SSS Class Mythic Beast Master

Chapter 405 405: Sigil Hunting

Three serpents launched forward simultaneously. Their bodies shimmering and their forms dissolved into pure radiance.

Shot forward at the speed of light itself.

In one microsecond, they were wound around that impossible tree.

They had become blurring afterimages, instantly existing inside Marie and Roana's guard.

It is too fast for the eyes to track, existing in one location then instantly in another.

But Marie's Light Sense had already detected their trajectories. "They move to the left, then the center, and now right!" She called out.

Glacial Gaze.

Roana traced the causality chain, which displayed eight branches, then sixteen, with each possible action curling around another like a double helix. "I see their intent." She said, voice cold with certainty. "The one on the right is the one that will hit you."

Marie's left wing intercepted the leftmost snake while her spear drove toward the center. Despite the snake being made of light, the wing struck directly against whatever constituted its "flesh."

The serpent recoiled with a hiss of pain, and then it rushed back. Roana, meanwhile, had already predicted the rightmost serpent's trajectory. Then Roana's spear smashed down on the rightmost snake as it reformed from a light-speed dash. Jötnarbrjótr didn't pierce, but it simply shattered as the weapon found fault lines in the snake's structure that shouldn't exist in creatures made of light.

But Roana's glacial sight perceived them anyway.

The snake's mid-section exploded into fragments of radiance that dissipated like morning mist.

One snake down, and now nine remained.

The serpents regrouped, circling at a distance, and then five of them reared back, bodies bulging grotesquely. Their mouths opened, and then five balls of pure luminescence shot upward, arcing through the air toward the clearing's center. The balls exploded simultaneously, transforming into hundreds of narrow beams that rained downward like arrows.

"Oh? That's a pretty cool skill." Marie says in slight wonder while her hands come up.

Gathering.

Magic rushed into Marie's clasped hand, golden light spiraled and swirled, growing brighter with each second. She raised the gathered power skyward and formed it into a massive barrier, a dome of light that covered herself and Roana completely.

The light beams crashed into the barrier!

Dozens of strikes per second, each one carrying a force that would have pierced through their body. Light splashed against light, the barrier absorbing attack after attack until the shower finally ended.

Marie released the barrier, then the remaining serpents rushed forward. Four of their eyes glow brighter as they lock onto specific target points. Their bodies rushed forward with attacks aimed at joints, throat, heart, and eyes.

Predetermined locations that would cause maximum damage.

But Marie already grasped this, as everything below the light was sensed by her. She could feel every flicker, every micro-adjustment of trajectory, the way the snakes would briefly "pause" their advance and then snap forward once your guard shifted.

Marie knew the lower snake struck from beneath, jaws opening wide under the sand, trying to clamp her calf while the upper one dove for her exposed shoulder. She tensed her right leg and kicked downward, heel catching the lower serpent just as its mouth came out of the surface.

The impact sent the snake flying while she twisted at the waist, using the movement to swing her spear in an arc at the descending snake. The spear grazed along its neck, not killing it, but causing the body to flicker and destabilize momentarily.

The fourth snake committed fully to its Precision strike. Its fangs extended, gleaming with concentrated light, driving toward Marie's throat.

Roana was there.

Jötnarbrjótr intercepted the weapon, found fault lines, and exploited them. The snake's entire head section shattered like glass struck by a hammer.

Two snakes down and eight remained.

The battle intensified as another snake came rushing towards Marie. But her light sense captured it, as she sidestepped its attack and brought the weapon down in a slicing motion, cleaving the serpent's body neatly in two. As the Light Snake split, Marie's leg lashed down, crushing its other half in place and shattering it into fragments.

The serpents worked together now, as once again two of them dashed at light speed while the other seven released balls of light in the air.

But Marie's Light Sense tracked every movement as she swiftly evaded the shower of light. Roana created blocks of ice that forced the two light snakes to crash into them and leave them stunned. Then Marie dashed forward and blasted out with her spear, puncturing through the head of one of the snakes.

Before she then grabbed the other one and noticed the other Light Snake hesitated because of her Peace Aura. This made them stare at her with less aggression and hostility. Marie chuckled before hurling the snake towards Roana.

Ice formed around Roana's hand before she grabbed onto the Light Snake and froze it fully before she then squeezed. The frozen snake shattered into pieces, and three minutes of combat passed as two more snakes fell.

Five snakes down, and five remained.

The surviving serpents attempted a coordinated final assault. All five activated Light Dash simultaneously, becoming pure radiance that shot from five different angles at impossible speed.

But once more, they fell under Marie Light Sense as she fully fused with the sunlight, and her sense expanded fully. She felt the light itself, such as every photon, every reflection, every beam, and every part of the scales that turned into light.

She blocked the first snake with a snap of her left wing before the second she met with the butt of her spear, jabbing forward into the serpent's open mouth.

The third and fourth she parried together, using a spinning move that swept them aside and sent them crashing into each other, their bodies briefly fusing in a writhing knot.

The final snake almost made it, but Marie's leg was already lashing out, striking the snake and hurling it back.

"Now!" Marie shouted as she quickly recovered, with Roana nodding her head.

Both fighters moved as one without any more words.

Myriad Slashes!

Marie's wings spread wide as they swept in a full circle, while Roana's spear spun in a complex pattern, combining with shards of ice that formed around her.

The five snakes struggled to recover, but they were already being hit by overlapping attacks. Marie's wings struck three simultaneously with mental and physical pain, causing their forms to destabilize.

Roana's combination caught the remaining two, Jötnarbrjótr shattering one while ice shards pierced the other.

The last snake, the one struck by Marie's wing in the beginning, tried to retreat. But Longinus was already in motion, as Marie always kept track of all of the snakes.

The crimson-gold spear thrust forward, golden light gathering at its tip as Purging Lance was activated at close range.

The pillar of condensed light-element magic struck the snake directly.

It shattered into a thousand fragments of radiance that hung in the air for a single perfect moment before dissipating completely.

Ten Light Snakes lay dead with their body still trembling before finally they stopped. All that remained were the glimmering aftershocks of their passing, and a fine mist of photonic residue that danced like an aurora over the ground.