Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Chapter 631: Challenges Daimon & Nethereal sisters, Jazmine’s version (part 20)
A large stream of dark brown battle aura was shot from Erika's right hand, one that actually rivaled in size the one the enemy queen used to create the general pawn earlier.
And the result was actually even more surprising than that of the general, the blank golem first got on all fours before its previously humanoid shape was completely distorted, it's middle body, legs and arms enlarged before they increased in volume as well, then a hair pattern was carved on its dark brown rock body.
The finished product looked like a combination of a horse and a rhinoceros, since it had a bulky built and two horns on its head, but that's not the important part but the fact that Erika had created a "non-human" pawn, which was yet another one of the dynamics that were unknown for the light princess.
"Roaaar!", surprisingly the horned horse pawn, roared before it charged at full throttle towards the battlefield, travelling half the distance between Erika's outermost barrier and the area where Jasmine's outermost barrier used to be in a couple of seconds, in other words the thing was damn fast.
"Light Arrow Barrage", through the ranger pawn, Jasmine shot a rain of light mana arrows at the incoming horned horse pawn, just to see Erika smirking at her.
[Four legged creatures will have their regeneration, speed and strength increased by 30% for the next sixty seconds and the target's defense will increase by a 100%]
Only now was the effect of the "Armored Ride" buffing martial art used by Erika, explained, and it perfectly explained why the quantity of battle aura she needed to cast it, equaled that of the general pawn, it was a composed spell and a quite an advanced one since the first effect had a time limit but the second one which was also a buff, didn't.
[The next stealth spell will have its effect tripled and the target will be camouflaged for the next sixty seconds]
Speaking of composed spells, the effect of the "Silver Cape" used by Jasmine on the assassin pawn was also explained a second later, however right now what mattered was the rain of light arrows that was about to reach the horned horse pawn.
"Clang!", the shower of light arrows shot by the ranger's crossbow, fully landed on the horned horse pawn but besides continuous clinking metallic sounds, nothing else happened, the charge speed of the horned horse pawn didn't dimmish at all.
"It's called a "War Hell Horse", a rather unique magic beast used by those of noble birth according to the Lord, it has both high defense and high mobility but a wild nature, so only those that have emerged victorious from numerous deadly battlefields like for example… a seasoned general can tame them!", exclaimed the enemy queen.
The horned horse pawn, which had reached the area where the other pawns were fighting, didn't stop its charge, if it continued it would have crashes against the tank pawn, had it not been for the fact that the general pawn jumped to then land on its back.
"Roaaar!", once again the horned horse roared, showing its teeth which weren't those of an herbivore, but sharp ones like those of a carnivore.
"Battleground Charge!", and for the next step of her plan, both Erika and the tank pawn casted a martial art in unison, the tank casted it on itself while Erika did so on the now mounted general
"Booom!", two explosions echoed through the sky as the tank and the general turned into dark brown yellow flashes.
'You won't be able to defend both, so let's see which one weights more for your battle plan', thought the enemy queen.
The tank pawn was aiming to crush the priest pawn, the reason was simple, it was the pawn with which Jasmine had the strongest connection, as for the general it was changing at the swordsman pawn, because Erika noticed the angered reaction shown by the light princess when she insulted it earlier, so either the swordsman pawn had a deeper meaning for the enemy or it was an important part in her plan, whichever was, it was more than enough of a reason to destroy it.
But then, the panicked expression that Erika expected to see appearing on the light princess's face never appeared, which gave her a bad premonition that became a reality when she saw both Jasmine's staff and the priest pawn glow in a bright white light.
"Heavenly Wings!", the same voice called out the same spell at the same time, a phenomenon caused by using multiple casting, the dynamic in which a spell was activated twice by using a pawn to copy the spell used by the commander.
"Booom!", the tank and the general reached their targets, causing a tremor, both the tank and the horned horse pawns were quite heavy and had high defenses, which combined with the explosive speed they suddenly gained, resulted in the air shaking and energy explosions engulfing the vicinity.
But then with "swoosh" and under the eyes of disbelief of the enemy queen, two white figures broke out of the energy explosions, to then soar high into the sky.
"What!", exclaimed Erika, as she saw the priest pawn and the swordsman pawn floating on the sky, with a pair of light mana wings sprouting out of their backs, the light princess had taken a page from Erika's book and used "modifying" to create pawns that had significant advantage over other pawns.
While Erika created that horned horse, she gave wings to the priest and the swordsman, something that the enemy queen hasn't seen anyone doing… her Lord included.
And for a good reason, the pawns are limited to the early stage of the Lord realm, regardless of the realm of the one commanding them, otherwise it wouldn't be a game of strategy but of power directly and that wasn't the objective.
And while Lord ranks can already slow down their descend with mana or battle aura, and even glide through the air in some cases like those with wind affinity, flying is out of the possibilities… unless we are talking of exceptions like the Risha sisters.
Normally humanoid winged races at the peak stage of the Lord rank, fly by combining their race abilities and their capacity to slow down their descend, however the result is not as dynamic as the flying ability that the Risha sisters have shown, a clear demonstration of the high ranked bloodline from which they descend.
That and because they quite literally create their wings purely with mana, meaning that they aren't made out of flesh and bone like what happens for the usual winged magic beast descendants, in other words the Risha sisters and their mothers are exceptions among exceptions.
"She created a movement spell by taking inspiration on my wings", mumbled Leslie with her eyes glowing in a competitive light.
The light ethereal wings on the backs of the priest and swordsman pawns, were light mana versions of the flame wings that the fire crane girl had, also Jasmine is her rival so they have shown each other their "specialties", once due to Aisha.
And she wasn't the only one that was taken by surprise by the light princess's spell.
'Not "Light" or "Silver" in the name, that doesn't look like a spell that belongs to the Light Palace… an original movement spell that increases the capacity of a Lord rank to glide on the air and further slows their descend from the sky, outside of anomalies like those three, it's probably as good as it can get for a result, for those below the Arch ranks ', thought Daimon.
However, the most surprised one wasn't neither Leslie whose wings were used as inspiration by the light princess, nor Daimon who was impressed by Jasmine's original spell, but was actually a certain angel girl which resided in the invisible white crystal feather pendant that was hanging from Daimon's neck as of current.
"Could you… ask her why did she name that spell like that, of course I'm not asking you to do it for free, I'll lend you my power within my possibilities once in exchange for it", the angel girl actually took the initiative to let alone speak but ask for something from Daimon!
'Heh, what a strange little angel, showing interest in an extremely light talented person when the previous one with which she had to deal with was trash not only as a system user and but even more so as a host~', jokingly said Evangeline in a voice that only Daimon could hear, making the latter's purple amethyst eyes to glow behind his mask.
Like usual, Eve was giving him a message between lines to avoid the restrictions of the system.
'Trash as a host… a host whose duty is to produce "origin", the energy needed for administrator to use their powers, in other words Adam produced some really trash origin in terms of both quantity and quality and yet she is willing to use some of what she managed to save in exchange for something completely unrelated with dealing with Marcus, so it must be really important for her', concluded Daimon, which made Eve giggle knowing that her message had reached its destination.
"I refuse", said Daimon in a voice that only the angel girl could hear, which made Ariel put on a downcast expression, at least until she heard Daimon's next words.
"I have not stopped as low as to take advantage of my allies, so I don't mind asking Jasmine the origin of her spell's name, as long as you agree to sign a contract promising that you won't use that information to bring her any harm… of course it will all depend on whether she is comfortable with answering to begin with", he said.
"…", the angel girl was momentarily at a loss for a second, in all the "lives" she has lived as the administrator for the many hosts she has worked with, she has seen a lot of different users, fought with some, allied with some but she has never seen a system user accept the petition of an administrator without asking for anything in exchange.
As in anything that would directly benefit said user, what Daimon asked were the default terms used for a mutually benefitting trade between two users.
"If you can't agree to that then, there is no deal…", Daimon's voice returned the angel girl to the real world on the spot.
"Deal, I will promise with my system as a witness that my interest on her is not ill intentioned!", exclaimed Ariel in a hurry as if she was worried that Daimon would change his mind, it was amusing for the usually quiet and reserved angel girl to speak as fast as she could.
Back to the fight, the origin of the previous exchange between Daimon and the angel girl, in other words Jasmine, smirked which made the enemy queen grit her teeth.
"You can make them fly, so what, modifying requires a large amount of energy to be used and maintained, they will have to come down sooner or later!", she said which surprisingly made Jasmine nod at her.
"True, but you'll wish that wasn't the case… Heavenly Sword", with a light of happiness flashing through her pretty blue eyes, the light princess rolled her staff to then cast a spell on the flying swordsman".
'This little girl', amusedly thought Daimon as he observed the result of Jasmine's spell, which was an ethereal white mana sword appearing for the flying swordsman pawn to use, the important part wasn't the spell by itself, as it was a weapon enhancing one, according to the rules it should produce a weapon for the pawn to use, but the shape that the sword had.
'Daimon, I like her!', happily said Narasha, to which Eve added in a scolding voice.
'Hey Nasha, don't praise the competition'.
The reason as to why Narasha suddenly praised Jasmine, is because the sword produced by her weapon enhancing spell, was basically a copy of Disaster in Gram form, it was a great sword designed to overwhelm enemies head on.
And that meant that this spell was created by the light princess exclusively for Daimon's sake, of course she could use it on other people as long as they used swords, but the inspiration for it was Gram which Jasmine had seen Daimon using with light mana before.
That also explained why Jasmine put certain importance to the swordsman pawn, it wasn't the pawn itself what was important, but the fact that she was going to use it to showcase this spell she created for Daimon.
"Go", with a single word that carried a strangely prideful and authoritative aura, despite the mellow voice used for it, the light princess ordered the flying swordsman to make its move.
Which was for it to bypass all the enemy pawns that were tied to the ground and… aim for the outermost barrier of the enemy queen where the spearman pawn of Erika was now stationed, since its range wasn't as bast as that of the ranger created by Jasmine.
'She waited until the general pawn had completely left the vicinity of my aide of the battlefield for this!', inwardly exclaimed Erika, when she made the horned horse charge which needed the general's guidance to be properly used, charge at Jasmine's battlefield, the enemy queen basically left her rearguard empty and now even with the horned horse's speed, she won't make it back in time, so for the third time she fell prey to a trap laid by the light princess.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.
Of course, it's not as if Erika hadn't learned something from the previous suffering.
"It won't go your way this time, Battleground Spear Devastation!", the enemy queen used the spearman pawn to directly activate a Battleground level martial art.
The spearman pawn exploded in dark brown battle aura to then grab all the remaining eight rock spears that were floating around him, four with each hand in order to throw them at the area of the sky where the flying swordsman had reached.
"Crack!", however midway the rock spears cracked, but it wasn't a bad thing for Erika at least, as that was the purpose of the martial art she used.
"Booom!", the rock spears exploded, turning into countless sharp pieces of debris that then manifested battle aura spears with them as their core, and so eight rock spears turned into a couple of hundreds of them in an instant.
Naturally that wasn't enough to block the sky, but with the increased range obtained thanks to the battle aura injected into them, it was more than enough to block the advance of the flying swordsman pawn, to give enough time for the general pawn to return and completely put an end to the light princess's charge into the enemy territory.
Or at least that would have been the case, had it not been for the "trojan horse" tactic that Jasmine had prepared to make sure that the debut of the Heavenly Sword spell, worked no matter what.
And so, the assassin pawn that had been missing since earlier, became visible right in the middle of the area in front of Erika's outermost barrier, but contrary to what the enemy queen expected, it wasn't used to attack the spearman pawn that was about to finish injecting battle aura in the martial art it used to deal with the flying swordsman.
Instead of that, with the assassin as the medium, Jasmine casted a spell on the flying swordsman, which was floating directly above the assassin pawn, so that it was activated in a fast manner while still taking Erika by surprise.
"Silver Wings!".
The pure white light wings on the back of the flying swordsman suddenly gained a silver glow, which resulted on it disappearing from plain sight.
"Booom!", an explosion followed by the sound of something shattering, could be heard a second later.
The flying swordsman had slashed Erika's outermost barrier down with a single swing of its sword, but it didn't end there, because the effect of "Silver Sword" which quadrupled one slashing attack, was added to the slash from earlier.
"Crack!".
"Damn it!!!", Erika couldn't keep herself from cursing out loud as she saw not only her outermost barrier being cleanly destroyed, but the slash also reaching the third barrier, making it crack on the spot, the thing was a soft breeze away from breaking.
In fact, there was no point in defending it anymore from her point of view, so with bloodshot eyes, the enemy queen went all in in destroying the one that caused all this, which was the flying swordsman pawn.
"Burning Bow!", with a loud shout, dark orange battle aura was radiated from her body and absorbed by one of her remaining two blank golems, making it change into a slender and agile looking male pawn with light clothing and leather armor covering his chest, it was an archer pawn.
And to complement it, Erika activated another martial art, this time through the recently created archer pawn.
"Flame Bow!", this one was a weapon enhancing martial art which resulted in an orange ethereal bow appearing for the archer pawn to use.
[The next long-range attack will have its strength doubled
The explanation for the Burning Bow buffing martial art came right in time for Erika to order the archer pawn to aim at the flying swordsman which had descended almost to ground level when it slashed the barriers down.
It's worth mentioning that the archer pawn was quite faraway from the third barrier, because it was just created by Erika a second ago, so he was at the back of the first barrier, but unlike the ranger which used a crossbow that focused in having a high firing ratio and precision at middle-long range.
The archer pawn had a slower firing ratio, but a way bigger range and a stronger single target attack, as the fierce stream of battle aura that gathered on the ethereal orange bow, suggested.
"Fire!" with a single word, Erika gave the order and the archer let go of its bow's string.
"Booom!", the attack instantly produced a shockwave due to the speed at which it was short, and instantly reached the flying swordsman which soared into the sky to try and avoid the attack, however Erika had already predicted that something like that would happen, and so she had prepared a way to deal with the vast maneuvering area that a flying pawn had.
"Battleground Chasing Arrow!", the stream of dark orange battle aura which was previously fiercely advancing in a strict direction, suddenly turned into an arrow that actually took an abrupt change in its trajectory, following the flying swordsman pawn high into the sky.
In the meantime, the general had returned to the base but it didn't stop moving, the horned horse roared as it charged in a "random" direction, one that Jasmine perfectly recognized as that was where her assassin pawn which had hidden itself like before, was.
'You shouldn't think of the "Black Hell Horse" as the magic beasts from the same animal family, its sense of smell is extremely developed since it has to survive in places where blood gathers like a river, an assassin's stealth without a buffing spell won't be able to trick it!', thought Erika.
Sending an assassin to kill the one leading the enemy's army is a well-known and quite used tactic when one's side is outnumbered, so high ranked officials of an army have to be prepared for that, in this case the one "watching" the back of the general pawn is the horned horse pawn.
Though they weren't in the defending side but the attacking one this time around.
"Battleground Stomp!", with the horned horse as the medium, Erika casted a martial art, making the ride of the general to smack its frontal right hoof which was cladded in battle aura.
"Booom!", the dark brown battle aura released by the horned horse's hoof, turned into a loud shockwave that razed everything in the vicinity, even with its superior speed the assassin got caught on the impact and was send flying away with cracks appearing all over its body.
"Humph, Silver Citadel!", however when Erika gave the order for the general to pursue and finish off the assassin pawn, Jasmine's pretty voice accompanied by a silver light enveloping the assassin, interrupted her.
