Izroth used the Sword Return part of his Second Sword Form: Returning Wave to redirect the first of Sage's squalls towards Roudin who was more focused on Sage's actions. This opened a small window of opportunity for Izroth and he used the chance to attack Roudin. He used nearly 20 points of his Essence to empower his Sword Return, otherwise, he would have never been able to reflect that squall just now.
After using Sword Return and targeting Roudin, he immediately used one of the charges for his Enhanced Instantaneous Movement to avoid the other squalls. While some of the squalls crashed into one another, there were still four squalls remaining from Sage's initial attack that changed their course and headed straight for him.
When Izroth saw that Roudin was immobilized by the squall that he redirected towards him and that Sage had no longer paid him any attention, he twisted his body during his retreat towards the Boundless Sea and brandished his Sword of The Storm.
Izroth kicked off the ground just before he twisted his body and used the momentum to continue traveling towards the Boundless Sea. However, he was currently off the ground and although he was flying with his back facing the Boundless Sea, Izroth himself was faced in Roudin's direction.
'It seems she thinks very little of me. Though since she was polite enough to lend me a hand, how can I refuse her kindness?'
A terrifying and bloodthirsty aura gathered around the azure blade of Izroth's Sword of The Storm. The killing intent his sword gave off filled the surrounding atmosphere.
Sage observed Izroth's actions and felt the killing intent being released from his position. She instantly realized what Izroth was up to. Not only was he trying to escape from her, but he also wanted to kill Roudin who was trapped within her squall. He wanted to use her squall to assist him in launching an attack on Roudin! How could she not be furious at the thought of this?
"Die!" Sage waved the fan in her hand outward in an arc. Right after doing so, more than one hundred squalls descended on Izroth's location. She believed that he just got lucky last time, but she would not leave any room for that piece of trash to escape this time around!
'I only have one shot. I can only hope that Sword Return did enough damage to make this work.'
18 meters…
19 meters…
20 meters!
The moment Izroth arrived exactly 20 meters away from Roudin, his sword swept out without any hesitation. It was a simple sword swing, however, there was a monstrous and terrifying energy behind it. As Izroth's sword traveled forward, a sharp and deadly sword intent formed at the tip of the azure blade. That deadly sword intent left his Sword of The Storm and soared forward through the air while evading the incoming squalls as Roudin was still being suppressed by Sage's squall.
Roudin's facial expression turned pale when he felt that heavy and dreadful killing intent headed in his direction. He did not hesitate to activate a second defensive skill that reduced all incoming damage by 90%! Although that attack coming towards him was powerful, in the end, it did not seem as strong as the last attack Izroth struck him with. There were no elements or piercing energy present, just an overwhelming killing intent.
Even though Roudin was rendered immobile by the squall, he could still activate his defense skills. If not for this, then he may have been in even more danger after being hit by Sage's attack which contained the power of the Wind Domain.
"I can take this attack..!" That was the thought going through Roudin's mind as the deadly blade intent approached his location.
That blade intent cut through the squall dome that was around Roudin and traveled straight through his body leaving a deep scar on the ground behind him.
At the same time, the numerous squalls that Sage launched towards Izroth had already arrived on the small island and surrounded him in every direction! However, just before the squalls were about to close in on his location, he used the final charge of his Enhanced Instantaneous Movement after having just regained enough energy to do so. He reached the edge of the island and without thinking twice or looking back, Izroth jumped into the Boundless Sea.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
Dozens of squalls collided with one another and exploded, but that still left dozens more that shot right into the Boundless Sea and followed after Izroth.
As for Roudin, his facial expression was currently one of shock. The symbol on his forehead disappeared and the mountain-shaped pupils in his eyes had vanished and returned to normal.
"I'm… Dying? Impossible… Here? To some nobody? Here?! Ahhhhhhh!" Roudin roared as a powerful and bright white light descended down upon him just as parts of his body was dissipating into particles. This light engulfed Roudin and after doing so, he vanished without a trace. Even his dissipating particles had been completely erased from the atmosphere. He was finished.
Sage had a cold and dark expression on her face as she closed the folding fan in her hand and gripped it tightly.
"I wasted nearly 10% of my Wind Domain's power on a weakling…! Just wait and see how I end you." Sage said to herself as she bit down on the corner of her lip so hard that it drew blood in the process. She had never felt so angered and humiliated! If he, by some miracle, managed to survive her attack just now and the ruthless Boundless Sea, then Sage swore that she would find a way to deal with him and repay that weak piece of trash for this humiliation a thousandfold!
…
Woosh! Woosh!
'My movements are greatly reduced underwater and I haven't been down here for long, but I can feel my energy slowly fading away. Is this an effect of the Boundless Sea? Or is it because I can't breathe underwater?'
The instant Izroth jumped into the Boundless Sea, he tried to put as much distance as possible between himself and the surface. After all, if Sage decided to chase after him in his current state, he had zero means of dealing with her.
But, just when he thought that he was in the clear, there were still dozens of squalls that followed him down into the Boundless Sea. Although they seemed to be exploding at random, Izroth noticed that it was whenever they came within a certain range of any solid object.
'It's likely that she's unable to freely control her squalls down here. However, this is still troublesome…'
Izroth had already returned his Sword of The Storm to its sheath. At the moment, he focused his attention on avoiding the incoming squalls that were still headed his way. Since the water restricted his movements, if he did not get enough distance between himself and the squalls, then he would be caught by its explosion. Each explosion of the squalls left behind a sphere of three meters with a blizzard taking place inside of it.
Even though Izroth managed to avoid the squalls for the most part, he was still damaged by some of the explosions and had his movements slowed to a certain extent. Luckily, due to his final attack on Roudin, he was able to regain his full health thanks to his Life Reaping skill. In the end, he was able to successfully escape with his life from the bombardment of squalls.
'I'll have to endure underwater for as long as I can and create a safe enough distance. Fortunately, it looks as if the monsters in this area are nonexistent due to Roudin's previous attack.'
The last skill he just used on Roudin was the Second Baneful Sword: Kill. However, since Izroth was unaware of Roudin's total HP, it was more of a gamble than anything. What he was aiming for was not the normal damage the skill provided, but one of the effects attached to it, Execute.
With the Execute effect, as long as a target's HP was equal to or less than 25% of their total HP, then there was a high chance of it activating whenever Izroth used the Second Baneful Sword: Kill. This meant that no matter how much HP an individual had left, as long as it was 25% or less, they would be instantly killed! The lower the target's HP, then higher the chance was of Execute being activated. The results?
〈Battle Alert: Roudin, The Indomitable Mountain has been affected by «Execute»!〉
〈System Alert: Congratulations, you have defeated Roudin, The Indomitable Mountain!〉
〈Battle Alert: The cooldown on Second Baneful Sword: Kill has been reduced by 50%.〉
The Execute effect was successful and this meant that Roudin, no matter how strong his defenses, had been eliminated by Izroth! This was a huge gain considering how many points Roudin had managed to collect. Izroth had received quite a few system alerts in the process.
〈System Alert: Your total points have been increased by 23,209. [Total Points: 26,107].〉
〈System Alert: Your selection rank has changed from 512 to 4.〉
〈System Alert: Your efficiency with the skill Third Sword Form: Collapsing Thunder has increased by 1.〉
〈System Alert: Your efficiency with the skill Second Baneful Sword: Kill has increased by 1.〉
〈System Alert: Your efficiency…〉
The number of benefits Izroth received this time around were not small. While the points were good for obvious reasons, they could only be considered a short term gain. Even though he felt that he was close to reaching the next level of some skills, he did not expect it to happen all at once!
With this, Izroth's Third Sword Form: Collapsing Thunder was only one more level away from being maxed out. As for his Heavenly Golden Body and Second Baneful Sword Kill, they were still quite far away from being completed. But, the jump was not small for S-ranked skills even if it was just one level. This was even more so for Izroth's Heavenly Golden Body. He had finally reached the 4th stage in RML!
The power of the 3rd and 4th stage of Heavenly Golden Body was like that of night and day. Unfortunately, his body in the real world was still only at the 2nd stage of the Heavenly Golden Body physique. Otherwise, even heavy artillery would not necessarily be able to do any lethal damage to him. But, within RML, his power had just soared to a new level from that simple increase in his Heavenly Golden Body!
'The progress for my Heavenly Golden Body this time around was much faster. '
Skill Name: Heavenly Golden Body
Skill Creator: Izroth
Skill Level: 3/10 → 4/10
Skill Rank: S → SS
Passive: The more the user of this skill battles the stronger their body becomes, permanently raising all of their stats. Enhances all user senses by 110% → 150%.
HP: 2,000 → 10,000
ATK: 80 → 240
DEF: 80 → 240
AGI: 80 → 240
Energy Capacity Increase II(Passive) – +50 → +100 Maximum Energy
Physical Resistance II(Passive) – +5% → +10% Physical Resistance
Magical Resistance II(Passive) – +5% → +10% Magical Resistance
Poison Resistance II(Passive) – The user of this skill is resistant to some → various forms of poisons.
Battle Regeneration II(Passive) – Regenerates 50 → 100+(1% → 1.5% of the user's maximum HP) of the user's HP every 5 seconds while in battle.
*→ Greater Physique(Passive) – The user of this skill does not take any damage and is completely unaffected by crowd control effect(s) from skills at or less than C-rank. This damage includes basic attacks that are less than 10% of the user's total HP before any defense reduction(MIN Damage: 1,683). The minimum basic attack damage is decreased to 5%(MIN Damage: 841) for attacks that include daggers.
Description: A skill created by Izroth, the more the user battles the stronger they become over time.
Special Effect: This skill cannot be leveled up using skill points, the user must experience many battles to further advance.
