Chapter 188: The Semi Boss II

[Outskirts of the Kingdom, Near the border]

After restructuring his whole body few feet's away from the mouth of the entrance of the mountain cave, Merlin then dropped down to the ground on one knee as he exhaled out of exhaustion. The reason for his exhaustion stems out on two parts, one of them was because he has been running uphill for awhile now while the other is because his senses suddenly got heightened for a sudden moment when he got attacked at the mouth of the mountain cave.

During that time in order to react to the sudden attack deep within the cave mouth, all neurons and blood then rushed up to his head as it forced his whole body to move in reaction and enact a sudden safety spell which would save his life. Of course all those process was enacted in short span of 0.0001 second before he got hit by the ambushing attack.

In this moment after he got himself to safety, Merlin's body finally loosened as all of his muscles and tendons relaxed causing exhaustion to finally catch up to him.

Well just as stated before his body is currently an illusion itself, thus he wouldn't die that easily no matter how much he get sliced up as long as he activated his safety measurement spell in times of crisis, but despite that statement his current illusion body also serves as his real body. Meaning he can also feel pain, bleed, and even feel numerous things in the area. In that regards he is both real and an illusion in that regards.

The reason how is this possible is all because of Merlin's safety spell which saved him numerous times when he is in crisis "Illusory Avatar". A type of wordless magic that can be activated in a single thought, it can also activate as long as the host or the caster itself sense danger.

Illusory Avatar is a spell which enables its caster to temporarily turn his whole body into an illusion in an instant, speaking of instant its activation time is about 0.00000001 second which is often referred to as 0.01 microseconds and 10 nanoseconds, while its cooldown time is practically non-existent. In other words Merlin could just abuse the spell no matter how many times he want as long as he has mana. This is the reason why often times he got killed, his whole body would just turn into an illusion and re-materialize elsewhere.

However there is a drawback for such spell, the drawback for its is related to how much stress a brain can handle. Every time he uses the spell his blood would rush up to his brain causing pain and neurons works its way up to process the spell Illusory avatar.

The brain can only so much endure pain of having blood suddenly pump up into it to a minimum extent. After all this sudden act of blood rushing could practically kill anyone if not done right. There is even a chance that a vein might pop, thus killing the person. All in all due to Merlin being half human and half incubus his brain could somehow endure such pain much better than human's. As long as he don't repetitively use such spell consecutively in a single moment, he then wouldn't die.

In that moment just as Merlin was able to re-construct his body, Asmodeus then walked out from the mouth of the cave entrance as he was somehow surprised that Merlin was able to escape from his sudden attack. From that he couldn't help but feel astonished at such feat.

"You were able to save yourself? I couldn't believe that your illusion was able to save you... last time we met the battle was too one-sided, this time you've clearly shown improvement"

"I don't know if i should take that as a compliment or an insult" replied Merlin

"Take it as it is" said Asmodeus

After hearing his words, Merlin then slowly observed Asmodeus new look as he inwardly complain his bad luck. After all in comparison to Asmodeus previous look which is technically just a combat suite under a black hood. His appearance this time is much more intimidating than his previous form.

To be exact he is currently wearing a White Ruffled Billowy Sleeves shirt with a long slacked black pants, and black boots underneath a blue aquatic armor which is seemingly from the power of the Aquasphere. Not only that but even his scythe which was brought out from his own ancient spell was radiating the power of both death and water a type of mixed element enchantment.

With just his form alone, together with the aura of the Aquasphere currently radiated from his body, anyone would naturally be intimidated by such form.

"You... Did you..." muttered Merlin

As if catching his words, Asmodeus then replied.

"Completely absorbed and mastered the power of your kingdom's national treasure? Nah! sad to say the power itself is quite incompatible to me, meaning it is hard for me to master it... This form that you see on the other hand is just a fragment of the power of the Aquasphere"

"..."

"Nevertheless i see that you guys felt intimidated by my form despite being only a fracture of it, looks like stealing the treasure is a worthwhile after all" smirked Asmodeus

In that moment as if breaking the ice between the two colliding force, Shun suddenly dashed pass Merlin as he came before Asmodeus in just a few seconds and swung out his Botrk towards his neck. In that slash Shun was determined to Kill Asmodeus himself, after all Sephiria was beaten up and almost got raped because of Asmodeus. Due to that he has a personal beef with him.

But before his Botrk could hit its mark, Asmodeus swiftly dodged his attack by pulling back his head before he counter back with a slash from his scythe. But as if reading that movement Shun then quickly used "Shunpo" to blink himself above Asmodeus and changed his grip on his Botrk into a back hand grip and stabbed it down towards his target head.

With a smile Asmodeus simply dodged to the side by applying a side step from his dodge, causing Shun to miss his stab, before countering back with a straight fist to his face which blew the latter away. 

For awhile Asmodeus just laughed at that attempt to quickly kill him off for a few moment, before he suddenly realized that his hand which he used to punch his attacker was actually cut in the middle between his ring finger and middle finger. At that his smile then suddenly disappears as he suddenly realized that his opponent was able to inflict an injury in his hand by letting him throw out his fist and bury it on the blades on Shun's weapon.

Even though he doesn't know how Shun had actually shifted his posture in midair to block his fist with the blade of his weapon, he was quite surprised and astonished that someone was actually able to hurt him.

After taking a closer look at his attacker, he then remember the guy as the same person he had fought when he tried to steal the national treasure. So with a smile, he then talked to Shun

"You... I remember you"