Chapter 1407 - Aishalstromoz vs Jake (1)

Aishalstromoz couldn’t feel the exact position of the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, but she knew he was in the area. Not long ago, her tracking skill had become far less effective, making her assume he’d used his stealth skill. Even so, his presence lingered, and no matter how good his stealth skill was, he couldn’t hide perfectly.

It was truly fortunate that of the seven remaining Administrators, he was the only Dragonslayer among them; if not, her tracking skill wouldn’t have worked. It was one that had the ability to specifically track those with the Dragonslayer title, something that remained rare throughout the multiverse, especially in low-tier B-grade, as few B-grades could even hope to contest with True Dragons in the first place.

One must also be thankful that killing True Dragons within this simulated space doesn’t grant the Dragonslayer title either, she mentally noted; if it did, others would certainly have earned the title, given how many dragons had been killed during the event. It also had some interesting implications that one couldn’t earn the Dragonslayer title within this world. That likely meant titles such as Mighty Slayer weren’t available either. Perhaps for the best.

Slowing down her flight, she soon reached the point where her target had disappeared. Looking around, she naturally couldn’t spot him, and spreading out her senses and sending out a pulse of detection magic also didn’t yield any result. It was unsurprising that the Chosen had powerful stealth skills, so this was still within expectations.

Aisha was fully aware that targeting the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was risky, but she still decided to do so. Granted, there wasn’t anyone among the eight Administrators that wouldn’t be risky to target, but the hunter was definitely one of the three most dangerous ones.

So why did she do it? For many reasons, but pride was perhaps first and foremost. Not just her personal pride, but for the pride of the dragon race as a whole. He’d killed one of their own, and while she had been excommunicated and was a disgrace of a True Dragon, she had nevertheless been a True Dragon, so for him to kill one while he was still only in C-grade was simply embarrassing.

Personally, she didn’t want the Chosen of the Malefic Viper to believe that dragons were that weak. They were one of the noble races of the multiverse, and while some True Dragons were weaker than others, they were still a race that deserved respect simply by virtue of being True Dragons.

Of course, the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was a being more than worthy of being put alongside True Dragons. Humans were an odd race, in that they had both the most pathetic of existences among them, while also having unparalleled beings, all while being of the exact same variant. As a monster, this was truly weird, but it also meant that truly powerful humans were worth recognizing.

Despite not being born with innate power, they managed to reach the apex through their own efforts. It was proof of their Records, Path, and mentality. Now, in the case of the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, he did also have a massive innate advantage in the form of a beneficial Bloodline, but that only made his existence all the more desirable to Aisha.

This brought her to the main reason why she’d sought out the hunter over everyone else.

“Chosen of the Malefic One,” she said, her voice echoing throughout the world, her power carrying it far enough for any living being even remotely nearby to hear. “I know you’re nearby. Likely preparing an attack to start the fight. Before you do so, allow me to make a proposal.”

While she couldn’t be entirely certain, Aisha felt as if her voice reached him, and she turned towards the mountains as she vaguely felt he was in that direction. When she looked over there, she only became more certain as she continued.

“I can’t be the only one who didn’t find the reward of more Prima Credits that exciting, even if they are no doubt going to be useful, so how about we spice things up? Make a bet,” Aishalstromoz said. “If you’re interested, let me know. Oh, and don’t worry about exposing yourself; I’ll automatically assume I’ve lost the bet should I fall before even being able to receive a response. More out of sheer embarrassment than anything.”

She wasn’t underestimating the Chosen of the Malefic Viper in the slightest, especially not knowing he had been the one to take down the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord. As her friend, Aisha knew just how powerful she was, and based on the lingering sense of will upon the hunter, he fought her inside her Heartworld and came out victorious.

Still, even if her friend was powerful and had been stronger than Aisha in Nevermore... that was when they were C-grades. Now, Aisha was finally a fully grown True Dragon and could unleash her true potential, reversing who was strongest among them.

Surveying her surroundings, Aishalstromoz continued trying to find the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, all while preparing her defenses. She knew the Chosen of the Malefic Viper had an incredibly powerful opening attack when he exited stealth and had come prepared for it.

On her way there, she’d inscribed magic circles on many of her scales, created to automatically activate the second she was attacked. There were around five hundred of them, and while she would have loved to make more, the diminishing returns of doing so simply got too ridiculous when one made several hundred.

 More than a minute passed with nothing happening, and if not for her skill telling her the Chosen was still nearby and her senses telling her there was someone in the mountains, she would have probably moved on already. She considered speaking again, simply to ask what he was waiting for, but before she could... he struck.

I was wrong, she immediately realized, as rather than from the mountains, an attack flew towards her from the direction of an island beneath her. The attack was slightly slower than expected, but the color of the Chosen’s arcane mana was unmistakable, and she even detected traces of the powerful curse weapon he often used within the blow.

Admittedly, it also felt weaker than she’d first expected it to. Still, as the attack closed in, her magic automatically activated, and the sky was filled with golden barriers sealing her in entirely. Immediately, Aisha extended her will and stopped about a third of the barriers from activating right as the attack struck her.

An explosion of arcane magic destroyed about a dozen barriers, and the arrow that had been blended with the arcane energy managed to destroy about two dozen more before fizzling away into dark smoke smelling of curse energy.

It was a feint, she immediately realized. Hanging there in the sky, her barriers slowly started fading away as they ran out of energy, and right around then the last one disappeared, Aisha stopped controlling the remaining formations on her scales, and didn’t hesitate to fully activate her boosting skill either. Just in time, too.

An intense sense of danger flooded her mind as something from the mountains flew toward her, its speed several times faster than the previous attack. She wanted to react, but before she could, her entire body and soul tensed up as two glowing eyes filled her mind.

The paralysis had only worked for an extremely brief period, but it was enough. Despite her remaining automatic barriers activating, with only a third, it was far from enough as the large arrow pierced straight through all of them before striking Aisha in her midsection.

Immense pain flooded her being as it penetrated through her scales and deep into her body, where the arrow embedded itself rather than continuing to pierce all the way through. Immediately, she felt powerful curse energy emanating from the weapon, but worse than that was the powerful poison that flooded not just her physical vessel but even her soul.

Dragonsbane, she realized as she was ravaged from within. Yet, despite the immense damage, her mind remained calm as she let out a roar and mobilized her mana. The Dragonsbane activated in response, damaging her further, but she had no other choice as she forcibly expelled the arrow from her body right as a barrage of follow-up arrows arrived.

Using her wing to shield herself, she infused it with mana to empower it, barely blocking in time. After much struggle, the arrow stuck in her body was finally expelled, only to immediately turn into black smoke and disappear, all while the arrows kept flying from the mountains, piercing into her wing and dealing further damage.

Despite having already expected the opening attack from the Chosen of the Malefic Viper to be powerful, and even with her careful preparations, she had clearly underestimated just how powerful the attack could be. It was far beyond what any B-grade should be capable of inflicting, and the massive hole in her body refused to heal even now as the poison, arcane, and curse energy lingered.

Even so, Aisha gritted her teeth, and inside her mouth, a small bottle appeared that she instantly drank, and as she did so, its contents washed through her body. It battled the Dragonsbane Poison for a few seconds, but quickly this new energy won out and washed away the toxins from her body as the wound also started healing, and with a loud roar, magic manifested all around her as it was time for her to at least respond to the constant barrage of attacks.

--

Aishalstromoz had clearly been ready to deal with Jake. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but as she got closer, he detected the faint traces of magic on her scales. At first, he thought it was just from some passive skills of hers, but upon closer inspection, he recognized them as small formations. Hundreds of them. Making them must have taken a long time, but they also spelled trouble.

Usually, Primal Gaze meant that his opponent couldn’t summon defenses, even of the magical kind, but it only worked because it froze their soul. These formations would still be capable of activating no matter what Jake did, which he realized was also a weakness. Clearly, she’d made them automatic because she knew he could stop her from controlling defensive magic, but this surrender of control also struck him as an opportunity.

As she approached, Jake flew down to one of the islands where he tried something daring. Eternal Shadow was capable of mimicking Jake and his skills to some extent, so if he activated the empowered version of Unseen Hunter when he stood still, could Eternal Shadow keep it going?

He decided to give it a shot, as Jake summoned plenty of arcane bolts and orbs, which he kept suspended there. The plan was simple: to make a smaller attack first to trigger her defenses, but he feared these pure freeform arcane magic attacks wouldn’t be enough, so he wanted to also add Eternal Shadow.

The issue was that Eternal Shadow would have to stand there for a while without striking, and truthfully, Jake had no idea how long the virtual shadow would even last. Especially not in the current environment. Jake wasn’t blind to Eternal Shadow being kind of odd ever since entering the World of the Exalted Prima, and while he wasn’t sure what was going on with it, his instincts told him it wasn’t a bad development.

Eternal Shadow did originate from the concept of the virtual, so it was only natural that in a virtual world, it would be affected. Testing it and pushing the limits of the skill was a given, which was why Jake decided to summon his Eternal Shadow to stand alongside the summoned arcane orbs and bolts.

Using the skill, his shadow appeared in front of him, facing Jake directly. He stared at his own clone made of curse energy, trying to see any hint of intelligence or anything else noteworthy, but all it did was stand there staring blankly, since Jake hadn’t summoned it with any special intent besides the very vague command of “helping him with his opening attack.”

Usually, Jake summoned his Eternal Shadow with a very specific goal in mind. Either to attack quickly, dodge to one side, flee in another, that kind of thing. They were always simple and usually carried out within seconds, after which it was expected that the Eternal Shadow would naturally disperse or Jake would switch reality with it.

Yet this time around, it just stood there, unmoving. Jake observed it for a few seconds, but as Aisha got closer, he started making his way back towards the mountains, and right around the time he got there, she started speaking.

As she did, Jake got into position and prepared himself. He continued analyzing the formations on her body and made minor edits to his Protean Arrow to ensure it could more easily pierce them should his initial attempt to trigger them fail.

In regard to what she said, Jake’s ears did perk up when he heard the offer of a bet. Jake liked bets, and sure, he could hear her out if she survived his opening attack. Once he was ready, Jake purposefully waited just a little longer, intending the delay to throw Aisha off her game. Once he deemed the wait was long enough, he raised his bow and nocked the Protean Arrow, which was naturally constructed with Eternal Hunger as its centerpiece.

Arcane Awakening roared to life as he charged the Arcane Powershot, all while mentally keeping note of his Eternal Shadow and the arcane magic he kept suspended more or less directly below the dragon. When the Arcane Powershot was close to being as charged as it could be, Jake sent a mental command to the arcane bolts and orbs, launching them upwards toward the dragon.

To his pleasant surprise, his Eternal Shadow also reacted and, with a bow of curse energy, shot an arrow along with the arcane magic. The feint ended up working even better than Jake had expected, and even if the Eternal Shadow faded away right after striking, it had more than done its job.

When his true stealth attack finally arrived, Aisha’s defenses were far from adequate as his Protean Arrow did its job by piercing into her body and lodging itself there to expel all its harmful energies, a massive dose of Dragonsbane included. An improved formula, too, far quicker to activate and with a more potent effect than what he’d used back in C-grade.

Everything was going well until suddenly he felt the dragon consume something. The second she did, he felt his Dragonsbane get attacked by whatever she’d eaten, and he quickly realized why.

An antidote.

The second he realized this, Jake used Touch of the Malefic Viper to purposefully suppress the Dragonsbane as best he could with the hope of avoiding it all being eliminated. It worked somewhat, but the vast majority was still eliminated in moments, and with the poison gone, Aisha successfully expelled Eternal Hunger and her wounds began to heal.

As a True Dragon, her body was incredibly durable simply due to her race, but Jake’s opening arrow had still dealt tremendous damage and wasn’t something she could recover from quickly, and the extra arrows Jake had landed in addition, some of which rendered her one wing full of holes, didn’t help either.

Meanwhile, Jake had expended nothing besides the element of surprise. Even so, Aisha seemed confident as magic revolved around her body, and several hundred spells manifested at once as beams of destructive golden energy flew toward him.

“Truly, you are not to be underestimated. The sting from that attack is something I will not forget easily,” Aisha said while unleashing her attacks. “You have also yet to answer me. Are you interested in a bet?”

Jake flew into the sky and away from the destructive barrage of energy that fell upon the mountain range he’d just been hiding in, surprisingly not doing much damage to it, indicating the material in this hastily constructed world was quite durable. Hearing her question, he answered in the affirmative.

“I could be convinced depending on the terms,” Jake responded while shooting a few potshots toward the dragon.

“Excellent. Then let us bet on the victor,” Aisha said, dodging away from his arrows rather than attempting to block them. “I’m unsure what I could offer you, but I have heard you might want the egg of a dragon. So how about I offer you one of those? One of quality that won't disappoint. I swear I won’t be stingy.”

Hearing this offer, Jake doubted if anything like that could even be considered beneficial to him. Okay, it probably would be, but the Dragonflights would also be elated to help Jake create some powerful variant using his Primeval Origin abilities, bet or not.

Still, Jake liked the offer, not because he didn’t think she could give him something they wouldn’t hand over if he asked for it anyway, but due to the circumstances in which he would obtain it. If Jake asked for their help, he would owe them something, while if he won it through a bet, he wouldn’t.

“Yeah, I could be convinced with that,” Jake said, analyzing what kind of magic the dragon was using. “And what if you win?”

Jake had many thoughts about what she could ask for, most of which revolved around his Primeval Origin abilities once again... yet perhaps he should have predicted her answer based on the many teasing conversations he’d had with the Viper.

“In the event of my victory, you agree to let me bear a child born of your Records.”