-----
A few minutes before Noah triumphed over Emerald, Cathina confronted Iris in a battle of monstrous strength!
Iris coated herself on her Demon Phantom Fox Aura, and her Rage Mode Aura, enhancing her capabilities even further, surprising Cathina who only remembered Iris as the bullied girl that everyone called a fat pig.
"What kind of power has she reached?!" thought Cathina, gnashing her teeth as she began to activate her Skills.
A coating of pink-colored energy covered her body like a thin layer, and such energy gathered over her hands, like large gauntlets with sharp claws.
Cathina's ability was Psychokinesis.
With this ability, one would believe that she should be good with long-ranged attacks.
However, her Psychokinesis was not capable of doing so, as there were many types of such power.
Hers was named Psychokinesis Coating, the ability to coat herself in psychokinesis energy materialized into a hard material substance.
By spending Mana, she was able to coat herself in this weightless yet incredibly hard armor and even gather it on her hands to create powerful clawed gauntlets, which she used to annihilate anyone that dared to come her way.
Iris Poisonous Black Nails were having a hard time breaking through such strong armor and had even shattered a few times already, growing back to full length once more as she tried to penetrate Cathina's defenses.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
"You're surprising me, Iris, but that won't be enough to break through my Psychokinesis Coating!" laughed Cathina, reaching Iris and punching her into the gut!
BOOM!
"Unngaahh…!"
Iris vomited blood as she was sent flying into the air, falling over the ground.
Cathina smiled rather smugly, she did not particularly enjoy killing other people, but she enjoyed fighting and showcasing her strength!
"If you stay sleeping there, I am going to finish you off straight away!" roared Cathina, leaping high into the air and rushing like a meteor towards Iris!
However, she noticed that Iris was… smiling!?
"What with that stupid smile, subhuman?!" roared Cathina in anger, as she reached Iris!
However, something that Iris had unleashed emerged, which she did not realize until they were already touching her coating.
Very thin needles coated in deadly poison.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Cathina gnashed her teeth, as she began to spin in midair, falling away from Iris, and managing to fend off the needles in time, although they seemed thin and weak, their penetration and sharpness were insane, to the point that they had even begun to drill through her Psychokinesis Coating Armor!
However, this only gave Iris more chances to attack!
Suddenly, Cathina realized the presence of small, phantasmagoric creatures nearing her, their presence was so dim that she was barely able to see them!
Then, she noticed that Iris had stood up, and her phantasmal aura emerging from her body was releasing these tiny… fox-shaped phantom creatures, the size of a puppy.
"What kind of stupid Skill is this!?" roared Cathina, crushing the phantom foxes with her large gauntlets one by one!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
However, the moment she did, Iris smiled!
"You should have let them alone…" laughed Iris.
"Ah!"
Cathina then realized that something was stuck to her!
Her entire body was covered in strange, phantasmal runes, sticking into her body like tattoos!
"W-What the… What is this?!" asked Cathina, gnashing her teeth, as she began to sense as if her speed had been lowered, it was as if each phantom fox she liked made her more tired, and even her weight has increased… more than her own bones could properly control!
"This… This is odd! What is this even?!" asked Cathina, rushing angered towards Iris, as she pointed her gauntlets towards her furiously!
"Phantasmal Fox Spirits, a new Skill I have acquired after increasing the proficiency of my Demon Phantom Fox… It is more flexible than I thought… I am rather glad to have such a new Skill, as being locked in physical combat was not really good… I need to have many tools to take down my enemies…" though Iris as her crimson eyes gleamed eerily.
Iris stood still as Cathina reached, intending to kill her!
She kept releasing more and more Phantasmal Fox Spirits, which Cathina destroyed and wore their tattoos, although she felt weaker and weaker, she kept rushing towards Iris, nearing her, as her fist was about to crush Iris skull!
"Gotcha!" she said triumphantly.
"You're such a fool…" said Iris, as she closed her fist.
Flash!
Suddenly, all the tattoos around Cathina began to glow, covering her body with pain!
These tattoos completely ignored her Psychokinesis Coating and were worn over her skin, and as Iris willed it, they began to absorb Cathina's energy even more!
"Unnngggaaahhh…!"
Cathina suddenly fell to the ground, her entire body was aching horribly!
"You shouldn't have destroyed my little children… they didn't even attack you, you know? I guess that's the weakness of them… if you notice that they might be suspicious, you can just ignore them… but you kept smashing and smashing them like an idiot… thinking that they would only slow you down a bit…" said Iris, putting her feet over Cathina's head!
"Nngh…! This… what kind of accursed ability is this?! You subhuman…!" roared Cathina, harboring the last strength she could muster, and moving her fist towards Iris!
Iris, however, twisted her body and evaded her slow punch, and seeped her claws into her neck!
CLASH!
"Now that you are weakened, your defenses are too pitiful… You and your group are mere steppingstones for Noah-sama's ambitions… die, and become our nourishment," said Iris, as Cathina vomited a mouthful of blood, her eyes falling into despair, as her head was sliced off!
SLASH!
"Eme… rald…!" she thought, glancing at Emerald on her last seconds of consciousness… as she noticed that he was being beheaded at the same time…
She could not even scream in pain as her consciousness faded away into nothingness.
Iris seemed incredibly tired, gasping for air as she began to drink Cathina's blood and eating some of her flesh.
Phantom Fox Spirits were a tricky Skill, she was able to slow down her enemies by covering them in the tattoos they generated when they were killed by a target, but she would also wear part of the burden of her enemy, the number of tattoos that Cathina had were too many, and she was also feeling incredibly lethargic, if she had missed such evasive attack, she might have died…
However, now that Cathina died, the tattoos disappeared, and Iris regained some of her strength, however, because such Skill also consumed enormous quantities of Mana, she had used her own blood to convert it into Mana and needed to drink more if she did not want to fall unconscious due to overusing Mana.
She glanced at the battlefield, as Arthur, Timassa, Adamantine, and Jon slaughtered the other three-party members, and were now drinking their blood and eating their flesh… all of them seemed exhausted, it was a close call…
-----