745 I’ll prepare you until Eclipse falls

Speedy and Punchingbag clicked their tongue. Their face contorted from the frustration of not being able to kill Lupa.

Both gladiators felt ridiculed publicly, and their anger grew by the second. This humiliating experience made them take more risks to defeat Lupa.

Both gladiators rushed to attack Lupa. They moved better than before while peeking at each other to know where their ally was. They didn’t want to get in each other’s way anymore and get played by Lupa.

Speedy swung his sword swiftly while the Punchingbag prepared to use his shield. One utilized his high-speed stat to attack Lupa, while the other used his high perception stat to increase his chances of intercepting Lupa.

Lupa swung her claws to parry the blade when the two gladiators entered her striking zone. Suddenly, a sense of danger was detected in the corner of her eyes.

Lupa needed to get out of the way, but it was too late. She could not move out of the way or activate Primial Insight. The skill took a lot of concentration to activate.

*Bam* A metal shield slammed onto her shoulder with great force. Lupa was knocked to the ground, and the sound her shoulder made was an indication she had gotten badly injured.

Lupa rolled on the ground until she dug her curled fingers into the ground to stop. *Plop* At the moment she stopped, her shoulder returned back in its place.

“Grrr.” Lupa angrily glared at the gladiators like a wolf who was kicked and wanted revenge. Her desire to hunt was outweighing the pain she felt.

.....

Lupa rushed to attack, but the situation changed for her, both because of her injury, the gladiators acting more in synch with each other, and Primial Insight not activating as she wanted anymore.

Lupa attacked repeatedly, yet in the end, she was the one getting injured instead. Little by little, her body was becoming covered in scratches and faint bruises.

Lupa made some distance and stopped staying on all fours. She realized that without constantly using Primal Insight, she had no chance to fight on an equal plain.

Lupa heard Vincent whistle. She saw multiple tendrils emerge from Vincent’s location.

“I need to win and tell my mate to reward me.” She murmured while extending her claws and focusing on active Primial Inisght again.

At the approaching Vincent, nearing closer and closer to the bears, Awa and her attacks got ignored, and their target became Vincent solely.

From their bodies, dozens upon dozens of spiked earth poked from their bodies. Not a moment later, Vincent was bombarded with dozens upon dozens of projectiles.

However, Vincent didn’t need to worry. Dozens upon dozens of tendrils emerged from the ground, each rushing to intercept a projectile.

Soon, both powers collided with one another. The earth ripped the tendrils apart to pass. The earth was winning against the plants. But only if the plants were normal.

The regenerative power from the Limb Seeds allowed the tendrils to regrow rapidly. After a projectile passed up to five tendrils, the projectiles slowed down to a stop and fell one after the other.

Vincent took the opportunity of the multiple tendrils rushing towards the two bears. He jumped on a tendril and caught a ride.

The tendrils in front of Vincent suddenly gathered and formed what appeared to be a tendril tunnel. With a grin on his face, Vincent entered the inside.

“Ladies and gentlemen! This is incredible! We are seeing the earth clash against plants, but like all plants break the earth to set roots and grow, the projectiles made from earth magic are no match against the relentless assault of plant life.”

Iris gazed at Zero’s attack keenly while her lips were forming a grin without her knowing. She was rooting for Vincent and Zero in her heart.

Iris was also delighted her Droplet of Life power was able to make Zero recover and be able to use this level of power. Furthermore, the numerous Seed Guardian seeds Zero was given before the match managed to reinforce its vine body.

Meter after meter, the tendrils closed in. No matter the earth spikes rising from the ground or earth shards shooting from the bears’ entire bodies, the tendrils kept prevailing to no end.

Soon, a couple of tendrils reached one of the bears. The first initial few were severed and thorn after attempting to wrap around the legs of the bear.

historical

However, as new growth occurred, the old tendrils were used to cover the sharpness of the earth’s spikes. Little advance after the other, the legs were bound to the earth, yet not enough for complete immobilization.

The bear had its movement hindered. The angered bear swung its claws at the tendrils, but after severing them, they regrew enough to reconnect. The more damage the tendrils received, the more like a spider web they became.

Little by little, the tendrils climbed the bear’s back like living snakes and started to wrap around the bear’s arms.

Try as it might, the bear could not completely free itself from this hindrance at the moment. Gradually, its swinging speed was reduced by about forty percent.

While this was transpiring and everyone did not want to move their gaze from the fight taking place at the center, the sunlight suddenly disappeared, and it became dark.

The arena turned dark as if the sun was covered. As the audience raised their gaze, they could not see the dark cloud above the two bears anymore. Or, more accurately, the audience did not notice the dark cloud had dissipated as their eyes were focused on the bears, Vincent, and the tendrils.

Everyone’s eyes soon witnessed the sun covered by a mysterious dark circular object. Their eyes widened in disbelief, and their brows contorted from shock.

“Ladies and gentlemen! I do not understand how this could happen on the same day the judgment by combat is taking place.”

“I only hope this phenomenon does not signify misfortune because, unfortunately, we do not have any holy member of the church near me to comment about the sudden eclipse.”

“It could be a misfortune occurrence for some, and fortune for others. ” Darwin commented with a smirk on his face while his pair of eyes focused on the eclipse.

Amie and Lamin smiled while looking at the eclipse. They held each other’s hand while feeling pleased to hear Darwin’s comment.

Plow wagged her tails and barked as her way to cheer. “Awa Awa is going to become strange and strong again.” *Pho, Pho*

Iris, Lilith, Sakura, Sofy, and Mirey understood the eclipse was caused by Awa.

Upon further examination with this new information, they noticed the dark object covering the sun was not as distant as they expected it to be.

The dark object covering the sun was touching the top of the barrier. The top was over hundred meters. This caused Awa’s eclipse move to cover enough of the sun to make everyone in the arena experience the sun being covered.

This was also only possible because the barrier was a cylindrical shape instead of a dome. If not, Awa would not be able to shoot her body very high from the ground.

While this was happening, the tendril tunnel quickly reached the huge bear hindered by cobwebs of tendrils. The opening of tunnel opened, and from the safe passage, Vincent appeared with his fists clenched and his gauntlets charged to deliver a powerful attack.

Vincent jumped at the chest of the bear. He noticed the sky was dark, as if it was the evening for some reason.

[Vincent. Awa must be using her Eclipse move again. She will land with a devastating kick and separate into three beings.]

[Awa and Night will take form in a condensed shadow body. Both will be headless, and they will form a temporary head. Unlike condensed bodies, their head can take shape as they wish.]

[The third being floating in the sky will be overseeing everything as a replacement of their head. Or so Awa explained to me when I visited her soul for a chat.]

Vincent didn’t have time to think. All he needed to know was the best plan was to set the bear for Awa to kill the bear with one attack.

The bear swung its restained paw at Vincent. The more tendrils tried to restrain the swinging paw, the slower it became.

The bear extended earth spikes from beneath Vincent because of its restrained limbs. However, try as it might, the tendrils rushed to intercept each and every attack. Vincent remained safe from harm.

Zero currently had a lot of Limb Seeds at its disposal. Because of this benefit, Zero could provide adequate assistance for a couple of minutes, or before all the Limb Seeds get used all up.

Vincent reached the bound bear’s chest. He quickly opened his fists as if he had decided to change the attack. He shoved his ten fingers and muttered, “Shatter.”

A large quantity of condensed mutated mana spread around the bear’s body like roots. The hard skin cracked and became bristle. The flesh became tender, and muscle tissue became damaged. Yet the power was not enough to reach the bear’s heart.

*Tsk* “It is still not enough.” He complained.

[Vincent. You better move away from the bears. I do not want to see you impaled by an earth spike again.]

Vincent didn’t want to experience being impaled by an earth spike ever again. He pulled out his fingers and whistled. One of the tendrils swiftly wrapped around Vincent’s waist and pulled him inside the tendril tunnel.

As Vincent was being eaten by a tendril tunnel with a shape not too different from a snake, he glared at the bear while saying the command, “Soul Invite”