Chapter 329: Relentless Assault
The lightning continued extending as enormous amounts of mana poured into it.
The pressure surrounding the arrow intensified relentlessly until the very air around it began screaming beneath the overwhelming charge.
Then Ethan released it. The arrow seemed to exist only halfway through its flight before it struck through Audrey’s chest.
Because of Loaded Outcome’s sure-hit effect, there had been no opportunity to evade it.
A violent explosion of lightning erupted from the point of impact as Audrey cried out in genuine pain.
The force drove her body backward and her concentration broke.
The Time Zone she had been maintaining slipped from her control, and the sealing spell instantly accomplished what it had been attempting.
Space sealed completely around Audrey.
—
At that same moment, General Iroh flew to Carson’s side, supporting the heavily injured King before lifting him away from that part of the battlefield.
—
Ethan knew the battle was far from over.
That arrow had been devastating, but even with the certainty granted by Loaded Outcome, he had never believed it would be enough to kill Audrey Desdemona.
The attack had forced her hair free from its clip, letting it fall over her lowered head as wisps of smoke rose from her body.
But even the wounds themselves were already nearing complete reversal.
After all, she didn’t need the few inches of space she had been left with to use time on herself.
Without wasting another second, Ethan made another arrow of lightning condense into his palm.
But just as he prepared to release the second arrow, Audrey raised her head and sharp green glimmer ignited within her eyes.
The sealing magic surrounding her eroded, its magical structure rapidly aging toward its endpoint faster than Jenner could reconstruct it.
Of course, Jenner immediately attempted to cast the sealing spell again, but before the seal could even form properly, it reached its end again.
At this moment, Audrey’s hair had turned a grayish white, while a greenish miasma evaporated from her body as the full extent of her Time Zone re-established itself across the battlefield.
Only this time, it was nearly three times its original size, both in radius and vertical reach.
And now, everyone had fallen within her immediate range of effect.
Her eyes landed on Ethan just as he released the second arrow, one guaranteed to strike its target.
She then suddenly disappeared for a brief instant before reappearing a short distance away.
Ethan’s eyes widened to the fact that she was totally unharmed, and without hesitation, he released another arrow.
But once again, it missed its target.
For the briefest moment, it almost resembled a short-range teleportation. But it wasn’t.
Audrey wasn’t evading the attack by traversing space, but by traversing time.
Having anticipated Ethan’s attack beforehand, Audrey simply advanced herself one second into the future, allowing the guaranteed strike to pass through the location she no longer occupied.
Naturally, once erected, her Time Zone established a fixed starting point that became the reference for every time spell she performed thereafter.
Every manipulation of time remained confined to the past and present that existed relative to the instant her Time Zone had first been established.
The future, however, had always remained beyond her reach.
At least, until now.
The sudden surge in Audrey’s magic power had expanded the limits of what her time magic could accomplish.
It still wasn’t enough to grant her unrestricted access to the future, but she had managed to pry open the smallest possible window.
Exactly one second.
And it was upon that single second her Forward Skip technique was founded.
Rather than traversing space, Audrey simply stepped into the timeline that existed exactly one second ahead of the present.
Naturally, such a technique only worked if Audrey already knew what was about to happen. Without anticipating an incoming attack beforehand, there would be no reason to advance herself into that future moment.
And Ethan’s arrows had already revealed their nature, so she knew exactly what to expect.
Ethan, on the other hand, had yet to understand what he had just witnessed. He hadn’t fought Audrey long enough to fully grasp the extent of her time magic.
From his perspective, it looked as though she had moved with such overwhelming speed that even Loaded Outcome had failed to catch her.
After all, even the System had already warned him that under certain variables, the certainty granted by Loaded Outcome could not be relied upon completely.
However, from that moment, a relentless assault began.
It started with a shot from the Emperor Class hitman summon, Joe, who had been waiting at an angle with his Katarina sniper rifle.
The other Emperor Class summon, Bierzim, followed immediately, unleashing volleys of spears from his many arms, all in a bid to obliterate a single woman.
From above, Arael—having been re-summoned to the battlefield—rained down countless projectiles carrying destructive elements of lightning, flames and light.
Even the demon taint, Xylo, had donned the Condemned mask over his face as he activated his ultimate skill, All for One, inflicting every status effect at his disposal upon Audrey; Burn, Exhaustion, Dizziness, Stun, and Mark, the last increasing all incoming damage by 15%.
Nina continued to spam sword swing after sword swing, each slash releasing blazing arcs of flame.
At that singular point, all that could be seen was a barrage of colors powerful enough to seem like complete overkill.
But Ethan couldn’t shake the uneasiness creeping into him. How could he still sense Audrey’s magic power lingering?
Then the smoke from the countless explosions began clearing, revealing the figure that had stood at their center all along.
The sight froze everyone watching.
That bitch was still standing.
Ethan’s eyes widened from the skies above.
"...How..." he whispered.
What stood before him made absolutely no sense. The combined assault had been enough firepower to erase almost anything on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, what had prevented Audrey from dying was a combination of abilities.
Some of the incoming projectiles and flames were forced to reach their endpoint before they could ever reach her, while the state of her own body seemed trapped in a continuous loop at its optimum condition.
By looping time over a particular phenomenon, Audrey could force a single state to continually reoccur without end.
And in this case, the phenomenon she had chosen was her own state of well-being.
No matter how much damage she suffered, her body continuously returned to its optimal condition.
Unless someone possessed an instant-kill technique that left no opportunity for recovery, killing Audrey was always going to be extraordinarily difficult.
As for the sudden increase in her power...