Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 4)

Vol 4/ Chapter 76 - Danger

Battle qi is an intricate topic. Cysper and Yulanda had discussed it extensively before, providing me with substantial knowledge. The manifestations of battle qi are diverse and ever-changing, with practical applications that are quite limited due to the rarity of humans who develop it.

One main use is direct release against enemies for offense or defense, through techniques like qi blasts, sword qi, or barriers - immensely powerful but requiring long practice. Enhancing one's physical body is another application, though less common. After awakening battle qi, users can contain and re-absorb it to rapidly enhance their constitution, but with low efficiency and significant wastage.

The self-enhancing effect may be less than half as potent as the overwhelming external power release. However, those gains are permanent, trading burst power and range for vastly superior endurance. An inch of growth brings an inch of strength, but you can only engage in close combat while others unleash ranged magic instantly without defensive needs. Even with superior strength and toughness, it's frustrating. Against another battle qi expert, if you can't deplete their internal reserves, you have almost no chance of winning. This was Mike's weakness.

However, dealing with just a single four-winged angel was nowhere near enough to expose those weaknesses!

Unexpectedly, the four-winged angel who had retreated to the rear showed no signs of panic. She clasped her hands together, appearing to pray.

"Your lord is nothing but a false god. Praying to him is completely useless!"

Mike roared, charging towards her. Since he couldn't fly, after that bout of furious attacks, his body could only fall back down before using a rooftop for leverage to leap back into the air.

But in that brief exchange, something disastrous occurred.

"Watch your head..."

For some reason, I could sense an immense concentration of light elements gathering above in the sky. Before I could finish speaking, I saw a slender beam of white light precisely strike Mike from above.

The flash of brilliance seemed to have no particular effect at first glance. Mike, propelled by inertia towards the four-winged angel, did nothing as she casually shifted aside, allowing him to plummet straight down, unmoving after hitting the ground.

"Impossible! His physical defenses can withstand high-tier blast spells without a scratch, let alone some light magic..."

The blade of grass Ron had been chewing on slowly drifted to the ground. As a light mage, he could tell that white beam was the four-winged angel's doing. Even if it was some divine angelic spell unknown to humans, it shouldn't be able to instantly take down a battle qi-wielding sixth rank expert like Mike, right?

Moreover, the angel only had four wings.

"It's not that simple, this may not be ordinary magic...it may not even be magic at all!"

I shook my head, quickly rushing over with him towards where Mike had fallen.

When it came to divine spells - high-tier magic from an angel's perspective - I had some authority to speak on the matter. That beam of light seemed reminiscent of the "Lost Paradise Shockwave" attack at first glance, but the power and form differed greatly.

The stronger a "Lost Paradise Shockwave", the thicker the descending pillar of light, with a wider area of effect. But this slender beam that appeared was extremely narrow, yet its force was many times more potent than a shockwave, even faintly surpassing the source magic I recently learned from Cysper!

Moreover, that four-winged angel appeared to be praying the whole time, but she did indeed seem to be genuinely praying! At least I detected no light elemental activity within her related to casting a spell - it completely violated the conditions for spell release, even if no incantation was required.