Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1191 - 303: Coinciding Time Points

Chapter 1191: Chapter 303: Coinciding Time Points

"Thud," Pannis shot out from the dispersing smoke and heavily smashed onto the floor Between the rituals. The excessive impact caused him to bounce off the ground, rapidly jostling a few times before rolling repeatedly across the floor. Nora’s figure closely followed behind him. She ran through the air, chasing him out of the smoke, suddenly accelerating halfway through. While Pannis was still rolling, she descended from above, her knee leading and mercilessly aiming for the position of Pannis’s head.

At this moment, Pannis was in a sorry state, with his swordsman’s outfit marked all over by scorch marks, his neatly combed blonde hair completely disheveled. The hair on his forehead was soaked with sweat, sticking limply to his forehead, as disgracefully as its owner, and sporting several more stab wounds, with the worst being a blood hole on his thigh. In contrast, his opponent, Nora, the last of the moribunds, still had her attire neat and her black robe showed no noticeable damage, except for a new scar on her neck’s side, clearly indicating she had been in a perilous state as well. Nevertheless, even facing a clear disadvantage, Pannis’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes fixed on his opponent, not missing a single opportunity to counterattack.

While rolling, Pannis suddenly vanished into thin air, Nora’s knee strike hit the ground with a thunderous noise, causing the entire floor to shake. Amidst the shaking ground, Pannis reappeared behind Nora, his body still contorted from the rolling, his center of gravity not yet stabilized, yet he already thrust his one-handed sword backhand, unwilling to delay even for half a second.

Nora’s knee strike was empty-handed, but she seemed to have anticipated it, as her body was already twisting as she hit the ground, and by the time Pannis’s sword was thrust, she had already completed a strangely fast turnaround. She swung her clenched fist forcefully, confronting the glinting sword tip directly with fist against sword. At the intersection of fist and sword, the solid, sharp one-handed sword emitted a series of piteous metallic cries, tumbling backwards. Although one would expect the petite fist to bear marks or be obstructed, it remained unmarked and continued its original trajectory unabated. However, what flew was just the one-handed sword, as in the moment before the clash of fist and sword, Pannis had decisively released the grip of his sword, letting the weapon fly out while he took the chance to twist and turn, his left hand’s fingers tensed, his palm filled with Aggression slicing silently towards Nora’s heart. Nora neither blocked nor parried, but merely slightly sidestepped, not only evading her own vital spot but also adjusting her body angle, her other hand’s dagger striking snake-like with the target also being Pannis’s heart.

Pannis knew that if neither of them held back, he could indeed inflict severe damage on Nora, given that having a hole at least the width of a wrist punctured in her chest was not something any could endure, but Nora’s dagger would just as certainly create a lethal hole in his own heart. Reluctantly, his palm strike turned into a horizontal swipe midway, using Nora’s arm to push off and leap backward at a speed faster than the dagger, performing a series of backward somersaults in the air, catching up to the long sword that flew up mid-air, and both feet landing back on the ground simultaneously. However, just as he landed, Nora, who appeared to still be in the distance, seemingly ignored the limitation of distance and instantly emerged in front of him, her dagger swiping horizontally at Pannis’s throat, giving him no time to react.

However, having clashed until now, Pannis had gained a certain understanding of his opponent’s speed, so he wasn’t surprised, and didn’t even experience the slightest delay due to shock. After landing, his body started to lean slightly backward, and his right foot, filled with Aggression, thrust upward from beneath, the tip of his foot like the blade of a sword targeting Nora’s abdomen. Nora snorted coldly, her arm holding the dagger suddenly bent, her slash turning into a downward elbow strike, colliding with the power-packed kick from Pannis. With a booming crash, the two limbs, capable of demolishing buildings barehanded, collided again, energy erupting between the contact of the limbs, and the rolling blast forced both fighters back, interrupting any further actions.

Pannis felt an immense helplessness inside, even filled with a sense of frustration. Over the years, apart from that one encounter with Danacus, no battle had tangled him up as the current one did. Now, he finally understood the feelings of his enemies when they faced him in recent years. One side absolutely couldn’t die, or even dare to suffer serious injuries, for if the injuries were too lethal, the Curse of Immortality would activate automatically at the brink of death, resurrecting him; thus, killing the enemy then would be pointless. On the other hand, the other side was utterly indifferent to the prospect of her own death; not dying would of course be best, but even death was inconsequential as long as she could drag her enemy down with her. This had been Pannis’s state in combat throughout these years, yet today the situation had reversed, backfiring on him. To add to his helplessness, it seemed that Nora had truly absorbed all of Darak’s Power of Death; now her strength, speed, and even her reaction time had greatly surpassed her previous capabilities. Even the occasional bursts of her Light Techniques were stronger, completely outmatching him in every aspect, and she was utterly unbothered about dying, whereas he was the one who couldn’t afford to die, making the situation rather awkward.

Sneering self-deprecatingly, Pannis didn’t wait for his body to land before slipping back into the Inherent Psychic Domain, neatly avoiding Nora’s potentially fatal thrust. He ran several tens of meters within the domain to regulate his slightly hurried breathing; then, Pannis returned to The Living World, and without looking, he swung his sword in a backhand stroke to block the dagger thrust at his back. The reality of combat inside and outside the Psychic Domain was precisely this: inside the domain, one could sense the situation outside, and the powerful entities outside, sensitive to energy fluctuations, could also vaguely perceive the approximate location of their enemies inside the domain. Therefore, subtle shifts in position might go unnoticed by an outsider, but a long-distance transfer like this would definitely be detected by an enemy sensitive to Sixth Sense Energy.

Yet, Nora remained calm, having made peace with her own life and death, looking past her responsibilities. At this moment, her heart was undisturbed, like still water in a deep gorge. The only thought in her mind was to kill the enemy at any cost, or to be killed by the enemy, but to leave an unforgettable lesson behind for them. With such a mindset, having inherited part of Darak’s power, Nora performed to her fullest in combat. Or rather, she had surpassed her own past combat consciousness. Although lacking in Combat Experience, her strength and mentality were sufficient to compensate for this deficiency, constantly imposing immense pressure on Pannis in battle, making him feel increasingly strained.

Their left and right shoulders collided once more, sending both staggering backward, but Nora only took a few steps back before she regained her balance. Without any further movements, she suddenly looked up, and a scorching beam shot out from The Third Eye. This time, Nora’s use of Light Techniques was no longer the conical surge of the past but highly concentrated and condensed, often only as thick as a wrist. Yet, the energy contained within was stronger than all the energies of her previous conical surges combined. Acknowledging the power of such Light Techniques, Pannis didn’t dare to strengthen his Shield and withstand it; he didn’t even need to try, knowing the concentrated beam could easily tear through his Shield and either char a part of his body to cinders or pierce through directly. Thus, as soon as Nora looked up, and before he could regain his footing, Pannis instinctively dove forward, tucking into a roll to dodge the light, and after the Light Techniques fell short, he rolled forward and charged back towards Nora, who was rushing at him once again.

However, this time, the two sides couldn’t successfully engage in combat again. When they were still a few meters apart, a sudden violent shaking occurred, prompting both parties to instinctively pull away from each other. The shaking was so intense that the ground between the rituals trembled, causing the three surviving undead mages hiding within the altar area to fall and struggle to stand up. The violent shaking persisted for several seconds before it stopped, after which the two opponents, still full of caution, fixed their gaze on each other intently.

"Is this a new show you’ve prepared for us?" Pannis asked seriously, "I thought you were going to summon something like a Rock Giant."

"Are you joking, or can you not feel that the shaking came from outside Between the rituals?" Nora retorted with a human-like curl of her lip, clearly uninterested in Pannis’s sense of humor, "Besides, what’s a Rock Giant?"

"Er, forget about it. It’s just a monster from a novel," Pannis shrugged, appearing relaxed again but cautiously took a few steps back, his eyes shifting towards where the doorway of Between the rituals had originally been, "An explosion you arranged for Catherine and the others?"

"Would you arrange that kind of powerful explosion in your own home?" Nora shook her head, "I thought it was another one of your schemes."

"It’s always you who have the schemes," Pannis retorted, rolling his eyes, "From the very beginning to now."

"These matters are not important at all." Although she had lived for who knows how many tens of thousands of years, Nora still maintained the unreasonable demeanor characteristic of some humans during arguments, abruptly dismissing the crucial issue, "It looks like there are no further quakes. So let’s continue, until one of us falls."

"Er, let’s discuss this," Pannis coughed, "How about we take a break, chat a bit more, there might even be another explosion soon, right?"

"Unfortunately," Nora, though appearing middle-aged, smiled with a mature charm, "No."