novelraw Page 176
Page 176
Seeing this, Himejima Akeno and the others immediately activated their magic, and lightning and sword energy intertwined to form a large net, attempting to hinder Riesel's offensive.
But Riesel was now enraged. His attacks were chaotic yet incredibly violent, causing Himejima Akeno and the others to become somewhat flustered.
Rias, suspended in mid-air, watched this scene and sighed softly.
It seems we'll have to use the second plan Ye taught us.
Without further hesitation, she reached into her storage space and pulled out two items.
It is a peculiar prop, about the size of a palm, made up of countless intricate gears.
The other item was a pair of black tactical gloves that covered up to the elbows.
She slowly put on the gloves, then held the gear prop in her palm.
During a lull in the attack, Riesel caught a glimpse of what was in her hand; the overall outline of the gear-like prop somehow resembled a church cross.
He immediately let out a harsh laugh.
"A cross? Rias, you're a demon, how could you resort to something like that? You've completely disgraced the Gremory family!"
In the VIP viewing room, Heath Ledger Phoenix's expression also became extremely strange.
"What...is that? Some kind of divine artifact?"
Beside him, Sazex narrowed his crimson eyes, staring intently at the gear in Rias's hand on the screen, a genuine look of interest appearing on his face for the first time.
In Zhou Ye's room.
"Boss, what is that? I've never seen Lady Rias use it before?"
Nami looked completely confused.
Saeko Busujima's hand remained on the hilt of her sword, but her attention was not on the gear; rather, it was on the change in Rias's demeanor after she put on the gloves.
It was a strange feeling of transforming from a spellcaster who relied on magic into a kind of pure warrior.
Zhou Ye yawned and spoke lazily.
"Demons, or rather most mystical beings, have a fatal weakness."
He picked up the glass of cola on the table, which was no longer very cold, and shook it.
"They rely too much on magic."
"Once you turn off their magic cheat, they're not even as good as a well-trained ordinary orc."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Rias on the battlefield proved him right with her actions.
She completely ignored Riesel's taunts and simply tossed the gear prop in her palm into the air!
"[Simulated Constraint Barrier], activated!"
As Rias's cold voice fell, the small gear-shaped prop suddenly unfolded in mid-air, and countless finer gears emerged layer upon layer, instantly expanding into a huge circular magic circle covering a diameter of 100 meters!
hum-
An invisible wave, centered on the magic array, swept across the entire area.
In an instant, all the rampant magic in this area, whether it was Riesel's flames or Himejima Akeno's lightning, was completely wiped out and vanished without a trace.
It's like someone pressed the delete key.
As Riesel Phoenix flew rapidly through the air, the expression on his face instantly changed from furious mockery to extreme horror.
He felt as if the magic power within him was being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, and he could no longer mobilize even a fraction of it.
Having lost the ability to fly sustained by magic, gravity faithfully fulfilled its duty.
“Ahhhhh——!”
Riesel let out a piercing scream, like a chicken with a broken wing, as it plummeted straight down from a height of tens of meters.
boom!
With a loud crash, he smashed into the ground, creating a messy, human-shaped crater, and landed face-first in the dirt.
Rias's figure slowly descended from the sky.
Without the aid of magic, her movements were full of power and coordination, and she landed lightly in front of Riesel.
She moved her hands, which were covered in black gloves, and her joints made a series of cracking sounds.
On that beautiful face, a smile that sent chills down Riesel's spine—a smile brimming with "nuclear kindness"—revealed.
"Come on, take this Bajiquan!"
"Ora ora ora ora—!"
Rias let out a battle cry that was completely out of character for a noble lady, filled with wildness and power!
Her fists, clad in black tactical gloves, blurred into indistinct afterimages, raining down blow after blow on Riesel's body like a storm.
[Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!]
The dull, rapid thuds sounded like drumming.
Having lost the protection of magic and forced to rely solely on the innate physical resistance of demons to endure, Riesel experienced firsthand what true despair meant.
Each punch felt like a hammer filled with cement, making his bones groan.
His internal organs were churning, and his consciousness was becoming blurred by the excruciating pain.
He wanted to rebel, to summon his magic, but his body was empty.
He tried to dodge, but the other person's fist was so fast that he couldn't react at all.
He, the heir of the prestigious Phoenix family, a pure-blooded high-ranking demon, was now being brutally beaten like a three-year-old child thrown into a professional boxing ring.
Riesel was thrown off the ground and subjected to a barrage of punches in mid-air, his body contorting into various strange shapes.
This scene was clearly displayed to all the spectators through the magic screen.
Inside the Devil's VIP room, there was an eerie silence.
The nobles who had just been marveling at Riesel's "immortality" were now all gaping, their expressions blank, as if they had just watched the most unbelievable horror movie.
"Is this...is this still a ranking game? This is a one-sided execution!"
"Too...too brutal! When did the young lady of the Gremory family become so...so savage?"
"How could her punch have such an effect? That wasn't a pure physical attack!"
In another VIP room, Heath Ledger Phoenix's face had turned from ashen to a deep purple.
He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, and his whole body was trembling.
"Barbarian! Shameless barbarian!"
He gritted his teeth and growled, not cursing Rias, but rather venting his impotent rage at his family being publicly humiliated.
Leval, standing behind him, also looked extremely grim.
But he was much calmer than his father and brother. He stared intently at Rias's every move on the screen, his eyes filled with not only horror but also an incomprehensible fear.
[This is impossible! Without the aid of magic, pure physical strength alone couldn't reach this level! Every punch she throws carries a peculiar force, capable of penetrating muscles and reaching the internal organs! What kind of fighting technique is this?]
In the room of the Demon King Sazex.
The atmosphere was extremely eerie.
Sazex's handsome face was filled with bewilderment and confusion.
Doesn't he know his own sister who is a bit arrogant, a bit willful, and even a bit naive in battle?
Let alone such a ferocious fist technique, she used to be unable to even win an argument with someone!
"...When...when did Rias learn boxing?"
He finally couldn't help but ask the question to himself.
That's what he said, but his gaze, uncontrollably, pierced through the barrier of space and fell on the observation room where Zhou Ye was.
Is that you... Zhou Ye?
What exactly did you do to my sister?
Meanwhile, in the eye of the storm, in Zhou Ye's observation room.
The atmosphere was quite joyful.
"Wow! Boss! Lady Rias is so fierce!"
Nami's eyes lit up, all her previous worries vanished, and she even took out her notebook to start calculating, "This attack mode doesn't consume any magic power at all, its endurance is practically infinite! It's simply the bane of mages!"
Shizuka Marikawa covered her mouth, her face flushed, unsure whether it was from excitement or fear.
"Wow...that's amazing! Just like in the movies!"
Only Saeko Busujima licked her lips, her eyes filled with the approval of a professional.
"It's not just about speed and ruthlessness. Her core is very stable, her lower body is solid, and every punch she throws is a perfect combination of waist and stance, twisting all the power of her body into a single rope and bursting out from her fist. This is a true killing technique."
The miniature mechanical dragon Draig, lying on the table, had its green mechanical eyes flashing with data streams.
"This is insane! This human's combat philosophy is absolutely insane! Making a pure magic user engage in close-quarters combat? This is more absurd than making a dragon learn to dig! But... why is it so effective?"
Zhou Ye leaned back leisurely on the sofa, drinking cola as if watching an exciting action movie.
"Magic is a tool, not a crutch."
He spoke calmly, offering the final explanation to everyone in the room who were puzzled.
"When you place all your hopes on a crutch, once it is taken away, you will only fall down."
"But if it's just a tool, then even without a hammer, I can still use a stone."
As soon as he finished speaking, Rias on the screen seemed to have gotten tired of playing the "Ora Ora" game.
She twisted her body in mid-air to dodge a punch that Riesel had unconsciously thrown, then suddenly lowered her shoulders and turned her hips!
"Eight Extremes Iron Mountain Lean!"
Her entire body, like a heavy sword drawn from its sheath, slammed her shoulder hard into Raisel's chest.
[Crack! 】
A clear sound of bone cracking echoed through all the spectator rooms via the magic circle.