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Thanks for the Golden ticket, Draigo1113. Your support ismuch appreciated.

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"Fine. Let’s do this your way."

Merin said, her voice flat and sharp.

The black cube that had been surrounding her melted away, dissolving into the ground like dark mist.

Rune’s plan was working. He had made sure through Kevin that she knew something was wrong with the Prismal Conduit, her so-called "unlimited heal."

Doubt had been planted. And when she heard that the orcs had more than just their commanders out there, that other powers were backing them, she couldn’t risk staying out of the fight. That was exactly what Rune wanted.

Only if Merin left the cube could Tugnier wear her down enough for Phase Two.

Tugnier’s grin stretched wider as he watched her step forward. "You’ve got some spine after all," he said, resting his heavy club across his shoulder.

"At least, we don’t go after unarmed healers," Merin replied coldly. Her earlier playful tone was gone, replaced by a sharp, measured calm. Her eyes gleamed like cut glass.

"Instead," Tugnier said, his voice turning dark, "you send your second-in-command to slaughter women and children from behind?"

Merin didn’t answer. She only spun the twin daggers in her hands, their edges flashing with faint light. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, front to back, back to front, her body moving like a pendulum, loose and ready.

In Rune’s past life, if not for Quinn, Tormund would have killed those same women and children before joining the fight from behind.

Quinn had stopped him back then, at the cost of her life.

"There’s no need to show mercy to you disgusting creatures anyway," Merin finally said. Her voice was tight with hatred.

The kind that only grows after years of being fed lies and poison.

Blue sparks cracked around Tugnier, bursting like wild lightning against the air. Each spark left a crater on the ground, the air itself trembling under the pressure of his aura.

Across from him, black pulses of mana rippled out from Merin’s body, heavy, dark, and controlled.

A soft fog began to spill from her skin, colors mixing together like oil on water. The mist shimmered faintly, tinting the air around her in layers of green, violet, and blue.

Her exposed back and sides released even more of it, wrapping her like a beautiful but poisonous halo.

Tugnier narrowed his eyes. He knew better than to be distracted by that sight.

That wasn’t decoration. That was Nerveblight Pheromones (A+), her divine gift.

The colorful fog carried a mix of deadly toxins, all finely tuned to target her enemies while her allies suffer low to no effects from it.

It was an elegant weapon, beautiful to look at but lethal to breathe. If it didn’t drain her stamina and mana so quickly, it would’ve been ranked as an S-tier skill.

Merin blurred forward before he could move. Her black aura trailed behind her like smoke, her form blurring as she closed the distance in a heartbeat.

Tugnier swung his massive club in a wide arc, the air booming around it. His timing was perfect. The huge weapon cut through space like a meteor, shaking the ground and forming a crater from the sheer pressure.

Merin twisted midair, her body spinning gracefully as she avoided the strike by a hair’s breadth.

The wind bent to her will, condensing beneath her feet and holding her aloft. She floated lightly, her hair whipping around her face as she steadied herself.

A 4th-circle wind attribute user. No wonder her movements were that sharp.

Red spirals surged beneath her, the desert sand around them hardened into spirals of jagged, molten rock. They launched upward, roaring like serpents as they chased her through the air.

Merin clenched her jaw and wrapped herself in a barrier of spinning air. The rocks shattered harmlessly against it, bursting into fragments of glowing dust.

She dropped her weight midair, pushing off a condensed platform of wind. A dark burst of mana erupted from her legs, shooting her forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Her twin daggers glowed faintly as she aimed straight for Tugnier’s neck.

The orc’s massive frame spun to the side in an impossible blur for his size. Merin’s blades sliced through empty air.

Then, before she even landed, another pressure point of air formed under her feet, she used it like a stepping stone, twisting her body in midair and charging again.

Tugnier’s eyes widened for a split second before, poof, she shot straight through him.

No blood. No impact. No resistance from flesh and bones.

Her eyes widened. "What...?"

The orc’s figure flickered once and vanished into thin air.

Merin landed hard, sliding backward through the sand. She dug her heel in, breasts heaving as she came to a stop, dust swirling around her feet.

"Thanks for the acrobatic show," came a calm, amused voice from the side.

Tugnier sat casually beside the massive desert lizard, his heavy club resting across his knees. Even the creature flinched away from him, uneasy.

Merin’s expression twisted. "How...?" she breathed.

"What do you mean, how?" Tugnier replied with a grin. "Didn’t your reports say I’m a Space attribute user? Fourth circle?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Mirage..." she said softly.

"There you go." Tugnier nodded, tapping his temple with a thick finger.

Space. One of the rarest attributes, rivaling even Light and Darkness. Few outside the highest ranks of the Holy Order knew anything about it. Only Time attribute surpassed them in rarity.

Merin smirked, wiping a bit of dust from her cheek. "So even creatures as disgusting as you get to possess transcendental attributes, huh?"

Time and space are considered transcendental attributes, while light is considered holy attribute and darkness, a sinner’s attribute.

Tugnier’s grin only deepened. "You seem awfully cocky," he said, his tone low and mocking, "for someone who doesn’t even know if this is my real body."

"No issues," Merin said as she straightened up, dust and sand swirling around her ankles.

Then.

Snap!

She snapped her fingers.

"I don’t need to know your true location anyway."

A heartbeat later...

BOOM!

Explosions tore through the air. Fire and dust swallowed the battlefield, shockwaves rippling out like thunderclaps.

The ground cracked apart under the pressure as red sand rose high into the air, mixing with green gas and smoke.

Even the giant lizard beside Tugnier vanished in a burst of white mist.

Even that lizard was a mirage.

The entire scene dissolved into chaos.

Merin hovered in the sky again, standing on solid air, calm amidst the destruction.

The soldiers nearby, the few SBV guards who managed to stay conscious, stared up with wide eyes. Hope flickered in their expressions.

"That’s it! The veil creature’s tricks won’t work on our commander!" one of them shouted, voice trembling with excitement.

But that hope lasted only seconds.

A huge club cut through the wall of smoke, spinning like a comet before slamming into the ground.

The explosion of dust and gravel shattered the ground like glass. The shockwave blew apart the flames and smoke, clearing the air.

When the dust settled, Tugnier stood in the crater, untouched, his blue aura crackling around him.

Lightning danced along his arms, each spark leaving streaks in the air.

"You’ve got some tricks there," Tugnier said, his grin wide and savage.

One of the blue sparks leapt from him like a bolt of lightning, darting toward Merin, but she countered instantly, a black spark flashing across her body.

The two energies clashed midair and exploded in a flash of blue and black light.

Her eyes narrowed, sharp and cold, locked on him.

"So, you figured out the trick, huh?" she said.

Tugnier grinned wider, the blue sparks flickering across his face, blurring his features and giving him a demonic look.

"Your pheromones.. they’re not just toxic fog. You mixed gases like acetylene and chlorine in there. When compressed with your wind attribute... they explode."

Merin’s lips curved into a dark smile. "I like men who are quick on the uptake," she said, licking the edge of her dagger. "If not for your disgusting race, I might’ve shown you heaven."

The dagger’s poison only spread thorugh cuts in the flesh.

Tugnier’s chuckle rumbled low in his chest. "Oh, I don’t show racial preference. I’ll show you hell all the same."

And then they moved.

Merin blurred forward, vanishing from sight. Tugnier spun his massive club in one hand and swung upward in a vertical arc.

The air screamed from the force of it. Merin backed just in time, the club missing her head by inches.

The shockwave blasted her backward, but she twisted midair, using the wind around her to turn the burst into a powerful whirlwind aimed straight at him.

Tugnier dropped his club and his hands dug through space, as blue aura crackled like thunder at his fingers.

He pivoted on his heel, twisting to his right. Space itself seemed to bend. The massive whirlwind vanished, then appeared instantly to his side, harmlessly cutting into empty air.

Merin didn’t hesitate. She charged again, closing the distance.

"So this is your real body," she said, smirking as her daggers gleamed.

Tugnier’s lightning bounced off the black sparks wrapping around her.

"Kehehh..." Merin’s laugh was soft but unsettling, curling across her doll-like face.

Tugnier stomped down hard. The ground roared, and a massive wall of red sand rose between them.

Merin didn’t stop.

She crashed through the first wall, then the second, her body surrounded by a black cyclone of wind and aura. She lifted her arm, ready to pierce through the third...

...but the third wall disappeared by itself.

In its place stood a colossal illusion of Tugnier, his towering hands coming together for a clap.

Lightning sparked violently between his palms, ready to crush everything in between.

Merin’s eyes widened, but her instincts took over.

She raised her daggers and released hundreds of wind blades, fast and sharp as razors. They tore through the illusion, poof!, the fake Tugnier vanished into mist.

But behind it stood the real one.

Same pose. Same motion.

The blades slashed him across the chest and arms, blood splattered the sand, but Tugnier didn’t stop.

His massive hands clapped together in front of her.

BOOOOOOM!

A deafening shockwave burst out, a wall of thunderous sound and lightning aura that shattered the air.

The shockwave passed through merin, her head shot back, eyes rolled back from impact.

"Ahhck." A spark of saliva came out of her mouth as her breasts jolted from the impact.

Next instant, Merin’s body was sent flying, her silhouette cutting across the battlefield like a ragdoll. She crashed into the stone wall of the valley with a thunderous impact.

"Commander!"

The SBV guards, who managed to stay conscious screamed, panic flooding their voices.

They could barely stand, but they stumbled toward her, terrified, not for her, but for themselves if she stayed down.

They know their fate if Merin didnot get up.

Her body hung limp for a moment. Then.

Twitch.

Her fingers moved.

Her head lifted, bones cracking back into place. Her body straightened with a sickening sound, broken joints snapping back as her wounds slowly sealed.

Tugnier wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned.

"You cockroach," he said, walking toward her.

Merin’s chest heaved, her breath ragged. She bent low, picked up her daggers, and spun them lightly in her hands.

The guards froze, watching in awe, and relief.

"You’ve got some disgusting tricks," Merin said, her voice cold but steady.

Her broken hand twitched, bones shifting back into alignment. "Just like your race."

Tugnier laughed, his grin wide. "You released revival toxins right before you hit the wall," he said.

"Smart thinking." He tilted his head, studying her pale, shaking form. "But you can’t use that wind attribute without mana, can you?"

Merin smirked despite the pain flickering behind her eyes.

"Oh, I don’t need mana," she said, twirling her daggers until they gleamed black under the red sky. "To kill a leaking bucket like you."