The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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Despite her small size and usually docile appearance, Aurora's dark glare at the moment was terrifying enough to make even Mantis to flinch back for a moment, even though he had always despised her in his heart.

But when he thought of how terrible it would be to have someone with similar capabilities as Aurora who was also able to hide herself perfectly, the dark-haired man felt even more terrified.

He had to end this threat before it was too late!

Aurora may be strong, but they were both at a similar level, and she was already inflicted with his poison. As long as he played his cards right, taking her down wasn't impossible.

And as long as Aurora was dealt with, that little student of hers was no longer a threat. Mantis may not even bother himself to go look for her, as it was unlikely that she would be able to grow enough to be a threat without Aurora's guidance.

Neither of them argued anymore as a dark aura started rising around the cloaked man, while Aurora waved her hand to materialize a floating veil of water around her.

Of course, Evelyn hadn't left her spot at all, and had a front-row seat to observe the battle of the two pillars. Even if she wanted to follow Aurora's instructions, her teacher didn't know the exact details of her skill. As long as Evelyn stayed where she was, she could remain invincible.

As long as her spirit power didn't run out, that is.

Evelyn, who had over five hundred points of spirit power, could easily last for over eight hours before exhausting herself. She doubted that Aurora would take that long to defeat Mantis. She believed in her teacher.

Mantis laughed as he materialized some of the darkness around him in his hand, forming a long, dark lance. "Raiment of Dedication? I recall you used that to beat a level fifty kid when you were level thirty-five, right? Ah, but that disgraceful method of enduring attacks and waiting for your opponent to exhaust himself… doesn't this mean you already admit I'm stronger?! Ahahaha…"

The platinum blonde didn't grace him with an answer. Even when Mantis flung that spear of darkness towards her heart, she didn't even flinch. The veil that flew around her automatically intercepted the attack.

Evelyn almost felt her heart skip a beat when some of the spear's energy managed to leak through what she assumed was Aurora's defense. The resulting collision still had the same purple sparks, though this time it ended up destroying a part of Aurora's frock, revealing her bare belly.

Looking at the scratch two inches above the girl's navel, Evelyn couldn't help but have a bad feeling. It was only now that she noticed the skin around the scratched area becoming purple did she realize that the same phenomena had occurred where the previous attack struck Aurora.

Evelyn couldn't help but curse in her heart. 'If only I was strong enough to protect her, I could have brought Bree along. With her innate ability, purifying whatever poison he's using would be easy.'

Unfortunately, she could only hope that it didn't affect Aurora too much, and didn't cause any permanent damage before they could return to her room to get it treated.

Unlike her student, Aurora seemed to care neither for her wounds nor the poison, and stretched her left hand forward while moving the right one up behind her, her body slanting slightly into a bow, and then… she started dancing.

"Esoteric Water Maiden Raindance? Hahaha… foolish, too foolish!"

When she had first shown herself, Mantis really had hesitated for a while, but at this moment, he couldn't help but shake his head at his earlier overestimation of this girl's abilities.

Over thousands of years… she hadn't grown at all.

Even as numerous orbs of water rose from the ground, each containing enough energy to easily kill a beast like that mountain rhino, Mantis easily avoided them all. The dark-haired man chuckled as he formed another dark spear in his hand, this time condensing four times the energy he had earlier. "The same old healing and defense technique… that same old water dance you used to deal with the beast wave… too boring! Not to mention challeging, you won't even be able to make this fight fun!"

With a thunderous roar, the dark spear this time easily passed through Aurora's defensive veil, only losing a third of its power, and directly pierced into her shoulder.

Evelyn almost screamed. 'N-No way… why didn't she dodge?!'

Of course, Aurora couldn't dodge even if she wanted to. It would… mess up her rhythm. Even as blood leaked out of the hole in her shoulder, and a purple hue started spreading at a rapid pace, Aurora continued her dance.

Mantis continued flinging attacks at Aurora, and she continued ignoring them. Evelyn soon breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that maybe Aurora's injuries weren't as bad as they looked, though she still felt a pain in her heart. Whether it was the veil itself or another ability, it was allowing Aurora to recover from her injuries rapidly, though it still couldn't keep up with the damage that Mantis was dealing.

Her teacher had to end it soon, or the outcome would definitely not be in their favor!

Fortunately, the each of the water orbs that shot out of the ground towards Mantis was stronger and faster than the last, and even if he was avoiding them right now, making them shoot into the sky futilely, he couldn't keep doing so forever.

Evelyn assumed Aurora's technique could only increase in power slowly like this, and required such a cumbersome setup. But it should be ridiculously powerful at the end… enough to take down a pillar!

Mantis also started to frown, having realized the same thing. "Bitch, you think I'll let you? Such basic skills, even if you modified it a little to continuously increase in power… you really underestimate me too much if you think you can deal with me like this!"

Each of the current water orbs that shot out of the ground every time Aurora moved to the next step of her dance could instantly kill even a level 80 ranger, but they weren't yet fatal to someone like Mantis.

Aurora's spirit and soul power had always been disgustingly ridiculous, and she had always steamrolled over both her peers and seniors using the same. To bet on her running out of steam was a fool's errand, and Mantis knew it.

Gritting his teeth, he decided that could no longer rely on killing Aurora using his quick darkness moves, which was the strongest attack he could execute while dodging the darned things. 

He had to kill her in one go, even if it meant getting injured. As long as he could finish it within the next ten attacks, he would still live, and Aurora would be dead!

Having made up his mind, Mantis paused his movements and glowered as he took out a ball from his spatial artifact. "Let's see if you can keep dancing after this, little girl, you forced my hand!"

Evelyn blinked in shock at the thing, wondering if she was guessing wrong, or if what Mantis was holding was a type of spirit sphere, which was generally considered on the weaker side of weapons. Going by his overconfident look, he should be quite sure it could help him take Aurora down.

At this moment, Evelyn wished that the thing would somehow malfunction, just spontaneously explode, anything! It absolutely couldn't be allowed to be used against Aurora as she was now, where she seemed intent on tanking the attacks and relying on her defense and recovery.

Evelyn knew… that thing could instantly kill her.

It seemed like it was a truly high-grade artifact, because even someone like Mantis couldn't use it immediately and while he was channeling his spirit power to charge it up, the next water orb of course hit him in the guts.

Mantis immediately wheezed in pain, but his channeling didn't pause at all, a vicious grin lighting up his face.

But that was it.

Mantis couldn't see it, but Evelyn clearly saw that the moment the man allowed one of the orbs to touch him, his forehead lit up with the mark of a pure white water lily.

At the same time, Aurora's eyes snapped open, and her dance stopped abruptly as she slammed her heel down. 

And as it reached the ground, countless orbs of condensed water rained from the sky. But this was no ordinary rain…

Even though she was littered with scratches and wounds of various severity, and her skin covered in patches of blue and purple while her clothes were in tatters, Aurora still smiled, and Evelyn couldn't help but think it was beautiful, despite her current state.

"Your fate… is sealed."

Mantis immediately felt the blood drain from his face, his heart dropping down to the pit of his stomach. All of the countless attacks he had dodged…

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

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