Chapter 1556: Combat Circuit [4]
Within the fog, a group of men raised their weapons.
They didn't attack needlessly, but their mana had been spread through the air to make sure nothing could enter their attack radius without being sensed.
Elena knew this.
She stayed outside and trailed in the mist, concealing herself from their senses.
Only, she couldn't attack carelessly.
Just a few moments ago, she assured herself that she didn't need to hide away and attack anymore. She had the power to fight from the front without fear.
However, if she wanted to use these men as test subjects, she needed to be a bit more sneaky.
BANG!
The roots of Yggdrasil flew out of the ground and attacked the group.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Flashes of mana lit up the black deathly mist, turning it into a colorful swarm of energy.
Unlike Ruyue's group, these men didn't all use the same element, so their formation was a bit more chaotic. That didn't mean that they were weak, though.
The twenty-five of them had ample time to prepare before anyone arrived to challenge them. They'd become familiar with each other, and for the sake of their formation, they'd learned to arrange themselves in a way where they didn't interfere with each other as they fought.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The vitality-filled roots of Yggdrasil weren't easy to destroy. Any time they were broken apart, they'd rebuild themselves and continue their attacks.
They were burned by flame practitioners, frozen by ice practitioners, cut apart by those who used wind, and scorched by lightning.
Still, Elena let them continue their fruitless attack.
Yggdrasil was only a distraction, after all.
BANG!
Suddenly, a hidden root sprung up from underneath one of the Demigods, wrapping itself around his waist.
"AHHHHH!"
He yelled as he was launched into the air. Those around him turned to look at him, but before they could help, they were attacked specifically by Yggdrasil.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The three people who had the chance to aid their fellow were immediately forced to focus on their own well-being.
BOOM!
Meanwhile, the Demigod in the sky destroyed the root that held him and stabilized himself in the air.
He looked around, trying to find the woman who was attacking them, but she found him before he could find her.
"Hello!"
Elena smiled.
She was right behind him. He didn't realize it until she spoke.
It was already too late for him.
She grabbed his skull in a similar fashion to how Damien grabbed Duke Horacio, and just like her husband, she pushed heaps of mana into her enemy's body.
VOOOOOOOOM!
The result was completely different.
Elena used Life Laws and some Death Laws. She didn't have the ability to attack someone's mind.
However, her power could do far scarier things to someone's body.
CRACK! CRUNCH!
As her mana flowed through the man's internals, he started morphing.
His bones snapped out of place and elongated. His muscles became bigger and more grotesque. His human appearance completely disappeared, replaced with that of a monster.
Bones jutted out of his back to create wings and out of his head to create horns. Blood covered his torso, thickening until it became an impenetrable armor.
Life Laws didn't only encompass the ethereal aspects of the concept. It wasn't just about siphoning vitality and creating manifestations of life.
Elena could effectively turn biological matter into whatever she wanted it to be.
And in this situation, she chose a monstrosity.
OOOOOOOOOH!
The monster that was once a man howled. It was a sound of agony and madness as the man's mind was corrupted by the pain he suffered.
Though his mind was still his own...
"Go."
...he could no longer control his body.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The man slammed down into the ground, returning to his peers. However, he was no longer their ally.
OOOOOOOOH!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Ishtar he landed, his bones elongated by several tens of feet, turning into spider legs that cut into his surroundings and skewered anything they could touch.
Eight of the twenty-five Demigods were impaled by his bone spikes, and as if that wasn't enough, the instant he pierced them, he sucked them dry.
Their vitality became his own, empowering the slaughter of his remaining former allies.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Chaos ensued once more.
Rather than chasing their main enemy, the Straea Demigods were forced to focus on their own ally.
He caused immense damage. After those eight people died, it became even easier for him to kill.
However, after those eight were killed, the others stopped ignoring him and focused all their power on him.
BANG!
With the convoluted body structure that he now held breaking down with every second, and with attacks peppering him from all sides, the transmuted man exploded into a shower of blood and bits as Elena watched from the sky.
'It's good for temporary use, but I guess you need to spend some time on it if you want to make a homunculus or chimera that can be used more than once.'
It was good knowledge for her, who never really experimented on humans before.
'Now then...'
There was more to do.
Transmutation was the most basic move. Once she gained Divinity and her control rose, it was the first thing she figured out she could do.
And with it, she was able to turn twenty-five into fifteen.
'Maybe wide-area attacks aren't the move right now.'
If she killed them off too fast, she wouldn't be able to test as many things.
'If I want to kill them one by one...'
First off, she needed to test how her powers of transmutation worked on her own body.
'The perfect battle form.'
She'd already theorized it. She never tested it on herself because she didn't want to risk transforming without being able to control it, but she didn't have that worry anymore.
When she turned that man into a monster, she was able to carefully and precisely manipulate every part of the transformation.
She knew she could change herself back to normal if she wished for it.
Therefore, there was nothing left to worry about.
BANG!
It was the sound of Yggdrasil being torn apart.
The tree used the vitality of the surrounding land to support its power, so it couldn't be destroyed so easily, but it still needed time to channel that power.
With its trunk damaged and its roots destroyed, it needed to recover before it could attack again.
The fifteen remaining enemies turned their eyes to the sky as the deathly mist began to clear, finally getting a clear picture of Elena.
However, she was no longer the Elena they saw when she first arrived.
Just like the being that had attacked them earlier, she looked like a monster.
But her form was far more refined.
Like a beautiful demon whose only purpose for existence was to reap the lives of others, she was covered in a blackness that couldn't be explained.
Her bone wings were graceful, not gruesome. Her horns were ornate as if she was demonic royalty.
Her body was optimized for combat in a way they couldn't understand, because the majority of the changes took place internally.
They looked at her and she looked at them.
For a split second, only silence reigned in the atmosphere.
And then...
Both parties attacked.
The silence was the first thing to be destroyed.