the hunter and the hunted (5)

The additional effect isn't anything world shattering. It simply conveys a strong sense of discomfort and intimidation. Almost any skill related to the soul does, be it beneficial or harmful.

Loman of course does not know this. All he feels is the attention of a predator zone in on him. That and an overwhelming sense of discomfort as if something is happening to him.

The sensation must remind him of what everyone felt when I released that beam of would previously. He shudders and instinctively dodges to the side before sprinting to the exit across the hall.

That path leads further inside and I chose this hall because while he can get out by going that way, it will be a huge detour.

Petra also notices that one of her allies left when she hears Yvonne cursing Loman while she tries to heal John. John is already getting up while loading his crossbow though his legs are still a little wobbly. A bunch of empty potion vials next to him tell me that his fast recovery wasn't due to Yvonne's help.

Belladonna fires a barrage of lightning orbs at me from a close distance while approaching with her canes wreathed in icy cold. Petra simultaneously begins to zoom around unpredictably as she gets increasingly closer.

I completely ignore Belladonna as her lightning orbs explode upon reaching my body only to do nothing. My omni immunity can perfectly black any attack at that level together with my constitution stat. Her canes similarly do no damage as she smashes them against me releasing burst of frost with every strike.

Petra on the other hand can pierce my omni immunity since her stats and her heavily enchanted cutlass. She's also yet to reveal any offensive skills and I know of at least three.

For now, I try to limit her movements using space blades but she seems to have resolved herself to start showing her trump cards.

Petra is known for her speed but even after seeing her ship I assumed she could only perform her insane speed movements in a straight line. Turns out she can also fly in parabolic arcs and thereby evade my space blades by only a hair's breadth.

As she approaches me in the rain of space blades I send flying at her, her cutlass begins glow in a cyan color and prepares for a large vertical swing. From the file we have on her I believe that's her sky parting wave skill.

That might hurt, so let's not let her do that. As she arcs around the last space blade I send towards her and unleashes her skill only an arms length away from me. Thirty energy cutlasses form around her, all glowing with same sky parting wave skill increasing their damage output.

Now's the time! The moment Petra uses her skill to execute the actual attack she can't pull back without suffering from some serious backlash.

I retrieve hundreds of weapons I took from strong adventurers I killed. I move them from my enormous inner storage right into my body. I have arranged them around the center of my mass with the sharp and pointy tips pointed outward in every direction.

Petra's eyes widen as her danger senses must be tingling like crazy. I force all the weapons out of my body and make them accelerate as much as I can before they reach outside my body.

"Belladonna, dodge!"

Belladonna has still been continuing her futile attempts to damage me despite my omni immunity negating all her ice and lightning burst spells and her cane attacks. Petra gives her a warning but what can a combat sorceress do with so little time and no distance to dodge. Even if she hid a trump card that can preserve her life, she'll be heavily injured.

Petra groans as she forcefully redirects her attack as well as the energy cutlasses to all hit the point between us instead of me.

As the weapons shoot out of my body, they are met by Petra's energy cutlasses and her swing that leaves a cyan trace that rushes forward like a wave. Petra's attacks create a concentrated point that repels or redirects any weapons that attempt to pass through it. This protects her vitals but she still gets dozens of cuts from the weapons that narrowly miss the point of impact she created and some of the weapons that do hit the point of impact but aren't redirected enough to miss her.

Petra's miniature ship also gets penetrated by at least seven weapons that now weigh it down and seem to weaken Petra's ability to maneuver.

A resounding and fiery explosion sounds from where Belladonna should have been skewered by now. Her half charred body is blasted backwards with no weapon having reached her body. A quick glance using my soul piercing gaze reveals that Belladonna is still alive. From the traces of in the air, she must have used bloodline sorcery or some other external means stored in her arms to detonate her arms. The energy from detonating her arms then saved her from the weapons and helped her move back.

The amount of damage she took is in no way proportional to the force of the explosion so she had at least some control over the force she detonated…

But with her arms gone, she shouldn't have the means to launch another attack like this.

A few weapons even manage to reach the survivors further away. Youm gets skewered with no one to protect his unconscious body. Yvonne's torch ents that have been trying to establish a perimeter around her and John get torn to shreds. They can't stop the weapons but their bodies being obliterated serve to slow the weapons.

With the weapons losing their insane propulsion speed, John grabs Yvonne's shoulder in time and pulls both of them into the shadows before the weapon reach. After the danger has passed, they reemerge unharmed by my lethal projectile attack. Only it has proven rather lacking as only Youm has been eliminated and he was already out of the fight for good.