Chapter 55: Exorcist Zero... Full Strength 2
"Whoa, I just saw Taraha take down the dragon! She's really awesome. The novel's description of her power is an understatement, and this isn't even the full force of her power."
Ruthar, now closer to the battle, could see less than he expected, especially after the dragon went down in a platter of blood and flesh. He felt a chill in his spine as his senses went haywire. Almost in accordance with his feeling, a roar arose from his right. A dragon? He narrowed his eyes at the red ball of fire shot at him from the dragon, closing in quickly.
Ruthar leapt down from the top of the building, leaving the flames to scorch the roof. Running on top of buildings was too dangerous now that he was sure of Taraha's whereabouts. Concluding this, Ruthar stealthily slipped through the streets and alleyways, making quick progress towards Taraha.
**Name: Ruthar Darkdawn
**Title: Dragon Slayer
**Job Class: None
**Exp: 210/8000
**Level: 5
**Stats**
**Strength: 73
**Agility: 37
**Senses: 12
**Stamina: 62
**Intelligence: 4/200
**Fatigue: 0
**Mana: 1126
**Stat Points: 3
'A lot has changed since the last time I checked. Today, I have been getting stronger more than usual. I haven't even used my Demon Eyes of Foresight at all.' Ruthar was gladdened by the number of aces he still had concealed.
[System is reading a hazardous manifestation]
'Again with this notification?' Ruthar was more bothered than ever by the repeated notification. For it to keep appearing clearly meant something had gone wrong with Taraha's battle. Could she be in a trap? Ruthar asked himself, filled with anxiety. He had no way to confirm his suspicions but did not want to find out too late if they were true. Concluding this, he increased his pace, covering more ground in less time.
'Hang on, Taraha, I'm coming.'
As Ruthar kept running, his senses began to tingle once more. This was the fourth sense skill again. But what instigated this? Ruthar quickly scanned the vicinity while on the move but found nothing coming. It did not usually take this long for an attack to come after the warning. What was wrong? The tingle from his sense skill kept occurring every second as though it had malfunctioned.
'What the hell is going on? Why does my senses stat keep going bizarre?'
As a last resort, Ruthar manifested dark mana within himself, mainly to his eyes, activating the Eyes of Foresight. As he did this, he began to perceive future images before they happened. Everything seemed okay for the next three seconds.
'Maybe I should keep the eyes running till...' Ruthar froze in shock as the images drastically changed from him running to falling forward on his face. Although this future was unavoidable, as there was nothing to really avoid, he forfeited this future. Without fail, Ruthar suddenly felt weak, losing his footing and falling forward onto his face with a loud thud. As his body met the ground, his entire system suddenly began to tremble, plunging him into a long apparel of agony.
"ARRRGHHK!" Ruthar screamed out in pain from the unknown attack he felt.
'Is this an invisible barrier trampling down on me and tightening all my inner organs? Shit, even the Eyes of Foresight could not predict this...'
[You have been intoxicated with strong Kaiju poison]
[Extraction in progress]
'Poison?'
"So we finally meet, Ruthar Darkdawn. Honor to thy name being pronounced by my mouth."
Ruthar turned his gaze to the person who had attacked him—a woman in a weird cloak with a bizarre look that was not human.
'Kaiju Whispers? This early? Is this even possible?'
Ruthar turned off the Eye of Foresight to get a better view of the Kaiju Whisperer's face. His eyes had not deceived him.
"What the hell have you done to Taraha?" Ruthar muttered, gritting his teeth in a resentful glare at her.
The Kaiju Whisperer shrugged slightly, coming closer to Ruthar and whispering to him, "I made good disposal of her, and so did I for your other brother, as ordered by the mighty one."
Ruthar gritted his teeth even more, struggling to move, but it wouldn't work. "What the hell are you spouting?! I know Taraha. She can't die...!"
"Shut up and stop being a blockhead like the other Darkdawns," the Kaiju Whisperer raised her barefoot and stomped down on Ruthar's skull ruefully, urging him to scream in pain.
"You should consider yourself lucky you will be spared today!" The Kaiju Whisperer dug her hand into her cross bag, picking from it a syringe with a nasty long needle she planned to inject into Ruthar.
"You should know..." Ruthar grunted, heaving a sigh of air from his mouth while struggling to rise up. But that only led to his body trembling uncontrollably. "I hate syringes!"
The Kaiju Whisperer furrowed her eyes in confusion, seeing no reason for his words. That was until an ice spike grew from the flooring before Ruthar, heading for the Kaiju Whisperer's gut quickly.
'A trap!' The Kaiju Whisperer sidestepped, leaving the ice spike to simply scratch her cloak's lining.
"I'm not done yet!"
The Kaiju Whisperer turned her eyes in fear as she heard Ruthar speak. The tone used for the statement meant she was in mortal danger. Nonetheless, as her eyes met with Ruthar's, she was shocked to see him on his feet, barely standing but already on the offense without warning.
He pointed his hand and blasted a ball of green flame at her. This was different from the normal flame of magic; even the Kaiju Whisperer could discern this from sight.
'It's my poison imbued in his magic.'
The Kaiju Whisperer sidestepped, barely dodging the attack. This time, she did not wait for Ruthar to attack again, digging her other hand into her cross bag, picking from it a dragon sculpture. She hurled the sculpture into the air, and it instantly transformed into a dragon, landing between Ruthar and her.
'A normal dragon? She must be looking down on me,' Ruthar growled at the sight. Though he did not have his sword in his grasp—it had gotten lost when he fell to his face—he could still do battle without it.
The dragon snarled, pulling its head back and lunging forward, fangs first, to bite Ruthar's head off. Ruthar, in turn, maneuvered into a roll, leaving the dragon to bite hard into the flooring, creating a wall of dust. This was a perfect diversion for Ruthar to attack.
He held out his hand and sent out a large blast of wind that struck the dragon on its side, sending it stumbling backward in a dazed state.
'I'll charge a load of my mana into a final attack to finish this quickly! Then handle that b*tch—'
Ruthar pointed out his right hand, grabbing it with his left as he manifested a large green ball of flame in the air before him. As he did, he continued to pump his mana into it while keeping an eye on the dragon to see if it had recovered from his last attack. By the time the dragon had recovered, the flame ball was already as huge as fifty feet, boiling so hot that it scorched everything close by. Even Ruthar could barely shield himself from the heat of his attack.
"Die!" With one last outburst, he sent the flame blast soaring through the air and striking the dragon's being with an explosion of flames and hot wind that mutilated the dragon's entire body into drops of roasted flesh and bones within seconds.
'Man, that took a lot out of...'
Ruthar's Eyes of Foresight caught the image of the Kaiju Whisperer plunging the end of a dagger into his side in the next three seconds. Thanks to seeing this image before it occurred, he was able to maneuver himself out of the way, leaving the dagger to miss his side by a foot.
[You have been intoxicated with strong Kaiju poison]
As the notification glowed before Ruthar's eyes, he instantly became paralyzed again, falling down to his back.
'Damn, the dagger attack was only a distraction, so was the dragon, all to poison me again.'
"You flimsy runt!" The Kaiju Whisperer screamed in his face, kneeling above him with her legs spread apart. She grabbed the syringe and began to plunge it down at his neck.
'Damn! Baka move... She's about to inject something into you... Could it be poison... Shit... Ruthar, move... We can't let this woman win...'
Ruthar gritted his teeth as he began to regain control of his body quickly. He wasn't sure if it was his determination or the System, but he was fighting the poison faster than he did before.
"For the glory of the Kaiju god!" The Kaiju Whisperer finally lodged the syringe into his throat, roughly injecting whatever was in it into his system.
"KAYAAAHHHHK! AHH-hkkk!