-Sven ... it's a shame... he could have been useful had I convinced him to come to Earth.
'Ku Ku Ku'
The cunning King's wicked laughter echoed in the room as he stepped over Sven's soulless corpse.
'Now come and meet your end!'
Ignoring the obvious differences in physical ability and combat expertise between a battle-hardened soldier and me, there was a much bigger obstacle that I needed to overcome.
The unpredictable nature of the Sword of Opportunity.
With his sword being able to effectively suspend its strikes mid-air, the entire area surrounding me was no doubt filled with deadly traps that my opponent had placed beforehand.
Thus every step could be my last.
'Don't tell me you suddenly go scared? Ha, it seems weaklings can only pretend to be strong when they hide behind a group!'
-I am not going to walk right into your traps am I? Shut up and let me think!
-I know that there is a high chance that he is susceptible to hypnotism since his mind's resistance has been weakened by the magician.
-But the mage himself stated that he will not do anything that could bring him any self-harm.
-I only have one shot at this now that he has dropped his guard.
'Come on, it's no fun when the prey doesn't even fight back'
As he slowly approached me, the King's potent aura turned into an astounding amount of killing intent.
An ordinary man would have undoubtedly cowered in fear at the sheer pressure he exerted, but as a fellow practitioner of intimidation tactics, I was not fazed by it.
-A suggestion that doesn't go against his survival instincts, yet allows me to take the reins of the fight.
-....
-GOT IT
"Hey, you!"
'You dare address the King this way!!? Death makes people act idiotically it seems'
{Devil's Speech}"You may not see them since you lack any skills, but an entire army of invisible assassins has surrounded you and is about to take your head!"
'What!? Y-you are obviously lying!!!'
{Devil's Speech}"What? You really thought that it was just us? After our numerous invasions failed we decided to send our best assassination squad to deal with you"
'The recent hordes that attacked the city... t-they w-were your doing!????'
{Devil's Speech}"NOW ASSASINS, STRIKE HIM DOWN!!!!!"
'NO, I WILL NEVER FALL PREY TO THE LIKES OF YOU!!'
With a strong grip, he aimed the Sword of Opportunity to the sky and circulated his magi to it.
'DIE!!!!!!'
~Fush
~Fush
~Fush
...
~Fush
Dozens of slashed materialized at the same time and caused the air pressure in the room to suddenly fluctuate.
The dormant sword strikes were sporadically scattered in the space between me and the King, including one that materialized only 5 inches away from my chest.
-Ouf saved it...
With the King having spent the majority of his magi at once to activate the long chain of attacks, we were now standing at equal footing.
'Pant pant... you ... pant .. fooled ME!?'
Without further ado, I grasped my chains and, utilizing them as a whip, bombarded the out of breath Elyan before he managed to recover.
~Clang
The chain's metal tip was repelled by the Sun Sword which in turn caused some noticeable damage to my artifact.
~Clang
~Clang
Each time I struck him with the chains, he managed to counter them with minimal movements and expert swordsmanship, but... my intention was not to injure him.
With every swing, I took one step closer to my opponent until the distance between us was only 5 meters.
I hastily grabbed a small crumpled piece of paper from my pockets and attached it to the chains.
This was one of my trump cards and the reason why my inner energy was almost depleted.
A paper that was inscribed with the formation of the [Lesser Explosion] rune.
Following the previous attack pattern, I performed an almost identical attack, which the King, who managed to partially regain his composure, sneered at.
'Repeating the same weak attack! I would expect no less from a weakling'
~Clang
-Now!
Imbuing the Chains of Binding with magi I triggered a chain reaction that led to the activation of the rune when it reached as close as possible to the King's face.
~Boom!!
The following explosion's power was immensely weaker than the one that broke the castle walls, but it had achieved its main purpose.
While the King's body was only slightly injured, the produced shockwave made his eardrums rupture and bleed profusely.
As the events unfolded, I rallied all my remaining magi to boost my speed and dashed towards the confused and vulnerable opponent while preparing to perform a horizontal slash with the flaming Drake Sword aiming to cut his neck.
~Slash
The attack connected but, instead of severing his head, was slightly derailed by the King's last effort to defend himself and sliced open his stomach.
Blood and intestines gushed from the open wound and the almighty King dropped to his knees from the shock.
'Y-You BasTarD!!! I Will KiLL You!!!!'
After opening his mouth to say what seemed to be empty last words I plunged the sword inside his chest and pierced his heart.
The flames from the Drake Sword swallowed him, burning his organs and turning his body into a pile of charred meat before finally ending his life and causing his intimidating aura to extinguish.
-Finally, it's over
Completely exhausted by the whole ordeal, I glanced at the healthy condition of my body.
-I managed to win without using the Pendant of Sacrifice and not suffering any wounds... I am improving ...
After looking in Julius' direction, I was met with the gruesome spectacle of two "monsters" constantly punching each other, with no side giving in to the weight of the other's heavy punch.
Of course one of those monsters was my dearest associate, Julius, whose fists were painted red from the relentless clobbering of the poor chimera.
Not a second long into the fight, Julius' strength skyrocketed from the release of endorphins and his domineering physique prevailed as he successfully staggered the monster which allowed him to grab its jaws and brutally open them up, severing the tissue all the way down to its neck.
And given that the monster's head was consisting of an oversized mouth, this effectively killed the chimera.
"About time you finished", I jokingly said at Julius as I approached him.
"Hahaha to think you killed t...", as he was about to finish his sentence, his joyful expression turned grim, and his complexion became pale before he started sprinting towards my direction with all his might.
"Why are y..."
-!!!!
Had I been less exhilarated and relaxed from my victory, I would have sensed the change that was occurring behind me.
A powerful and mortifying aura had taken hold of the King's seemingly soulless body, which in turn was agitatedly convulsing and increasing in size with every millisecond that passed.
-Don't tell me...
Turning around, I saw a monstrosity incomparable to anything I had seen in horror movies.
The 5-meter tall chimera, which partially shared the physiology of the Elyan, had white scales covering its oversized muscles, three large yellow eyes with dark pupils, all varying in size, accompanied by a crude longhorn on top of them, and a shark mouth capable of swallowing a pig in one go.
The big hooves that had appeared at its legs seemed capable of exceeding the speed of even the fastest animals and its gigantic human arms allowed it to squeeze all blood out of a living being.
The King had in the end successfully created the perfect killing machine he wished for, and it was about to take revenge for its body's predecessor by crushing me with its oversized arms.
Faced with such an absurd situation I couldn't help but despair at the cruel ways fate always found ways to try and destroy my life.
"Huppp!"
~Crash
In the nick of type, Julius grabbed my hand and quickly pulled me away, saving me from an unsightly end, with the ground shaking and cracks appearing on the floor.
'GNUUUU'
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?", Julius' voice overlapped with the beast's scream.
Seeing that even Julius was agitated was definitely not a reassuring factor.
-Wait what is that?
The aura releasing from the chimera's horn was being processed by the eye contact and after a brief moment, displayed information about the skill of the monster.
[Hardening (Rank B)]
Hardens the skin and covers the body in layers of scales originating from the body of a fallen dragon.
The scales' durability is determined by the user's magi and vitality.
...
-Freaking dragon scales...shit
Seeing how dragons almost destroyed this world, their scales must provide a sizeable amount of defense, one we couldn't possibly penetrate with our current weapons.
The monster, upon seeing that we were both alive, fiercely lunged at us with its mouth in an effort to devour both of us.
Sensing its deadly and fast movements I activated the Pendant of Sacrifice and barely managed to evade the enormous mouth of the monster thanks to the increase in speed.
~Crash
Julius on the other hand failed to react in time and was caught in its mouth before colliding with the vault's walls.
Thankfully, despite being trapped between the strong jaws of the chimera, he held onto his life and was using all his strength to stop the horrific teeth of the beast from cutting him into pieces.
With no time to spare and my colleague at death's door, I leaped onto the back of the preoccupied monster and in a span of a second, positioned myself above its wide head and stabbed the monster's middle eye with the Drake Sword.
'GNUUUUUU'
Having re-activated the artifact's power, the flames of the sword made quick work of the chimera's eye and completely melted part of its neurons, causing it to scream in agony and let go of Julius in the process.
"Here take this and stop the monster's movements", I said to him, giving him the Chains of Binding and ordering him to do what would seem to be unfeasible from an ordinary person's perspective.
-If we are to kill it, we need the Sun Sword's cutting power to penetrate its thick armor.
Therefore, with incredible speed, I sprinted towards the location of the weapon, which, in the middle of all the commotion, had been thrown on top of a pile of golden coins.
The monster, as if it maintained some form of its previous self, became further infuriated by my attempt to grab the weapon and tried to stop me but was hindered by Julius' efforts.
Having tied the chains to the chimera's thick torso, he was slowly suppressing it from advancing forward, which enabled me to reach the sword.
'GNUUUUUUU!!!!'
In response to my success, a loud scream that resembled that of an angry deer rang through my ears, followed by the monster stomping the ground with all its strength and causing the majority of the floor to collapse.
"Shit!"
With no foothold below me, I was dragged by the flow of the waterfall of riches and was quickly descending to the lower floors which were also steadily collapsing from the weight of the heavy debris.
Looking upwards, the distance between myself and the 5th floor was rapidly increasing and as numerous platforms were falling along with me I proceeded with the only plan that didn't include me breaking my bones from the fall.
With my muscles being under immense strain from the artifact's power, I lept sideways from each collapsing platform to the other, ascending only by a small margin and reaching closer to my destination with each quick jump.
"Finally!! ...ghough ghough!", with my face covered in dirt and throat filled with industrial dust I successfully reached the 5th floor.
What greeted me was the image of Julius being flung to the walls like a toy by the beast and pools of blood being created at every spot he landed.
"COME AT ME!!!", he yelled as he spewed blood.
His war cry was enough to rally the fighting spirit of any observer and was responded by the furious chimera trying to ram him with its humongous body.
Similar to an expert bull-fighter, Julius used the wall behind him as a foothold and jumped over the raging creature, which crashed onto the wall, allowing him to put a noose made by the chains in its neck.
Using the momentum of his jump and taking advantage of the rebound of the beast's collision to the wall, he pulled the neck of the creature as hard as he could and caused the creature to land on its back on the ground with its front neck exposed.
"JAY KILL IT!!!", he yelled at the top of his lungs as he tried to hold the monster down.
This being our final attempt before Julius' wounds took the better of him and the pendant's power run out, I placed all my weight behind the sword and activated its skill to perform a vertical slash and decapitate the downed opponent.
~Swish
Upon coming in contact with the white dragon scales, the sword edge which emitted a golden dazzling color, instead of cleaving the neck of the creature in two, only managed to cut through the first layer of scales and was now slowly melting the inner layer.
'GNUUUUUU!!!!'
"KEEP IT STEADY", I signaled Julius not to let go and endure the monster's efforts to set itself free.
With its insides being steadily turned into magma the chimera began to spasm and cry out from the unimaginable pain it was experiencing.
Tasked with restraining its movements, Julius' body was in no better condition.
His wrists had long since swollen and the majority of his arm muscles had torn, but despite that, his grip didn't weaken.
~Swish
The chimera left its last breath on the floor as magma began to pour out from its almost severed neck.
"Pant pant finally... it's dead", Julius exclaimed as he was gasping for air after the strenuous battle of strength with the beast.
"Yeah ... let's hope so"
Seeing the degree that his arms had been damaged, I approached him and used the two remaining charges of Talisman of True Faith to at least heal the majority of his injuries.
Alas, the state of his arms was not something that could be healed in the span of some seconds and would require some days of rest in order to fully heal.
~Swish
Using the Sun Sword's ability I precisely separated the chimera's horn from the rest of its body and melted its surface.
What appeared before us was a scarlet red crystal emanating an ample amount of powerful aura.
-I didn't get the chance to observe one before, but the warmth it gives off is truly captivating... As if it is ordering me to take it
-No it's not me that should have it...
"Take it, you have earned it", I nodded at Julius.
"Is it another skill?", he inquired as he placed his hands on the mineral and absorbed its power.
"Holy Shit man!!! Check this out!!", he yelled after confirming the skill's effect.
The tip of his finger had been covered in white dragon scales.
"I must say, that is very uncharacteristic of you Jay, I would have expected you to hoard all the loot for yourself", he amusingly said while amazed by his skill.
"Nah it suits you more"
"Also if I left you just the way you are you would probably instantly die by the first monster we encountered in the next rift"
"Hahaha you got some guts man"
-Also, the quest objective implied that we had to steal a treasure in his vault, not beat the monster inside the King
-Therefore there must surely be an equally stronger skill somewhere around here
Searching through the debris and scouting the area with my sixth sense I noticed a dark aura present below a pile of rocks.
Enlisting Julius' help to move the debris, I finally found the black crystal responsible for the peculiar aura next to a broken chest the size of a toolbox.
-This is!??
...
After grabbing the crystal and assimilating its skill, a rift appeared next to us indicating we had completed the mission.
On our way to the rift that would lead us back to Earth, I noticed Julius looking at me with a curious expression.
"Why are you smiling so menacingly?", he asked me.
"Oh, I am just really happy"
Unable to hide a smile of true happiness, I centered my focus on my "status viewer" in order to admire my newly acquired skill.
[Rift authority increases]
-Stats
Vitality: 1.1
Endurance: 1.7
Strength: 1.4
Agility: 3.2
Sense: 4.1
Magi: 3.4
Spiritual Power : 0
??? : 1.8%
-Skills (2/5)
[Devil's Speech (Rank E)]
[One with the Shadows (Rank C)]
Transform your body into a shadow and enter the world of the unseen.
While inside a shadow, agility is increased by three-fold, and the laws of nature do not affect the user.
-Rift authority: Wanderer
[Communication]
...