Reincarnated Hero System

The Nuclear Cannon collided with Margaux’s defences in an explosion of light and her divinity shield held firm, absorbing the brunt of the spell.

Despite the spell’s immense power, most of Margaux’s shields remained intact, though the force shattered the first few ones and turned all the spirits into wisps of light.

The raw power of the spell knocked Margaux back violently, slamming her into the barrier’s wall with a thunderous crash. Margaux, though unscathed by the direct damage, was left disoriented for a moment and Evan did not hesitate to take the opportunity.

He teleported right beside her and used Hell Unleashed once more, nearly scoring a direct hit if Margaux didn’t hastily use her Frostbound Fury skill and cool the air around her, forming a barrier of her just in time to block the searing flames.

But Evan was already moving again, he kicked off a Void Step and propelled himself to her side as he spun into a powerful roundhouse kick.

Lightning burst out as his kick connected with her side and sent a shockwave through her body, disrupting her spell-casting.

‘He’s fast!’

Margaux’s eyes widened in surprise as she realized that this boy’s speed was far beyond what she had anticipated. As she tried to regain her balance, she attempted to cast a Tier 4 spell to crush Evan with ice, but just as the ice began to form, Evan vanished with Blink, reappearing behind her in a flash.

A Rose of flames bloomed on the back of her head and Evan’s fist coated in lightning followed, the impact reverberating through her skull and causing her vision to blur.

Margaux stumbled forward, struggling to maintain her footing. She knew she needed to create some distance, to buy herself time to summon her a Vengeful Spirit, but Evan wasn’t giving her a moment’s respite.

She turned around and released a beam of pure divinity, but to her shock, Evan was nowhere to be found.

‘Huh? Why can’t I sense him!?’

Margaux warily looked around, preparing to cast a spell, when her body was abruptly encased in a solid block of ice.

‘?!’

Evan who had vanished with Lethe, reappeared and swung his blade intent on shattering the ice, but Margaux who was still conscious beat him to it.

‘Ethereal Blizzard!’

Her skill activated, shattering the ice around her and unleashing a storm of icy shards toward Evan. Before they could reach him, he summoned the Gazebind Aegis and blocked the attack, though its impacts knocked him back a few feet.

‘Phantom Hex!’

Margaux’s curse took effect, but Evan pressed on without faltering. Frustrated, she stomped the ground, conjuring a pillar of earth that erupted in front of him, striking his stomach with blinding speed and launching him skyward.

Evan flipped mid-air, spreading his wings as he activated Skywrath.

Golden Lightning and flames rained down in torrents, mingling with hailstones. Margaux hadn’t even had the chance to begin blocking when Evan appeared behind her, flung a golden chain over her neck and dragged her to the ground, where he stomped his foot onto her head.

She rolled out of the way, barely avoiding Evan’s ‘Collapse’ that shattered the earth beneath their feet and made her lose her balance, providing the perfect opportunity for Evan to launch a full-powered Dragon Breath she could not block.

***BOOMM!!!!

The woman’s body was flung onto the wall of the barrier once more, and her vision momentarily went blank. However, her instincts warned her of danger and she forced her body to move, avoiding the flaming sword that tore down where she was a moment ago.

She summoned hundreds of tiny vengeful spirits, but Evan used chain lightning, sending arcs of electricity jumping from one spirit to another, obliterating them in a matter of seconds.

Not stopping there, he followed up with Elemental Skewer, spearing through the remaining spirits with deadly precision, leaving none standing.

Evan chained attacks one after the other, not letting Margaux get a chance to strike as he knew that any one of her attacks would deal a shit ton of damage to him.

Despite her raw power, Margaux lacked the combat experience and finesse that Evan possessed. Margaux had been an Alchemist for most of her life, only recently shifting her focus to battle-driven magic and skills in her quest for revenge.

Evan, however, had been in the battle business for years, so he was holding out on pure skill.

As he used Elemental Weapon Projection to create weapons that shot down all of her projectile attacks, it almost seemed as if Evan had the upper hand.

Almost, being the keyword here.

Despite Evan’s impressive display, the vast gulf between the Epic and Legendary Levels wasn’t something that could be bridged by a mere 300% power boost or even by employing esoteric flames that bypassed defences.

Although Evan seemed to have the upper hand, the moment Margaux increased her power output—

“Ice Storm!!”

—the tides of battle began changing pretty quickly.

She called down a torrential downpour of ice shards from the sky, bombarding the area with sharp projectiles that froze the ground upon contact, prompting Evan to use ‘Elemental Shield’ to block.

However, even that was not enough to block the power of these 50-cm-long ice shards and very quickly, he had to employ another skill for help.

“Stout Guardian!”

A towering armoured knight wielding a shield materialized before him, blocking the hail of icicles, but Margaux had something in her arsenal to deal with this.

“Stone Golem Summoning.”

Rising from the scorched earth around them, was a giant golem of similar height to Evan’s Stout Guardian. It charged forward with bare hands and punched the knight, cracking its shield with one hit.

Seeing this, Evan activated Frozen Inferno and used his Frostborne Colossus, manipulating the ambient icy energy that filled the area due to Margaux’s attack and coalescing it behind the stone golem which was punching the head of his Stout Guardian.

A giant sword-wielding knight of crimson gold ice formed from the icy energy, swinging its sword and bisecting the stone golem in one strike, only for a massive hole to suddenly burst out in its torso in the next second.

A streak of reddish-brown light shot through it, reaching Evan faster than he could draw his sword and a spear of dark eerie energy stabbed into his shoulder, piercing through his dragon scales.

Malignant magic power surged from the spear and latched onto Evan, infusing him with a plethora of serious curses and debuffs that seeped into his body intending to affect his soul.

‘She should change classes to ‘Curse Warrior’ because what the fuck is this?!’

Evan raised his hand and tried to summon the Gazebind Aegis, but Margaux fired a barrage of freezing projectiles faster than the shield appeared, pelting his body and sending him flying into the distance.

The boy’s back slammed into the wall of the barrier with so much force the air in his lungs was knocked out. Gasping, he barely managed to roll out of the way just as a massive, illusory claw swiped down where he had been moments before.

Looking up, he saw the spirit of a giant lion monster charging at him, but Evan had zero desire to engage directly, leaving that to his Hydras.

The serpentine dragons showered the lion spirit in flames, ice and lightning until it dissipated into magic power.

Evan struggled to his feet, wincing as he glanced at his shoulder, where a spreading patch of purple energy pulsed ominously. Within seconds, it crept up to his neck and he grunted in pain, dropping to his knees.

It was the perfect opening for Margaux to strike, but instead, she simply stood there, watching him in silence, making no move to close the distance.

‘My curses haven’t activated…is his curse resistance that high?’

She easily saw through the fact that Evan was only faking being cursed and the purple patch that was rapidly spreading across his skin was no more than a visual effect with zero substance.

All the curse was doing was just discolouring his skin as Evan’s Curse Resistance from his Hero Title was high enough to protect him.

‘In that case…’

Marguax took a deep breath, before activating her Unique skill and muttering a ‘request’.

“Come, Marcel. We have some pests blocking our path of Revenge. Let’s take them out.”

A black mass extended from her upper back, swirling upwards to form a 3-metre-tall half-humanoid with a skull head, glowing reddish-brown eyes, no nose, and a half-torn mouth.

[Yes, Mother.]

“?!”

Both Arthur and Evan widened their eyes in shock at the sight of Marcel’s Summoned Spirit. It wasn’t the spirit’s appearance that stunned them, but they didn’t expect it to be this powerful.

Evan instantly dropped his pretence and leapt toward the edge of the barrier, his expression twisting for real this time.

Margaux had caused the deaths of 20 Demon Soldiers and when Evan reviewed the records of the murders, he noticed that all 19 of her previous victims were Level 700s, with one even reaching Level 780.

Yet, when he appraised Margaux, her Level was only 714.

‘You don’t kill a Level 780 and stay below 733…’

Since then, Evan realized that despite being summoned by her skill, ‘Marcel Bonnet’ was treated as a separate entity, meaning the EXP from all 20 fallen Legends had gone to him instead.

In that instant, the difficulty of the battle skyrocketed from Low A-Tier to SS-Tier.

“Oy, Arthur, this is NOT what I signed up for!”

“Haha! I don’t think you signed up for any of this.”

“Exactly! So, open up that barrier now!”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Arthur laughed as Evan edged toward the barrier’s edge, his eyes darting between Margaux and Marcel. Holding up five fingers, Arthur grinned mischievously.

“You like games, don’t you? How about we play ‘Survival Mode’ now? 5 minutes.”

This was asking Evan for too much. Holding out against Margaux with skill was one thing, but Marcel—a seasoned soldier skilled enough to become a First Lieutenant—was a different case entirely.

Margaux ignored their banter, her gaze locking onto Evan.

In the next second, she vanished, moving so quickly that even Evan’s superior kinetic vision + Time Difference combo, barely allowed him to catch the sight of her reaching him instantly and striking forward with her spear.

“Banshee’s Lament.”

***KIIIIIAAAAAAKKKKKK!!!!!!

Marcel let out a loud mournful wail infused with dark curses, targeting the very souls of all who heard.

Arthur quickly used magic to block the sound from getting too far, preventing the people who were a few kilometres away from suddenly dropping dead due to the powerful curses.

Members of the Demon’s Military Police who were rushing over due to the energy fluctuations from the battle were also saved from the malignant soundwave that sought to inflict agonizing pain and drain away one’s life force.

“Mesarthim; Orange: Self-Immolation!”

As for Evan, he engulfed his body in his orange flames, buffing himself enough to just barely dodge Margaux’s Spear.

‘She’s much faster? Increased power output doesn’t cut it, her power must be tied to the strength of the Spirit she’s summoning!’

Evan had this thought as he tried to gain distance, but Marcel wailed and hit him with soundwaves that knocked him into the air with force.

Flapping his wings to stabilize himself, Evan silently thanked his stars for being ‘Loved By Nature,’ granting him nigh-immunity to curses.

‘Every single thing that guy does buffets me with curses!’

[Haunting…Frostbite]

Marcel’s ghostly voice echoed as the spirit lunged at Evan with icy claws and fangs, swiping at him with the intent to swat him out of the sky.

Evan blocked the first two strikes with his shield but dodged the third, as he realised that Marcel’s attacks were growing progressively stronger.

He manoeuvred through the air, dodging Margaux’s spells while simultaneously launching Vindiction’s Strikes to keep her grounded.

Although Margaux could tank Evan’s attacks, the combination of Destruction Essence and Esoteric flames was something she preferred not to touch. So, she dodged them all, which prevented her from pursuing Evan in the sky.

This was no problem for her, as he had Marcel lunging at him and ripping through his Stout Guardian like paper.

Evan’s elemental shields were torn through like a knife slicing through butter, and Marcel displayed the astonishing ability to clone himself!

[Frigid…Phantasmal…Assault]

Icy duplicates of himself materialized, charging at Evan from all directions and overwhelming him with relentless frosty attacks.

Each strike inflicted a plethora of curses and debuffs on Evan, and with Margaux supporting from the ground with her skill, the potency of each one was tripled.

|Adaptive Evolution has been triggered. |

|Curse Resistance has increased. |

‘Why, thank you!’

Evan activated limit break and teleported to avoid the barrage of attacks, but Marcel’s phantoms were everywhere.

As soon as he reappeared, one of them turned toward him and unleashed blades of ice that grazed the tip of his nose as he twisted to dodge.

‘Elemental Shield! Stout Guardian!’

He activated the two defensive skills, but the real Marcel charged at him and shattered the shields like glass, before ripping through his Stout Guardian like paper.

Evan raised his sword and used ‘Hell Unleashed’, but Marcel sliced through the searing flames, slashing across Evan’s chest and tearing through his Imperial Scales, drawing blood.

Without missing a beat, Marcel pulled back his fist and punched Evan out of the sky, sending him crashing into the earth like a rag doll.

The impact rattled Evan’s body, but he unfurled his wings and flapped them rapidly, lifting himself off the ground just as Margaux’s spear struck the spot where his torso had been a second ago.