Chapter 816: Duriel (Three in One)

Abel realized that he was facing Duriel possessed the world stone fragment. The only way to deal with it was to open his own world stone fragment ability as well. Since he wasn’t using it, even the fastest “lightning” spell could not hit his target.

With that in mind, he locked onto Duriel and activated his world stone fragment’s acute vision and digitalization ability. Duriel’s movements started to appear slower when he did so. As he regained his confidence to carry on, he took out a hell creature’s corpse from the personal storage box and resummoned more skeletons. They were meant to block Duriel’s attacks. Two was the maximum number of hits they could take. It wasn’t quite enough, but it was enough for him to make a rough calculation of how Duriel moved when it attacked.

As all ten of its tiny legs moved on the ground, Duriel froze the skeletons with a “sacred freezing.” After that, it attacked them with its front claws. Abel noticed this pattern already, so before it did the same thing again, he fired a “lighting” spell just in time.

Duriel’s “sacred freezing” just activated when this happened. Since Abel already calculated, he knew that this spell would take time to recharge after two shots. He wasn’t sure how long the interval was exactly, but there was no way it was in a consecutive sequence. Of course, since he was facing against hell creatures of such caliber, he would not go full-on aggressive by casting spells with both of his hands. Instead, he would cast the aggressive spell with one hand while using the other hand to cast “instantaneous movement” if he needed to dodge any sort of unknown danger.

Anyways, he didn’t think that Duriel had used all of its abilities. He got the impression that both sides were trying to test the waters.

The lightning spell was still too fast for Duriel to dodge, so when it tried to attack the skeletons, Abel could intercept just in time. He did hit it, but for some strange reason, it didn’t spread throughout Duriel’s entire body. The attack only spread around the part that it was hitting, and after a short while, the lightning arc just sort of slowly faded out.

With a scan of his world stone fragment ability, Abel could tell that Duriel’s front claws were made of a type of non-conductible material. Still, that didn’t really explain why the lightning didn’t spread. One possible explanation was that Duriel’s hit managed to hit the “balance point.” The balance point was unique to different spells. It wasn’t easy to find, so he seldom tried to break through a spell like that. Rather, if he failed to find it in time, it’d be risky for him to take the hits with his body.

Duriel was different, though. It was a melee-type insect with a very sturdy build. Its outer shell was tough. It was the same for its spell resistance. It also had another trait, resistance against ice, fire, lightning, and poison. Its natural-born resistance allowed it to attack recklessly.

Again, a layer of ice frost flashed around Duriel’s body. The skeleton that was just summoned was quickly frozen as it was moving. Then, with the blink of an eye, it became a bunch of ice cubes that splattered across the ground. Duriel didn’t stop moving. As though dissatisfied with its current speed, it reactivated the “sacred freezing” so that the layer of ice on the floor became slippier.

Abel could see it as well. Duriel was trying to gain speed, so his counter-plan was to continue using his skeletons to prevent them from advancing. Meanwhile, he would continue to attack with his spells. When it got too close, he would use his “instantaneous movement” to move elsewhere and reappear at the other side of the tomb. Since the world stone fragment was activated, ineffective as his attacks were, he did manage to prolong the fight in a fairly stable way.

Yet, just when Abel thought that this was going to be a battle of attrition, Duriel suddenly rushed at him with a speed that was multiple times faster than before. Duriel was setting him up this whole time by casting the “sacred freezing” ability non-stop. While the “sacred freezing” didn’t do any actual damage to him, it formed a very slippery layer of ice that could very well make him trip. Its movements started to change. The floor was starting to slip, so all it had to do was to slide instead of crawl.

It was a miscalculation on Abel’s part, really. Duriel caught him off guard as soon as he entered into the “sacred freezing” attack range. While both his snake magician’s skin and the ancient shield’s contract were resistant against ice, the “sacred freezing” was a special type of ice element attack that could bypass most ice-resistance gear.

Because both sides were using the world stone fragment, the timing for attack and defense were precise. Still, Abel made a mistake when he was calculating Duriel’s movement speed, so he couldn’t perform the instantaneous movement quickly enough. It was like they were playing a game of professional chess, and someone made an unexpected move that caught the opponent by surprise.

And so Abel was hit. The “sacred freezing” not only made him sustain freezing damage, but his overall moving speed was also greatly reduced. Duriel did not let go of such an opportunity, of course. Once it commenced an attack with its “sacred freezing” ability, its next move would be to make a very powerful melee attack intended to trample over its enemies. That was exactly what it was doing now.

Abel’s thought of several methods of overcoming such a scenario. He picked the best one he could think of, and that was to first produce a spell rune to create a “claystone guard” that would appear between him and Duriel. On the other side, he would have the “claystone guard” ready to splatter into a bunch of dirt that would spread across the floor. This was simply to slow Duriel down as much as possible. It wasn’t as effective as he wanted it to be, but since Duriel was already so close to the claystone guard, the slowing effect did somewhat kick in.

When Duriel tried to strike with its front claws, Abel’s power of the Will immediately commanded the claystone guard to duck. This was when a “firewall” appeared in front of Duriel. It was slowed down even more, and that’s why the firewall’s first strike managed to scorch its skin.

This was the most effective hit that Abel dealt to Duriel. Still, the damage was very limited. The good thing was that the slippery ice layer was starting to melt, and that helped him gain more momentum. A new skeleton was summoned along with another clay stone guard. The two of them came just in time to block another hit.

During all this, none of his other summoned creatures came close to Duriel. The fight was dangerous, but he didn’t think that it was worth letting them die in a place like this. The spiritual guardian knights, for example, while only one out of ten arrows could do any damage to it, it was still better than being destroyed on the spot.

Ten more “firewalls” appeared as the tomb became bright red. The ground became muddy again. Duriel was slowed a lot. It tried to back off from the “firewall,” but more would come to roast over its whole body. This time, instead of trying to run, it raised its head towards the sky and let out a sharp shriek. The shriek made the surrounding air vibrate and spread in all directions. Abel tried to avoid it, but the noise already made him feel pain in his brain. His consciousness became blank. His body suddenly lost the ability to move on its own.

To respond in time, his druid spirit began to take charge in controlling his body. This was when Duriel made a far jump towards him. The druid spirit was activating two spells at once to counter Duriel. One was the “lightning” spell, which managed to hit it very precisely, whereas the other one was the “instantaneous movement” that made him vanish from where he was at. Duriel was in the air. Not only was it unable to make any sort of defense, but the attack also landed on its abdomen, where it was most vulnerable.

Both of them were made the same mistake. They didn’t know each other well enough, and that was not really Duriel’s fault. There was no way of knowing that Abel had two souls inside his body. Making one faint wasn’t enough because that was not going to do any damage to the druid spirit.

The lightning attack hit Duriel because of its carelessness. It was immobilized for a short period of time because of this, but the duration of the zapping effect wasn’t too long. This way, when it fell to the ground from the sky, it was already starting to regain control of its own body. On the other hand, Abel was switching back to his main spirit. His main spirit already recovered from the fainting effect, and he didn’t want to rely on the druid’s spirit instinct against such a dangerous opponent.

Due to the damage that it sustained from the lightning attack, strangely enough, some emotion started to appear in Duriel’s lifeless eyes. That emotion was rage. Abel could tell clearly. As soon as he noticed it, Duriel unleashed a “sacred freezing” that covered an area twice large. It wasn’t just the claystone guard and the skeletons, but also two spiritual guardian knights that were placed in the wrong position. When the ice frost-covered over the claystone guard, the claystone guard’s body quickly shattered and was crushed into dust.

Abel should be scared, but he really wasn’t. The “sacred freezing” was covering up twice the area as before, but it was also dealt a lot less damage. The spiritual guardian knights didn’t seem to be affected at all, actually. Their movements did slow down a little, but they still left where they were after Duriel killed the two skeletons.

And just like that, Abel’s fight with Duriel became longer and longer. Abel was gradually starting to land more hits on Duriel, while Duriel’s attacks were all blocked by the summoned skeletons and claystone guards. That wasn’t to say Abel was gaining a lot of advantages, though. Duriel’s body was too sturdy. If he couldn’t break through even its outer shell, it’d be impossible for him to deal any real damage to its body.

As it turned out, the battle against Duriel was harder than the battle against Andariel. Andariel was a magic-type, so as long its melee attacks weren’t that strong, all he had to do was to prepare gear especially resistant against poison-element attacks. Then, he could pretty much end the fight without sustaining too much damage at all.

In the case of Duriel, it was a melee-type hell creature that he couldn’t risk getting too close with. Its scream was not as dreadful as Andariel, but they were both pretty unbearable to listen to.

Timing became very important now. In Abel’s case, he wanted to prolong the fight so his eight spiritual guardian knights could continue to deal incremental damage to Duriel with their bows. For Duriel, if it could get to land one close hit to Abel, everything would’ve ended a lot quicker.

While Abel was trying to analyze how the combat proceeded, Duriel unleashed another loud roar towards the sky. Abel was much more prepared this time. After switching to his druid spirit by reflex, he activated his “instantaneous movement” and vanished from where he was. Duriel seemed to have also learned its lessons from the last round. Instead of jumping up for an attack, as soon as Abel moved by teleportation, it quickly went over to slay the skeletons and claystone guards. After that, it quickly rushed towards the spiritual guardian knights for a frontal assault.

To respond to such a rampage, the spiritual guardian knights also teleported before the sacred freezing hit them. The chase afterward became quite dreadful. Duriel was the one chasing after Abel, but Abel and the spiritual guardian knights were moving so fast that it became wasteful for it to keep pursuing after them. Its strongest weakness was its speed, and exploiting such a weakness meant that Abel had a surefire route of dealing continuous damage to it.

When the wounds became too many for Duriel to handle, it decided to stop moving. A strange blue glow started to appear on its body. After that, it unleashed a “sacred freezing’ that occupied the entire tomb. Abel didn’t know what he was looking at. He didn’t think that the sacred freezing could cover up this much area. Still, when his body was covered by the blue frost mist, it was very easy to tell that the sacred freezing was nowhere as effective as it was at the start. Before it would’ve taken just three hits for him to be killed by this attack, but now, even with his moving speed very much reduced, there just wasn’t too much damage that’s been dealt to him at all.

As things would have it, the sacred freezing was not for attack purposes anymore, but instead, it was used as a method to slow Abel down. Abel had no way of neglecting its effect, actually. Nothing he possessed could do so. His only choice was to keep firing despite the fact that his attack rate was about half or less than before.

And there it was again. While Abel was slowed down, Duriel readied itself for another charge attack. More skeletons and claystone guards were summoned, but it wasn’t like they mattered. Abel held the contract of the ancient shield in his left hand. A white combat qi rune flashed across his shield as he also ran towards Duriel. While its body was too large to dodge the “shield attack,” its front claw still managed to block the shield that was used to strike it.

The shield was blocked, unfortunately, and Abel’s body was sent flying. He was starting to gain a better understanding of how strong its force was. Also, it was not that bad for him to gain some distance away from Duriel. He needed distance for safety. He needed more time to think of a more effective way to resume the fight.

Despite being sent flying, his shield attack rune still left the shield and flew towards Duriel. It was too fast for it to react, so as soon as it was hit, its gigantic body was knocked still on the spot. It couldn’t chase after Abel, but Abel’s attacks were still moving because they were automatic.

Duriel was not to be underestimated, however. Even after taking the shield attack straight on, the fainting effect didn’t last for even a second. It could respond enough to repel the lightning attacks with its front claws. It was calculating, terrifyingly sturdy, and almost never made any mistakes. It was the most difficult fight Abel had ever been in. He did have plenty of his own methods, but if none of those prevented Duriel from getting close, this fight would’ve been over before it even began.

When Abel re-summoned the skeletons and the claystone guards, Duriel let out another sharp shriek that forced him to switch into his druid spirit once more. After that, he teleported away from it to gain some momentum. When his body just appeared inside the tomb, he could feel a chilling qi spreading all across his body. Duriel was going all-out, so it seemed. It was trying to overwhelm him by using two of its most powerful moves in sequence.

Anyways, the slowing effect of the “sacred freezing” was not something that could be blocked away. It covered the entire tomb, so the effect was actually dealt incrementally. This meant that Abel couldn’t move much. Abel had no choice but to change his approach, and that was by making a direct charge at Duriel. He was slowed down, yes, but Black Wind was still running at a speed that was difficult to observe. It managed to reach Duriel’s face before it even raised its front claws.

Still, Duriel was the calculative type. When Abel got close to it, a blue ice mist appeared and made him slower than before. The “charge” was still intact, however. The trap wasn’t enough to prevent Duriel from getting hit by it. Abel was starting to notice. The steel sword he held actually carved a scar on Duriel’s body. Green blood was flowing at where he was slicing. By the way, it wasn’t supposed to be this effective if it was a purely physical attack. He wouldn’t do any damage even if his physical strength was doubled. Most of the work was done by his “steel” sword, which could provide him with a 50% chance of making a tear at his target.

Duriel might be strong, but it had no way of resisting the power of the rule that the rune possessed. Abel didn’t think that this was the case, too. He didn’t think that such an unnoticeable ability was changing the entire fight. Duriel unleashed another “sacred freezing” after a terrible scream, and once Abel was slowed, it tried to attack him again with its two front claws.

This time, Abel tried to do something different. He used his shield to strike at the front claws and activated the white combat qi rune on it. What resulted from that was a fairly strange phenomenon. They were both attacking each other in close range, but neither of them did any damage to each other. Duriel dodged all of his knight’s combat techniques, whereas Duriel did virtually no damage apart from the occasional “sacred freezing” and screaming.

Duriel stopped using its screams after a few times. It made sense because such a unique ability would only come with the support of some sort of special energy. There was no way that it could use this an unlimited number of times. With that being said, the only threat to Abel now was the “sacred freezing,” and even that wasn’t going to do much harm at all. He was the one with the advantage, as the eight spiritual guardian knights behind him continued to deal damage at a very steady rate.

Whenever Duriel tried to unleash another “sacred freezing,” Abel would respond in time with his shield attack. Duriel had a fairly massive body, so it wasn’t like it could dodge any of his melee attacks. Still, he wasn’t so sure if he should take the initiative to attack. The shield attack was pretty much his only way of countering the sacred freezing. Of course, he had constantly been checking on the sacred freezing’s strength with his power of the Will. Whenever Duriel increased its output, he would immediately respond by teleporting elsewhere with his “instantaneous movement” spell.

This was truly a bizarre battle. All of Abel’s tracks were neutralized by Duriel’s front claws. In a similar way, Duriel’s attacks would be dodged almost simultaneously. This was what would happen when both sides possessed the world stone fragments. They were constantly going at each other, but none of the attacks would make contact.

By the way, the arrows of the eight spiritual guardian knights were buffed with lightning effect. Given Duriel’s durable body, it had to be hit multiple times before the damage could accumulate. This left Abel with not many choices. As he would have it, the most effective method was to put himself in the most dangerous spot so that the spiritual guardian knights would never be attacked. He’s obviously thought about using spells, but Duriel was cunning enough to attack as soon as his spell runes just appeared.

There was too little proximity between the two. While some wizards were capable of casting spells while they were moving, the runes they drew had to be kept still as they moved, and this was certainly not one of those situations that Abel could do. Actually, he couldn’t even use spells and knight attacks at the same time. He pretty much had no way to use his most iconic skills.

For Duriel, it tried to enhance the power of its “sacred freezing” multiple times, but whenever it did so, Abel would always be early enough to teleport to a safe spot. This forced Duriel to become more subtle in its approach. Instead of going for a powerful overkill, it attempted to lure Abel in by gradually decreasing the power of its “sacred freezing.”

Back to Abel. He wasn’t really planning on rushing it. He had plenty of potions to sustain for a long time. Also, this wasn’t like when he first entered into the dark world. He didn’t have to worry as much about the possibility of overusing his mana.

As time passed by, large cracks started to appear on Duriel’s body. Black smoke rose from the tremendous amount of damage compiled over time. Abel started to hear terrible screams coming out of it. Occasionally, he would see the faces of people that had the same miserable expressions from the smoke. He assumed that they were once residents of Lut Gholein. That, or warriors who went into the deserts to battle against the hell creatures.

Anyways, Duriel’s movements were getting a lot slower after all that fighting. It was not like Abel. Abel had plenty of supplements to keep himself going, where it had no ways of recharging its stamina nor heal its wounds. Worse yet, there was not a single moment it was free from taking any damage. It was a dark-golden level hell creature, yes, but all that damage started to take a toll on its body.

Basically, Abel was already much faster than Duriel. Duriel’s only advantage was in its explosiveness and brute force, but as the battle dragged on, all that came to an end. Abel was starting to make more successful hits. Eventually, one of them managed to leave a giant crack on Duriel’s hard outer shell. Duriel noticed as well, so it responded by producing a blue light that was meant to cover over it.

Abel was still very much aware of what was happening. He could sense extremely powerful energy emitting from the blue light. To avoid it, he teleported to another spot before the blue ice frost got him. Crystals were starting to form in the air. Duriel was definitely going full-out with this attack.

Instead of getting close to Duriel, Abel decided to respond with his own powerful attacks. He activated the “lightning spell” with two of his hands. He aimed at the cracks, which he opened just then. Duriel had no way of dodging it. It tried to block with its front claw. It did manage to get one, but another one hit straight at where the crack was.

The lightning finally made contact. Lightning arcs channeled through its body. Not only was the zapping in effect, but the lightning finally dealt some real damage to Duriel. When Abel noticed that there was no longer a need to dodge the attacks, he started throwing “lightning” spells with both of his hands.

Duriel kept screaming and screaming. It was tired after using all that energy for the previous attacks. It could’ve had the chance to make a last stand, but it didn’t save enough of its power to make the fight last any longer. Abel could kind of tell that this was the case, but just to be safe, he ordered Black Wind to be ready for an “instantaneous movement’ at any time because as long as Duriel wasn’t dead, then there would always be a chance of danger.

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