Chapter 319: Clash Of Titans
The elemental beast was so intensely hot that it incinerated the oxygen in the air with its massive jaw snapping open as it melted the stone floor beneath it into a glowing river of liquid glass.
"GLACIAL AVALANCHE!" Frost screamed in perfect unison.
Frost leaped thirty feet into the storm clouds above the fire dragon.
He slammed his hands downward, summoning a massive unnatural rain of three-hundred razor-sharp, sub-zero ice spears.
The projectiles plunged down from the sky like a falling weaponized glacier with each spear dense enough to pierce solid adamantine.
The two attacks did not clash... they intertwined.
Mid-air, the fire dragon coiled around the falling ice spears, forming an apocalyptic, rotating drill of roaring plasma and freezing steel-ice.
The combined elemental mass tore through the basin at high speed.
The ground beneath the strike was completely obliterated.
Liquid lava flowed on the bottom, while solid dark blue ice formed on the top, creating a terrifying unstoppable wave of pure destruction aimed straight for Rowenna’s chest.
’This is the difference between our regular opponents and experienced ones...’
The air pressure alone threatened to crush anything standing in its path.
The sound was deafening, a continuous roaring thunder as elemental energy tore reality open.
Rowenna didn’t take a single step backward, hell she didn’t even flinch.
She gripped the World Weaver staff in her right hand, her blue eyes reflecting the incoming plasma drill.
She lightly tapped the mythril butt-end of the staff against the bedrock.
TAP!
’Omni-Elemental Runic Array!’
In less than a hundredth of a second, four massive, multi-colored geometric magic circles materialized perfectly in the air around Rowenna’s body.
She didn’t vocalize a single chant and she didn’t weave complex hand signs.
The authority of her S-Rank class brought the high-tier runes into existence instantly.
’Glacial Rune!’
Rowenna swept her staff upward in a single graceful arc.
A towering, sixty-foot wall of dense absolute-zero sapphire ice erupted from the earth directly in front of the advancing fire dragon.
KRA-THOOOOOM!
The two-hundred-foot flame dragon slammed straight into Rowenna’s sapphire ice wall with a sky-rending explosion.
Millions of gallons of superheated steam detonated into the air instantly, obscuring the entire northern quadrant of the battlefield in a thick blinding white fog.
The shockwave rattled the bones of infantrymen a long distance away.
Before the steam could even disperse, Frost’s avalanche of three-hundred glacial spears plunged down through the clouds, aiming to impale Rowenna from above while her vision was blocked.
Rowenna didn’t even look up at the sky.
She casually raised her left, unarmored palm toward the descending clouds.
’Kinetic Repulsion Field!’
An invisible violent wave of reversed gravitational force exploded upward from Rowenna’s extended palm.
CRASH! SHATTER!
The three-hundred sub-zero ice spears hit the invisible repulsion field exactly thirty feet above Rowenna’s head.
The immense downforce of the spears met the upward vector of her gravity manipulation.
Every single ice spear instantly shattered into fine, glittering snow powder, blown straight back up into the storm clouds like a reverse blizzard.
"BEHIND YOU!" Ignis screamed from inside the blinding steam.
It was a trap.
Using the thick fog and Frost’s overhead attack as a dual cover, Ignis had executed a high-speed dash.
He bypassed the ice wall entirely, appearing directly behind Rowenna’s unprotected back.
His gauntlets were no longer simply burning.
He had condensed his flame mana into two razor-thin, white-hot plasma blades specifically designed to slice through scales and defensive spells that were even of a high tier.
"DIE, YOU BITCH!" Ignis yelled.
He thrust both plasma blades straight for Rowenna’s spine, aiming to sever her spinal cord and instantly end the fight.
Rowenna’s deep blue eyes flashed with cold dangerous light.
’Ultra Runic Disruption!’
The fifty-meter passive aura radiating from Rowenna’s core, which had been passively analyzing the battlefield, flared to its maximum density.
The exact second Ignis stepped within three feet of Rowenna’s back, the complex internal mana equations sustaining his plasma blades violently destabilized.
The aura acted like a magical virus, forcibly hacking the structure of his spell.
The fire magic backfired catastrophically inside his own palms.
KABOOM!
The plasma blades exploded directly in Ignis’s face.
The blast shattered his visor, scorched his skin, and launched him backward across the dirt like a discarded ragdoll.
"AAAGGGHH! MY EYES!" Ignis shrieked in agony.
He rolled across the mud, clutching his bleeding face as smoke poured from his ruined helmet.
However, Ignis’s failure was merely the second layer of the trap.
While Rowenna was dealing with Ignis’s surprise rear assault, Frost seized the momentary window of distraction.
Frost burst out from the frozen mud to her left, his core burning with every drop of his remaining mana.
He didn’t use a massive area spell that would trigger her repulsion fields.
’That would be stupid so...’
Instead, he compressed his absolute-zero ice into a microscopic high-speed Glacial Needle designed specifically for silent rapid armor penetration.
SWISH!
The razor-thin needle of ice bypassed Rowenna’s outer aura.
It pierced straight through the delicate fabric of her left shoulder robe and grazed her pale skin.
A thin line of crimson blood surfaced on Rowenna’s shoulder as the freezing frost instantly spread across her skin, chilling the tissue and attempting to invade her bloodstream.
Frost landed fifteen feet away.
He was panting heavily with blood running freely down his chin, but a triumphant manic laugh burst from his exhausted chest.
"HA! HAHAHA! I HIT HER!" Frost screamed to the blinded Ignis.
He pointed a shaking gauntlet at Rowenna’s shoulder.
"I pierced her defense!" Frost celebrated wildly. "The absolute-zero frost is invading her bloodstream! Her spellcasting speed is finished! She’s done..."
Rowenna stood completely still.
She slowly turned her head, looking down at her left shoulder.
She stared quietly at the tiny tear in her beautiful robe with the small insignificant scratch on her skin, and the single drop of crimson blood that had stained the fabric.
She blinked once then twice.
"Ah..."
Then, Rowenna turned her gaze toward Frost. Her deep blue eyes did not contain anger.
They did not contain fear or panic either.
Instead, they contained a quiet terrifying sense of genuine amusement.
"You... actually managed to scratch me," Rowenna stated softly.
Her voice was light, musical, and completely unbothered by the frost supposedly invading her veins.
"That was quite clever, using your partner’s explosive backfire as a decoy," Rowenna praised him. "You caught me slightly off guard. I was carefully adjusting my spell parameters so I wouldn’t accidentally turn you both into a red smear on the dirt... and you used that fraction of a second well."
Frost’s triumphant laughter died instantly in his throat.
His eyes widened in sudden creeping horror as he looked at her pristine, unbothered face.
The frost wasn’t slowing her down at all.
"What... what are you talking about?!" Frost stammered, stepping backward.
Rowenna raised her left hand, gently resting her delicate fingers over the scratched shoulder.
’Well let me use my Genesis Rune that Lady Elu gave us...’
A brilliant, soothing emerald-green light erupted from her palm.
In a fraction of a second, the minor scratch closed itself, leaving no scar.
The freezing frost that had attempted to invade her bloodstream was completely purged from her system.
Even the torn fabric of her arcanist robe re-wove its own threads, repairing itself as if the attack had never even occurred.
Frost stumbled backward with his knees trembling violently beneath his armor.
"No... no way..." Frost muttered, his voice cracking with despair. "Instant cellular regeneration?! Without a chant or a holy priest?! That’s impossible!"
Rowenna gripped the Sapphire-Core World Weaver with both hands.
Her expression turned ice-cold and majestic as her full S-Rank aura flared to its absolute peak, shedding the last remnants of her restraint.
"Playtime is officially over, Wardens of the Unmovable Wall..." Rowenna announced calmly.
Her voice rang across the basin like a divine judgment, leaving no room for argument or hope.
"Let me show you what a true Grand Runemaster looks like."
Rowenna raised her staff with one hand, spinning it horizontally above her head in a rapid, sweeping arc.
’Gravitational Singularity Collapse!’
HUMMMMMMM.
The crushed forty-foot crater located directly behind Ignis and Frost suddenly burst into a blinding, incandescent purple glare.
The twenty-times gravity field didn’t just expand... it rapidly condensed.
The entire thirty-yard spatial zone collapsed inward upon itself, folding the fabric of space into a single microscopic black point hovering exactly three feet above the dirt between Ignis and Frost.
An irresistible, terrifying gravitational pull erupted from that microscopic black dot.
"NO! NO! RUN!" Ignis shrieked.
He tried to drive his fire into the ground to anchor himself, clawing desperately at the mud, but it was completely useless against spatial authority.
The gravitational singularity began pulling everything inward.
The surrounding air, shattered stone pillars, burning chunks of glaciers, boiling steam, and both Heroes were dragged violently toward the center!
"AAAAAHHHH!"
Ignis and Frost were dragged brutally across the dirt, screaming in sheer terror as their bodies were helplessly pulled into the collapsing point.
Their heavy metal armors slammed together with violent, bone-crushing force at the center of the singularity, trapping them in a crushed, immobile sphere of gravity.
Rowenna stood tall, raising her empty left hand into the air.
Her fingers came together in a clean, elegant snap.
"Collapse."
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The microscopic gravitational singularity exploded outward in a colossal hundred-foot shockwave of pure spatial force.
The wave pulverized the surrounding terrain entirely. It tore through bedrock, obliterated the remaining ice, extinguished the fire, and blasted a massive pristine sixty-foot wide crater into the Umbral Basin!
The atmospheric shockwave generated by the blast sent a massive gust of wind rolling across the entire battle line, blowing away thick clouds of dust for half a mile in every direction.
The physical force of the spatial explosion completely shattered Ignis and Frost’s defensive core barriers.
The impact crushed their chest plates inward and shut down their neural systems instantly, protecting them from death but ensuring absolute incapacitation.
When the blinding purple light finally receded from the clearing, Ignis and Frost lay motionless in the center of the fresh crater.
Their armors were severely dented.
Their weapons were shattered pieces of scrap metal. They were completely knocked out cold and permanently neutralized from the battlefield.
Rowenna lowered her staff, twirling it once before smoothly sliding it back into her spatial storage rift.
The tear in space sealed shut behind her.
She lightly dusted off her pristine robes once more, letting out a long, quiet sigh as her long, silky hair settled perfectly across her back.
"That consumed slightly more mana than I initially calculated," Rowenna murmured softly to herself.
A sweet contented smile touched her lips as she looked back over her shoulder, gazing toward the distant rear command post where her Lord resided.
"I hope my Lord was watching..." she whispered affectionately.
Rowenna then turned her sharp gaze away from the crater, looking toward the far western flank of the battle line.
Across the torn mud, the main frontline collision was reaching its climax as the heavy combatants finally locked eyes.
Brida was advancing steadily across the open field.
Her massive frame was clad in heavy plate armor and she carried her colossal adamantine tower shield casually over her muscular shoulder with her heavy boot heels shattering the stone bedrock with every confident earth-shaking step.
Directly in her path stood Kassandra.
Kassandra was the heavy defender of the enemy forces... the Hero of the Unmovable Wall who commanded the Divine Aegis.
Kassandra stood incredibly firm in her pink-tinted tower armor.
Her long pink cape fluttered wildly in the dying thermal wind of the battlefield.
She held her massive kinetic redirection shield planted firmly into the earth with her entire body braced behind the metal.
The two defensive titans locked eyes across thirty yards of torn, bloody mud.
Brida stopped her steady march.
She threw her head back and let out a boisterous, booming laugh that echoed across the entire war zone.
"BAHAHAHAHA!" Brida roared into the sky.
She cracked her massive knuckles with the sound ringing out like snapping oak timber over the battlefield.
"Well, look at what we have here!" Brida mocked loudly, pointing a thick finger forward. "Shiny pink armor on a shiny big shield! Hey, pinky! Let’s see if that pretty toy of yours can hold up when a real woman puts her shoulder into it!"
Kassandra’s eyes narrowed dangerously behind her visor.
She lowered her center of gravity, planting her boots deeper into the mud.
Her core flared with brilliant, radiating pink defensive energy, illuminating the ground around her.
"Try your worst, Titan," Kassandra replied.
Her voice was firm, completely cold, and unyielding in the face of Brida’s towering presence.
"My Aegis absorbs and redirects all physical momentum," Kassandra warned her flatly. "You will only break your own bones against my wall."
"BAHAHA! I’d like to see it try!" Brida laughed wildly!
Without another word, Brida shot forward!
BOOM!