Chapter 119: Second Act: Love Kills [6]
The impact was brutal, sending her stumbling back. She barely managed to steady herself, groaning as she coughed.
Her breath came out in short, painful gasps, each one feeling like she was inhaling razor blades.
The thick, purple gas continued to swirl around her, hazy and cloying.
She tried to clear her head, forcing herself to focus.
"It has to be the gas… messing with my mind."
She muttered through gritted teeth.
She felt herself weakening, her senses dulled as her vision blurred at the edges.
But before she could finish gathering her thoughts, Noah was already upon her, his spear raised high, his intent deadly clear.
With a resounding clash, she blocked the strike just in time, her own weapon formed from hardened earth.
It was a sword forged through her earth element magic, its weight and solidity offering a temporary but strong shield against Noah\'s onslaught.
Yet the pain in her throat from the ice shard was agonizing, shooting through her neck each time she tried to draw breath.
She struggled to stand tall, inhaling and exhaling in shallow gasps, but each breath felt like it was clawing at her insides.
"He knew exactly what he was doing… by striking my throat..."
She thought, a flicker of rage cutting through the pain.
She clenched her jaw, fighting the urge to cough again, knowing that each gasp only worsened her condition.
Her mind raced, calculating her rapidly diminishing stamina.
Her usual speed of recovery was all but halved by this infernal wound.
She knew she couldn\'t afford to lose control over her breathing now, or it would all be over.
Noah stepped back, raising two fingers.
Thin tendrils of mist emanated from his hand as his fingers pointed directly at her.
Before she could react, another shard of ice shot forward, piercing the flesh of her thigh.
Amy bit back a scream, feeling the cold, piercing agony sink deep into her muscle, making her leg tremble.
"Damn it!"
She staggered, clutching her sword even tighter as her pulse quickened.
Blood oozed from the wound, seeping down her leg, adding a burning weight to her steps.
But she forced herself upright, staring defiantly at Noah as she muttered, half to herself, half to him.
"Ugh...I-I am the golden daughter of House Bluerose....
...A prodigy in every sense of the word.
I hold the record for the youngest mastery of advanced earth manipulation, I\'ve outdueled mage after mage, and I was the youngest in history to complete the Dragon Trials successfully!"
She staggered slightly, but straightened, feeling a surge of pride amidst the pain as she stared him down, almost daring him to come closer.
"Compared to me, you\'re nothing...
Just a fluke who stumbled into power."
A defiant grin played on her lips, though it was strained by the pain tightening her throat and thigh.
"I don\'t know how you got back in here…
But for someone who thinks he stands for justice, someone who acts like he\'s above it all, I\'ll end you right here."
She spat the words out, the bitterness and anger lacing each syllable.
This wasn\'t just a battle for survival; it was a reckoning for every insult he\'d ever dared to throw at her, every moment of pride he\'d stripped from her with that sanctimonious stare of his.
Her gaze hardened further, and she added, almost in a whisper, a flicker of something like regret coloring her voice.
"And to think… to think I even liked you at first."
The admission left a bitter taste, sharper even than the ache in her throat.
She swallowed it down, the pain searing but grounding her, her eyes narrowing with fierce resolve as she watched him approach, waiting for his next move, ready to give him everything she had left.
The hallway was silent save for the heavy breathing of Amy and the quiet footfalls of Noah as he moved towards her, his spear at the ready, his expression a cold mask of unfeeling malice.
Amy shifted her stance, her knuckles whitening around the hilt of her sword as she summoned every ounce of power from her core.
She wasn\'t going down easily—not to him.
With a fluid motion, Noah swung his spear in a long, sweeping arc that seemed almost effortless but struck with the force of a hurricane.
Amy parried just in time, her earth-forged sword taking the brunt of the blow as sparks flew from their weapons clashing.
The sheer impact forced her back a step, but she grit her teeth, her eyes blazing with determination.
Her system chimed in, announcing the usage of her first blessing.
{Ding!}
{Blessing of the Elemental Heart: Vitality and Strength Increased!}
A burst of power surged through her, and with a single thought, the earth sword shifted in her grip, lengthening into a spear of her own.
She spun it with precision and struck forward, meeting Noah\'s spear with equal strength.
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The two spears locked in a deadly dance, the clash of rock and ice echoing down the darkened hall as they pressed forward with equally unyielding strength.
But Noah didn\'t flinch or shift his stance.
With one powerful thrust, he broke through her defenses, the tip of his spear barely grazing her shoulder.
Amy hissed in pain as she felt her blood trickling down her arm, but she didn\'t falter.
Her spear morphed again, transforming into a double-edged axe.
She swung it wide, aiming low in a move that forced Noah to step back and brace against her relentless strikes.
Noah\'s expression remained eerily still as he maneuvered his ice spear with startling efficiency.
He struck with only two moves: a sweeping arc to the left, then a follow-through thrust.
Over and over, he repeated this pattern, as if taunting her with the simplicity of his techniques.
Each time he struck, Amy had to summon her strength, her breaths shallow and pained.
"Does he take me for a joke?"
She muttered to herself, anger boiling beneath her skin.
"I\'ll make him regret looking down on me."
She activated another blessing, her system ringing in her ears.
{Ding!}
{Blessing of the Flame Tempest: Fire Attribute Increased!}
The earth in her hand reshaped itself once more, this time into a slender, curved blade crackling with fire.
She lunged forward with a speed fueled by both rage and power, slashing at him with a swift series of fiery strikes, each one growing faster than the last.
Noah blocked every attempt, his movements as controlled as before.
His eyes a chilling contrast of bright yellow and deep, malevolent purple.
Each strike met the same two-patterned response from him.
And each time he deflected her, a cold determination grew in his gaze.