Claudia's shock lasted exactly two seconds. Then her serpentine eyes narrowed, and a confident smirk curled across her lips.
"Don't expect this to be like last time," she said. She reached into her storage and withdrew a whip—SHING—a Special Grade weapon, its length woven from dark green serpent leather, each segment inscribed with venomous runes that pulsed with sickly light. The whip coiled in her hand like a living thing, its barbed tip hissing—HISS—with condensed poison mana.
"Unlike last time, I won't underestimate you."
She whipped out—CRACK—the weapon slicing through the air with blinding speed, its barbed tip aimed at Kael's throat. The whip carried enough force to split through anything, and the poison coating each barb could paralyze a Peak Spirit Soul cultivator on contact.
Kael activated Heaven's Mandate Body Art—HUMMM—a dark golden aura covering his body, his reactive armor hardening. He caught the whip mid-strike, his gauntlet hand closing around the barbed length.
