Chapter 598 Serpentine Dominion
Chapter 598 Serpentine Dominion
Bhak honestly wanted to skin Kuro alive as the cat's shadows always prevented it from dodging or even properly retaliating to most of said attacks.
Any of its efforts to take out Eliza who blocked most of its attacks with her barriers, whilst simultaneously buffing her companions and layering it with debuffs were also thwarted by Kuro.
Meteor Showers were blocked by Evan and Milena, the Deadly Sin Siblings dished out deadly attacks with their demonic energy and used multiple combination spells.
Faced with the full might of the 'Anomalies', the Lizard Lord felt the threat of defeat for the first time in its life.
It was just living its life, doing its duties as a Boss Monster, when it randomly began losing power all of a sudden.
The people it was collaborating with to gain freedom from the dungeon could not explain the reason why, and even Bhak itself was confused about why.
However, though it did not know why, it knew only death awaited it when it lost all of its levels.
It also figured out that the power it lost was going into the Dungeon itself, but no matter what it tried, it could not do anything to prevent this devolution process.
It triggered the dungeon break to speed up the plans for it to escape the dungeon's hold so it could massacre hundreds of thousands of existences to fight its grim fate, but then Evan's party came along.
Now, before it could escape the limitation of being a Dungeon Boss before it could break past the limitations of a mere 'High Lizardman' and evolve to a higher breed, before it could become a 'Living Legend', it was about to face death.
Bhak could not accept this.
Bhak refused to accept this.
It used an Infernal Conflagration + Blazing Meteor Shower Combo to push the Anomalies away, jumping back to take distance from them whilst glaring at them with hatred in its eyes.
Lightly holding out its left hand, a small forearm guard manifested in the air and fell onto its palm. Without hesitation, it snapped the forearm guard on and it resized to fit its wrist.
When the steam cleared up and Evan saw the forearm guard, his eyes widened in shock.
"Artemisia. Artemisia. Do tell me, why that 'thing' is on the Lizard Lord's arm? Ain't that the 'Prize' you told me about? That's it, isn't it? That's definitely the Energem Reclaimer, right?!"
[The 'goddess Artemisia' exerts her right to remain silent]
Evan appraised the item on the Lizard Lord's arm and upon confirming it was indeed what he was after, he cursed out loud.
"No friggin' way."
[Yes, friggin' way.]
"Artemisa, how about you call your Eternal Friend so we can do this over? And this time, how about you don't keep the item meant for me in a place where my already ridiculously strong opponent can get their hands on it!"
[Summon Household!]
Bhak called its minions once more, but instead of sending them forth like everyone but Evan expected, the Lizard Lord coated its spear in aura and slashed at them bisecting the bodies of its minions in a gruesome display.
Even the giant Lizardman who wanted to use its usual roar was bifurcated by its own master in a flash.
Seeing this, Evan quickly cancelled his attack motions and took distance from the Lizard Lord, urging his party members to do the same as he knew what was coming next.
Right before his eyes, he saw the Lizard Lord's status changing in real-time. Despite the severe damage to its soul, the Lizard Lord's level went up.
One of its skills that had been lost due to its devolution reappeared on the status, a Skill that Evan knew about; a skill he also possessed.
[LIMIT BREAK!!]
"Wait…what?!"
**BOOOMM!!!!
Bhak's aura surged with unbridled intensity, sweeping across the room as a wave of flame energy that rivalled Mesarthim's prismatic flames.
Evan clicked his tongue as he pushed back the aura with his own, checking how long he had left on BoD and clicking his tongue a second time.
'In five minutes, I'd be down to 30 minutes of BoD for today. Guess I have no choice…but to go overdrive, huh?'
The boy temporarily deactivated the skill as he thought this, his eyes locked onto the figure of the Lizard Lord who used this time to insert the magic stones it harvested from its minions into the holes on the forearm guard and then cover them up.
"As far as that thing is on its hand and those magic stones are not exhausted, this guy can use limit break without repercussions."
"For real?!"
Eliza exclaimed in shock upon hearing Evan's words, but her brain quickly pulled up a memory of having heard about something with a similar effect…from Evan himself. As if reading her thoughts, Evan continued.
"Yes, that's the artifact I told you guys about last year. The one that can deal with Limit Break's drawbacks.
The same one I came here for."
Synchronous with Evan's words, Bhak who had covered the entire area with its aura, influencing the ambient magic power, suddenly surged with a type of energy that Pride, Greed, Evan, Kalyla and Kuro recognised instantly.
Spatial power.
Bhak's lips parted, and it spoke words that Pride had expected ever since she saw its 'Space Tier 1' attunement and the name of its Unique Skill.
[Bounded Field!]
"…this fucking lizard!"
Greed, who understood what a Bounded Field was, and how advantageous it was as a topographic type technique could not help but curse.
The reason why it had activated Scorched Earth and used skills that spread flames all around was in preparation for this.
Stabbing its spear into the ground, Bhak called out its Unique Skill's name.
[Serpentine Dominion!]
The entire Boss Room turned into the Lizard Lord's dominion.
Swarms of flaming ethereal serpents manifested all around them, each one imbued with poisonous energy, evidenced by the green liquid dripping down their lips.
The ground cracked all over, and hot lava flowed through the cracks, occasionally splashing around and pouring on the floor, causing the ambient temperature to rise exponentially.
Though they could not see it, but a mystic boundary line had formed with the dimensions of the Boss Room, and the Anomalies were trapped within it.
Within this Bounded Field, Bhak could manipulate the ground, create a treacherous terrain—it already had and could make it much worse—and send those venomous flaming serpents hurling towards its opponents.
However, as she was caught in this Bounded Field's range, Eliza felt a wave of familiarity surge through her.
"This…it's just like-"
"-the Eighth Finger's 'Domain of Death'."
Eliza nodded absentmindedly, whilst Evan only chuckled lightly in response.
Dominik Velak's 'Domain of Death' was indeed a Bounded Field; a topographic type technique that involved knitting a network of energy and spreading it on a base area, like a piece of land, to create a mystic boundary line that separated the inside from the outside.
It had many uses, but they could all be summed up in one: 'It gave the caster an advantage over all their opponents caught within.'
Except there was a huge power gulf between the two.
If there was one difference with Domnik's, it was that he did not have a set boundary line that could be visible.
In exchange, the range was expanded greatly, enough to cover half of the massive battlefield he fought in his last battle.
But that was not important right now.
Bhak commanded all the ethereal serpents present to charge at the party with fury, and as the others prepared to block, Evan looked at Eliza and spoke.
"Since this is the same as the 'Domain of Death', you know what can be used to counter it, right?"
Realisation flashed through Eliza's eyes as she realised what Evan was talking about, and the fact that the boy had been teaching her how to use it without her really knowing what it was.
Normally, it'd be a lot harder for her to achieve this technique as she had zero spatial Attunements, but once again, the brokenness of 'Series Skills' was revealed.
Series Skills had their own pre-set Bounded Fields that the user could use if they were proficient enough in the skill, even if they did not have all the requirements for one.
Evan held up his sword and activated his Blessing of Destruction, in the same instant Eliza pointed forward with her staff and activated Child of Life.
In perfect Synchrony, the both of them called out.
"Domain of Life!" "Frost Domain!"
A bright wave of green energy, overlaid with a cool wave of crimson red ice spread out omnidirectionally, transforming the immediate environment into a half-frozen landscape where the increased temperature of the room dropped drastically. 𝐟𝗿𝗲𝗲𝐰𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
The surging energies of the network of magic power spreading out from underneath Evan and Eliza's feet collided with the Serpentine Dominion's energy, and the wave of power released on this collision obliterated all the ethereal serpents.
Together, they pushed back the Serpentine Dominion until half of the room was the territory of soul-chilling ice, while the other was a domain of scorched earth.
Due to Eliza's Life Ice skill, her Domain of Life seamlessly mixed into Evan's Domain, empowering the both of them as they clashed with Bhak's technique.
It was 2 against 1.
Two incomplete Bounded Fields, against one very complete one.
The Scales were evened, or so it would have been; if a certain High Demon of pride didn't have anything to say about it.