'Valkyrie Form: Activate!'

To fight an airborne enemy, one also needed to find a way to get airborne. And while all practitioners at their level could fly, achieving the aerial maneuverability of a winged creature was impossible unless one specialized in an attribute encompassing flying techniques.

Elena's light and life affinities didn't have any connection to flying, however, they had many connections to the body itself and with speed.

With Elena's call, a beautifully ornate platinum-silver armor formed around her body. A pair of angelic wings sprouted from her back, and her sword was covered in a myriad of runic patterns that intrinsically influenced its identity.

Finally, a helmet formed around her head. Two wings decorated its sides, flaring out behind Elena's head majestically. The front of the helmet was mainly uncovered, allowing her enemies to see her heroic appearance as she defeated them.

Crack!

BANG!

Elena pushed her feet against the ground and shot into the air, meeting Dalia head-on.

"Damn human, I'll kill you!" Dalia exclaimed.

In all honesty, the sentiments she held had changed severely over the course of the battle.

It was fine for Elena to be more beautiful than her, but it absolutely wasn't acceptable for the enemy to be both more beautiful and more powerful!

Dalia was a practitioner, and naturally, she held the ambitions of a practitioner.

She wanted to be the perfect woman that none could ever compare to.

And thus, whenever she saw women who might surpass her..

Crush without mercy!

Seeing the Valkyrie charging towards her, Dalia turned her massive body and slammed her tail towards the enemy.

The gargantuan wrecking ball-like tail swung through the air with speed that defied physics and reached Elena perfectly, striking her body with its full power.

BOOM!

Elena raised her sword and brought it down against Dalia's thick-scaled tail. Sparks flew as the two surfaces collided, almost making one believe two metals were scraping against each other.

Elena gritted her teeth and dragged her sword across Dalia's tail in a bid to deflect it, but this task wasn't easy facing such a massive object.

'Particle Acceleration!'

Elena's sword began to vibrate as it shone with light. The blade became thinner and thinner until it reached a specific point, a point where the particles within the sword were moving so fast that nothing could stand in its way!

However, such wasn't nearly enough to warrant the attack's grand name.

Shing!

Elena's sword cut through Dalia's tail and gouged out a large chunk of flesh.

Dalia immediately twisted her body, slamming her claws down to push Elena away, however, this only provided her the opportunity she was waiting for.

'Burst!'

Particle Acceleration, would it truly be able to hold its name if it was merely a matter of speed?

The fast-moving particles that made up Elena's sword crashed into each other one by one, and as Elena's mana maintained the sword's basic shape, it was slowly filled with the energy of atomic collapse.

While it wasn't anything near creating a speedster, Elena's particle acceleration wasn't anything to laugh about.

Dalia pushed her wings as fast as possible and retreated the instant she felt the fluctuation, but Elena didn't let her go.

She chased the dragon relentlessly, slashing her sword out every few seconds.

Along with these slashes..

BOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Fiery atomic impacts covered the area for several thousand kilometers. The environment became a nuclear minefield filled with terrifying radiation and mana fluctuations that could instantly incinerate any normal early or middle-stage 4th class in seconds.

Whoosh!

Dalia flew high into the sky, far into the atmosphere and away from the nuclear fallout.

Hoo!

She inhaled a deep breath of pure air and gritted her teeth, her eyes blazing in defiance.

The enemy was extremely powerful, powerful to the point where she was being suppressed without the ability to fight back.

The worst part was, they weren't too far away in level!

Elena's advantage lay in speed and attribute. Both of these opposed Dalia's features, making it difficult to find a proper opening to sneak an attack in.

Dalia wasn't a member of the Covert Operations Unit that Dylan came from, but she was from an adjacent unit that used similar techniques.

The problem was that to avoid the current Elena, Dalia needed to maintain dragon form, but in dragon form, Dalia only had access to instinctual techniques that wouldn't be able to compete on such a profound level.

'Dammit!' She cursed inwardly. She clearly understood that she was the one who forced herself into this position, but she simply couldn't accept that there was no way to recover.

'That's it! If I..'

"Heresy Inquisition: Judgement Chains" historical

Elena's voice rang out like a reaper's. Glowing white chains with beautiful golden etchings decorating their surface sprung out of thin air and wrapped around Dalia's massive body.

ROOOOAAAAAR!!

She let out a furious roar as she struggled against them. She let her mana blaze free, shooting out flurries of dragon breath and even using her pressure to try and suppress Elena directly.

However, the Judgement Chains weren't a normal skill.

This was a skill that could only be used when one had absolute certainty that their enemy couldn't escape.

'Bind.'

Elena clenched her fist, forcing the chains to tighten horrifically around Dalia's body.

Shick!

A strange sound rang out as the chains dug into her scales.

OOOOOOOH!

Dalia howled in pain, never-ending her struggle to escape.

But no matter how much she indulged in futility, her fate was set from the moment she gave Elena time to prepare.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The chains extended endlessly until they pierced the earth and took hold of it. They dragged Dalia down to the ground without any care for her situation, ripping into her body as they did so.

BANG!

When her body finally landed in the ground, Elena materialized on top of her, a smug grin decorating her face.

"How does it feel knowing that your defeat is your fault and your fault alone?" Elena asked, fully aware of the reason for her easy victory.

Dalia glared back with endless rage in her eyes.

"If it wasn't for my own mistakes, you would have never been able to capture me!" She exclaimed defiantly.

"Oh? And since when did that matter?"

Elena's eyes sharpened. She stabbed her sword down into one of the gashes on Dalia's underbelly, twisting it and worsening the wound manifold.

Ahhhh!

A screech rang out in response. Dalia immediately shut up.

She was arrogant, but she was never an idiot.

She had let her arrogance control her, and it landed her in such a miserable situation.

She wouldn't let it be the death of her as well.

"Now then," Elena muttered as she saw the subtle change in her opponent's mentality, "let's get started."

She clapped her hands together and summoned an illusory weighing scale.

"Today, you will face judgement. All lies are meaningless before the eyes of heaven, and all sin will inevitably meet retribution. Face the pride of the Valkyries and answer to your sins!"

Elena fiercely chanted the incantation, and in response, the illusory weighing scale transformed into the form of a beautiful goddess.

The moment she opened her gigantic eyes..

Dalia's consciousness was muddied into nonexistence.