Chapter 715 - New levels of disrespect

“Ah! Nooooo! So early?!” the woman on the other side of the arena cursed as she saw Sofia come out of her waiting room with Crowie on her shoulder.

Sofia looked around, the arena this time was some kind of ruined elven city with plenty of large half-collapsed buildings, some of them still dozens of floors tall. 

“Sorry,” Sofia told the winged beastwoman.

Sonia sighed on the other side, “Not your fault, I just have to curse my own bad luck. Just the usual… Are your other skeletons not going to fight? Not pre-summoned?”

“No. I have them stay out of it because my mana heart awakening is lagging behind,” Sofia answered, “No harsh feelings from that other event, I hope?”

The winged woman shrugged, “I attacked you first. Are you sure you want your skeletons out of it though? I have my skills this time, you could actually lose.”

“Shouldn’t you be happy that I fight weakened?”

Sonia shook her head, “I hate losing but winning against a gimped opponent isn’t much better.”

Sofia laughed, her bone armor slowly engulfing her, “Let’s see if you can still say that after the battle.”

“You better take this seriously,” Sonia warned, a narrow quiver with five mithrium-tipped arrows appearing at her waist.

Oh wow, someone is made of money, Sofia thought as Love’s voice finally started being audible again.

“—and in a rare area this time! This is the first time it’s appeared again since twelve Ark runs ago! How will our contestants navigate this ancient city still littered with hidden explosive devices capable of maiming even a level 300? A single missed step could spell their doom! Is it finally time to seriously bet against the Saintomancer?! I will give you thirty more seconds to place your final wagers! Sonia against Sofia!”

Dangerous arena? I don’t feel any enchantments that could trigger an explosion. A mechanical device then? It’s hard to feel anything precise under all this rubble… Now the question is, do I want to fight in the air or on land? There’s plenty of cover here but it wouldn’t protect against my bolts so I’m not so sure it’ll help against an archer. She survived basically as long as Sen and Saria in the abyss god event, so her defenses should be pretty impressive…

Probably best to just move around a lot. Sky or ground, doesn’t matter. Potentially I could fly above the clouds to give the sun invulnerability to Crowie.

Without any more announcements from Love, the countdown started on the barrier.

Crowie flew away on his own, and Sofia immediately started channeling a piercing and an explosive bolt, as Sonia took to the skies, an arrow and longbow taller than herself appearing in her hands.  

The size of this damn mithril arrow! You could make an entire armor with that!

Three seconds of charge aren’t enough to stop that…

Pure Mithril though, it looks like. Good for me. Can’t mess the timing.

When the countdown stopped and the barrier disappeared, the two women released their projectiles, Sonia down from the sky, Sofia from the ruined city underneath. With a deafening bang, the explosive bolt and the giant mithril arrow collided. Two projectiles left the explosion. On one side the piercing bolt, on a straight path toward Sonia’s head, and the arrow on the other, aimed at Sofia’s chest.

The graveyard nymphs had been pre-casted and waiting under Sofia, they had grabbed her ankles as soon as the barrier disappeared, pulling her to the spirit plane. In the blurry white sky of the spirit plane, Sofia barely managed to see Sonia’s presence flicker as the bright mass of mana of the bolt went through her.

Sofia counted a second before ordering the nymphs to release her. She returned to the physical world, in a cloud of hot dust and her feet in a pool of magma as the shockwave from the Mithril arrow’s impact was just dissipating. Without even looking, Sofia could tell there was a new rift tearing through the city behind her.

“Finally a serious fight,” Sofia mumbled, two new bolts appearing in her hands. She jumped up out of the dust cloud, her sight locked on Sonia, much higher in the sky. The best woman was completely unharmed, and holding a shorter bow. The arrow was already on its way toward Sofia.

The only thing Sofia focused on was to relocate her core to her lower body as fast as possible. The mithrium arrow pierced through Sofia with little to no resistance. Despite its narrow tip, the sheer force behind the projectile obliterated most of Sofia’s upper body. Only her right arm survived, protected by the dragon scale, and connected to her waist by a sliver of skin and flesh.

There goes half my health. Tactical mistake.

Sofia summoned a pre-made fake skeleton of herself, quickly snapped off the useless parts, and connected the spine and right shoulder to her remaining body. This was mostly to have a skull again so that Victory’s crown could reappear on her head. A volley of magical arrows flew at her as she made the repairs, but [Heat death] made them disappear right before they could hit her.

Trying to get some breathing room, Sofia threw her remaining bolt, and started channeling her signature skill as she flew back down. I see, that’s what you’re doing, Crowie, smart. She commented, tracking the skeleton’s movements as she gathered all of her mana.

More and weaker physical arrows rained down, but Sofia simply ignored them, most of them being warped out of the way by [Dodge Me] anyway.

Your time to shine, Övoak, calamity of Light!

[Awakening of the five calamities]!

With a strange low cry like the call of a sea monster, the calamity of light appeared, a monstrous Destroyer skeleton, quickly summoning its own [Exalted exoskeleton] made entirely of Lumian bones, with wings included. The calamity flew straight up toward the beastwoman without even needing an order, hundreds of lights like miniature stars appearing behind it as it moved, each exploding into a shard of light that tore through the sky like shooting stars.

Sofia did not get to watch the spectacle, however, as a second mithrium arrow had been shot her way, ending her life on the spot.

Reviving three seconds later, still inside of a giant cloud of grey dust, Sofia hurriedly used the little mana she had regenerated to summon the graveyard nymphs, and let them transport her to some kind of tunnel, some fifty meters below the surface.

Mining cart rails? Under a city? Sofia observed as she caught her heart shooting out of chest. No matter, time for a light snack.

Crowie found a way down and joined Sofia while she transformed, bringing two mithrium arrows in his beak.

You got both of them! Nice. Sofia stored the arrows in her ring. She won’t be shooting those at us again. Only three more.

Sofia ran to the stairs Crowie had found and made her way up after telling him to stay down for the moment.

Her mana senses could feel the incoming attack just as she stepped outside. Another giant arrow.

[Regret].

Sofia appeared back down in the tunnel next to Crowie, grabbed him and ran to another exit as the entire underground shook from the impact above. She did not make it to exit before a secondary, deafening shock completely outshone the first one, heat radiating all the way down to the tunnel, and priming it for collapse.

Each step Sofia took cause the underground tunnel to crumble behind her. Pre-casting a spell, Sofia ran up another exit.

As if Sonia could exactly follow Sofia’s whereabouts at all times, as Sofia expected, another mithirum arrow was only meters away from her as she saw the outside light. She let her cast resolve, summoning herself right behind the flying arrow. 

Three down.

Flying up, she could finally see her signature skill in action, the giant flying destroyer chasing frantically after Sonia through the sky. She seemed to have already taken a few hits, but kept aiming her bow at Sofia nonetheless, as she flew erratically to avoid the skeleton as best she could.

Sofia’s plan was to fly close to Sonia and finish her with her aura, but before she could cover any significant distance, she noticed a strange mana movement coming from where she came from.

She barely had the time to look back and extend an opened hand, a mithrium arrow striking her palm. The dragon scale armguard absorbed most of the shock, but Sofia’s arm inside of hit was badly mangled, and her shoulder almost torn off from her chest. She fixed her bones in an instant and stored the arrow before it could run out of momentum and fall down.

Now actually three down...

Ah she’s pulling out a mithril arrow again… It’s going to be hard to get close. Hmm… Let’s see, the winning move from here… 

Is to take a quick nap!

Sofia folded her winged and summoned a thin bone cube around herself. Since it was thin and empty, it was technically very little bone, and thus, she could give it [Blessing of permanent frame] in under a second. She then took out the asterite chest and climbed inside with Crowie.

There we go.

About twenty five seconds remaining on the destroyer, so we can afford twenty seconds of perfectly safe mana regeneration.

Sofia summoned herself a pillow and closed her eyes, following the battle continuing outside with her mana senses as she rested in the safety of her instant-fortress.