Chereads / Dark Abyss: Meteor Apocalypse / Chapter 33 - Catching the Culprit

Chapter 33 - Catching the Culprit

An hour ago,

Sylph could be seen standing on top of a tall building's roof. She waited a little bit anxious but totally calm. She had been tracking down and studying the abyssal hunting patterns, narrowing the chances of places it might attack next.

This had taken three whole days and the amount of victims had increased within this time. She informed Ray on everything she knew about it three days ago, but still there hasn't been any luck. But today was going to be different. The abyssal which had given them so much headache in such a small town, according to her calculations, was about to strike around here.

This area was at the boundary of the North and South areas of the town, so Ray wasn't far away.

She had been monitoring the area for about 3 hours and believed that the abyssal would strike in no less than two hours from now. She occasionally sent out waves of wind from her body in order to detect the abyssal in case it showed up within a certain range.

After waiting for some minutes, she sent it out once more and this time she detected something.

"Swishhhhh!!"

Without wasting any second, she flew towards a certain area and with the speed she moved at, it only took her three seconds to arrive. She looked around, seeing nothing unusual as people strolled and cycled casually in the streets.

She repeated the same skill to pinpoint its exact location, and that was when her gaze drifted into a particular alley.

A boy about 40 years old, who walked groggily was just four metres away from the entrance of an alley. He felt very depressed after running into some bullies. He had bruises on some parts of his body and his clothes had torn marks.

He just couldn't wait to get home and have some rest.

Just as he was passing the entrance of the alley, he heard a clanging sound which caused him to stop.

He walked slowly into the alley, towards the sound out of curiosity. But after walking 20 metres into the alley, he shook his head. "Hell no."

He turned around to leave, when suddenly the tempo of the clanging sound increased. The boy felt more frightened by this and also increased the tempo of his steps.

The clanging sound suddenly stopped, which caused him to turn around. What he saw next totally confused and frightened him. It seemed as though something was approaching him, but he couldn't see anything.

A bottle on the ground suddenly broke. The litter bin tilted sideways. A small puddle of water splashed apart as though someone had stepped on it.

His body shivered as he started sweating from places which he didn't think was possible.

He had been warned by his guardian to be very careful while returning from school, but he had messed up.

This mysterious effect drew closer to him. He wanted to turn around and run, but his body was frozen in fear.

Suddenly, a powerful beam of condensed wind shot above him from behind, slamming into the invisible thing.

Upon contact, a large powerful gush of wind was produced, which sent the boy flying backwards.

"Ahhhhhhh!" he screamed.

He suddenly came to stop mid-air.

Slowly opening his eyes and shifting his gaze to the right he could see that he had been caught like a Frisbee by what he saw as an Angel.

Sylph put him down.

"Leave."

After hearing what she said, he looked into the alley and back at her before running away as fast as his legs could take him.

Sylph's gaze was fixed into the alley, not even blinking once. She remained in this position for 20 seconds before blasting forward without her legs making contact with the ground, and when she reached a certain distance she kicked out as the shimmering air around her leg was sent out in an arc which cleaved everything it came across with.

She suddenly moved sideways as a slash mark appeared in the ground where she previously stood. She ducked slightly as another slash mark appeared on the wall. She kept tilting and moving from one position to another and most of the time is slash mark or something being cut would occur.

It was praiseworthy how she was moving so flexibly and fast in a just four metres wide alley. She leapt backwards, creating some distance away.

Some strands of her hair were lying on the ground and there was also a slight graze mark on her cheek.

"It's stronger than I expected. The chances of defeating it here are quite slim," she frowned slightly.

Sylph's abilities enabled her to manipulate air and gases. She mostly uses it in compressed pressure form when wanting to cause damage and with enough control, she can do things like the wind vibration sensing, and flight.

When she uses her abilities, the compressed air around her shimmers which was a produced effect. This also enables her attacks to take on different shapes.

If it wasn't for the fact that she could sense the abyssal attack as it cuts through the air, she would have ended up very injured by now, with the speed the abyssal was using to attack.

She couldn't attack freely while reading the abyssal's attack at the same time

Sylph's palm began to shimmer as the air in the environment moved towards it.

"Here it comes." She stretched out her hand as a beam of shimmering wind, much more powerful than the one she had sent out earlier, shot out.

It slammed into something as a large part of the left building of the alley wall got scrubbed off diagonally, and after a second a large crash occurred in the distance.

Sylph flew to the area were the sound came from.

Arriving, she could see people running away from a particular building, which had been demolished. She descended before taking slow steps towards the building.

A part of the building suddenly caved in.

"Fast!" Her eyes narrowed. She tilted her body as few strands of hair in front of her face got cut to 3 centimetres before a deep slash mark tore though the ground as a wave was sent out, which pushed her backwards.

She was still mid-air when she felt the air at her right, parting open towards her.

Using the wind around her, Sylph twisted mid-air, barely evading the attack with another shallow cut appearing on her jaw. A large gush of wind erupted from her body causing the invincible abyssal to crash into another building.

'Doesn't it have some sort of limits?' Sylph touched the cut on her jaw which was beginning to heal itself, with the previous cut now being almost inexistent.

Even without its invisibility, Sylph believe the abyssal would still be a powerful foe. But with the way they were going, her chances of victory were slimmer. Unless...

"Excuse me?" She turned around to see a man who froze up when his eyes fell on her face. By the badge on his chest which displayed 'Η' she could tell that he was an Eta ranked century.

Within less than a second, Sylph's gaze met with his and focused back on the area which the abyssal had fallen.

"Leave. It's too dangerous for you."

"Excuse me?" He said regaining himself. "I don't understand what you're talking about. You're causing damage to lives and pro...…"

Sylph's eyes suddenly widened as she blasted into the air, causing him to take five steps backwards. "She's trying to get away. I have to apprehend her," he said before giving chase.

Sylph had noticed earlier that the abyssal suddenly began to move north and she wasn't going to lose it.

**********************

In the streets, everyone travelling on the road were being hit away by something and sometimes, the force they were hit at was so much that Sylph doubted if they will survive.

While flying, Sylph was faster than the abyssal, so after some minutes she was able to catch up to it.

Although she couldn't see the abyssal, she knew where it was by the effects of its movement, so she sent out a kick which blasted out another arc of shimmering condensed wind which slammed into the abyssal, sending it crashing into another building with a loud bang.

Ray's attention was drawn by this sound.

'Wait, it doesn't have a visible cause. It has to be it.'

His eyes scanned as he notice a change.

Ray was about to move towards the building when he saw a figure hovering above it.

"Sylph?"