Niya's claws.
'Unbelievable,' Lilia's eyes widened in shock as small cracks formed along the blade of her sword.
Just as Lilia considered retreating to preserve her sword, Niya's claws shattered it, and her claws slashed at Lilia's chest.
'Not good!' Lilia quickly discarded her shattered sword, took a small step to her left, gripped Niya's right shoulder, and tossed her against the ground!
Crack
Niya's body forcefully collided with the ground, creating countless cracks.
Instead of taking advantage of the situation, Lilia swiftly retreated.
The moment she created enough distance from Niya, Lilia suddenly staggered backwards, her vision becoming blurry.
'Poison?' Lilia glanced down and noticed a purple liquid oozing from a slight wound on her upper chest.
'I must have been touched during the last attack,' she concluded.
Without hesitation, she retrieved a bottle emitting green smoke.
The green smoke held a potent antidote, enhanced by Alex's transformation, now in an even more effective form as vapor.
Lilia swiftly inhaled the smoke from the bottle, anticipating the magic of the antidote. However, even after several seconds, nothing changed. Her vision remained blurry, and she could feel her strength rapidly draining from her body.
A sudden and violent headache gripped Lilia, an intense pain that felt like her head was being crushed. Blood began oozing out of her nose and ears, her knees buckled, and soon, she fell on all fours, gasping for breath with each heavy pant.
Amidst the agony, Lilia heard a laughter resembling a serpent's hiss, "It seems that my poison is finally acting, kekeke."
If Lilia could see her opponent right now, she would witness that only the upper part of Niya's body was human, the lower part being a long serpentine tail.
"I don't know what that thing you inhaled was, but it certainly won't counter my poison, that I can assure you," Niya said, the words escaping her slithering tongue in a subtle, serpentine melody.
Niya turned around, gliding on her serpentine tail as she distanced herself from Lilia's kneeling figure. She eventually stopped and settled on the ground.
"I'm going to stay here as a spectator. Don't mind my presence; you can die peacefully. Well, I doubt it will be peaceful, but let's not get carried away with mere details," Niya hissed with a wicked smile on her face.
She rarely assumed that form because she despised her appearance. In the rare instances when she did however, she refrained from an immediate kill. Instead, she preferred to poison her opponent, watching them writhe on the ground before succumbing to death. All the while, she observed the scene, deriving sadistic pleasure from it.
Cough cough cough
As Niya observed with a sadistic smile plastered on her face, Lilia began coughing up blood. Simultaneously, her eyelids swelled, and black discolorations appeared under her eyes.
Lilia's mind was in turmoil, yet it wasn't because of the poison or even her impending death, but because of the reappearance of a certain hateful voice she would rather never hear from again.
"What a disgrace, the proud and mighty queen of battlefields, harbinger of death, Liliana Bloodheart, succumbing to mere poisoning."
****
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https://discord.com/invite/nWJTyACfyQ