Free Web NovelChapter 2133: Two on Two
Arad blocked the sharp black spear with his massive arm and stared at Arlo with a smile as the ground beneath them shattered. He was like an unmovable mountain, far too heavy, far too thick, and far too hard. But then, something heavy smacked Arad’s face, twisting his face to the side as Arlo teleported behind him.
^Just... how hard are you?!^ Arlo thought as he could feel his bones ringing from the impact, and Arad smiled. ^Harder than you.^
This wasn’t a fight between an orc and a dragon but between two types of void magic, and Arlo wanted to take the lead. As he swung his spear once more at Arad’s back, the sharp tip screamed like a dying goat, and when it hit Arad’s back, sparks flew everywhere like blinding stars, and then, just like before, what got hit after was Arad’s neck.
But all of those attacks did nothing. Arad’s back was unscathed, and he didn’t even bother turning around quickly, just slowly looking over his shoulder as Arlo landed on the ground, looking a bit too worried.
That slow turn with his muscles rolling around his bones like steel wire, the smile, the casual stance, and the flawless back that didn’t even get scratched... Arad wasn’t fighting; he was showing off.
"What? No chit-chat or monologue? Fine, I’ll do it myself. You monster. Not even a scratch." Arlo growled with a smile, and darkness started fuming out of his body armor and weapon. "This might be even harder than I expected." He flashed forward at blinding speed and swung at Arad’s neck, making one hit, dodging the giant fist flying toward his torso, and trying to slash Arad’s whole arm off by aiming at the elbow, yet still failing.
The sparks flashed out of Arad’s neck, elbow, shoulder, and lower chest, four hits for two strikes, and it didn’t take Arad long to start seeing what Arlo’s void was doing. "The void follows your attacks and always lands a second hit. But I doubt that is all, right?"
^Fucker’s skin is harder than the hardest alloys by several orders of magnitude. Just what is he made from, Orcanium or something?^ Arlo was certain that if he kept fighting like this, his spear would shatter before Arad’s skin got scratched.
Arlo frowned, "Smart bastard, why would I explain my power to you?" As he pointed his spear toward Arad, Arad smiled and opened his palm toward the ground. "Then... how about I show you what mine can do?"
A large handful of snow flew to Arad’s palm, vibrated for a second, and then turned into a horrifyingly blinding ball of pure light. "I can do this..." And when Arad threw the ball away, it exploded into a titanic mushroom cloud in the distance.
"You... can break matter into pure energy?!" Arlo paled, and his comrades hiding behind the ATTR couldn’t even believe what they saw. Beatrice could immediately tell just from the size of the mushroom cloud that it was indeed as much energy as that handful of snow would have.
As they were stunned for a second, Arad opened his palm once more and scooped another handful of snow, broke it down to pure energy, and then clenched his fist on it. "And I can do this as well." As Arad opened his palm, a solid, plum-sized diamond was steaming in his palm with a few specs of black dust falling from between his massive fingers.
Looking at the diamond, Arad looked a bit disappointed. "I was going to gift this to my wives, but it is too small. You can have it." Arad took a baseball stance, lifted one foot to the sky, and then flung his arm, sending the diamond chunk flying right at Arlo’s face, who barely managed to react in time and lift his spear to deflect it away, but the power still sent him flying back at blinding speed.
"This fucker... he can freely turn matter into energy and back into matter again... should such a monster even exist?!" Arlo growled as he saw Arad running around him with heavy steps, shaking the entire ground with each stomp. It was like seeing an elephant galloping like a graceful horse, a thing that shouldn’t be possible at his size.
Arlo kicked the ground as hard as he could and instantly broke the sound barrier as his powered suit kicked in and his body got empowered by his draconic trait. Out of the orcs’ soldiers, he was a very special one, boasting an unorcish level of physical prowess. But he was immediately surprised as Arad also broke the sound barrier to catch up to him, and he did it with ease despite his giant size.
"What’s the problem? Don’t tell me you thought I was slow." Arad swung his bare fist down at Arlo’s head, forcing him to block the attack. But in that instant, he could see it, a sharp, solid bullet already a few inches away from his eyes. That orcish woman, Samantha, had fired her sniper rifle at him, and she had such a horrifying aim to single out his eyes while he was moving faster than sound.
But it didn’t matter how big Samantha’s skills were; Arad already had a wife who was just as nasty with firearms, so before the bullet could hit his eye, another bullet came flying in and knocked it out of the air.
The moment that Samantha realised that her bullet got sniped out of the air, she instantly calculated the trajectory needed and shifted her scope toward the mountains on the horizon. They were hundreds of kilometres away, but no other angle made any sense. As she zoomed, she could see her, a young-looking girl sitting on the frozen glacier, holding a comically large and primitive sniper rifle without a scope, aiming toward them while using her toes as support for the barrel.
"No-scope?!" Samantha immediately rolled to the side, and the top of the ATTR where she was got hit with a blinding impact as Altair’s bullet got deflected by the armor plates. As expected from the aim and eyesight of a void drakaina, even at such a distance, Altair cannot miss.
As Samantha rolled out of the ATTR and disappeared into the snow dust caused by Arad and Arlo’s clash, she aimed her rifle toward Altair and fired a second round, aiming to take the enemy’s sniper first. But to her surprise and bad luck, it seems that Altair was thinking the same, and their bullets hit each other in the middle, exploding into a blinding spark.
"Fuck it! Auto-mode!" Samantha rushed to the side, and her suit flashed with sparks of lightning as its nanomachines kicked into action, taking control of her entire body except her arms and head, which she needed for aiming and shooting. Her body started running on its own to the side, approaching the speed of sound as she pointed her rifle toward where Altair was supposed to be, ready to fire while changing positions.
Altair smiled as she stood, leaned on her rifle for a second, and then void stepped to the side, following Samantha’s moves while taking aim as well. "When Arad called and asked me to watch their back, I really expected something deadlier." Altair jumped into the air, holding her rifle as she saw a bullet coming right from the front. It didn’t make sense. She was moving west to mimic Samantha, who was north of her, meaning that any bullets should come down from the north. Why is this one coming right to her face from the west?
The answer was simple, but scary. "Is she curving her bullets that much?" Altair was right, but not fully. Samantha’s bullets were curving, but it was because they were more like miniature missiles, not because of her own skill.
"I can do the same." As unreasonable as it was, Altair was determined to match this orc sniper, and so she fired her rifle, trying her best to control the bullet with her void to curve it, and she was somewhat successful, even though her accuracy was nowhere near decent.
With Arlo and Arad clashing on one side, and Samantha and Altair trying to snipe each other down, Beatrice, who was watching, started shaking. "This signal... a relic?!" She could sense the same signals they got from the alien beasts they killed, the void drakainas that carried their twelve worlds.
Merlin’s large and plump breasts hit the back of her head. "If you’re talking about those you had in the centre of your solar system, then you are right. They are void dragons; Arad is an adult male, and that sniper is a young adult female."
Beatrice’s face paled as she took a deep breath and puked from stress and fear. "You... can understand and speak our tongue after all."
Merlin looked at her with a smile, "Of course I can’t; I’m just using magic to interpret based on what Arad knows. You look like a wizard to me, but a stunted one. You’ll never get anywhere by just learning pre-written spells."
