BXBX NOVEL Chapter 165 Mind Games
"Now come you little fox." Jorn spun his mace, inviting Shaman to get closer.
"Oi, I'm not little." Shaman knew full well what it's like to be truly small, so she did not appreciate the comment.
"Tsk, whatever." Jorn didn't care and continued to wait for Shaman to make a move.
'He probably has a space element like the noble.' Knowing the element of the noble made it a safe guess weather if Jorn had something similar or not.
'Let's see if I can apply an illusion.'
Pulling out Kotetsu, Shaman changed its affinity to the stardust and the gem by the hilt turned purple. She had also activated her sword domain, creating a field of red and purple dahlias, which came as a surprise to Shaman. It had also increased in size, but she had felt no other effects than feeling stronger when within the area.
'Seems like a few things have changed since I last used this.' Shaman was able to guess the change in colour was due to Elysia's hair and eyes turning red as well as Shaman obtaining her stardust.
Jorn had stepped back at the sudden appearance of the flowers, but, realising that they did nothing, he decided to ignore them.
Now that she was prepared, Shaman covered her sword in a layer of stardust, making it look like the night sky.
Dashing forward towards Jorn, she quickly opened a portal in front of her who's exit was right above Jorn. coming out of the portal above Jorn, she had caught him off guard and slashed down at his head.
However, Jorn's speed greatly outclassed Shaman, thanks to which he was able to parry the attack with his mace. Using his other hand, he punched at Shaman's face while the latter was still in the air above him.
Creating a wall of stardust next to her face, she was able to block the attack and push herself away from Jorn, landing safely.
Jorn didn't give up and opened up a portal of his own. Shoving his mace into it, he opened the exit point behind Shaman's head.
The mace had come out of the portal, but Shaman expected this, responding by opening her own portal in front of Jorn's, his mace going right through it. With his mace in the portal, Shaman dashed forward while slashing horizontally across Jorn's chest..
Using the armour on his arm, he blocked the oncoming strike from Shaman while he pulled his mace back. Shaman, using the dust on her sword, created a spike that shot towards Jorn's shoulder.
Piercing it, Shaman was successful in getting the dust to contact his skin, which allowed her to start the illusion.
Getting his mace out of the portal, he gritted his teeth and smashed down at Shaman with his mace. However, Shaman turned to dust in front of his eyes, disappearing from the battlefield.
"Get back here you vixen!" Jorn looked around looking for Shaman, but was unable to see anything.
Suddenly 4 Shaman's had surrounded Jorn, who instantly realised it was an illusion and decided to completely ignore whatever the copies did. Standing proud as if the illusions would phase through him, he let them attack. He had already noticed that the eyes of the copies were of a different colour, reinforcing his belief that they were fake.
What he did not expect was that when the illusions attacked, they would actually physically touch him.
"What?" Although they had not done any damage thanks to the armour he wore, he still felt the impact, causing him to stumble.
Seeing more illusions try to attack, he took them a lot more seriously. Spinning around, he both blocked and retaliated against the illusions that came after him. Shaman, taking the opportunity while he was preoccupied, created stardust weapons and shot them into Jorn.
Jorn turned towards the stardust weapons and, using his hand, he created a portal to use as a shield. He had successfully redirected them by opening another portal into a copy of Shaman.
'Tsk looks like I need to come out.' Shaman used [shadow walk] to hide from Jorn and wanted to use the illusion to slowly wear him down, but it was clearly not working.
While still keeping the illusionary Shamans constantly attacking, she had entered her portal.
Opening it from below this time, Shaman used [shadow cloak] to make it harder to notice her, although she expected Jorn to be able to see right through her cloak.
Jabbing upwards into the back of his thigh where there was no armour. She had managed to land the attack without Jorn noticing and caused him to jump in pain.
"Ah you fucking bitch." Throwing his mace at the ground where the blow came from, Shaman quickly went back into her portal to escape. This attack had also opened him up and the illusions which were still attacking him managed to land attacks into some of his joints, doing more damage. Blood started seeping from his armour and staining his fur.
Roaring, he turned his hands into bear claws and started killing the illusions with his claws.
Shaman, not wanting to waste any more mana on the illusion, decided to stop throwing fakes at him and instead use her other elements. Although she wanted to exclusively use stardust and a couple other skills, the fight would drag on for longer than she would like.
'I should abuse the enraged state Jorn is in.' Seeing that it looked like he no longer adhered to common sense, she wanted to abuse it.
If I can create decoys then I might be able to get a few hits in.' Treating Jorn like a bull, Shaman created a copy of herself in front of him and as she expected he charged at it, destroying the copy.
Appearing out of [shadow walk], Shaman now had a plan in mind and hoped she will be able to finish the fight.
'Everyone seems to be almost finished with their fights.' Shaman saw that Elysia and Clara were finished.
Jorn spotted Shaman, so he ran towards her while picking up his mace. His eyes emitted a red glow while the many cuts across his body have mostly already closed.
Throwing his mace at Shaman, he opened a portal right in front of her a moment before impact. Expecting it to appear behind her again Shaman turned around, yet she saw no portal open and was confused for a moment.
It turned out the mace went straight through the portal and used the back of it as the exit. The mace had struck Shaman in the back and she fell to the ground winded. Getting a hold of herself, she quickly crawled back into [shadow walk] to recover. Jorn stomped down where her body was, but got disappointed when he hit nothing.
Seeing more copies and unable to distinguish real from fake in his rage, he once again rushed to them with his mace.
'Fuck let's not fight him head on.' Shaman regretted not using her decoys right away as she planned to switch with a decoy, but the mace attack caught her off guard.
Using the decoys to avert his attention, Shaman appeared behind Jorn, activating [blade of flamescion].
The sudden increase in heat made Jorn turn his head, but before he could block or retaliate, Shaman had already swung down on him. Slashing his back, the armour melted and a massive gash opened up. Blood spurted out, but Jorn didn't even flinch and still turned to hit Shaman with his mace.
Getting hit in the side, Shaman felt her ribs break and got launched to the side. Stabbing her sword into the ground to slow herself down, she came to a halt and held her ribs in pain, trying to use [heal] while she assessed the damage.
Shaman coughed up a bit of blood and saw Jorn kneel down as the massive cut on his back was becoming hard to ignore. The red glow in his eyes vanished and he seemingly returned back to normal.
"For a weaker tier fox you surely know how to fight. To think you even have more than one element… I'll admit I underestimated you." Jorn was surprised by how Shaman had two elements as it turned the fight greatly in her favour.
"Heh, you haven't seen everything yet." Shaman stood up, her ribs still broken, but was confident she didn't have any internal bleeding.
Jorn's eyes widened when wind started swirling around Shaman, as she suddenly pulled out a third element.
"No wonder you are so strong." Jorn got up from the ground, crushing a crystal in his hand that was infused with a heal spell that closed the wound on his back.
Shaman created a second katana out of ice and, wanting to try something new, covered it in stardust as well. She hoped this would make for a sturdier sword that could both send ice spikes as well as open portals with her stardust.
"Ha, a fourth, don't tell me there is a fifth." Jorn suddenly felt the fear of defeat as it showed how much of a "genius" Shaman was.
Just to show off Shaman sent a small wave of water at Jorn's feet which had enhanced the feeling of defeat.
"Ha… Haha, you must have been holding back before." This had actually infuriated him as it was clear he was stronger in power. However, it seemed the fox girl in front of him didn't see him as worthy enough to use everything from the beginning.
"Hmm not really, I just wanted to test out my new element." Shaman gripped the second sword intending to duel wield.
'Let's hope I can pick this up quickly.' Shaman wasn't sure how to fight with both weapons in her hands, but decided to give it a shot anyway.
Jorn growled at the comment as it felt like he was being toyed with the entire time. Now no longer going to use minimal effort, Jorn decided to go all out and began to transform.
His body got bigger and had obtained more of a bear-ish look. While his eyes had stayed normal, his fur pulsed in waves of red as his new form now towered above her.
"Damn I wish my animal form made me stronger than just a cute little plush that Elysia can hug." Shaman, realising it was his animal form was envious, as it made him significantly stronger, but her form had only changed her look and made her cuter.
"ROARR!" Letting out an echoing roar, Jorn had finished transforming and was now a full fledged bear.
"Let's hope I can finish this." Shaman herself did not feel confident, but hoped her mixing of elements will be enough to tilt the tides in her favour.