Chapter 344
Chapter 344
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 344
Chapter Title: Battle at the Lake (2) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Shahahahahaha——!! A massive snake made of earth and sand let out a chilling cry like a living creature as it lunged toward Oliver. Not just one, but a whopping five of them. Infused not only with magic power but also life force, the earth snakes moved with the natural fluidity of real serpents. Of course, the human-faced snakes Oliver had created moved just as naturally as Theodore's.
"Will you lend a hand?"
At Oliver's request for aid, the human-faced snakes—fashioned from the frozen waters of the lake—either took bites in Oliver's stead or bared their lips to chomp down on the earth snakes in retaliation. Crunch! Crackle—!! Boom!! The colossal serpents of dirt and ice writhed together in a tangle that evoked the horrors of Avici Hell. But it didn't end there. Theodore, endlessly conjuring more earth snakes with his bottomless magic, formed three new ones around himself. He then infused them with magic and emotion. The magic and emotions seeped into the snakes' bellies, blending as one. Soon, the fused energies swelled beneath their hides, radiating a savage dark crimson glow. Ready to burst at any second.
Breath of Fury
Black light magma infused with fury erupts forth
With Theodore's incantation, the three snakes vomited forth the mingled magic and emotion from their guts as black light magma.
The waterfall-like ferocity carried scorching heat, but the true menace lay in the poison laced within the magma.
Where splatters hit the forest, grass and trees blackened and melted away. The lake boiled around the impact sites, staining dark.
Even the billowing smoke posed a threat.
Oliver drew out the stored sorrow from his body and merged it with the lake's vast magic to unleash a chill spell.
The black ice, imbued with sorrow, didn't just freeze the lake surface ahead of Oliver—it erected a towering ice wall that neutralized the magma.
Anger quelled by sorrow, flames extinguished by ice.
Opposing natures ensured the poisoned magma, for all its initial fury, inflicted no real harm and went quiet.
A true stroke of luck. Had Oliver failed to block it, the lake would've turned into a toxic mire, the surrounding woods ablaze—leaving him in a desperately unfavorable battlefield.
This clash with Theodore dwarfed every battle Oliver had waged before in sheer scale.
A fight where a single slip could claim his life.
Yet oddly, Oliver didn't mind this moment one bit.
The peril brought profound fulfillment.
Manipulating emotional affinities like this... it was downright thrilling.
'Just like crafting filterettes... blending distinct emotions, letting them interact...'
Oliver remembered his first time mixing varied emotions into a filterette.
It had been miraculous, awe-inspiring.
Unrelated circumstances, yet here they linked.
Oliver vowed to document this if he survived, then unleashed the lake's magic lavishly. He seized control of the solidified magma-ice barrier.
The immense power cracked it apart into hundreds of chunks, all hurtling toward Theodore in unison.
A strike beyond his normal limits, made possible only by devouring the lake's magic.
Incredibly fortunate.
To stumble upon such a reservoir against a freak like Theodore, with his freakish magic reserves and physique.
The magic-laden boulders streaked like relentless shells. Each packed devastating force, crumbling Theodore's earth snakes like sandcastles.
The sorcerer Theodore dismissed them with ease.
"Ridiculous!"
He funneled magic into his hands, etched shock-magic runes, and slammed his fists together, unleashing a shockwave that pulverized the rocks.
Not stopping there, he clashed fists anew, hurling a vast shockwave at Oliver.
Shock Wave
Fan-shaped blast transcends norms with precise runes and vast mana
A foundational shock spell of the pure mana school. Yet its rune intricacy and mana volume defied sanity, yielding supernatural might.
The fan-shaped barrage demolished the lake surface and both combatants' snakes, barreling toward Oliver.
Range too broad to evade. Oliver met it head-on.
Out Cry
Straight-line shock pierces inner and outer defenses
Oliver channeled the artificial soul-enhanced black suit's power into his face, firing a linear shockwave to ravage foe from within and without.
"Kraaaaaaaaah—————————!!!!"
Theodore's fan shockwave met Oliver's line, parting like the Red Sea.
Focus, not raw power.
The lake roiled like boiling oil; fine droplets erupted upward in inverted rain.
Shooooaaaah.
Mist shrouded the area, and Oliver refocused on his face.
Out Cry
Enhanced potency shockwave
A grotesque visage warped across the black suit's faceplate. Oliver unleashed another—fiercer still.
————Boom!!
Theodore parried undaunted. Dozens of arms wove into a colossal fist, layered with chained spells and black magic, swatting Oliver's blast aside.
A momentary overpowering of even Bartoli.
Yet it made sense. Sprouting myriad arms didn't just swell mana—the runes grew exponentially intricate, amplifying his already monstrous reserves.
Tireless, Theodore pressed with layered spells.
Theodore spawned multiple mechanical hands around Oliver—the same used for self-repair.
Woven from mana particles, they resembled needle-scalpel hybrids: slender, razor-edged, primed to mend or dismantle anything effortlessly.
True to form, the sinister appendages closed in on Oliver from every angle.
Intent on total deconstruction.
Assailing from front, back, sides, above—unavoidable. Oliver mirrored Theodore in response.
Oliver surged stored mana outward, etching aerial runes around himself. Magic circles bloomed, birthing mechanical arms.
His appendages charged Theodore's. Divided forces clashed like earth and human-faced snakes before—now vying in finesse over brute force.
Ziiiiing—
Stalemate unbroken, Theodore etched fresh circles around Oliver, pelting his arms with mana bolts.
Oliver countered identically, shattering Theodore's with his own aerial arrays.
Clashing circles spewed bolts lakeward and skyward—water spouts and pyrotechnic blasts erupted.
Oliver's preemptive barrier spared him the frenzy unscathed. For Theodore, it sufficed.
Mid-casting, he rushed to close the gap.
Spotting the advance, Oliver rippled the lake beneath to widen distance.
Melee with Theodore? Far too risky.
Ranged magic was viable, lake mana bolstering him. But up close? Physical disparities were insurmountable.
Lake mana merely matched reserves. Emotion, life force—physical prowess gaps yawned vast.
'Yet I must try. Magic barely scratches him...'
"You won't escape."
Theodore bounded on two legs, waves churning in pursuit—relentless.
Oliver tapped inner mana and test-tube life force, birthing fresh human-faced snakes from beneath Theodore. They erupted skyward.
Puhwahak!!
Snakes pierced Theodore's waves, lofting him airborne before gaping maws swallowed him whole.
Less than a second passed before Theodore ballooned arms into tentacles, exploding free.
No matter. Oliver's spell was primed in that blink.
Breath of Obsession
Avalanche of obsession-laced black ice
Two more human-faced snakes. Bellies brewed obsession and mana, spewed forth like Theodore's ploy.
Avalanche-like black ice crystals engulfed Theodore, flash-freezing all.
He countered with ravenous flames.
Futile.
His black fire faltered against obsession's blizzard, yielding ground. Theodore ate the full brunt—ice creeping over him.
"Kraaak—!!"
Life force and emotions blazed with his flesh, shedding the frost. Multi-arm tentacles lashed anew.
Theodore's style, not Oliver's.
The shift bore fruit. Tentacles—mana and emotion-clad, as if dozens of mages collaborated—scorned the chill, sweeping horizontally to shatter human-faced snakes.
Oliver anticipated pursuit, plunging lakeward to vanish. Theodore compressed tentacles into a behemoth fist, smashing the water instead.
Bang———!!!
Shock rippled from the lake's heart, waters surging outward to ravage woods.
Earthquake tsunami.
Oliver, seeking refuge underwater, tumbled in the onslaught—adrift. Converging floods hurled him skyward amid geysers.
Torrent robbed control.
Surface breached unwillingly, Theodore's fist loomed.
"......!"
Oliver yanked ambient water as cushioning shroud. Futile.
—————!
Fist met barrier—bursting it like a water balloon. Oliver rocketed afar.
Even his black suit fragmented.
Prior Out Cry had drained it, yet soul-fortified... Oliver marveled at the firepower gulf.
True hits on Theodore? Portal-sliced torso, doll-detonations in wounds. That was it.
'Ah, one more...'
Black magic's forgotten allure resurfaced.
As Oliver rose to recover, fresh torrent engulfed him.
Theodore wielded inner mana to command the lake.
A personal vortex dragged Oliver in.
To end the exposed, suitless foe.
Oliver resisted with mana—futile against Theodore's might. Mere delay.
Theodore compounded: aerial circles unleashed bolts and lightning, pinning Oliver to defense.
Plan flawless. Oliver inexorably vortex-bound.
Balance barely held in malevolent churn.
Theodore enlarged a rune-wreathed hand to snatch. Oliver dropped his barrier, nullified assaults, and intoned.
"Fourth."
The shrunken corpse doll—Duncan—burst free from his bosom via preset mana, expanding true.
Test-tube Fourth stirred, possessing Duncan. It charged Theodore.
"Kraaaaaaaaah!!"