Chapter 49: This Should Be It, Right?
“Gilbaris, why did you come back so suddenly? Have you finished exploring with Weirafiya? Why didn’t you bring her back?”
Seeing Gilbaris return empty-handed, Diablo felt a bit curious. Could it be that he failed too? That shouldn’t be! Gilbaris is the strongest among the ultimate life forms!
“Not yet. Unexpected situations occurred, so I returned for the time being.”
“Unexpected situations? What exactly happened?”
“I encountered my old rival, Aierjisi. She was in that volcanic area, and I fought with her. To be precise, I fought with her servant who had fused with Aierjisi.”
Gilbaris recounted his encounter in the volcanic area to Diablo.
“Is that so? What should we do next? If they keep getting stronger like this, we’ll eventually be no match for them.”
Diablo began to feel anxious. If this kept going, their clan wouldn’t have a future.
“Don’t panic. They’ve indeed gained some enhancement, but it’s still impossible for them to contend with us. However… their current abilities are indeed troublesome. For example, they used that Teleportation Gate to sneak behind me and hit me, sending me flying. That’s a bit of a problem.”
Gilbaris predominantly relies on spell skills, and mages are most fearful of close combat. Once drawn into melee, Gilbaris’s advantages disappear in an instant.
“Why don’t I go with you? With two of us, it should be easy to pin them down.”
“No, Diablo, your injuries haven’t healed yet. Just wait a little longer. I think I have a plan. It will just require frequent use of the Teleportation Gate, which is a bit of a hassle.”
While the enemy can teleport, Gilbaris can also move by constantly entering and exiting the Teleportation Gate. The next step would just be to see who can maintain their energy supply longer—whether his energy runs out first or Aierjisi’s magic power does.
“Yake, Gilbaris has come out! Be careful.”
Sensing Gilbaris’s presence in the area again, Aierjisi reminded Yake that the time for grinning like an idiot was over; they needed to resume the unfinished battle.
“Huh? He’s back? Perfect, this time I’ll have a good fight with him.”
Yake, following Aierjisi’s directions, spotted Gilbaris.
“Didn’t expect you’d have the guts to come back. Looks like that punch earlier didn’t teach you enough of a lesson!”
“Hmph. Are you talking about that punch? Honestly, it just felt like a back rub.”
Gilbaris stretched and cracked his joints. Yake’s earlier punch had indeed not caused him any significant damage.
“Well then, let’s see how you like my fists! Aier, you handle the battle support!”
【Sure thing, but keep an eye out. Don’t get too cocky. Always be cautious in battle.】
“Here I come!”
Yake ignored Aierjisi’s warning and charged straight at Gilbaris.
【Weird, what’s he up to this time? Why isn’t he using any skills?】
Watching Gilbaris stand still while Yake charged at him was strange; Aierjisi couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
“Hmph, is that all your punches amount to? You’re not as impressive as I thought.”
Gilbaris caught Yake’s punch with his hand, mocking him.
“Oh really? Then let me show you my true power! Aier! Now! Use your skill!”
【No way, that guy is definitely up to something. This time he isn’t using any moves while catching your punch. If you use your skill now, and he attacks back, we won’t be able to dodge it.】
“It’s fine, just do it! I’ll dodge all of his attacks. Trust me.”
【Sigh, seriously. Alright, since you’re insisting, I’ll use it.】
Though doubtful, Aierjisi trusted her partner Yake and activated the skill.
Taking advantage of the deleted time, Yake circled around to Gilbaris’s back, ready to hit him with a powerful beam attack.
“Aier, how much time is left until normal time flow resumes?”
【About 7 seconds left. That should be enough to charge.】
“Great, I’ll blow him away with one shot!”
Aiming at Gilbaris, who was fighting with another version of himself, Yake silently waited. As normal time resumed, he would unleash his beam attack.
“Hmm? Wait a second…”
In the instant normal time returned, Gilbaris reacted. What they were doing wasn’t teleportation at all; it was time deletion they used.
“A trivial concern? Accept it!”
Yake shot out his charged beam towards Gilbaris.
“Too naive!”
Gilbaris raised his left hand and opened a Shield, blocking Yake’s beam.
“What?! You blocked my beam with just one hand?!”
Yake stared in disbelief at the scene before him. How could it be? Wasn’t he supposed to have blown up that ultimate life form last time? Why was this time so ineffective against Gilbaris?
“For someone like me, using the same ability twice is pointless. I’ve figured out your abilities. You see, you guys don’t teleport; you delete time, am I wrong?”
Gilbaris folded his arms and looked down at Yake. Now that he understood the enemy’s abilities, the advantage in the battle was firmly in his hands.
“Ha, you guessed it, but so what? Do you have a counter for it?”
Even if his ability was exposed, Yake remained unfazed. As long as the ability was still there, he would never be at a disadvantage in the battle.
However, Aierjisi had realized that the battle’s tide had turned against them. Even if the enemy couldn’t crack their method, they merely needed to defend and could easily nullify their attacks. With their current combat power, they were still insufficient to contend with these ultimate life forms.
