My (Monster?) Hero Life

Kace's hands trembled with fury as he watched Rysa take flight with his target. Leaving him behind to deal with the more troublesome opponent! Kace turned to look into the Golem's skull with an awkward expression. 'Is it even aware that I exist?' The answer turned out to be… No. The Golem took a few steps forward to chase after its master. 

A deep frown appeared on Kace's face when he saw he was not worthy of the Golem's attention. But he could not let it chase after Rysa. The Phoenix was already in a terrible state, and it was doubtful whether she could handle Constance on her own. Kace could only guess that Rysa had taken Constance because she felt she had a better chance of surviving that battle. 

After all, Kace was small enough to escape if he really had to. So there was no problem with leaving him to deal with the bag of bones. Kace heaved a deep sigh as he had Sylvan take on the shape of a two-handed hammer. Considering there was no flesh on the creature, it was better to use blunt force. As he eyed the Golem up while searching for a weakness, the sound of many undead groaning from below reached his ears.

Kace's eyes went wide as he glanced down at thousands of undead flowing freely into the area. 'What the hell? They shouldn't have caught up so quickly!' Kace did not know that these were not the same ones that he had left behind during his sprint. When Constance had spotted him earlier, she had summoned all the nearby minions to swarm the area!

However, she had not expected for Kace to try what he did. As Kace glanced over the sea of undead with a helpless expression, Constance struggled to break free of Rysa's grip.

"Put me down! Do you know who I am?" Constance's voice was ear splitting to hear. But Rysa was too busy with trying to find a suitable location to set down. 

Rysa could feel an intense weakness setting in, as her entire body had almost turned into green flames. Eventually, she settled for a dune in the desert outside of the city walls. 'This should be far enough!' 

The Phoenix viciously threw the lichee to the ground with as much force as she could muster. A horrifying scream rang out from Constance's lungs as she shot through the air at breakneck speed! A satisfying thud rang out as a sand cloud was thrown up from the point of impact between the desert dune and Constance.

'That may take her a while to get out of…' Rysa smugly grinned as she transformed into her human figure and alighted on the sand. Most of her gorgeously tanned skin had fallen victim to a green pus that covered everywhere from her neck down!

Rysa grimaced as she felt her skin cracking with each movement that she made. It was a completely unique experience compared to when she was in her Phoenix form. 'I guess it's because I don't really have much of a physical body. Damn. But I couldn't sustain it.' Rysa frowned as she studied the difference.

The weak feeling had disappeared, but her body was entirely wracked with pain. She could not decide which one was actually worse. Rysa suddenly glanced at the sand beneath her feet before dashing to the side. 'That was faster than I expected!'

A bony hand with rotten flesh burst out from where she had been standing! Moments later, Constance pulled herself free from her sandy burial. 

"How dare you!" Constance screeched, as her entire body trembled.

"Pfft, corpses like you belong in the ground." Rysa snorted as she cast a critical eye over Constance's condition. "You'd make a decent test subject if your personality was more agreeable. What a shame…"

"Test… Test subject!" Constance screeched as her eyes brimmed with fury. "Let's see how long you can keep up with that arrogance of yours!"

Constance fired off a sickly green bolt towards Rysa, who generated a round flaming shield in the path of its trajectory! The bolt shattered and vanished as the two women continued to stare at each other. Both of them were looking for the slightest sign of weakness.

Rysa had to use all of her willpower to restrain a grimace. The pain that she was in was excruciating. However, a slight twitch appeared upon her cheek. Causing Constance to smile before firing off two more bolts!

The first of the two shattered against Rysa's shield spell, but the second caused the flames to dim as it partially broke through before vanishing. Rysa could only frown as she gauged Constance's strength. She had assumed that Constance was the type to depend on her minions, but that was obviously not the case.

'She's powerful… But still nowhere near Zornok's level from the past. Has she already peaked?' Rysa wondered if the lich state Constance was in had imposed some restrictions on her growth. It was hard to tell how old Constance might be, but the power behind her spells would take decades to accumulate. 

Constance frowned when she saw Rysa had begun to smile, despite being on the back foot during in their exchange. The smile soon turned to laughter, which unnerved the lich. Her body trembled but shows unsure if it was from rage or fear.

"Why are you laughing!" Constance yelled while staring at Rysa. "You're almost dead! You have nothing to be laughing about!"

Constance sounded like a maniac as she spread her arms wide. 'She doesn't seem to understand that what she's been infected by will destroy her soul! There's no resurrecting from that! I made sure I was prepared to deal with her!' Constance's breathing was ragged, despite the fact that she did not even need to breathe. It was just a leftover natural reaction from when she was still human.

"Nothing to laugh about?" Rysa had a smile in her eyes as she glanced at the lich. "Then what do you call this?"

Constance watched in horror as purple flames spread across Rysa's skin. Wherever it passed, the green pus swiftly disappeared from her skin. Leaving behind her original unblemished tanned complexion. A sinister smile swept across Rysa's face.

"Ready for round two?"