Michael sprinted through the dense forest, weaving between the large, thick trees as the strange sensation grew stronger with every passing second.
Just as he took another step forward, his senses shot to full alert. His eyes widened, and at the last possible moment, he pivoted sharply to his right.
The next instant, something crashed into the ground where he had stood, sending a cloud of dust billowing into the air.
Michael raised his arm to shield his eyes from the dust as he cautiously retreated a considerable distance. Whatever had just landed was clearly alive and breathing.
As the cloud of dust slowly cleared, a man emerged from the centre of the impact, standing exactly where the ground had been struck.
He wore a long, black cloak that concealed his entire body. Slowly, he straightened up before turning to face Michael, a sinister grin spreading across his face.
"Above six foot, black hair and a visibly pale skin. So far fits the description. Say, are you Michael Dreyar?" The man’s voice sounded desperate and needy, almost as though he were begging Michael to be Michael Dreyar.
"And what if I am? Who’s asking?"
The man turned to face Michael completely, his black cape shifting around him. He slowly pulled both hands from his pockets, revealing a long, needle-like dagger.
With a deliberate motion, he raised the weapon in his right hand and slowly licked along its length, stopping just before the tip. Then, with a strange grin spreading across his face, he spoke. "Ah how lucky I am, I’m sorry but you’ll be coming with me now."
The man took a step forward. "You’re free to resist, no, I want you to resist with all the strength you have."
"Otherwise it won’t be fun!" The man took a single, explosive step forward before suddenly dashing straight at Michael, with his needle-like dagger aimed directly at his eyes.
Michael’s eyes widened, all he did was blink, yet in that brief instant, the man seemed to vanish from where he stood and reappear right in front of him, as though he had teleported.
He was unbelievably fast.
Far faster than any of Abyssal Beast Michael had faced so far. Even the Shadow Panthers paled in comparison.
Michael instinctively summoned Naga’s fangs, crossing both blades in front of him to form an X just as the man’s daggers reached him.
The weapons collided with a sharp metallic clang, sending sparks flying in every direction. The force of the impact rattled his arms a bit, but he managed to hold his ground, barely blocking the deadly strike.
’He’s strong!’ He thought as they battled to overpower each other. ’Who is he!? How does he know who I am, and what does he want with me?’
"Hey hey!" The man laughed softly, almost a bit maniacally. "You’re surprisingly strong for someone who is supposed to be a fucking Null!" New chapters come out on g.com first.
Both men poured all their strength into their blades, each struggling to overpower the other. The force of their clash sent them skidding backward across the ground, their boots carving deep trails through the dirt before they finally came to a stop.
"That’s it! Resist! It’s no fun if you die without trying to fight for your life!"
"A fucking Null huh?" Michael’s voice turned cold as he spoke, and for a brief moment, the cloaked man’s expression faltered.
"Tell me something, did he send you?"
The man raised an eyebrow, looking startled and confused. "How the hell do you know about that? Well, it doesn’t matter, as far as I’m concerned, dead or alive, you will return with me to the Ab-"
"I see." Micheal said with a cold tone as he interrupted the man. "In that case..."
The atmosphere shifted the moment Michael raised his head. His anger flared, and his eyes lit up with a sinister purple glow as he gripped the Naga Fangs tightly in both hands.
"I have no reason to hold back."
Michael’s nature energy began building, flowing through his right arm and into his palm.
A spiraling ball of dark energy manifested just above his hand, growing larger by the second.
[You have activated the Divine Grade ability (First Genesis)]
The moment it reached the desired size, he immediately launched it toward the cloaked man.
The man’s eyes widened to it’s absolute limits as the ball of dark energy shot toward him. It was small and didn’t look powerful enough to cause much damage, but that wasn’t what he felt from the dense energy radiating from the ball.
He immediately jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the dark ball of energy by just a few inches.
The ball of dark energy went right into the sky, and shrank before disappearing completely.
Then.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion erupted in the sky, and shook the abyss, spreading several meters in every direction and leaving nothing but darkness behind.
"W—What!?" The man’s eyes trembled uncontrollably as he stared at the massive hole of darkness that had disintegrated the tall trees caught in it’s blast radius, and split the sky apart. Read the latest chapters at NovelPing.
"Impossible!" He swallowed hard.
’This power... Coming from a null? Xerxes was right all along... There’s no mistake!’ The man thought as he struggled to turn and face Michael. ’It is him... Th-’
The moment the man turned around, Michael was already right in front of him. Without hesitation, he swung his daggers from sideways toward the man’s face.
The man pushed off the ground with his feet, narrowly dodging the blades. But Michael wasn’t about to let him escape so easily. His feet sank into the ground before he launched himself forward with an explosive step, closing the distance between them.
"Tsk!" The man raised his dagger to block the incoming strike, but before the blades could clash, Michael suddenly vanished from his sight.
"What!? His speed increased!?"
The man felt a sharp pain slice through his right arm, causing him to fall to the ground, groaning in pain as Michael appeared right behind him with his blood dripping from the blade of Naga Fangs.
[Special skill (Neural Paralysis) has taken effect.]
The man’s heart skipped a beat, then an excruciating pain coursed through him. Veins bulged across his body, and his eyes turned blood red as he grew completely immobile, losing all feeling in his limbs.
’What is this!? Poison!?’
Michael flicked his blade through the air, shaking off the blood before taking slow, deliberate steps toward the man. He crouched down in front of him, staring into his eyes with a stone-cold gaze as he spoke. "How did he know that I was alive?"
To Micheal, they were only a handful of people who knew his previous status as a Null, and had the resources to pull off an execution in the Abyss of all places.
"Sentencing me to the Abyss wasn’t enough, so he sent you?"
The man’s body trembled as Michael’s natural presence grew stronger, gradually overwhelming him.
The angrier Michael became, the deeper the darkness within him grew, causing his natural presence to explode beyond its usual limits.
For the first time in his life, the man felt something he had never experienced before, not even during the Trials of the Abyss.
He had come face to face with death and survived many times, but this was something... Completely different.
Fear.
The Serpent King’s venom was so potent that it permanently disrupted his nervous system. As the venom took full effect, his body became completely unresponsive, leaving him unable to move, walk, or even think.
"Can’t answer? Well, no matter. After all..." Michael slashed his blade in swift succession, and the next moment, the man’s head rolled off his body, stopping just a short distance away. "It doesn’t matter if he sent you or not, anyone who stands in my way... Is an enemy."