150 Twin-Star Arts and Igni Series Spells
The blue-skin Slaad was a brute. He would use his physical prowess to his fullest to attack his opponents.
This monster wasn’t that attuned to the chaos element. So there were no surprises behind his attacks. However, due to the lack of chaos, he also had a clear state of mind.
This blue-skin monster could plan his attacks well, hide counterattacks in his defensive actions, and use his mana-enhanced strength to his advantage.
Mia also had dagger arts for close ranger opponents. She knew she couldn’t run away from the monster this time to take advantage of her ranger class. That’s because there was no assurance that the blue-skin Slaad would allow her to kite him. The Slaadi were simply too unpredictable, attuned to chaos or not.
If the blue-skin Slaad teams up with the green-skin one, things would become twice as dangerous for Eren. Thus, she decided to stay and fight.
She was at a considerable distance away from Eren, unaware of the fact that he had taken revenge against his opponent.
***
Eren watched his attacks change the surroundings around the green-skin Slaad. The fire cloud and the cluster of lightning manifesting at the same time had created a depression in the ground with a radius of about 10 meters.
“Daryaaaav!”
Eren narrowed his eyes when he heard the monster’s wail. It had come from the middle of the mana storm created by his fire and lightning element attacks.
“Daryaav!”
The monster yelled again before using his long legs to take a frog-like long jump. When he landed outside the fire and lightning element domain, his body looked like it had been cooked to perfection.
“Daryaaav!”
The monster’s crazy-looking eyes that he had fixated on Eren turned red as he got on all fours. In the next moment, a distinct mana pulse was felt as the burnt skin around him started to shed only to be replaced by newer, healthier skin colored pink.
The pink skin eventually started to have green pigments before turning into the monster’s green-colored epidermis. The green-skin Slaad looked like he had achieved rebirth after exiting Eren’s fire and lightning element faux domain. Except, his muscular definitions had shrunk, giving him a slim build that he didn’t have previously.
The monster recovered within a few moments. It appeared that monsters could also influence the execution of their spells with their will, especially if they were in a dire situation.
“Why am I not surprised!”
Eren spat in anger after seeing the monster transform this way. He felt like he had ended up with a short straw when it came to having Slaad as an opponent.
“Let’s dance, then.”
Eren said to the green-skinned monster before vanishing. He had decided to attack the monster instead of waiting for his condition to stabilize.
Eren had decided to try out the newest addition of spells to his addition that he had bought from Malcolm. He had spent half of his fortune on these spells to bring out the variation he needed for his battlemage class.
“Daryaav!”
The green-skin monster sensed danger was heading his way so he cast his own spells, creating circles of earth-element walls around him. He knew that he wasn’t prepared for Eren after his transformation. His condition needed to be stabilized before he could move freely.
Eren saw the walls of earth-element mana were getting erected at a rapid pace all around his target. He smirked before drawing his crossbow from storage.
Igni Bolt Blast!
In the next moment, an arrow made of fire-element mana was created over the crossbow’s loading bay. This fire-element arrow had a sphere-shaped arrowhead, giving it a distinctive appearance.
The arrow’s manifestation became semi-solid as various runes started appearing over it. Eren used his will through Hex gear to expedite the process.
Aim. Release. Boom.
The fire-element arrow detonated upon contact like a firebomb, dispersing the earth-element mana, which was being used to cast the protective walls. The first arrow was followed by five more of its kind. They lodged themselves in the newly created walls. Three arrowheads were detonated all at once, leaving two benign arrowheads behind.
A path was opened for Eren when he used his fire-element spell. The next spell he cast was also a fire-element spell.
Igni Chains!
The two benign arrowheads that Eren had shot previously bloomed like flowers before sprouting chains made of fire-element mana. They zeroed in on the monster as soon as they were born into existence, leaving the monster no chance to dodge them.
These fire-element chains latched onto the green-skin monster’s right leg and left hand, restricting him in an awkward position. The skin which had come in contact with these orange-red chains started releasing smoke as it burned the mana defense layer of the monster before burning the newly regenerated epidermis itself.
“Draaaaaa…. Hu… Human…. I kill…”
The green-skin monster finally bothered to speak in Gilaahan’s official tongue when he was put through so much pain by the human that had appeared out of nowhere. It was as if yelling in his mother tongue was not enough. He wanted to convey the implications the human would have to face for making him suffer to this level.
The green-skin monster wanted to free himself from the chains he was pinned to his current position with. So he cast his next spell. He created a water-element sword using his chaos element before using it on the chains and honing it with his free hand.
Sizzle!
A dense amount of steam was generated as the fire-element chains were cut by a water-element sword that barely looked like one. The monster felt elevated when he managed to free himself of his bindings.
However, this was all the time Eren needed to approach the monster who acted like an undying warlord. His hands gripped his axes before launching his dual-weapon attacks.
***
A lot of Eren’s previous plans were coming to fruition over time. He had invested a sufficient amount of hours in practicing his Jeet Kune Do. He then used it as a foundation for his mana-based martial arts.
Twin Star Arts!
This was the name of the mana-based martial arts Eren had spent his time learning for quite some time. The martial arts would dictate which mana points and parts of mana circuits needed to get activated to unleash the true potential of the artifacts he was wielding.
The Twin Star Arts worked best with swords. But it could also be used with axes and other weapons. Eren just needed to tweak the instructions for the martial arts a bit as per the weapons he was wielding at the time.
Eren didn’t spend more money to buy a new sword. He figured his two axes would work until he managed to break into the Awakened rank. Thus, he practiced the Twin Star Arts with his axes, enabling him to wield these borrowed weapons with confidence he never had before.
Eren juggled his weapons in both hands as he got within striking distance of the green-skin monster. He unleashed Twin Star Arts to the fullest while preparing to cast his movement spell in quick succession.
The green-skin monster saw that Eren was approaching him with his blazing axes by the time he freed himself from the fire-element chains. He cast another water-element sword in his free hand and bolstered the sword he was holding with more water-element mana.
“Daraaayv! I kill…”
Eren heard the monster declare as he approached him from his side. It looked like the Slaad in question had lost any semblance of reason. He straightforwardly approached Eren without even trying to dodge any potential attacks heading his way.
This was all Eren needed from a monster when he saw him approaching him with a look of pure madness. No more surprises, no more strange spells. He just wanted the monster to act like he was supposed to act- a dunce who could be used like a litmus paper to test his spells.
The monster only saw a series of blurred lines manifesting around Eren as he handled his weapons with the weapon arts. The blurred, orange-red lines didn’t produce or repel winds even when the weapons that caused them were swung with exceptional agility.
Zoom. Swoosh. Cleave.
The monster’s stretched and wrinkly fingers with which he was holding the left sword were first to get cut off. The right hand was severed from its wrist joint in the next moment.
Before the monster could process the pain and his body could react in panic, Eren had delivered some more weapon damage onto his torso. Surprisingly, the weapons didn’t make any noise when he did that.
“Dar…”
The monster’s shriek was cut short when his neck was cleaved from his torso in one swift motion. The fatal wound was immediately cauterized because of the sheer amount of compressed fire-element mana acting on it.
Igni Wave!
Eren had used another of his Igni-series spells he had bought from Malcolm, which bode well with his two axes.
The head of the monster flew a few meters away from him. Likewise, the cauterization did not spill blood since it sealed off the wound completely like an invisible fire that burnt flesh too quickly for it to appear in the open.
Eren liked these spells even more after he saw their effects in real-life target practice. They allowed for more harm and less mess. Something his OCD brain could find comfort in.