Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System - Chapter 711 - 711: Challenges, Little Tiger girl version (part 4)

Seeing her well-planned ambush fail like that made the lioness visibly frown, though Dana called out a new technique, the lioness didn’t see any change happening on her, in fact she thought it was just the little tiger girl trying to confuse her, because she attacked with her fist right away.

As in, she just feigned to use an eye technique but actually used an attack type one, but then that theory died as the five copies of the panther that were hiding in the shadow paths expanded their senses to the maximum capacity.

‘I see… damn cunning tiger descendant’, thought the lioness.

She had given her copies the instruction of watching the battlefield from their different points of view and alert, or react according to what they saw.

Unlike the mirages which could only move in the outside world, the copies had a certain degree of freedom to act, of course they weren’t living beings but the lioness could input specific instructions for them to follow passively, while she also actively commanded them.

That and the fact that the lioness’s spells could be reflected on them, was their greatest advantage, as she said she was a “pride” rather than a single lioness as of current.

Anyway, thanks to one of the passive instructions, the lioness realized how was Dana able to tell where was her ambush coming from, thanks to the copies looking around all over the battlefield with their senses further sharpened thanks to the boost granted to spells casted by the lioness within the shadow realm, she saw multiple yellow “flashes” moving above in the sky all over the place.

The little tiger girl was expanding her field of sight by using electric currents which were acting as “eyes” for her, that’s how Dana knew where the attack from earlier was coming from.

‘Tsk’, the lioness couldn’t help but click her tongue, to begin with, techniques that reinforce a specific part of the body, put more strain in that area than those that give an overall physical boost, and the eyes are one of the most vulnerable parts of any living being.

That’s one of the reasons as to why eye spells, martial arts and the like are really hard to find or create and even harder to master, the only exception to the previous being those that obtain them due to their lineages, like Ivy or Thea for example.

Outside of them, not everyone’s eyes are apt to bear the burden of an eye technique or spell, basically you need a balanced strong body without any weak areas and tough mana circuits, like Daimon, Aura and the little tiger girl had shown to have.

‘I refuse to believe that she can keep up with receiving so much feedback from the surroundings at the same time!’, inwardly screamed the lioness as she stomped her right paw on the ground.

In response to the previous, the black lines on the ground which had stopped moving, suddenly gained explosive speed, moving in random directions, some to the left, some to the right and even some… upwards.

The lioness is a proper Arch rank now, she can fly and apparently the shadow paths she created can do so as well, even if there is no “objected” for them to attach to, perhaps because even while not as bright as the sun in Neptune, the red sun in the Blood Prison realm does still project light upon this place.

Dana saw the shadow paths moving in all directions and she softly snorted, bright yellow lightning cladded her left hand just as a black cladded paw came from shoulder height, out of a shadow path that originally was above her but suddenly twisted its trajectory.

“Clang!”, that was the sound of the little tiger girl’s claws clashing against the ones of the lioness’s copy, but that wasn’t all, her tail which had electricity crackling around it lashed upwards releasing a small stream of lightning right at the opened mouth of another one of the copies which emerged with the idea of biting Dana.

“Boooom!”, Dana’s energy exploded upon contact with the opened mouth of the lioness’s copy, forcing it back into the shadow path and that marked the end of the lioness’s assault.

“Damn it”, cursed the lioness, she hoped Dana to be unable to keep up with the eye technique she was using which is why she tested her with a few extra ambushes, but she didn’t see even the slightest flinch coming from the little tiger girl, so it was a waste of mana to keep using that tactic, which was further confirmed by the little tiger girl herself the next second.

“Among the people whom I admire there is someone whose eye’s abilities are amazing, so I thought of a way to obtain even a fraction of that… though I needed to “cheat” a bit for it, thanks to that you can forget about simple ambushes like those working on me”, said Dana to then add.

“Surely that’s not everything you have, since you are a “fierce” lioness now, right?”, seeing the electric sparks crackling in Dana’s eyes, the lioness coldly snorted, the little tiger girl was basically telling her to stop hiding behind her previous appearance of a panther whose focus lied in stealth.

“Crack!”, the ground below the lioness cracked as black mist started being radiated by her body, the shadow paths all stopped moving around Dana’s surroundings and traveled all the way back to the lioness’s shadow.

Then something interesting happened, the little tiger girl actually lost track of the copies which were hiding in the shadow paths, well she is sure that they are in the shadow of the lioness because she scanned her surroundings through her extra pairs of “eyes” on the sky and couldn’t find them.

But she couldn’t pinpoint the exact part of the lioness’s shadow where the copies were hiding.

“Black Shadow Devil Charge!”.

“Lightning Tiger Step!”.

Both Dana and the lioness called out their movement spell and technique, respectively, shooting themselves towards the other head on.

“Clang!”, as expected their claws clashing head on produced sparks and the sound of metals colliding, however there is no way Dana believed that the lioness wanted a simple clash like this, since they have done it quite a few times before.

And she was right, the black mist which was being radiated by the lioness, became fiercer, then while her right paw was still clashing with Dana’s right hand, three black lines were shot out of the black mist covering the lioness.

‘So, this is the actual way she is supposed to use the shadow paths… not bad!’, thought the little tiger girl as she saw the claws and bites coming her way while her right hand was still occupied with the enemy’s main body.

“Clang!”, with her legs still cladded in lightning, Dana moved to the side perfectly avoiding the first pair of claws which were aiming at her left side, then kicked with her right leg smacking the mouth of the copy which aimed to bite her right leg.

And last but not least with her tail, she stopped the claws aiming at her middle back area, all at the same time, of course the assault didn’t end there, since Dana had managed to block three attacks coming from different directions while her dominant hand was busy dealing with the main attack, the lioness added up more pressure in order to break through the little tiger girl’s defense.

“Boooom!”, black mana poured out of the lioness’s body, the muscles on her legs and back tensed and then, very much even to Dana’s surprise, the lioness managed to push her back without the need of using a technique, in other words with sheer raw strength.

“Crack!”, naturally the little tiger girl is far from being a pushover, so in order to make her take even a single step back, the force applied by the lioness made the ground below Dana’s feet to shatter, so she left a trail of destruction in her path of retreat.

Still, the lioness did manage to gain some momentum with which she started pushing Dana back more and more, all this while her claws were still fiercely pressed against Dana’s ones.

“Clang!”, while forcing Dana back, the shadow paths once again left the lioness’s main shadow, claws and bared fangs emerged from within the shadows in different directions around the little tiger girl.

Continuous clinking sounds were echoing through the sky as slashes and bites rained upon Dana, while she was also pushed back by the lioness, with each second that passed, the speed of the enemy’s attacks increased, she was trying to force a breach to appear within Dana’s defense.

That being said, the lioness had to admit that Dana’s close combat abilities were incredibly good, she dodged some claws, countered some and even redirected a few, using only her tail, one of her legs and her remaining arm she was blocking attacks coming from five different directions.

All this while keeping a proper footing and enduring her forceful charge, not to mention that she wasn’t missing a single thing, Dana’s bright yellow eyes were moving at high speed as she predicted where were the next attacks coming from, it was quite the display of mind and body coordination.

‘Fine she can keep up with claws and mouths in a fixed way, but how about this!’, thought the lioness as the black lines were shot out of her shadow.

Dana whose eyes were shinning in bright yellow energy, had a small frown appear on her pretty face for a fraction of a second, the mana contained in the shadow paths had practically doubled all of a sudden.

But that’s not what caught her attention, she could feel the presence of the lioness’s copies in… more than five of the paths, but she was sure that the lioness hadn’t created more of them, after all each copy required a hefty amount of mana and while fierce and wild, the lioness is not stupid, her mana consumption is perfectly calculated, because part of her plan is returning to Marcus side and tell him that “something” is going wrong.

Anyway, the answer to the little tiger girl’s doubt was given the next second when as usual Dana predicted direction of the claws that were about to come out of the shadow paths.

“Clang!”, using her tail and left hand which were cladded in bright yellow lightning, Dana blocked four pairs of claws while she prepared her right leg to kick the head of the remaining copy which was coming to bite her side.

However, at the last second, the extra mana that the lioness had injected into the shadow paths came into play, the little tiger girl couldn’t help but be a bit surprised as she saw not only one, but five lioness’s heads emerge from the shadow paths.

And before you think “Duh, if there are five copies, then of course there should be five lioness’s heads”, that’s not what surprised the little tiger girl, but the fact that they came from positions which were impossible, considering the directions where the claws had come out from.

“Black Shadow Devil Distortion Hunt”, with a sild smile on her face, the lioness completed her spell, which allowed her to alter the exit point of her shadow paths, in other words this way she could create this bizarre scenery in which the heads of the copies appeared out of anatomically impossible angles, considering where their claws were positioned.

It’s not spatial attribute of course, unlike Rita, the lioness simply used the capacity of shadows to take on different shapes than the object out of which they are projected, depending on the angle at which light shines upon them.

Of course, it sounds easier than what it actually is, for starters the lioness had to reinforce the shadow paths and then she had to modify the same exit points which she used for the claws, because if she had opened a second set of them, Dana would been able to tell where the displaced heads of the copies would be coming from.

All of that had paid off though, because the five heads were baring their fangs at the little tiger girl in different areas of her body, namely, shoulder, waist, knee, ankle and of course neck, not all were frontal attacks as well, some were coming from the back, effectively cutting any way of retreat.

“Humph!”, since her overwhelming speed advantage was useless in this situation, the little tiger girl didn’t stubbornly try to flash her way out of this encirclement, but instead went with the simple good old tactic of “brute forcing her way through”, courtesy of Lyn’s teachings in the past few days.

After all, if she can’t be the one putting distance between herself and the enemy, then the enemy will have to be the one to do so.

“Booooom!”, the lioness suddenly had all the hairs on her body stand on their ends, she threw away any intention of attacking and directly flew backwards while sending her copies inside the shadow paths on the spot.

Just as the last copy’s head was entering the shadow path, the area around Dana exploded in bright yellow lightning, it was a pure energy technique and yet the shockwave created by the explosion, quite literally blew away everything near the little tiger girl.

And just like the thunderous shockwave which arrived after the lightning energy explosion, Dana called out the name of her new technique only after she had already used it.

“Lightning Thunder Break”, as the dust dispelled, the figure of the little tiger girl standing in ten-meter diameter crater with a depth of thirty meters, was revealed.

‘The area of effect was small but… what the hell is with that power, the impact actually forced its way through the entry point of the shadow path!’, inwardly screamed the lioness.

Earlier, in the split of a second before she closed the entry to the shadow path, a part of the shockwave created by the explosion entered into the shadow world, and just that sent her five copies flying into the distance.

Had the lioness been a fraction of a second slower to close the entrance, at least two of her copies would have been destroyed on the spot.

For a good reason, this technique which Dana had created based in Lyn’s short ranged but stupidly powerful close combat shockwaves, concentrated all its strength in a single spot, in this case the little tiger girl’s surroundings, that’s why the crater was deeper than larger.

“That damn tiger image again!”, cursed the lioness as she saw the lightning tiger projection behind of Dana, fading away, not without leaving behind arcs of electricity around the little tiger girl.

“So, do you still want to fight me head on”, said Dana as she looked into the shadow of the lioness, obviously she saw how her copies were tossed around due to the impact of her technique, that was a threat, the little tiger girl was basically telling the lioness that just like she could be slashed and bitten if she loses her focus for a fraction of a second, the lioness could be blown into oblivion if she loses hers.

“Black Shadow Devil Lion Armor”, in response black mana gathered around the lioness, the shadow paths that were hidden in her own shadow came out of it and weaved around her body from the top of her head to the tip of her tail, before turning into a black smooth armor.

“Crack!”, the armor was obviously solid as it caused the ground below the lioness to shatter just by appearing, despite the previous it didn’t seem to cause any discomfort to its user.

Seeing the expression on the lioness face which basically meant “try it if you can”, the little tiger girl softly snorted in response.

“Lightning Tiger, Thunder Gauntlets”, the lightning tiger projection of before appeared behind Dana, to then let out a yellow light stream out of its mouth, which landed on the little tiger girls arms the next second.

That was a boosting type one and the result were Dana’s arms being covered in bright yellow energy gauntlets which covered all the way from her hands to her elbows, they even came with claws so she didn’t need to use her bare ones, amusingly enough the gauntlets looked a bit oversized, for Dana’s arms.

Which would be a rather familiar sight for Daimon if he were here, as in that was similar to the weapon choice Dana made back when she had a little spar against those young members of the Revy family.

“Hsssss!”, bright yellow currents of electricity crackled around Dana’s hands and the moment she bumped her fists together a small thunder actually went off, and that was just she preparing to attack.

“You want to see who blinks first, fine, bring it on!”, exclaimed the lioness as she saw the challenging light shinning in the little tiger girl’s eyes.

As you might have already noticed, this fight had taken an interesting different direction when compared to the ones we have seen before, not as in these two aren’t trying to kill each other, because they are.

But they actually were… enjoying the fight, or at least their tiger and lion lineages were surely glaring at each other in expectation to see which one is the strongest.

“Black Shadow Devil Heavy Charge!”.

“Lightning Tiger Thunder Step!”.

With a slight variation in their movement technique’s names, the ground below both the lioness and Dana exploded as they tensed their legs to then shot towards each other.

“Boooom!”, needless to say but once the armored fist of the little tiger girl collided head on with the armored paw of the lioness, as if a thunder had gone off, deafening explosion followed, however compared to before there was a difference.

“Roaaaar!”, a roar in two different tones, echoed through the sky, the interesting part is that neither Dana nor the lioness were the ones making them, nope, it was their energy and mana, which upon contact with the other resonated like roars.

From up-close and just as the lioness was about to call out her copies to attack the little tiger girl, Dana’s next words threw her out of balance.

“I don’t understand”, she said.

“What do you not understand, why am I not getting slashed into pieces, that’s quite arrogant from you if you ask me”, to which the lioness fiercely retorted, making the little tiger girl softly snort.

“No, what I don’t understand is why are you following a “textbook” perfect example of a piece of trash like him, while not being one yourself”.

Dana’s words made the lioness’s eyes dangerously narrow, but surprisingly she didn’t go off like when the little tiger girl insulted Marcus like back at the start of their fight.

Something that has been circling in Dana’s mind since earlier was how the lioness, or back then, the panther said that she “didn’t know anything”, the little tiger girl might be young, but even when protected by Leena and in her own clan no less, she has seen, heard and gone through quite a lot of nasty situations.

Therefore, while she lacks experience in terms of actual combat, Dana can see people for what they are, something Leena made sure to teach her though she obviously has a soft spot for the little tiger girl when you compare it to the strict education, she subjected Dana’s older brother to.

Which is why despite Daimon originally having a strict-business based attitude towards her, she didn’t let alone feel bad about it, but instead was relieved by it, because, it was a breath of fresh air when compared to the “kind” false smiles or the openly hostile disdaining gazes that she was surrounded by back at the Jolbaris family.

And also, because despite obviously noticing the previous, neither Daimon nor Arianna tried to use that to get close to her, even if by doing so they could have gained a better standing with her half emperor aunt.

In other words, for the first time in her life, she had found people she could become friends with, outside of her brother and her aunt of course, and such a situation has been repeating continuously since that, considering that she’ll be joining the elite class.

So, unlike the “profile” explained by Daimon of the enemies they could encounter, she was confused the more she clashed with the lioness, because while being her enemy, she didn’t feel disgusted by her.