Chapter 361: The Clash of Dragons (2)

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The Holy Lance's wave of energy crushed upon their two figures, causing Neji to turn his back to the beam and hug Rumi. His back took the entire blow, his armor heating up, as he shot down through the tower's floors with Rumi in his arms.

"We are going to hit the ground."

"Not on my watch!"

Rumi yelled, a rift in space opened, and the two of them fell right through. The rift was to lead them back into the tower, however, Rhongomyniad appeared to be blocking any spatial interference – so the two of them only reappeared far above the tower.

At the very least, they regained control of their forms and maintained a flight in the sky. They observed the aerial battle that the tower and Ozy's pyramids were getting into. 

 From the sky, Neji also saw the name of the Tower Dungeon. 

[The Tower of Apocalypse]

While called the Tower of the End by the people of this world, his system had given it a slightly different name. As said by Sisty before, this tower was also the Tower Dungeon of this world.

Not that Neji could get curious about it at this moment, mid-battle as he was.

"...She's trying to open a portal to someplace. What's she up to?"

Rumi used her Byakugan and looked into the throne room. Neji frowned and did the same, blinking in contemplation.

"It's weird. Can you stop her?"

"I'll try countering her teleportation with mine, but it won't last long. We have to rush back in."

"Let's go."

Rumi did as asked, disrupting Rhongomyniad's teleportation momentarily, and then the both of them rushed back inside.

The glass window of the tower's highest floor was their path in, and as Rumi slammed against it and slipped in — Neji crashed against an invisible barrier.

"What the-?!"

"Neji?"

"Sisty, what's this?"

[Uh, master, it looks like there has been a little problem. Now that the tower has been deployed, and classified as a tower by the system, entering it like this isn't possible. You can only enter through the gate beneath, but entering that will only bring you into the Dungeon, not this tower.]

"How the fuck does that make any sense?! Fix this quickly!"

[Yes, on it.]

"Rumi, move in, I can't enter due to some weird mess up."

"Okay."

Rumi looked a little confused but she just nodded and rushed back in.

Rhongomyniad was wearing a frown as Rumi approached, and Neji noticed a bloody Quetzalcoatl fighting her. 

It seemed Quetzalcoatl finally managed to slip past the two knights and kept Rhongomyniad until now. It caused her to bleed like a mess, however.

"Tsk, can't believe I'm going to play support, but-"

Neji raised his hands and then cast a healing spell. One, two, three, and so on. He continued until Quetzalcoatl's blood vanished and all her wounds closed.

The blonde chief god blinked and shot a look outside the window. When she saw Neji with his hands raised, realizing it was him healing her, an adorably large smile bloomed on her face.

"...."

That expression caught Neji off guard a little. He quickly sighed and ignored the feeling deep in his chest, watching her go back into the fight.

Despite actively controlling his urges, he couldn't understand why he felt this way toward some women. Perhaps for this woman in particular, it had something to do with how he was ignoring her – despite wanting her.

Regardless, this wasn't the time to think about that. Neji made a mental note to see an end to this after finishing the ordeal with Rhongomyniad, since he will have time on his hands anyway – and focused back on the fight.

– Bam!

Not that he could do much, focusing back. Rumi dealt a bone-shattering kick on Rhongomyniad’s chin, as the dragon’s face shot upwards, her jaws going clenched. On the side, Quetzalcoatl called out the power of the sun and threw a solar-coated punch on Rhongomyniad’s stomach, once again throwing her a step back.

Each time Rhongomyniad was attacked, she tried to swing her lance at the attacker. However, the other attacker attacked right then and disrupted her attack. Her lance was huge, and swinging it around wasn’t exactly fast. Her movements were surely beyond human comprehension, but against two other Goddesses, it felt short. If she used her bare hands to fight, she might have had a better chance.

And for now, that was the plan.

To make her lose Rhongomyniad. If she wasn’t holding that spear, then Neji could use his [Dragon Domain]. The chances of her breaking out of that domain without her lance were low. Lower, if the other things Neji planned went the same.

 The problem with that plan was, Neji was stuck outside right now.

And just right now,

– Bam!

– Dhijjj!

Rhongomyniad was punched in her face hard, while a kick fell on her stomach. That made her lose her grip on her lance’s hilt, causing it to fly back and roll on the ground, filling the hall with sound.

Rhongomyniad breathed heavily as she looked to the ground in a side head tilt, where her face had been pushed by the punch. She slowly turned her head back forward, her neck cracking, before her lips crooked up in anger.

“Fools.”

The cape she wore on her shoulders was brushed downwards, as two large golden wings rose up from her back. Her eyes went cold slit, and the crown in her head twisted to take the form of a dragon’s horns.

‘So the crown was her horns from the get-go…’

Neji watched as Rhongomyniad grumbled, slowly starting to look like an angry beast. That was a good reaction, she was showing emotion.

Rhongomyniad was Tier 25 – and as it was with Naruto, who had a tailed beast inside him, her tier was the strongest possible form that she could reach without any form of sacrifice. Tier 25 was likely in her dragon form, not in the form she had been fighting until now.

“Fool!”

Rhongomyniad moved, and Neji’s eyelids flinched, realizing the speed. His Jogan could barely keep up. That meant Rumi could also follow it somehow, however, for Quetzalcoatl it would be impossible.

Rhongomyniad targeted Quetzalcoatl first, since she was the annoying one, while Rumi was the heavy hitter. However, to Neji’s surprise, Quetzalcoatl wasn’t instantly out, she managed to dodge – thanks to, Observe said, her [Wisdom Eyes].

– Bam! – Bam! – Bam!

However, that was only true for a few seconds. The much stronger and faster Rhongomyniad hit her thrice in quick succession, all hits connecting with Quetzalcoatl’s face, and her eyes went white in the last blow.

“Ahuh…”

Quetzalcoatl released an unintentional whimper and fell on her back, knocked out in seconds.

“Neji, you better come in soon!”

Rumi yelled while laughing like a maniac, wearing a grin, proving she was enjoying every bit of this, as she rushed at Rhongomyniad and they both clashed.

Wind crackled as Rumi’s leg hit Rhongomyniad’s raised arms, the glass nearby breaking right away, and the other fighters in the room flying off their feet.

Unlike until now, where Rumi had a little advantage, the current clash was a stalemate.

Despite being a heavy cheat-power user right now, her physiques in hybrid dragon form were equal to Rumi. Rumi’s base form, anyway.

Rumi’s grin widened as she jumped off, and then kicked the ground again, rushing back at Rhongomyniad. As she approached her childhood friend, her dark skin went darker, and her white hair went luminous dark purple, nearly black.

Of course, the same rule as Rhongomyniad applied to Rumi as well. Without sacrificing anything for a power-up, she wasn’t Tier 22 in her base either. In her [Wild Form], she was the strongest.

In the second clash, Rumi tried  to overpower Rhongomyniad. However, Rhongomyniad could feel the strength difference – so she used her skill, Mana Burst, and increased the force of her movements.

– Boong~!

This time the walls cracked a little, but it was still a stalemate.

Unfortunately for Rumi, Rhongomyniad wasn’t just a physical tank. Her host body, Artoria, could exert energy on the level of a Divine Spirit, and that only increased now that she was Rhongomyniad. So while Rumi could match the explosive power boost from Mana Burst, a mana blast from the impact point was unforeseen by her.

As Kaguya, Rumi had good Mana Control, since Kaguya was the mother of chakra and Mana isn’t that different from it – however, magic beams weren’t her style of battle, so it caught her off guard and she couldn’t block it.

The beam hit her as she was thrown aback, and Rhongomyniad rushed right after her – punching her in the chin, throwing her up at the ceiling, before she fell down and her waist was faced with Rhongomyniad’s knee.

“Keuk-!”

Rumi groaned in pain as the sound of bones shattering sounded out, and her body bounced off her knee, rolling to the ground.

“Ugh…”

Rhongomyniad walked to tower over her, her golden eyes cold as she stared down. She raised her palm and pointed it at the lying Rumi, groaning in pain as she was. Her palm began to shine golden, a devastating beam building up.

“Anytime now… Neji.”

Rumi groaned, and Ryukyu shot the beam right at her.

– Shhiiing!

– Dhijjj!

However, at the last moment, a purple beam came rushing through one of the broken windows and clashed with Rhongomyniad’s beam. Rumi was safe from it, but it made Rhongomyniad shoot an annoyed look at the pyramid flying near the tower.

Ozymandias smirked from the far, sitting on her throne and looking down on the world.

“Thanks for the help.”

Then, the man of the hour finally managed to jump through the window.

“I will take over from here.”

Neji approached his brainwashed girl at a rapid pace, while his lips moved to form two words.

[Dragon Domain].

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