A Battle of Attrition
The Goddess of Ocean Currents that Fran saw had long hair that was scattered in the surrounding Ocean, a pale blue like the seawater, and her pupils were like meticulously carved Gem.
The Goddess of Ocean Currents stands on the Ocean, the water just above her knees, and she seems to be walking forward.
He wore a white robe, and wherever he walked, the sea remained calm, without a single drop of water staining his white robe.
Behind the Goddess of Ocean Currents is a very obvious path of light. At the other end of the path of light, there are huge man-made sailboats, enormous creatures in the Ocean, and small fish and shrimp that are slightly floating on the surface.
At the other end of the path of light, the sea was not as calm as where the Goddess of Ocean Currents was now, but rather a wave could rise at any moment.
Fran watched the Goddess of Ocean Currents walk across the Ocean until Goddess of Ocean Currents figure disappeared on the horizon before she came to her senses.
When she regained some of her senses, the scene before her changed, returning her to the moment when she was confronting that person.
At this moment, neither of them knew what Fran had just seen. Valerie was focused on Fran.
The light on Heather's chest had not fully erupted; it was still gradually increasing in size.
It seems that when Fran saw the Goddess of Ocean Currents just now, time had not passed at all here, and she could even launch an attack before Heather.
So Fran did just that; she raised her hand and unleashed an Enhanced Wind Blade, drawing the surrounding Wind Element towards Wind Blade.
Heather also saw a Wind Blade coming, but she didn't take it seriously at all, because she felt that such a wind Wind Blade could not possibly break through her defenses.
"I can forget about that red-glowing Arts from before, but you think you can break through my defenses with just a Wind Blade?" Heather thought to herself.
So she made no attempt to dodge or strengthen her defenses, and continued to cast her spells in place. At that moment, the Church Warrior behind her noticed the unusual nature of the wind Wind Blade and a smile appeared on his lips.
When the Wind Blade struck Heather, just as Heather had expected, Wind Blade couldn't harm her at all.
But what happened next was completely unexpected. After the Wind Blade dispersed, as if a fuse had been lit, the surrounding Wind Element began to shake violently.
The shaking immediately interrupted Heather's divine spell, causing her to feel pain in her unbroken hand.
Then the pain spread evenly throughout her body, bringing tears to Heather's eyes.
Heather is now like a small boat trapped in the waves. She can clearly feel the pain, but she can't do anything because the high pressure of the Wind Element makes her unable to move.
Valerie, who was behind Heather, realized that the time had come. She rushed in and rescued Heather, at the cost of slightly damaging her Bishop Robe.
Having regained her mobility, Heather seemed to have made up her mind. She wiped away the tears from her eyes and said directly:
"Enough, I can't take it anymore..." Heather suddenly turned around and said, "You go up and attack, I'll pray for you from behind."
Heather had never experienced such a powerless battle before. She felt that every attack she made was just making her opponent laugh, and she couldn't accept this fact.
Valerie knew that Heather was probably really angry now, since she had said such things.
"Alright, Your Highness, you must get back to training now."
Valerie clenched her fists, cracking her knuckles, and then strode forward.
Fran glanced at Heather, whom she had repelled, and the Church Warrior who had stepped forward to fight her, and raised an eyebrow.
Heather's strength is objectively real. If Fran hadn't reached the second tier and learned a second-tier spell that could enhance the activity of elements in the environment, her spells would probably have had a hard time breaking through the opponent's defenses.
Therefore, without using the Blood of the Furnace, the only way she can harm her opponent is with Sunflame Arts.
If it were the old Fran, this might have been a tough battle, but for the current Fran, defeating Heather would be relatively easy.
At the same time, Fran's gaze fell upon the Church Warrior who were walking forward, and her heart pounded with anxiety; she wasn't entirely confident that she could defeat them.
Before reaching Tier 2, Fran used Blood of the Furnace to instantly defeat Tier 2 enemies. After reaching Tier 2, Fran didn't know if she could still defeat a Tier 2 enemy directly.
"Time is running out. If necessary, seize the opportunity to kill that Church Warrior with the Blood of the Furnace, and then run."
Fran can now unleash the Blood of the Furnace without the Spell Ring, but after unleashing Blood of the Furnace, she'll probably have very little Mental Power left.
Therefore, for Fran to deal with her opponent, she needs to seize an opportunity to release him so that she can directly kill the Church Warrior.
"However, we can try another method first." She still has plenty of time, and it's not the time to recklessly use the Blood of the Furnace and then just run away.
She can test her current level in the second tier here.
Having thought everything through, Fran took a deep breath, used her Mental Power to repair the Hardened Scale Rock that had been damaged in the battle, and then put down the Purple Shortsword in her hand.
Behind the Church Warrior, Heather had already begun to pray.
Heather raised her relatively intact but scarred arm to her chest and unleashed the Radiance wave that Fran was familiar with.
Fran couldn't hear Heather's prayer clearly; she only knew that Fran was praying, but she couldn't recall what Heather had prayed for at all.
As Valerie continued forward, Fran could sense that her aura was rapidly increasing, and she was draped in a light blue veil.
At this point, Fran knew that if she didn't launch the first attack, she would likely be put on the defensive if the opponent took the initiative.
Fran then grabbed a spear she had just found in the storeroom and used [Tool Overload] directly.
A powerful Mental Power was imbued into the spear, and it seemed that the spear could not withstand so much Mental Power for a moment, causing it to shake wildly.
Although the [Tool Overload] spell effect cannot be fully utilized because the spear was not crafted by Fran herself.
Furthermore, she cannot use this spear to cast [Tool Enchantment], which greatly reduces the spear's power.
However, all of this can be compensated for with [Tool Loading]. Fran deliberately inputted an extremely high level of Mental Power, allowing the spear to exert 200% of its power.
However, the price is that this spear has a significant chance of exploding every second of the minute, ending its life as a weapon.
Anyway, Fran just grabbed it from the storeroom, so she wouldn't mind if it got damaged here.
Furthermore, when she left the warehouse, she anticipated that someone might intercept her outside, so she deliberately didn't take all the materials for making weapons, but instead took a few finished weapons.
In hindsight, that decision was definitely the right one.
Fran took a deep breath, Forward Step with her left foot, leaned back slightly, and then gripped the spear in her right hand, gathering her strength slightly, as the Wind Element in the air attached itself to it.
Fran flicked her wrist, swinging her arm forward with a fierce motion. The spear whistled through the air as it hurtled straight toward the face of the Church Warrior.
Valerie knew she couldn't easily dodge now, especially since Heather was still behind her. What if she dodged and ended up attacking Heather?
It would be fine if Heather's blessing was gone, but what if Heather got angry with her when she came to the Material Realm later? So she didn't dodge, but instead assumed a posture to meet the attack.
The moment the spear flew over, Valerie, with her quick reflexes and powerful dynamic vision and coordination, caught it with one hand.
Powerful Wind Element howled around the spear, relentlessly attacking her arm. Some of the attacks shattered the protective shield Heather had provided, leaving small wounds on her arm.
Although the spear didn't hurt her, stopping it from advancing was extremely difficult for her.
Because there was no strong friction between her feet and the ground, she could even feel a smooth, jade-like sensation where her feet were touching.
This forced her to grip the spear with both hands and step into the ground, sinking one foot into the deep pit to increase friction.
Even so, she still slid back three meters, leaving a black mark on the ground, before stopping.
And while she was fighting the spear, Fran rushed forward first. She knew she didn't have any powerful spells to use for attacking, so her only chance was to use Sunflame to fight.
She gripped a longsword in one hand and a broadsword in the other, her hands spinning in the air, glowing red, as she slashed at the Church Warrior.
Valerie gripped the spear tightly, then held both ends with her hands, using it like a plank to turn and parry.
The Wind Element on the spear hadn't dissipated yet, so although Fran's slash cleaved the spear with her Sunflame, the Wind Element's obstruction caused her downward slash to strike the ground instead.
The Sunflame melted a reddish-black crack in the floor, Fran immediately turned around and thrust her longsword at her opponent.
Valerie easily pushed off with her foot, taking a single step to create distance, ensuring that the red light on the longsword could only reach her eyes, preventing her from advancing even half a step further due to the distance.
But at this moment, a powerful magical fluctuation suddenly erupted from Fran's body, as if the spell Fran was maintaining had exploded due to the powerful Mental Power injected into it.
Valerie's expression changed at this moment, and she tried to throw away the spear fragments in her hand, but it was too late.
Not only did the spear that Fran had previously empowered explode in her hand, but the longsword Fran thrust at her also exploded at its tip due to the infusion of Mental Power.