Leaving a trail of ice behind her, she reached out with her hand and activated a tier 3 magic circle.

Countless spikes protruded out from the ice before being launched out into the air with incredible velocity.

Looking at the spikes that fell towards him like arrows, the Grand Knight gritted his teeth and punched the ground.

"Aegis!" He commanded and pulled out an earthen s.h.i.+eld. Raising it above him, he attempted to block the arrows.

However, just as he did this, s.h.i.+ro activated Asura Sword Path and slashed towards the s.h.i.+eld with all her might.

*BOOM!!! CRACK!!!!

Shattering the s.h.i.+eld in half, she jumped into the rift so that she could avoid her own ice. Appearing behind the Grand Knight, she stabbed Ataraxia in his back before grabbing his arms.

Pus.h.i.+ng mana into her hands, she activated Glacial Touch and started to freeze his arms.

With his guard being forced apart by s.h.i.+ro, the Grand Knight gritted his teeth and activated a berserk skill.

*BANG!

A deep red aura erupted out of him, sending s.h.i.+ro cras.h.i.+ng backwards but she quickly adjusted herself and slid on the ground.

Glaring at the spikes that weren't affected by his aura, the Grand Knight spun his spear and threw it like a javelin.

*BOOM!!!!

Shooting out like a missile, it shattered all of the spikes before returning to his hand.

"Tch, what a pain." s.h.i.+ro muttered with a frown. However, she knew that as long as she prolonged this fight a little, she'd be able to attack him at full force when he's weakened.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she activated the skill that she learned when fighting against the level 100 Redirm in the trial s.p.a.ce.

Killing Skill: Hollow Deceit!

This skill incorporated both the use of 5th phantom and Berserker Path. When activated, it would create 9 additional copies of her of which she could change places with at any moment. The cool down was 10 seconds and would use 5% of her MP per activations.

However, this skill was worth it since it didn't take as much mana as her other skills.

As she activated the 5th phantom and Berserker path, her hair s.h.i.+fted from white to black and her eyes changed to a deep red colour.

Crouching down slightly, she controlled each of the 9 copies to make different movements while das.h.i.+ng at the Grand Knight.

Furrowing his brows, the Grand Knight glared at each of the copies and activated a tier 3 magic circle.

An illusionary armour coated his body while he swung towards the closest copy with incredible speed.

Seeing this, s.h.i.+ro created the Genesis Hand Cannon and shot it towards the armour.

*PING!!!

Widening his eyes, the Grand Knight didn't expect his skill to be shattered so easily.

Quickly adjusting his spear, he attacked the one who had fired the weapon since he guessed that this was the real body.

Little did he know, she was able to change places with any of the copies. 

Changing places with the copy that he had first targeted, s.h.i.+ro twisted her body and slashed towards the Grand Knight's neck.

Suddenly feeling a chill down his spine, the Grand Knight quickly activated another defensive skill but it was useless.

Shattering into countless particles once more, his defence was broken with ease.

"GAH!!!" Crying out in pain, his eyes became bloodshot while he tried to push back her sword that had cut into his neck.

Seeing this as an opportunity, s.h.i.+ro decided to kill him here and now.

She also deemed it as a perfect opportunity to test out her new skill, Force of Elements.

Injecting mana into Ataraxia, she sacrificed it to regen her MP since she wanted to use the version with all 6 elements. However, doing so would drain 40% of her MP which isn't what she wanted.

Regenerating her MP, she encased the Grand Knight in a block of ice to stop his movements.

Activating the Force of Elements, 6 orbs of different colours floated around her before slowly merging together.

Forming into a crystal white sword that floated in the air, s.h.i.+ro felt a little dizzy at the fact that almost half her MP was drained in an instant. Not only that, her mana links were being strained ma.s.sively due to the mana use, forcing her to kneel down in pain.

The Grand Knight paled a little when he felt the sheer amount of pressure and danger that he could feel when looking at the sword. His first instinct was to run but since he was encased by ice, his movements were halted for now.

Seeing that the knight was trying to break out, s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes and aimed her spare hand towards his location.

Frozen Slumber!

Several magic circles appeared around him as chains shot out and wrapped around the ice block.

Clenching her hands into a fist, the temperatures dropped rapidly, reinforcing the prison around the Grand Knight.

Despite her Force of Element skill being unmissable, she still didn't want him to get too far.

While the Grand Knight was chipping away at his prison, her skill was finally charged.

A galaxy like aura could be seen coating the crystal sword as s.h.i.+ro designated the Grand Knight as the enemy.

*BOOM!!!

Shooting towards the grand knight, the sword almost escaped the current limits of s.h.i.+ro's perception, much to her shock. She quickly thawed all the ice so that it didn't reduce the power of the sword.

Enlarging itself once it was above the knight, the sword swung down with indomitable might.

*PUs.h.i.+!!!!

Before the Knight could even scream, the sword sliced him in half, ending his life there and then.

"Sss!" Taking in a sharp breath, s.h.i.+ro was rather surprised at how violent this skill was. Since it had 200% additional magic damage, it essentially tripled her INT value.

While her links weren't broken, the strain now prevented her from activating any tier 3 skill for a short time. Whenever she did, she could feel pain shooting through her body.

"d.a.m.n… I shouldn't use this skill unless I have to." She muttered while walking to the Grand Knights Corpse.

After killing the knight, her level had increased from 70 to 71. Quickly allocating her stats, she retrieved the Knight's mana stone and collected his loot.

"Oh my…" Raising an eyebrow to the loot that he dropped, s.h.i.+ro couldn't help but blink twice.

There were only two rare items but both were equipment. The first was a spear while the second was a set of armour.

[Ascended h.e.l.l knight's Spear LVL 80 - Purple +]

A spear that belonged to a knight that had surpa.s.sed his limits.

+10,000 Attack

+10,000 Armour Penetration

+8,000 Attack Speed

+30% Critical Chance

+20% Critical Damage

+15% Parry Chance

Skill: Spear Throw EX, Knight's Fury

Spear Throw EX:

When thrown, the spear becomes a near unstoppable force that ignores 60% of DEF values.

Cost: 300,000MP

Cooldown: 2 minutes

Knight's Fury:

Every hit you do stacks 1 fury. When you reach 10 fury, your next attack is empowered and deals 100% bonus damage on hit while ignoring 20% of DEF.

Looking at the spear, she realised that this was the answer to her problem regarding defensive monsters.

"If I recycle this weapon and combine it with the kinetic launcher, I should be able to use the Spear Throw EX since it's technically shooting out a spear as the ammunition. If that's the case, then I can probably start to prototype a new sniper that is more kinetic based rather than magic based." s.h.i.+ro muttered with a smile.

{But my queen, there is the problem regarding the description.} Nimue called out.

"Oh? What problem?"

{The fact that it says the word thrown. I suppose you would need to throw it manually for it to work.}

"Hmm…. I won't recycle it for now then." s.h.i.+ro nodded since she'll probably do some experiments later to see if that's the case. Storing the spear away in her inventory, she looked at the armour piece.

[Ascended h.e.l.l Knight's Chest Piece LVL 80 - Purple +]

+10,000 VIT

+7000 DEF

+7000 STR

Skill: Gladiator Aura

Gladiator Aura - Berserk Skill:

When activated, VIT, STR and DEF is increased by an additional 20%

Cost: 10% of MP

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 10 hours

Backlash: 80% muscle fatigue and muscle Strain for 5 hours. VIT, STR and DEF are reduced by 30% for 5 hours.

Understanding that this armour is good for Madison, s.h.i.+ro stored it away before wondering about whether or not she should go into the boss room.

After all, she was a bit injured right now.

{I suggest that you stop here for now. You've already gained 6 levels so you shouldn't risk it. Quit while you're ahead.} Nimue suggested.

"True. I can come back in a few days once my mana links have recovered." s.h.i.+ro nodded and made her way out of the dungeon.