<h4>Chapter 72: {vntis, The Tyrant Of Bone 2}</h4>
Velus floated towards Vntis''s imposing, giant metal form as his total of eight arms moved rapidly, manifesting and throwing out bone chakrams at such speed that they became blurs.
The closer Velus got to Vntis, the thicker this storm of chakrams became, but because they were solid matter, Velus''s disintegration field broke the endless flurry of ded projectiles before they could shred Velus into pieces.
Velus trembled as he hovered forwards. The only thing he could hear was the intense cacophony of bone smashing against rock and the only thing he could see amid this storm of white bone was Vntis''s gleaming red, orb like eye.
That eye stared directly at Velus.
"How amusing. You would challenge me straight on though your bones are frail. Thene! Show me you deserve the flesh that hides away your bones!" roared Vntis.
Velus took in a deep breath andnded on his feet, staring at that terrible red eye that shed with eager anticipation. He was not a fighter, he never really had been. As a Connector that functioned like a diplomat in the criminal world, he never saw fighting as he was forbidden to attack others and others were forbidden to attack him. But he knew that it was now or never.
Velus closed his eyes and sprinted with his arms outstretched, trying to disintegrate Vntis.
"W-what?" Velus opened his eyes as he felt himself pass through Vntis. He looked back and saw that he had passed right through the giant creature, disintegrating out a man-sized hole inside the armor.
Vntis stopped moving as the red light in his helmet eye dimmed down. His skeleton arms turned into dust while his regr arms fell to his sides. He slouched over, limp. The giant skeletal hands trapping the Butcher broke apart, revealing the B rank viin no worse off for wear.
Seth Sr and Zayn tanked and dodged through thest volley of chakrams with several bleeding cuts but no severe injuries. They hovered in the air as they looked down at Vntis.
"I''ve killed it!" said Velus triumphantly. "Where all you so called soldiers could do nothing but fear, I managed to kill it!"
"The fuck…?" Seth looked into the hole in Vntis''s armor and saw that there was no flesh inside it. Just a sort of shadow darkness that flickered like miasma.
Vntis had no physical body within.
"Commendable, human." Vntis''s voice echoed out as he suddenly moved, the red light in his eye glowing again. He reached out and ced his hands on either side of Velus.
Velus flinched, but Vntis did not touch Velus.
"You have managed topletely break down this proud armor of mine, but I am no being of flesh and blood. I am Living Armor, and disintegration alone shall not end me unless it is absolute." Red swirls of energy formed around Vntis''s ck gauntlet ws, and these struck Velus from either side, encasing him in an aura of red.
Vntis raised Velus in the air using this crimson energy tether. "And as Living Armor, I am also Demon.
And as Demon, your soul is mine to feast upon."
Vntis made a tearing motion with his ws, and Velus screamed before a faint red silhouette of himself emerged from his body, funneling into Vntis''s red eye orb.
Vntis dropped Velus''s limp, dead body. "Your defense, this barrier that breaks down all manner of construct, was worthy of praise. But with flesh as frail as yours, your soul bes far too easy to take."
"No! Snack Man!" The Butcher roared as he barreled towards Vntis after seeing his handler and caretaker die. He mmed two giant fists down into Vntis''s shoulders.
Vntis took the attack head on, and the force of it shattered the stone beneath his greaves. The disintegrated parts of his armor started to patch back, regenerating as if new.
"And you, your flesh is sturdy, too strong to sever your soul from, but you wield the strength of this flesh with the poise of a simple-minded fool." Vntis''s bone and ck metal armor glowed before covering itself with raw red muscle fibers that threaded out from its gaps and seams.
Vntisnded a clean left and right punchbo on the Butcher''s head, disorienting the mad man and driving him a few steps back.
The Butcher snarled and swung his tree trunk of an arm wildly, trying to club Vntis away.
Vntis parried the swing with an elbow strike to divert the blow away beforending a powerful punch to the Butcher''s portly stomach. While the Butcher keeled over, Vntis followed that up with an uppercut that sent the madman flying backwards with several seconds of airtime.
"That is how you properly wield strength," said Vntis in a lecturing tone as the Butcher crashed into the ground heavily, groaning in pain.
Vntis then grunted as aser beam sted into his body, driving him into the ground in a crater. All the muscle fibers theser beam hit sizzled and melted away.
"[Organ Stitching: Pyro nds]" Vntis used Shattered Bone necromancy to channel the flesh, organs, and bones of creatures he had assimted into himself.
Previously he had been using the spell [Organ Stitching: Giant Muscles] to cover himself with the muscle fibers of a giant. Now, he turned his metallic, bony armor dark brown, changing its hard exterior into a rubberier form.
This was flesh from the me generating organs of dragons. Highly resistant to fire damage.
Vntis stood up, easily withstanding the sr beams now. However, volleys of giant ck feathers pierced through his softened armor, piercing right through him. But since he was a Living Armor that had no vital organs to really pierce through, piercing damage like this did almost nothing to him.
"[Part Stitching: Drake Wings]" Vntis''s armor body shuddered as tworge draconic, ck scaled wings sprouted from his back. He leaped into the air while elerating himself with his wings. The sudden speed let him catch Zayn by surprise, and hended a powerful punch that sent Zayn crashing into the ceiling like a pinball.
Seth Sr retaliated with a punch that Vntis blocked with a guard, but it was heavy enough to drive him back dozens of meters in the air before he stopped himself with a p of his wings.
"Your raw might is exceptional. It outstrips even mine. I would require muscle stitching merely to keep up with it," said Vntis. "You alone may reduce me to half my health. Yet without your Necromancer to appear before me, I cannot recognize this trial.
That is, unless you kill me fully. Then, I will have no choice but to cede the Obelisk.
"Yeah? You''re still not even down to ''half health'', whatever the fuck that means, after all that?" said Seth Sr.
"Did you think defeating one of the five Deathguard would be a mere simple task?" scoffed Vntis.
"Alright. Alright then." Seth Sr red at Vntis as Zayn flew to his side.
"Zayn, stand back. I''m taking care of this," said Seth. "I''m going to kill this fucker. If I kill him, this whole thing ends."
Zayn understood what Seth wanted to do and nodded his eagle head, flying away.
"A duel? I will dly take one," said Vntis. "There is no better way to take the bones from flesh than in a proper duel where what is desired is taken rightfully."
Seth reached into his tattered coat''s pocket where he withdrew his cases of Boost. He snapped open the ck case, took out a vial of azure blue liquid, and uncorked it, drinking the liquid down.
"Zayn!" Seth tossed the rest of the case down and Zayn caught it gently in his beak.
Seth took in a deep breath as his body started to glow brightly, shining like the sun, illuminating the dark and grey depths of the arena as if a miniature sun had set been set alight within it. His clothes burned away entirely as his body becamepletely dressed in a sheen of bright gold with his eyes a bright shade of pure white.
Waves of heat rippled all around him as did strands of bright orange energy reminiscent of the sr res and explosions that scorched the surface of the sun.
"It''s about time I ended this," said Seth Sr.
"Oppose me if you can, mortal," said Vntis… "I wee the challenge."