I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 278: Illusory Sanguine Howl

“Hoh?” Listening to Argentum’s words, Horell could not help but feel a bit agitated as he felt like he was being mocked for what he was doing. Increasing the amount of mana that was infused into the ball he was holding, Horell replied to Argentum’s question, saying in a slightly infuriated tone, “Who says I’m the one who’s going to regret doing this?”

“I’ll make you regret arriving in front of the alliance in the first place!” he shouted soon after, dashing towards Argentum at his full speed. As the gap between them started to become smaller, Argentum looked at Horell with a solemn aura surrounding him, wanting to see what Horell was going to do next. Of course, he already had an idea in mind as to what he was going to do, but he always left some room in his mind for impromptu actions.

Unfortunately for Argentum, Horell went towards him in the most straightforward manner possible. At the very moment he arrived in front of his enemy, Horell went ahead and swung the ball towards Argentum, wanting to hit him by his side. In response, Argentum channeled all of the energy in his body as he quickly ducked down to avoid the attack. As a result, the ball of energy Horell had conjured was sent on a collision course with a tree, with the latter being split into two parts as the sound of an explosion resounded soon after.

Returning to his original position, Argentum looked at Horell, who was still looking at him with a wary yet agitated aura surrounding him. Noticing the aura Horell radiated, he thought to himself, ‘I wonder what I should do in order for this fight to end peacefully?’

‘Well…’ Remembering that the conversation they had a while ago had now turned into a fight, he changed his mind as he thought, ‘In a less destructive manner, rather.’

Naturally, knowing who Horell was, Argentum did not deem him as an enemy. Not to mention, he also did not consider Horell as an enemy as he knew that it would only take a single attack from him to defeat Horell. Nevertheless, he thought about it from another perspective and concluded that there might be another reason as to why Horell decided to fight against him instead of using a peaceful approach.

“It’s not like him,” Argentum muttered to himself as he looked at what Horell was going to do next. At the moment, Horell’s sense of vision was closed as he attuned his body to the energy in his surroundings. Concurrently, he also extended both of his arms outwards as a slightly larger ball of energy than before was brewing quite the powerful intent of destroying everything that came across its path.

“Should I try and dissuade him from continuing this fight?” he asked himself soon after as he looked at Horell’s current state. Soon after, another thought related to his previous question surfaced in his mind as he asked, “Or should I exhaust all of his energy, leaving him with no choice but to give up?”

“Well, that’s a no-brainer,” Argentum muttered to himself after asking himself the second question. Letting out a playful chuckle, he then said, “How about I become a villain for once?”

“Is that all you’ve got?” With that in mind, the first agenda in his idea was to agitate Horell to attack him more frequently. Letting out a chortle filled with mockery, he then said, “That ball of energy was so slow, dodging it was like taking a relaxing walk!”

“Oh? Is that so?” Hearing Argentum’s words of mockery, Horell could not help but become a bit more infuriated. Then again, though he was infuriated, he did not let all of the rage get to his head as he remembered his purpose for coming out here, which was to stall for time. Nevertheless, he did feel like his reputation was being sullied with the being in front of him easily dodging his attack.

Eventually, the energy ball he had conjured had reached the maximum amount of energy it could handle, prompting him to reply to Argentum’s words soon after, “If that was slow, then let’s see if you can dodge this one!”

“[Beam of the Grand Navitas]!”

Fwoosh!

In an instant, the ball of energy had transformed into a beam, heading towards Argentum at a speed multiple times faster than Horell’s dash from before. But just as an aura of expectation and elation surrounded Horell, getting a hunch that this attack would hit Argentum, he soon noticed the aura Argentum was radiating, which infuriated him even further.

Of course, the aura Argentum was radiating was the previous solemn aura from before, indirectly telling Horell that all of his attacks are nothing in front of him. Not letting the beam collide with his body, Argentum summoned all of the energy in his body once more as he sidestepped, making sure that the distance between him and the beam was barely enough for him to not get hit.

‘Surely, a situation like this would infuriate him even more, no?’ Argentum thought to himself, letting out an aura of slight glee as Horell’s furious aura had reached a higher level. Making sure that he was infuriated at him, Argentum went ahead and scoffed at Horell’s attack once more, saying, “At first, it was a ball. Now, it’s a beam. Do you think changing the shape of your attack would give you a higher chance of inflicting pain on me?”

Without delay, Horell shouted with a tone filled with fury, saying, “Don’t you look down on me! You haven’t seen me at my full power just yet!”

‘He’s using his full power now. That’s great. The fight will end faster,’ Argentum thought as he let out an inward sigh of relief as he heard Horell’s reply. He then muttered to himself, “Speaking of which, these movement speed boosting buffs truly help out in this fight.”

The movement speed boosting buffs Argentum used to reach the entrance of the Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance was the reason why he could dodge Horell’s attacks without a problem. Of course, he knew that he had two skills activated that boosted all of his stats. But then, he thought that if he ever needed to show power, those two skills activated would be enough to leave a long-lasting imprint on a being like Horell.

“[Will of Nature’s Mana]!”

“[One with Mana]!”

Shouting out the names of skills with fervor and fury, Horell’s combat power had been boosted by a substantial degree in less than an instant, making Horell feel like he had enough power to force Argentum to attack. With that in mind, he instantly decided to use the most powerful skill in his arsenal, extending both hands once more as a magic circle was gradually being conjured.

Noticing Horell’s current aura, Argentum could not help but think of using a defensive skill like [Grand Azure Armor++] to reduce his chances of getting hit. But then, he remembered that the current buffs he had activated as of late would be enough to dodge any attack coming from Horell, deciding in the end to not use such a skill.

“On top of that, it would infuriate Horell even more if he saw me dodge his attacks without using a skill,” Argentum muttered, letting out a soft chuckle as he wondered how long it would take for Horell to give up.

Swoosh!

Accompanied by a large gust of wind, the magic circle Horell had conjured soon transformed into what seemed to be a gate made out of his energy. The aura radiating from the gate was, in a way, unique, prompting Argentum to look at it as he felt that the gate reminded him of something familiar. He tried to recall what it was by rummaging through Aurus’s memories, but before he could find that certain memory, Horell had already made his move.

Placing both hands on the gate of mana as he infused more of his energy into it, an intent to kill soon radiated from Horell as he shouted, “Try and dodge this for size!”

“[Gate of Myriad Armaments]!”

“Open!”

Bang!

As the gate opened up, letting the sound of a wooden gate being opened resound throughout the area, multiple balls of energy were soon formed a few centimeters away from the gate’s entrance, instantly transforming into weapons of all shapes and sizes. Knives, spears, swords, axes, hammers, if one took enough time to look at all of the conjured weapons, one would find out that almost any possible type of weapon was made.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Soon after, these weapons were then shot towards Argentum, who finally realized what the gate Horell reminded him of. Uttering out a sound of understanding, he soon said, “Ah! So that’s what it reminded me of! The Gate of Babyl—!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Unfortunately for him, just as he was about to finish his sentence, the weapons were now at a small distance away from Argentum that it could be said that it was impossible to dodge such an attack. With each weapon radiating quite a fierce killing intent, normal beings would surely accept their current fate and let the weapons turn them into swiss cheese.

Of course, that’s just for normal beings.

Swoosh!

Relying on the buffs he had activated once more, Argentum went ahead and used all of the energy in his body to distance himself from the weapons by a hundred meters with a single step. Unexpectedly, even though he had dodged the weapons, it seemed that it was only the first wave, with a plethora of weapons soon being conjured in front of the gate once more.

With the second batch of weapons heading towards his way, Argentum pondered over his choices for a bit, which was either to destroy the gate that created the weapons, or dodge all of the weapons aimed at him until Horell’s energy was exhausted. Since he was not sure if destroying the gate would truly stop the weapons from being conjured, Argentum decided to go with the latter, asking himself, “Surely, he wouldn’t be able to make another batch of weapons after this, right?”

Contrary to Argentum’s beliefs, Horell continued to make a few more batches of weapons, which were all sent towards Argentum. In total, ten batches of weapons were sent towards him, but all of them were easily dodged by him since the trajectory they took was that of a straight line.

Nevertheless, running around for a short while made him slightly tired, causing him to pant for a bit as he returned to his original position before the opening of the gate. While catching his breath, he focused his sense of vision towards Horell, whose current aura was now at a state of flickering between being filled with power and being powerless. Not only that, but it seemed that Horell’s complexion had taken a hit as well, with the energy making up his body now taking on a lighter cyan hue instead of a darker one.

Continuing to infuriate Horell, Argentum straightened his back as he radiated an arrogant aura before mockingly saying, “You sent quite a ton of weapons at me. At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to dodge them, but here I am. Don’t you think you should give up at this point?”

“I would never admit defeat to someone like you!” Horell shouted in response as he was in the process of recuperating. In his mind, he could not help but think that the being he was fighting against was incredibly tough, even though he did not make a move of his own. With that in mind, he wondered as to whether the reason why Argentum had not attacked yet was because he had weak attack power, but insanely fast reflexes in exchange.

Betting on that idea, Horell started to chuckle, which soon turned into a mad cackle after a few seconds. As Argentum looked at Horell with a slightly confused aura, Horell looked at Argentum and said, “Now that I think about it, you haven’t retaliated against my attacks. Is it because you don’t have enough attack power to defeat me? Is that why you’re resorting to mocking me?”

In response, Argentum went silent as he pondered over something for a bit. After a few seconds, he then extended his right arm before pointing at Horell. Not understanding what Argentum was doing, Horell let out another loud cackle as he scoffed, “Pointing at me? For what reason? Are you trying to scare me into thinking that you have an ace up your slee—?!”

“[Higher Algor Magic]…”

“[Water Bolt].”

Whoosh!

Bang!

Before Horell could even finish his sentence, a bolt of water was hastily sent to where he was, colliding with him in less than an instant. Thanks to the force behind the water bolt, Horell was sent flying towards the inside of the alliance base, embedding himself into the wall with a loud bang. Seeing the result through his enhanced vision, Argentum replied to Horell’s taunting from before as he asked, “You were saying?”

“Urgh…” Oblivious to what Argentum said, Horell could not help but let out a groan from the intense pain of crashing into the wall. Nevertheless, even though he was in immense pain, he still remembered the ultimate goal of this fight, which was to stall for time.

“I think…only a few minutes have passed,” Horell said to himself while he was getting himself unstuck from the wall, letting out an inward sigh of disappointment, which was directed at himself. After getting himself unstuck, he looked at the silhouette of Argentum from afar, feeling that his reputation as a Supreme Guardian was tarnished due to his arrival. At this point, he just wanted to land a hit on Argentum, not for the sake of the alliance, but his own pride.

“To think that I’ll be using the Supreme Alliance skill for my own reasons,” Horell said to himself, letting out a mocking chuckle soon after. He then continued, “Well, it’s fine to be selfish every once in a while, no?”

“Though I do have to say…” As Horell prepared the activation of the Supreme Alliance skill, he looked at Argentum once more, recalling a certain being in his memories which seemed to make miracles happen.

“His power resembles Aurus quite a lot.”

While continuing to mutter the incantation for the Supreme Alliance skill, he went ahead and dashed towards Argentum at full speed, shortening the gap between them in a matter of seconds. As for Argentum, he looked at Horell, who was gradually getting closer, and said in a mocking tone, “Well, well, well. Look who came back to be beaten up by—”

Just as he was about to mock Horell once more to infuriate him, he noticed that the aura radiating from him had changed. It was not an aura that resonated with him anymore, but rather, it was an aura that seemed to come from someone else. Someone with immense bloodlust, as well as someone with great experience in creating falsifications.

Sensing that the aura of two other beings was now exuding out of Horell, Argentum could not help but become wary of what was about to come. Without hesitation, he went ahead and activated [Grand Azure Armor++] as he examined the aura Horell was radiating even further.

It did not take him long to find out one of the two beings that had their auras radiating from Horell, letting out an inward gasp of shock as he asked himself in disbelief, “Herellia?”

Unfortunately for him, it seemed that his question would be left unanswered as the aura radiating from Horell had reached its peak, prompting him to clasp his hands together before making a pushing motion as he shouted, “With the power of the Alliance Leader and the Elder of Illusions vested in me…”

“May this attack repel those who want to inflict harm on the alliance!”

“[Supreme Alliance Skill]!”

“[Illusory Sanguine Howl]!”

——–

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