James barely had time to react. The world seemed to slow as the blade glinted in the dim light, aiming for his neck.
At the very last second, his instincts kicked in, and he threw himself backward. The blade sliced through the air where his throat had just been.
He hit the ground with a thud, heart pounding like a war drum. His wide eyes darted toward the door, which creaked open to reveal a figure stepping inside.
The man—or rather, the creature—was nothing James had ever seen before.
He was tall, unnaturally tall, with icy blue skin that seemed to shimmer like frost under moonlight.
White hair cascaded down his back, and intricate white tattoos glowed faintly on his face, their patterns shifting like frozen rivers.
His piercing, glacier-blue eyes were colder than death itself. In his hand, he held a sword made entirely of ice, the blade faintly steaming as it met the warmer air of the room.
James's breath hitched. His mind raced as he tried to process what he was seeing. 'This isn't human,' he realized, his stomach sinking. 'A Spirit.'
Not just any spirit, either. The two white lines etched on the creature's forehead told James everything he needed to know: this was an Elemental Spirit of the second stage, ice-aligned.
His thoughts spiraled. 'How did it get past the mansion's guards? How did it even get into my room without alerting anyone?'
The spirit's lips curled into a cruel smirk as it stepped further inside. It pulled a white slate from the folds of its cloak—a talisman, covered in glowing runes.
Without a word, the spirit pressed it against the wall, and the slate sank into the surface, vanishing as if it had melted into the wood.
James's blood ran cold. He didn't know enough about talismans, but by stroke of luck he had read about this one. It was a Sound Blocking Talisman.
Whatever was about to happen, no one outside would hear it.
For a brief moment, panic threatened to overtake him. Then his mind sharpened.
'Focus, James. Think. You've faced danger before—this is no different.' He quickly calculated his options.
Before he could act, the ice spirit moved. Its icy blade dissolved into liquid and then reformed midair into a small, shimmering bullet of ice.
The spirit raised its hand, aiming directly at James.
James didn't wait to see what would happen. "Extreme Speed!" he shouted in his mind. A familiar purple mist erupted from his body, rushing through his pores like a flood.
In an instant, his legs surged with power, and the world around him seemed to slow.
Bang!
He dove toward the window, dodging the ice bullet by mere inches. But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the bullet exploded behind him, shattering into dozens of sharp ice needles that shot out in all directions.
"Extreme Defense!" James thought frantically.
The mist around him condensed into armour, wrapping his body in sleek, purple plating that gleamed like the hide of a black panther.
The needles struck the armour, bouncing off with sharp, metallic pings.
James staggered but remained unharmed, thanks to his quick reaction. His heart raced as he realised how close he had come to death.
If his armour had formed even a millisecond later, those needles would've skewered him like a pincushion.
He didn't have time to dwell on it. Still focused on escape, James lunged toward the window again.
But the spirit was faster than he had anticipated. It raised its hand and fired three more ice bullets in rapid succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
James twisted his body, trying to dodge, but he wasn't quick enough. His speed wasn't enhanced at that moment, so he was too slow to dodge the stage 2 attacks.
Two of the bullets struck him squarely—one in the chest and the other in the side.
His armour absorbed the blows, but the force was like being hit by a speeding truck. The impact flung him away from the window, and he crashed into the floor with a grunt.
Before he could recover, the spirit unleashed a jet of freezing air toward the window, instantly encasing it in a thick wall of ice. James's escape route was gone.
Instead of panicking, James forced himself to stay calm. His expression darkened, and a cold fury settled over him.
'If this spirit thinks I'm going to die here, it's got another thing coming.'
The spirit flickered forward, its body becoming translucent and ghostly. James's eyes widened in recognition.
'Astral state,' he realised. Spirits could enter this form, making them immune to physical attacks.
The spirit materialised again, forming two ice swords in its hands, each blade shimmering with deadly intent.
It lunged at James with blinding speed, slashing at him in a flurry of attacks.
James ducked, twisted, and sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the strikes.
"Extreme Attack!" he roared in his mind.
The armor dissolved into purple mist and swirled around his hands, condensing into gauntlets with razor-sharp claws.
He countered, swinging a clawed punch at the spirit. His gauntlet collided with one of the ice swords, shattering it into shards.
But as the sword broke, it released a burst of freezing energy that encased James's hand in a block of ice.
The spirit didn't miss a beat, attacking with its second sword. James's mind raced.
"Extreme Speed!" he thought desperately. The purple mist dissolved into his body, boosting his speed just in time for him to dodge the blade.
But the spirit wasn't done. Mid-swing, the remaining sword shattered into twelve ice bullets, which shot toward James like a hailstorm.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
He twisted and turned, dodging most of them, but two struck him—one in the shoulder, the other in his ribs.
The pain was instant and searing, ice spreading from the wounds as if trying to freeze him from the inside out.
James gritted his teeth, refusing to let the pain slow him down. He dodged another attack and barrelled toward the spirit recklessly.
"Extreme Defense!"
As expected, the spirit smirked coldly and turned astral once again, and James passes straight through it like it didn't exist.
But this was what James wanted. By passing through the spirit, he was now close to the door, his only chance of escape.
Bang!
James crashed into the door like a raging bull. As he broke through the doorway, he barely had time to register the massive fireball hurtling toward him from the side.
Boom!
It collided with him, the impact like a fiery explosion. His armour absorbed most of the blast, but the heat burned through, scorching his skin and leaving him gasping in pain.
James staggered to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth as his body trembled from the backlash of his damaged soul weapon.
He barely had time to catch his breath before another fireball came flying at him.
"Extreme Speed!" he thought again, leaping to the left. But before he could escape, a metal wall suddenly materialised in his path.
He crashed into it, unable to stop in time. The fireball struck him again, this time without his armour to protect him fully.
Burned and battered, James scrambled to his feet, only to see two more figures stepping into the hallway.
One was red skinned and wreathed in flames, the other was brown skinned and surrounded by swirling metal shards.
James's heart sank. He was surrounded by spirits now—three of them, and each one seemed more dangerous than the last.
'This just keeps getting worse.'
_____
Power stone Goal!
20 PS - 1 Bonus chapter
50 PS - 2 Bonus chapter
100 PS (Quite an achievement as of now) - 3 Bonus chapters.
Castle -10 Bonus Chapters!