Ba… Thump! Ba… Thump!
My heart raced in my chest.
I found my heart beating, I can hear it… almost clearly.
My hand traced along the hilt of my weapon 'Doombringer'. It's violet glow ran along it's sharp edge.
Crackle! Crackle!
The lightning danced all around me.
Haaaah…
As I exhaled deeply, fog escaped my mouth.
I looked around, the world around me frozen in an ice field, stretched vastly around me.
It caused… due to my skill, [Ice Expansion], my Ice Elemental Essence triggered it.
"That weapon… Hope?" Envy's voice reached my ears, she was standing behind me— more like, I am stepping in front of her, almost shielding her from the danger standing infront of us.
I looked at her, my gaze met hers, as I forced a warm reassuring smile on my face and said.
"We will talk later."
Her lips curled up slightly, she was surprised a moment ago, but now she is smirking, her confident seems to return as she held her own katana and stood next to me.
"Heh. What's this? You. Protecting me." Envy said, stepping to my side, her expression lit up. "Did you forget, who taught you?"
'I will never commit such a crime!'
"Of course not. Master." I replied with a slight bow of my head, there's a sarcasm in my tone.
"…"
Her eyes widen as my words reaches her ears, her almost composed eyes shines brightly.
Crack! Crack! Shatter!
Instantly our senses triggered, and towards direction of frozen entity infront of us. The entity before us resembles a mutated version of [Fallen]. An A rank monster.
But the energy emitted from its mutated body is way above A rank.
Without a doubt that thing… was S Rank.
It's six feet body twitched, cracks began to appear on the ice, which was holding him at its place.
"Envy, cover me!" I barked.
"Roger that!"
Without hesitation, we moved.
Envy darted to the left while I to the right, circling the Fallen from its opposite sides. My eyes remained locked on the creature, watching for any sign of movement.
Shatterrr!!
The ice covering it shattered completely, its shards flying outward in every direction.
It was now freed from its frozen prison, the Fallen's body twitched, its child-like head jerking from side to side. Its hollow eye sockets seemed to follow us? Yet its mouth remained eerily silent, opening and closing without speaking any words.
As I jumped toward the direction of its head. I noticed.
The Fallen wasn't moving.
It just stood there, like a statue, watching our every move.
'What's it doing?'
It was studying us.
The sight of it made my skin crawl.
Suddenly, the multiple brains sticking across its exposed body began to wobble, pulsating with evenly distributed rhythm.
I charged forward, my blade aimed towards its head.
But it was all a feint.
The plan was simple, I would draw its attention, forcing it to focus on me, while Envy struck from below, slicing through its legs, crippling it.
It should've worked.
But the Fallen didn't react the way we expected.
Instead of focusing on me, it ignored my charge entirely. And at the last moment, it leapt into the air, avoiding Envy's strike coming towards its legs.
"What!?" The word left my lips before I could stop it, mirrored by Envy's shocked expression.
We both halted, our eyes locked briefly.
Disbelief.
'How did it…?'
It didn't make sense.
We planned it perfectly.
The Fallen had no reason to predict our plan. Creatures like Fallen were intelligent, yes, but not to this extent.
Its movements were so strange, its almost as if it has… foresight.
It were beyond anything an S-rank monster should have.
Thud!!
It landed to the ground, the shockwave generated made its body twitching as the same golden liquid continued to drip from its hollow eyes and jagged mouth.
Envy shot me a glance, she nodded.
'Once again,' I signaled her silently with a nod in return.
This time, we wouldn't give it a chance to react.
Dash! Dash!
We both charged at the same time, our blades now aimed for its head.
Unlike before, we kept our true target undecided until the very last moment. It would be impossible for the Fallen to predict which one of us would strike.
As we closed the distance, the Fallen's brains wobbled again, pulsating at the same time.
At the final millisecond, Envy pulled back her blade, leaving the finishing blow to me.
But the Fallen didn't move.
'This time, It will work!'
Or so we thought.
Clang!!
Its arm shot up, blocking my strike with his hand-fingers arm. It's arm was ripped off by my blade.
But…
How?
How could it know?
"Impossible." Those words left Envy's lips.
Thud!
The Fallen's ripped off arm lay motionless meters away.
I gritted my teeth.
This wasn't normal.
"What is this thing?"
My eyes landed on his severed arm.
It was… melting?
"Hope!"
Envy's cries pulled me to the situation.
I got distracted.
A faintest beam of light surges from the Fallen's ripped off hand. And before I could react, something hit me. Hard.
BOOOM!!
Crash!
The sudden impact shook my very core.
My body crashed behind the icy wall. The force was enough to create a crack on the wall after the impact.
"Uakh…!"
Pain surged through me.
Immense pain.
I couldn't breath.
My lunges screamed for air, as I noticed my ribs were broken and few of the bones were peeking out from my body.
My vision blurred.
"No… Not… now…" I choked.
I tried to move my body, but it was all futile. My body refused to obey.
Through the haze of my fading consciousness, I saw the Fallen.
It's arms, all regenerated.
It was moving towards her.
Towards Envy.
She stood firm, as she gripped her katana tightly.
Her eyes sifting repeatedly from my body to the Fallen's.
She has a worried expression.
Almost as if looking at her own child.
"No… En… vy…"
The word barely escaped my mouth.
The coldness spread all around my bones, I tried push myself up, but my arms gave up.
Pain.
Anger.
Responsibility.
"MOVE... DAMN… IT!!" I growled.
The Fallen moved closer to Envy.
'She can't fight that thing alone!'
No.
No! No! No! No! No!
I wouldn't let anyone else get hurt.
Without thinking any deeper.
I activated my skill.
[Quantum Manipulation]
The words echoed in my mind.
Time slowed down.
All my senses seemed to disappear.
Silence.
I opened my eyes, It was colorful.
Various Lights.
Various Colors.
Various Sounds.
It felt as if, I was floating towards an endless horizon of the universe.
It was…
"Beautiful."
End of Chapter.