Chapter 444: Battle

In the dark world, the area where Roberte Yvonne and Roland Benedict fought was already in shambles.

Endless wind blades slashed out from the body of the hurricane giant, leveling and cutting down everything around! Yet the surrounding giant vines and wooden puppets also sprang up endlessly from the ground, surging forward one after another, trying to extinguish the hurricane giant.

Roberte herself, relying on a pair of huge wind wings extending from her back, floated at an altitude of seven thousand meters. Her sacred pistols, named 'Star Breaker', and the recoilless cannon 'Holy Star' continuously bombarded the giant on the ground. Enhanced by demigod-level source power and numerous domains, each of her bullets had the power of a cannon shell, and each shot from the recoilless cannon unleashed might akin to a nuclear explosion.

Yet even more formidable was the thirty-meter-long wind wings behind her, which continuously spewed wind blades. Thousands upon thousands of them, incredibly sharp, each could penetrate two hundred meters deep into the soil, raising clouds of dust. The giant wooden figure, hundreds of meters tall, controlled by Roland Benedict, was also covered in scars.

However, the latter's counterattack was equally violent and domineering! Within a twenty-li radius, aside from the vines and wooden puppets, the ground was covered with trumpet-shaped 'flowers' twenty meters in diameter. From their centers, seeds with the power of ballistae shot out continuously, thousands upon thousands, endless.

If these strange seeds missed, they could explode in midair, with power almost comparable to large bombs of a thousand tons of TNT. They blotted out the sky and the earth, constantly shaking the void.

In addition, hundreds of black trees resembling coconut palms stretched upward, piercing the sky. They did not attack Roberte but continuously absorbed the surrounding magical energy, as well as the mana and source power she emitted.

The exchange between the two sides lasted a full twelve minutes. Roberte remained calm and unhurried, her figure retreating rather than advancing, gradually rising from seven thousand meters to an altitude of ten thousand meters.

Roland Benedict soon noticed that the wind blades slashed by this maid were growing stronger. The wind blades released with the same magical power now had nearly double the cutting force.

A huge wind vortex was subtly forming around, covering fifty kilometers. It continuously drew in surrounding magical energy while increasing the wind pressure in the area, causing the sand and wood fragments swept into the air by the gale to gradually gain astonishing power.

This maid—she was trying to learn to control her own power in battle, comprehending the essence of 'wind' and 'combat'.

"A delaying tactic? Or are you trying to force me to leave the ground and fight you in the air? Cunning little girl."

Inside the giant wooden figure, Roland's lips curled slightly: "Then as you wish!"

He reached out, and four fruits grown from strange trees flew up from the ground into his hands. These fruits were of two types: the first was covered with lightning-like patterns, surrounded by threads of electric light; the second was extremely hard, harder than the strongest alloys of current technology.

If a learned person were here, they would recognize the former as 'Thunder Bodhi' fruit; the latter came from a tree called 'Aegis Iron Apricot'.

As Roland's hands formed a magical gesture, both fruits softened like water and quickly merged into his body.

The next moment, the giant wooden figure at least three hundred meters tall exploded, and a figure only ten meters high flew out from within. It was still made of wood, but its surface was the color of black iron, with a metallic luster. Vast lightning coiled around it, making the wooden figure look like a thunder god descending.

This wooden figure had twelve large hands, each holding a magical artifact. One was a huge shield eight meters tall and four meters wide; the rest were various weapons—sword, spear, halberd, axe, battle-axe, lance, whip, mace, hammer, and a three-headed flail—all high-grade sacred-level armaments.

Beneath its feet were numerous vines, nearly ten thousand in total, continuously extending upward from the ground. They were like thick cables, keeping Roland Benedict constantly connected to the earth.

Although Roberte had already sent out hundreds of wind blades at the first moment, she could never completely sever them; new 'cables' always grew to connect to Roland Benedict's feet.

Some of these were especially thick, covered with green source armor, and even Roberte's most powerful wind blades could not fully cut them.

"Your divine authority is indeed powerful—the wind of battle, never ceasing, never yielding!"

Roland Benedict's speed was also astonishing; in the blink of an eye, he dashed to an altitude of ten thousand meters, arriving before the blood-eyed maid.

"But if you think you can defeat me with just this divine authority and your half-baked divine power, then what use is the cultivation of magical energy?"

Boom!

A vast sea of lightning suddenly exploded in the high sky, covering fifty kilometers around. Roberte could not dodge and was engulfed by the lightning tide.

At that moment, Roland Benedict briefly detached from the wooden vines, and under the amplification of the electromagnetic field, he flashed and accelerated, appearing before the blood-eyed maid.

All eleven sacred armaments slammed down fiercely at Roberte.

But at this moment, Roland's eyes showed surprise. Instead of trying to turn into wind and evade as he had imagined, she extended twelve arms condensed from hurricane force from behind, each holding a 'sacred sword' of varying grades.

Their shapes were different, their abilities distinct, and wrapped in Roberte's cyan source power, they clashed against Roland Benedict's eleven weapons!

In her hand, Roberte also held a sword, engaging in close combat. The violent wind and wood clashed head-on, the cyan and green source powers colliding, sending out devastating shockwaves that reduced everything within a kilometer to dust.

The huge shield in Roland Benedict's hand was astonishing in both weight and thickness; although its grade was only level five sacred artifact, its defensive capability approached the divine level.

Yet Roberte fully exploited the ever-changing nature of wind and her own agility, constantly shifting her position, changing angles, seeking Roland Benedict's weaknesses to engage in a tangled battle, even launching a storm-like offensive.

However, this demigod mage's wooden body was also extremely hard, comparable to the toughest alloy armor. Wrapped in source power, its defensive capability even exceeded that of a battleship by several levels. He could also manipulate lightning, summoning bolts of thunder snakes to continuously strike his opponent.

As time passed, blood gradually seeped from the corner of Roberte's mouth, but the light in her eyes grew brighter and more radiant.

Outside the battlefield, atop the Wiltonshire Building, Alexandra Howard's expression was somewhat grim, her voice low and suppressed: "It's steel bones!"