Chapter 155
155 Adaptation and Growth
“That should keep her busy for a while, now it’s just you and me.” Lilith suddenly said as she rushed towards Layton, she tore through the air at breathtaking speeds ignoring the limits and restrictions of her body, the speed at which she erupted made Layton try to avoid being the brunt of whatever attack she was going to use but just when he moved his legs to get out of the way, the silent black mud suddenly acted stopping his movements and wrapping around his legs, the next moment the screeching of Lilith’s fist piercing through the air made its way to Layton’s ears, the fist wind already scratching his skin as minute wind blades were created on the trajectory of the fist.
Although Layton’s feet were momentarily incapacitated he didn’t falter, he moved his hands forward his left palm moving towards her incoming fist and his right hand touching her arm making use of her thrust to flip her whole body forwards as her attack cracked Layton’s bones sending her hurling forwards over his figure. The sudden change did not faze her as she twirled in midair sending a sharp kick towards Layton’s skull, the kick had not yet met its target when Layton’s right arm tore through the air breaking her knee caps, the left arm which had already rapidly healed made a hand knife and throttled forward slicing Lilith’s broken leg clean off as he broke free from the black mud restricting his legs and sent a kick to her head smashing it to pieces.
Her lifeless body and the blood following out was quickly consumed by the black mud and rapidly constructed some feet away from where it originally stood, the process was somewhat instant and took only a second, immediately she reappeared she charged back at Layton who was intently studying the process through his field and will, ‘her speed strength and skills have become stronger’ Layton noted as he weaved and dodged her attacks ‘her skillful use of force is increasing by the second and her fighting instinct is unreasonably high’ Layton continued his thought process as he was forced to parry some clever movements, spikes made of the black mud emerged from around him in an attempt to contain his movements .
Layton obliged he didn’t want to try the strength of the spike, from what he observed from the substance, its nature inherited the subtle divine nature Lilith originally possessed making it insanely durable, adaptable and resistant to almost every environmental change like heat, cold, electricity etc naturally the same was true for Lilith which was why Layton did not attempt to use any elemental attacks, it was better and easier to use pure power to make her incapacitated, following that thought he stepped forward to meet his attacking opponent and his body moved like a precision machine blasting all his strength towards the sharp claw Lilith had sent his way, the fist changed halfway through its journey to a palm aiming to drag Lilith out of the way as he moved forward escaping the flurry of spikes around.
Lilith saw this change and also followed turning her claw slash into a finger in an attempt to ensure Layton’s intentions failed, Layton continued with his plan and a sharp glint shone in his eyes as a profound sense of oppression was sent out from his palms, the surrounding space slightly compressed as his palm moved forward without the original intent to capture and redirect but instead infused Layton’s will to repel everything in its path away coupled with the assistance of his domain that amplified his will and mind Lilith was unable to fully resist the move half of her body including her arms and legs were blasted to scum as Layton rushed out, but that move didn’t cause much harm to her as the missing parts rapidly formed as she continued her pursuit.
‘She’s getting harder and harder to kill’ Layton commented in his mind as he turned back to face her, her increasing ease in manipulating the black substance was compressing his movements, Layton had already figured out some mysteries the domain was basically her body, it was basically still the same one she possessed when she was still in the extraordinary stage, the change only occurred because of her breakthrough, her increased realm meant she had become capable of tapping into the mysteries of her body, the body which was created and formed by black mud, the black mud whose essence was essentially concentrated human malice and evil had been formed and spread rapidly in two worlds this meant it would naturally absorbs a lot of genetic information and memories relating to its field which would naturally include those of combat trickery deception and various forms of causing harm, especially in the last plane most creatures formed from her black mud were involved in combat and fighting immediately they were formed. Her present performance was simply tapping into those memories digesting them and turning them into her own.
Layton leapt to the skies dodging the various monsters that spawned out of the black mud helping Lilith to besiege him, the grotesque figures possessed the same special features as Lilith except they didn’t adapt to combat as rapidly as her, their numbers grew rapidly and Layton was forced to stay in the skies, Lilith naturally didn’t wait for him on the ground as large bat-like wings grew out of her shoulder blades as she leapt after Layton, it was the first time both of them were undergoing air combat but they both rapidly grew adept at it, every part of Lilith’s body turned into a killing machine, her ponytail had come undone and her hair swirled around turning into spears, whips or ropes as Lilith willed as she sought to cause damage to Layton, the beast on the ground naturally joined the party as they underwent rapid changes turning into monsters capable of flight. At this point Layton had lost all ease he previously had, his biomagnetic field was being urged consistently granting him rapid agile flight and creating a defence to stop the numerous claws fangs and fists, it wasn’t that Layton was afraid of pain but that the attacks were special, although he could rapidly heal his wounds the attacks would contaminate him with black mud, black mud which he would have to pay attention to and expel from his body as it would contaminate not only the body but the spirit, attention which he could not afford to spare as lack of it in the present battle would only lead to more injuries forming a vicious cycle.
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