Chapter 973: Absolute Prohibition
“You will not cast. You will not fly. You will not run. You will not hide.”
And Sareth stood at its center: calm, grim, and resolute. A one-woman apocalypse.
Her halberd brimmed with power.
The floor beneath them cracked.
The team of predators, tricksters, and tyrants had walked into a prison.
And now, they were the inmates.
Sareth’s eyes swept across the battlefield with the dispassion of a judge, then locked onto the smallest among them.
Feng.
The Gremlord’s knees were trembling violently, her previously untamed aura flickering weakly like candlelight in the wind.
Sareth pointed the Halberd of Stillness at her, all the while not moving one step from her position.
“Dispel this, little girl,” she commanded. A taunt and a challenge packed into one.
“Go ahead. Override my powers one more time. I dare you.”
Feng’s lips parted after a great deal of struggle, but no sound came out.
The blood in her limbs had slowed, her mana ducts strained to the edge of collapse. Every heartbeat came late. Every thought was delayed.
She was suffocating.
The sheer pressure of [Absolute Prohibition] was more than just a magical lockdown. It was a conceptual denial, a field of existential rejection.
Feng wasn’t just being out-leveled in this battle. She was being unwritten.
Her fingers spasmed, trying to form the mudra for [Chaotic Sigil: Panic Button], a defensive reroll spell.
But her hands wouldn’t move right.
They couldn’t.
Tears welled up in her eyes, unbidden and furious at her lack of power.
This was beyond merely being outclassed. This was her being brought to a state of utter helplessness.
“…S-sorry, guys…” she mumbled through cracked lips. “I-I can’t…”
And she collapsed to her knees, barely catching herself with a trembling palm.
Sareth flashed a little cocky smirk at the sight of Feng crumbling to her knees. She wasn’t one to boast during her battles, but having her mighty spell dispelled by this child didn’t sit right with the woman, leaving a sour taste on her tongue. It had to be corrected.
“I knew you Greenvales were one pathetic breed of human scum,” Vex spat out, dragging her blade into a ready stance. Her breathing was shallow, sweat glistening on her collarbones, but her eyes held fire. “But even I didn’t dare assume this much… Why don’t you try bullying me instead of a literal kid, you saggy cunt?”
Sareth’s emerald gaze slid toward the Hexwitch with a chilling calm.
“As you wish.”
She moved.
In less than a heartbeat, the Warden of the Severed Chain closed the gap between them. Her halberd swept low at first, but seeing Vex moving to intercept, she used her immense physical stats to make it rush upward in a brutal diagonal arc.
*CLANG!*
Vex caught the blow, but just barely. Her blade trembled from the force, the impact sending spiderweb fractures of shock through her arms. Her feet skidded back three full meters, which was something this mighty woman rarely had to deal with in recent years.
Sareth was already in pursuit.
*CLANG!*
*CLANG!*
Two more brutal strikes fell down on Vex, testing her guard at inhuman angles. Her blade was fast, and her instincts honed through painstaking effort. But against Sareth’s execution-born tempo, even she was drowning. Already, cuts tore through the sleeves of her white kendo uniform, which now sported patches of dark red, with one blow even slicing across her shoulder and leaving a crimson splash across her collar.
“Gnh!” Vex hissed, grinning despite the blood pooling from her lip.
That was when Quinlan arrived.
He blurred in from the flank of the enemy. A horizontal slash met Sareth’s side just as she tried to go for another halberd thrust, aiming to maim her.
But she had more than enough presence of mind to keep aware of her surroundings, evidenced by her dragging her weapon’s haft behind her like a whip and parrying both of them in one motion.
The three were locked in a vicious, spiraling triangle. Saber. Hexblade. Halberd.
Quinlan and Vex pressed together, doing their best to make use of one another’s strengths, but Sareth was immovable.
*CRACK!*
A bone-deep impact left Quinlan’s ribs bruised as the back end of the halberd smacked into his side.
*SHINK!*
A deep cut opened down Vex’s thigh, her balance staggered, her leg barely holding.
Blossom came in from above in a silent, shadowy descent.
But Sareth sensed it.
*THWAM!*
The pommel of her halberd drove straight into Blossom’s gut during her descent.
“Ghhkk!” Blossom’s eyes bulged as she was slammed into a nearby wall with her breath thoroughly knocked out of her lungs, her body twitching before she slumped to one knee, struggling to stand back up and rejoin the fight.
Sareth didn’t even look back.
She simply adjusted her grip.
Two more strikes came, one aimed at Quinlan’s throat, one at Vex’s hip.
Quinlan barely managed to sidestep. Vex didn’t.
RIIIP!
A massive gash tore through Vex’s side, her uniform falling open in tatters, blood blooming in great streaks on her pale skin.
But she grinned through it.
No, more than that… she laughed.
<Hah…hahaha… I fought many similar battles, but having my hubby at my side makes it so much better…! I’m getting addicted to combat all over again!>
Her shoulders trembled, half from pain, half from the unrestrained thrill buzzing in her bones.
<Battle-junkie wife of mine,> Quinlan’s voice rang in her mind through the [Master’s Link], <I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, but how about we do something about this annoying domain of hers? Without casting spells, we’re not going to defeat a monster of her level.>
Their weapons clashed again. Vex’s blade intercepted Sareth’s halberd in a blur of motion. Sparks flew, blood sprayed, and Sareth’s expression remained unreadable.
Vex pouted mid-swing, flipping her hexblade into a reverse grip. <You’re right… annoyingly right. But that’s easier said than done! Dispelling that domain outright isn’t possible. We need to leave its radius to cast anything worthwhile.>
Quinlan parried a sweeping cleave, an action which saw his saber screeching against the halberd. Even the Soul Reaper was put to the test in this battle.
<Good luck with that. The radius moves with her. If we try to run out, she’ll just follow and keep us locked inside.>
<Exactly. So one of us has to stay and keep her occupied while the other escapes.>
<Then it’s not gonna be you.> Quinlan’s mental voice sharpened. <You’re a lot more injured than I, Vex. If I leave, you’ll get killed.>
Hearing his words, Vex growled in frustration, shoving against Sareth’s pressure with both arms. Her ankles wobbled under the weight of her own strike, but only for a single moment.
<Stop underestimating me, damn it! Everyone’s doing that lately.>
Another exchange. Another cut. Another mad grin from her bloodied lips.
<Even if I did listen to you, which I won’t, just so you know, you’re still the better long-range fighter. Significantly better at that. You’re a damn anomaly, Quin. Your stupid soul-hybrid-harbinger-whatever build makes you good at everything. Me? I’m a curse-slinger. A close-range one. I don’t do ranged combat, especially not to defeat a level 68 monster.>
<You’re not retreating,> Quinlan countered, sliding under Sareth’s next sweep to draw her attention. His saber flared bright as he matched her movement with inhuman agility. <You’re repositioning to cast a spell that’ll tip the fight. Big difference.>
<You didn’t address my second point!>
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter