Chapter 271: Three
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Because Ss'' forward momentum suddenly came to a stop, Alex''s counter was mis-timed. Before, his peak strength would have exploded right at their contact point. But with this current momentum, he would have to sh out before his des reached Ss.
He realized the issue, but it was already toote. He immediately began to calcte what he could do to deal with the aftermath. What he didn''t expect was that Ss had his own ns. <King''s Bind>.
The bracelet activated once again. It was an instant cast, something that Ss shouldn''t have been able to do with the space between them being so close. Despite the previous deployment of <King''s Shield>, it seemed as though Alex had yet to realize where that skill hade from. Ss'' relentless pursuit hadn''t allowed him the ability to think about anything else.
However, Alex still snorted. A bind skill this powerful was rare, but he still had the ability to counter it. He didn''t hesitate to use his strongest Dispel Skill.
But Ss'' timing was simply far too good.
He activated <King''s Bind> just as Alex''s crossde attack Skill reached its climax. There was a sh of Aether that made Alex cough up blood, but he was still able to tank it. He was already prepared to activate yet another Defensive Skill, but out of the corner of his eye he caught a shine of the sun.
He barely had time to register that it wasn''t the sun at all.
The second ballista that Ss had set up fired. But this time, there wasn''t a normal ballista bolt on it, but rather the Wind Reaper Javelin.
[Wind Reaper Javelin (FF)]
[Level: 10]
[Ability: Swallow (Wind)]
[This treasure swallows Wind Aether proportional to the Speed it travels at. For every 50 kph, Piercing power increases by 100%]
Even a ballista of ancient times had an exit velocity of upwards of 90 meters per second, which tranted to over 300 kilometers an hour. At such a close distance, and with such a powerful ballista created by Archibald the engineer, it would easily reach over 500 kilometers an hour, increasing Piercing power by 1000%.
With such Piercing power, even if it was in the hands of a child, Alex''s Constitution would be nothing but wet tissue paper before it, let alone here and now.
But what was maybe the most shocking to Alex was that not only had Ss triggered such a thing, but he had dared to do so when there was less than two meters between them.
Alex had, of course, seen these ballista on the roof. But who would shoot a ballista at themselves? How confident did you have to be in your aim to dare to do such a thing? With how fast that javelin was...
There simply was no room to dodge.
Alex tried to twist out of the way, but the javelin drove right through his upper right chest, shattering his corbone. It was so fast that it exited the other side of his body before he could do anything at all.
He was stunned for a moment, and then the pain hit him in waves.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood and then copsed, his body shuddering.
At that moment, Ss appeared before him, driving a powerful fist into Alex''s hip just as he keeled over.
All the air in Alex''s body was forcefully ripped out in that moment. He could feel every inch of his hip shattering before his entire body shut down.
With swift movements, three kunai came from Ss'' Madness Key and surrounded Alex, cutting his clothing into ribbons and then stripping everything off of his body.
Quickly, Ss found exactly what it was that was causing the cobra to go so crazy.
There was a ne hanging from Alex''s neck.
[Beast Bewildering Amulet (Silver) (Treasure)] [Level: 20]
[Target the mind of a beast and feed it illusions]
[While the beast is Bewildered, +10% Physical]
What took Ss off guard, though, was that the moment he took this ne off of Alex, it dimmed and the thrashing of the waters beneath them began to grow calmer. At the same time, he got a strong feeling of repulsion from the treasure, as though even if it wasn''t for the Scorned Wraps, he wouldn''t be able to use it.
Ss realized that there was no time to waste. The hold that Alex had on the Emperor had vanished.
But at the same time, he also knew that even if the Arctic Emperor Cobra managed to regain control of itself, it would be severely weakened. Just how much water had it swallowed up while it was thrashing about below the river?
Ss looked down at his body and realized that he was in an absolute mess.
He threw Alex onto the roof of a cottage, not having any better means to deal with him for now. Although he wanted to kill him, he also felt that Alex had far too much information that he would need. Even if Alex, by some miracle, managed to escape, he had taken all of his things so Ss still hadn''t lost out.
He turned toward the river, hoping to find the javelin, but it was a pipe dream.
The river was rtively smallpared to others, so the javelin was still within range of Ss'' visualization, only 10 meters or so beneath the surface.
But the problem was that it was so deeply embedded that it was impossible for Ss to use his telekinesis to pull it out. The force he would need was too much.
''It''s still not up yet?''
Ss turned his visualization to the Emperor cobra only to find it weakly trying to crawl its way up to the surface. It seemed that he had severely underestimated how weakened it was right now, even its Will had plummeted by several measures.
However, it was crawling toward the wrong side of the shore. If it appeared in such a weak state over there, then the one to kill it would likely be a member of Legacy or the government.
Ss grit his teeth.
He refused to allow that. Not after everything he had been through.
With a determined glint, he pressed his foot into the ground and shot forward again.
''Three minutes... I have three minutes left of Fusion...''
Worse than that, he knew that even if he could hold on for that long, whether his body would still be in working condition afterward was up in the air.