Child of Destiny

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Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shin danced around the group of Ice Golems as they bombarded him with a series of punches that destroyed the surroundings. The trees were taken down as well as the other plantation in the surroundings that were shielding them from the violent wind and intense downpour of rain that was sweeping through the entire place.

The strength of these ice golems was quite remarkable, but they were not enough to threaten Shin in the slightest. Their battle formation under Leviathan's control was also a little troublesome to deal with, but even that was still manageable.

What made Shin wary of these ice golems was they could divide themselves into multiple smaller golems after he cut them. Moreover, they would explode when they reached the smallest size that they could get.

The might of each explosion was so powerful that Shin was forced to retreat multiple times. Even his Psychic Barrier formed through his Demonic Telekinesis was not enough to withstand these explosions, especially when they were releasing a powerful ice wave every time they occurred.

The explosion froze the surroundings, which the barrier could withstand. But the sharp ice fragments mixed in the explosions were able to break through the barrier, forcing Shin to repeatedly retreat.

At times, he was also caught off guard by some slimmer golems that had a pair of arms formed into blades. They were executing complex and unorthodox swordsmanship that forced him to engage in a melee battle.

Aside from this, he also discovered that the Ice-Elemental Powers of his opponent were slightly stronger than the Power of Abyssal Moon that he wielded. It also carried the unique powers of Demons and Demonic Player, the Demonic Energy.

At first, Shin was not using his ice powers since it did not fit his current style and swordsmanship. Now, he had another reason not to use it – the opposing side was able to absorb his ice-elemental powers due to its superiority.

Fortunately, his other forms of mana and elemental powers were not affected by this. His Primordial Lighting was more than enough for him to hold his ground.

Regardless, the state of the battle was still in a stalemate as neither side could take down their opposition.

Shin had repeatedly tried to approach Leviathan, but the battle formation was so enough to block him. Even if he used his movement skills, the latter was cunning enough to maintain a decent space between them.

Even if Shin was able to break through the formation, the 'Puppeteer's Barrier' protecting Leviathan was sturdy enough to buy time for the ice golems to catch up to him.

Moreover, the barrier also possessed an ice aura that was affecting his movements once the freezing effects started to pile up. Even if his resistance coming from his equipment, titles, and battle physique was not enough to withstand these effects once they had accumulated enough stacks.

"Tsk! This is going to be a little troublesome," mumbled Shin as he dodged yet another bombarding attack from the ice golems.

At the same time, he also glanced in the direction where Alice and Belphegor were currently fighting. Then what he had seen was something he did not expect. The battle between those two mage-class players was much more intense than what was happening to his side.

"Woah! That is one hell of an exchange," he commented before focusing on his battle.

…

On the other side of the battlefield, Alice was somewhat having trouble keeping up with her opponent. She had to use some of her most advanced techniques to match the other party.

There were three elemental dragons surrounding her as she used one of the signature techniques that made her known as the Elemental Goddess.

'Legendary Combat Technique: Elemental Dragon Dance'

Just like Shin's 'Infinity Edge' and 'Eclipse Wielding', Alice had already promoted this technique to Legendary Rank and could even use them along with her spells, making it a part of herself and her overall style.

Currently, she could only summon three of the Elemental Dragons – the Wind, Lightning, and Water Dragons – due to the current situation and the environment that they were in.

Regardless, she was still able to use her three Elemental Spirit Possessions at the same time, making her 'Elven Partners' fuse with her magic.

This made the might of her Elemental Magic and the casting time of all her related spells reach another level.

But despite this being the case, she was still unable to force her opponent to move from his spot. She could not even force the other party to chant or make a hand gesture to cast a spell.

Moreover, even her innate talent – the Mind Reader that let her read the thoughts of her opponents – was ineffective against Belphegor.

Aside from that, there was also the strange power that kept bothering her since the start of the battle. She kept getting drowsy during the fight, making it hard for her to cast her spells. Her focus kept on slipping whenever she was trying to cast an advanced spell. Even if she tried to cast a cleansing skill to try to remove this debuff, it was still ineffective.

Instead of removing the drowsy feeling, it was only getting stronger as time went by. She could not even keep her eyelids from falling the more time passed.

She understood that she could not let this continue as she would only lose sooner or later. Once she could no longer keep her eyes from shutting, she would most likely lose consciousness and get killed later.
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Getting killed was one thing, but losing a level at this stage of the game would hurt, especially when leveling up became much harder.

Moreover, the 24hrs ban (real-world time) after getting killed would delay her progress greatly, especially when she was in the middle of clearing a quest. She could not let this happen as it was clear that the opposing side was planning to do something in this place, which she suspected to be related to the Spirit King that she was trying to rescue.

Thinking that she was running out of time, she could only use her version of the combat state that she recently acquired.

She first disengaged from the battle and created a suitable distance between her and the opposing party before letting her Elemental Dragons protect her. Under the control of her Elemental Spirits, these dragons could move independently and fight for her.

At the same time, she was able to focus on herself, not caring about her opponent for the time being.

She closed her eyes and focused her mind, controlling the mana circulation within her body. Then she absorbed all the surrounding elemental particles in the surroundings, fusing them with the circulating mana within her.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Due to the abundance of wind, lightning, water, and wood elements in the surroundings, the mana within her matched these elements while circulating through her Mana Circuits.

Boom!

Soon after, they combusted with a silent explosion that created an Elemental Storm revolving around her body.

She then used the unique method of her family's mentalism technique to control the surrounding energies, making the elemental storm turn into a mana flame with an alternating blue and jade-like color that covered her body.

This was her self-created combat state after mixing the tricks she had picked up from the insights that Shin and the others had shared about 'Reality Manifestation' and the insights she had gotten when studying the elemental magic inside the game.

At that time, she knew that the 'Reality Manifestation' was not meant for her, so she found a way to modify it and come up with this after her experiences from the tests of the Mysterious Instructor and the battles within her promotion quests.

Adding the unique style within the game that she had along with her achievements in Mentalism in the Real World, she created her unique version of 'Magical Formation' Combat State.

'Special Combat State: Elemental Ignition'

She had ignited all the elemental energies that she had accumulated within her body, reinforcing her body and mind with the different elements that she had absorbed.

She was getting different buffs and boosts from different elements, which could make her stronger depending on how many types of elements she had absorbed.

Different elements had different buffs depending on their properties just like how the fire element could boost the firepower of her spells, the wind element increased their speed, the water element enhanced her control, the earth element made her defensive spells much tougher, and many more.

The more elements she absorbed, the stronger the power she could wield, and the more powerful she could be.

Levitating in the air, a whole meter above the ground, Alice looked like the real goddess of this place, especially with the elemental flame that was surrounding her body.

Her eyes were glowing bright due to the combined effects of Elemental Sight and Mana Eyes.

In her current state, the surrounding mana must obey while all elements had to worship her.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

The three elemental dragons danced around her while releasing aggressive roars, making the surroundings tremble.

Belphegor, who seemed to be waiting for this opportunity, suddenly became alive and excited. The drowsy look on his face and sleepy eyes disappeared as he looked at Alice. This was what he was waiting for, so he had to rip all the benefits before going back to his sleep.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

A series of magic circles appeared behind him one after another while a huge magic formation was suddenly formed underneath his feat.

The surrounding mana gathered around him while a dark aura shrouded his body. The Mana that entered the magic formation was instantly corrupted and turned into dense Demonic Energy.

A pair of slender horns grew from each side of his temple and extended outwards, forming a wavy pattern.

'Racial Special Trait: Demonic Transformation (Perfect)'

He then sat on his broom lazy, but his eyes were full of savageness and liveliness. He stared at Alice, who was floating in the air while carrying a crafty smile.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

With a thought, the magic circles behind him released a blinding light before firing a barrage of shadow beams toward Alice.

Alice could instantly measure the might of each of these shadow beams. Each of them carried a power comparable to intermediate magic while the bigger ones would not lose that much against advanced spells.

Without holding back, she raised her Elemental Staff in the air commanding the surrounding mana to obey her command.

The Elemental Particles gathered in front of her before forming a sturdy wall made of wind elements.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

At the same time, the plants under her suddenly grew at insane speed while the fallen trees seemed to have become alive after heeding her call.

The thick roots of the trees and the vines of the plants grew and merged before forming a cocoon that surrounded Alice, protecting her from any harm.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The shadow beams first collided against the wind wall, weakening their impact, before landing on the wooden barrier that protected her.

The roots were instantly corroded by the demonic aura mixed in those shadow beams, making them rot at an extreme rate. But before they could affect the rest of the barrier, the affected parts immediately detached themselves from the rest. Then the roots and vines continued to grow, patching up the holes that appeared.

Within that cocoon-like barrier, Alice was busy chanting out a series of elven prayers, summoning rune after rune of elvish language that arranged themselves in a specific magic sequence.

Swoosh!

When she was done, the top of the barrier suddenly opened itself like a blooming flower, matching Alice as she pointed her long scepter toward the sky.

At the same time, a beam of light suddenly shot toward the sky, connecting the clouds and the top of her scepter.

Boom!

Then a thunder roared in the sky while flashes of lightning danced in the dark clouds.

Swoosh!

Roar!

Then a huge lightning dragon fell from the sky and headed straight to the spot where Belphegor was standing.

'Elven Sage Skill (Tier 2): Advent of the Thunder Dragon'

Boom!

The thunderous explosion reverberated in the entire mountain range while the ground shook violently when the dragon struck.

Electric currents filled the air, causing the surrounding trees to be scorched while releasing a series of cracking sounds.

The might of this spell signified how strong her current state was.

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