Melinda arrived in front of Lillian and eyed the crimson-eyed lady with her light gold orbs.

"I've been wanting to do this for so long" she said.

"Do what? Lose to me?" Lillian smirked.

Melinda shook her head,

"No, beat you senseless. Ever since that day when you raided my mansion I've been thinking about it"

Lillian nodded thoughtfully and released the pressure of her Early-stage Cosmic Phenomenon Realm cultivation base while she became surrounded by what could be accurately described as a layer of Blood energy.

Melinda felt the pressure but her expression remained the same even though she was only at the Peak stage of the Cosmic armament Realm.

In tandem, both ladies dashed towards each other and crossed weapons with Lillian's having the advantage of being heavier and bore down on Melinda even more than her pressure already did.

One thing though was that Lillian could not help but find it admirable that Melinda still retained her natural expression while such pressure was boring down on her.

Then Melinda managed to straighten up and push Lillian back. The separation was only for a few seconds as the golden-eyed lady quickly followed up with strikes that Lillian quickly protected herself from.

The worst part was how heavy Melinda's strikes were. So heavy that even with her superior cultivation, Lillian could feel it in her wrist.

Melinda was quite confident and it was not overconfidence either. It was that she knew just how capable she was and was not ready to let Lillian feel complacent just because of her superior cultivation.

Lillian suddenly pointed her left hand to Melinda's mid-section,

"Third-grade skill: Darting spearhead"

And at such close range, a two-circled ring was summoned and out of it came a Spearhead composed purely of Cosmic energy that attacked her.

Lillian was quite confident such an attack could not miss, after all, it was so close and even if its energy did not hold Melinda in place, she could not possibly be able to react in time.

Or so she thought.

Melinda was already casting her own skill...

"Third-grade skill: shooting stars"

...which intercepted the spearhead skill and canceled it out. The force of the collision of skills forced the two ladies apart.

Lillian cast the same skill once again in an attempt to barrage Melinda but was shocked to see that despite how fast she had been in recasting the skill, Melinda still destroyed it with a Cosmic attack infused with Light gold flames.

Skills were usually ways to even the playing field sometimes as even with the same cultivation bases, experts tend to be more superior than each other. They were either better combatants or better swordsmen or weapons specialists.

However, with skills, all that meant nothing and the ability of skills to hold their targets in place always made for successful contacts, however, even then the field is far from equal as some are more privileged to better skills and the trapping effects make the target helpless.

Not to mention that some just possess the talent for it and based their whole offense on long-distance skill attacks.

So there grew the need to anticipate.

Anticipate the opponent's next move such that by the time they were making use of their skill and trapping you in place, you have already struck out to intercept the skill.

This was what Melinda had done and she did it a few more times as Lillian still cast the skills again and again so as to catch Melinda off guard.

*Bang*

*Boom*

It seemed Melinda was quite tired of being on the defensive as after she destroyed another skill, she dashed forward and cast her shooting star skill which she knew Lillian would be able to destroy thanks to her phenomenon realm cultivation,

However, it was only so as to create a cover and close the distance between the two of them so that she could engage in close combat which was where her talent lay.

This was a development that Lillian was, of course, aware of and she knew Melinda was trying to make the fight go her way and she could not have that, so she leaped backward to keep the distance between them.

But Melinda had thought ahead and sent light gold flames ahead of herself and behind the crimson-eyed lady.

Lillian leaped backward right into the flames and burned herself quite badly.

The effects of the flames were even more vicious against her because of how demonic she was.

It was clear that she was quite close to being a fiend even though she was not quite there yet.

However, thanks to her Master, Arya's efforts, it was probably more accurate to call her a pseudo-fiend.

However, that was enough for Melinda's Bloodline flames to attack her with vindication.

"Ah!" Lillian exclaimed as she paused and cast a look at the light gold flames that were now fizzling out.

Melinda grinned,

"Do you like it?" She asked as she slashed and sent a crescent-shaped attack of light gold flames towards Lillian who slashed and sent an attack of Blood Energy as well.

*Boooommmm*

The collision ended up having more effect on Melinda who had the lower cultivation base but even then, she powered through and her target was still clear. So was the look in her eyes that showed she was not done with Lillian yet.

Far from it actually.

"Bitch" Lillian snarled and condensed a Cosmic attack infused with Blood energy and a Cosmic phenomenon.

An attack she was very confident Melinda could not withstand.

And she was right.

As soon as the attack was sent and Melinda felt the pressure coming off it, she knew it was way out of her league and she could not do anything to cancel it out.

So why bother?

She leaped up but was not totally out of the range of the attack yet so she pointed down,

"Second-grade skill: Updraft"

As the skill granted her a push that only barely got her out of the attack's range, Melinda could not help but think about how she would berate Hal once this was over for a third-grade skill with the same functions as 'updraft'.

While the skill was quite useful, it was much too weak to give her the lift she needed and she only barely made it.

Anyway,

Lillian looked up at her making a perfect arc in the air and tossed another attack towards her, an attack that while smaller compared to the one Melinda had just escaped, was also infused with Blood energy and a Cosmic phenomenon.

Melinda groaned and thought,

'Screw it'

She released light gold flames that were of such magnitude that she glowed and garnered attention from all those present.

Then she condensed it all into a circle of flames around her and spun so fast that she looked like a light gold disc and cut right through the attack.

It was truly a right to behold and Lillian's mouth gaped as Melinda split her attack in half and landed right in front of her with a loud explosive sound.

*Boooooooommmm!*

So hard did she land that a crater formed where she did and when the dust and flames cleared, Melinda was smacking Lillian away with her sword.

Then she followed up with a Kick to Lillian's midsection and showed the crimson-eyed lady why she deserved to be feared in close combat.

"Ack" Lillian groaned and attempted to defend herself with Cosmic energy when Melinda's kick connected to the side of her face and smacked her into the ground.

At that time, no one was close to them and even Gregory had been taken away by Burt who fed him a mending pill to stop him from dying out.

Lillian lifted herself but Melinda was already sitting on her midsection with her legs on either side of her while she punched Lillian constantly.

As she did, she introduced holy flames into her body which burned the Lillian from the inside out while she attempted to resist and showcase her prowess as a cosmic Phenomenon Realm expert but it was of no consequence.

She quickly became powerless against Melinda's prowess.

Melinda lifted her Armament and so prone was Lillian that she could have ended her life right then and there but she knew Hal wanted his stepmother alive.

So she hit Lillian so hard on the head that the Crimson-eyed Lady fell unconscious instantly.

As she did, Melinda looked back and was quite shocked to see the chaos that had ensued as it looked as though Corpses came back to life and Arya cackled at the sight malignantly.