Chapter 367: Are All the Red Team’s Servants Monsters?
Alright, "An Gal Ta Ki Gal Šè: Kindling of Venus that Shook the Mountains" is just Shinji's imagination and embellishment. This war spear can only truly unleash the True Name when wielded by Ishtar, combined with the concept of Venus and the legend of destroying the holy mountain.
This is a genuine A++ rank anti-mountain Noble Phantasm. Even Karna, clad in his golden armor, would suffer severe injuries if struck by it.
However, in Shinji's hands, it's just an ordinary spear throw with some divine power released from the spear, ranked merely at B. A direct hit could indeed inflict considerable damage on Karna, but given Karna's prowess and style, unless he suddenly fell under the influence of a legendary mentally retarded aura, he wouldn't block it head-on — it's not something he couldn't dodge.
As Shinji anticipated, Karna sensed a magical energy wave far stronger than that of the Qingyun Sword even before the spear left Shinji's hand.
When the spear pierced through the wind and fire, breaking through the air, Karna, prepared to evade, reduced his defense and endured the wind blades and flames just to avoid the throw.
However, whether Karna dodged or not made no difference to Shinji.
If Karna didn't dodge and got injured, Shinji would continue to unleash other Noble Phantasms to inflict more damage.
If Karna did dodge, it still wouldn't matter.
The spear wasn't far from Karna's position, and Shinji had thrown it with all his might. By the time Karna noticed, no matter how much he accelerated, he couldn't get far — and that was enough.
The war spear traced a flat arc and precisely struck the spot where Karna had stood.
The power contained within the spear blade gushed out like a flood. The war spear that once destroyed the holy mountain made the earthquake!
Amidst the deafening roar, the ground shook.
The dual four-lane highway where the two were fighting collapsed due to the spear, creating a massive fault over ten meters long, which continued to expand.
Though Karna's strength meant staying within the fault wouldn't harm him, the unstable footing posed a more serious problem than negligible damage. No matter how powerful, Karna couldn't escape the constraints of being human — unstable footing would prevent him from executing his spear techniques effectively.
Therefore, before the asphalt road beneath him completely collapsed, Karna leaped, rising ten meters above the ground, higher than the Qingyun Sword's floating position. This was the safest solution, as he didn't know the exact attack range of Ishtar's war spear. If he couldn't escape its range in one go, he'd become a literal "golden target" — a golden-colored target for Shinji to attack.
Seeing this, Shinji directed the Qingyun Sword with a pointing gesture, sending it straight after Karna.
As a magical sword, even though the Qingyun Sword wasn't sharpened, its embedded magical power was formidable. Guided by four talismanic runes, it was enveloped in black wind and fierce flames, resembling a black flame serpent dancing wildly in the air, instantly wrapping around the airborne Karna.
This time, no matter how fast Karna's blade was or how high his spear skills were, he couldn't completely defend against the wind and fire. This was an all-encompassing, omnidirectional attack. Such an attack might not inflict severe injuries on Karna, but it certainly wouldn't leave him unscathed.
As Shinji clasped his hands together, a crisp clap resounded, and the raging flames seemed to receive an ultimate command, exploding instantly with the force of several high-explosive grenades going off simultaneously!
"Did it work?"
Watching from outside the inferno, Jeanne squinted, trying to see through the black and red obstruction to discern the true situation within.
Suddenly, Jeanne's expression changed, instinctively shielding her head.
A dazzling golden light burst through the wind and fire, like the first ray of sunlight piercing the night.
At the center of the golden light stood Karna, suspended in the air. The golden radiance emanated from the three sun-patterned armor plates on his back. From below, he appeared as if carrying the sun wheel, illuminating all beings — truly the son of the sun god Surya, and indeed the divine child who merged with the sun wheel after death.
The gaze of the Sun God's son, along with the light of the sun wheel, pierced through the sea of flames and met Shinji's upward gaze. Despite the intense pain in his eyes caused by Karna's unparalleled presence and the light of the sun wheel, Shinji remained fearless.
"He turned into a miniature sun. What a powerful skill—Divinity. Compared to the sun flames he releases, the fire of the Qingyun Sword is nothing."
Skill: Divinity, Rank A
The power to infuse magical energy into a weapon. Karna transforms the flames of the sun into magical energy, attaching it to his weapon to increase the intensity of his attacks or defense.
Usually used in conjunction with the Rakshasa-Piercing Immortal and the Golden Armor. When outputting at full power, it can negate gravity, allowing for hovering or breaking the sound barrier, achieving super-high-speed movement and attacks. Such powerful performance also comes with a tremendous consumption of magical energy, limiting the duration to no more than ten seconds. Otherwise, an ordinary magus as the master would become immobile, and even a top-tier magus would be too exhausted to perform magecraft.
In short, the fully unleashed Divinity can be considered a Noble Phantasm of A rank or higher in both performance and consumption.
As the owner of this skill, Karna is well aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Since he is outputting at full power, he must finish the battle quickly.
From above, after locking onto Shinji's position, the three armor plates of the Golden Armor immediately adjusted direction, rapidly closing in under the propulsion of the sun flames.
The air condensed due to the movement of the Immortal Blade and was pierced in an instant.
As the explosive sound echoed through the night sky, Karna appeared at Shinji's location. The surrounding walls of fire were extinguished by the massive shockwave, and a vivid red stain, the color of blood, appeared on the Immortal Blade in his hand.
Judging by Karna's expression, he was not satisfied with the result of this strike. He intended to end Assassin's life with a blow beyond human reaction limits, or at the very least inflict severe injuries that would be difficult to heal in a short time. However, the latter had already anticipated his action and leaped back almost simultaneously with his thrust.
In a state of full magical power, Karna had no energy left for a second redirection, helplessly watching Black Assassin escape.
On the other side, Shinji was also sweating profusely. That was too close. Even though he had anticipated Karna's thunderous strike, he hadn't expected it to be so overwhelming. Despite using his most practiced full-body reinforcement magic to boost his reaction speed to the limit, the aftershock of the strike still grazed his calf.
Are all the Red Team's Servants monsters?
P.S.: Actually, there are quite a few monsters on the Black Team as well.