Chapter 137: Akana's Heavenly Fang

Unfortunately, Arcana was working perfectly with her. She gave Mr. Lich no such opportunity.

“Heaven’s Fang!”

The colossal wolf, rising into the sky amid flickering arcs of electricity, drew the lich’s attention. He had no choice but to command the bone dragon to intercept it, while rotating his fingers and preparing to deal Vinigo a grievous blow.

But in the end, his magic had to be used for defense.

Hilda’s flames spread across the sky, hissing as they splashed against the frost-blue shield surrounding the lich. Outside the shield, the bone dragon’s pair of skeletal wings glowed red beneath the searing heat.

“That’s why I hate flying enemies… Ramen! You’re up!”

At Vinigo’s cry, the enormous Sky-Sea Whale broke through the void and appeared before her. She leapt onto Ramen’s back and urged the giant beast toward the bone dragon.

Ramen let out a long, deep roar. From beneath its belly, its twin fins suddenly lashed out four golden-red tentacles. They wrapped nimbly around the bone dragon’s waist and yanked it so hard that it nearly fell from the sky.

The bone dragon was worthy of its status as one of the mightiest of undead creatures. Its skeletal wings, sharp as blades, severed the tentacles, which were tough as iron cables. Ramen roared angrily, swung its tail, and struck the dragon heavily across the face.

The bone dragon spun from the blow. Before it could regain altitude, Arcana and Hilda were upon it at the same time.

“Annihilating Grand Slash: Empty!”

Purple flaming projectiles howled through the air, rippling with killing intent as they struck the bone dragon’s gray-white body, making it stagger on the verge of collapse. Then the giant wolf charged with unstoppable majesty and slammed into the dragon’s side like a battering ram.

“Secret Art: Radiant God’s Fang!”

The lich’s magic descended at the same moment. Cruelly, he allowed the bone dragon’s enormous body to draw the enemies’ attacks, using the opening to rapidly chant a deadly spell.

Among the dark arts, none possessed greater destructive power than Dragon Breath. Based on the principle of imitating a true dragon’s exhalation, it condensed pure dark mana into a single point of extreme compression before firing it outward. Upon touching its target, it annihilated everything within a wide area, friend and foe alike.

He had gone to such lengths to seize this opportunity. Naturally, he had no concern for whether the bone dragon lived or died.

“Summoning Reversal, Hilda!” Vinigo shouted.

Hilda vanished into the void, while Arcana instantly reverted to her true form and darted past the edge of the dragon’s breath, landing far away on the ground.

The missed blast struck the end of the road in the distance with a thunderous explosion, sending a towering column of dust into the air. The half-missing hill and the road severed completely beyond it were enough to show just how powerful the lich’s dark magic was.

Masterful spellcasting, first-rate combat experience, and an astonishingly vast reserve of mana. An enemy like this was undeniably dangerous.

Even if he was alone. Even if he was only a skeleton that looked as though a little force would be enough to scatter him apart!

But he was a lich…

Vinigo sighed. A one-on-one battle against a flying enemy was precisely the kind of fight she disliked.

Should she change roles?

Vinigo had already been considering dissolving the current character construct, buying time, and then creating a stronger, more suitable imaginary character. But suddenly, an inexplicable tremor spread from her heart throughout her entire body, causing her to abandon the idea.

Naturally, it was the impulse of life.

From this imaginary body modeled after Nakoruru came nature’s hatred of the undead. That emotion affected Vinigo, whose soul resonated with Nakoruru’s, and suddenly filled her with anger.

How could she surrender like this?

The Kiki-Ushi in her hand flashed with dazzling colors. Vinigo tightened her grip around the short blade—a weapon that had originally been nothing more than an ordinary magical tool, but which had been granted the concept of a sacred blade of nature through the imaginary construct.

“Ramen, eat it.”

Vinigo pointed toward the bone dragon and gave the order.

Ramen plunged from the sky, wrapping the bone dragon tightly in the many golden-red tentacles beneath its body. The dragon’s wings tore apart many of the tentacles, and its withering breath made Ramen deeply uncomfortable, but the whale still carried out its master’s command with absolute diligence.

It hauled the bone dragon into the air and slammed it violently into the ground, nearly scattering its bones.

Then the golden-red tentacles thrust into the gaps between its bones from every direction, like countless living earthworms. Greedily, they crushed the skeletal fragments one by one, draining of mana from the heavy damage, and swallowed them. Before long, only half of the bone dragon’s shattered remains were left.

Ramen would need considerable time to digest it. But the next part of the battle no longer required its assistance.

Vinigo dismissed the summon, allowing Ramen and its spoils to vanish into the void. Now, Vinigo still had to face the lich drifting through the air with his strange flying magic.

She had to find a way to make him come down obediently.

Vinigo moved at high speed, dodging the finger-snapping bolts of lightning and bursts of ice the lich fired down from above while she considered her options.

She had to act quickly. Otherwise, the lich would very likely choose to flee after finding himself unable to defeat them. He could simply fly past Vinigo and the others, then go to Buttgray Bay to seek reinforcements from the Moon Temple.

No. She could not let him do that.

Perhaps it would not be so troublesome. Perhaps all she needed was the right opportunity to bring the hateful bag of bones down.

Make him fall!

Vinigo suddenly stopped and reached to her waist, drawing a weapon that gleamed with silver light.

A silver revolver.

She had hardly used the weapon since making it. Its enchantment could slightly increase the speed of firing. Vinigo raised the barrel and emptied all six rounds in rapid succession.

The strange weapon took the lich by surprise. But he quickly realized that its attack power was insufficient to pierce the weakening and obstructive effects of the Atmospheric Divine Shield against incoming projectiles. Without a moment’s hesitation, the lich answered with a bolt of lightning.

Vinigo leapt aside, tucked the Kiki-Ushi into her belt, and swiftly took out a moon clip and speed loader, replacing the six spent rounds.

Bang, bang, bang…

This time, Vinigo nearly shot the lich from the sky. He had failed to notice that the bullets she used now bore an inconspicuous yet highly effective magical formula, greatly increasing their ability to penetrate the Atmospheric Divine Shield.

But it still was not enough.

Now on his guard, the lich naturally would not fall for the same trick again. He began deliberately evading Vinigo’s gunfire.

Vinigo remained unhurried. She dodged the lich’s offensive spells while reloading with fresh rounds.

Back and forth they went: enhanced armor-piercing bullets and explosive rounds against finger-snapping lightning and bursts of ice; danger runes that warned of impending threats and footwork as nimble as a cat against an endless succession of defensive spells. Barring some unexpected turn, it would become a long war of attrition.

Vinigo poured in new rounds and narrowed her eyes as she aimed at the lich flying overhead. This time, she was visibly several seconds slower.

The lich immediately began chanting at high speed, condensing powerful water elements between his hands. He intended to bind Vinigo’s movements with extreme frost, giving himself time to chant and aim before delivering a fatal blow with Dragon Breath.

The lich’s incantation was swift. He rapidly shaped the magic and hurled a mass of freezing mist toward Vinigo.

Something seemed wrong.

“Flowing Wind Slash!”

The descending cloud of ice mist rebounded at the same speed. The lich had no time to evade before the enormous mass of reflected mist engulfed him.

Heaven have mercy—the lich had been casting with all his strength, even deliberately enhancing the mist’s speed and freezing power!

As a result, the lich froze himself solid and plunged headfirst from the sky.

“Arcana!” Vinigo shouted.

The excited little wolf princess pounced forward and slashed with her claws.

“Wolf Spider’s Claw!”

Her attacks fell like a violent storm, sending countless sparks flying from the lich’s magical shield and the ice encasing him. The more fiercely the wolf princess attacked, the more exhilarated she became. Her crimson eyes shone ever brighter, as though they were about to burst into flame.

Vinigo joined the assault as well. She charged straight in and swung her blade with the momentum of her advance.

“Blade of Victory! Sixty-Sixth Form: Driving Rain! Radiant God’s Wheel Dance!”

Boom!

The ice surrounding the lich finally shattered. The necklace around his neck and the gemstones set into his wrists exploded into fragments at the same time. The dispersing magical fluctuations converged into countless spell formulas, linking together to form an enormous magic circle that radiated immense waves of darkness in every direction.

“The Supreme Dark Art—Descent of the Dark God!”

This spell required expensive magical artifacts of astonishing value as aids. Only the strongest among liches could likely cast such magic.

It possessed the corrosive poison of Death Cloud, the immense explosive force of Dragon Breath, the wondrous ability to erase an opponent’s defenses, and the power to squeeze an enemy’s soul and body dry at the same time.

In short, it was a dangerous spell that would cause both the caster and the enemy to suffer a painful death.

Therefore, they could not allow him to release it.

Yet at present, there seemed to be nothing capable of interrupting the lich’s casting. The layers of darkness surging outward protected him like a thick blanket. Even if they could pierce through those dark fluctuations, whatever strength remained would not be enough to annihilate both his body and soul before the spell was completed.

Wait. There was still a way.

Vinigo suddenly thought of an idea and acted at once.

All she had to do was summon Ramen above the lich and have it fall straight down. Before doing so, she had the whale use its tentacles to gather every nearby boulder, giant tree, and other heavy object it could find, then drag them all to the target location with the aid of its levitation ability.

Boom!

After dispelling its special ability, the Sky-Sea Whale, together with its cargo, fell like a collapsing mountain. The thunderous impact sent dust billowing everywhere. Even the powerful dark fluctuations could not withstand the tremendous force of several tons of weight plunging from the sky, and they scattered at once.

Another thunderous explosion followed!