Disappointing
Disappointing
Donna's dash towards the presumed location of her husband's corpse came to an abrupt halt as she heard the chuckling sound from behind.
"WHAT?!"
Swiveling around in shock, the sight she witnessed almost caused her to throw up blood.
She had assumed that the little girl would have certainly died from her attack, and though that wasn't enough to appease her anger, her priority for revenge had been the murderer of her husband, which was impossible to be this insect.
However, looking at the all too familiar glimmer of draconic scales as they slowly faded back to restore smooth skin on her belly, where her blue dress had been torn, Donna knew…
No matter how impossible it seemed, this little girl had somehow managed to absorb her husband's ability.
"What kind of monster are you?!"
Her shock wasn't just at her ability to steal Dane's ability, but also at the fact that she had managed to survive.
Regardless of how strong the draconic scales were as an ability, their strength ultimately still depended on the person powering them. If this girl didn't have a large enough pool of spirit power, she could never have created scales strong enough to resist her attacks.
And no matter how Donna tried to deny it, that could only mean one thing — Evelyn's level of strength definitely wasn't too far from her own.
"So you were hiding as a child all this time, huh, you monster! What was your purpose?"
The pink-haired girl just shook her head in amusement as she dusted her dress off. Fortunately, she had managed to level up in time, and neither of her little pets was weak enough to suffer much from such indirect impact.
She could understand why Donna would make that kind of assumption — that Evelyn was actual some old monster with nefarious abilities, one that was just hiding in the academy as a child.
As the thought crossed her mind, Evelyn couldn't help but blink. 'Actually, when I think about it… isn't this all true? Well, whatever… I'll give her a candy for guessing the truth. But first… she has to die.'
Patting Ruru's head, she immediately activated both of the new abilities that had been gained through her little fox hitting the level forty and fifty milestones.
In an instant, a lotus made of spirit and soul power bloomed beneath her feet, large enough for a dozen people to stand in its center comfortably, and a pinkish-white layer of semi-transparent petals formed in a spherical formation around her before slowly fading away.
-[The Lotus Throne]
—Using a combination of spirit and soul energies, a floating lotus is created that will follow the throne's will.
—Consumes no energy while inert, energy required to construct can be extracted back when the ability is canceled.
-[Lotus Throne's Natal Shield]
—Using a combination of spirit and soul energies, an extremely effective shield can be created to protect from both physical and spiritual attacks.
—Every impact will consume the correspondent amount of charge from the shield.
—If the attack exceeds the shield's limit, it will only be able to reduce its effectiveness and will shatter immediately.
Although both of their descriptions were clear, Evelyn felt like she really needed to test their limits and practice these skills to be able to utilize them properly in battle.
Unfortunately, this battle wouldn't allow her to test their limits.
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After discovering that the pink-haired girl was actually an old monster, and one who could even rob others of their strongest abilities, Donna's hatred shot through the roof, but at the same time, she knew she couldn't be careless anymore.
The girl's bizarre abilities that didn't seem to conform to any element, along with the fact that she had never heard of or seen them anywhere, only confirmed these thoughts.
Although there were all forms of unique abilities, would a newbie student be able to get them at this point? Maybe one could still be explained, but this girl had already shown her all her cards.
With a stomp on the ground, numerous large and small rocks started floating around her, and with another wave of her hand, golden barriers similar to the ones she had used to contain Evelyn and the 'Mountain Rhino' surrounded herself.
"You nefarious monster, you may have caught Dane off guard, but I don't believe you weren't injured at all! If I don't finish taking you down today, my name isn't—"
In her mind, she was thinking that as long as the little bitch dared to use such a strong attack on her shield… she was done for.
This skill was called the [Mirror of Lacerations], and it was one of her most lethal abilities against stronger opponents, and also the most sinister.
She had never used it against opponents she didn't want to kill, and the reason was obvious. Whenever an attack landed on the mirror, the channeler of the spirit power that connected it would receive a huge backlash through the disruption of their spirit power, directly proportional to how much energy they had used.
That meant that the stronger the attack, the more her opponent would suffer.
Of course, it had its weaknesses. Against an opponent that was just far stronger, the mirror powered by her own weaker self would simply be unable to induce a backlash.
Moreover, powering the ability continuously consumed her spirit power, meaning that if she failed to goad her opponent into attacking with a strong enough move, she would simply be exhausting herself for no reason!
And worst of all, if they used a weaker, probing move first, they would only suffer minimal damage, and would also be able to figure her skill out.
Feeling the intensity of the 'monster's' aura rising further and further after she spoke, professor Donna grinned internally, but pretended to look enraged. "BITCH, today is the day you die for everything you've done!"
Evelyn clicked her tongue as she ignored the junior professor's hate-filled speech to check the woman's status. Now that she was level seventy-seven, she didn't believe she couldn't see through this woman.
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-Donna Redal: Level 79 [Exp: 12,145 / 30,000]
—Affection: -100% (Irreconcilable Hatred)
Special Physique: Spirit Physique
—Strength: 610 = 1830 KG
—Spirit Power: 833
—Soul Value: 580
—Vitality: 729 Years Left
—[ Enhancement: (Not available) ]
-Cultivation Method: Crumbling Rock [Grade 4]
-[ Skills ]
—[Rock Veil], [Earth Asunder], [Spiritual Reflection], [Mirror of Lacerations], ???, ???, ???, ???
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The pink-haired girl shook her head in disappointment. "Not even an enhancement, huh… cheap."
Thankfully, she knew just how to make perfect use of her.
The woman was still pointing a finger at Evelyn as she continued her hate-filled speech, as if goading her into an attack. Of course, it made perfect sense if that was really her goal, given her barriers seemed capable of reflecting damage from spirit power.
Quite a useful ability… if she was facing someone else.
Unfortunately for her, Evelyn planned to use her strongest skill on the woman. Not because she was a threat, but because… she could.
-[Lotus Throne's Nirvana]
—Combines the soul value of the host and the beast, carrying out a direct attack through a spirit power channel.
—If the combined spirit power is lower than the combined soul power by more than half, the vitality of the spirit fox will be reduced, scaling with the attack duration.
—Depending on the enemy's strength and damage suffered, the channeler may be able to permanently enhance their spirit power to an extent.
Having had this ability since her fifth birthday, Evelyn had been itching to give it a try, but the thought of Ruru suffering because of being unable to fulfill the requirements, as well as the lack of an opportunity and opponent, had left her with little choice.
If things continued as they were, her soul power might continue growing at a faster pace when compared to her spirit power. This wasn't just because of the starting difference, but also because she practiced the searing soul.
In fact, if not for the Chaos Essence Bead, Ruru would have had to suffer a reduction in vitality to use this attack, and Evelyn would have to judge whether or not it was worth the risk.
Now was the perfect time for her to finally test it out.
Ruru's soul value was 877, and her own was 2249, which made their combined soul value 3126. This was definitely less than double of their combined spirit power, which was already 1727 points.
And these were her worst possible estimates.
In reality, her soul power had already been reduced considerably while killing Dane, and even now it was only at a little over sixteen hundred points. Meanwhile, her spirit power was already almost full, thanks to the natural recovery buff combined with the lack of usage.
The pink-haired girl smiled. "Professor, you may not have taught me anything while alive, but your death shall teach me the limits of my ability, so thank you in advance."
Of course, professor Donna was ecstatic that the little monster took her bait, but she still pretended to look hateful and grim. "You think you can kill me so easily? My defense is one of the strongest among the academy's junior professors, I don't believe you have the strength to get through!"
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