The two women fought fiercely as if sworn opponents. Both of them have first-cla.s.s special cla.s.ses bestowed by divine beings. Both of them wore unique-grade set equipment and brandished unique-grade weapons.
They also had unique-grade bloodlines, courtesy of their respective G.o.ds.
Red Death possessed the bloodline of Shadow Devourer. It was a unique-grade bloodline that required the essences of darkness-type monsters. This bloodline was ideal for the a.s.sa.s.sin cla.s.s. Aside from boosting speed, it also provided shadow-related abilities that ease the owner on sneaking and ambushing.
Grace had the bloodline of Grandmother Oak, which was also a unique-grade bloodline that was strengthened by absorbing the essence of magical-type monsters. This bloodline boosted its owner's defense and self-restorative ability and also powered up healing spells. Grace's base cla.s.s was healer-type, so this bloodline fit her nicely.
They were equally matched in terms of equipment and bloodline. But in terms of martial expertise, Red Death was better. Grace was not a stranger to martial art after training diligently following Jet's teaching, but she couldn't compare to Red Death who had spent years training.
However, Grace's higher level gave her better stats. This allowed her to better cope with Red Death's expertise. Her keen perception helped her to better see Red Death's attacks and reacted accordingly.
On the occasions when she couldn't dodge Red Death's a.s.saults, she would trade life with Red Death. She had higher HP and defense. She also had healing spells that healed her missing life afterward. Hence, she had no worries about such a reckless fighting style.
She used Greed's Will to damage all nearby enemies, who were Red Death, Rayne, Long, and Delgado. The damage then was used to heal all nearby allies, including Jack's wolves.
With her at level 72, she had access to another two skills from her special cla.s.s, Emissary of Avarice.
The skill she got when she reached level 60 was the Mace of Selfishness. This skill conjured a giant mace that smashed down at a target, dealing 1000% magical damage. If the target was. .h.i.t, the mace continued to another nearby target up to a maximum of five targets for the first level.
Unfortunately, Red Death was too agile and fast. Grace failed to hit her with this skill and thus the skill ended after the first hit.
At level 70, Grace received another skill, Armor of Ego. The skill covered her body with a layer of green energy. The armor increased her defense by 200%. The armor had an HP bar equal to her HP. If she was. .h.i.t, the damage would be taken by the armor instead. The armor had the ability to self-regenerate 0.5% HP each second.
This meant that if the armor of ego didn't receive any damage within a bit over three minutes, it could fully recover its HP from near death. To make it worse, this armor could receive recovery effects. Most of the time, the armor would run out of its duration instead of being destroyed, which was five minutes if the skill was level 1.
With this Armor of Ego, Grace could tank through Red Death's monstrous damage.
In her annoyance, Red Death activated her Mad Slayer cla.s.s' first skill, Mad Kill. The skill let Red Death deliver a flurry of stabs, similar to Dragoon's Hundred Spears. Each stab dealt 100% chaos damage and ignored the opponent's defense by 20%. Red Death also had a 50% damage reduction when this skill was being executed, allowing her to go on full offense without the worry of being vulnerable during the a.s.sault.
She also activated her set equipment's skill, State of Madness, which improved her offense further. This skill boosted her damage output following her rage, and the sight of Grace did p.i.s.s her off for some reason.
One was excellent in offense, the other was st.u.r.dy in her defense. Both appeared to be in a stalemate.
On the side, Rayne was at an advantage over Oswald because of his higher level, but the advantage wasn't steep. Oswald had martial arts, while Rayne didn't. Red Death didn't bother teaching Rayne. Hence, Oswald was able to cover that difference in level with his expertise.
On the other side, Long was being hara.s.sed by Therras' copy and the golden wolves. These minions couldn't harm him. Some of the wolves had even died. Yet, their disruption was enough to keep him from giving aid to Delgado.
Without anyone providing aid, Delgado could only suffer through Jack's punishment. Jack didn't hold back. His Formless Flowing Sword Style powered by mana manipulation quickly took out Delgado's remaining HP.
When she fell. Long made a quick study of the situation.
With the appearance of Grace and Oswald, the table had turned. He was not confident he could take out Jack with the current number of allies. Additionally, he also felt very tired. Repeatedly using the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms drained his energy. Not to mention he also used his other ancient art to block Therras' Earth Core Bomb. His movements were not as sharp as before.
That's why he couldn't take out the Therras' copy and the golden wolves in a short time. By the time Delgado fell, he only managed to take out Therras' copy and eight of the golden wolves.
He sent a message to Red Death, "Retreat!"
He then turned and ran away using the Speed Run skill. She didn't wait for Red Death's response. If she was late to flee, it was her own mistake.
Jack saw Long run. Jack didn't want to let this one go. He used Shooting Dash. But when he was about to reach Long, the sky wyrm suddenly came at him. Jack had no choice but to stop. Long jump off the edge of the cliff then. He used his companion token to unsummon Abasi who was already low on health.
Therras flapped his wings to chase Long, but the sky wyrm's long tail coiled at Therras while its jaws tried to bite Jack ferociously.
Jack and Therras had no choice but to deal with the sky wyrm. The sky wyrm was already low on health due to fighting Therras. It took them only a short time to kill the sky wyrm.
After the sky wyrm was dead, Jack looked over the cliff. Long was nowhere to be seen. Long had viciously sacrificed his pet to cover his escape.
While Jack was dealing with the sky wyrm, Red Death had also escaped. Grace's speed was nowhere near Red Death's. She wasn't able to chase if Red Death intended to flee.
Oswald had the speed to chase, but Rayne had the flying dagger skill. His flying dagger kept Oswald at bay while he and Red Death made their escape. Grace told Oswald not to continue chasing. Oswald won't be able to take on those two by himself.