Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 175: Void Walker
’I can’t go any further!’
Kieran had made his way back towards the fight, taking himself as close as he could get. Any further and he could find himself in a situation worse than before.
"Hmmm!"
His teeth grunted against each other and he circulated his internal energy furiously to preventing himself from fainting under the unrelenting pressure of the two behemoths.
.... 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
The monster which had fallen to August’s provocation pounced at him on all fours, it’s razor shap fangs open and ready to grind him to fleshy bits.
Seeing through the creature’s basic movements, August calmly angled his wooden sword and tilted his head to the side.
"Grrr!"
The creature growled at the missed attack. Still, it clamped down on its jaw to trash the one thing that had come between it and its meal.
From afar, Kierans golden eyes flashed seeing the wooden sword withstand the bite of the creature no matter how hard it forced its jaws.
’What is that made of?’
The thought crossed his mind. The toughest material he had ever come across was the black material that made the entire place, yet August’s sword seemed to be on par with it.
The monster figuring that it couldn’t bite through the sword, moved on. In a swift motion that Kieran had almost missed, its clawed hands shot towards August, tearing through the barrier between them, while several of its fleshy tentacles shot up from the ground, breaking through the black material that Kieran had thought of as the toughest thing here with ease.
"Hmm?"
A strange smile appeared on August’s face feeling his sword still locked in place by the creature’s mouth.
It couldn’t break the sword, but it stopped him from using his most dominant hand.
Facing the onslaught of attacks, August feet remained fixed to the ground and a purple light burst forth.
It was only a flash, quick enough to be missed if one blinked wrong. Yet, to the two who didn’t dare blink in this fight, it had almost rendered them blind.
"AUUUUUGGHHHH!"
A gruttal roar of pain came from the mouth of the creature as it backed away in plain, clawing at its bleeding eyes.
The tentacles that were about to cover August had all been cut down, each of them severed cleanly the midsection.
Something like that could only be achieved with sword strike.
Yet August remained in the same position even after the monster had retreated, with his arm still raised in the position used to block the previous attack.
’How did he do that?’
Kieran blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to get rid of the after effects of the flash.
Using his ability, he didn’t see the world the same way as an ordinary bystander. His world was stripped of almost all colors and what he saw was the core of everything — energy, and the shape it had taken on.
Hence, the flash appeared like a slash of ink in a dull painting. Speaking across his vision like the thick stroke of a painting brush.
To him, the only perceiver of this world, the stroke was beautiful beyond anything he had ever seen. Yet, his eyes had to take on the price for spying at such beauty.
The mere sight of the attack made his eyes bleed and his vision turn blurry. Kieran was of no doubt that if he had not been behind August and was facing the direction of the attack, observing the full stroke, he would have been blinded.
’Why did he come back?’
With the retreat of the monster, August felt the existence spying on him and locked on to it instantly.
His eyes shifted to the side and for moment, Kieran felt like he had been stripped of his existence. A sensation which only lasted a moment as August withdrew his eyes and his energy that had surged forth wrong with it.
’He should have gone along with the other one.’
August suppressed the increasing urge to leave the fight and school his recruit instead. He was quite familiar with the taste of his wooden sword after all.
"I’d have to punish you later kid"
"For now, I’d have to take this somewhere else"
August muttered beneath his breath and Kieran felt a shiver through his body hearing those words enter his ears as if whispered into them.
CRACK!
The sound broke the fading reunion between teacher anf student as the creature returned to the game with its figure looking less human-like now that it had clawed its own eyes.
"I know he beat you up pretty bad, but he still died. So can you hurry up and pull some weight?"
Veins popped out on his forehead and his demeanor changed from noncaring to angry and offended in a moment.
The creature, showcased its intelligence with its response to August’s words.
CRACK! CRACK!!!
Several more crack sounds came from the ground beneath. Not only just there, but even the ground beneath Kieran and Jake who was far away cracked open.
The illusionary looking eye hovering in place behind the creature moved for the first time, locking onto August and multiple tentacles latched themselves onto the walls of the room.
BA-DUMP!
Red pulses of light started to radiate from the eye of the creature, reaching the corners of the space and the tentacles on the walls and ground started to glow and beat in resonace with the pulses of light from the eye.
Around August, the space haf started to morph, the ceiling suddenly turning to the sky above, while the ground beneath his feet vanished, leaving him falling down from the sky.
"Sigh!"
August shook his head and took a step forward, the scenery around him shattering like pieces of glass.
Kieran on the other hand was drenched in sweat, having figured how the creature had manged its illusions.
The creature seeing August break through its illusions with a single step began to panic, and several of its tentacles were uprooted from the cracks in the ground.
Grabbing them with its hands, it yanked fiercely and the tentacles started pulsing.
From Kieran’s point of view, he could see several masses of energy flowing through the tentacles into the body of the creature. With each mass of energy, the eye behind it became less illusionary and more real.
’The breeding farms’
Kieran got the full picture instantly.
He had seen the creature suck a whole room of monsters dry and they had no idea how many more rooms like that existed here. It was like the creature’s personal powerbank.
CRACK!
"ARGGHHHHH!"
With the influx of energy, the previously interrupted formation of the creatures humanoid form resumed with the disturbing sound of cracking bones as the body continued its morphing.
With each passing second, the light in August’s eyes became darker as the creature took the form of the dead commander of the outpost, but just when the morphing was about to come to a finish, the tentacles attached to the eyes tensed and the eye which had fully become real, shot into the creature, altering it’s form.
"Aaaarhhhhh!"
The monster spread its hands outwards, releasing a smile and sound of satisfaction.
After the eye merged with it, it’s transformation stopped progressing and took on a few changes especially the red eye that had opened up above its tow slashed eyes.
Despite the few changes, it still bared some resemblance to the commander which it had used as a template.
"Tch! Despite my plans, it still wasn’t enough!"
The chilling voice of the creature reached their ears and Kieran quaked seeing the creature’s jump in intelligence. He had only ever met a single creature capable of expressing itself using human speech. Neither was the experience a pleasant one for hin nor did the creature managed to express itself as well as the one on front of him.
"You can talk now?"
"That’s good!"
August sighed in relief like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulder.
"Well, before we resume, why don’t we take care of the bug creeping around!"
The creature’s eyes locked onto Kieran and the weight of its aura pressed down on the recruit instantly knocking him out before August’s intervened with a violent punch to its gut.
’I was right, we can’t do this here!’
Grabbing the creature by its waving tentacles, August swung it at the top of the place with the force of a cannon
BANG!
The creature broke through the top, crashing through the incredibly hard material till it broke through the huge square box, that was the entrance to the place.
"Don’t try following us!"
August appeared in front of kieran before vanishing through a tear in space.
Seeing the huge hole which went all through the place, Kieran understood how much they had both been holding back against each other. He couldn’t even survive watching the actual fight.
...
"A void walker?"
"You humans thought sending a counter ability would be good enough?"
The creature laughed seeing the purplish tear which August had walked out of.
"You should be happy you’re good enough to play with, but don’t get cocky. I still prefer my students."
’Just don’t break too easily’
