Chapter 578: King Vs King
Kartikeya examined the injuries on his body and couldn't help but frown. The damage is more than he could think of. If Sam has directly used a poison attack with his element, he might have thought of something else. But Sam is too clever and used a weapon with that attribute and the poison is not acting fast.
It is acting too slow in fact for him to think of any countermeasure in between the battle. After all, in the battle, his main concern was always the most immediate threat and Sam happened to be that. No matter how injured Sam was he maintained that threat and didn't give Kartikeya any chance to think of any other thing.
And from the final attack, he might have been able to use a large ripple to avoid the explosion, but he still inhaled some smoke and now he could feel his body going numb. His odds in the next battle reduced by a lot. Sam would come at him in the form of a king with a full health bar.
When he came back to the chair, he saw Sam twitching and sweating once again. But this time, he seemed to have already got a hang of the pain that is torturing him and is enduring it quite well.
Any ordinary person would have broken under that pain. That is what Kartikeya thought when he saw Sam.
After some time, they didn't speak anything and once again entered the battle zone.
Sam looked at Kartikeya who is finally feeling the effects of the poison. Initially, the Executioner only has a corrosive effect and the faint anesthesia effect. The remaining effects of the variant hydra are nowhere to be seen.
But still, it has the two major effects, but a man of Kartikeya's caliber, wouldn't go down that easily. The effects are slow, to begin with, and on him, they are slower.
However, one thing is sure, they have the effect. Added to the fact that he inhaled some purple smoke, it accelerated the effect a bit.
That is what Sam wanted. But still, he is not extremely confident in fighting Kartikeya.
Sam didn't take any weapon this time, rather he took out the flute, this made Kartikeya confused only to hear Sam saying.
"I have been practicing a new trick recently but didn't get a chance to try it a real battle. I would try it today."
With that, Sam started playing the flute and spiritual energy started rumbling.
The energy is visible to the naked eye as it condensed around Sam in the form of an orb. Kartikeya frowned and lunged forward as he swung his spear, the spearhead slashed over the orb and the energy ripples following it started disturbing the orb, but an energy wave emerged from with the orb and the Void style nullified the energy ripples.
Kartikeya didn't hold back anymore. In the previous battles, he has to worry about the final battle and couldn't use too much energy, but now he can do that.
His movements became large, but the energy ripples that are happening are also too big, if this continued the orb wouldn't sustain long. But Kartikeya would definitely expend a lot of energy.
Before the actual confrontation with Sam, he wouldn't like that.
He started circling around the orb to find any sort of weak point as he attacked with normal strikes.
As he did so, he kept on observing how Sam is doing inside and noticed that he now only possessed twenty-nine health bars and one of them is decreasing a tad bit faster.
He frowned because even when he is not attacking the orb, the health reduced. That could only mean one thing, Sam is creating an attack that consumed a lot from him.
As he observed and tried to find a weak point from the orb, he could see another orb appeared in front of Sam, but it is not a shield and it is actually a very small orb made of golden flames.
The energy is being gathered as he Played the flute with his eyes closed and the condensed ball of flames burned with increasing intensity.
Kartikeya frowned, by the time it condensed completely, Sam's second health bar is gone. From the looks of it, he used one bar of health's worth of energy to create the shield orb and the second to the fire orb.
Kartikeya felt like something is definitely wrong but he couldn't find the source. He has a feeling that he would be able to break the shield if he landed a proper hit on its weakest point, but he couldn't identify it.
But if he has to break it forcefully, he would also be devoid of another health bar.
He has already less, to begin with and he contemplating. As he was thinking, Sam's flute tune changed. At first, he noticed that the tune only has single energy and then the tune changed when the fireball condensed and now the turn changed once again and water elemental energy activated along with the neutral energy and fire energy.
A dense but gentle flow of water started condensing and it is merging with the golden fireball, but the water is not evaporating, rather both of them are co-existing like that with a delicate balance. Another health bar is gone.
Kartikeya resolved himself and waved his staff, his body glowed and the whole area trembled.
He lunged forward and stabbed with the spear. The spear penetrated the Orb shield and a lot of energy ripples that are formed of the condensed energy rippled through the orb and the energy channeling through it was destroyed. But at the cost of one of his health bars.
But before he could move forward and engage with Sam, another orb shield appeared and another health bar disappeared from Sam.
He frowned when he noticed how recklessly Sam is wasting his energy. But after some more observation, his eyes widened, because, within that one health bar, Sam just didn't create a shield back, but he also merged some wind energy into the orb of the fire and water and now three elements are co-existing.
And Sam didn't stop there and continued. Kartikeya reached a conjecture and he didn't want it to be true. But he could only verify it in a different way.
Once again his energy surged, but this time, the wounds on his body finally started reducing his movements. Although they restricted him quite a bit all this while, now they can hinder his battle. He could feel the corrosion is reaching his bones and his health is dropping considerably.
But he still attacked.
By this time, Sam already has another health bar reduced by half and the wind element also condensed in an equal amount within the small orb, but the orb size didn't increase at all.
Kartikeya destroyed the shield at this exact moment and he noticed that the shield formed again. He carefully observed Sam's health and only around one-third of the next health bar was reduced. He frowned at this and once again destroyed the shield and this time, the health bar only reduced one-fourth of its health.
He was shocked by the revelation. Every time, he attacked the energy consumption was reduced to make the shield again. Then he would be losing out as attacked four times, four health bars are gone.
And now he only has a little more health than ten health bars.
He would be in deep trouble as the poison is acting up. He took a step back and went into deep thought as he looked at Sam, who is injecting new elements into the small orb, after the wind the lightning element, and the dark element, and even the poison also entered. Except for the light element, all of Sam's elements entered the orb.
Only for this, he finished six health bars and the seventh one was for creating the first barrier and the eighth one was for creating the barriers after Kartikeya destroyed them.
After the repetitive attacks, Sam forced him to inject the energies faster.
Kartikeya is still conflicted, he does have skills that are good enough to deal with Sam, but he cannot use them because they will kill Sam instantly and he has to pay a price.
The main goal of the Palace of Inheritance itself is teaching these prospects and increasing their experiences that would aid their growth, not showing off their strength and power.
But he is having second thoughts when he looked at Sam's actions. He doesn't know what he is doing and if he should let him do that. After some thought, he still allowed Sam to complete the attack and took a step back.
He took advantage of the time, to deal with his own poison-festered wounds.
He tried his best to create small energy blockades so that the corrosion wouldn't spread even more.
But he didn't have much time, because he felt something from Sam.
All of a sudden, the Orb shield spread to all the stage and enveloped Kartikeya within and the smaller orb within it was floating in the center of the stage without its size changing.
But Kartikeya's attention went to Sam, who is now available for him to attack without any barriers.