[Will: 872]
–
Sylas gasped for breath, his body keeling over onto the ground. By this point, his clothing was practically non-existent, having shattered into a rain of ice. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any replacements other than what he might take off the corpses of the Sylphs, but he didn’t have the mind to care about such a thing right now.
His body was practically shutting down on him, and he only barely had the mind to realize that once again… he was the last to arrive.
And as such, there was no time to rest.
…
Sylas’ vision warped and twisted. When it cleared, he was standing at the bottom of a catacomb. All around, there were holes that barely showed snippets of the sky.
Howling winds rushed through these holes, causing an echoing and resonant hum to fill the underground space.
The resonances layered on top of one another, forming stronger and stronger winds.
The ground beneath him was no less icy than it had been in the tunnel staircase earlier, so clear he stared right at his reflection as he gasped and heaved for breath.
He looked up, his gaze locking onto Aerwyna and her team. They were standing 100 meters away and had already entered their battle formation. Two archers raised icy bows, aiming right for him while three shieldmen stood at the vanguard, protecting Aerwyna to their backs.
Aerwyna stood at the center of the formation, four individuals wielding staffs and wearing long robes standing around her.
No matter where you looked, there was a sharpness that exuded from each one, and there was a cohesiveness that Sylas hadn’t seen from Vayu’s group.
It might not necessarily be that they were so much stronger, but rather that they had far better teamwork than any of the others.
Sylas slowly stood to his feet, his balance a bit unstable. His gaze, however, never left the group, glowing with a subtle, but very much present light.
Aerwyna felt her heart shake. Sylas’ gaze was already something that she had noted before, but right now, it felt even more powerful than before.
“I can give you the same deal I gave Brisa,” Aerwyna suddenly spoke.
It was the first time Sylas had heard her do such a thing. Her voice was light, airy, and had a delicateness to it that made one’s bones soften. It felt like she was almost whispering, and yet he heard her clearly even over the howling winds.
“Allow me to take 80% of the points here and we can continue to the next round without battle.”
Sylas looked at her for a long while.
This Dungeon was almost over, so this Aerwyna had certainly calculated well. She might have guessed that the only person she was behind in points was Sylas. If she could force him into taking this deal, even if Brisa was gaining a full slate of points from now on, she would still come out on top.
It seemed that he had underestimated her. He thought that her main goal was just to take him out before he could recover. However, she had thought one layer deeper.
There was no need for her to take the risk. She still didn’t know how Sylas had managed to take down Vayu’s group. In the best-case scenario, it was a fluke and Vayu had fallen to one of the challenges and not the team battle. But in the worst case, Sylas had taken them out himself.
Rather than gambling and potentially putting her team at risk, why not take the easy victory if she could get it? If she could use the pressure of her group to not fight at all, it would be for the best.
She was smart, sharp, and clearly by the look of her team, she also knew how to lead.
Unfortunately…
Sylas flipped a palm and a Transmutated Beast Pill appeared.
After he killed the Clandestine Ape on the ninth step, he had somehow come out beaten and haggard. But how could that happen if the ape could be transmuted to heal his injuries?
The answer was that Sylas was saving it. He knew that the next round was a Will challenge, and the pill was mostly useless for this since it didn’t help his mind replenish itself.
Since he already knew that he would end up being the last to arrive…
He saved it for this moment.
BOOM!
The pill hit the bottom of his stomach like an exploding bomb. A great deal of nutrients suddenly flooded his body.
Aerwyna’s pupils constricted. “Fire!”
Her reaction was swift, but Sylas didn’t seem to react to the streaking arrows.
They suddenly began to veer off path when they were 50 meters from Sylas and eventually fell harmlessly to his side.
At that moment, a boiling momentum continued to erupt from his body. Then, mere seconds later, scales began to crawl up his body, covering his nudity and growing out with a tail to his back.
The wild winds wrapped around Sylas and Aerwyna was shaken again. Something odd was happening.
What she didn’t know was that the winds here were absolutely pathetic compared to the ones that Sylas had just trudged through. The fact that her and her team were still alive only meant that during these team battles, whatever tampering there was with Sylas’ Dungeon wasn’t here.
And that only put Sylas in an even more undefeatable position.
Sylas took a breath, his bones crackling as he felt his stats soar.
He could feel it quite quickly, his Will had changed.
A green glow suddenly covered his body like an Aether skin, contrasting against his black scales with an eerie glow. Suddenly, he felt like his weight had dropped by more than half but then…
CRACK.
The ice beneath him shifted and changed.
Suddenly, he felt like his weight had increased by more than 50%.
The change was instantaneous and completely under Sylas’ control.
He took a step forward and suddenly threw a punch out.
BANG!
The air clapped like thunder and suddenly, a fist imprint appeared 50 meters away from him, rushing forward with a pace even faster than the arrows.
