NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 58: Undefeatable Foe
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A black scimitar in the shape of a draconic black snake with big, glowing amethyst eyes.
The result of Shamir’s Soul Artifact Fusion, the combination of existing Soul Artifacts into new forms and shapes.
Vlad had imagined it would only be an additive change, that the sword would simply be as strong as the two knives together. But he was wrong—that scimitar carried more power than he imagined.
Much more power.
“SHAAAHHH!”
With a furious hiss, the scimitar roared, its aura growing to a tremendous size. The young vampire quickly saw through the reason a single swing of that blade could unleash so many cutting attacks!
It was because with each swing, the aura of the scimitar would divide into snakes—yes, dozens of them spreading everywhere, slashing through thin air using their giant, sharp fangs.
And this series of attacks was so fast that Vlad couldn’t even react; the dozens of slashing blows reached him, his armor’s Durability going down rapidly; it was now below thirty percent!
“Impressive!”
Shamir’s legs were suddenly encompassed by his scimitar’s Aura of snakes, wrapping around his body, and suddenly transforming his leg into a snake that rushed towards Vlad, biting his armor and then pushing him down with tremendous force.
CRAAASH!
“Ugghh…!”
The vampire prince groaned in pain as he felt some weight over his chest. The desert elf was standing right above him, his scimitar glowing with an even stronger aura as his Sands of Time Essence gathered around it.
“Seeing how the other Realms are much vaster and have more resources than ours, I had expected that your people, especially your warriors, would be stronger.” Shamir said. “And indeed, you’re quite strong. However…”
He pointed his scimitar at Vlad’s head.
“I suppose this is as far as you can go, hm?”
Vlad tried to move, suddenly feeling a tremendous, paralyzing pain across his muscles. Poison had somehow entered his body, even when he didn’t even feel a fang piercing his flesh.
“I’m poisoned?!”
As he tried to move but felt paralyzed, the desert elf smiled.
“Surprised? My Scimitar can not only attack many times at once, but I can also directly ignore defenses,” Shamir smiled. “Well… it’s a small chance, but when there are so many blows, it always hits anyway.”
“What?!”
Vlad was surprised the assassin revealed his ability so easily; it seemed he recognized him enough to tell him this.
Despite being an assassin, Shamir was more akin to a warrior. Someone who admired those who were strong and held their own against him.
Therefore, Vlad realized this paralyzing pain he felt wasn’t his body, his soul had been poisoned!
“Soul Poison is worse than normal poison, did you know?” Shamir smiled. “It slowly corrodes your soul, paralyzes your movements, and gives you tremendous amounts of pain. Over time, your Soul’s size is reduced… until it dissipates into nothingness. There will not even be an afterlife for you.”
“Soul… Poison, huh?”
Paul was surprised there was such a thing to begin with, but seeing how vast the world of Genesis and its many Realms were, everything was possible.
He felt the purple and black essence course through his soul, rapidly trying to devour it completely.
Yet…
He couldn’t help but smile.
“I just happen to be pretty good at using my Soul,” he said. “{Blazing Soul}”
“Huh?!”
BOOOM!
Before Shamir could move away, the Soul Aura of Vlad emerged, resembling an eruption of endless golden and crimson flames. They engulfed Shamir and sent him flying away.
At the same time, the Soul Poison seeping into Vlad’s Soul rapidly began to burn, fueling his Blazing Soul’s fire and making it even stronger.
“These are… Soul Flames!”
Shamir’s golden eyes widened, a smile on his face.
A fascinated, insane smile.
“Yes! You’re not done yet, right? RIGHT?!”
FLASH!
Without a second of hesitation and while still burning, the assassin reached Vlad, swinging his scimitar down and unleashing a storm of slashing attacks.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Vlad quickly touched the ground as he received the attacks and manipulated his own Soul Aura at the same time, suddenly conjuring something by combining Alchemy into it.
“{Geomancy}: {Volcanic Soul Eruption}”
“Huh?!”
RUMBLE!
The ground transformed, and the stone that made this entire underground cavern merged with Vlad’s Soul Flames, quickly taking the shape of a series of small volcanoes and erupting and firing giant cannons made of boiling Soul Lava.
“What sort of…?!”
Beyond all expectations, Vlad did the impossible, fusing the elements of nature with his very soul through Geomancy, an advanced technique of both Magic and Alchemy.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
The cannons of Soul Lava impacted Shamir directly, too fast and big for even him to evade; he had to quickly swing his scimitar and slice them apart as they came.
However, even that proved to be difficult as the surroundings and everything else burned and melted away!
“T-This is…!”
The desert elf started sweating as he continued evading and trying to slash away the cannons of Soul Lava, only for them to explode and cover his entire body with burning magma that seemed to damage his soul as well.
His Aura Armor, which he used to protect his body, made out of his own Soul Artifact, was very strong, but it was being rapidly worn down like this.
“Aagh! Haha…! This is ridiculous! So you can do such a thing, Vampire?!”
Shamir laughed as Vlad continued attacking. He couldn’t stop now and lose his momentum. Without wasting a single second, and as he noticed his Soul Aura began to weaken after burning through all the Soul Poison that served as “fuel” to enhance his Soul Flames strength, he conjured more spells using his boundless Arcana.
“You may surpass me on physical power and weapon technique! But can you surpass me in spamming as much fucking magic as I can?!”
All the accessories that Vlad was wearing, which he had made to stack on Arcana in ridiculous amounts, glowed brightly, making his body incredibly heavy due to the Arcana penalty.
“{Tier 3 Fire Spell: Small Meteor} + {Tier 3 Light Spell: Sunshine Beam}!”
FLUOSH!
Several dozens of small meteors materialized and merged with the shining sunshine.
Suddenly, they resembled small stars.
“{Geomancy}: {Glistening Nova Rain}!”
“Not just magic, but the ability to combine spells?!”
Shamir glanced in disbelief, unable to keep his mouth close as he gasped. Miniature stars reached him within a split second, even as he was still trying to evade the volcanic eruptions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“Ugh!”
The explosions of light, fire, and stone were strong, constantly wearing down his Aura Armor and forcing him to constantly spend energy by using his scimitar ability on mere projectiles.
However, the assassin wasn’t going to remain a sitting duck, quickly running around the room’s walls, circling, and trying to reach Vlad.
“Come here!”
FLASH!
Suddenly, his Aura made of snakes merged with one of his hands, suddenly transforming his entire arm into a dark, purple-scaled snake with amethyst eyes.
“SHAAAHH!”
The snake arm rushed towards Vlad, opening its gigantic jaws and aiming to drag him towards Shamir so his scimitar could finish him off.
Yet…
“I was already waiting for this…!” Vlad smiled wickedly. Even as he was exhausted, even as his transformation was about to wear down and bring him even more exhaustion, he still had the spirit to continue fighting.
“{Tier 3 Water Spell: Sea Snake} + {Tier 3 Ice Spell: Frost Beam}!”
FLUOSH!
Snakes made of water and beams of ice merged together into his Soul Aura, rapidly converging into a single Fusion Spell.
“{Geomancy}: {Winter Dragon’s Wrath}!”
“ROOOAAARR!”
Everything turned into a gigantic Chinese dragon made of azure ice, which roared. Rushing towards Shamir’s snake arm and clashing against it, a giant explosion of ice and poisonous black flames erupted.
BOOOM!
“Ngh?!”
Shamir suddenly felt a deep pain on his arm as he rapidly pulled it back, realizing it was completely frozen, with a few of his fingers falling off into pieces.
“This bastard…!”
Yet he wasn’t really mad.
He was overjoyed.
“Maybe... just maybe I can show him that too?!”
His eyes suddenly changed color, turning deep red.
His scimitar’s aura started encompassing him as the snakes began to bite his flesh and skin, injecting him with venom.
“Thank you, Vampire!”
Suddenly, Shamir rushed towards Vlad again, even as dragons of ice and miniature stars bombarded him with several magical explosions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“This guy’s a monster!”
Vlad gave a step back in fear as he held tightly to his sword, gathering his powers into his blade, and was about to attempt to slash him away.
Yet…
Something was odd!
“What is he doing?!”
Shamir’s snakes continued biting him, injecting him with more and more venom until his clear brown skin began to turn completely purple.
Black scales started growing over his body, and his eyes, which turned crimson in color, resembled those of a snake, looking almost crystalline, like rubies.
Two black horns grew from his forehead, and his slim musculature grew bulkier, while a long snake-like tail surged from his back.
All while his long white hair turned red and dark purple in color, shaping into several snakes made of hair!
And above all, two new pairs of arms sprouted from his flesh, made out of many snakes fused together.
In that moment, Vlad realized this was no mere assassin.
“I will show you why I belong to the top ten assassins of the Desecrated Shadow King’s Templars!”
RUMBLE!
The entire world around Vlad trembled as the scimitar that Shamir was holding was suddenly gone. The moment he began transforming, his scimitar had already disappeared.
Indeed…
It merged with him!
“{Soul Artifact Absorption}: {Six-Armed Demon Snake King: Naga}!”
In that moment, Vlad moved by instinct. Touching the ground at the same time as Shamir rushed towards him while hissing like a snake.
“{Tier 3 Earth Spell: Stone Fortress} + {Tier 3 Earth Magic: Stone Giant’s Fist}”
He activated two Earth magic Spells, the stones and ground all around the cave started to shape and form; giant walls surged to protect him; and enormous fists emerged to clash against Shamir.
Yet that was not enough; he merged them.
“{Geomancy}: {Stone Titan}!”
BOOOM!
The ceiling above shattered into pieces as the pavement and the houses crumbled down. Thankfully, these areas were not populated, so Vlad took that into consideration.
“Hahahaha! Good! Show me! Show me what you can do; I was so bored! But this! THIS IS IT!”
Craving bloodshed and blood-pumping adrenaline, the assassin Shamir laughed while showing his long snake-like tongue. His arms moved down, all of them materializing scimitars made of the snakes encompassing his aura.
“{Abyssal Asura Blade Storm}!”
At the same time, Vlad swung his arm, controlling the giant of over twenty meters made of pure stone, its massive fists reaching Shamir.
“{Titan’s Fist}!”
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
Fists and blades clashed, unleashing shockwaves into the sky that cleared it from any visible clouds within seconds!
At the same time, Vlad quickly noticed his stone titan beginning to rapidly crumble apart! Despite being so huge and intimidating,.
“Hah! Just stone at the end.”
Crack, crack…!
CRAAASH!
The giant protecting him crumbled into pieces, Shamir appearing above him and then rushing down towards the vampire, his big jaws opening, revealing his long snake-like fangs.
“I’m so fascinated with you! Let me take a souvenir before I leave! Let me bite you, my dear vampire rival!”
“What the…?!”
Vlad had realized a bit too late that, as he fell from the crumbling stone titan, his armor had also broken to pieces. The attacks from Shamir had pierced through everything, leaving several houses behind him devastated too.
BAAAM!
As his body collapsed on the ground, making him vomit blood, the enormous Shamir, who had become as tall as three meters, smiled at him, tearing down his armor into pieces and then grabbing the vampire.
“Let me go, you bastard! Agh!”
“I’ll mark you! You’re my PREY!”
Vlad bombarded him with spells, Frost Beams, Miniature Meteors, Sunshine Beams, Stone Fists, and everything else, trying to keep the monster away.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“No use!”
Shamir licked his lips as he continued moving towards Vlad, his eyes full of...
Obsession!
“You’re mine… Only mine! MINE!”
With mere swings of his blades, all spells came undone, sliced apart into hundreds of parts.
“What the hell is wrong with this guy?!”
And then, catching him off guard, a giant snake emerged from the underground, right behind him.
“SHYAAAH!”
“What?!”
His eyes widened as the snake quickly wrapped around his entire body, immobilizing him!
Above all, his blood demon transformation had already run out, and he was even weaker than before, even more so without his armor.
“Let me see what my prey looks like~!”
Shamir took off Vlad’s helmet, revealing the beautiful face of the vampire.
Pale skin, red eyes, and long, silky silvery-white hair.
“Ahh! You look delectable… I’ll enjoy tearing you to shreds!”
His giant jaws opened, aiming at Vlad’s neck, and then he bit with tremendous force.
A piercing pain reached his entire body, shaking him.
Venom sipped into his entire body, beginning to consume him.
And then a mark appeared on his neck, shaped like a purple snake opening its jaws.
“It didn’t kill me?!”
Strangely enough, Paul felt like his avatar was surprisingly fine.
“Hmm~ Even your skin and your blood taste delicious!”
Shamir licked his lips, glancing at Vlad with obsession.
“You’re mine now.”
He licked his neck, drinking the blood coming out of the wound.
“I’ll enjoy you… Bite by bite~”
“W-What…?!”
Paul couldn’t help but feel both scared and a bit aroused…
“Dammit! I wanted to win without using it, but screw this!”
FLASH!
As Vlad was about to activate the Heavenly Demon Transformation and beat this snake man’s ass, suddenly, Shamir started turning into darkness, disappearing.
“It was a good fight,” Sharmi said. “I couldn’t kill you, nor that girl… But that doesn’t matter anyway. We’ll see each other again. I’ve marked you. I will always know where you are now… Hahah! You better get stronger. Next time, I’ll kill you for sure…”
FLUOSH!
And then Shamir and his snakes disappeared, and Vlad was left there, sitting over the paved floor, barely understanding just what happened.
“So he was summoned only temporarily…”
Vlad collapsed on the ground, relieved that the monster was finally gone.
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