Fly Up and Spray You! (13)

Water, acid, explosions, and frost rained down from the sky.

Along with them came several gleaming, arc-spitting sharp dart bombs that anyone could tell would explode shortly afterward.

Leaving aside the terrifying acid and arc bombs that were dangerous upon contact alone, the impact of high-pressure water sweeping down from above was enough to blow an adult man away. Anyone struck solidly by it would not fare well.

"Dodge!"

The Magnetic Light Knight moved at high speed. His movements were incredibly agile, and in an instant, he crossed dozens of meters to arrive behind a massive boulder—just half a second later, those arc alchemical bombs caused the surrounding air to contract and expand. The violent shockwave carried turbulent currents, producing a thunderous roar.

Even the aftermath made the sturdy boulder tremble slightly. Magnetic Light did not need to guess; he could clearly sense that nearly half of the other side of the rock had been blasted apart, as stone chips and dust filled the air amid the flash of the explosion.

Taking advantage of this moment, he looked up.

The specialized viewing slit in his helmet filtered out all unnecessary glare, allowing him to see the figure in the sky clearly.

Sky-Binding Armor floated in the air, icy-white cold mist wrapping around its entire body and holding it aloft. More than a dozen vents opened and closed rhythmically, blasting out swift currents infused with Origin Matter.

He held a strangely shaped Charged Water Gun in his hand, loading it with four completely different alchemical reagents.

Then he fired.

For a time, a multicolored rain fell around the stone forest—frost, acid, poison, and lightning descended upon Magnetic Light and Purple Maple.

But Magnetic Light did not dare treat these alchemical liquid streams like ordinary hail or acid rain. He raised a hand, and the pitch-black magnetic sand gathered over the surface of his armor was activated, converging above his head into a constantly spinning magnetic sand shield. This was his usual response to long-range firepower. Though it was only a thin layer, any arrows or shells would be deflected or shattered by it.

The corrosive High-Pressure Water Gun struck the magnetic sand shield and was scattered into billowing clouds of acid mist, which were then blown away by the currents created by its rotation.

And amid the drifting acid mist, he immediately launched a counterattack.

He raised his hand, and the two miniature electromagnetic cannons mounted at his wrists fired at the same time. An alchemical electromagnetic cannon powered, guided, and pressurized by an Ascender did not need to account for much. It only needed to be sturdy enough to unleash its user's fury and destructive power.

An incomparably dense barrage, enough for one man to rival an entire artillery squad, streaked toward the floating armor in the sky—without an Ascender of equal rank to stop them, a Second Energy Level Ascender could hold back or even destroy an army alone.

The Magnetic Light Knight was one of the finest among them.

"Oh!"

Seeing this, the figure in the sky showed no fear. Instead, he looked intensely interested.

Silver-cyan radiance flickered in his eyes as he carefully scanned the Magnetic Light Knight's armor and body. "Man and armor as one, and their coordination is actually this good—this armor is practically a miniature armored suit to you, a perfect fusion of alchemy, inscription techniques, and your Ascender arts!"

Within Precognitive Vision, dark purple streams of light flowed at high speed. Magnetic Light and his armor had become one, achieving a result greater than the sum of their parts.

He was building up power, to a dangerous extent that the human body could not endure, but which remained within the tolerance limits of carefully forged metal.

At the same time, faced with the torrential barrage of high-speed shells, Ian controlled Sky-Binding Armor as it continuously leaped and dodged through the air with the grace and agility of a cheetah. His movements were extremely slight. It did not look like he was evading shells that could heavily wound him with a single hit, but rather as though he already knew every weakness in the barrage and moved precisely into the gaps.

Then another crimson high-pressure stream of water—or rather, a stream of fire—poured down from the sky. The blazing pillar of heat melted the magnetic sand and disrupted Magnetic Light's charging attack.

It merely disrupted it.

Realizing that the strike had not fully succeeded, Ian sharply twisted aside, using the recoil from the Charged Water Gun to push himself two meters backward to the right.

Then a thick cyan-blue stream of light, carrying a steel projectile the size of a fist, tore from below to above straight through the entire blazing pillar. Like true thunder descending upon heaven and earth, it violently pierced the area Ian had occupied moments before.

The electromagnetic heat rising against the current even ignited the surrounding air... or at least the dust and rock fragments within it.

Hundreds of sparks swept past with a powerful gust of wind, pushing Ian and Sky-Binding Armor more than ten meters back. Only then did the delayed explosive boom arrive with the shockwave.

This thing has at least the power of a ship-mounted main cannon. The Magnetic Light Knight can make something like that by himself?

He thought in surprise. Magnetic Light truly was no ordinary opponent.

"Magnetic Light, this isn't what we agreed on! The Guide Knight's strength is far beyond 'mid-to-high First Energy Level'! He can even fly!"

On the other side, a slender figure withdrew her "hand." The Purple Maple Knight's left hand had collapsed, revealing its true form—a massive biological structure formed from layer upon layer of gnarled wooden roots. It had previously mimicked a shield shaped like a lotus leaf, blocking Ian's indiscriminate barrage of alchemical bombs and firepower.

Layers of spreading wooden roots also appeared across her face. Purple Maple had originally thought that she would not need to act at all this time, only stand by and gather information afterward.

But who could have expected that Ian could not only fly, but that his alchemical reagents and destructive power would also approach the peak of the First Energy Level? Mixed together, those various reagents could even threaten them.

And now, seeing Magnetic Light begin to fight seriously, she realized that she had still underestimated both her collaborator and their "target." "I can take the blame for little things, but you can handle something this big yourself. I'm not sticking around!"

She decisively withdrew her left hand. The brown wooden roots contracted back into the fair, delicate flesh of her original skin, and the Purple Maple Knight turned and fled.

Ian naturally had no intention of pursuing her—leaving aside the fact that he had merely displayed the strength a prepared alchemist should possess... this Elf knight had others to deal with her.

Not far away, blue and purple glows flickered.

From beginning to end, the youth's gaze remained locked on the Magnetic Light Knight before him.

Thunderclap Warlock and Phantom Mimic Tree—these were the True Forms and bloodlines cultivated by the Magnetic Light Knight and the Purple Maple Knight. The former sounded like a caster True Form lacking physical prowess, while the latter seemed to lack direct combat ability, but both impressions were mistaken.

On the Terra Continent, the more Origin Matter one wished to control, the better one's physical qualities necessarily had to be. With the same amount of Origin Matter, those specializing in physical strength were certainly stronger than those focused on delicate manipulation and external shaping, but it was absolutely not to the point where a Second Energy Level Ascender would have worse physical capabilities than a First Energy Level one.

Not even a peak First Energy Level Ascender could manage that, because the first stage of the Second Energy Level was to link every Ascender organ throughout the body into a circulatory system, strengthening physical abilities in every respect!

At this moment, the Magnetic Light Knight was also considering how to deal with Ian.

"Damn it, he throws alchemical reagents around like stones. Is he really that rich?!"

He could tell that the alchemical reagents Ian used were not particularly expensive varieties, but their effects were all excellent, without a trace of shoddiness.

This Guide Knight really is a genius alchemist!

And at that moment, he made another swift dodge, avoiding a high-pressure water blade aimed at his face.

Splash! The pure water blade, mixed with large amounts of fine crystal sand, sliced through the boulder he had been sheltering behind as easily as cutting a watermelon. The magnetic sand shield the Magnetic Light Knight had used to block the alchemical reagents had long since been scattered by the blazing pillar and could not be reassembled for the moment.

Ian gave the Magnetic Light Knight no chance to catch his breath. He knew that the other man could fly as well. According to the information gathered in Nauman City, this knight commander could use Thunder-Stepping. He could not let the man truly rush up to him for close combat.

Otherwise, the other man might be frightened away by the strength Ian would be forced to reveal.

"There are still plenty of alchemical reagents whose power needs testing."

Thinking this, Ian smiled and reached into the pouch at his waist. There, seven or eight different kinds of alchemical ammunition were still waiting for field testing.

But unfortunately, his enemy clearly had no intention of fighting a prolonged war of attrition against a genius alchemist.

Just as Ian raised the Charged Water Gun once again and aimed down at Magnetic Light on the ground from above.

A scorching point of light suddenly appeared where the Magnetic Light Knight stood.

"Bzzzz—"