(Some minutes earlier)
As Maria saw Kuro and Raven fighting off against Beowulf, she defended against the explosive attacks of Agatha. The Vampire Lord was able to set her own blood on fire and detonate it, unleashing powerful magical explosions.
However, she merely used them as distraction similar to smoke bombs, as Maria had such an insane amount of Magic Stat and Resistance Skills that she was able to fend off magical damage with ease, even with her low quantity of HP, her defense against magical attacks made her a true tank. Abusing such an overwhelming advantage in the stat department, Maria continued to chase down Agatha, as the Vampire, fully knowing that Maria was probably planning something, continued to fight against her at long distance, attempting to tire out her Mana.
Agatha was not experienced at fighting with Phantasmal-type Undead, but she was well aware that they had impressive capabilities not seen in anything else, not even in other types of Undead. One of them was their complete lack of life energy, or stamina for short. Any living being had this, including Vampires, even though they had insane amounts of it that made them seem as if they were “undead-like”, even though they were very much alive.
However, ghosts and other undead were different in the way they lacked such energy, and functioned purely out of the power of their souls and mana. However, undead that still had physical bodies were still beatable by destroying their entire body like any other living being, they were simply more resilient as they often lacked weak parts that could easily kill them like with living beings, where slicing their head surely kills them most of the time.
However, ghosts were radically different in that regard, they lacked physical bodies and developed their soul to completely new levels. Evolving them in place of their physical body and creating varied types of phantasmal essences that permeated them.
They developed powers that could easily defy common sense, and someone as powerful as Maria being one of such entities was incredibly hard to navigate, even for the Vampiress. She knew that she was still pushing her back though, magic-infused attacks damaged Maria, especially those infused with physical strength such as her whip attacks, but pure magic seemed almost futile as she seemed to have an incredible resistance towards it.
Both Maria and Agatha were struggling to fight one another though. This wasn’t at all a one-sided battle. Maria was pushing forward only thanks to her ability to drain the HP and MP of Agatha, while having recently evolved, she was sure that her previous form would had never been enough to stand a chance against this powerful Vampire.
And she was abusing most of her newest skills in this battle as well. Meanwhile, Agatha was struggling to deal consistent damage to Maria, all while trying to regenerate her HP and MP faster than Maria could drain it away with her mere presence. Nonetheless, both women were obstinate fighters, and there was no way one of them would give up at this point.
“Blood Whip Arts: Crimson Hydra.”
Agatha’s whip was covered on its own Blood Aura, turning into ten hydra heads that roared back at Maria! The hydras attacked her from all areas, as Maria used her phantasmal body and her ability to turn into a swarm of flies to evade them.
However, the hydras were now prepared for that, enhanced with Agatha’s Mana and even the power of her soul, they managed to grasp even the swarm of phantasmal flies that Maria could turn into, biting through her phantasmal body and tearing apart large pieces of her aetheric essence.
Maria suddenly used a very low-tier Skill out of nowhere, making Agatha believe she was weakening out at long last. But Agatha had simply underestimated the Spell completely, as Maria wonderfully manipulated thousands of shadow threads that captured half of the hydra’s heads, finally managing to free herself, all while the pieces of her phantasmal soul that were torn apart were detonated!
Agatha was shocked, immediately realizing that Maria was not someone normal for a ghost either! She had a strange ability that she had never seen any other Necromancer possess, the ability to detonate Undead. And because her own body counted as Undead, technically, she was able to easily convert those parts that were torn apart into explosives, easily destroying the blood hydras from Agatha’s whips!
“And that’s not all!” Maria rushed towards Agatha, suddenly shapeshifting into a gigantic snake woman, using her [Gorgon Transformation] Skill, which allowed her to turn her body into snakes and even transform into a giant one herself, receiving a temporary boost to her defenses and physical strength in exchange for consuming her MP constantly.
Maria roared loudly, controlling countless of snake heads surging from her hair which were enormously long, the smallest being ten meters long, they all attacked Agatha constantly through Maria’s [Fist Strike] Skill, all while two larger phantasmal snakes held her Cursed Blade and her Golden Axe, slashing against Agatha’s body and defenses!
“Unggh…! You bitch! To think you can turn into a Giant Snake too! Just what are you?!” Agatha groaned, defending herself with her [Blood Armor] and several [Blood Barriers], but they seemed to easily shatter against Maria’s insane onslaught of blows, while her armor was also slowly weakening and cracking, about to shatter into pieces.
Maria realized that Agatha had yet to completely have her defenses broken, as she opened her Inventory and decided to just use the variety of dropped items she got from the dungeon itself, spears, swords, axes, even shields and staffs, alongside the cursed staff she got from the first Necromancer she killed back then, she began to spread out her mind into many parallel minds using the various snake heads composing her hair, quickly unleashing both magical and physical attacks against Agatha!
Her barriers were breaking one by one without end, all while Agatha’s Blood Armor was finally shattering!