Chapter 990: Liberation

The Divine Dancing Priestess was momentarily stunned by the howl, it was a most displeasing experience to have one’s life force directly targeted, not only was it thoroughly shaken as a whole, thus disrupting everything, but a small portion of her life force was also destroyed by the scream, only further adding to the disorientating effect of Prikrip’s attack.

A low, guttural growl escaped the lioness’s throat as the undead’s greatsword came swinging down without delay, directly heading for the living’s skull, if given his way, the minor lord was definitely going to split her head in two, if not chop her in half entirely.

Before the blade could make contact however, the leonine priestess sprung back into action, appearing almost possessed as took a swing at the sword itself, punching it and diverting its course before pouncing on the minor lord grasping at his dark blue cloak with one hand, the other clawing right across his skull and beak.

Enhanced with bestial energy, the strike left deep gashes, splinter-like shards of bones were sent flying through the air as she attempted to wrestle the corvid down to the ground- The corpse was not so easily overpowered though, channelling his innate ability, dust bursted out of him into a thick, grey cloud, engulfing the priestess alongside with him.

‘That’s new’ Prikrip saw clearly as the dust was kept away from the living, a sort of dome of wind was preventing it from approaching, that was another weakness of the dust, it was rather easily displaced by gusts and squalls, but it shouldn’t matter too much here normally, as wielding wind in such a precise manner was not supposed to be something the emerald folks were capable of, and yet, Artazun was doing just that right now.

All the while reeling his arm back, punching the minor lord in the skull again, her blows were powerful for certain, but the corpse was not so easily outmanoeuvred, despite the proximity to his opponent, he shifted his grip upon the sword and bent his wrist to deliver an attack, prompting the lioness to let go of his cloak and instead seize the weapon-wielding arm to prevent an attack.

At the same time however, Prikrip’s beak opened again, fully capable of performing a howl again, Artazun once again reacted quickly by physically shutting his break before the scream would be let out, the priestess acted quickly, and on the surface, it almost seemed like she had successfully countered the moves of the minor lord.

But whilst Artazun’s was using both of her hands to prevent attacks, Prikrip had three more limbs to make use off, and as it turns out, his hindlegs and talons were far more dexterous and flexible than they might appear, like a bird prey seizing its next meal, his talons lunged forward, pressing into the living’s flesh whilst his right forelimb reach for his adversary’s arm, precisely the one keeping his break shut.

He attempted to burst with dust once more, but found that touching the living was allowing for her bestial energy to interfere, the energy earned from beast worship was indeed feral and extremely aggressive to anything that it deemed a threat, attempting to attack and damage the minor lord by entering his body, the undead resisted that fairly easily, but it did prevent him from channelling his innate ability…

He used the claws on his right forelimb to tear and rip at the priestess’s arm to make her let go, but that woman was like a big block of stone, refusing to budge in the least no matter how much damage he inflicted, she simply wielded her wild energy to heal herself, and indeed, an energy so full of vitality was rather potent in the department of self-healing.

Prikrip noticed his beak beginning to show cracks as it was being squashed in Artazun’s grasp, and his sword-wielding arm was also being crushed.

At least, having to maintain that mysterious dome of wind, and use her inner energy to heal and empower herself to keep her opponent in place, the lioness was unable to cast any bestial spells whilst they were entangled.

The grey flames within his sockets flared up, and if not for being the corpse of a terribly malformed bird creature, Prikrip might have just formed a smile lacking in sanity right now, for once, he was getting an actual fight, and for the first time in a long time, the trapped souls of the damned were put to use.

Some of the souls begging to be freed got their wishes as they were consumed for Prikrip to manifest something, from his back, not quite actually protruding from his body, instead floating close enough to him that one could believe otherwise- Two majestic, dark wings with their edges shining a bright blue extended to the side, within them, one could see the shapes of the people and beings whose souls had been consumed to manifest them.

Without waiting for even a second, Prikrip flapped his wings, and took off the ground with Artazun, soaring high into the sky under the eyes of both sides, it was in the air that a bitter struggle took place, Artazun and Prikrip tore one another apart, drops of blood and shards of bone raining down as the undead attempted to drop the priestess to her death, but she held onto him ripping into his body with her claws.

Bestial spells and dusts surged forward on multiple occasions, but she kept her hand on the corpse’s beak, preventing any howl.

The long, dark blue cloak was torn into shreds and came falling down sooner than later… The close quarters confrontation went on for several hours, neither of the two could truly exert their full strength or capabilities with such proximity and whilst being thrown around in the air, it was just a bloody festival of violence.

No one could tell if either of the combatants would end up defeated before the sun set.

Eventually, Artazun ended up on Prikrip’s back, both hands on his skull, claws digging into the already damaged bones, the undead reached back and use his talon to slash her across the face, ripping one eye out in the process, but it did not seem to faze the priestess, who had since long entered some sort of bestial rage and seemed unable to realise when she was being injured.

Instead, she suddenly channelled her energy and grabbed the corpse’s beak, and with a loud roar that echoed far into the horizon, tore Prikrip’s beak and skull open in one brutally swift motion.

All of the minor lord’s skull was shattered and ripped off, and Artazun suddenly lost all of her grip on him as a result falling backward straight toward the ground.

Despite the severe damage endured, Prikrip remained airborne as his wings remained, seemingly not too bothered by what just happened.

He simply nosedived after the priestess with his greatsword thrusting downward.

She was wide open right now, stabbing her through the chest, and then slammed her straight into the ground was certain to finally kill her.

And if it wasn’t enough, then he would simply unleash dust as well.

The livings closed their eyes, knowing what was going to happen, except for Solzmimi, who merely threw a glance to the side…