[Battle-Mage Conversion]
The caster abandoned all her arcane knowledge and delicate perception of the Magic Net, forcibly twisting the limits of her body in exchange for a terrifying physique and combat instincts comparable to those of a Warrior of the same rank for a short time.
However, once the spell ended, the forcibly elevated power would vanish like smoke, and the caster would often fall into extreme weakness, sometimes even suffering permanent damage to her spellcasting abilities.
For Agnos, though, her stone statue body instead spared her these side effects.
Every crack across her battered stone statue body erupted with dazzling arcane light. The cold rock that originally formed her body now seemed infused with the frenzied energy of molten lava.
Her figure seemed to swell slightly. At the stump of her severed left arm, Arcane Energy and the aura of death intertwined, forming a constantly shifting shadow arm that barely made up for the missing limb.
She bent down and picked up Roland's longsword, which had fallen some distance away.
The weapon, forged from ordinary iron, seemed to sense the surging power in her hands as well. The blade gave off a faint hum.
At that moment, she was no longer an aloof spellcaster. She had completely transformed herself into a pure killing machine.
Under the attribute conversion, her Strength, Agility, and Constitution all received massive boosts, while combat techniques merged into her soul as naturally as breathing.
Agnos was weak at the moment.
But after casting Battle-Mage Conversion, if measured by a Warrior's ranks, her basic attributes still approached Gold rank.
"Come on! Let's see how much longer your false god can protect you!" Agnos let out an inhuman roar. Her stone legs slammed into the ground, and she shot forward with a speed that made her utterly unlike the clumsy statue she had been before.
The longsword in her hand was no longer an elegant ornament for a mage. It had become a blade for reaping lives. Every slash carried the force to cleave mountains and split rocks, yet also contained a mage's precise grasp of angles and timing.
Baroque's expression grew grim to the extreme. He could clearly sense that the "mage" before him had completely become another existence.
He roared and raised his Kite Shield firmly before him. The Rising Sun Emblem on its surface shone in tandem with the golden runes of [Shield of Defense] around his body.
The sheer physical output caused the golden runes flowing across his [Shield of Defense] to flicker violently, as though they might collapse at any moment.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!" The longsword and battle-axe collided dozens of times in an instant. Every impact erupted with ear-piercing metallic friction and flying sparks.
Agnos held the absolute advantage in close combat with her petrified body.
She ignored blows powerful enough to tear steel apart, allowing Baroque's battle-axe to leave nothing more than harmless white marks and tiny chips of stone across her body. Every counterattack of hers, meanwhile, forced Baroque into frantic disarray.
Every violent impact made Baroque's arms tremble violently. Golden light flashed wildly across the Kite Shield, dents were smashed into its surface, and the sturdy ironwood groaned under the strain. Even the blacksteel bands around its edges began to warp slightly.
Though the shadow that formed her left arm could not inflict real damage, it could deftly block and restrain her opponent, allowing her intact right arm to focus more closely on its lethal attacks.
Baroque gradually fell behind.
The power of his [Judgment] seemed helpless before her frenzied strength, while the radiance of [Shield of Defense] grew dimmer and dimmer, like embers about to go out.
After once again taking the full force of the stone monster's greatsword, the Kite Shield let out a mournful cry. The last trace of magical light on its surface went completely dark, and a hideous crack spread from the shield's center.
His Chainmail was damaged in multiple places, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his breathing was as heavy as a broken bellows. "No... If this keeps up... we'll both die here!" A trace of crazed resolve flashed through Baroque's eyes.
He quickly glanced at the blonde girl in the distance, who had been knocked to the ground by the aftershocks of the battle and was still bound tightly by [Human Stasis Spell]. He had already made up his mind.
He suddenly swept Agnos's sword aside with his battle-axe. Ignoring the opening he left, he concentrated all his holy power into the Platinum Holy Emblem in his hand. "Lord of Dawn Randall! Please hear the plea of your humble servant!" Baroque's voice carried a tragic determination. "I offer up my life to become Holy Flame that will burn away all blasphemy!"
The Holy Symbol in his hand suddenly erupted with light even more dazzling than the sun.
This was not ordinary [Blazing Radiance]. It was a destructive Divine Art that Baroque had unleashed far beyond his own limits, at the cost of burning away his own vitality and soul.
A concentrated golden beam of light surged from the Holy Symbol like divine punishment, then... exploded with a thunderous boom less than a foot in front of Baroque!
BOOM--!!!
The deafening explosion swept across the entire graveyard.
The instant the explosion occurred, Baroque's vision went black and he lost consciousness. His body was flung backward like a toy abandoned by a giant, smashing heavily into a distant stone wall. The crisp sound of breaking bones rang out clearly, and his fate was unknown.
At the center of the explosion, Agnos took the full brunt of the attack, which had nearly been a mutual-destruction strike.
Her sturdy stone statue body trembled violently in the sacred Golden Flame, producing a strained creaking sound as though it might fall apart at any moment.
About ten minutes later, perhaps even longer.
The aftershocks of the explosion finally subsided, and the choking dust gradually settled.
Agnos staggered upright where she stood. Her stone body could no longer be described as "battered"; it was practically a pile of broken junk on the verge of collapse, covered in enormous cracks and charred marks.
The shadow of her left arm had long since vanished without a trace. Her right arm was also mostly broken, with only a few twisted Metal Skeletons barely holding it together.
Those hideous openings did not reveal cold rock. Instead, they faintly exposed slowly flowing Arcane Energy like a nebula, the deathly silence of Abyss-like dark corrosion, and certain bizarre fluctuations that made one's blood run cold.
"Cough... cough... damn... mortal..." Agnos wheezed hoarsely in broken gasps. The blue Soul Fire in her eye sockets flickered violently, as though the next gust of wind might scatter it.
She had clearly suffered severe injuries as well, and the state of [Battle-Mage Conversion] had long since ended.
The statue turned her ruined head, fixing her gaze on the blonde girl nearby, who had been knocked down by the explosion's shock wave and lay motionless beside the rubble.
Agnos walked forward with unsteady steps. Every step caused tiny chips of stone and dust to fall from her body.
"Hmph... her face... isn't bad..." Her voice came in broken fragments. "Her figure... is a little lacking... but she'll do... as my... vessel..."
Just as her cracked stone palm was about to touch Freya's delicate cheek—
A nimble figure, like a shadow leopard lying in wait, suddenly sprang soundlessly from the pitch-black shadows behind Agnos.
It was a black-haired man wearing fitted leather armor. A little dust clung to his face, yet the corners of his mouth stretched into a smug, "the mantis stalks the cicada while the oriole lurks behind" grin that made him look extremely punchable.
He held the longsword in a reverse grip. A ring of wet coarse cloth was wrapped tightly around the hilt, with droplets of water still dripping from it.
It was less a sword than a heavy club specially made for knocking someone unconscious.
The man poured all his strength into his arm and took aim at the back of Agnos's unguarded, heavily cracked head.
Then—
He gathered all his strength and delivered a solid, vicious blow to the back of her head!
"THUD--!!!"