I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 298: Gilded Crimson Rafflesia

Rumble…rumble…

As the number of royal blue lightning bolts continued to gradually increase, they occupied more and more of the area previously occupied by the lavender lightning bolts. Concurrent to that, the dark clouds would let out a loud rumble from time to time, bringing forth a wave of destructive intent that was around half as strong as the wave that spread throughout the area when the first royal blue lightning bolt was formed. 

Nevertheless, Argentum and Horell could not help but be on edge with every wave that passed through their body…well, mostly Horell. To Argentum, after sensing the arrogance that was inherent in the intent of the royal blue lightning bolts, he could not help but connect the frequent rumbling of the dark clouds to the arrogance of the royal blue lightning bolts. It was as if the lightning bolts were flexing their strength towards the trio.

Fortunately, the frequent rumbling did not interrupt Herellia from familiarizing herself more and more with the new skills she had obtained from the evolution she had undergone. At this point, around 45 minutes had passed since Herellia had undergone her evolution, with the intent emanating from her now being a bit more subdued when compared to her aura after evolving. Then again, if one entered her aura, they would feel that the aura was more powerful than before, as if she had gained understanding in a new area of knowledge.

Bzzt…bzzt…

Eventually, all of the lavender lightning bolts had been converted into royal blue lightning bolts, with the loud rumbling resounding throughout the dark clouds now continuous. Noticing that some of the royal blue lightning bolts were heading towards certain spots on the area occupied by the dark clouds, as well as the fact that the rumbling brought forth by the dark clouds gradually became stronger and stronger, Argentum could not help but mutter to himself, “It seems that the first round of lightning bolts are about to come crashing down.”

Crash!

Coincidentally, just as Argentum had finished saying those words, the first round of royal blue lightning bolts finally pierced through the dark clouds and came down, their target naturally being Herellia. The number of lightning bolts in this round was the same number of lightning bolts that attacked Herellia in the final round of the first trial, which was 100. But due to the destructive intent and power inherent in each royal blue lightning bolt, Horell could not help but look at Argentum and ask him in a slightly panicked tone, “Why isn’t Herellia doing anything? The bolts are getting closer to her!”

In response, Argentum maintained silence, making Horell think that Argentum was deliberately ignoring his words of concern, prompting to radiate an aura of slight fury. Soon after, Horell went ahead and started to curse Argentum for not helping Herellia out. At first, the words used by Horell were curses at the level of what an Animate toddler would say, but in just a few seconds, the words used were on a level used by experts in the industry of cursing beings out.

Of course, Argentum ignored Horell’s curses at him as he focused his enhanced senses towards the royal blue lightning bolts. Although he wanted to alert Herellia that the bolts were about to come close to her, he went ahead and sensed the aura radiating from Herellia, giving off the feeling that it was not the best time for her to be woken up yet. And so, Argentum waited…and waited…and waited…until the time for him to wait finally came to an end.

At this point, the curses coming out of Horell were nonstop as his eyes were glued to the royal blue lightning bolts that were scarily close to Herellia’s body. If one looked closely, only a few meters separated the 100 Calamity-level bolts from Herellia’s body. Although the trajectory of the 100 bolts was scattered throughout the area, most of them would still hit Herellia, and Horell didn’t want to happen.

Fortunately, Argentum felt like it was the right time for him to wake Herellia up, prompting him to send an energy strand towards her and say, “Herellia, the first round of bolts have already come.”

“They’re only a few meters away from your body, so dodge them first before attacking.”

It took less than an instant for a reply to come back from Herellia, resounding throughout Argentum’s mind as she said, “I see. You alerted me at the right time. Did you take my time to comprehend the skills into consideration?”

In response, Argentum let out a light chuckle as he said, “Who knows? Anyways, good luck.”

“I’ll need it,” Herellia hastily replied before opening her sense of vision to the sight of a great number of royal blue lightning bolts soon colliding with her body. If it was the previous Herellia, she would not have any way to dodge these bolts at such a distance, unless she had help from Argentum and Horell in the form of movement speed boosting buffs. Fortunately, this time, her evolution gave her a few skills that allowed her to be more versatile.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

While continuing to look at the lightning bolts, she willed all of the crimson thorns she had made a while ago to strike the ground in front of her in unison, making sure that all of them would hit at full power.

Bang!

Thanks to that, a crater was formed in front of Herellia while she had used the force from the unified strike to fling herself away from the vicinity of the royal blue lightning bolts, utilizing some of the crimson thorns to anchor herself as she did not want to distance herself that much from the lightning bolts. At the very instant she landed slightly far away from the lightning bolts, the 100 bolts struck the ground and brought forth a strong quake that spread throughout the area of the Existence Tribulation, prompting Horell to activate a levitation spell while Argentum activated the levitation spell he recently made through [Sage’s Water Magic].

“Good thing I saved a slot for levitation magic,” Argentum said to himself as water continuously jetted out of the bottom of his feet, making it look like he was still connected to the ground through water.

While the Calamity-level bolts had struck the ground, Herellia did not waste her time as she conjured a great number of crimson tendrils through her robe before manipulating them to wrap around the 144 crimson thorns surrounding her body. Gradually, the shapes of the crimson thorns changed, transforming into long and pointed spears that looked like the fangs of a wolf. On top of that, the power exuded by each crimson spear was greatly increased, making Herellia feel satisfied as she muttered to herself, “This new skill is quite great. If I had this back then, I would have been able to clear the previous round without a problem.”

“Then again, there’s no point mulling over the past,” Herellia said not long after as the royal blue lightning bolts removed themselves from the ground before hastily finding where she was, heading towards her way. With a light chuckle, she then shouted, “[Sanguis Monarchia: Crimson Spear Brigade]!”

“Charge!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Due to the shape of their tips, after being propelled towards the Calamity-level bolts by Herellia’s energy, the crimson spears headed towards the bolts at a speed far faster than before, as if they were snakes adamant on catching their prey. As for the royal blue lightning bolts, seeing that the trial taker was now retaliating against them, they felt like their names were being sullied, prompting them to head towards the crimson spears as a collective group.

From afar, Argentum could not help but notice that the royal blue lightning bolts decided to bunch up and charge towards Herellia’s attack collectively, eliciting a light sigh from him as he recalled what he knew about Calamity-level lightning bolts. “Although Ruined and Forsaken Lightning both have a decent level of self-awareness, only when it reaches the Calamity level does it undergo a qualitative change, turning into bolts that would not hesitate to use basic strategies to smite the trial taker down.”

Surprisingly, he let out a light chuckle as he focused his vision on the crimson spears Herellia brought forth to retaliate against the lightning bolts. He then said, “Too bad they’re fighting against a leader that knows a lot more strategies than them.”

Whoosh!

Just as the crimson spears and the lightning bolts were about to collide, the crimson spears abruptly split apart, stupefying the lightning bolts in place as they pondered on what to do next. But just as they decided that they would ignore the crimson spears and head towards Herellia…the crimson spears appeared behind their backs, piercing through them at full power!

In an instant, the 100 royal blue lightning bolts that were supposed to collide with Herellia had transformed into royal blue strands of energy that made their way towards Herellia, enhancing the amount of power that coursed throughout her body. To her surprise, the increment in power brought about by the royal blue strands was equivalent to the increment brought by the purple strands from the last round…and the increment from that was equivalent to the increment brought by the first nine rounds of the last trial combined!

Taking in a deep breath to calm her excitement over the increment in power brought by the royal blue strands, she recalled all of the crimson spears back to her robe, waiting for the next round of lightning bolts to come. As for Argentum and Horell, the both of them could not help but radiate auras of glee and satisfaction after seeing what Herellia had done, with Horell radiating more of it as he saw Herellia finally retaliate against the lightning bolts. Wondering why she only moved at the very last second, he could not help but wonder if it had something to do with Argentum…only to remember the incessant amounts of cursing he had done before.

Although he wanted to apologize that he cursed Argentum out, seeing as Argentum was not talking about it at all, Horell decided to keep silent and place the thought at the back of his head before turning his head to look back at Herellia.

…

After the first round of lightning bolts brought about by the trial entitled ‘Myriad Calamity Shower’, the subsequent rounds of lightning rounds were still manageable for Herellia to dispel, although the increment in the number of lightning bolts was far more terrifying when compared to the last trial. In the second round, she was greeted by 200 Calamity-level bolts while she was greeted by 300 lightning bolts on the third.

Naturally, she was greeted by 400 lightning bolts on the fourth and 500 lightning bolts on the fifth. Fortunately, thanks to the offense boosting skills she had before the evolution, as well as the offense boosting skills she had obtained after the evolution, she was able to dispel all of those bolts with relative ease, relying on the speed and power of the crimson spears.

Taking in a few deep breaths as she pondered on how she would be able to withstand against an additional 100 lightning bolts in the next round, she recalled the extended crimson spears and utilized a bit of her energy to make sure that their tips would stay sharp.

Bzzt…crash!

Just as she was about to be finished on pondering over her next plan of action, the sixth round of lightning bolts finally came crashing down, bringing forth 600 Calamity-level lightning bolts, which all aimed to smite Herellia down. This time though, the 600 bolts were split into four areas, having 150 lightning bolts each. Seeing that they were split into quarters, Herellia used their formation to her advantage as she split the 144 crimson spears surrounding her into two 72 crimson spear formations, heading towards two of the quarters without hesitation.

“[Sanguis Monarchia: Crimson Assault]!”

Whoosh!

Just as the crimson spear formations were about to collide with the respective lightning bolt formations they were up against, Herellia hastily imbued both of these formations with a large amount of energy, allowing a golden sheen to exude from their tips as they moved back and forth at great speeds, dispelling a single bolt with every pierce the spears made.

Eventually, the two lightning bolt formations Herellia aimed for were dispelled, prompting the remaining two lightning bolt formations to stop in their tracks as it seemed that they were pondering over their next plan of action. As for Herellia, she decided to recall all of the crimson spears she sent out while maintaining the golden sheen surrounding their tips.

“I wonder what’s going to happen next?” Herellia could not help but wonder to herself as she soon saw the remaining bolts split up into multiple smaller groups before positioning themselves in a circular formation with Herellia as the center. Feeling that the current formation of the lightning bolts was a bit peculiar, Herellia decided to wait and see what the lightning bolts were going to do next, only for a bunch of lightning bolts to head towards her way soon after.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In retaliation, Herellia sent all of her crimson spears towards the bunch of lightning bolts that came down. Unfortunately, just as it seemed that the crimson spears were about to collide with them, the lightning bolts turned around at the last minute and headed back to their original positions. Soon after, another group of lightning bolts came down to smite Herellia, only for the same thing to happen.

After that, it continued for quite a while, with Herellia chasing the lightning bolts with her crimson spears, only for it to end up in failure as they headed back to their original positions. At this point, Herellia could not help but feel that the lightning bolts were now toying with her, wanting her to get used to their patterns to give them an opening.

With that in mind, she decided to use one of the skills she had learned from the evolution. Unfortunately, before she could do so, a familiar voice resounded in her mind.

“Hey, Herellia. Do you need me to boost your attack speed so you can hit those lightning bolts?” This familiar voice came from none other than Argentum, who could not help but feel the same thing Herellia was feeling as he looked at what was currently happening. Surprisingly, rather than accept his offer, Herellia let out a light chuckle before saying, “Thanks, but no thanks. The difficulty of the next rounds would become harder because of that, right?”

She then added, “Fortunately, after the evolution, I now have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

After cutting the connection between her and Argentum, she then willed the crimson spears on her robe to head towards various directions outward. A few seconds later, these crimson spears then started to rotate around Herellia as they gradually fused together, reducing the number of crimson spears that Herellia had connected to her robe. Surprisingly, the lightning bolts did not make their move as they were curious as to what Herellia was doing.

Eventually, the crimson spears stopped spinning around her as the number of crimson spears left was only five. Nevertheless, the size of each crimson spear made it look like they were petals instead of spear tips. Seeing the current appearance of the spears, Herellia took in a deep breath before infusing all of the five crimson petals with a great amount of her energy. In less than an instant, the crimson petals started to radiate a golden glow as it gradually intensified.

Just as the lightning bolts realized what Herellia was doing, Herellia’s preparations were already done as the intensity of the petals’ glow had reached its limit. Soon after, five large beams were shot towards the lightning bolts that circled over her, dispelling them in an instant as she shouted…

“[Sanguis Monarchia]…”

“[Gilded Crimson Rafflesia]!”

——–

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