Chapter 32: The Heroes' Artes

The hybrid, having already fully cloaked himself with his skill, focused his undivided attention at the unfolding battle between the heroes and chaos creature nearby. The creature of chaos, after having morphed into its evolved form, now possessed a lean dark exoskeleton that was impervious to most of the heroes' attacks. Despite the slight reduction in its size, the creature had definitely become much deadlier as a mere swing of its sharpened long claws could easily slide several surrounding buildings in halves. Even Kyles, the strongest hero according to Kibadios' estimation, was unable to keep up with the creature's movement with his skill already activated. For more than five minutes now, all he could do was to block the incoming attacks. One second, one tiny distraction was all it took for his body to be sliced apart by the dark menace standing in front of him. Although the creature has been focusing his attacks on Kyles, it had left no opening for the other heroes to take advantage of since it easily parried off the Amber and Thomas' strikes. Judging from the way it responded to the two heroes' movement, Kibadios deduced that it had to possess some sort of sensory skill, just like Thomas.

「... 」Kyles assessed the situation for a few seconds, then shouted. 「Ryan, cover for me!」

Ryan nodded, jumping toward the creature from behind his brother with electric sparks covered his whole body. 「How long do you need?」

「One minute!」answered Kyles.

「Take your time, Kyles nii chan!」Ryan confidently grinned as he charged straight at the creature.

「What is Kyles planning?」asked Amber. Both she and Floria have by now backed away to a safe distance to catch their breath. The fiery hero has been prodding the creature's impeccable defense with her multi-elemental strikes, but to no avail.

「He's going to use his Arte.」

Ho? Kyles' Arte takes that long to activate? Kibadios was amused.

Having taken Kyles' place, Ryan has just realized the incredible concentration it took for any individuals to block the creature's attack. Spending just a few seconds replying to Amber was all it took for the creature to pass through the young hero's defense. Shit, Ryan! Kibadios almost jumped out of his hiding place the moment he realized the creature had just closed in next to his slave, but the hybrid abruptly stopped once he noticed his other slave, Rowan, had just erected a barrier to protect the hero.

SCCREEEEECCHHHH!!!

The creature's claws clashed against the invisible protection wall, allowing Ryan a few precious seconds to jump backward before the barrier shattered into pieces. Frustrated, the creature took it out on the two other heroes as it swung around, kicking Amber crashing into the ground while almost cutting off Thomas's arm had it not for the huge blast created by Maia from a far, distracting it.

「It's no use.」Maia panted. 「Nothing can injure that thing.」

「... If we can simultaneously attack it with our Arte… maybe it would work.」Lance commented.

Our? So I guess the King here also possesses an Arte or two. Kibadios deduced. It may be your best chance, but I doubt it would work…

「Let's do this!」Kyles screamed out. Having a minute to calm his breath, the hero seemed to have revitalized. 「We will hit it with our best attack. Yllaner!」

「」Yllaner, holding out her hands, released her Arte.

Changxi Tears?... Isnt that… Kibadios raised his eyebrows since he recognized the name. From above where the creature stood, a mirage of a full moon quickly appeared. Its light shone down onto it and paralyzed it for a moment. Its dark miasma filled with Chaos Haki shrunk down a bit under the seemingly holy light.

「」Ryan was the next person to activate his Arte, summoning eight beams of swords, coated with Holy elements. 「Lightning Edition!」The young hero clenched his fist, creating eight long lightning chains connecting the swords to his hands. Asides from reducing the number of swords, these creative chains were the "fix" that Kibadios had suggested to his slave in order for him to gain more control of the holy swords, now that he had been associated with the hybrid and Holy elements within him had somewhat rejected the hero.

「< Juuchi-Yosamu> < Yawarakai-Te >!」Amber faintly called forth her Arte, which took the form of two giant, floating japanese swords, one enveloped in burning flame while the other frozen in ice. According to the hybrid's observation, the two swords were being remotely controlled by the two daggers she held in her hand.

「」Thomas' eyes glowed as his Arte materialized. Taking a form of a swirling water vortex, the unique skill slowly elevated him up from below. By the time he finished, he was standing on top of the huge raging vortex, the water stream seemed to create concentric circular blades, readied to slide everything in its path.

「」Lance held up his sword in front of his face, his sharp eyes pierced straight at the creature who used to be his best friend. 「Stupid Jayden! I will beat you back to your senses.」

Dagor Dagorath? Isnt that... The hybrid was amused at the Arte Lance just activated. In this world, the names of Artes were all uniquely predetermined by a mysterious system. Not even the hybrid, who was probably one of the most knowledgeable people in Esthar asides from the Astrals, would know who named the Artes. However, ever since his first reincarnation, he had already noticed the strange connections between this world's Arte names and Earth. Battle of all Battles? That means Lance's Arte has to be some sort of summoning skill then. Just as the hybrid's deduction, several golden armored-clad humanoid spirits appeared floating in the space above the creature, each wielding different weapons yet there was one similarity between then: all were wearing an exact copy of the crown Lance currently had on his head, the symbol of Kingship of the Kingdom of Maeg. huh? I'm pretty sure those spirits are Maeg's past kings. So, The Arte is to call forth spirits of the previous kings? Man, why does this feel like a rip-off of Noctis and his move to defeat Ardyn? Kibadios soon discarded any concerns for copyrights as his attention quickly switched to the last person who still had not activated his Arte yet. Kyles… He requires a bit of time before he could use his Arte, I wonder what that will be.

「」Kyles, appearing calm as if in trance, called forth his Arte.

Kyles… So you have been hiding such a powerful move. The hybrid let out a weary grin the moment he heard of the dark haired hero's Arte. Although there were no official designations, during his first reincarnation, the hybrid himself had classified Arte's nomenclatures into three main classes: the mythological, artifacts, and fictional class. Just like its classes implied, Arte could share the same names with some artifacts from Earth, such as Amber's < JuuchiYosamu > and < Yawarakai-Te > or fictional names like Ryan's . It would be hard to assess the strength of one's Arte by just their names if they belonged to these two groups. However, with the mythological class, the Arte's name would serve as a clear indication of its power. In Kyles' case, his Arte shared the same name with the deity of the highest authority within Turkic and Mongolian's mythology, Tengri. Although the hybrid had never encountered anyone with such skill, it was clear to him the power that Kyles' Arte would soon unleashed.

The moment Kyles finished activating his Arte, the dark sky above Lorian rumbled with loud sounds before the dark clouds began to part, revealing the bright rays of sunlights that the evacuated citizens dearly missed. From all sides, a tremendous pressure suddenly wrapped around the unsuspected creature. Having already been weakened by the gentle light emitting from the moon mirage, the unexpected weight resulting from the change in pressure hit it all at once, quickly brought the seemingly invincible creature down onto its knee. The moment the creature's hands reached the ground, the heroes sprung into action in an unspoken coordinated attack. First to land a direct hit at the creature was Amber. With her two floating giant swords, one burning in 10000 degree flame while the other covered in an ever growing sheet of ice, the female hero simultaneously struck the weakened Celestial Threat. The broad swing of the giant swords even brought down a few buildings in the vicinity, one of which was where the hybrid was hiding, forcing him to dodge it at the last minute. Although weakened, the creature was still able to catch the two strikes with his hands. Yet, unlike before where he was completely unharmed, the flame from Juuchi Yosamu engulfed his left side while the frozen blade of the Yawarakai-Te quickly spread upward from his right hand. Before he could process what happened or formulated a counter offensive plan, both Thomas' Arte, which consisted of thousands of water crescent blades emitting from the vortex he was riding on, and Lance's spirit ancestors, rained down their deadly attacks upon the paralyzed foe. Ryan, for his part, swirled the lightning chains around, directing the holy blades at the creature. Being unable to move away from the onslaughts, the celestial threat being had to take on the attack imbued with the most dangerous element head on. Ryan's face brightened up the moment he felt the vibrations from the clear impacts his blades had on the creature's dark armor shell.

「ARGHH!!!! TAKE THIS!」Kyles, holding up his large sabre, charged straight at the creature. The hybrid already knew Kyles' Arte was much more than the increased pressure he had just felt minutes ago and now, with this attack, he knew he was right. As the hero ran toward the beaten down creature, dozens of small bright orbs appeared around the man, then morphed into shapes of Golden Eagles while growing in size. Soon enough, there was almost a hundred or two of those Golden Eagle shaped lights flying around, circling the creature like a hungry flock of deadly aerial predators before swooping down at its prey the same moment Kyles' heavy slash pierced through the creature's cracked armor for good.

Those lights… they're made up of the purest forms of energy. Being hit by just one of them can send someone as strong as myself to the next life. Kyles' Arte was able to grant those light sentient minds, taking the form of the eagles, allowing them to freely change the trajectories of their attacks' projectiles. What more, there are more than hundreds of those attacks coming from all directions while the atmospheric pressure restricts the movement of his opponent. Seriously, even with my full strength, I wonder if I could take on such an attack and survive. The hybrid broke out in cold sweat imagining himself being at the receiving end of Kyles' Arte.

Just as the hybrid predicted, the impacts caused by was the final catalyst for the coordinated Arte attacks, resulting in a huge explosion enveloped the whole area, blowing most everyone away. Even Ryan, who knew of the possible destruction Kyles' Arte would bring, was unexpectedly knocked off his feet from the ever growing shockwave.

By the time the dust settled, only Kyles and Thomas were barely standing. Kyles' giant sabre had found its way slashing through the creature's flesh and crashed onto the ground. The celestial threat's body, by now has been cleanly detached from his lower half and burned to crisp, slowly fell down on the side. Far away, the newly appointed king of Maeg slowly stood up, using the royal sword to support himself. His eyes were wide open at first, shocked at the gory scene of what's left of his best friend's body. Any hope he had of trying to revert Jayden's transformation was gone. Tears started to well up in his eyes as the realization finally struck him hard. Relief, pain, and anguish soon took over the young king's mind, his mouth muttered the Prime Minister's name. 「... Jayden...」

「Ha…. Ha...」Kyles, the MVP of the attack, was barely even conscious. He was almost paralyzed, unable to move a muscle. Knowing the immense strain placed on his body after utilizing his Arte, both Yllaner and Ryan quickly made their way to the hero.

「Amber, are you okay?」Floria rushed to the female hero. Too tired to speak out, Amber simply gave her a nodding smile.

「Did we win?」Thomas asked, crouching down

Something did not feel right… The hybrid assessed the situation from the shadow. What is this feeling?

It did not take long for Kibadios' premonition to be proven true. While the upper half body of the creature started to fade away into the blowing winds, the lower half started to twitch. By the time Kyles noticed the creature's movement, it was too late. From the abruptly cut wound, the creature's flesh started to swell up and emerged from the swollen flesh was its new upper half body. All of this happened in less than a few seconds, leaving no time for anyone at the scene to react. Once it fully regrew its body, the creature's dark miasma raised up, curling into several dark, throbbing orbs before shooting out dozens of dark beams from it. Like Shin Godzilla and its god-like attack, the beams swirled around in all directions, vaporizing everything it touched.

「Kyle! Yllaner!! Watch out!」Kyles mustered all his strength and threw himself at the elven princess and his younger brother, who were directly in the way of one of the slashing beams.

「WHAT?」Thomas screamed out while trying to dodge several sliding beams directing at him. 「AHHH!!!」

「Your Majesty!」Several royal knights tried in vain to protect the king from the surprise attack, only to find their bodies cut into pieces, along with their adamantine class armor.

「「... Master...」」Both Maia and Rowan could only softly call out for Kibadios as one of the beam easily broke through the young healer's barrier. This is it… we're sorry we could no longer be of use for you, Master.