The Cornflower Witch

Book 2: Chapter 184: The Strange Awakening

Vol 2 Chapter 184 The Strange Awakening

"Who are you?"

Lusha watched as the flute she was about to obtain was separated by the light barrier. An intense irritation welled up in her heart. She turned her head, her triangular eyes fixed on the silver-haired figure slowly descending.

Upon stepping into this place, Sylutia also felt a certain irritation and an urge to fight. However, as the 'Lunar Radiance Breathing Technique' circulated, this impulse and thought were gradually covered and suppressed by a cooling sensation.

"I am... Sylutia." The young girl answered the other, wondering if she should introduce herself further.

However, judging by the other party's eyes full of hostility, it was likely they wouldn't listen to her words.

"This isn't a good place. The tomb's owner might have ulterior motives..." Sylutia attempted to warn the other, though she felt the other probably wouldn't listen.

"Ulterior motives?" Lusha sneered coldly.

"I think *you* are the one with ulterior motives, right? Trying to persuade me to leave quickly so you can enjoy the treasures here alone." She gripped the dagger in her hand, lightly tossed it up, caught it, and looked at this young girl with a somewhat mocking gaze.

"I don't mean that, ugh..." Sylutia felt a bit unwilling to explain further."Seeing how pretty you are, you must be very popular with men, right?" She looked at Sylutia's face and suddenly spoke with jealousy.

"This..." Sylutia encountered such bluntly expressed jealousy for the first time. She genuinely couldn't think of how to respond for a moment.

"Seeing how much you like to act pitiful, this youthful, innocent appearance of yours must have deceived many people, tsk tsk." Lusha mocked.

"Stop pretending in front of me. Both of us have come this far. What we've done, don't we understand each other clearly?"

What have I done? Sylutia was currently full of question marks.

"Now, the treasure and inheritance can only belong to one person. And looking at this rising ritual magic array, only one of us can survive."

"Truly unfortunate, little girl. If the final opponent encountered was a man, he might have given way to you, been bewitched by you." She shook her head.

"But that won't work with me." After saying this, her expression gradually turned ferocious, and her legs also tightened, gathering strength.

"Die!"

In an instant, her figure shot across the hall like a blurry, elongated arc, assaulting Sylutia's side and rear flank. The dagger in her hand also flashed with a dark red light during the assault, becoming exceptionally dangerous.

For an assassin, speed is everything. As long as the speed is fast enough, one can pierce through the weakest spot before the enemy defends. As long as the speed is fast enough, one can avoid any attack. As long as the speed is fast enough, one can catch up to and disengage from any opponent, completely seizing the initiative.

As long as the speed is fast enough, that's all that's needed.

[Flying Fly Footwork]

Lusha's figure transformed into a blurry afterimage difficult for the eye to track during her high-speed movement. Her eyes were full of bloodthirsty light as the dagger in her hand stabbed towards Sylutia's vulnerable side neck.

Seeing she was only a few meters away from Sylutia, and this girl still hadn't dodged, a sliver of joy flashed in Lusha's heart, awaiting the thrill of her dagger slicing through flesh and blood.

But a moment later, as her wrist swept through, it did not meet the slight resistance she expected. It still cut through empty air.

Where did the other go? A chill ran down Lusha's spine. She hurriedly changed her footwork, her figure making several rapid directional changes on the ground to avoid any possible incoming attack.

But after a few seconds, she didn't detect Sylutia's counterattack. Only then did she look around, searching for that silver-haired figure.

Above the hall, Sylutia hovered quietly. Purple eye patterns opened one after another beside her, then locked onto Lusha below.

[Evil Eye Shot]

She was using this move with increasing proficiency. Several dazzling purple light rays shot out, sealing off Lusha's angles of evasion and piercing through her body.

Severely injured, Lusha was incredulous. Only then did she notice Sylutia in the air. Then her body twisted, and she swiftly retrieved a stored potion, feeding it into her mouth.

[Worm Regeneration Potion] (Third Tier · Superior): Can consume nutrients to regenerate limbs.

After drinking the potion, horrifying flesh buds sprouted from Lusha's mutilated body parts, constantly wriggling, then filled her form, gradually repairing herself. During this process, her face gradually paled, and the newly grown limbs were also noticeably somewhat uncoordinated, not fully comparable to before.

An incomplete regeneration, Sylutia silently evaluated, not taking the opportunity to finish her off. She still had many questions she wanted to understand from the other's mouth.

However, this behavior, in Lusha's eyes, was naive. Seeing her previous attack had failed, she completely abandoned her thoughts of conservation, unleashing all the resources she had previously obtained and plundered.

[Blood of the Rushing Beast] (Third Tier · Superior): Blue thunder beast blood, can greatly enhance one's own physical strength for a short time and grant a bit of thunder power.

After drinking it, a flash of thunder and lightning coursed through her body. Her stamina rapidly recovered, and she began running again.

[Starving Beast Crimson Eye Potion] (Third Tier · Excellent): One of the advanced eye medicines. Can lock onto an enemy, causing the opponent's blood to become chaotic, even reverse flow.

Her eyes turned into a deep, somber blood-red. Sylutia, under her gaze, felt her body grow cold, an illusion of being targeted by a fierce beast, making it difficult to move.

She slightly moved her body. A sharp, twisting pain came from various parts of her body. Under such circumstances, Sylutia's figure rapidly flickered, avoiding Lusha's gaze.

Seeing Sylutia dodge and flee, an exaggerated, wide laugh appeared on Lusha's face.

"Hahahaha."

At this moment, her confidence returned. She took a deep breath, then rapidly chased after Sylutia's newly appeared location.

Seeing this, Sylutia flipped her body. A glittergold straight blade fell into her hand. As her figure flipped, it slashed down, transforming into a momentary pale golden light arc.

Startled by Sylutia's sharp blade, Lusha was actually at a disadvantage in the clash. Instead, the blade tore a wound on her shoulder.

After this exchange, Lusha focused again, her deep crimson eyes fixed on Sylutia, attempting, like last time, to disrupt the other's blood flow, causing her own system to become chaotic and collapse.

However, with one experience, Sylutia naturally wouldn't stay exposed to the other's line of sight for long. She flickered away again.

"Hmph." Lusha seemed dissatisfied with this girl's clever dodging. She also realized that without restricting the other's movement, it would probably be very difficult to defeat this girl.

Spatial movement, flickering. The consumption of such abilities is never small. Let me see how many times you can use it.

Afterwards, Lusha continuously chased Sylutia. Her figure was like an afterimage, difficult to shake off.

The two fought in the air and on the ground. Although Sylutia's blade art was exquisite, Lusha, due to the enhancement from potions and abilities, was a step faster than Sylutia, always able to compensate for the lack of skill with numerical advantage.

Sylutia didn't mind this. Instead, in each difficult exchange, she gradually discovered the shortcomings in her own blade art and fighting style, gradually improving.

('Unnamed Blade Art' proficiency +13)

('Astral Traversal' proficiency +9)

('Lunar Radiance Breathing Technique' proficiency +12)

Slowly, her use of various abilities became more and more proficient, constantly honed under the intense pressure of the fight, and she gradually found a suitable combat rhythm.

Once again, Sylutia used her power blade to force away the other's dagger swing. Her figure flickered back repeatedly, then a pale silver halo covered her entire body.

('Lunar Radiance Breathing Technique' proficiency +12, progress 304/300, trial condition satisfied)

[Lunar Radiance Breathing Technique Lv.5 → Lv.6] (Luminous Moon): Can use moonlight to recover stamina, greatly increasing the breathing technique's endurance, and become immune to low-tier negative effects, reducing the impact of other negative effects. (When not using the breathing technique intensely, no side effects are produced.)

The intense burden the breathing technique previously placed on the body was gradually offset by the recovery power, and she gained partial resistance to negative effects.

Not only [Lunar Radiance Breathing Technique], but [Astral Traversal] also improved, though the effect was merely faster traversal speed and reduced consumption, with no other special enhancements.

In the subsequent exchanges, Sylutia slowly realized that the other's blood-red ocular technique was gradually becoming ineffective against her, and she had more and more leeway when facing Lusha's attacks.

It seems... she can counterattack?

She thought for a moment, then retreated. The light in her eyes flickered. Invisible chains extended from the void, locking onto Lusha's forward trajectory. Then the girl lightly pressed her hand on the power blade. Her body slowly rotated along with her dress, swinging the blade as if in a dance. The elegant arc spun and expanded like a thin stream. Under Lusha's astonished and surprised gaze, she was easily sliced apart.

Why... did my ocular technique fail?

Why... can she improve so quickly?

Why...

Her body lightly flew up, then fell, dropping like a dead insect moth.

After one side fell, the magic array within the hall glowed and flowed. Strands of red light outlined, swiftly sucking the not-yet-dead Lusha dry. This sinister and bizarre scene shocked Sylutia. She had originally wanted to save Lusha's life, taking the opportunity to ask some questions. But in the blink of an eye, the other had become a dried-up corpse. This scene was simply too horrifying.

Not only that, the entire ritual seemed to be activated. Strands of red light began to wrap around her body, attempting to fuse the power just absorbed from Lusha into her body.

This infusion of Aspect power made Sylutia extremely uncomfortable, because the condensation of this Aspect force carried a sense of many abnormalities. Furthermore, she didn't lack this portion of power.

Sylutia's resistance caused the ritual's progress to stall, which provoked a tremor from the statues in the hall.

When the girl once again evaded and dodged the infusion of this power, that statue suddenly shattered. Then a giant monstrous insect crawled out from within. It raised its head, its writhing mouthparts opening, directly sucking the flowing power from the magic array into its body, then further expanding.

Soon, this monstrous insect coiled on the ground. The silk sac it spewed out wrapped around itself, beginning to gestate a completely new, unknown life.