The Exalted Prince Lives Again-Chapter 56: Failed Marionette [2]

The failed Marionette was preparing for a fireball.

The woman who lost control was a sorcerer.

The rate of casting the fireball was insane, as it was launched instantly.

Lucien had a split second to dodge it, and he barely did.

As he barely stabilized himself after the dodge, he noticed the Marionette was charging another fireball to attack.

’I can’t do this on my own.’

He immediately prepared himself to dodge as soon as he witnessed the trajectory of the incoming fireball.

He was constantly moving erratically, trying to remain unpredictable and get as close to her as possible.

He could use his [Mirrorstep], but he wanted to save his spirit energy as much as possible.

He didn’t know what the failed Marionette had in store for him.

A fraction of a second later, the fireball was launched again, even faster this time.

At this point, Lucien was only surviving due to his instincts and his mastery over the basic footwork, barely keeping up with the creature.

While he was dodging the attack itself, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to properly dodge the next one, no matter what.

He immediately pulled out another silver disk and threw it towards the Marionette, intentionally not balancing himself.

Thud!

He broke his fall with his hands, and the other fireball was already on its way to him.

He could only dodge this by using his ability.

Swoosh!

And that’s what he did.

He vanished from his spot and reappeared right beside the creature, swinging his sword mid-air.

Since this was a sorcerer turned into a failed Marionette, its body was bound to be fragile, like how sorcerers normally were.

The creature’s head turned to an unnatural degree, forming eye contact with Lucien behind its back.

’Fuck!’

Failed Marionettes were always more powerful than their normal counterparts, as they used all their life energy as a fuel to replenish their spirit energy constantly.

It made them age faster, but in the short term, these things were devastating.

And so, this thing he was fighting right now wasn’t just a peak Elite.

No.

It was a quasi-Ascendant.

The creature instantly formed a line of fire on the ground and,

Boom!

The line of fire rose like a firewall before Lucien’s sword could even make contact with its body.

Taking this opportunity, it shot backwards, forcing Lucien to be able to do nothing but just defend himself.

Cough! Cough!

He coughed sharply, his nose twitching due to his charred clothes.

But just this much wasn’t enough to sway Lucien’s determination to exterminate it.

He recovered immediately, continuing to erratically and unpredictably sprint all around, trying to close in on the creature.

Even though he knew closing in on such a being wasn’t the smartest choice either, at least he could be on offense for once, and not just take its attacks like a bum.

He couldn’t defend against the long-range attacks.

The creature convulsed violently, twitching like a puppet tangled in its own strings.

Her skin cracked, like overbaked porcelain, red light pulsing beneath each crack that formed over its body.

Her jaw now hung loose, and her eyes were hollow.

Screech!

Fwoosh!

A fireball, which he dodged easily, but his sleeves didn’t.

’No way. Too Fast, too fast.’

The creature was composing multiple lances of fire, preparing to launch the entire barrage over him in quick succession.

This level of casting spell wasn’t that of an Elite at all.

The failed Marionette was now burning even more of its life force.

He had no other choice but to use [Mirrorstep] once again, which would further deplete his spirit energy core.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

It launched the lances.

But before he could use [Mirrorstep], he noticed pieces of the ground breaking off and levitating.

Crash! Crash!

They all met the fire lances and blasted with a bang.

Lucien looked behind.

Selene had joined the fight.

"The guilds would arrive here in a few minutes." She shouted, making Lucien a bit bitter.

A few minutes was a lot of time.

Especially in a life-or-death fight like this.

"I am getting closer to it, protect me."

Selene was not only a magician with an affinity to Earth, but she was also in the Elite realm.

She would probably lose if she were alone, but she wasn’t.

Not only was the Earth element a direct counter to the fire element, but she also had Lucien on her side, who was somehow way stronger than his actual spirit core’s level.

She nodded, agreeing with his plans, since she had something similar in her mind.

Lucien, with a newfound security, dashed again, not minding the plethora of fireballs being charged once more.

Of course, he still maintained a certain level of wariness, in case Selene fails or runs away.

But that never happened.

An entire strip of road pulled up to protect him as the fireballs rained down on him.

Sure, her casting speed wasn’t as fast as the creature’s, but it didn’t need to be.

All she had to do was focus on defense until Lucien reached it and finished it.

Boom!

The road was utterly destroyed, but at least Lucien was unharmed.

The Marionette screeched and unleashed another barrage of spiraling fireballs.

Zwip! Zwip! Zwip!

Selene’s arms blurred.

Tiles, bricks, chunks of stone, launched upwards, colliding mid-air with all the spiraling flames.

Lucien was closing in on the creature.

It moved, trying to maintain a certain distance from the Warrior.

Failed Marionettes were brainless, but they acted on their instincts.

And this one’s instincts were sharp enough to avoid visible danger.

He dived into a slide, inches below another fireball.

His elbows scraped, but he rolled, quickly popping right in front of the creature.

He had reached her.

The failed Marionette launched her palm towards him, but he ducked, immediately drawing his blade upwards to cut the limb off clean.

Clack!

The blade gritted against its brittle skin, drawing out green, smoking blood.

Shriek!

It shrieked and lashed out with its knee.

He blocked it.

Crack!

His bones rattled from the sheer force.

Urgh!

He groaned, but used his ongoing momentum to roll behind it.

Crack!

The creature shifted its head around to him once again, looking straight into his eyes.

It immediately started to prepare another fireball to shoot at Lucien point-blank.

But it missed one important detail.

It forgot that Selene existed right behind it.

...

Heh!

"Do you still think they need our help?"