Chapter Twenty: Growing Stronger
Dusken slashed his sword with well-targeted and precise movement; instantly, the beastman went on the defensive; arrows fell at him with rapid speed, but with the help of his senses through the shadows, none met him.
He ducked and swung his sword, each and every one of his attacks laced with profound meaning, a meaning that drove his attacks faster.
In a battle or combat, the first thing to do is to know your enemy's tactics and counter them; Dusken believed this but in a different light.
He would make the enemies know everything he wanted them to know and when they tried countering him, what they would face would be an endless onslaught.
His advances and retreats were planned and purposeful, and his way of the sword was taught to him by his father; how could a beastman compare?
Landing a heavy kick on the beastman's chest, it was sent taking several heavy steps backwards as it coughed out a mouthful of blood.
"I have to admit that you're strong, but I'm not a creature, I have my talent and abilities too, hehe, defend against this. ROAR!"
A roar erupted from the mouth of the beastman, and the winds surged as they collided on Dusken and sent him flying away like a golf ball hit by a club.
Without hesitation, the other beast-man with an arrow that had pink skin shot out more arrows at Dusken that was falling.
Dusken was still quite high in the air, and his flying speed decreased until it stopped, for the briefest moments, he paused in the air before falling towards the forest ground with terrifying speed.
For the first time since coming to this ethereal land, Dusken's expression changed into one of terror.
The ground would soon embrace him, and from the distance he was at, broken bones would be a charity, and arrows came from his side; not dying would simply be great luck.
'I hope that you could work,'
With no other choice, after thinking of the equipments he had in his arsenal, Dusken threw the spell card downwards; it hummed while floating in the air, and then a soft, melodious song that sounded like a whisper resounded in the surroundings.
A scene that made Dusken shocked unravelled itself; his body was about to collide with the ground - headfirst.
Then his shadow rose and formed a shield; the shield was soft when he landed on it. It bounced him back up, but he rotated in the air and landed with both legs and a hand pressing the ground.
A sharp jolt of pain ran through his body due to the weight of his landing.
The arrow pierced the shield but was stopped; it was soft to Dusken but hard to the attacks.
Surprise spread across the faces of the beastmen that attacked him, as they stared at the shield in utter bewilderment.
Their brain couldn't process how this happened, all they had seen was a card, and then it transformed into a black, obsidian shield and the fact that something rose from the ground, a shadow, made them stand rooted to their positions in shock.
Dusken was more alarmed than surprised, but still, that emotion was there. It was now that he recollected the card's effect and how it was stated.
Spell effect: In the era since the early twilight of time, the world was laced in darkness and shrouded by shadows, drowning in rivers of nothing but loneliness, and from this solitude, a whisper was born, the songs of the night.
This spell was called Nightfall Whisper, which meant that maybe its full powers would be displayed at night, and what he was seeing now may be the very tip of the iceberg.
Raising his head briefly, disappointment masked his face, the sun was still high up in the sky, and there was still a lot of time till night fall.
He stretched his right hand forward as the formless shield transformed back into the spell card and flew in his direction; without pausing, he grabbed the card.
The usage of the spell card cost him no abyssal energy since it was a dormant spell card, but coupled with the fact of him controlling the shadow earlier, it took quite a deep glare at his abyssal energy.
He dismissed the card as it disappeared back to the mysterious space every equipment he had stayed.
His gaze returned to the beastmen who were staring at him absentmindedly like they were in deep thoughts.
The pink-skinned beastman - which had the face of a pig and held its bow and arrows - was the first one to snap out of his reverie.
The other one had a long tail with the same pink skin as the previous one; without doubt, those two were probably siblings.
The pink-skinned beast-man raised its bow and placed an arrow with the intention to fire once again when it heard its companion's words.
"Let me deal with him, junior brother," the beast-man with a long tail growled out and stared at Dusken.
Dusken had a light smirk on his face; the breeze blew softly ruffling his short white hair, his dark eyes reflected confidence with his pale skin, and lithesome body gave people the feeling of looking at the kind and warm-hearted individual.
His clothes which resembled rags made the whole scene slightly awkward, but in a battle of life and death, no one cared about the opinions of others if they wanted to survive.
The beastman fiercely roared and charged at Dusken, its movements were fast and loud thuds were constantly heard as it stomped the slightly wet ground of the forest.
Dusken was ready… at least on the surface, internally, he was trying to call upon that so-called mystical flame, which was his Innate ability named Dark Flame.
'Summon, arise, burn,' Everything he could think of was tried, but there was no response.
The beast-man was already approaching him; to be honest, he was mad, really angry.
Since when he came into this trial, there was no peace of time and even respite it was all dangers after peril, so perhaps this beast-man would be his way of venting out the pent-up frustration; it's a good thing that it said it wanted to fight alone.
Just when Dusken held his blade high and tried one last ditch attempt to summon the flame, a small finger-sized black fire floated above his palm.
'What the…'
Before Dusken could comment, the beastman opened its mouth and roared, and the winds reacted; the leaves of forest trees around rusted in agitation.
As one might hope, Dusken was blasted away, but this time it wasn't too serious, so after just a flat fall, he quickly got up and and called upon the dark flame once more.
Before he could do a thing, though, the flame suddenly flew and covered his weapon. There was no fire, but the blade of the longsword instantly became dark as obsidian, as Dusken felt something incredulous.
He was unsure and wanted to test it out, so without care, he ran towards the beast-man.
It began sucking air as if ready to release another blast, but Dusken arrived in front of it and swung his blade; the beast-man used its claws to defend against the strike.
The claws that had been stably defending against Dusken's strike previously, were sliced apart like tofu.
The claws fell to the ground as they were completely cut off; a pained scream resounded from the beast-man, but Dusken paid no heed and used this chance to attack once more.
His longsword slashed downwards, and in a desperate attempt for survival, the beastman roared.
The force generated but the winds threatened to blast him away, but struggling with a hardened jaw, Dusken only took a pained step backwards, with a determination blazing in his heart, he persevered.
Things turned out to go for the worst as the winds seemed to be helping the beast-man out, they pressed on his shoulders wanting him to fall, but Dusken refused to relent; his will was endless.
The beastman raised its fist wanting to deliver a finishing blow to the struggling Dusken's head.
"Hah~,". Dusken refused to give up, he groaned as the winds were making his bones quake, wanting to give in, but he persevered and slowly raised his sword against the pressure of the wind.
When the variant human saw this, it immediately decided to run back, its claws had been sliced apart so it would be completely defenseless if the sword was to strike it.
Just as the beastman was about to retreat, the blade fell with an overwhelming might before the alien could escape and even though in a last ditch attempt used its hands and all its strength to stop the blade, he was still cut down as its head was divided in two.
It turned out that the ability of the dark flame could enhance weapons and attacks by at least two times, this was the reason why the beast-man's claws had been sliced in two and the cause for its easy death.
It was then thought that waves of negativity surged inside Dusken, rampaging in his very being.
[You have slain a level one awakened beastman]
[Your abyss within grows darker]
Dusken slowly raised his head, feeling all kinds of negative emotions affecting him, but he still grinned, his confident eyes locking onto the other beastman who stood afar with a horrified expression on its face.
"You're next!"
He growled and charged forward.