Chapter 159: Sand and Lava

The tentacle-like objects that bind Eleanor all over her four limbs were made out of viscous liquid on the verge of turning into obsidian, not only was she bound, but she was burnt in several places of her hands, feet, and stomach because of it, she then was punched into the ground, so hard she was plunged that Eleanor went straight from the topsoil to the subsoil in a matter of a second, normally, a human would have all of their bones snapped in many halves if he or she ever have to experience this.

Yet Eleanor did not even shout, hell, even a grunt was not heard. However, Tydings IV was already emersed in his long-sought victory, as he wanted to wash up the humiliation of being matched tow to tow by the weakest child of Urduja, relatively speaking, of course.

Killing her as his first opponent using his newfound strength will be of great pleasure.

Tydings IV did not waste any time. He once again immediately pointed his palms to the ground and pulled it out as if extracting something. At the point by which Eleanor sank, the earth suddenly wiggled and rose as it formed a conical shape three meters big and three meters wide. At first, it was just a mountain with a mouth on top, but soon, it started to glow in red as it radiated hot steam.

[Mouth of the Underworld]

Such is the name of the attack, one of the few attacks of Tydings IV that need intricate control of ability and not just spewing out lava from the ground, from his hands, or his mouth, and still, it was quite simple, and again, like all of his attacks is a crowd control type, that is right now is being used to target a single person, and indeed, inside the volcano that is not so big and had its mouth just a meter and a half give or take the 1/2 of the half, Eleanor is right on top of the increasingly boiling magma, it is pulsating all over her view, and some are inches away from burning her, her two hands are stretched out horizontally by the viscous liquid earlier while her stomach and two legs are in bind at the bottom of the ocean of hot magma.

Surely, this spells great trouble for Eleanor, that is, if Eleanor was caught in the volcano.

And indeed, "Eleanor", or her sand clone, disintegrated into nothingness, something that her opponent did not even know, Tydings IV had already regained his calm, after all, his victory is certain, it is quite sad that a little distraction can cause victory or defeat on a fight between strong people, but he is not someone who has the habit to mourn for the mistakes of his opponent.

And as Tydings IV waited, the real Eleanor, about 20 meters away from Tydings IV, could not help but frown.

_Why is the cast time so long?_

Eleanor cannot help but wonder, all of his attacks have very little casting time relative to the fact that almost all of them needed to be pulled out of the ground to be used, but this one took so long, it was already a minute since his clone entered the volcano, and yet it only started to glow rapidly, she estimated about another 10 seconds before the mini-volcano explodes. And in all those seconds, Eleanor cannot help but grumble about how troublesome her opponent is.

Eleanor cannot help it, in her bid as Sophia's fighter, she was either fighting against normal soldiers or a subordinate, never did she fight against a main fighting force, and if only it was not due to Sophia requesting her to fight Tydings IV and also because it is her hero's test to "defy" the odds of the said fight that is oddly given after the request of Sophia, she is sure that Bakunawa will be the one that will be stationed here, well she would not say that if she knows that Bakunawa was given a flimsy hero's test because she has already made a great contribution in her partial hero's test.

But that is beyond the point.

Not only does Tydings IV is a veteran warrior and thus can fend off any kind of chained attack that Eleanor throws at him, but he is also a relentless crowd controller, he can stop an attacker dead in her tracks with his lava, lahar, and obsidian that is scattering all over the ground without stopping, Eleanor suspected that the man sacrificed mid-range single target attacks just for the hop that he can match the [God's Finger] of her mom, which is dumb as no lava in the planet can overpower a nuclear bomb, much less a gravity-based one.

However, in this specific period, it was very effective against Eleanor, someone who has stored up mana all this time and is using her unique skill [Defiance]'s [Inorganic Defiance] ability to last this long against The King of the Underworld, in some cases, she even has thought of using [Organic Defiance] to speed run the enemy, the only thing that stops her from doing so is that it's impossible to win and the two commanders, Sophia and [Guide] said not to use the said ability whatever it takes and drag the fight as long as [Guide] said so.

And right now, [Guide] has given her the go signal to finish the fight. She was also given the sealing circle of the artificial hero prospect crystal, and she's ready to complete her mission.

Eleanor wanted to destroy the crystal inside her enemy one by one, but the master crowd controller would not let her target his limbs and heart properly, which once again added to the ridiculousness of her opponent.

_All of that thinking the volcano will just explode right about now._

As Eleanor thought of that, unceremoniously, as if the volcano forgot its job, a loud explosion was heard that caused all of the pillars and mountains of obsidians and glasses to be cut in half due to the large sonic boom at the same time in the mouth, it spouted a 5-meter mushroom cloud, the glistening red-orange hue of the lava will cause one, even its creator, Tydings IV to look in awe as it slowly washed over the land to spread its influence, it was so beautiful that one would never think that it was used to kill someone.

Tydings IV sighed.

_That ends it._

He thought, however when he turned around away from the volcano, he saw a gigantic sand tsunami, it was not only made of sand this time, there were uprooted trees, obsidian that was sharpened specifically to kill, as well as large shards of glass, his eyes widened in shock.

"Splendid explosion, now it's my turn."

To say that Tydings was stunned would have been an understatement, for a moment, he was not able to formulate an immediate response, one because of shock and then, again, as [Guide] has said, any person who has a crystal core inside them is essentially drunk, thus instead of a counter, questions flooded the King of the Underworld's mind.

_H-how did she hide from me!? When!? Don't tell me I have been fighting a sand clone since the beginning of our fight! But she will be brunt every time I successfully splashed her with lava!_

Tydings gritted his teeth, a great amount of mana that is normally not possible for himself radiated all over his body, this time, the sand tsunami was bigger if it was aimed at a city, then that city would have its sun blotted out, and Tydings have to match that, he has no time to hesitate as he, like usual cracked the ground and made a wave of lava spurt out, and just like before, the two forces of nature collided, glass and obsidian were formed, creating a scene out of a demon lord's castle, really nothing unusual, except for the two fighters panting, specially Tydings that have to have his body bombarded by pre absorbed mana contrary to Eleanor that continuously and gradually siphoning mana stored in her magic construct.

That's right, except for exhaustion, there shouldn't be anything strange, right?  Well, there was, in fact, another strange thing, it was a wobbly ball of sand, nothing fancy, it shot through Tydings and hit him in the neck, yet because it was not dense, no damage was done whatsoever, this collision caused an existential dread to waft through the whole body of Tydings, he started to tremble and instinctively made the sand go away by a series of pathetic movements, unbefitting for an artificial calamity.

As he was doing so, a magic circle appeared on his neck and quickly disappeared, he did not even notice it.

Tydings IV never noticed the very thing that would cause his demise, he just shouted.

"What is that sand!? What did you do to me!?"

The sand contains a tweaked version of the magic circle sent by [Guide], one like the enslavement spell administered to Arachne that will disappear and will only be felt when it is doing its work, of course, Eleanor doesn't have any intentions of answering that, she chuckled.

"Wow... you blocked it... another one."

Calmly, Eleanor waved her hand as if she had not gasping for breath for a little while now, causing another wave of sand and glasses to form, Tydings clicked his tongue again; he had no time to hesitate and then made preparations for his counter that is once again, subconsciously is a wave of lava that cost a lot of enormous mana, and it was honestly his last resort spell if he did not have the core.

Good thing he has it, right?

However, as an itch was felt in the neck of Tydings, blood seeped out from his nose and the two corners of his lips, he looked at the ground that he did not even manage to split, squirt out a pathetic amount of lava, alongside that, as if to slap him in the face, a notification resounded in his mind.

[Notice: Effect of the 5 items [Artificial Hero Prospect Crystal] has been sealed, individual Tydings IV  will lose his amplified mana, amplified constitution, and minor debuff [Intoxicated].]

[Notice: Due to the artificial hearts of individual Tydings IV being blocked of all its functions, the individual will die in five minutes, an alternative heart is immediately required.]

It was as if a cold bucket of water was poured on his head, and the notification was heard, at first, he thought of amusing this challenger and maybe using her death to anger Eleanor, but such thoughts disappeared, and he regarded Eleanor with the biggest respect and threat level he can give an enemy, however still, he is confident of his victory, he just felt like this one will take later rather than sooner.

It will be an ugly victory, but a victory nonetheless.

Yet here he is, starting to gasp for oxygen, and if he is not originally a hero, he would have already died, and now that he has already drowned in the sand wave full of gigantic glass shards, he is just very close to it. The pressure of the wave first slapped his whole body, causing his joints to bend as his bones snapped in two, after which the said pressure plunged him close to the ground, making his limbs that lost their skeletal support detach from his body, not only that, the thickness caused by the compaction of individual sand particles made him unable to be plunged to the ground, now, he is being dragged in a wavy pattern, causing some occasional long and sharp shards of glasses to be embedded all over his already ragged body.

It was as if... no, he really cannot do anything but wait for his death in this situation, he is helpless and can only let his opponent decide how he will die, even his unique skill [King of the Underworld] doesn't have a solution on the said predicament, even if it has, his mana is not enough to execute it.

Tydings cannot even hope for a peaceful death with the way he is being dragged around right now.

Yet, despite his sure-death situation, he cannot help but ask himself.

_Will I really die like this?_

He asked.

It was too pathetic, one-sided even, he felt like he was just being played in their days of fighting with their full power because surely, Eleanor doesn't have the ability to be able to instantly create a magic circle that can seal the source of his artificial powers.

The magic circle must be something that was created gradually, if not, then he doubted that such a detestable yet magnificent opponent would let an opportunity to kill him earlier come by without seizing it for the sake of having fun, but of course, all of that wrong analysis is irrelevant for him right now, there is still a great question that stands in front of him right now.

Will HE, the hero of the underworld, the only one in the history of Tydings to be blessed by the fickle and lazy god of the underworld, to die a pathetic death?

_Like hell I will._