I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 337: An Expected Outcome

By the time Argentum was finished narrating what had happened between him and Melzarin while Felix and Rosalia were fighting, the four of them had already arrived a few meters away from where Eleanor was. Unfortunately, just as they were about to plan their next move on a strengthened Eleanor, the flames surrounding her had changed form once again. This time, a large wave of killing intent radiated throughout the area, prompting all four to let out a sigh of slight disappointment.

Soon after, Felix scratched his head with an aura of slight worry around him as he muttered, “Oh, boy. Eleanor has finally gone berserk.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In less than an instant, the white and black portions of the flames that appeared around Eleanor fused as one, transforming into gray flames that emanated a strong aura of death. Not long after, another type of aura appeared from the gray flames, becoming a great contrast to the deathly aura of the flames. Of course, this aura was none other than the aura of life, acting as the fuel of the flames to burn more intensely.

Once the flames surrounding her had turned into gray flames, the dress covering her body soon turned into gray flames as well while the mark of a gray flame appeared on her forehead. At this moment, the four knew that they were now fighting against Eleanor’s strongest form for real, the Samsara form.

Now devoid of rationality, Eleanor went ahead and covered her fists in gray flames as she dashed at the four with the greatest speed she could ever muster. Seeing this, the four hastily looked at one another and nodded, tacitly agreeing that the first attack Eleanor was going to send towards them would be the strongest. With that in mind, Melzarin, Rosalia, and Felix decided to use all of their strongest defensive skills in tandem while Argentum acted as their support.

“[Mountain Reformation Scripture: Earth’s Divine Will]!” Since he was the strongest being among them, Melzarin activated his own skill first, forming a wall of earth that was 10 meters high and 5 meters thick. Soon after, this wall of earth had turned a dark shade of gray, giving off the feeling that it had turned to metal.

“[World Protection Art: Dominion of the Terran Sovereign]!” Next up was Rosalia, whose element was the same as Melzarin’s. Unlike Melzarin’s skill though, this defensive skill covered the four of them in a thick barrier that radiated a bright brown color. Surprisingly, this barrier connected with the wall Melzarin had made, reinforcing its defensive properties.

“[Tsunami Redirection Scripture: Divine Wave Splitter Formation]!” Being the only strong being left that hadn’t activated their skill, Felix went ahead and cast the strongest defensive skill he had in his arsenal, covering the barrier Rosalia made in a barrier of water that rotated every second at high speeds. At this point, only a second or so has passed since Eleanor made her move. Nevertheless, her fists were already ready to attack the barrier at full power.

Of course, Argentum would try his best to not let it happen, covering all of them in a layer of blue energy as he shouted, “[Supreme Aqua Benefica: Selfless Variant]!”

Swoosh!

In less than a second, the energy that the three defensive skills had been enhanced by a great degree, prompting the three to look at Argentum with shock as if he was a monster. Ignoring their reactions from what he had done, Argentum continued to cast buffs that would increase the durability of the defensive skills, covering all of them once more in a layer of energy. This time, though, the energy was light brown.

“[Gaia’s World Aegis]!”

Fwoosh!

And just like that, the energy circulating within each of the three defensive skills had intensified to yet another degree, giving off the feeling that the three would be able to defend against Eleanor’s attack without a problem. Fortunately, the buff had applied just a split second before Eleanor’s attack landed against the defensive skills.

Bang!

Accompanied by a loud explosion, a large part of the surroundings had been flung into the air, with the only part still remaining on the ground being the land that the four were standing on. Seeing how destructive Eleanor’s attack was, Argentum could not help but look at the three and ask, “Did you three ever have to fight against her at her full power?”

In response, the three hastily shook their heads, knowing very well that they would lose to her on a one-on-one if she was in her Samsara form. But in reality, the three had asked Eleanor to fight them at her strongest a few times, and well…

The best way to put it would be that the three took a couple of months to return her to normal after each fight.

Noticing that her attack hadn’t obtained the effect that she wanted, Eleanor automatically summoned a large swath of flames around her fists, making it seem like a group of people were punching against the wall at once. Naturally, with that kind of attack, the speed at which the durability of the three defensive skills went down had increased in pace.

Examining what Eleanor was doing, Felix then closed his sense of vision for a bit before sending a strand of energy to the remaining three and saying through that connection, “At most, we only have around five seconds before she breaks through our defensive skills. Should we prepare an offensive to catch her off guard?”

“I’m down to be on the offensive,” Melzarin hastily replied.

“I’ll boost your offensive properties,” Rosalia added not long after.

“I’ll do the same thing as Rosalia,” Argentum said his piece after Rosalia was done.

“Guess I’ll also be on the offensive, then,” Felix uttered soon after that.

After coming to a consensus, Melzarin and Felix went ahead and prepared the strongest offensive skills they had in their arsenal. For Melzarin, the armor of earth surrounding his body was manipulated to coalesce around his hands before transforming into a giant double-handed sword. Not long after, a great mass of Earth energy particles surrounded his body, making him give off the feeling that he and the double-handed sword were the same entity.

As for Felix, he conjured a spear out of water just like before. But rather than forming a magic circle at the tip of the spear to increase its speed, he instead redirected most of the energy inside his body towards the surface, creating a layer of dark blue armor made out of solidified water. Soon after, a large mass of Water energy particles appeared out of nowhere, covering both Felix and his spear as he gave off the same feeling as Melzarin, being as one.

At this moment, the large wall Melzarin had conjured was broken through by Eleanor, with her now madly hammering her fists on the two barriers Rosalia and Felix made. Seeing that they did not have that much time left, given how Eleanor summoned another wave of flames to speed up the process, Argentum and Rosalia hastily summoned all of the energy inside their bodies outward as they cast all of the enhancement skills and spells they had in their arsenal.

“[World Rejuvenation Art: Boundless Proliferation]!”

“[World Sublimation Art: The World as the Blade]!”

“[World Ultimatum Art: Union of Life and World]!”

“[Higher Zephyr Magic: Zephyr Burst]!”

“[Higher Ignis Magic: Ignis Burst]!”

“…”

“[Zephyr Ignis Ouroboros Magic: Symbiotic Resonance]!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Various balls of energy taking on various shapes and sizes soon entered both Melzarin and Felix’s bodies, increasing their combat power to the limit. Fortunately, by the time all of the buffs had applied on the two, Eleanor had broken through the two barriers, which meant that she had no momentum left.

Without hesitation, the two of them charged towards Eleanor, with Melzarin at the front. Eleanor, who could feel the combat intent strongly emanating from the two, hastily used the gray flames she had summoned to form a shield in front of her. Unfortunately, she did not expect that the combat power of the two would be so overbearing.

“[Mountain Reformation Scripture: World-Rending Form]!”

“[Cleaving the Myriad Mountains]!”

Swish! Bang!

Thanks to his attack speed being enhanced to insane degrees by Argentum’s buffs, the double-handed sword Melzarin was wielding had collided with the shield of gray flames in an instant, blasting all of them away, much to Eleanor’s surprise. With a ton of momentum left in the double-handed sword, it made sense that the sword would connect with Eleanor’s body and send her flying, though she did try a last-ditch effort to defend.

Whoosh!

With her being flung at great speeds, Melzarin shouted at Felix, who was now dashing to where she would land, “Give it all you got!”

“Why wouldn’t I?!” Felix hastily shouted in response as he made sure to be ahead of Eleanor by a few meters. By the time Eleanor was about to land on the ground, Felix had appeared before him, channeling a great portion of energy in his body to cover his water spear in magic circles.

Not long after, he thrust the spear towards Eleanor, cutting off all her momentum just like that before being flung back to where the three were.

“[Tsunami Piercer Variant: Leviathan Devouring the Seven Seas]!”

Bang!

And just like that, Eleanor was sent flying once more. But this time, she was flying back to where Melzarin and the others were at great speeds.

Just as the three were about to get away from the spot where Eleanor would possibly land, Argentum sent a message to the other three through the connection they had and asked, “Do you think Eleanor would return back to normal with such an attack?”

“If those attacks don’t return her back to normal, then we’re pretty much doomed,” Felix said in response as he headed to where they were. Melzarin agreed with Felix’s words, adding, “Those attacks of ours used up a great portion of our energy. In short, it’s up to Rosalia and possibly you, Argentum, to fight against the weakened Eleanor.”

“I’m not even great at attacks…” Rosalia could not help but say. As for Argentum, he could only scratch his head. Though, not long after, a thought surfaced in his mind as he asked them, “On second thought, what if I told you guys that I have a way to stop Eleanor from attacking for a bit, allowing you three to land more attacks?”

“Oh?” In an instant, the curiosities of the three were piqued, wondering how such a weak Pseudo-Animate would have such an overbearing skill in his arsenal. Of course, they went ahead and started to clear up all their doubts, with Felix going first as he asked, “How much time can you buy for us?”

“I’m not sure since I haven’t tried it, but I feel like I could bind her for 10 seconds,” Argentum replied, responding with the smallest amount of time he could achieve with the skill. Nevertheless, the three were left at a loss for words, expecting that he would respond that he could bind her for only a second or two at most. Although they wanted to believe his words, they knew that it would be better for them to doubt his words for now since they didn’t want to take any chances.

Then again, they decided that they would use Argentum’s method for now, binding Eleanor at the very moment she landed. With that, the four hastily got away from the area where Eleanor would land, watching as Eleanor fell to the ground like a shooting star.

Thud! Bang!

With no surprise, Eleanor landed on the ground with a tremendous amount of force, forming a crater that was about a couple of meters deep and around a dozen meters wide. Since they had visual and auditory confirmation that Eleanor had landed on the ground, Argentum went ahead and used the innate skill from [Sage’s Earth Magic] for the first time.

“[Jotunheim Domain]!”

Swoosh!

Within a second, the ground surrounding Eleanor had taken on a shade of light yellow as vines made out of this light yellow energy wrapped itself around Eleanor. After confirming that there was no resistance from Eleanor even after a second, the four of them hastily went closer to where she was, letting out a sigh of relief at the very moment they saw her.

Right now, Eleanor had returned to her original form, the gray dress surrounding her now being the usual shade of red she exuded. Even the gray flame mark on her forehead was nowhere to be seen. Just as Rosalia and Felix were about to get closer to Eleanor, Melzarin stopped the two of them as he said, “Allow me.”

Although they had no idea why Melzarin stopped the two of them, since they knew he had changed, they decided that it would be a good first chance for him to change Eleanor’s impression of him.

Making his way to where Eleanor was, Melzarin went ahead and poked her on the cheek a few times, which surprisingly woke her up.

“Mnghh…” Moaning from the pain she felt all over her body, Eleanor looked around her surroundings, only for her vision to stop as she noticed that Melzarin was in front of her. Naturally, Eleanor tried to distance herself from him as far as possible after that, but unfortunately for her, she was still under the effects of Argentum’s skill.

And so, with her body being bound by Argentum’s skill, plus the fact that she was too weak to even distance herself to begin with, she shouted at Melzarin, saying, “Get away from me!”

“Eleanor, I love you! Please be mine!” Contrary to what Eleanor would expect to hear from Melzarin, the latter instead said this, leaving the other four at a loss for words. Argentum, who remembered what he said to Melzarin sometime ago, could not help but do a facepalm as he shouted inwardly.

“Idiot!”

“…” As for Eleanor, she was not expecting these words to come out of Melzarin’s mouth at all. Nevertheless, given the current situation she was in, her answer was quite expected.

“What?!”

“No!”