I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 185: Revival of the Nut Shot

“[Forbidden Sanguine Arts: Crimson Spirit Zero].”

Whoosh!

In less than an instant, all of the aura radiating out of Herellia, who was currently a Crimson Spirit, hastily made its way towards the Crimson Spirit’s right fist, making it seem that the fist was covered in colorless yet tangible energy. At the moment this happened, Chonk’s right paw, which was the paw where he imbued all of the ominous auras toward, was only half a meter or so away from colliding with Herellia’s body.

Noticing this, Herellia hastily moved her right fist to collide with Chonk’s paw, a strong explosion sound resonating from the collision of their limbs soon after. There was an abrupt lull from their collision, with Chonk looking at Herellia with eyes filled with rage, saying, “Move out of the way.”

In response to this, Herellia lightly chuckled before replying, “How about you move out of the way instead?”

“[Reverberation].”

Boom!

At the instant she muttered that word, an explosion came from the area where their limbs were touching, pushing Chonk a few steps back. Chonk was at a slight loss for words as to what had happened, but he was still greatly infuriated, scoffing at the power of the attack as he said, “Is that all?”

Just then…

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

One after the other, successive explosion manifested around Chonk’s right paw, with each consecutive explosion having more energy than the previous. Thanks to this, even before Chonk could land on the ground from the previous explosion, another explosion would have happened, sending him flying back even further.

Thud!

It was about 30 seconds or so after Herellia made her move did Chonk finally land on the ground with a hard thud. Chonk hastily stood up in anger, deciding in his mind that he was going to have to kill Herellia first if he wanted to kill Horell, the servant that had betrayed him.

On the other hand, Herellia noticed the aura that was radiating from Chonk, prompting her to look at Horell behind her and say, “Horell, I’d suggest you fly or something if you don’t want to get caught up in the force of our attacks. If it’s possible, suppress his powers as well.”

While Herellia was talking, Horell was in awe at the power Herellia showed to him. He never expected that an Inanimate could amass enough power that could fight against an Animate, a Rank 1 Animate at that. Of course, there was a thought in the back of his mind that Herellia must have sacrificed something to attain that level of power. Nevertheless, he processed what she said, hastily flying a few meters up in the air before replying, “Alright. I’ll act as your support, just like the old times.”

Herellia let out a light chuckle before saying, “Just like the old times, indeed.”

“[Crimson Rejuvenation].”

Whoosh!

As a red wave of energy covered her body, Herellia could not help but let out a sigh of relief as she inwardly thought, ‘This is why I don’t want to use the final stage of the Forbidden Sanguine Arts. It consumes almost all of my HP.’

While thinking about this, Chonk was dashing towards her with the left paw being imbued with ominous aura this time. Without waiting for her command, Horell used all of the spells he knew to reduce the combat power of Chonk. Unfortunately, only a small part of his combat power was reduced, radiating an aura of disappointment towards Herellia.

In response to this, Herellia radiated an aura that said ‘At least you did your best’. She then placed both of the hands of the Crimson Spirit to the ground before channeling all of the energy in her body towards the ground. Soon after, a wall of earth that was covered in red energy appeared in front of Herellia at the very instant Chonk was only a few decimeters away from her.

“Then again,” Herellia muttered before continuing as she radiated an aura of elation, “The power it gives me is always exhilarating!”

“[Resonance]!”

Bang!

Swiping his left paw at the wall of earth in front of him, Chonk had the idea that with the power behind the paw, he would easily be able to break through, allowing him to attack Herellia just as she was caught off guard. Unfortunately for him, fate didn’t seem to go his way as all of the energy behind his attack was absorb by the wall of earth, sending it back to him at twice the strength.

Whoosh!

And so, Chonk was sent flying one more time, but this time, he was akin to a broken kite, landing on the ground head first as a great amount of dust was scattered in the air. Seeing this, Herellia hastily dispelled the wall of earth before healing herself back to full health. She then hastily dashed towards Chonk while he was still down, clenching both of her fists as she redirected all of her aura towards both fists.

At the moment she arrived near Chonk, she sent both fists towards Chonk, starting a barrage of punches on Chonk’s body as each consecutive punch that landed on his body gradually intensified in power.

“[Undying]!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After some time, the level of power behind each punch had reached a level wherein Chonk was making a crater on the ground, with every consecutive punch deepening said crater. Since Herellia was hitting Chonk by the abdomen, Chonk could not retaliate against the attacks with his paws. Nevertheless, this did not stop him from working his brain at full speeds, biding his time on making a counterattack against her.

On the other hand, while Herellia was continuing with her barrage, she could not help but wonder to herself, ‘I wonder what’s taking Aurus so long.’

…

Tempest Cliff, an area where a magic circle could be seen.

Quite some time has passed since Bell whispered a few things in Argentum’s ear. After doing such a thing, the two of them conversed with malicious intent emanating from the two of them. A wide malevolent grin could be seen on Argentum’s face while an aura of malice was radiating from Bell, eager to do what they had talked about.

“Let’s go with that plan, okay?” Argentum said to Bell, making sure that they were on the same page. In response, Bell replied, “Yeah, I got it.”

Not long after, Argentum closed his eyes as he focused on the perspective from the soul balls, manipulating one of the soul balls to split into two, with one of the two halves going down to where Bell was before making a connection with Bell’s mind.

After seeing that the connection was successful, Argentum sent a message through the connection, saying, “Can you hear my voice?”

Bell was quite shocked to hear Argentum’s voice in his mind without him opening his mouth. Nonetheless, Bell composed himself as he answered in his mind, “Yeah, loud and clear.”

“Alright, good to know,” Argentum said in response. He then added, “Let me just head back to my original body. I’ll give you the sign through our connection, okay?”

“Wait a second…that isn’t your original body?” Listening to Argentum’s words, Bell could not help but ask in confusion. In response, Argentum replied, “Yeah, this human body isn’t my original body.”

“Then, what’s your original body like?” Bell asked, slightly curious.

Argentum took in a deep breath before responding, “A glowing wooden sculpture.”

“…” Bell was left at a loss for words. Not long after, he said through his proboscis, “To think the heavens hate you as well…”

“Eh?” Since Bell was talking through his proboscis, Argentum went ahead and opened his eyes and mouth, making this sound. Hearing what Bell said, he could not help but think that there was something hidden in between the words mentioned.

Fortunately, it did not take long for Argentum to give up, knowing very well that they were still in a war. He positioned his body to lie on a nearby tree, lightly smiling before telling Bell, “Move to a place nearer where Chonk and the other two are. It’ll be better if you can inflict the poison while I distract him.”

“Don’t worry about me.” Bell let out a confident laugh. “Just go and distract the being already.”

Hearing those words, Argentum soon closed his eyes before transferring control back to his original body, which was located near the entrance of the alliance base.

“Mngh…” At the instant the control was transferred back, Argentum, who was now Aurus, could not help but mumble out a sound as he adapted to the feeling of his wooden sculpture self. It did not take him long to adapt, commanding the system to summon Fenrir and Charisa not long after.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A few seconds later, Fenrir and Charisa appeared in front of him before doing a subservient pose as they said their usual lines of greeting. Aurus ignored this and asked the two of them, “Have you two practiced the chant for the forbidden art?”

“Yes, Master!” In response, Fenrir and Charisa replied with slight excitement. Aurus then radiated an aura of satisfaction before saying, “Let’s make our move then!”

…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A couple of minutes have passed since Herellia started pummeling the shit out of Chonk, forming a crater that was around four meters deep already. At this moment, the aura Herellia could feel from Chonk was significantly weaker than earlier. With this in mind, she thought that she just had to pummel him even more and he’ll eventually surrender.

While continuing to be pummeled, Chonk tried to talk amidst the punches, an expression of arrogance on his face as he told Herellia, “Do you…think…your alliance…has won…?”

“By the looks of it, isn’t that the case?” Herellia, who did not stop punching Chonk, replied with an aura of confidence and pride radiating around her.

“Heh…heh…ow…heh…” Chonk slowly cackled while continuing to endure the punches. Herellia heard this, an aura of confusion radiating from her not long after. A few seconds later, Chonk said, “Time…for revenge.”

Whoosh!

In an instant, a large ball of green energy had manifested a meter above Herellia’s head, with Horell shouting out in fear, “Herellia! Watch out!”

“Hm?” Hearing those words, Herellia could not help but look up, radiating an aura of slight fear as she noticed the large ball of energy above her head. At this moment, all of the cells making up her body told her that she wasn’t able to escape this attack. She could not help but look at Horell, only to look at Chonk with an expression of rage as she knew that she couldn’t rely on Horell as well due to his low power.

In response to Herellia’s expression of rage, Chonk let out a grin before saying, “Die.”

“[Ultimate Art: Lucifer’s Claw of Eternal Damnation].”

Whoosh!

Bang!

An explosion that took on a green color soon appeared where the crater was, with a being letting out a scream of agony as the energy behind explosion greatly destroyed the area it enveloped.

“…eh?” While this was happening, Herellia, who thought that she was surely going to die, could not understand how she was a safe distance away from the center of the explosion. She looked around her surroundings, noticing that a claw made out of swords was covering her body, with Herellia easily concluding what happened to her just as the explosion happened after seeing it.

“Looks like I made it in time.” Just as she wondered where the claw came from, a familiar voice resounded quite a distance away from where she was, making her, as well as Horell, who was still flying in midair, look at the direction of the voice’s origin. At the instant they found out who made the sound, both of them could not help but shout, “Aurus!”

“Yes, I’m Aurus.” It did not take long for Aurus, as well as Fenrir and Charisa behind him, to make their way beside Herellia. Not long after, he focused his sense of vision towards the green explosion a distance away from him, muttering, “I guess you reap what you sow.”

Whirr…

It took quite some time for the explosion to dissipate, revealing a jade green wolf covered in mere fragments of armor. Not only that, but it also seemed that the fur on its body was a bit charred due to the explosion. Nevertheless, this wolf was staring at Herellia and Aurus with eyes filled with intense rage, letting out a growl as he shouted, “Using my attack to weaken me…how dare you!”

Whoosh!

Without caring about the injuries on his body, Chonk dashed towards them with both paws covered in an ominous aura. Not only that, an intense aura of the Wind element emanated from both paws as well, letting both Herellia and Aurus know that Chonk was about to do an all-or-nothing attack.

Just as Herellia was about to take a step forward, Aurus hastily teleported in front of her, focusing his sense of vision towards her before saying, “Take a rest for now. You’ll be leading the alliance for quite a long time.”

“For now…” Aurus said as he focused his sense of vision towards Chonk.

“I’ll let Chonk feel the alliance’s hatred.”

“Selective Stun!” Aurus shouted without hesitation as he concurrently sent a message through a certain connection.

Hearing these words, both Horell and Herellia could not help but radiate an aura of confusion. Of course, it did not take long for the aura they radiate to change into shock as they saw what was happening in front of him.

Whoosh!

Seemingly out of thin air, a large mosquito appeared a few meters above the dashing Chonk before using its proboscis to pierce through his abdomen as it injected foreign fluid that spread throughout his body. Just as Chonk noticed this, it was already too late.

“[Selective Stun Imbuement].”

“[Body].”

Psshhh…

And just like that, Chonk stopped in his tracks, standing like a lifelike statue a few meters away from Aurus and Herellia. Herellia and Horell were left at a loss for words after seeing what had happened to Chonk. The two of them could not help but think, ‘Was it always this easy to fight an Animate?’

As for Aurus, he teleported closer to Chonk while Fenrir and Charisa followed behind him. At the very instant he appeared in front of Chonk, he then said, “Pain Sensitivity.”

Not long after, another foreign fluid was injected into Chonk’s body by the mosquito. The mosquito, who had its proboscis stuck on Chonk’s abdomen, said after injecting the fluid, “I’ve increased the being’s pain sensitivity by ten times with the [Reaching the Heavens] poison. That’s enough of an increase, right?”

“More than enough,” Aurus responded to the mosquito’s words before adding, “Get away from Chonk for now, Bell. I’m going to reduce his defenses to inflict the most pain possible.”

Hearing those words, Bell, the mosquito, retracted his proboscis and flew a few meters away from where Aurus was. On the other hand, Aurus summoned nine swords made out of FP, placing them in a circular formation around Chonk.

“Fenrir, Charisa, step back as well,” Aurus focused his sense of vision on the two behind him before saying. At the instant they distanced themselves from Aurus, he willed these nine swords to stick themselves to the ground as he muttered an incantation.

“Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery.”

“May these sins inside your body be amplified to levels far beyond comprehension, crippling your abilities to the bare minimum.”

“[Ultimate Art: Nine Realms’ Sealing Array].”

Whoosh!

After Aurus was finished chanting the incantation, a faint dark blue haze covered every inch of Chonk’s body, with Chonk’s eyes fixated on Aurus. His eyes radiated intense rage as if it was telling Aurus that once he was free, he would kill him first. In response to this, Aurus let out a malevolent laugh before conjuring a sword of energy near Chonk’s behind.

Although Chonk could not turn his head around to look at where the sword of energy was, it could sense the energy emanating from it, his pupils shrinking at the instant he realized where the sword of energy was aiming. He looked at Aurus with eyes that shouted ‘Please! Any place but there!’. Of course, Aurus ignored this voiceless pleading, muttering, “Experience the hatred of the alliances, as well as Horell’s hatred.”

“[Lineage Ending Nut Shot].”