They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 198: Resonance [2]

The Ring of the Warden pulsed against my finger.

Oathstorm hummed in my hand.

And something inside me that had been sealed suddenly cracked open.

Pain exploded through my body... not from my wounds, but from inside, like every cell was being rewritten, restructured, fundamentally altered.

I gasped, my back arching, and suddenly I could feel it.

Thunder.

It wasn’t just Oathstorm’s magic anymore.

The air in my lungs tasted like ozone. Blue sparks didn’t just crawl along the blade... they bled directly from my pores, arcing across my knuckles and dancing over my skin.

[AWAKENING COMPLETE] 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

elemental_affinity: THUNDER (awakened)

[All stats: +10]

STR: 33 —> 43

VIT: 32 —> 42

AGI: 54 —> 64

INT: 100 —> 110

WIS: 45 —> 55

LUK: 19 —> 29

And then something else hit me.

Memories.

Not mine.

Oathstorm’s memories.

The sword had been dormant, waiting, its Battle Memory enchantment recording everything, every fight, every technique, every master who’d wielded it.

And the most recent master before me had been Zen.

It hit my brain like a downloaded file unpacking all at once.

I saw a man—Zen—standing on a battlefield of corpses, his breathing slow and measured, his sword an extension of his own arm.

It wasn’t just a memory; it was muscle memory. A profound, absolute understanding of how to move, how to strike, how to simply be the storm.

I could see it. Feel it. The blade remembered, and now it was sharing.

[Combat Rank: D+ —> C+]

My combat rank jumped.

Not because I’d trained. Because the sword had given me what Zen had earned through blood and survival.

Beside me, Tessa gasped, taking a clumsy step back as a web of stray lightning crackled across the stone floor between us.

"Jin...?"

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

Just planted my hand on the ground and forced myself up.

My legs shook violently, the torn muscles in my stomach screaming in protest, but the surging power held my skeleton together.

I stood up straight and closed my eyes, letting Zen’s breathing technique take over.

Inhale and exhale.

Then opened my eyes.

The world looked different, sharper, clearer, like everything had come into focus.

And... I lunged.

The stone cracked beneath my boots.

I cleared the distance in a fraction of a second, appearing directly behind the assassin who was raising his blade to strike Scarlet’s blind side. I didn’t even think about the swing, instincts guided my wrist.

A single, blinding arc of blue light flashed in the dim cavern.

The assassin’s head tumbled off his shoulders, hitting the dirt with a wet thud before his body even realized it was dead.

Blood sprayed in a high arc, painting the cavern walls.

Shax blinked, his eyes widening in sheer shock. He instantly jumped backward, putting ten feet of distance between us.

The remaining assassins fighting Scarlet froze, staring at me.

I flicked the blood off Oathstorm, the blade humming a lethal, satisfied tune. I didn’t look back at Scarlet, but kept my voice loud enough for her to hear.

"I’ll take care of him."

Shax’s shock twisted back into an ugly, arrogant sneer. He gripped his sword with both hands. "Impressive trick, trash. But it’s still not enou—"

I launched myself forward, leaving a trail of blue afterimages.

Shax barely got his blade up in time—

CRACK!

The collision sent a shockwave through the cave, lightning and wind exploding at the impact point.

"What the—"

I didn’t give him time to finish and pressed the attack.

Each strike faster and harder than the last.

Shax grunted, his boots sliding back through the dirt. My physical strength had increased, and the raw, violent thunder affinity was tearing right through his wind barrier, sending painful shocks up his arms.

Panicking, he shifted his weight and drove a heavy, wind-enhanced kick squarely into my chest.

I skidded backward, the breath knocked out of me, but I didn’t fall.

Shax gritted his teeth, his arms trembling slightly from the electrical feedback.

[Target: Jin—>Modify Property: Agility Base=Max Threshold]

I didn’t give him a second to breathe and rushed him again.

The cavern turned into a meat grinder of flashing steel and erupting elements. I parried his thrusts, deflecting his wind blades with precise, heavy strikes of thunder.

I was pushing him back. Step by step.

"Damn you!" Shax cursed, his composure completely shattering.

He parried a heavy downward cleave, used the recoil to spin backward, and suddenly swept his left hand through the air.

Three silver needles, tipped with a sickly, glowing green liquid, shot toward my face and chest.

But I didn’t dodge and just lunged straight forward.

Two needles buried themselves deeply into my left shoulder, and the third clipped my cheek.

Shax let out a breathless, triumphant laugh, lowering his sword just a fraction.

"Got you. That’s Manticore venom, you little shit. Your heart will stop in—"

[Passive Skill: Poison Resistance activated.]

[Toxin neutralized.]

I reached up, pulled one of the needles out of my shoulder, and tossed it into the dirt. I didn’t even break my stride.

Shax’s laugh died in his throat. His eyes bulged in pure, unfiltered horror.

I smirked, leveling Oathstorm at his chest. "Too bad, Uncle. I’m a incredibly poor receptor for your bullshit."

"Gale Cross!" Shax screamed in panic, swinging his sword in an X-pattern to unleash two massive, intersecting blades of razor-sharp wind.

I gripped Oathstorm with both hands, channeling every ounce of my new thunder affinity into the blade. The air around me warped from the heat.

[Rolling Thunder!]

I swung horizontally.

A massive, roaring wave of condensed lightning erupted from my blade.

It hit Shax’s Gale Cross and completely shattered it.

Then the wave hit Shax dead-on.

His sword snapped cleanly in half. He let out a horrifying scream as the lightning scorched his armor and flesh, throwing him backward.

Before he could hit the ground, I was already there.

I drove Oathstorm straight through the center of his chest, pinning him violently to the cavern floor. The blade pierced his heart and buried itself deep into the stone beneath him.

Shax choked, a mouthful of blood spilling over his lips. He stared up at me, his eyes wide and glassy, completely unable to comprehend how he had lost.

"Don’t worry Uncle... You’ll see Vivienne soon," I whispered.

I twisted the blade. The light faded from his eyes, and his body went entirely limp.

I stood there for a second, my chest heaving, the adrenaline slowly beginning to recede, leaving behind a dull, throbbing ache in my gut. I ripped Oathstorm free and turned around.

Scarlet stood amidst the corpses of the other four assassins.

Her chest was rising and falling heavily, her emerald eyes glowing brightly in the dark. She was bleeding from a dozen minor cuts, her scarlet hair matted with sweat and dirt, but she was alive.

I let out a shaky breath, letting my sword drop to my side.

"Let’s—"

ROOOOOOOOAR!

A massive roar exploded from outside the cave... so loud it shook the walls, sent stones falling from the ceiling, made my bones vibrate.