Chapter 637: Challenges Daimon & Nethereal sisters, Jazmine’s version (part 26)
As both reality and rocks hit Erika on the face, the enemy queen who had been smacked into the ground, exploded in battle aura to then shout.
"Enough you bitch!", the enemy queen blasted away everything within the vicinity with her release of battle aura, which didn't affect Jasmine at all since she had flashed back to her previous position.
Erika whose breathing was ragged due to anger, felt something warm dripping of her chin, she touched her face with her right hand only to see the traces of blood that stained her palm… her nose was bleeding.
'She made me bleed by just smacking me against the ground, how!!!', she cursed in her heart.
Jasmine didn't directly attack her, unlike when she punched a hole through the double layered armor that protected her stomach, she simply pushed her against the ground, the enemy queen was confident that her body combined with her battle aura armor was tougher than the rock ground of the battlefield.
And yet she was bleeding due to that, it was outrageous, not to mention that the light princess had a mocking smile on her pretty face as she looked at the confusion on Erika's face.
"What's the matter, don't tell me you have never bled when fighting someone before?", asked Jasmine which made the enemy queen see red.
That's not exactly the case, she has found a couple of troublesome enemies during her life serving the Balax Lord, so it's not like she has never been wounded, but it's the first time she has had her face wounded and though Erika isn't fixated in appearances since she follows the beliefs of the Balax army where is strength is the golden rule, she was still enraged due to it.
"Boooom!", the enemy queen's body exploded in both dark brown and orange battle aura, creating a giant pillar of light that reached the sky for a split of a second before it was all absorbed back into her body.
"Earth Special Corps, Captain!", first the dark brown battle aura as well as the earth part of the double layered armor Erika was wearing, integrated into her skin, resulting in a dark brown pattern appearing all over her body.
"Fire Special Corps, Captain!", then the fire battle aura as well as the orange armor, followed the previous and sank into Erika's body, making an orange pattern to bloom on her body.
The two patterns didn't overlap but actually got engraved side to side in harmony, this was the difference between Erika and the other members of the special corps, she was an "exception" who could use two of these martial arts to enter this special state, not to mention that both of them are captain level ones.
The enemy queen then extended her right hand and her halberd which was flown away earlier, actually flashed back to her, perfectly landing on her hand, it was Will Manipulation, and it wasn't obtained thanks to the power of the Balax Lord through a medal, but was a side effect of she entering this state.
The first thing Erika did was manifest a second halberd using her battle aura, apparently, she was a dual wielder, which would explain why the general pawn used two halberds, it was her way to fight alongside the representation of the Balax Lord.
"Battleground Heavy Charge", next, Erika's image blurred, the ground below her exploded but by the time the sound could be heard, she had already appeared in front of Jasmine who welcomed the halberd's attack coming from the right, head on with the heavenly spear enveloping her staff.
"Clang!", both magic weapons fiercely collided, producing sparks and the sound of metals clashing against each other, surprisingly the halberd which was bested by Jasmine's heavenly spear seemed to have gotten stronger, enough to not be in any disadvantage against the white light spear.
And that was bad, because the enemy queen who was naturally physically stronger than the light princess, then could push Jasmine backwards after the initial stalemate, but that wasn't all.
With a triumphant smile on her face, Erika swung her second halberd at Jasmine aiming for her left side, only for the light princess to answer in kind by extending her left hand as if to block the enemy queen's halberd with her palm, which made Erika snort.
'Humph, let's see the face you'll put when I chop your hand off!', she thought, only for her halberd to be suddenly blocked by "something".
"Clang!", Erika's pupils contracted like needles, at the sight of a great light sword that had appeared on Jasmine's left hand, just in time to block her battle aura halberd, it was the heavenly sword, which had made its return into the fight.
Seeing the disgusted and shocked expression on the enemy queen's face, Jasmine smiled as she said.
"Why the wary expression, weren't you mocking it earlier?".
"Don't get too carried away, so what if you can create a sword, you aren't a swordsman so in your hands it's nothing but a dangerous toy!", exclaimed Erika which made a certain crazy girl at the resting area, giggle.
"Looks like in someone's little world, the winged swordsman pawn was doing all the work by himself~", playfully said Sarah, which made Reyne and Cassy raise an eyebrow not understanding what she meant, at least until the next second when the light princess rotated her left hand using the heavenly sword to force Erika's battle aura halberd aside, before she slashed the white great sword at the enemy queen's side.
"Gah!", Erika who was taken by surprise, managed to move to the side avoiding most of the slash, but the edge of the heavenly sword still left a slight cut on her body, it was shallow yes, the problem is that it caused the enemy queen excruciating pain.
Normally, only recently converted nethereals or those of low standing are extremely weak to light, this side effect diminishes the higher in the ladder we go for nethereals, especially when their nether isn't of darkness base.
So under normal circumstances, Erika shouldn't have this kind of reaction just for being scratched by light, in fact earlier when she was punched by Jasmine this didn't happen, but apparently with every second that passed, the light princess's nether went deeper into the extreme positive side of the spectrum, to the point that Erika a queen piece and the left hand of the Balax Lord was being affected as if she was a mere low birth nethereal.
But even so, that wasn't what outraged the enemy queen the most, but the way how Jasmine opened a gap in her defenses by deviating her halberd earlier, that wasn't something that she should have been able to pull off, as she isn't a swordsman.
"Damn it!", roaring to hide the burning pain on her side, Erika charged at Jasmine, using her left halberd to thrust this time, only for it to be met with the light princess's heavenly sword blocking with its flat side.
"Clang!", the two energy weapons clashed, producing wisps of white, brown and orange nether as they staled each other, the enemy queen tried to push Jasmine backwards, but she was met with an incredible resistance, which reminded her of the fact that Jasmine's nether's concept is protection, meaning that she will always be stronger when it comes to defending.
"Battleground Mountain Cleave!", as angered as Erika felt over having her attack blocked with a sword by a support type mage, she injected battle aura into the halberd on her right hand to then slash with it.
"Humph!", the light princess softly snorted, the image of a silver spear manifested behind of her as she thrusted the heavenly spear at the incoming halberd's slash.
"Booom!", let's not forget that in this state, Erika's normal attacks have the base power of a martial art, so when she uses a martial art in this state, the result will be many times stronger than normal.
As a proof of it, both Jasmine and Erika were engulfed in the energy explosion caused by their attacks colliding, turning into a white, brown and orange cocoon that then expanded while the three types of nether fought for dominance.
"Crack!", the energies couldn't determine a winner in a such a short period of time and the nether cocoon lost the temporal stability it had, causing it to crack and turn into countless wisps of white, brown and orange nether that dispersed in every direction, raining down destruction all over the place.
As for the result between Jasmine's magic weapon and Erika's magic weapon, it was a tie and that was a problem for the enemy queen, because she is a combatant and even by using a martial art, she was unable to gain the upper hand against the light princess.
'Humph, she must be overusing her nether to nullify the impact of my attacks, just to use that damn annoying sword as if she was a swordsman, in that case…', thought Erika to then flash at Jasmine.
"Let's see how long you can keep that up, Battleground Flame Thrust!", this time it was the halberd on her left hand the one with which she used a martial art, the thing exploded in fire battle aura which was then shot at the light princess at point blank, the idea was to force her to use more and more nether to then crush her once an opportunity appeared.
However, forget about being worries, Jasmine was smiling as the image of a silver sword manifested behind of her, what followed was the light princess slashing the heavenly sword in diagonal.
"Booom!", a white half moon wave of light nether was released from the heavenly sword, which instantly cut through the enemy queen's martial art to then reach Erika since she had chosen to attack at a really close distance, so before she could react her body was engulfed by the slashing light released by the light princess.
"Aghhh!", it was only for a second, but that was enough to force a pained scream out of the enemy queen who felt as if her whole body was about to explode in flames, before she forcefully released a whole bunch of battle aura to break away from the attack and appear a few dozens of meters away.
Erika whose hands were shaking as she saw the literal smoke coming out of body due to the burnt patches of skin that were the result of the previous attack, roared like a wounded beast.
"What kind of trick is this, even if that ridiculous sword is insanely strong there is no way you could match up with my halberd techniques as a damn support type mage!!!".
After her initial rage fit, a "realization" hit her like a bolt out of the blue, the heavenly sword was the representation of the masked guy, for the enemy.
"It's that masked bastard's doing again right!", she said as she accusatively pointed at Jasmine who chuckled in response.
"Well, for a change you got something right this time", she said, which made a mocking smile appear on Erika's face, since the enemy was receiving active support, which meant that she had the upper hand the whole time but wasn't being able to overpower the enemy because someone was interfering.
Unfortunately, her little imaginary scenario broke down when the light princess casually added.
"It's thanks to the fact that to create the "Heavenly Sword" I needed inspiration and knowledge about someone who uses a sword and on whom I have used enough spells to… know their body's composition", the words of the light princess turned into a mumble by the end of her sentence but how could Daimon whose senses are incredibly sharp not hear it.
'Why is she blushing, it's not like her mana had scanned anything else than the way how my mana flows through my arms when I'm using Disaster…', amusingly thought Daimon.
What he didn't know is that using that as an excuse, the light princess some times took a peek at Daimon's perfectly chiseled upper body, and that memory just came back to Jasmine in the middle of her sentence, making her pretty face redden on the spot.
Anyway, back to the battlefield, after her little heart had skipped a beat due to the previous, Jasmine's expression took a 180° turn as she disdainfully added.
"The rest is pretty simple, even if I am not a sword user, nothing prevented me from learning the basics that I needed for my spell, it just so happens that the basics of Daimon's swordsmanship are enough to rival your halberd technique combined with your martial arts".
"What did you say!", Erika's eyes became bloodshot on the spot, if what the enemy said was right, then a support mage that only learned the theory behind "thrust", "slash" and "parry" the basic three components of swordsmanship was defeating her who is the most talented polearm weapon user in the Balax army.
"Well, it is also true that the heavenly sword is making up for my lack in terms of experience and strength, I created it to be an overwhelmingly strong enhancing spell after all~", happily said the light princess.
Jasmine wasn't lying, she is nowhere near an expert in swordsmanship, however the heavenly sword is strong enough to fill in the gap, which is why it had such a high cost in terms of the mana required to use it, in comparison since she is skilled in terms of spear techniques and so the heavenly spear used way less mana to be casted.
Of course, Erika refused to believe that the light princess was her equal in terms of combat without any active external support and for a second, she gazed at the remaining medals she had on herself, only to see the disdain on Jasmine's eyes as she glared at her, making the enemy queen grit her teeth.
"I'm sick of you, Blazing Meteor Fall!", the enemy queen exploded in both brown and orange battle aura to then turn into a stream that actually soared into the sky, the idea was clear she was going to gain momentum by falling from a high height to crush Jasmine in a single go.
Or at least that was the idea until the light nether protecting Jasmine's back extended until it took a familiar, the light princess had a beautiful pair of pure white nether wings sprouting out of her back, but that wasn't all, the image of a silver pair of wings appeared behind of her, before Jasmine's feet stopped touching the ground.
The light princess looked marveled as she soared into the sky, it was understandable since this was the first time she does this, after all the light wings that were now helping her float and slow down her fall were created based on Leslie's fire wings.
Speaking of which, the fire crane princess couldn't help but pout at the sight of Jasmine's wings, it was weird for her to see someone flying in the way she and her sisters do, though it was obvious that Jasmine isn't as skilled as them on it, but it was more than enough to take let alone Erika but even all the ones observing the fight, by surprise, including a certain angel girl living in a crystal white feather pendant hanging on Daimon's neck.
As well as a ring that was decorating one of Reyne's hand, out of which the nostalgic voice of Joana could be heard.
"It's as if I was seeing sister Alicia…".
….
Erika on the other hand, was not experiencing any positive emotion due to the flying light princess that was coming at her.
"Just die already!", screamed Erika as she saw Jasmine approach her, interrupting her fall, before her martial art had reached the peak of its strength, she used her two halberds to clash head on with the light princess who answered in kind by using the heavenly spear and the heavenly sword to meet the enemy's weapons.
"Boooom!", the result was a blinding white light explosion illuminating half of the sky, while a dark brown and orange light occupied the other half.
"Crack!", the clash was suddenly stopped and the result was revealed for everyone to see, the light princess had… destroyed the halberds used by the enemy queen and that wasn't all, cuts that went all the way from Erika's hands to her shoulders, appeared on her arms.
Surprisingly Erika didn't let out a peep, despite the smoke that was coming out of her wounds, the shock was that big, because that was her highest impact martial art and yet she lost in the head on clash with it.
"Just like the other fanatics, you can get stronger by using that guy's nether right, go ahead an do it already, I'm going to destroy it to honor my mother who was harmed by that coward", fiercely said the light princess who flew backwards to give Erika some space.
And so, Erika stood there floating on the sky, out of options besides doing what she has been accusing Jasmine of all this time, actively relying on an external mean, on the other hand she also saw that both the heavenly sword and the heavenly spear on Jasmine's hands turned into white light particles to then fade away, they had reached the limit of their usage with the previous clash.
With renowned confidence, Erika grabbed the two decorations that were left on her clothes, one orange and the other brown, to then crush them with her fingers.
"Boooom!", violent currents of nether came out of the now broken medals, creating a tornado of nether, that was the effect of the Balax Lord's nether on the battlefield, and now it was time for the effect on Erika to be shown.
"Legion Reinforcement, Fire Queen of the Battlefield!", the orange pattern on Erika's body started glowing, before the enemy queen's hair started burning in orange battle aura, it was a similar effect to what happened when the Risha sisters or Scarlet and the others, used their strongest techniques, a side effect of their affinity with their element temporarily going up a notch, which saturated their bodies with said element.
"Legion Reinforcement, Earth Queen of the Battlefield!", and then it was the turn for the brown pattern to shine, literally, the effect was that Erika's tanned skin gained a darker tone and a rough appearance.
Those were enhancing martial arts that she could only use with the Balax Lord's nether as the medium, since they were supposed to only be learned at the Arch ranks, as a result the vibe around Erika had taken a huge change, her realm had been increased to the peak of the Lord rank and her battle prowess was restored to her original level, without any restrictions.
Jasmine's eyes burned in a fierce light as she saw the nether of the one that harmed her mother, enveloping the enemy, then similar to what happened to Reyne, the light princess started absorbing all the nether within the vicinity, before without she realizing it, a couple of words escaped those pretty rosy lips of hers.
"Bright Crown".
Light nether gathered above Jasmine's head, taking the form of a white crown, unlike Reyne's which had a valiant design, Jasmine's one looked elegant and pretty, both were incredibly intricate as well, because if one looked at them with attention, they had patterns like the ones on Erika's body, engraved on them, but that's beside the point.
"How dare flaunt the noble status of the Lord when you are nothing but an ungrateful traitor!", shouted Erika as she charged at Jasmine who was lost in her thoughts for a second.
The light princess who didn't even seem to be paying attention to the incoming meteor-like enemy queen, pointed her hand which had started glowing in a bright white light, frontwards.
Erika who was about to smash Jasmine's head with her own hands, suddenly felt her chest tighten.
"Bleeegh!", blood was forced out of her mouth before the patterns on her body… disappeared.
In fact, not only the patterns, the orange glow on her hair and the darker brown tone that her skin had gained, all of it was gone, turning into nether particles that were dispelled a second later.
And before she could react, the image of a silver crossbow appeared behind Jasmine, the light princess then pointed her pretty index finger at Erika, to then shot a white line of light from it.
One that directly blasted a hole on the enemy queen's chest, to then impact the ground below her.
"Boooom!", the remaining energy on Jasmine's attack destroyed everything in the vicinity where it landed, all this while Erika fell from the sky to then heavily land on debris a second later.