Orbs of lightning floated behind Morrigan.
Electrical discharge shot out of them.
Neo used the Ocean’s Embrace before the attack hit him.
His senses flared.
He dodged the ones he could dodge and twisted his body to avoid the fatal hits.
A grunt escaped his lips.
Morrigan frowned when she saw him relatively unharmed.
“How are you standing?”
The attack should’ve been enough to deal with him.
Neo’s defence couldn’t be credited to the Spell alone.
“Your Mana Purity is higher than mine,” she said. “That’s why you are so sturdy.”
Her frown worsened.
Even if his Purity was high, his total Divine Energy was nothing compared to her.
She could tire him out Neo to defeat him.
However, it wasn’t her style.
“There is no shield that won’t break.”
The faint noise of a thunderbolt reverberated.
Morrigan disappeared.
Neo barely had time to raise the sword.
A heavy blow struck his blade.
He saw Morrigan’s figure for a split second before she disappeared again and the air crackled.
Neo twisted his hand to block the attack coming from behind.
The air crackled again.
His senses calmed down.
Morrigan appeared far from his location.
She stared at him with a tight frown.
‘She is irritated,’ Neo thought bitterly. ‘I guess she hates how her attacks failed twice.’
The simple blows rattled his bones and his muscles were nearly torn apart.
He couldn’t help but feel he was royally fucked.
‘How high is her Grade? Grade 2 or Grade 1?’
Morrigan took a step.
She appeared before him in an instant and brought her sword down.
Neo swung his blade.
The clash created shockwaves.
Morrigan’s eyes glowed.
The world slowed down for her, and she continued to move at normal pace.
Neo responded to her attack in slow motion.
He let the non-lethal attacks land on the Ocean’s Embrace while he diverted her strong attacks by a hair breadth.
‘He is ignoring the feints,’ Morrigan thought.
It was as if Neo knew which attack would take him out of the fight and he dodged only those.
His Death Affinity was working wonders, not that Morrigan knew.
Sparks flew in the air.
From a bystander point of view, their sword clashed hundred of times in a few seconds.
Cuts appeared on Neo’s body and blood began to pool beneath his feet.
It was wrong.
He wasn’t going down as easily as she had thought.
Morrigan didn’t want to use Spells, not against a weaker opponent.
It would sully her name.
But…
“That’s it. I’m done holding back,” Morrigan said.
She kicked Neo in the stomach.
The blow, swift, strong, and precise, knocked air out his lungs and threw him back.
His body rolled in the dirt.
He stabbed the sword into the ground to stop himself.
Suddenly, he twisted his head and a lightning spear whizzed past his cheek.
The attack flew behind him before it exploded.
Lightning shrapnel dug into Neo’s back.
He ignored the pain and made a hand sign.
“Darkness!”
The shadows beneath his feet slithered.
“Heed my call!”
They shot forward, coiling and twisting like snakes.
Black lines appeared on the ground.
They circled Morrigan and suddenly flew out, and formed a dome.
Neo changed his hand signs as soon as Morrigan was captured inside the Darkness domain.
“Devour!”
The dome of darkness shrunk rapidly.
In midst of his attack, Neo heard a fleeting whisper.
“Render.”
Cracks appeared on the dome of darkness and golden light slipped out.
A beat later, the dome exploded.
The world was dyed in a golden flash.
Morrigan stepped out the crumbling dome.
She couldn’t find Neo and noticed several domes of darkness on the cliff.
“Trying to hide now?”
She raised her foot.
Sparks of lightning gathered under her sole.
The golden lightning continued to shrink and compress until Morrigan stomped.
It went underground.
But instead of dispersing, the lightning surged again, and returned to the surface.
The ground split apart.
Continuous thunder echoed.
The random discharge of lightning from the ground destroyed multiple domes of darkness at once.
Neo’s figure, hidden inside the dome near the cliff’s edge, was revealed.
“Let’s end this,” she said.
Morrigan dashed towards him.
Just when Neo tried to block her, Morrigan used Physical Reinforcement Spell.
Her speed and strength improved drastically.
She changed the sword path midway.
Neo couldn’t react on time.
The blade stabbed into his stomach.
Morrigan swung the sword to the side and slashed it out of his waist.
“Urk…”
Neo bit his lips.
Blood gushed out from his injury.
Ocean’s Embrace could barely provide him any defense against her.
The difference in their stats was too vast.
Neo tried to use Necrotic Touch on her, only for her to dodge easily.
She rammed the blade into his forearm.
“What is that disgusting Spell—”
Morrigan froze.
She couldn’t pull out her sword from Neo’s forearm.
It was stuck between the gap of his bones.
‘Was it on purpose?’
She looked up at Neo’s face.
“You have a defensive Spell.”
His words brought an ominous premonition.
“Use it and…”
She suddenly noticed they were on the cliff’s edge.
“Hey—”
“Try not to die.”
Neo used his other hand to bring her in a tight hug and he stepped back.
His feet landed on empty air.
They fell off the cliff before Morrigan could do anything.
…
“Urgh… I… feel like shit.”
Neo tried to stand.
His body wouldn’t listen to him.
He raised his head and looked around.
Green trees, red dirt, and a corpse.
…!?
Clarity returned to his mind.
The red dirt was his blood soaked into the mud.
He heard a groan.
The ‘corpse’ moved.
Morrigan stood up with a stagger.
Her figure was covered in blood, her right hand was not facing at the correct direction, and she glared at him with intense hatred.
She took a step towards him.
It was slow and painful.
Neo stood up with a grunt and got ready to fight.
The sword stabbed into his arm fell off somewhere during the fall and blood continued to flow out of the injury on his stomach.
Both of them had a foot in grave.
Neo punched towards Morrigan’s head.
Despite being heavily injured and out of Divine Energy, she dodged and hit his chin with an uppercut.
Neo stumbled.
His vision spun and he fell to his knees.
She kicked him in the stomach.
Neo grabbed her foot before she could hit his injury again and wrestled her into a hold.