Kingdom Building: Civilization Starts with Divinity-Chapter 57: Goliath vs Goliath

The moment Nera and Gravana rushed out of the building, their battle continued.

It started with a simple contest of speed. They both ran, slowly picking up their pace against the other.

{Sister Nera!? What’s going on?} The Verminae questioned as the two dashed past them in a blur.

{Nothing. Stay out of it.} Nera responded.

Even without transforming, Gravana couldn’t properly shake off Nera. Instead of just running, she continuously propelled herself forward using trees until they reached a sufficiently distant location.

"Grahaha! As expected. My Disciple’s aid is quite interesting herself." Gravana continued to taunt.

"So you say. I heard you couldn’t even properly touch Mother Goddess. If that’s the case, you’ll never even see me." Nera sarcastically retorted in response.

Before Gravana could respond, Nera punched a nearby tree, nearly uprooting everything. When she grabbed it with two of her arms, her other two adeptly carved the bottom of the trunk into a massive spear, much like the one she launched at Gravana when they had first met.

"Since Mother Goddess seems to like you, I’ll ensure you stay in one piece, vermin."

"I should be saying that to you. I can’t harm my disciple’s important aid too badly, now can I?"

Despite his cocky attitude, the feeling that Nera gave off was completely different from Alchemy.

If Alchemy was an unpolished jewel, waiting for a master craftsman to polish her, then Nera was like a masterfully crafted stainless steel blade. From presence alone, it was clear that she was the perfect knight for her Goddess.

"So you’re a weapon master, huh? If you want, I could return to my boys and grab you a couple of toys we took from Adventurers who tried to raid us."

"You may not be a Vampire, but a wooden stake is more than enough for the likes of you, pooch."

"I just can’t get enough of you guys! A little girl who throws herself at impending death to protect her kin and a suicidal knight who will do anything to maintain her master’s honor. You’ve gained my respect, Shapeshifter Nera."

"I don’t need respect from an ingrate like you. Now, will you come at me, or will we chat all day long?" She scoffed.

Gravana’s face-splitting smile somehow grew bigger at Nera’s arrogance and disregard for the difference in strength.

Putting a crack in the ground, Gravana sent himself hurtling toward Nera, which she promptly jumped up to avoid before thrusting her sharp wooden rod straight into Gravana.

As close as it was to hitting, Gravana slammed his feet into the ground to stop his momentum and launched himself into the air to avoid.

That was a mistake, however.

The moment his feet left the ground, two of Nera’s fists slammed straight into him, sending him flying. Before he could recover, she transformed into her [Gigant Form] before rushing behind him and hitting him like a baseball in the opposite direction.

Right after the attack, she reverted forms. This wasn’t necessarily ideal. After reverting, there was a slight delay before she could activate her skill again. This was a delay shared with all toggleable skills so they couldn’t be spammed relentlessly.

Regardless of that, she was confident Gravana couldn’t recover from her assault quick enough for it to matter.

Although she had a pretty decent idea about Gravana’s strength from his showcase in the lab, she couldn’t waste her SP pointlessly against a strong opponent.

Especially a strong opponent who sandbags for the thrill of fighting.

"NEVER INVADE MY DOMAIN AGAIN!" She shouted, continuing her assault.

Thanks to her four limbs, she could keep attacking even in between the swings and thrusts of her massive weapon, leaving virtually no openings.

Until he managed to land on the ground, rooting his feet so Nera couldn’t easily send him back into the air, he blocked her side swipe with his bare claws and grabbed her leg with his free hand, tossing her like a ragdoll.

"HAHAHA! INDEED, YOU’RE MUCH STRONGER THAN YOUR MASTER! SHOW ME MORE OF YOUR TRUE POWER!" He shouted, pushing forward with reckless abandon to meet Nera.

Although she was thrown, Nera’s mighty wings allowed her to reposition and stabilize herself, allowing her to turn back and retaliate quickly.

"Fine then, stray."

Those few interactions were enough for her to tell that staying in her [Neutral Form] wouldn’t get her far at all.

Irritating as it was, she had to go all out just to deal damage.

Nera reactivated [Cycle of Wings] and entered back into her [Gigant Form]. At the same time, she released her [Gravity Well] at its limit, causing everything in their immediate area, herself excluded, to feel double the force of the world pulling down on them.

This was a trick that Gravana had never seen or felt before. Because of the change of gravity, he nearly tripped and had to slow down to get used to it, giving Nera another chance to impale him.

Instead of avoiding it, he sent his elbow straight down into the tree before getting in close and striking Nera with a nasty punch. In immediate retaliation, Nera threw a punch of her own from one of her massive fists, resulting in a cross counter capable of creating a shockwave and sending them both flying backward.

Both rapidly regained their footing, or in Nera’s case, simply her balance in the air before charging back at each other.

Nera knocked down a tree to create a blindspot, even sacrificing a bit of her SP to reinforce it, but Gravana just smashed through it without much of an issue, forcing Nera to fly back and use her superior range to zone Gravana out.

It was only now that she was starting to feel the metaphorical weight of her personality. The -30% Strength that it gave her was making itself very apparent as Gravana’s speed kept increasing until it got to the point that he was outright faster than Nera even while she was in the sky.

He adapted to gravity with immense haste, making Nera consider whether she should just disable her skill. However, gravity plus her massive range advantage were the only things keeping her in this fight.

But even that would run out soon as her SP pool, as massive as it was for her level, couldn’t hold out for long. Not to mention that things only got worse, as Nera could tell he was still holding back.

She couldn’t tell exactly how much of his power he was using, but it had to be less than 50%. Worse still, Gravana wasn’t using his wind at all. If he began using that, she would lose most of her advantage from being able to stay in the sky and out of his reach.

She was sure she could adapt to it given enough time, but if Gravana were to start showing his true abilities, then she most likely wouldn’t have the time.

Another issue, if the last several weren’t enough to make this look hopelessly bleak, was that Gravana was barely wounded.

Nera remained healthy and unwounded thanks to her constant reinforcement with Divine Energy, but Gravana shouldn’t have anything like that and was still barely bleeding.

His own attack that he showed in the lab did more to him than Nera could during this entire fight so far.

"I’ll end this now!" Nera shouted, dashing into the sky, using the sun to block Gravana’s vision of her.

She flew so high that the air started growing thinner and thinner rapidly.

"Very well! Let us make this our last clash, Valiant Warrior Nera!" Gravana laughed ecstatically.

Finally, he began using his wind as it coalesced around his fist.

Nera changed the target of her skill, focusing it solely on herself and her weapon while she aimed directly at Gravana.

Then, dropping like a comet upon the Earth, Nera entered into a nosedive as Gravana called out the name of his magic.

"CHAOS WIND!"