Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 167 - She’s competant!

"G-guh-hhhuhhhhhh..." The pixie’s body went rigid and its eyes rolled back. Blood poured from its mouth. It tried to speak, but only a wet gurgling sound emerged. Then its body went limp, suspended in the air only by the spear of light impaling it.

Lena had once again used an extremely advanced technique.

Lying.

Holy Arrows? She hadn’t cast that spell at all. She merely shouted it out as if she had used it. What she’d actually used was Perfect Hatred, the skill she’d just unlocked moments ago.

It was a spell that conjured the magical construct of an angel of wrath as the vector to carry an attack for a single split second. Just long enough to manifest above the target and execute a devastating piercing attack.

The angle of delivery was completely different from what Holy Arrows would produce. While The pixie had been anticipating a forward projectile attack. Instead, it had received a vertical spear from above instead and was completely caught off guard.

Lena teleported away immediately in anticipation of an attack that surely must be heading towards her, even if she wasn’t aware of it. True enough, she was gone just as a blast of dark energy shot toward her position from the remaining pixie.

The pixie had already prepared for the teleport, for it had teleported to where Lena would most likely reappear, positioning itself perfectly, claws extended and ready to strike the moment she materialized.

Meanwhile, the green pixie with the spear through its head was entering its final moments.

The explosion damage alone had been severe. The spear through its head was yet another instance of brutal damage. With trembling hands, it slowly brought them up, reaching for its robes. It was then it noticed something else wrong.

Its right hand, the one that had pierced through Lena’s torso, was changing color. The flesh had been turning various shades, from purple, green, and black. At a rapid pace, necrosis was spreading up its arm.

Poison!

It was poisoned!

How!?

Just as humans carried healing potions, pixies could do so, too. The pixie frantically pulled a small vial from its belt with its left hand. It brought the vial to its lips with shaking fingers and began chugging the contents desperately.

"Nn-nghh..." It could barely make a sound. Even breathing sounded and felt like death. Its hand was shaking and trembling involuntarily. Every second, the pixie felt its body responding less and less.

The world was going blurry. It reached for a second vial, it needed another health potion, quick! Maybe with another, it would live. They were rapid-acting, it just needed to drink!

Its fingers closed around the glass, and then its body seized up entirely. It was too late. From the bleeding to the poison, it died. The corpse fell from the air, tumbling end over end before crashing into a lower branch.

[EXP +554]

The notification appeared in Lena’s vision.

It was proof that her efforts had paid off.

You see, she had been busy. Very busy.

Lena hadn’t merely been idling around during the times she wasn’t actively with Lumi. As soon as she fully understood that Masteria was a real world with real consequences, as soon as she accepted that this wasn’t just a game anymore, she’d taken preparation seriously.

Damn seriously.

She’d already spent hundreds of thousands of Ems on various tools and consumables. Bombs had been her single largest expense. High-yield explosive charges weren’t cheap. Poisons had been her second largest expense.

And one of her more creative purchases had been coating the entire inside lining of her robes with a contact poison.

When the pixie had pierced her torso, when its clawed hand had punched completely through her body, it had also torn through the poisoned fabric.

The poison had transferred directly onto its hand, seeping into the burnt and exposed flesh from the earlier explosion. Given that, the poison readily made its way into its bloodstream, spreading rapidly.

Sure, she’d poisoned herself in the process as well. The toxin was now circulating through her bloodstream. She felt herself growing weaker, and it hurt. It damned hurt. But even if she poisoned herself, she didn’t really care about that.

This was her way of fighting enemies stronger than herself. She needed to trick them, she needed to make sacrifices. She had to take risks.

There was no such thing as fairness. She had to use every advantage, exploit every opening, and limit test.

Indeed, that was her philosophy. For now, death was merely a temporary loss. She’d always come back to life after being respawned. However, in the future, that wouldn’t be the case, and she’d merely have one life.

So she had to test the limits now. She had to figure out, in the midst of high stakes battle, what she could and couldn’t get away with. What worked, and what didn’t. Because one day, she wouldn’t be able to take such risks.

The present reality, however, was that the remaining pixie was very much still alive and very much about to kill her.

Lena couldn’t use teleport. The yellow pixie was already at her new position, slashing at her. She’d never finish the spell in time. Its eyes were filled with rage at seeing its companion die. It slashed downward with lethal intent.

Lena made a split second decision. If she was about to die anyway, she’d take this one with her.

It was a win anyways, wasn’t it? She was the same level as these things, and she’d have taken two with her. Plus, these were pixies, beings with intelligence. There were significantly stronger than a mindless beast of the same level.

Her hand moved to the remaining bombs strapped to her body. She’d detonate everything in a suicide attack to ensure mutual destruction. Her fingers closed around one of the explosive charges...

Her action was stopped as two pairs of eyes were forced to watch a lance of brilliant light that had been streaking across the air, already mere inches away from piercing the pixie.

The pixie’s eyes widened. It aborted its attack immediately, teleporting away to avoid being impaled.

The lance missed, but it had already saved her.

Lena smiled. The lance had been from Lumi!