I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 307: Making a Move

Whish!

In an instant, a great portion of the lightning pillars that were heading towards Herellia after being taunted by her had been cut into two, transforming them into a swath of dark blue strands that headed towards her body. Although that was the case, a dissatisfied aura radiated from her as she imitated the sound of one clicking their tongue as she muttered to herself, “A hundred lightning pillars. Is that the limit of my skill?”

At this moment, she was gauging the limits of the skill she had just used, which was none other than [Blood Empress Decree: Verse Five, Domination]. Thanks to the taunting she had just done to lure the lightning pillars towards her, with the help of her enhanced vision from the evolution, she was able to see that around 150 lightning pillars went towards her to smite her down, but only two-thirds of those lightning pillars were cut down from the skill she had used. Of course, that did not mean that she was truly dissatisfied with the skill’s powers, but in her current situation, she felt like it was lacking.

“I think I haven’t tried my hardest in that activation of the skill,” she said to herself, feeling that this was the reason why she was only able to cut down 100 pillars instead of the whole 150 she had lured. Nevertheless, since the remaining 50 lightning pillars were heading her way, she did not let them have their way, gripping tightly on the crimson halberd she wielded before charging towards them like a berserker covered in blood.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

If an Animate were to look at the current Herellia from afar, they would undoubtedly say that she was currently clearing the tribulation that befall her in the most domineering way possible, facing against the lightning bolts that wanted to hit her head-on. At first, one would think that she would certainly die from one clash with the large lightning pillars she was facing against, but that wasn’t the case as of this moment. In fact, it was the exact opposite.

Whoosh! Swoosh!

With every swing of the halberd she wielded, Herellia would cut down a lightning pillar to the point of being dispelled, transforming into dark blue strands that were absorbed by her body before strengthening it. It was in this tyrannical manner of dispelling the lightning pillars was Herellia able to decimate the 50 lightning pillars that wanted to smite her down.

“Haah…haah…” After destroying those 50 lightning pillars, Herellia felt a new sensation washing over her body, making her feel like it was slightly hard for her to move her body. Although it was possible for her to do so if she forced herself, she felt like it would only make it harder for her to move her body in the long run. Then again, she felt that this sensation would disappear when she gave it enough time to pass, deciding to sit on the ground for a bit and rest as she counted the remaining lightning bolts she and Horell had to face.

On the other hand, a being under a large crimson magic circle could not help but look at Herellia with an aura of immense shock surrounding him. Naturally, this being was Horell, who only felt immense awe, shock, and even a hint of fear from the showcase of power Herellia had just done slightly far away from him.

“And here I was hoping that the heavens showed mercy on Herellia by allowing her to survive,” Horell muttered to himself as he let out a mocking chuckle soon after. He then continued to mutter, saying, “But in actuality, she now has more than enough power to destroy one of the lightning pillars in one hit! Now that I think about it…should I be thanking the heavens for giving Herellia this level of power?”

“Quite confusing,” he said after pondering over the question he had asked himself for a bit. Although that was the case, an aura of pride and confidence radiated from him as he looked at Herellia and said, “As long as Herellia shows at least a power at this level after she successfully clears the tribulation, then who could say that the Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance isn’t the best alliance in Tempest Cliff?”

“Though we are the only alliance in Tempest Cliff, heh.”

As for Argentum, he also felt incredulous shock after seeing the showcase of power Herellia had done, prompting him to let out a chuckle as he said to himself, “Well, it seems that Herellia is officially the strongest being in the alliance…”

“When only considering one’s base form, that is,” he muttered soon after as he was quite curious as to what level of power Herellia could reach if he cast all of his buffs on her. With that in mind, he could not help but recall his full power and his original body’s full power, prompting him to continue muttering, “If we’re talking about one’s combat power once one activates all of their buffs, then I’m pretty sure Aurus would win hands down. And I guess I would be second?”

“Either way, as long as nothing goes wrong during this trial, then Herellia would have no problems clearing this one,” he said to himself before an aura of expectation and elation surrounded him as he continued, “And with that, she would have successfully cleared the trial!”

Recalling what the heavens said to him through the system, Herellia’s Existence Tribulation consisted of 3 trials. Ignoring the fact that one of the trials was a bonus trial that allowed Herellia to obtain an enhancement to her transitional evolution, then it meant that the current trial Herellia was facing was pretty much the last trial she had to endure. This thought was the answer to his question from before, which was the question of why Herellia had asked him to cast a buff on her, even though she knew the repercussions of such a move. Although he had such a thought in mind, he could not help but wonder how Herellia came to know that all of the buffs on her body had been dispelled.

“Or perhaps, she thinks I have more buffs?” Pondering over this statement, Argentum felt that it was quite feasible as well, though he would not say that the first thought he had was impossible to happen.

After clearing all of the unneeded thoughts inside his mind, he then continued to look at Herellia from afar, noticing that she was currently sitting down on the ground as her sense of vision was focused on the lightning pillars. Utilizing his enhanced senses, he soon found out that Herellia’s vitality was slightly weaker than before, although it was recovering at a decently fast rate. At first, he did not know the reason why this was happening, but after rummaging through Aurus’s memories for a while, as well as pondering over it, he soon came to know that Herellia was experiencing exhaustion.

“Well, it’s not weird for her to experience something like that, given the fact that she’s incredibly close to becoming an Animate,” Argentum muttered to himself, wondering if the other functions of an Animate were also visible on the current Herellia.

While Argentum was looking at her with great intent, Herellia finally stood up from the ground after noticing that the sensation she felt had disappeared, gripping tightly onto her crimson halberd once more as she recalled the number of lightning pillars that remained after her attacks.

“Adding in the lightning pillars that had been dispelled by the magic circle I made to protect Horell, then there are around 650 or so lightning pillars for me and Horell to destroy,” Herellia muttered to herself as she redirected her sense of vision towards Horell. To be more exact, her sense of vision was directed the crimson magic circle over Horell’s head. Without hesitation, she sent a strand of energy towards the magic circle, wanting to know the remaining time it had before it dispelled.

Indeed, the magic circle had a fixed amount of time before it would disappear. Although the length of time that the magic circle would exist relied on the amount of energy that was infused in it, even with the amount of energy Herellia infused, she was only able to extend the magic circle’s duration to 10 minutes.

After swinging her crimson halberd twice, as well as removing the exhaustion she felt, only a couple of minutes remained before the magic circle would dispel. With that in mind, Herellia went ahead and taunted as many of the lightning pillars as possible, utilizing the movement speed boosting buff that was cast on her by Argentum to its fullest extent.

Fortunately, it did not take long for a great portion of the remaining lightning pillars to chase Herellia down after being taunted, redirecting quite a decent number of the lightning pillars that were about to hit the magic circle towards her instead. At this point, Horell could not help but wonder what Herellia was doing, only to conclude that she was going to use that overbearing skill once more.

And indeed she was. After focusing her sense of vision on the lightning pillars and feeling that she had accumulated enough of them, she stopped running away from them before turning around to face them with her halberd in hand. This time, she summoned all of the energy she could muster from her body before redirecting all of it towards the halberd she wielded. Of course, that did not stop there. Surprisingly, she even went ahead and summoned even more energy from who-knows-where, redirecting it towards the halberd without hesitation.

Even though she felt the sensation from before creeping up once more, she knew that she had to amass a great amount of energy if she wanted to reduce the burden Horell would have to endure. After feeling that she had redirected almost of the energy inside her body into the halberd, she went ahead and slashed horizontally with her halberd once more as she shouted, “[Blood Empress Decree: Verse Five, Domination]!”

Whish!

Fwoosh!

At the very instant she released her attack, a decent portion of the lightning pillars she had taunted were bisected, transforming into dark blue strands that enhanced her combat power and slightly recovered her energy. Nevertheless, she felt like the attack that she released, even though it was far stronger than before, was still lacking.

“150 lightning pillars in one go…” Herellia muttered to herself in slight contemplation before eventually shouting, “Not enough!”

Whoosh!

Without hesitation, she pointed her crimson halberd towards the remaining lightning pillars once more before going ahead and redirecting all of the energy inside her body towards the halberd…only for something else to happen.

Bang!

Out of nowhere, a loud explosion sound resounded inside Herellia’s mind as she felt that it was incredibly hard for her to move her body. It was as if the body she had was not her own anymore. At this very moment, she could not help but wonder why this was happening to her, only for her to remember the sensation she felt while she was charging up her previous attack.

Letting out a sigh of slight disappointment, she went ahead and allowed her body to lie down on the ground as she looked at the lightning pillars that were about to come and gobble her up. It was only at this moment did she count the number of lightning pillars she had taunted, causing her to let out a wry chuckle as she said, “I’ve actually taunted 400 lightning pillars. How great would it be if my attack just now was able to dispel all of them?”

After saying those words, she then closed her sense of vision, waiting for the inevitable to come. Although she was still gripping tightly onto her halberd, she could not summon any strength out of her body anymore. She had overexerted her body in her previous attack, using up all of the energy that was stored inside her body in that single attack. Even though she knew she could recover some energy to dodge these lightning pillars, she knew that it would still take a while for that to happen. Would the lightning pillars wait for her to recover her energy before striking down?

Of course not.

And so, she accepted her current fate.

Though…another being was not going to let that happen.

Whoosh!

While her sense of vision was closed, she gradually heard the sound of wind become louder as she felt that a being was standing in front of where she was lying down. Soon after that, she felt a familiar energy covering a certain radius around her and the being, which she instantly thought was protecting her and the being from the onslaught of the lightning pillars.

Naturally, she wondered as to who this being was, only for her to inwardly let out a light chuckle as she instantly knew who it was. At first, she thought that it was Argentum, but even at his full speed, he would still be too late to grab her body and help her dodge the attack. With that in mind, she said, “I thought you were the type of guy to avoid things that were harmful to you, Horell.”

Whoosh!

As she said those words, she opened her sense of vision, allowing her field to be covered by the sight of Horell’s back as she sat upright. In response, a light chuckle radiated from Horell as he replied in a stuttering voice, “To be honest, I’m seriously regretting my impulsive choice right now.”

“But I can’t really shirk away from things like these if one of my closest companions’ lives are on the line now, can I?” Horell said not long after as he turned his head to look at Herellia.

After saying that, he went ahead and extended both of his arms towards the nearing lightning pillars as he started to summon all of the energy he had recuperated towards his palms. Soon after, a cyan magic circle a few times larger than the one before appeared in front of his extended palms as he silently muttered a few incantations along the way while being vigilant of the distance between him and the lightning pillars that were out to get them.

Fortunately, before the lightning pillars were even able to close the distance between them, Horell muttered to Herellia, who was behind him, “Although I feel like this isn’t the right thing to say since it’s your tribulation…”

“It’s time for me to do my part one more time.”

Whoosh!

“[Gate of Myriad Armaments: Part Three]…”

“[World of Armis]!”

——–

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