"Too late!" Essirie sneered as her Silver Valley Noxious Rain reached Izroth and completely submerged him. She grinned as the poor fool did not even try to avoid her toxin! He was probably scared out of his mind and just trying to put on a brave front before the Commander to buy some time by sacrificing himself. However, did he believe that his meager life was enough to stall for one second, let alone thirty?
At the same time, Salokin had not merely been idle. He slyly motioned his hand upward behind his back as one of the chakrams he tossed into the ground earlier tore through the earth. The weapon moved stealthily underground as it waited for the perfect opportunity to strike Aurie. Did she really think that he would sit back and do nothing as she recovered her strength?
Woosh!
Suddenly, a blade of wind rushed out of the toxic cloud formed by Essirie's Silver Valley Noxious Rain.
"?!" Essirie felt a sense of danger as she quickly kicked off her right foot and moved to the side to avoid the incoming attack. However, when her foot left the ground, a gentle breeze blew at her back. When she turned her head to look, Essirie was greeted by the sight of a cold blade that released an overbearing destructive aura!
Swoosh!
The blade cut from Essirie's forehead down to her torso, leaving a silver trail.
'It's like cutting water.'
Izroth stood behind Essirie, who had been cleanly cleaved in two by his Sword of The Storm! When she used her Silver Valley Noxious Rain, Izroth did not bother avoiding it as his Soul Sense was not going off. For someone like Essirie, who had hostile intentions, this meant that her poison would be useless against him! A poison of this level was not enough to break past the passive of his Heavenly Golden Body.
Using the toxic cloud Essirie's attack created, Izroth activated the Tempest Strikes effect of his Sword of The Storm. This granted his attacks a wind element and increased his attack range by 10 meters for 10 seconds. He knew that such an attack was not powerful enough to reach Essirie; therefore, its primary purpose was to act as a distraction.
Once Essirie made her move, Izroth immediately used Enhanced Instantaneous Movement to teleport behind her and performed his First Baneful Sword: Destruction. But, for some reason, he felt as though his skill did not connect. Not only that, but no damage showed up in the battle logs, which only added to the situation's strangeness.
"You brat… You dare sneak attack me..?!" Essirie spoke with her body still sliced cleanly in half! Her physique was bizarre. There were no bones or organs that showed when Izroth's sword sliced through her. Instead, it was a silver goo-like substance that was reconnecting the two separate halves of Essirie's body, causing it to reform its original shape. At the same time, Izroth glanced at his Sword of The Storm and saw that the silver goo-like substance was stuck onto its blade.
He chose to fall back as it would be foolish to keep attacking without pinpointing Essirie's weakness. Was it a skill? Or an innate trait that she possessed? The Skounae that he had come across had blue blood, yet Essirie's was silver.
Though that was not the sole reason Izroth decided to fall back. With his Energy Vision Sense active, he could see a red flame rapidly closing in on Aurie's position from underground. At the moment, Aurie still had her eyes closed as she was concentrating on ridding herself of the poison. If she were interrupted now, then it would become a bit troublesome.
Izroth employed his Enhanced Instantaneous Movement again to appear approximately three meters away from Aurie. As he arrived, Izroth tapped his foot on the ground as tremors spread throughout the surrounding thirty meters. The influence on the nearby earth was due to his Behemoth's Quake. Even though the damage was negligible, the tremors caused some of the Hunter Skounae to lose their balance from its sudden emergence.
Crrrck! Woosh!
Salokin's chakram that targeted Aurie sprang from the earth with extraordinary force. However, it soared right past Aurie, missing her by less than a meter!
When Salokin observed Izroth's actions, he narrowed his eyes. He believed that the timing of those tremors was no coincidence. As his chakram was about to leave the ground to strike Aurie, the earth shifted and caused it to be thrown off its original path of attack!
"This human… Is it just dumb luck? Or…" Salokin's eyes grew cold. Where did this human come from, and how could he not have been mentioned in the Immortal Umbra Horde's intelligence report?
Salokin overheard Aurie refer to that human as a Captain; therefore, his strength should be equivalent to a Skounae Viscount. But, those at the Lieutenant rank and above in Amaharpe's border defense should've been accounted for without fail.
Meanwhile, Aurie inwardly furrowed her brows. While Salokin assumed that he was acting under her radar, she had already learned of his attack. If things had deteriorated to the worst possible point, then she would've had no choice but to interrupt the poison cleansing process forcibly.
But, if that happened, then there was a high chance that the poison would break past the points she sealed on her left arm and start to seep into every corner of her body. At that moment, subduing Salokin and Essirie would be an increasingly daunting task!
Izroth, with his Energy Vision Sense still active, examined Essirie. He then glanced at the silver goo-like substance that could not be removed from his Sword of The Storm. However, what disturbed him the most was that the silver liquid specks could be seen inside the blade!
'I see. So that's how her poison works. How bothersome.'
Out of nowhere, Izroth's in-battle health regeneration shot up by 5,000%! Instead of recovering 189 HP per second in combat, he was now gaining 9,450 HP per second—that was almost half of his total HP! However, this was not necessarily a good thing. If one looked closely, they would see veins forming on Izroth's neck and hands that appeared as though those parts of his body were under an enormous amount of stress!
'This is why my Soul Sense did not perceive her poison as harmful. It will be a bit annoying to move around freely in this state.'
Izroth had yet to come across a poison that worked in a similar way to Essirie's in RML; however, he was someone who read all the books contained in the Apothecary building in Amaharpe's capital city. Naturally, he had knowledge of some plants and materials that other players did not even know existed as of yet. He found it interesting that a vast majority of the highest quality plants and monster materials shared a common trait—they were all poisonous!
To be more precise, they were ingredients that also played an essential role in creating highly toxic poisons. This indicated that while it could be used for healing, it was also capable of destruction! However, Izroth understood that this was not uncommon. Whether it was in this world or the Seven Realms, the pinnacle of medicine habitually originated from something with the potential to kill.
What Izroth was surprised about was that Essirie's silver poison had close similarities to that of a Silver-Eyed Cloud Snake. In fact, it was an exact match of its description in every way!
In RML, monsters were not like named NPCs. From the beginning to the end, they stayed at the same level with a pattern of unchanged attacks. On the other hand, the Silver-Eyed Cloud Snake was a formidable boss-level monster that lurked in areas filled with an abundance of mana and heavy air. In addition, it had an unnatural trait as a monster—it could grow stronger!
This very trait is what made the shadahi so feared, as they were monsters who could evolve after a fight. Of course, the Silver-Eyed Cloud Snake's growth was not as ridiculous as that of a shadahi, but it was still a creature with the potential to achieve legendary status.
Compared to other strong venomous monsters, the Silver-Eyed Cloud Snake's venom could not be considered as particularly toxic. However, what made its venom so deadly was its abnormally accelerated regeneration ability. While this was harmless to something like the Silver-Eyed Cloud Snake and benefited the creature, the same could not be said for those who came into direct contact with its venom.
