Chapter 258: SS-Grade Affinity
*Roar!*
*Roar!*
Two beasts pounced on Ellia from the left.
Ellia leaped up and cut one beast down before stomping the other, using its head to propel her forward.
*Roar!* The ape leaped into the air and raised its fist. A blue flame covered its fist.
The ape struck the ground and spread the blue flame in all directions. However, Ellia managed to avoid it by using Void Step.
She couldn’t do a single thing against the ape other than use her Void Step to get away. There was a massive gap between the ape and her.
’Tsk. I’m really powerless right now. If it were Vera, she might be able to stop one or two attacks directly.’ Ellia clicked her tongue. Unfortunately, she lacked firepower because she hadn’t evolved.
’No, wait. Since when have I started complaining about everything? All this time, I have always been aware of my limitations and have never complained.’ Ellia gritted her teeth. Rather than complaining, she usually used all that energy and time to improve herself.
However, she still couldn’t ignore the gap between a rank 2 human and a rank 4 beast. She might be extremely close to rank 3, but the ape was still one whole rank above her.
Ellia bit her lip. ’What should I do? I won’t be able to hold the ape for long. Eva is focusing on the snake as well. If this continues, it will be just a matter of time before the enemy catches up.’
’I need to get stronger, far stronger than my current self. Even Auric might be stronger than me... His ability to control magical energy is...’
Ellia suddenly fell silent, noticing something. All this time, Auric possessed a terrifying power because of his control.
Ellia refused to let Auric catch up. She had been protecting Auric all this time. If she ended up getting protected, their relationship would become different.
In Auric’s eyes, she might become one of those people who only leech off him. That was why she refused to become weaker than Auric.
Auric had relied on her in business and in her ability. If the latter disappeared, she would end up becoming someone who only contributed through business.
In the first place, had she been using her power correctly?
’Now that I think about it, when I upgraded my affinity to SS grade, my sensitivity to my magical energy increased. I have been adjusting my power, using the SS grade affinity as a standard.
’But I haven’t achieved any extreme from this SS grade affinity. That’s right, I’ve been increasing my lower limit, but I have yet to touch my upper limit...’
Ellia raised her blade, looking at the energy flowing on it. She might have yet to utilize the full power of an SS-grade affinity.
Auric, on the other hand, had been utilizing his talent to the fullest, allowing him to achieve one breakthrough after another.
Instead of complaining, she should feel ashamed for failing his expectations.
Ellia bit her lip. ’Have I grown dumber because of all this mess?’
*Roar!* The ape was approaching her.
Ellia was ready to use another Void Step, but fortunately, Katarina had finished combining her power.
"Watch out for my Meteor." Katarina warned them as she raised her hand. The massive sphere formed once more.
"!!!" Ellia and Eva glanced back, looking at the incoming bombardment.
They sped up at the same time, trying to gain more distance.
The snake coiled up.
"Shaaaa!" The snake let out a scream and produced a powerful tornado from its mouth, blasting two of ten meteors away.
Two more meteors fell upon the nearby beasts, killing a dozen. A rank 3 beast tried to form a barrier to stop this attack, but the barrier broke into pieces as the bullet exploded, killing the rank 3 beast.
On the other hand, the ape leaped into the air and caught two meteors with his big hands. He smashed the meteors and acted as if nothing had happened even as the two meteors exploded.
Still, two meteors hit the ground and caused massive devastation to their group. Unfortunately, the last meteor missed, hitting nothing but trees. At least, the explosion caused some trees to fall, creating obstacles for the beasts.
"Shaaaa!" The snake raised its head. All this time, the snake had been focusing on Eva. After receiving the second ’Meteor,’ it knew it had to launch a counterattack.
The wind started to surge up and formed multiple tornadoes.
Eva’s expression turned grim. It felt like a massive storm was coming.
The tornadoes continued to rise and suddenly merged into a single massive tornado that curved toward her.
Eva clicked her tongue. This kind of power was impossible to stop with her current power.
Eva channeled her power into her spear to the very limit.
A blazing golden energy started to cover her spear.
Seeing the incoming tornado, Eva pointed her spear forward.
"Spear of Victory."
The moment the tornado touched the spear, the spear released a burst of light like that of a sphere. The ground shattered as the wind dispersed in all directions, sweeping trees away.
The spear didn’t look strong, but this was actually the power of the spear. The energy was concentrated on the tip so that it could neutralize all kinds of power by using that tip.
It required her to skillfully aim the spear at the center of the opponent’s attack, allowing her to disperse all kinds of powers coming at her.
If this power were used offensively, she could probably smash half of the snake’s head at once.
Even Auric was astounded by this power. As he expected, Eva was hiding her power so that no one could figure out her identity.
However, the snake wasn’t the only problem.
The ape also decided to launch a counterattack. It smashed the ground and scooped up the soil into a sphere.
It then covered this sphere with its blue fire, reinforcing it further.
After that, the ape tossed the fireball into the air. His aim wasn’t Ellia. It was Auric and Katarina.
"Not good!" Eva panicked when she realized Auric was in danger. She wanted to stop the fireball, but the snake struck her with wind from all directions. Other beasts pounced on her, making it impossible for her to go to the other side. "Kh..."
"I’m going to stop it." Katarina frowned. She jumped off Auric’s arms and unleashed her energy. She had just used her Meteor, so she could stop combining her power and release it in the usual way.
Unexpectedly, Ellia used her teleportation to appear in front of Katarina and Auric. "Leave that fire rock... No, leave the ape’s meteor to me."
"!!!" Katarina was startled. Ellia was far too weak to take on that meteor, yet she insisted on taking it head-on.
Auric stretched his palm, combining his wind element and fire element to create a fire tornado to stop the other beasts from reaching Ellia.
Katarina was dumbfounded by the trust between Auric and Ellia, but since Auric had chosen this approach, Katarina formed her bullets, aiming at the weaker beasts.
Ellia inhaled deeply. In the past, she had used this power to defeat a rank 3 senior. It was her most powerful strike.
However, after acknowledging the fact that she hadn’t used her SS-grade affinity to its full potential, Ellia couldn’t help but see the potential for improvement.
She raised her blade to the side. The energy in her body started to circulate in a different way.
When she used this technique for the first time, her energy would flow down to the bottom of her feet before bouncing back and ultimately flowing into her arms.
This time, it was different. With her being more sensitive to her own magical energy, she could alter the path further.
She split her energy into two. The first one flowed to the blade directly.
A pink aura flared up from her sword. Line after line formed as though there were pink fireflies flying around her sword. These lines were meant to create a proper form for this sword technique.
The other part of her energy flowed to the bottom of her feet, but in a spiral so that Ellia could gain even more momentum in her energy.
The moment the energy reached the very bottom, it shot upward as though there were a spring launching it up.
Ellia had already raised her blade above her head.
World Cataclysm. This was a battle technique that allowed her to split the space in front of her, including the space needed for the opponent’s battle technique.
She used it to split her opponent’s power in the past, but after finding out another way to improve it, she changed this power.
’This world has faced six major global cataclysms in the past. In that case, there will be six versions for my World Cataclysm...’
Ellia took a deep breath. ’So that I don’t have to feel ashamed when standing in front of Auric...’
The energy from her blade flared up further as her left foot stepped forward. "Second Cataclysm, Depletion Sword."
Ellia swung her blade downward.
"!!!" Auric and Katarina were the first to notice the power contained within this sword strike.
The energy hit the incoming blue meteor first before it circled around the meteor as though it was cutting the rock.
Then, the energy exploded, causing not only the rock, but the space around it to suddenly split into two.
Up to this point, it looked similar to the previous version. However, there was a reason why Ellia called it the Depletion Sword.
She didn’t just cut through the meteor, but she also cut the flame covering the boulder. As a result, the blue fire dispersed as though all the energy had been depleted.
That energy wasn’t depleted. Instead, it was swept in a single direction.
Boom!
Yes, the energy flowed into the center of the split. Because of its instability, it created a massive explosion, kicking away the boulders.
"!!!" Eva dropped her jaw. ’What? What is going on? Did a rank 2 human just stop a powerful attack from a rank 4 ape? I could stop it, but if I only have a rank 3 power, I only have about a 60% chance. As for rank 2...’
She didn’t continue, but she believed it was impossible for her to stop that attack.
Yet Ellia succeeded. Even if it was just for a single strike, Ellia actually possessed a power that was equal to a rank 4 battle technique.
*Cough!*
Ellia felt her stomach churn as she spat some blood. Because of the forceful control, her insides had become a mess, especially her blood circulation.
"Ellia?!" Auric frowned, worried about her.
"I’m fine. Let’s go!" Ellia wiped the blood from the corner of her lip and stood back up.
Katarina shot down many beasts in the meantime, before she got pushed by Ellia, signaling her to start moving.
Katarina was shocked as well, but it was true that they didn’t have time to be shocked.
"Run!" Katarina shouted. Auric nodded and started running again.
Ellia remained at the back, ensuring that the beasts didn’t reach them.
Ellia couldn’t help but think, ’I did it. That was the power of an SS-grade affinity. No, I have yet to use it to its full potential. Auric said it could be upgraded further. I first used the artificial heart method as rank 1 technique, but it had been upgraded to rank 2 to match my current power.
’If I could evolve my avatar and upgrade this power to rank 3, the power I can draw will significantly increase. I will show the world the power of SS-grade affinity, the fruit of Auric’s success, so that the world knows his brilliance. To do that, I shall shine brighter than the Sun.’
Ellia subconsciously smiled. She had been holding back all this time because she was worried about her future.
Since she had gained her freedom, she could finally let go of that worry and focus on her goal.
Auric just smiled as he trusted Ellia, and Ellia never disappointed him.
And Lindwurm seemed to be the same.
"Auric, I’ve found a small hill. Let’s use that place to hit them back."