Rogue Villain-Chapter 261: Macaroni Bridge

As soon as he got the hang of it, Ackster fed his sword with reckless amounts of vitality. He had no reason to be conservative with it since his skills would recoup any losses with extra compensation.

Ackster’s vitality wasn’t as fierce or straightforwardly powerful as Tararat’s volcanic mana. It also wasn’t as condensed or sharp when he tossed out the long-range attacks. But Ackster had more than enough vitality to make up for the difference in quality. It didn’t take long before his attacks left behind deep scars in the earth as they targeted Tararat, who started dodging instead of intercepting.

Tararat didn’t let Ackster be the only one to attack, and he made sure to throw back his own attacks. He also moved on from the simple mana blades to crosses, nets, and straight pillars of fiery doom that destroyed and melted the earth around them.

Ackster tanked as many of Tararat’s attacks as he could. It was too good of an opportunity to train his Pyro Resistance skill to pass up. But that wasn’t the only reason he took the hits and decided to stay in the middle of the field of lava.

The Sun God Token. Tararat’s flames and heat were perfect nourishment for it. It cost him the majority of his skin, but Ackster had fed the Sun God Token the same amount during this fight with Tararat as he had done during all his volcano bathing.

"...Dragon-Imitation Arts."

Ackster felt a chill run down his spine at Tararat’s growling and reverberating voice.

"Rend."

At once, four points of blood-orange flame burst into existence in the air above Tararat. They grew into long streaks that scratched the air while heading toward Ackster like the claws of a dragon.

The claws cut through the air with infernally hot sharpness, leaving behind faint scars of distorted space.

Ackster reinforced his sword with as much vitality as it could handle at once while he strengthened his body with all his mana. Although Tararat’s fire mana suppressed his water mana, Ackster’s water mana was also suitable to fight off the heat and fire of the illusory dragon claws.

He wouldn’t let the dragon claw hit his body all willy-nilly. But he was at least going to face it head-on and steal its heat for the Sun God Token while also using it as a learning opportunity.

The claw attack was a complex composition of mana that brought out more of Tararat’s strength and potential than the wild mana blades. It wasn’t magic. It was more like Ackster’s martial arts, but Ackster relied on his body to execute the rippling strikes.

If Ackster could figure out how to do something like what Tararat just did, he might be able to advance his martial arts further. Even if he didn’t, he would at least deepen his understanding and usage of mana.

However, Tararat’s ultimate skill wasn’t that easy to copy, understand, or even see through.

Thankfully, another one was already on the way while Ackster was still pushing against the four first claws with the length of his sword.

Ackster tapped into Limit Breaker to give his Overhuman Senses, which were already running at full speed, another boost.

Ackster saw and felt the minute movements of mana in the air around him be affected by the dense and intricate mass of heat that were the two dragon claws. He focused his attention on those two, especially the one in front of him, which was starting to break apart and dissipate after Ackster’s torrential vitality dug into it.

Ackster wasn’t quite sure how, but Tararat had linked and constructed the mana together in a way that made the mana resonate with itself and boost its strength while in the shape of the illusory dragon claw. The mana blades had just been ordinary mana linked together like macaroni on a string.

Tararat’s Rend was instead like a bridge or a house built with macaroni and glue. It was a masterpiece of intricate engineering and detail that put the macaroni’s splendor on full display.

’That’s gonna be rough.’

Ackster was self-aware enough to know that imitating something like that without enough time to study the intricate structure would be difficult. But he was also confident he could pull it off if given enough time and opportunities to look at it.

However, Ackster also realized as soon as he tried to shape his mana that it would be impossible to imitate Tararat’s Dragon-Imitation Art. His mana was too different. It would just collapse if he tried to build what Tararat had built, even if he copied the structure perfectly.

Ackster would need to make something that suited his mana.

’Well, shit.’

Copying something was a whole lot easier than coming up with something similar but entirely different and suited for an opposing type of mana.

Ackster knocked the second Rend to the side after bearing the brunt of the attack.

But still, gaining that much understanding of what he could do with his mana helped Ackster step up his body reinforcement. He could even transfer that understanding over to his vitality. He would need to devise another method of structuring his vitality, but that didn’t matter.

Ackster had discovered he had a talent for doing things and improving on the fly as long as he was in mortal danger.

So, he decided to heat Tararat even further.

"Ha! Is this all a dragon can do? Or is perhaps simply a poor imitation?"

Ackster didn’t know if Tararat could even hear him anymore since he was so devoured by his mana and boiling blood. But it did seem like the atmosphere grew a few degrees hotter in response to Ackster’s words.

Ackster grinned and charged forward while unleashing a thick pillar of vitality that towered to the skies and burrowed through the ground. Ackster still didn’t feel like he was losing much life force.

Tararat hastily met Ackster’s attack with a mana blade of his own to slow it down while he dodged to the side.

"Dragon-Imitation Art."

Ackster felt a trio of chills dance on his spine as Tararat’s gravelly voice rang out again.

"Breath."