Child of Destiny

...…

Bang! Bang!

Owen was first having a hard time keeping up with Arthur and Leonard as Shin and Diablo were purposely letting him train under such pressure. Those two were only appearing at crucial times that could lead to Owen's death.

But after the constant exchanges, Owen regained his confidence and started fighting properly, especially when Arthur and Leonard were not giving Samael any attention.

The two were very familiar with Shin and understood what this brother of theirs was planning. This was why they welcomed the 'roles' he had 'given' them and fought just like that.

They let Samael do whatever he wanted while putting as much pressure on Owen. Of course, they were still annoyed with the constant harassment that Shin and Diablo were giving them.

This led the two to reveal one of the trump cards that they were preparing for future battles.

Swoosh!

Arthur disengaged from the battle to create some space for himself. Then he suddenly stabbed his dragon spear on the ground beside him and put the round shield on his back before clasping his hands in front of his chest.

Bang!

Right after that, the air seemed to have trembled.

Shin, who sensed that something bad was about to happen, wanted to stop Arthur. But Leonard quickly blocked him and Diablo by summoning a pair of beast manifestations that forced them to halt their tracks.

It might be brief, but it was more than enough for Arthur to complete the skill.

"Let me show you the debut of the Tier 3 Skill that I have acquired just recently!" smirked Arthur as he looked at Shin.

'Dragon Knight Skill (Tier 3): (Inferior) Dragon Tongue'

"Quake!" he shouted, which produced intense ripples in both the air and the ground. It was as if a storm and earth earthquake occurred at the same time.

But instead of spreading in different directions, it only targeted what was in front of Arthur, where the opposing side stood.

Shin's team started to lose their balance due to the intense storm and earthquake.

As experts, they were able to find a decent footing despite the current situation. But before they could do anything after, Leonard suddenly did something.

Bang!

Leonard, who stopped Shin and Diablo earlier, suddenly descended from the sky and hit the ground like a meteor.

'Thousand Beast Art: Planetary Destruction'

Boom!

He did not target anyone from the opposing group and instead slammed his war axes on the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

This resulted in a powerful shockwave, which further strengthened the intense storm and earthquake. Moreover, the ground also collapses upon impact, sending huge boulders and multiple rock fragments into the air.

Owen and Samael lost their footing as they were thrown in the air by the flipping ground. This made them vulnerable to any attacks.

Fortunately, Alucard was quick to respond this time. He was already retreating toward a safe distance the moment when he sensed that there was something wrong with Arthur and Leonard.

But instead of focusing on those two, he directed his attention to Alice, Daulla, and Huahua. He continuously bombarded them with his powerful shots that were infused with Vampire Spells.

It was fine not to hit them directly. It was already good enough to hit the area near them. So long as they interrupted them from casting any advanced spells to properly assist Arthur and Leonard, then Shin and Diablo would always find a way to deal with their current predicament.

The two did not disappoint him either as they simultaneously made their moves right after realizing the danger that Owen and Samael were facing.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Diablo transformed into multiple images as he flashed through different boulders in the air, using them as a platform to move freely.

But instead of saving Owen and Samael, he chose to attack Leonard, who was planning to follow his previous move with another devastating technique.

Sensing the danger, Leonard quickly stopped what he was doing and swiftly swung his war axes in multiple directions, sending strong gusts of wind that cut through the illusionary figures that were attacking him from different directions.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Clang!

After cutting all those figures, Diablo's real body was revealed as he blocked one of the attacks that almost cut his body as well.

Regardless, he had already achieved his goal of stopping Leonard. Owen and Samael would be able to hold themselves with the rest so long as Shin stopped Arthur.

"Halt!"

But before Shin could even leave his spot, he suddenly sensed a mysterious power that descended out of nowhere. It pressed onto him, seemingly trying to prevent him from moving.

It was at this moment when Shin realized something. He looked at Arthur with a slight frown before mumbling. "Dragon Tongue?"

It might be different from the 'Dragon Tongue' that he knew from the real world as it was one of the most powerful techniques that the Springfield Household possessed.

From his knowledge, only those at Nathan's level and above could use that technique, but it was at a huge cost. Only those old monsters at the Transcendent Realm could use it out of whim.

It was a special magic where the Dragons infused their powers with words along with the laws of nature.

There were a lot of things included in it that Shin was unaware of and could fully not understand since it was way beyond his current level.

But if he compared it to the things that he had learned from the real world, then it was most likely the same as the Mentalism Method that his Senior Dayna from the Research Department was using – the 'Spirit Speech'.

The functions and purposes they shared were very similar to one another, so he could use to as a basis for his counterattack.

After all, he had already experienced how to get beaten up by that Mentalism Method.

Fortunately, Shin could tell that Arthur was not in complete control over this technique. Adding that the skill itself was not the entire version of the original one, he should still have some hope to counter it.

"Heh! That is such a fancy skill you have there! I wonder how long its duration will last?" he said in a provoking tone.

As he released his 'Nephilim's Wings' without any hesitation along with the berserk skill infused into the [Yamato] – the 'Nephilim's Ascent' – along with the 'Nephilim's Clarity' that removed all kinds of status effects cast upon him.

Bang!

Swoosh!

Freeing himself from the restrictions of the mysterious power, Shin disappeared from his current location and reappeared in front of Arthur, who was in the middle of opening his mouth.

"Stop!"

Bang!

Shin instantaneously halted in the air as the tip of his sword was about to reach its target. He slightly frowned as he complained, "What a troublesome skill."

Arthur was about to give Shin a smug look when he suddenly noticed something. He might not be seeing what kind of expression the latter wears behind that mask, but he could feel that there was something wrong with the tone of Shin's words.

Without any hesitation, he reached his left hand on his back and grabbed the round shield while his other hand extended toward the dragon spear.

Swoosh!

He then took multiple hopes backward, trying to distance himself away from Shin as soon as he could.

"Too late!" said Shin as his skill was already activated.

'Extra Skill (Tier 2): Doom Blade'

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

A group of swords fell from the sky and formed a cage around Shin and Arthur, trapping the latter with him.

The moment these swords surrounded Arthur, he immediately saw that his entire skill bar turned gray, which also removed the duration of his 'Dragon Tongue' entirely. "Damn it!"

"Trying to use a Tier 3 Skill that you have yet to master in front of me? Dream on!" Shin laughed as he freed himself from the restrictions of the previous usage of 'Dragon Tongue' earlier.

This time, he charged straight to Arthur not planning to give the latter any time or space to recover himself.

…

In the meantime, Huahua did not know what to do as she was unable to keep up with the pace of the battle. She was having a hard time matching the pace of Arthur and Leonard and was unable to properly support them with her totems.

Moreover, most of her spells had always been canceled by Alucard who had been keeping an eye on them since the very beginning.

He was taking the full advantage that he had in terms of range.

Due to this, the pressure that Huahua was currently facing started to grow stronger. She even started to panic and was unable to make any good decisions.

It was at this moment that Alice gave her timely advice. "Don't panic. Keep your calm."

"Don't waste your effort on forcing to use an advanced or intermediate spell that needed some time to cast. Just focus on the ones that you can use instantaneously."

"What you needed right now was precise timing. Don't force yourself to match their pace in such chaos. Timing is the key. Find the right opportunity to use your spell and which spell can fit that situation."

"B-but-…" Huahua tried to say that she could not use any spell even if she wanted to since she was too busy defending herself from Alucard's harassment.

But she was immediately cut off by Alice. "Don't worry too much about him. We will help you defend against his attacks when we find the right opportunity to use your spells, especially your totems."

It was at this moment that Alice noticed that Arthur was trapped in one of Shin's field skills. She turned at Huahua and instructed. "Ready your cleansing totems. Summon them on that location in my signal."

She predicted the next moves of Shin and Arthur pointed to the next location where they would appear.

Huahua was still very nervous to pick up the instructions quickly and was unable to reply immediately.

Then she heard Daulla. "Trust us. We are a team. We will protect you."

Then the little shaman suddenly recalled what Shin had told her – a team was meant to help fill the gaps of their teammates' shortcomings.

A resolute expression appeared on her face as she nodded. "Un!"

...…