That whip was an extremely well-known weapon, both among the members of the Red River Pact clan and the more experienced people of the empire. It could shatter metal — mid-tier or lower weapons could be destroyed easily. If it hit the body of a mid-level tank, even with minimum strength, it would cause serious damage.
But Darian’s body had taken a direct hit, full force, and the result was just a deep cut... Sure, it was bad, but nowhere near fatal.
His defenses could only be described as terrifying. And when combined with his healing power... how could a support be this freakish?
His healing ability was so insane that even the military supports were left speechless. They’d heard rumors about his fast regeneration, but seeing it with their own eyes was something else entirely.
Darian, on the other hand, even though he looked calm, was feeling some pressure. He had to channel a lot of star power to defend against that hit. That full effort had cost him 40% of his ring’s energy. Adding what he’d spent earlier, he only had 30% left.
He wasn’t just freakish, with lots of tricks up his sleeve. Trying to label him as a support or fit him into any box was just stupid.
"I let you attack all you wanted. Satisfied?" Darian mocked, looking at Eulalia on the other side, her face slightly pale. "Now it’s my turn..."
He snorted and charged forward. He was on the opposite side of the stage, more than thirty meters away.
Eulalia was clearly getting exhausted after going all-out with her blessing. As the master of that whip, she knew very well how brutal its power was. But facing Darian... it was the first time she’d ever felt this oppressed and worried. Still, she couldn’t afford to lose.
She spat another mouthful of blood as the purple flames flared up around her body again. Then, she pulled out a blood-red artifact — a small bone about three centimeters long.
She snapped it with a loud crack.
Her offensive power had done nothing... so maybe she could try just defending. But the fear Darian gave off made her instinctively toss that idea aside. So she burned a super expensive artifact she’d saved for life-or-death situations.
The idea was simple: Darian only had two rings, and he had to be relying on artifacts. His healing blessing obviously drained him a lot too. That kind of thing couldn’t last long. If she could drag the fight out, maybe she could win.
From that artifact, a red power merged with her purple flames. It was like throwing gas on a fire. The purple flames darkened and spread rapidly.
The clan’s vice-leader took a deep breath. That artifact had been given to their top talents — a safety net to make sure they made it back alive from low-tier missions.
Now Eulalia was using a power way beyond her usual strength. There was no way she could lose.
Darian got within ten meters of her. In just a few seconds, it looked like the entire arena had turned into a purgatory of purple flames.
"Come closer, you mediocre idiot! The Stage of Your Downfall is set!" she shouted coldly.
She had combined her flames with an artifact to create a flame domain. Fire, by nature, was meant for offense. Even when used to trap someone, the heat inside the zone would ramp up until it burned the target to death.
But when Darian saw that... he just stopped moving forward.
Everyone was stunned. He should’ve attacked with everything before the heat got worse. Had he lost his mind?
Darian stood still and just watched in silence while Eulalia wasted her energy. He stretched out his palm and a white light suddenly shone from its center.
His whole body got wrapped in a white layer. Then... he started walking forward slowly again.
"DIE!" she screamed as the flames surged toward him.
In the middle of the stage... Darian vanished, making everyone in the stands hold their breath.
But the very next second...
...they saw a white light glowing from within the flames. He was still moving calmly, one step at a time.
In three seconds, that white energy expanded.
He blasted open a huge hole in the scorching domain.
"W-What?!" Everyone was completely confused.
Eulalia could feel her flames being totally suppressed as he came closer. A wave of despair crashed into her. Nothing worked on him?
Darian could only laugh internally. She was using external power from an artifact, mixing it with her blessing. That external power wasn’t under her real control — she had just dumped it into her flames and was brute-forcing the rest.
Because of that, Darian, using his rings, easily controlled those flames and canceled out their effects. As for the white energy around him... that was just for show.
Suddenly, Eulalia clenched her teeth, screamed, and lashed the whip violently toward Darian.
It was clear her domain didn’t work on him. To keep it active, she had to stay fully focused. But if Darian could move freely and get close to her, things would get bad real fast. A war of attrition was out of the question. Her only shot at winning now was to go all-in with the whip.
She flicked her wrist, made a small move, and instantly poured all the power from her ring and blessing into the whip.
Darian had already felt the power of that weapon and obviously wasn’t about to let it hit him again. He immediately stepped back, moving quickly to dodge the strike.
Everyone in the stands was dead serious... in the end, things had gone back to the beginning: she was attacking nonstop... but still couldn’t even touch a single hair on his head.
Eulalia was getting paler and more drained by the second. Meanwhile, even while constantly dodging, Darian stayed calm — not the slightest sign of fatigue.
Minutes later... when she was down to less than 5% of her energy, Darian scoffed with contempt.
He vanished, using Tempest Blink one last time.
But in her desperation and full focus, Eulalia reacted instinctively with surprising speed. The moment Darian reappeared, far away, the whip shot across the thirty meters like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, aiming straight for him.
Darian, however, already knew the whip’s reach and was ready.
He didn’t even try to dodge. He just raised both hands, like he was planning to catch it mid-air.
When people saw what he was doing, they were stunned — doing that was straight-up suicide!