"I-Impossible!" Niya exclaimed with eyes wide in disbelief.
"S-She is supposed to be dead...." Muttered Niya absentmindedly as she stared at the standing figure of Lilia.
Niya was certain that a second ago Lilia was dead; her body had even stopped moving! Yet, here she was, on her feet.
If it was just that Lilia had somehow survived and was standing, Niya wouldn't be as shaken as she was right now. What was disturbing her was the sudden pressure that Lilia was emitting, a pressure that wasn't there before.
Before Lilia's current presence, it was as though the very fabric of reality was holding its breath. The trees all around her became motionless, from the branches to the leaves attached to them.
The wind seemed to have stopped, as if nature itself held its breath in anticipation of the unfolding events.
'It's like something is slowly suffocating me,' Niya remarked in distress.
The wild, almost bestial pressure coming from Lilia was such that, like most of the surroundings, Niya also couldn't move.
'What the heck is happening here!?' Niya wondered as fear began taking hold of her.
Meanwhile, Lilia was completely ignoring Niya's presence. In fact, judged by the unfocused expression on her face, there was a chance that she had completely forgotten about Niya.
All that occupied Lilia's mind was the delightful sensation coursing through her body, leaving her in a state of astonishment.
The cool sensation that spread through her body as Zid ran through it was perhaps the best feeling she had ever experienced, apart from when she had sex with her husband, that is.
However, in terms of surprise, that enjoyable feeling was nothing compared to the profound changes she sensed occurring in her body as Zid flowed within her.
Firstly, the poison that had pushed her to the brink of death was being expelled from her system. No, not expelled, rather, it was being incinerated. Everywhere Zid flowed, the poison that had contaminated her blood was being burned, and in a matter of seconds, the poison had completely disappeared from her body.
Despite not being sure it was possible, Lilia hoped Zid would heal her, and luckily, it did.
However, these weren't the only changes occurring in her body. Another transformation, even more noticeable than the eradication of poison, was the newfound strength coursing through Lilia's veins.
Although she couldn't be entirely certain as she hadn't tested it, Lilia was fairly sure that her current strength had reached a completely different level than just a few minutes ago. Yet, the most shocking aspect was that even now, her strength was still increasing!
Lilia's brows suddenly furrowed, 'I need to use it!'
Lilia didn't know if it was normal for the first time one manages to control Zid, but the Zid within her body was beginning to overwhelm her.
The pleasurable sensation of coolness she was feeling was quickly replaced by a sensation akin to fullness. She felt that if she didn't do something to expend it right now, there was a high chance that something bad might happen.
Fortunately, expending the excess of Zid inside her body wasn't going to be complicated. Like most energy, one just needed to use it to deplete its quantity, and Lilia had the perfect target on whom to use it.
Raising her head, Lilia finally focused on Niya, who was staring at her with wariness.
"Why aren't you laughing anymore? Didn't you say that you find this situation hilarious?" Lilia addressed Niya with a cold smile.
Niya gritted her teeth but didn't retort back. She had indeed said that Lilia thinking she could beat her was hilarious. However, at that time, she was confident in defeating Lilia no matter what cards the latter had up her sleeves. In a way, she was correct; she did manage to defeat Lilia.
However, with the current aura emanating from Lilia, she was quite certain that defeating her would be a significant struggle.
'I should have killed her when I had the opportunity,' Niya almost facepalmed at her own stupidity. She could have delivered the coup de grâce when Lilia was writhing on the ground. Instead, she indulged herself in her perverse hobby, giving her opponent time to do... whatever it was that she had done to heal herself.
'But it's no big deal; I can still take care of her,' Niya thought to herself.
Ignoring her serpentine instincts screaming at her to get the hell out of her, Niya extended her claws and lunged at Lilia!
Even with a serpent tail instead of legs, it seemed that her speed didn't diminish. In fact, it was the contrary; Niya's current speed was well above her previous speed.
However, in Lilia's eyes, she might as well be crawling; Lilia could perfectly follow each movement of Niya as the latter approached her.
'Let's test if the Drakonel's words were true.'
Lilia crouched low, drew her arm back, retreating it behind her body, then concentrated all the Zid inside her body in that fist, waiting for Niya to get closer.
The moment Niya closed the gap to ten meters, Lilia punched out!
Lilia's strike created pressure in the air, and before Niya could react, it collided with her.
BOOOOM!
Lilia's strike was so destructive that, not only Niya, but everything within a 3 km radius in the direction of Lilia's attack was obliterated!
"....!"
Lilia, the perpetrator of the destruction, stood with her eyes and mouth wide open in disbelief, taking in the sight of what just one strike of hers had caused.
"This...," she didn't have words to describe what she was feeling, actually.
After what she had read in the book, she was expecting her punch to cause destruction, but not on such a massive scale!
Everywhere the air pressure from her punch swept through, rocks were shattered into fragments, trees violently uprooted, and the very earth trembled beneath the overwhelming force, leaving a path of destruction in the dense forest.
After taking this attack head-on, Lilia didn't doubt that Niya was actually dead. In fact, she felt that it would be a miracle if even Niya's corpse remained. So, Lilia turned her attention towards other things.
"I feel like the Drakonel was actually modest..." Lilia muttered to herself.
Witnessing such destructiveness, Lilia felt that she had actually underestimated the power of Zid.
"Zid is-"
Before she could finish speaking, Lilia suddenly collapsed on the ground, cold out.
'Pathetic,' the voice Lilia was conversing with earlier said after seeing her lose consciousness just after giving a punch.
'But at least she managed to control her "Zid", and it appears to be more powerful than I thought, hmm, perhaps all hope isn't lost,' the voice said before disappearing.
*****
BOOOM
"Hmm?" Alex, who was about to bash Tobias' head against the ground once again, came to an abrupt halt when he heard an explosion coming from Lilia's location.
'I should go see what is happening there,' he decided.
Turning the muscular man to stare at him, Alex asked, "hey, answer my question."
However, Tobias didn't respond; it was like he couldn't hear Alex's voice, which was understandable given his battered state.
Before their fight, Tobias' body was already beaten up, but now he was completely disfigured to the point that, without a doubt, even his mother wouldn't recognize him.
Alex didn't want to kill him yet and intended to ask him for information. Therefore, there wasn't really a need to beat the guy so much, but during their fight, Alex realized that Tobias was strangely very tough. If Alex had to guess, he would say that Tobias had a very high "defense" stat, allowing him to withstand many of Alex's attacks without collapsing.
This actually annoyed Alex to the point that even after he practically won the fight, he was still hitting the man's head against the ground.
Gripping Tobias by the collar, Alex slapped him and threatened, "If you don't want me to resume pounding your head, start talking!"
The "unconscious" Tobias suddenly yelped and waved his hands, "W-wait, I will talk."
Alex took on a serious expression and went straight for the most important questions, "How come the Night group is so powerful, aren't you supposed to be a bunch of bandits? What was the emergency you needed to deal with? What is that weird transformation ability you have, and most importantly, what the heck are those tattoos?"
Tobias listened to his questions, but didn't immediately respond, seemingly hesitating if he should answer, but another heavy slap from Alex made it easy for him to decide.
Tobias sighed resolutely and began speaking, "The Night group is not as it seems; we are tied to-"
Those words barely left Tobias' mouth when the tattoos on his body started glowing brilliantly.
"W-What is happen-AAAHH..."
Immediately understanding the situation, Alex gripped Tobias' arm and flung him in one direction. He quickly turned around and started running in the opposite direction.
An instant later...
Boom