Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System - Chapter 717 - 717: Challenges, Alabaster Horned Dolphin Princess Version (part 4)

“Y-You bastard what the hell is the meaning of this!”, exclaimed Rendon as he tried to remove the black stalactite piercing his body, only to feel strength abandoning him as well as pain because the earth snake slightly shook the stalactite.

“Agh!”, the ice snake fell powerless to the ground the next second, in case you wonder why is a stab around the neck area causing so much trouble to a blood specter such as Rendon, when they do not have neither flesh nor blood, which means that they could actually survive unless their heads are blasted away, the answer is simple.

The heart of a snake is actually positioned quite towards the head extreme of their body, and while again these two are a blood specter as of current so they don’t have internal organs like a heart, as an energy being they do have a core that can be considered the same as a heart.

And Rendon had the core of the ice affinity snake body’s which he is inhabiting, damaged by the stalactite which the earth affinity snake used to ambush him, when Rendon tried to get away the earth affinity snake simply made the stalactite graze his core again which immediately rendered him powerless.

The sensation would be akin to having one’s heart squeezed, so basically Rendon was unable to defend and his life was literally in the hands of the earth affinity snake.

“I’m not going to die here, not after having made it this far, I honestly don’t have a grudge against you, but for the sake of my survival you’ll have to become strength and experience so that I can get out of here, blame yourself for dragging me into you fight against that woman”, said the earth snake as he gazed from the corner of his eyes at Lyn who was watching the whole thing with an amused expression on that pretty face of hers which didn’t match the savage way in which she fights.

The reason for the sudden change in the behavior of the earth snake is nothing hard to understand, after having his hide saved by Rendon it actually agreed to listen to him.

Things looked good for a moment, as they managed to trap the enemy but then when he saw Lyn casually destroying their combined spells with ease, and then feeling his life truly hanging by a thread since even Rendon was taken by surprise, the earth affinity snake knew that he needed more power if he didn’t want to die at Lyn’s hands sooner or later.

Also, once he felt his life being threatened, he activated the emergency signal which Marcus had handed to him, and for a moment he was informed of the position of the sole other blood specter of the group while also being given control of it.

Yeah, just as you are thinking it was this what caused the temporary interruption in the little tiger girl and the lioness’s fight, since the snake used the emergency signal to drag her towards his battlefield.

But we know how that ended, and once the stablished link he felt with the “panther” was cut off, the snake felt a sensation of crisis invading his heart, because in his mind there was no way Marcus power would just disappear like that.

So, he thought that the panther which in his mind was only second to him among Marcus’s subordinates was killed by the enemy’s in that brief moment, therefore there was a chance that more enemies, would come his way, all that combined resulted in the snake taking the decision of playing the betray card.

Amusingly enough, all this happened because Daimon’s silver energy blocked the command and also hid the presence of the lioness so that Dana could properly finish her fight, so he ended up messing with both Marcus and the snake in a single go.

On the other hand, this also revealed the real colors of Marcus, because that snake was given temporary authority over Reyna if his life was in danger, but the lioness didn’t know about that.

‘Damn useless panther, before I could use her as a sacrifice she just went and died without achieving anything and now I have to rush things up with Rendon, when the plan was to wait until we had reached the peak of the Arch rank’.

‘Oh well, we don’t have good coordination so no matter how much we try to attack together, so long as our powers are not one and the same, that bitch will get us, not to mention that she seems fixated in interrogating Rendon so she’ll of course target me until I die, then that Rendon bastard would have for sure used me as a sacrifice for his altar spell anyway’, thought the earth affinity snake, which didn’t sound too far-fetched.

Also, the earth affinity snake slightly smirked at Lyn, as if saying “this is payback for nearly killing me two times bitch”, as he called out the name of the second altar spell he was using.

As in if he killed Rendon, Lyn won’t be getting the answers she wanted and the best part in the snake’s mind, is that she couldn’t do anything about it, thanks to the barrier granted by the altar spell.

“Black Death, Ice Annihilation Altar!”, only the element in the name of the spell was different, however unlike before when characteristics exclusive to the earth snake could be seen on the altar, meaning that he has deviated from the power granted by Marcus, this one totally had the devil ruler system user’s name written all over it.

As in it was completely composed of black bones and had a spike-toothed skeleton at its frontal face, whose eyes lit up in black mist as the earth affinity snake proceeded without a bit of hesitation.

“Death Crisis Survival Sacrifice!”, with those words, the spike-toothed mouth of the black skull opened as to let out a beast-like roar before large black clawed skeletal arms condensed at its sides.

The clawed bone arms advanced towards the body of the ice affinity snake which one last time tried to resist only to find himself powerless under the pressure of those black energy bone arms.

“This thing specializes in restraining ice affinity enemies, that damn bastard, from the very beginning planned to use me as a sacrifice!”, shouted Rendon as the body of the ice affinity snake was “ripped off” the main body of the snake, to then be compressed into a small blue sized sphere which the altar threw at the earth affinity snake who devoured it the next second.

While the earth affinity snake exploded in dark blue mana, Lyn who was observing the whole process with interest, voiced her opinion.

“Mmm, the first altar contained that foreign mana but there were other types of energies mixed in it, this second one however was completely composed of devil mana, what a nasty bastard”.

The fact that the altar spell which was directly given by Marcus to the earth affinity snake, had the power to suppress Rendon, meant that he intended for the former to sacrifice the latter.

Add to that the fact that the earth affinity snake developed his own altar spell, while keeping the other one a secret and it becomes obvious that from the very beginning, Rendon was fated to be betrayed, which is why with his last breath he cursed Marcus.

“Black Death Frozen Land Snake King!”, all the ice mana which had was gathering around the earth affinity snake was suddenly absorbed by its body, as a result the previously dark brown scale pattern on the earth affinity snake transformed into an irregular dark brown and dark blue one.

The same happened to the eye color of the now single headed snake, his right eyes remained dark brown toned while the left one gained a dark blue color, but that wasn’t all, the black bone armor covering the earth affinity snake, released black cold mist as some areas of it were covered in black ice.

“Heh, I had already thought about it, but your “death” nether originates from the fact that to save your own ass you pushed a lot of people to their deaths, rather than emerging victorious in a battlefield right, coward worm?”, disdainfully said the alabaster dolphin princess as she saw the aggressive glare that the enemy was giving her, from within the still existing invisible barrier.

Based on the name of the command used for the original altar which Marcus gave the snake and the own words that said snake said to Rendon when he chose to betray him, Lyn guessed the real reason behind the whole fiasco with the native magic beast races.

Rather than siding with the Lords out of desire for power, the snake probably did so out of fear for his life, in other words he choose to sacrifice his peers in exchange for his own safety.

The funny part is that despite the previous, the snake ended up as a blood specter, which is quite similar to dying anyway.

‘Keep mocking me, you’ll be dying at my hands anyway!’, inwardly cursed the now earth and ice affinity snake as earth nether and ice mana revolved around his body, since he devoured Rendon, he had turned into a dual element, dual energy type blood specter.

‘Tsk, damn Rendon, originally I was supposed to become the king of both land and sea snakes, but he went ahead and changed his original water affinity into ice one… not like it’s not useful though’, added the snake as he further empowered himself with a boosting type spell.

“Black Death Ice Battle Armor!”, with that, black ice condensed on the tip of the snake’s tail as well as around his head and the area of his chest, forming tail, head and chest ice armor.

He had revealed his own weakness when he attacked Rendon’s core, so he of course had to protect it now, luckily just like Rendon said, multilayered ice was better at absorbing vibrations than earth, while also being lighter, not to mention that the hell tundra spell was still active so he received a speed boost.

Also, the snake counted this as being in equal terms with Lyn, because the large blue energy ring floating at her upper back’s height, acted as an overall booster, which for a change is not a lie.

“Crack!”, the barrier which had lasted longer than usual, crumbled apart and the snake turned into a black flash the next second.

“Black Death Ice Tail Spear!”, unlike before, the snake now had confidence in fighting Lyn at close range, so to start the next round of the fight, he used the tip of his tail which was covered in black ice to try and pierce through Lyn’s body.

Another aspect in which Rendon’s ice outstands compared to the snake’s earth affinity is that ice can be used as a sharp and piercing weapon, but the snake now has both affinities, so the incoming ice cladded tail was not only fast and with piercing properties due to the black ice, it was also heavy and tough thanks to the earth nether.

“Booooom!”, Lyn used her right arm which had a blue energy ring around its wrist to intercept the incoming attack with a punch, the result was a loud explosion as Lyn’s shockwave destroyed the piercing ice mana spear around the snake’s tail, while at the same time the shockwave exhausted its power.

“It won’t be like before, just your fists are not enough to wound me anymore!”, shouted the snake as he charged at Lyn, who remained calm as she charged the blue energy ring around her left wrist.

“That appears to be the case, Explosive Echo Fist”, to corroborate the snake’s claims, Lyn used her staple punch technique towards the incoming snake.

“Black Death Frozen Mountain Charge!”, this time instead of just a black-brown nether mountain, the snake was encompassed in a frozen black mountain as he charged at Lyn, this was a spell that used both nether and mana, something only possible after he had devoured Rendon.

“Crack!”, when Lyn’s fist clashed against the enemy a loud shattering sound echoed through the sky, her shockwave made the nether and mana mountain projection crack, but she didn’t destroy it on the spot like before.

The stalemate lasted for a second before both attacks cancelled each other, making both the snake and Lyn step back, but the fact that the snake could now hold his ground against her, doesn’t mean the alabaster dolphin princess is going to change her fighting style as she following up by flashing towards the place where the snake had landed after the previous exchange, with a blue energy ring around her right ankle, suggested.

“Seismic Step”, with a stomp of her right foot, a concentrated shockwave descended upon the snake who answered by injecting both nether and mana into his scales.

“Black Death Frozen Mountain Scale Shield”, the dark brown scales produced black rocks while the dark blue ones were covered in black ice, turning the snake into a fully armored tank, he decided to take Lyn’s attack head on.

“Booooom!”, as if a thunder had gone off, a loud explosion followed by the shockwave which landed on the armored snake, making the ground in the vicinity explode was the result of those two clashing, one attacking while the other defended.

Once the explosion subsided, the figure of the snake which was standing in the exact same place, surrounded by a crater was revealed, the ice and rock armor was full of cracks but it had resisted the impact of Lyn’s attack, as for the alabaster dolphin princess she continued her assault since she still had a blue ring on her left wrist and ankle.

However, when she flashed towards the snake to continue with her barrage of attacks, she saw the “snake” crumbling apart revealing a deep hole beneath it.

“Crack!”, that was both the sound of the “snake” crumbling apart and the ground behind of Lyn exploding as the real snake emerged behind of her.

“Black Death Skin Shedding Escape”, apparently the snake had shed its skin to leave behind a “substitute” which radiated the same energy firm in order to trick Lyn, so that he could ambush her.

Such a refined tactic couldn’t come from the mind of a magic beast which had no idea of how Lyn acted, so this is something that the snake learned to do thanks to the experience he obtained by devouring Rendon.

“Black Death Frozen Mountain Mace Crush!”, having gained the advantageous position, the snake proceeded by lashing his tail which now had something akin to the head of a morning star and there was a sphere of solid rock covering the tip of the snake’s tail, which had black ice spikes protruding in every direction.

“Clang!”, the tail mace landed on Lyn who blocked with her arms, producing sparks and the sound of metals colliding, the energy protecting her body was destroyed as she was sent flying backwards, still she was unscathed, that attack was strong enough to break through her defense and even force her to retreat but she didn’t receive any real damage from it.

‘Damn it, I expected Rendon to be exaggerating since he was so wary of this bitch, but she really has a stupidly tough defense for someone that fully focused in attack power!’, cursed the snake to his insides.

“There is no way you would be this good at combining earth and ice elements into a spell, not to mention that they are different types of energies, out of nowhere, so it’s been a long time since it was decided that you would be devouring Rendon, right”, casually said the alabaster dolphin princess, as usual she was driven by her curiosity even in such a situation.

The snake who was returned to the real world by Lyn who didn’t seem worried in the slightest, despite they now being on equal standing, couldn’t help but his grit his teeth.

The worst part is that he knew that Lyn wasn’t trying to bait him or anything, she just didn’t treat him as a threat so her curiosity was her priority, what’s more he didn’t get the reaction he wanted regarding the fact that since he devoured Rendon, she wouldn’t be able to get the answers she wanted.

“Let’s see how long you can keep that damn act of yours, Domain!!!”, since the snake was still worried that whoever “killed” the panther might come this way, and he has confirmed that he could break through Lyn’s defense now, he decided to go all out.

And what could be better to overwhelm his enemy than a power that she doesn’t have, in other words he was going to use the trait of an Arch rank to deal with a Lord ranked enemy.

‘What humiliation having to use my Domain just to be sure I’ll win against a Lord rank, whatever surviving comes first, I have to hurry up and rush back to Marcus’s side, I’ll inform him of that stupid panther’s death and it will be safer to move together with him’, thought the snake whose body was radiating black brown nether as well as dark blue mana which resonated with the one that his manifestation phenomenon has been gathering in the vicinity.

“Frozen Hell Death Land!”, with a loud shout all the nether and mana combined to then extend and cover a diameter of around four hundred meters with the snake as its center, which sounds like a lot but Lyn didn’t feel surprised in the slightest, because the enemy has two magic cores and two different energies, so a large Domain even when being suppressed by the Blood Prison realm is nothing much in her eyes.

What actually caught the alabaster dolphin princess was the shape of the domain projected by the snake, since it basically looked like a graveyard that was built in frozen wild land.

“Hssssss!”, the ground in the vicinity frost on the spot and black rock tombstones with different engravings in them appeared all over the place, among them there were not only land but also sea beast shapes as well as human ones.

“Oh, so since you devoured Rendon the deaths he has caused were added to your graveyard”, said Lyn as she knocked on a random tombstone that had emerged close to her, with her right index finger.

The Domain of the snake was a frozen wasteland, which was formed by an agglomeration of death and earth nether as well as ice mana, but the tombstones were real solid ones, just like how the ground was covered in ice, it was a consequence of the snake’s domain being projected.

“How funny, you sold yourself to “death” so that you wouldn’t die, well since you have betrayed Aslan, the moment he gets a glimpse of you, he’ll for sure send all his peak Arch rank blood specters to hunt you down, not that you should worry about that since you are dying here though”, concluded the alabaster dolphin princess as she shook her hand to get rid of the black ice which was trying to freeze her fingers since she touched the black tombstone.