Lord Of Puppets

Chapter 246 – Friendly duel – Part 3.

(She is dangerous.) – thought Thauma as the two fighters were in the standoff once again.... But not like the one from before.

Now both sides had somewhat understanding of each other strength.

On one hand, Thauma understood something.

The woman was dangerous.

Reaction time, casting time and even her agility.

Thauma only managed to score few hits by surprising the vampire.... But.

It did not landed any decisive hit yet.

On the other hand, vampire wasn’t only rushing in because she wanted to see more that the golems has to offer... No.

She knew that Thauma can set up course of action.

(Golem. Bombs and another bomb combo.) – thought Porai.

(He predicted somewhat what I will do? Clever bastard.)

(He knows how to manipulate the battlefield to his advantage.... And there is also that golem.)

(Even if it was a short moment, for him to quickly create golem that quickly.... He knows how to use a combination of golemancy and earth magic at alarming level.)

(He may try gaining more numbers.)

(But summoning more monsters won’t work.) – thought Thauma.

(Or more exactly, she may quickly eliminate them.)

(That earth golem was means of distraction.)

(It may not had been extremely powerful and durable, but still, it should had some ability to take a hit.) – thought Thauma as it remembers the golem getting covered in ice and then getting shattered alongside it.

(I should be able to block off that attack... But it is for the best if I don’t get hit by it.)

(I still have some attacks I didn’t shown yet.... But does she.)

"..."

"My turn." – said Porai with a smirk on her face.

[Earth Magic X Golemancy: Create Earth Golem]

Porai used the exact same type of spell as Thauma, giving birth to the standard earth golem which rushed at the dungeon master.

However, there was a problem.

Porai created 2 golems at the same time that rushed at Thauma, not just one.

(She can also use golemancy!?) – thought Thauma.

"..."

But even after getting surprised by the discovery, Thauma, didn’t backed away or anything.

No.

Thauma put together 3 arms from two sides together, while at the same using magic circle to cover the golem’s arms with rocks.

The two golems were still going towards Thauma... But the dungeon master didn’t ran and instead stood in place, still casting its spell.

(Combination of golemancy, blacksmithing, earth magic and enchantment.)

(Form it into the one.)

(AND FORGE!)

[Earth Magic X Enchantment Magic X Crafting]

[Earthly Forged Battle Gauntlet]

Thauma created two massive earth gauntlets of earth, which covered the all three arms, making the set of three arms into one set of arms.

The rocks covered Thauma hands and forearms, creating two massive gauntlets of earth around them.

(Oh? What is this?) – thought interested Ariava as the two golems finally reached Thauma and swung their massive arms at the dungeon master, who in response swung its two combination of arms at their own strikes.

The golems attacks clashed with each other.... And the earth golems’ arms were shattered upon impact.

And right after, Thauma used its earth gauntlets to smash half of each golem’s torsos, ripping them in half in almost instantly.

(He took them down instantly?!) – thought surprised Porai as Thauma instantly gotten between the two golems after opening the path for itself.

Thauma ran straight towards Porai at full speed, forcing the vampire to unleash [Ice Magic: Ice Spear], creating a spear of ice which she then launched at the golem... Who just smashed the projectile to pieces with the gauntlet.

As Thauma ran it grabbed onto the ground beneath it with the two gauntlets, using the [Earth Magic: Earth Manipulation], to quickly and instantly rip out a huge chunk from the ground without needing to slow down for the moment, before then throwing the two chunks of earth at the vampire.

(BOMBS!) – Porai instantly knew that Thauma created two more of its grenades, alarming Porai who deployed a barrier of ice in front of her.

However, the rocks just smashed into her barrier of ice, shattering.

It was just regular earth with a bit of mana in it.

(Fake out?!) – thought Porai as Thauma managed to reach Porai once again and swung its earth gauntlet fist at barrier of ice, hitting it and shattering a good chunk of it.

"!"

(Hey, hey, hey! This one was made durable!) – thought Porai as Thauma swung its second gauntlet, shattering the barrier of ice with a powerful strike.

Thauma tried to do a second fallow up by swinging once again its first arm from above, however the vampire quickly leaped to the side, dodging the strike and making golem’s fist hit the ground.

(Gave over.) – Porai was about to fire her water ice combination spell, aiming to shatter Thauma’s right side.

However, that strike that Thauma did was never meant to hit her.

It was meant to hit the ground as Thauma was preparing to unleash its spell while running towards the vampire.

[Earth Magic: Earthly Forged Blade – Crown]

Several blades of earthly sprouted from all directions, catching the vampire off guard as some of the blades managed to strike her, stabbing the surface of her body.

However, the vampire managed to quickly back away, dodging the impalement just in time.

"..."

"You sneaky little bastard." – said Porai as she was wounded in several locations.

(First fake bombs, and now a AOE type attack that strikes from all directions?) – thought Porai as she was analyzing Thauma’s combat pattern.

(He didn’t knew which direction I would go, so instead he fired off attack that would attack in all directions?!) – thought Porai as her wounds already started slowly healing.

"!"

(Regeneration!) – thought Thauma.

(I’ve finally managed to somewhat wound her, but she is already healing?!) – thought Thauma as it rushed once again at the vampire who was trying to make up some distance.

[Ice Magic: Freezing Gust]

The vampire unleashed the freezing wind in front of her, which was countered by Thauma using its earth gauntlets, joining them together to block off the attack.

But there was a problem.

The gauntlets were frozen solid, locking in place all the arms.

However, Thauma in response just deactivated its spell, causing the earthly gantlets to come undone, which in turn freed all 6 arms of the golems.

(Sacrificed that thing already?!) – thought Porai as Thauma began unleashing series of blows with its six arms, forcing the vampire, using her water and ice magic to form defensive shields around herself, blocking each hit.

(Shit! Is it me or did his attacks gotten faster and stronger?) – thought Porai as she could tell that Thauma did something.

[Water Magic: Water Hammer]

Thauma got directly hit with a hammer like blast of water, but even so, the golem didn’t stopped.

It wasn’t allowing Porai to get any distance as the golem was non stop launching a series of blows, even when Porai was not only able to dodge some of the attacks, but also block as well as sometimes even counter attack.

(Damn! He is really at it!) – thought Porai as she stopped in place

[Earth Magic: Earth Pilar]

Porai fired off a pillar of earth from underneath, but Phantasia saw the attack coming and quickly stepped back, dodging the emerging pillar.

And after dodging the strike, Thauma extended its arms around the pillar, while trying to unleash blasts of arcane magic from each hand.

[Ice Magic: Trapping Ice]

However, Porai was faster, as she swung down both of the arms, unleashing a blast of ice which froze each of the arms to the earthly pillar, trapping Thauma in place.

[Earth Magic: Earth Crush]

Porai once again emerged two slaps from the ground next to Thauma, but this time they were not only larger but thicker.

Thauma managed to break its hands from the ice, but it was too late as the two slaps of earth smashed into Thauma, sandwiching it between them.

Thauma tried resisting the slaps by using earth magic to manipulate the earth, but it wasn’t working

And so, without hesitation, Thauma instantly changed the approach as it once again aimed at the vampire.

[Ice Magic X Water Magic: Splash Freeze]

However, the vampire was able to double cast magic, allowing her to splash the water all over Thauma, which instantly froze over.

(SHIT!) – thought Thauma as the walls started putting more pressure on the golem.

[Earth Magic: Earthly Forged Blade]

However, Thauma wasn’t finished just yet, as it used the feet connected to the ground to cast earth magic, unleashing the blade of earth from behind the vampire.

[Ice Magic: Ice Gauntlet]

However, the vampire knew that attack was coming and used ice magic to cover her hand with ice, before then grabbing the blade of earth that sprouted from the ground, stopping it in the place, before then snapping it.

"Is that all mate?" – asked Porai with a smirk.

(NO!) – thought Thauma as it began casting another spell.... But Porai noticed the attack coming and instantly turned towards it as the earth near her started coming to life.

However, it wasn’t another blade, but instead a half-created golem which swung its fist at the vampire.

(Golem?! He can make a golem in THAT situation?!) – thought Porai as the golem was fully created and instantly went after the vampire.

[Water Magic: Water Edge]

However.... The vampire unleashed a devasting slash of water magic... Which just straight up cut the earth golem in half vertically, pretty much destroying the golem instantly the moment it was born.

The golem did not bought enough time for Thauma to even break free from the ice.

Thauma tried casting enchantments on its self... But the vampire wasn’t having it as she froze even further the golem with additional layer of ice with her magic, while also putting more power into the slaps.

(Shit! Ariava wasn’t lying! She is too strong!) – thought Thauma as the vampire wasn’t showing any mercy.

Overwhelming difference.

Thauma knew that the vampire was in the completely different league compare to the vampire... That it was beneath the vampire.

However, it thought that it could at least rip off one or two limbs.

But it was wrong.

The vampire was straight up "playing" with Thauma.

It was fully aware that the vampire wasn’t fighting at its strongest, since it was "nerfed" in order to make the duel somewhat fair.... But even so, Thauma was getting wrecked by vampire.

Her pure speed was overwhelming than even with six arms Thauma had hard time hitting the woman.

Not only that, the moment she started showing even a little bit of its power, Thauma obtained even better understanding of the difference in power.

It tried making sure that the mage wouldn’t be able to cast any spells, so it tried to force the vampire on the close-range combat.... But it wasn’t expecting the woman to be able to cast such powerful spells almost instantly.

It understood, that if the woman had truly attacked the dungeon while not holding back at all.

She could easily conquer the dungeon, just as Ariava said.

(No!)

But even so.

Even if Thauma understood that the difference was overwhelming, it didn’t meant that it gave up.

It was scared.

But at the same time, it was determined.

It put all of its enchantment into two of its hands, breaking them somewhat, not completely as they were still stuck.... But even so, Thauma was able to move them even a little bit.

Just enough to start casting magic.

"?!"

(Wait, is that bastard trying to-)

[Arcane Magic: Arcane Explosion]

Thauma blew itself up with arcane magic, unleashing an explosion that swallowed the golem whole.

It didn’t destroyed the two walls, only damaging them.... However, the explosion did something.

It broke some of the ice that covered Thauma, allowing the golem to fire off yet another explosion.

But obviously Porai wasn’t having it as she was about to splash Thauma with instantly freezing water again, completely trapping the golem once again after regaining bit of its freedom.

...

But she didn’t done anything.

Instead, she just watched and let the golem blew itself once again.

More ice got shattered.... But at the cost of the golem damaging itself.

[Earth Magic: Earth Shattering]

After breaking out of ice and regaining its freedom, Thauma grabbed the damaged walls and infected them with its violent earth magic, before then shattering them, fully regaining its freedom.

"..."

"You done?" – asked Porai as Thauma stood in front of the vampire, damaged up by the ice, crushing slaps of earth as well as the being hit with eruption of explosive magic.

But even so, Thauma didn’t stopped.

Thauma instantly reached for the ground and used once again the earth magic to quickly manipulate the ground, taking out the chunks of the ground, before then throwing them.

(Fakes or real?) – thought Porai who couldn’t tell if Thauma turned the thrown chunks of earth into bombs or not.

But no matter what it was, she just countered with her ice barrier, blocking the chunks of earth.

(Not the bombs.) – thought Porai as once again Thauma just threw regular earth at the vampire.

[Earth Magic: Earthly Forged Blade]

However, as the blocked off the chunks of earth, another came right behind them.

The blade of earth.

However, this time the blade didn’t came out from the ground.

No.

It was manifested by Thauma with usage of its two arms, and then launched at the vampire.

The vampire was caught off guard... But it was still not enough.

The vampire barrier was this time way tougher, as the earthly blade got stuck into ice barrier after pierce it a bit.

But after having its attack blocked, Thauma didn’t stopped.

It didn’t cared how much mana it had used.

It was going for it.

[Earth Magic: Earth Hand]

Thauma manifested the earth of ice from the side, aiming to attack Porai from her rear, but the vampire just blasted away the attack with her water magic, cutting to shreds the hand before it could touch her.

But once again, Thauma didn’t stopped, as it rushed towards the vampire.

"?!" – and instantly the vampire realized that something wasn’t right.

The golem was wielding the axe made out of earth.

[Earth Magic: Weapon Creation: Axe]

"..."

(The hell is this?) – thought Porai as without batting an eye used her ice magic to trap and shatter the axe.

(It is obvious distraction.) – thought Porai as he quickly gazed towards Thauma.... But in the next moment she saw something.

A weird device which had in the middle of it a small glass tube which had inside a mana crystal.

"!?"

(WAIT!)

Porai instantly realized the danger.... But it was too late.

The device that Thauma threw was a mana crystal grenade, which exploded right between the golem, shattering the barrier with a powerful blast.

"?!"

(WAIT! DID HE HAD SOMETHING LIKE THAT ON HIM?!) – thought Porai as the explosion covered her view... But even so, she instantly asked her logical question.

Where the hell did the grenade came from?

"!"

But even after firing the grenade, Thauma instantly fired off the [Earth Magic: Pebble Shot], unleashing a barrage of pebbles which were easily dodged by the vampire who quickly bounced herself to the side.

*BANG*

But as the vampire dodged, something just hit her in the shoulder.

And right after getting hit, the vampire saw the three sets of claws coming from her right left side.

The vampire quickly tried jumping backwards... But the golem did something she wasn’t expecting.

The mechanism inside of the claws activated, extending the golems claws, doubling the size of its nail blade claws as they managed to land a solid slash on the vampire, which completely caught the vampire off guard.

Which the vampire wasn’t able to counter this time in time as she was slashed, dealing noticeable amount of damage, before moments later the two more claws came her way from the left, forcing the vampire to use ice magic to cover her forearm with ice, blocking the deadly claws somewhat.

But again, Thauma wasn’t finished as it quickly thrusted forward the three right claws from before, alarming as she quickly manifested the barrier of ice in front of her with her free hand, stopping the claws somewhat... But not completely as Thauma was pushing his claws further, pushing them into the ice, straight up digging into it.

"Oh! This is FUN!" – shouted Porai.

[Earth Magic: Earth Pillar]

By using the arm covered in ice, Porai casted earth magic, triple earths of pillars which emerged from the ground and smashed into the golem and managing to push Thauma back by a lot, even as the golem was struggling to keep its ground by digging its claws into the ground, it was still getting pushed.

However, Thauma managed to smash the earth pillars, freeing itself.

"...Hey... Mate." – said Porai.

"Is it me.... Or is that a fucking gun in your hand?!" – asked Porai as the golem was holding in one of its hands what appears to be an oversized pistole with regular sized barrel, which it aimed at the vampire.

(Where in the bloody hell did, he took out that thing from?!) – thought Porai.