Chapter 134: Nerissa vs Terrence (2)

Soon, before Terrence even noticed it, five more people arrived at the scene.

Terrence’s entire attention was hyper-focused on Nerissa, who was entirely set on killing him where he stood.

Covered in the volatile mana of her beast’s phantom spirit, her strike landed with heavily amplified force. Terrence was sent flying violently, rolling across the stone until he slammed hard into the wooden frame of the entrance door.

Terrence was caught completely off guard by the sheer, unnatural strength coming from her. No offense to Nerissa, but with her slender frame, no one would ever expect her to be capable of unleashing such raw, devastating force.

"That punch was definitely heavy..." Terrence muttered under his breath. But the assault was far from over.

Before he could even attempt to push himself up, Nerissa was already upon him, driving her fist into his back—followed immediately by another brutal strike. Terrence was slammed flat onto the marble floor as Nerissa relentlessly barraged him with a non-stop sequence of blow after blow.

Terrence’s eyes briefly went blank as he was aggressively suppressed by an opponent unlike any he had anticipated.

Normally, fighters who were arrogant would land a single heavy blow and then pause to brag, creating space between exchanges. On the other hand, careful fighters would intentionally create distance to minimize the chances of a counterattack.

But Nerissa fit neither of those categories. She was purely driven by immediate results, and the only result she cared about was Terrence’s death.

"You have been a thorn in this family’s side for far too long!" she spat, her voice muffled by the sound of her exploding punches slamming against his body.

After landing an uncountable number of hits, feeling a tiny fraction of her energy drain, Nerissa instinctively created space just in case Terrence managed to launch a surprise counterattack.

She abruptly halted her barrage and leaped backward. Just as she had anticipated, Terrence had indeed prepared a desperate counter, his hand sweeping out to catch her ankle as she moved. But he missed, his fingers clutching empty air before his tattered body collapsed back onto the cold ground.

A smirk of absolute victory spread across Nerissa’s face.

"Tsk! I was a total fool to even worry about a traitor like you. Those rumors going around were nothing but pathetic exaggerations," she scoffed, looking down at him.

The five observers who had arrived and watched the brief exchange held similar thoughts.

Positioned in the shadows of the second-floor balcony overlooking the grand hall, they exchanged silent nods with one another. It clearly seemed like a complete waste of time to be worried about Terrence, so they prepared to turn around and leave the balcony.

However, a faint, strange energy suddenly began to radiate from Terrence’s prone form, causing the onlookers to freeze in their tracks and turn back around.

What was that?

None of them could immediately identify the strange energy, but it was abundantly clear that it wasn’t just ordinary mana.

Nerissa’s grin widened as she watched Terrence slowly force his way back up onto his feet.

"What an abnormal freak. I must commend you for being able to endure all of that. Usually, only Noli is capable of taking a beating like that," Nerissa said, mocking Terrence, who seemed completely deaf to her words.

Terrence wiped the blood from his mouth, his head throbbing painfully from slamming against the marble floor. It was his very first time being beaten up so thoroughly, taking an uncountable barrage of hits in mere seconds.

For a brief moment, he had genuinely felt powerless. But thankfully, Noir’s shared Iron Skin Skill had actively protected his vital organs from taking lethal damage.

Nerissa raised her defensive guard once more as she watched Terrence finally stand fully upright.

None of the heavy bruises she expected to see were forming on his body. Instead, she finally noticed that his skin had taken on a dark, unnatural metallic sheen.

’Now that I think about it, Terrence’s skin looked extremely hard and dark during my punches. Was that a defensive Skill Share?’ she analyzed quickly.

"I must admit, I didn’t expect you to move that fast," Terrence muttered, his tone shifting as he decided to stop holding back.

In a flash of light, he summoned Noir and Avery directly beside him. At that sight, Nerissa knew instantly that Terrence was dropping all hesitation.

"Go ahead, summon your beasts. You are completely nothing without them anyway," she taunted.

"Was that supposed to be trash talk? You better improve your material, because I wasn’t even rage-baited a bit," Terrence scoffed, rolling his neck from side to side before stretching his limbs.

His demeanor was entirely different now. It was as if he hadn’t just taken a brutal barrage of amplified punches, with his torn clothing being the only proof that the beatdown had even happened.

Nerissa bit her lip in irritation and launched herself forward once again, weaving right past Terrence’s beasts to target him directly.

Failing to react in time, Terrence was unable to block her initial strike.

BANG!

The first punch landed squarely against his chest, but as she raised her arm for the second hit, Noir materialized at her side out of nowhere, unleashing a razor-sharp dark slash that forced her to abandon her follow-up.

Terrence rolled to the side the second after, but Nerissa was relentlessly persistent. Despite the spatial slash cutting through her path, she twisted her body in mid-air to adjust her trajectory and pursue Terrence’s rolling body.

Noir dashed forward immediately, slamming his heavy paws—fully coated in the Iron Skin Skill—straight into Nerissa’s exposed side.

Nerissa absorbed the heavy impact, her balance severely disrupted for a split second. However, she managed to plant her right foot as a pivot, forcefully shifting her body weight to regain her footing.

Above them, Avery swooped in, casting her Smash Skill to catch Nerissa off guard during her sudden change of direction. But Nerissa seemed to have foreseen the attack entirely, twisting her torso in a tight vertical roll to narrowly evade the materialized dragon paw slamming into the floorboards.

Closing the distance once more, Nerissa caught up to Terrence, who was leaning his body away in a desperate attempt to dodge. In mid-movement, Terrence tucked his chin inward just as Nerissa’s fist connected heavily with his right jaw.

Rolling across the floor from the force of the strike, Terrence coughed violently before his back slammed hard into a massive marble column. Nerissa pursued instantly, raising her leg to drive a heavy kick straight into his stomach.

Terrence curled up tightly, hugging his midsection as he braced for the follow-up strike. But the incoming blow never landed.

Nerissa’s foot was abruptly blocked in mid-air by a massive Stone Golem that Terrence had just summoned directly from his Beast Sanctuary.

Nerissa’s eyes widened as she stared at the giant Stone Golem in complete confusion. A wave of agitation washed over her, making her hesitate to attack any further.

"Where on earth did a third beast come from?!" Her wide eyes snapped over to Terrence, who was slowly pushing himself back up against the column. "No... that’s completely impossible!"

She desperately wanted to deny the terrifying reality unfolding right in front of her eyes, because there was simply no way a tamer could summon three high-tier beasts simultaneously!