95 Chapter 83-2: The fight
The location chosen for the duel between the elven siblings and Kibadios sat close to the outskirt of the Fyeran's Capital. The hybrid was told that this used to be a training ground for the wood elf soldier some years ago, though it had been abandoned for a while, allowing wild grasses to grow on the patchy field. Standing surrounding the field were members of the hybrid's entourage, along with the leaders of the forest. Since this battle concerns a savior of the Vernys Confederation and its high shamans, all of the Clan Heads were there to witness the fight. The Shilna's current Clan Head, who was just enthroned last night, was also in attendance. Sitting on her wooden throne, the elegant Yllaner has been donning a concerning looking that she could barely hide from others, since she knew there were nothing good could come out of this fight: Either the elven siblings, who she had always considered to be her older brother and sister, would kill off the hybrid, someone who was instrumental in saving the confederation, in bid to save their honor and purity, or that they would lose to him and relinquish the Shaman title to serve as members of his harem. Neither outcome was desirable to the new queen.
「I'm sorry, Ryan.」Yllaner spoke softly, slightly turned to the hero.「I tried to convince Ren nii sama and Yue nee sama to pretend as if nothing had happened, but they would not even bother to entertain such a notion. Their kingdom was completely destroyed and annexed by the Yin Empire, so for them, the traditions being passed on to them by their ancestors were the only thing that helped them to keep their identities. No matter what I say, they kept insist on having this duel against Kibadios.」
「Yllaner sama… It's not your fault.」Ryan gently shook his head.「But still, please understand that if Kibadios is ever in peril, we will not hesitate to interfere, even if our opponents are the High Shaman of the Vernys Forest.」
「...」Yllaner said nothing, though she was surprised at her brother-in-law's veil threat. Ryan kun, it seems like you have really changed. You're no longer that timid and gentle kid that kept worrying Kyles anymore.
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「So, that's the hybrid that helped bring the conflict to a close by convincing the Yonko to stop backing Yllaes?」Elegas asked.
「Yes. Kibadios dono.」Uran nodded.「Apparently, he accepted Ashura's request to become a member of The Hyakki Yagyo and be his right hand man.」
「Our High Shamans are trying to kill a Yonko's right hand man? That does not sound good.」Elegas clicked his tongue.
「Right hand man?」Ferran noted.「I know that Ashura is famous for being whimsical and unpredictable, but did he really just asked someone who he had never met before to be his right hand man, to be second in command of such a powerful force like the Hyakki Yagyo?」
「... I know, but that's all I was told.」Uran concurred.「There's no point in trying to make sense of such arrangement.」
「Someone who gained the loyalty of a dragonkind and the approval of a Yonko…」said Hunter.「I wonder how strong is he.」
「We will be able to see that soon, won't we?」Elegas grinned.
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「Ryuu dono, don't you want to be closer to our master?」Hayden turned to the dragonoid, who were both standing high up on a large tree branch far away from the field, along with Reuk.
「Kibadios sama will be fine. If anything were to happen, Maia senpai and others would immediately react in time. It's better that I stay out here and monitor the situation as a whole. I'm more worried about the threat that may come from the Astrals than those two elves. Having a large field of vision allows me to protect Master better.」explained Ryuu.
「If I were you, Ryuu, I'd be more worried about Kibadios facing Ren and Yue sama.」Reuk commented.「They're no walkover」
「... Neither is Kibadios sama.」said Ryuu.
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The fight quickly commenced without any warning the moment all three participants stepped foot into the field, with the pink haired elves quickly taking out their talismans, holding them in between their slender fingers. Yue, the female elf, mumbled some inaudible chant, conjuring up a pair of wings that were made up of thousands of small sheets of papers, much like Konan and her jutsu. With just a few flaps, the girl was elevated up in the air, her opaque green eyes gazed down at the hybrid. Unlike his sister who took up to the sky, her brother decided to stay on the ground and leap forward at the hybrid, rows of talismans floating in circles around his body.
「I'll end this quick and grant you a merciful death, you insolent hybrid!」Ren growled before raising his hand up in mid air, redirecting the floating talismans in front of his palm.「<8 Elemental Gates>」Ren shouted. 「<Crimson Gate: Inferno>」
As he finished chanting, sparks of ember started to coalesce in front of the 8 trigrams that just appeared inside the talisman circle before projecting itself toward the hybrid at a point blank range.
This… This little elf is no joke. Kibadios grinned before clapping his hand like Edward Elric, erected his own firewall with a chantless defensive spell. Despite being hastily constructed, the firewall protecting Kibadios was gigantic, resembling that of the Calamity Wall ability used by Dark King Vearn from Dai no Daiboken. Since it was already made from fire, the wall easily absorbed the elven runecrafter's attack. The new source of fire even invigorated it and caused it to burn brighter as a result.
「It's not wise to use fire attacks on me, Ren kun.」Kibadios teased. 「After all, fire is my primary elemental affinity… Along with shadow!」The hybrid lightly tapped his feet, causing dark spiky blades to protrude from the ground underneath their feet and launched themselves at the angry elf. Yet, much like how Kibadios was able to block Ren's attack, the elven shaman was able to raise blocks of hardened mineral up from the ground to protect himself from the hybrid's counterattack.
「<Amethyst Gate: Terra firma>」Ren quickly picked out another talisman, using it as a conduit to enact his runecraft magic.
CLANGGG!!!
The impact between numerous dark blades and the blocks of barriers resulted in loud, deafening sounds that vexed most of the people in attendance. Yet, neither Kibadios or Ren seemed to have been fazed by the exchange. By now, the hybrid had finally conjured up his trustworthy scythe while the shaman had already started with his next attack.
「If fire doesn't work, then I'll drown you with this.」screamed out Ren. Again, his two fingers grabbed onto a new piece of talisman, this time, the runes written on it appeared to glow in blue light. 「<Azure Gate: Ebb and Flow>」In contrast to what happened a few minutes ago, this time, instead of fire, droplets of water began to condense. Before long, streams of raging water formed into the shape of an eastern dragon, coiling around Ren, before roaring forward at the hybrid, seemingly wanting to devour him whole.
This is why it's such a pain fighting against runecrafters. Kibadios thought to himself before jumping backward to create some distance between him and the incoming attack. For other classes aside from magic caster, their Nen could only be efficiently converted into the attacks imbued with the element that they have the most affinity with. Yet, for runecrafters, by using the runes as conduits, they can convert their Nen to almost any elemental attacks with minimal loss of efficiency. What's worse, albeit they're much less powerful, their runic attacks can be compared to Arte in some cases. Hmm, wait a minute, the older brother has been absorbing all my attention, but what about the little sister? The hybrid quickly glanced up at the floating pink haired girl, who seemed to be focused on her own chants. That's… isn't that runic symbols for summoning rituals, if I am not mistaken. Noted the hybrid at the floating runes around the girl. Well, I guess it's time to take this fight seriously.
Grabbing tightly onto his scythe, instead of continuing backing away from the watery attack that took the form of a dragon, the hybrid changed course, bravely launching himself directly at the dragon's mouth. With one swing, Kibadios skillfully split the dragon in half. Before he could celebrate, the watery body of the splintered dragon swirled around, forming into large orbs before shooting several high velocity jets at the hybrid.
SPLASSSHHH
「Chiiii!!!」The pet slime, who had just recovered from the fight against one of the Hyakki Yagyo captains a week ago, violently struggled to break free from Maia's embrace the moment it saw the jets firing at its master.
「Nu chan! Calm down.」Maia soothed the panicked slime.「Learn to believe in our Master, Nu chan. He'll be fine.」
「Chii?」Despite what she just said, the girl was subconsciously squeezing the slime harder and harder as she watched the match between Kibadios and the elven shaman played out in front of her eyes.
「... Now, that was close!」Kibadios again donned a confident grin. As the dust settled, Ren was disappointed to see his opponent was still standing high, with none of the injury that he was expecting someone who took on the attack heads on to sustain. 「Too bad, but since I have fused with <Aegis>, you need to up the intensity of your attacks if you want it to reach me.」Declared Kibadios. Just in that nick of time, the hybrid was able to summon <Aegis> and fused with it, allowing his defense stat to rise to the roof.
「... You're a summoner, not a magic caster?」Surprised Ren.「... Well, not that it matters since Yue has finally completed her ritual too.」The elf reciprocated Kibadios' grin with a smirk of his own before looking up to his sister.
「<23 Ancestor Gates: OPEN>」Yue finally spoke her first words since the fight started. Around her, 23 different portals began to appear. With the golden circles swirling around each portal, Kibadios swore this could be a reference to Avenger: Endgame part two if his fight against the two elves would ever be made into a live action movie. From beyond every portal, skeletons dressed in elaborated eastern clothing merged, each wore a distinct crown on their heads.
「... so, isn't this something similar to Lance's Arte?」Kibadios realized. 「Seriously, I know it's a bit ironic for me to say this, but the power of you runecrafters is something just like a cheat code… Fay, just what incredible and annoying ability that you had invented!」
