Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Death in itself was formless and appearance-wise, a nonexistent power. It wasn't like flame that roared and devoured. It wasn't like poison that corroded and could come in all kinds of forms. It wasn't a fist or a weapon.

It was intangible. Invisible.

It wasn't something a human could learn to wield like a limb. Yet, Soara had done just that. One of the ways she had done it was by making it easier for her to understand. She had divided Death into Aspects that she could control and wield. She had also given Death the shape of tentacles or snakes that wrapped around its unsuspecting victims, suffocating their lives before they could notice.

Even if they by some miracle did notice that they were about to die, what could they do about it?

However, Soara had trouble killing beings with an absolute strength greater than hers. In her current state, her powers were more similar to magic but with properties of death than the powers of a deity. It was like a bird's breaths trying to put out a wildfire.

But she had grown now. She had taken in a lot of death with the passing of time, and Zach had leveled up, releasing more of her strength. Unfortunately, she was still far from her prime, and the snake-like runt in front of her had been spoiled with great power from the Hydra.

Soara held back a smirk. That was undignified. But that didn't change her impression of the Third Child. They were undoubtedly powerful. If any of the others had fought him, they might have been in serious trouble.

But he was lacking.

The Third Child had received plentiful power of death from birth in exchange for not getting much fire or any of the Hydra's other powers. He had been given it to play with and that was exactly what he had done.

He was probably better at using it right now than when he received it. But he was a step below using it like a strange form of magic. He was just using brute force. He threw his power of death at Soara, hoping to overwhelm and overpower her, snuffing her out and seizing her power as his.

He hadn't honed it. He hadn't mastered it.

The Third Child erected a wall of death like a child building a simple wall during a snowball fight. He then proceeded to just lump the power of death together like crude snowballs and flinging them at Soara while barely taking aim.

Soara, on the other hand, had a perfectly cut and measured fortress wall so dense that even when the Child's boulder-like snowballs hit it, they barely scratched it. She made ballistas and trebuchets, which launched perfect projectiles, where not a drop of her powers went to waste.

Soara had less to work with, but she made much more. It was only a matter of time before her Aspects of Unstoppable Death and Inescapable Death pierced the Child's flimsy curtain of death, which lacked any kind of foundation.

In contrast to Soara's and the Third Child's fight that looked like they were trying to stare each other to death, all of the other fights were harsh, intense, and brutal with two exceptions.

Surprisingly enough, one of the most intense fights was the one between Visla and the Ninth Child. The two were the weakest on either side, yet they fought each other like the world depended on it.

The Ninth Child was understandably upset by Visla killing him, even if he was still alive right now.

And Visla was rightfully enraged by the genocide and atrocities committed by the Ninth Child.

However, Visla was a young human lady, and the Ninth Child was a child of a monstrous being and had lived for several thousand years. The odds were stacked against her.

She hadn't been sheltered. She had received training and seen a lot of action. She was by no means a bad fighter. She just didn't have enough talent to transcend the constraints of time like a certain someone else. She didn't even have enough talent to follow in her mother's large steps.

But she was good enough to hold her ground, especially with the treasures she took from Zach's vault.

She managed to secure an orange amulet that weakened all flames in her surroundings. A bracelet on the same wrist as the hand she held her sword with let her cut through magic and magic-related phenomena, such as all of the Ninth Child's non-physical attacks. For those, she had picked up a chestplate, greaves, gauntlets, and shoulder pads.

She was the most armored barbarian Zach had seen.

That was because the Sesha were a primarily nomadic people. They moved around a lot on the Steppes. They didn't want to lug around heavy armor. They also didn't spend time developing mines, ores, and metal craftsmanship.

Since they lived fighting big and strong beasts or the Empire's armored troops, the Sesha also developed light-footed and mobile fighting techniques. Heavy armor would slow them down.

However, whether it was because she had been influenced by Zach, her mother, or the bulky warriors of the Maura tribe, Visla wasn't attached to that way of fighting. Given the chance, she didn't mind armoring herself.

She wasn't going to avoid the Children, especially not the Ninth Child. She couldn't avoid them, even if she wanted. She wasn't strong or fast enough.

But what she could do was endure. She could take the hits and, if they came from the Ninth Child, return them.

So far, she had managed to cut off several of the weak scales he tried to defend himself with. She had drawn his blood. But it didn't come cheap.

Her left gauntlet was shattered, and her left wrist was a bleeding, throbbing bundle of pain.

The Ninth Child had spit a ball of fire in her face and hid behind it to drop a heel on her head. She didn't have time to dodge, so she had been forced to sacrifice her wrist. But it was worth it since she got to stab him in the leg and reduce his mobility.

Visla could feel her blood heat up with each painful throb from her wrist. Her eyes turned feral as she, for the first time since the fight began, took a step toward the Ninth Child.