250 CHAPTER 247(Divine Champion of War)

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CHAPTER START---

BOOM!

Thalie and The Angel separate in a violent clash, each tearing apart the grassy clearing with their bodies.

The Angel flaps its wings and takes to the sky while Thalie summons Hokori to her side. The spear soars from beside Finn, Riveria, and Lefiya, and finds comfort in her grip.

With a flex of her magic a thin wind veil surrounds her and suspends her a meter above the ground.

Holding a spear in each hand Thalie locks eyes with The Angel, the monster now hovering a dozen meters above the ground.

'It's at least as strong as me, even with my magic on, and it's getting stronger by the second,' Thalie quickly concludes.

Dropping Hokori she moves to stand on the spear, riding it like a surfboard.

The three onlookers at the edge of the battlefield as well as the billions on the surface widen their eyes in surprise, never having seen her fly like this before.

Thalie rockets forward, Hokori keeping her airborne while the Champion Spear stays in her hands. The Angel sees her charge and rushes forward, meeting her in the air.

CLANG!

Thalie's spear clashes with The Angel's bare hands. A blur of white and gold, constant flickering lights vying for dominance.

The sound of metal against glass sounds out, The Angel's skin echoes out as if it were made of crystal.

Thalie was desperately trying to pierce The Shard, each strike missing by more and more.

'It's growing faster than I thought, slowly outpacing me, but not just yet!' she reminds herself. Pushing more magic into her armor and wind.

Making her strikes quicker and heavier. They fight while flying all across the forest safe zone. Thalie was so focused on The Angel that she hadn't realized the destruction she was causing. Not that she'd care.

From outside the clash, the gold and white lights were no longer visible.

"Hold on!" Finn yells, staking his spear into the floor. Turning his back to it he props his foot up against it and holds both Riveria and Lefiya by their waists.

Both mages were desperately chanting, standing side by side and forming one massive Magic Circle, something which takes years to properly synchronize.

The raging winds batter them but they don't stop chanting, seeing the fight swallowed by a massive tornado, tearing trees and boulders out of the ground and flinging them all around.

They understood the danger in this, needing Finn to anchor them so they wouldn't get pulled into the vortex.

Thalie couldn't afford to be careful in this fight, the risks were too high, so they simply had to hold out and hope not to become collateral damage.

Within the four minutes it took for them to chant, Thalie was already struggling.

CRACK!

The Angel lands a strong right to her ribs, cracking two of the bones. The raging winds immediately disappear as the safe zone shakes.

Riveria's eyes track Thalie's path like a meteor that struck the ground. Plowing through dirt and causing massive ripples across the lake on the other side of the floor.

"Veil Breath!" Riveria and Lefiya command at once.

Thalie picks herself up from the floor, ignoring the thin layer of dirt trying to stick to her magic armor.

Looking up she sees The Angel completely unharmed, as if it felt nothing, because it didn't feel any of her attacks.

Watching the incoming monster she summons Hokori to her, dual-wielding the golden spears yet again. And this time she beings invoking the power of the Champion Spear, preparing to use its unique ability.

"C'mon!" Thalie challenges.

As she leaps up toward The Angel again, a sudden warmth spreads through her body. A dim glow illuminates her as Riveria's spell takes hold.

She feels her ribs that were already healing almost instantly snap back into place. Her magical and physical resistance increases a few grades and a sudden burst of energy fuels her.

'This is a good spell princess...' Thalie thinks before clashing once more with The Angel, surfing on Hokori yet again.

Thalie and The Angel clash for what felt like hours.

The woman feels her bones shake more and more with each clash. The Angel became more difficult to find an opening on by the minute, its stats increasing so quickly that Thalie found herself being staggered by each hit. Only managing to keep up because of her Primal Awareness making attacks easier to avoid, and because it was an unskilled fighter.

Again and again, Thalie is buffed by the two mages.

Until they could barely stand, bellies full of Elixir to the point that even the scent of that healing liquid after this fight would make them throw up.

Finn stood guard as Lefiya crumpled to her knees, Riveria holding herself up with her staff. Both mages were covered in sweat and barely catching their breath.

Thalie's clothes were torn and bloodied, her regeneration would easily jump up a few grades if not completely maxed out after this fight. The left side of her skull is covered in dry blood as she continues fighting.

The Angel swings out once more with a left hook.

Thalie blocks with her spear, but the strength is too much, and the attack is too fast. She barely angles the spear away from her head before the shaft was pressed into her face by the fist.

'Just a bit longer,' Thalie chants, with each trade she draws The Angel closer toward the floor. Using her position, forced to play defense, all to lure The Angel into a proper area.

Before long she receives the final cast of Veil Breath from Riveria, Lefiya being unable to cast anymore at this point. And Thalie is standing on the ground being pushed back with each step.

"CHAMPION'S CHALLENGE!"

Thalie stakes the Champion Spear into the ground between her and The Angel while Hokori hovers behind her.

A twenty-meter cube of dim golden light forms around them, walls of pure divinity. Walls of divinity connected Adrestria -to the ruler of a Divine Domain-, the Domain of War, divinity that could compel lower-ranked divine beings.

The Angel feels its new physical might suddenly decrease, not by much, but still noticeable.

The white glow of its body disappears and leaves it like a granite statue.

Before it can make sense of what happened, the Champion spear is thrust forward.

"RAHH!" Thalie bellows while thrusting forward, aiming directly at The Shard. The Angel raises a hand to bat the blade away, but unlike before when her body seemed invincible, this time the blade dug into her hand barely an inch, leaving a small but deep gash.

She pulled away and leaped backward with all her might. Already stalling for the wound to heal itself.

CRASH!

Her back slammed against the wall. Unable to break out of this box.

'WHAT?!' The Angel begins to panic, looking up to see Hokori swinging at her, the spear covered in a veil of wind and glowing golden.

Leaping away from the phantasmal independent weapon The Angel feels something scraps against its wing.

While Hokori had attacked on its own with Thalie's magic, the woman slashed at one of her wings from behind.

The Angel panics and swings out with a backhand. Unable to reorient her weapon in time Thalie catches the hand in a strong grip.

"Looks like we're about even now," Thalie mocks. "Gotcha..." She kicks out, her size twelve shoes connecting to the chest of the monster and ragdolling her across the cube.

Thalie's onslaught continued for nearly twenty minutes.

With the Champion's Challenge activated to her specifications, as the Champion of War and owner of the spear, she set very particular rules.

One being that the physical power and stats of both combatants would always be even. Much like Adrestria would set for adventurers at different levels to always be physically equal and best show their skills and techniques.

This adds both their stats and divides it evenly between them. This way even if The Angel is constantly increasing its base stats, half those stats go to Thalie.

As the fight continues Finn, Riveria, and Lefiya rush over to see what's happening.

They arrive in the midst of a new clearing to see the cube, with Thalie steadily pushing back the monster inside.

Without the advantage of durable Arcanum armor or higher stats, the monster was nearly at her mercy.

It was a damn beautiful thing to see. Every time The Angel avoids her spear, Hokori would be ready at the other side and slash out.

Hokori couldn't do much, but it served as a mighty fine distraction.

"What is this?" Finn asks, mostly to himself. Staring at the cube in wonder, but only for a moment before moving his eyes back to the fight.

"Divinity, don't touch it," Riveria warns him. "It's supposed to make the fighting within completely even in all but skill."

"How do you know that?" Finn asks.

"I made friends," Riveria says. "They don't particularly like you, but I'm alright with The Trifecta."

Finn is somewhat surprised but pays this no mind while observing the fight.

Eventually however, there was a break in the fight.

Thalie could feel her power improving by leaps and bounds. Level-8, to Level-9, and finally, she saw her chance.

"GAH!" she thrusts the Champion Spear the moment the monster turned to knock away Hokori.

The Shard was just inches away when one of the large wings moved faster than expected and knocked the spear off course.

The Angel took advantage of its massive size, three meters -ten feet- tall, and stabs out with its fingers.

Piercing Thalie's shoulder with the fingertips, like three thick spears piercing her body.

The Angel pierces her right shoulder, and Thalie's spear is in her left hand, raised at her side.

"RAagh!" She raises her right hand, feeling her muscles burn as blood flows down her body, and grips The Angel's arms. Pushing it to her left while Hokori slams into it like a rocket.

Chunks of shoulder meat are sent flying as the fingers rip through her flesh, between her shove and Hokori, The Angel is made to pivot in place.

Thalie quickly moves to her right to line herself up directly with The Angel's back, raising the Champion Spear with her left hand and desperately thrusting upward. Determined to pierce its back and push The Shard out of its chest.

With Hokori distracting the monster at its front she puts everything she has into this attack, already feeling her exhaustion and the blood loss affecting her.

CRACK!

The blade pierces The Angel's back, and Thalie feels immense pain wracking her own body. She hears the screams of the Loki's executives. Not cheers, screams, fear and worry gripping their voices.

She ignores the pain, ignores everything, and keeps pushing forward. Until nearly half the blade sunk into The Angel. Four inches deep between both shoulder blades, between where both wings sprout from.

Thalie feels all her strength leaving, her vision is becoming blurry.

"Fuck it," she mutters dryly. Deciding that if she didn't have the strength to kill this thing, she'd hopefully make Yang's job a whole lot easier.

"RAAAHH!" she screams and reaches up, gripping the left wing as best she could, all the while the pain in her gut is growing more and more. With her injured hand, she grips her spear while the other pulls on the wing.

The combination of the blade, and pulling force, rips the wing out from the very base of it, leaving a gap in the monster's back.

Thalie drops her spear and stumbles back in disbelief. Holding the wing in her left hand as The Angel crumples to its knees, silently reeling in pain like it's never felt before. Its back glowing brightly, desperately trying to repair itself.

Thalie swallows drying and finally looks down at the source of her pain. Hokori, her own spear was buried deep in her gut. The base of the weapon, a secondary and much more narrow blade completely pierced here and was protruding out her back, barely missing her spine.

Her legs were already drenched in blood, her Regeneration slowly failing, but fighting as best it could.

When Hokori was distracting the monster earlier and it felt her pierce its back, it panicked, grabbed her spear, and thrust it backward blindly, just a moment before her attack temporarily paralyzed it.

Thalie feels herself getting dizzier by the moment and eventually stumbles all the way back to the far wall.

Leaning against it and sliding down to sit on the floor, looking at The Angel silently healing, all while holding the wing in her hand.

"Just a bit longer...just need to live...to stall," she mutters to herself.

So long as she lives the barrier would remain, and The Angel would be trapped.

She could feel her life slipping through her grasp. Images of everything she's gladly dying to protect flash before her.

Her team, Hephaestus, Tsubaki... Mikoto.

"Mikoto," she whispers, a new sadness gripping her heart, wishing she could have seen the woman her daughter would eventually become.

Glancing to her left she sees Loki's executives trying to call for her, but she's deaf to them. Her mind was too tired, too weak to process anything.

She couldn't even feel the pain anymore, all she felt was a coldness creeping over her body.

She slumps over to the side and keeps her eyes fixed on The Angel.

And as she feels her life still slipping away, the same wonderful presence from the beginning of the fight. From when The Angel first arrived on this floor takes hold of her.

As if possessed she cranes her neck to look away from the monster, to look up at the ceiling.

The spirit of persistence took hold, demanding that she live a bit longer, just a few seconds longer.

And moments later the dungeon shook seventeen times, she barely noticed the crystal ceiling cracking and pieces falling.

A familiar blue flame descended toward her, on the other side of this barrier, the divine barrier that couldn't fall until there was only one survivor, until she dies.

"Avenge me," she whispers, and closes her eyes for the last time, trusting her friends to take care of everything and everyone from here...

END CHAPTER---

Yang finally arrives :/