NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: Show of Strength
BAM
“Gah! Mother fuc-”
BOOM
“Hah…hah…hah…that all you got stupid lizard?!”
{SKREEEE}
“RAAAAAAGH!”
Sharon jumped to the left as the monster charged her again, keeping her halberd pointed towards the monster to keep it at a good distance away, wiping the blood that was dripping down from her forehead.
“Hup!”
SHING
Regaining her footing, she reoriented herself and swung her halberd horizontally from the right, barely missing the monster, knicking it on the scaly chest with the tip of her weapon. Doing visibly no damage.
“Shit! still not enough!” Sharon exclaimed as she jumped back to get more space between her and the monster.
It continued like this for a few more moments as she repeated the process of swinging and thrusting her halberd towards the monster, each time resulting in a near miss that did little to nothing thanks to the power level between her and the monster being too large or a complete miss thanks to the high speed of the thing.
Sharon jumped back yet again, her breathing ragged as she could no longer keep up with the thing, something that it took advantage of.
{SKREEEE!} the monster rushed forward, using its faster speed to close the gap in almost no time, swiping its claws in a horizontal fashion, hitting its target on her left side, piercing the armor, just missing any vital organs but creating a nasty wound. The monster then blended back into the environment and disappeared from sight.
“Gah! Dammit!” Sharon cried as she fell over backward, dropping her halberd as she clutched the wound.
“What the?” but just as quick as the pain came, it vanished in an instant. She wasted no time in standing back up with her halberd.
She looked down and saw that the wound had fully healed and that the armor itself had also self-repaired as if the monster didn’t just inflict a wound on her. Sharon tried to comprehend what was happening but as she did
{!}
A green aura began circling around her, the energy filled her with strength and she felt a surge of energy as she tried to focus and channel it.
“What in the world is this?” she mumbled as she looked at her hands which were also glowing with a green aura.
{!}
SWISH
Sharon then bent over backwards, as she felt something flying at her. She saw a massive spike embedded in the tree trunk behind her that was the size of her halberd. She quickly righted herself and saw that the monster was now visible again, this time clinging to the giant tree trunk in the center of the clearing.
‘How do I fight this thing?’ she thought as she brought her halberd back down and aimed the tip towards the vile reptile.
But as she contemplated what to do, a voice suddenly came into her head
“ACTIVATING SUPPORT SKILL: BASTION OF STRENGTH; INCREASING ALL STATS AND MAGIC POWER PROPERTIES. REGENERATION OF ARMOR AND LIFE FORCE ENGAGED. POWER RANK B —> POWER RANK S 200% POWER INCREASE”
{!}
Her eyes widened as she heard the voice and the skill that it announced, she opened her adventurer's screen and saw the skill in its entirety, and below the skill was the name of the one who had given it to her “SKILL SENDER: LEVIATHAN PRINCESS”. This made Sharon let out a small laugh as she knew who “Leviathan Princess” was.
“Once again, saving my life without letting me know” she remarked as a smile appeared on her face, her eyes filled with determination and courage. She aimed the halberd towards the monster and declared in a confident voice,
“Prepare to meet your end here! You son of a reptilian bitch!”
Before charing towards it.
{SKREEEE} The monster screeched as it jumped off the trunk and charged towards Sharon in return.
SWISH
“RAAAAAGH!”
Sharon ducked from the incoming claw aimed towards her face and replied with a strong horizontal swing that struck the monster straight in the chest, this time breaking it and sending splinters of its armored scales in all directions.
{SKREEEEEE!!!}
It screamed as it launched two more claw swipes that Sharon easily dodged as she rolled to the left and then went into a crouching position before jumping away, landing a few meters away allowing her to reply with a sharp and sudden thrust that penetrated the right shoulder of the monster and then following up with an overhead slash that smashed into the left arm, severing it completely.
{SKREEEEEE!!!}
The monster backpedaled and wobbled as it fell over backward, bluish blood gushing out from the now severed arm. Sharon wasted no time and capitalized on the moment, leaping into the air as she aimed to bring down her halberd with full force on the now vulnerable beast.
“Die! - shit!” she shouted as she projected a circular green shield from her hand, blocking several large spikes that threw her off her trajectory.
She landed a few feet away from the wounded monster and saw that it had activated the spikes all over its body, covering the entire thing in deadly spikes the length of broadswords. Sharon aimed her weapon towards the thing once more and she locked eyes with it, the eyes she saw were that of rage and anger, she felt the killing intent it was giving off, and could only smile as she did the same.
“One of us is dying here, you scaly fuck!” she shouted as she charged forward, a grin on her face as she had an idea
{SKREEEEE!!!} The monster replied as it activated its skill <Spike Flurry> firing all of the protruding spikes on its body, all of them flying into the air before heading towards the charging human.
‘Called it’
Sharon’s grin widened as she had predicted the reptile would do that, she held out her left hand and activated her skill <Absorb> creating a green vortex the size of her hand that sucked in all of the spikes, leaving the monster on the other end confused as to what had just happened.
“Nice try. Too bad it didn’t work!” she remarked as she closed the remainder of the distance in the blink of an eye.
{SKREEEEEE!!!} The monster screamed in defiance as it saw Sharon being practically on top of it as she brought down her halberd,
“<Skull Buster> skill, activate!” she shouted as she brought down the halberd with full force, the head smashing straight and true into the armored skull of the reptile who was still processing what was happening.
CRACK
CRUNCH
SPSHHHH
The sound of the armored skull cracking and getting smashed into tiny bits, alongside the sound of the insides of the skull being turned into paste, filled Sharon’s ears as she grinned from ear to ear, the smile having a large sense of satisfaction. She looked down and saw that the skull had been shattered into hundreds of pieces, with bluish blood sprayed all over the place and all over her.
{!}
Sharon suddenly felt that all the energy she had earlier suddenly vanish and that vanishing feeling was followed up with a message she heard in her head
“THREAT NEUTRALIZED, DISENGAGING SUPPORT SKILL: BASTION OF STRENGTH; RESTORING ORIGINAL POWER RANK FROM, POWER RANK S —> POWER RANK B. REGENERATION OF ARMOR AND LIFE FORCE DISABLED”
An abrupt feeling of pain and aching followed the end of the message and Sharon collapsed onto the ground, near the corpse of the monster.
“Goddamn, it hurts” she groaned as she clutched every joint in her body, her eyes watering from the pain and the grin she had from earlier replaced with an expression of suffering.
“Huh?” but as she groaned in pain, something appeared on her adventurer's screen a few moments later.
“DEFEATED ‘Old Prickle Back’ Bonus to be received is skill <Spike Flurry> and <Acid Resistance X>
As Sharon read it, the expression of suffering had transformed into a forced smile as she let out a small laugh. A few minutes later, she stood back up, the aching in her body lessened as she took a potion from her item box and downed it in one go, rejuvenating her.
She took out the red orb and aimed it around, it beat slowly as she did before, but as she aimed it towards the north, it began beating faster.
Letting out a sigh as she put the orb back into her pouch and then took out a skinning knife, she knelt down next to the corpse and began harvesting the entire corpse.
“After this, let's go hunt another. Then go back to see how Amelia is doing” Sharon mumbled to herself as she harvested the magic crystal and began harvesting the rest.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
SWING
SWISH
CLANG
BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM
“Hah..hah..hah…please…no more” Ryon cried as Amelia stomped on his face, his armor shattered with visible bruises on his arms, legs and torso.
She looked down at the now beaten and whimpering knight, she let out a sigh as she stepped off and walked away. Her hands still trembling and the rage inside her continuing to build. She looked back at the now unmoving Ryon who moments ago had come here to keep an eye on her under orders of Visnet and his brothers, the thought of it making Amelia’s eyes twitch.
‘They’re still adamant to make me theirs huh? Were it not for Ophelia, I would be burying those three, regardless of the consequences’ she thought as she walked back towards the downed knight. She knew he was still breathing but she felt deep inside that maybe she went a bit too far with this one.
“Hey. look at me” she said as she looked down at him,
Ryon opened his blackened eyes and instinctively tried to crawl away from the person who had just moments ago beaten him within an inch of his life.
“Ye..yes?” he weakly answered as he tried to stop himself from bursting into tears
“Look. I am sorry about earlier” Amelia began
“I just got really mad when I found out who had sent you, and why you're here. And to that end, I needed to vent it out, but I only realize now that I shouldn’t have vented all of it towards you” she added as she knelt down next to the still-shivering Ryon
“Let me heal you, then we can talk. How does that sound?”
“O..ok” Ryon mumbled as he was on the brink of fainting.
Amelia nodded as she held out her hands, golden light shining from her palms as she began to focus on the incantation in her mind.
‘<Restore> skill. Activate.’
The glowing light shone even brighter and Amelia saw that the shattered armor and ripped clothes, began reforming into their peak state. Alongside this, the bruises and black eyes that Ryon had all over his body slowly began returning to their original state. The feeling of deep pain that he was experiencing was replaced with a warm and fuzzy feeling that calmed him down.
Opening his eyes, he saw the sight of a beautiful maiden whose golden locks were fluttering in the air, capturing his heart. Oblivious to the fact that the same person he was looking at was the one who had beaten him within an inch of his life just because she was mad.
“So pretty” he mumbled as his eyes closed and he fell into a deep slumber
“Really? Again?” Amelia remarked as he heard his comment.
Amelia sighed as she stood back up and dragged Ryon by the foot towards a nearby log, leaving him there as she walked towards the thick foliage, once again bringing out the red leather book.
“Right, let’s try some of these spells”
A confident look plastered on her face as she ventured into the forest.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Aughhh”
Ryon groaned as he woke up, his back and the back of his head feeling funny as he slowly regained his bearings. He stood up and quickly dusted himself off as he checked himself for any injuries and unseen dirt he failed to smack off.
“Huh? Where is she?” he wondered out loud as he finally noticed that the person he was assigned to shadow had now just disappeared.
He was about to run off and find her when a sudden memory flashed in his head. It was a memory of him being put through a world of hurt that nearly killed him and had the person refused to hold back on their punches he really would have been killed. He remembered seeing a face that had an expression of anger and deep resentment towards him for simply being there, the face of the person who made this expression towards him instantly killed any thought of trying to find her and fulfill the orders he was given, instead a feeling of self-preservation took over as he sat down on the log next to him.
“She doesn’t really need protecting” he said to himself
‘More importantly, why would she need protecting?’ he thought as he began to recall his meeting with his highness
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ryon stood alone inside the personal study of the crown prince Visnet, he had knelt on one knee to greet him and listened to the reason for him being summoned to such a place to meet such an important figure.
“This person I am assigning you to protect is someone of utmost importance. Her existence is the very thing that holds the relationship between the church and my throne in balance” Visnet stated as he looked down towards the kneeling Ryon
“By my word, nothing shall befall her your highness” Ryon replied, confidence to prove himself filling his voice.
This made Visnet smile as he walked forward and patted the young knight on the shoulder,
“Rise, Ryon”
Ryon did so and locked eyes with the crimson-haired prince, his eyes steadfast and filled with determination.
“I have heard from my knight commander that you are the youngest of the order no?” Visnet asked as he circled him
“Yes, your highness. I have done the best I could to reach here” Ryon answered without hesitation
“Good. I could use a man like you, and all although you may be a year younger than me, do not let that dissuade you from doing your best”
“Understood your majesty. I shall never forget your words” Ryon replied with a smart salute. Earning him a smile from Visnet.
Visnet then returned to his desk and pulled out a small rolled-up parchment with a red ribbon holding it together, handing it over to the stalwart Ryon, Visnet took another breath
“Your orders are inside the parchment, it also has the location of your target. Make sure nothing is to happen to them, they believe themselves to be a high leveled adventurer but in reality, they are nothing but a lowly B-Rank. You are to also keep tabs on her as well, I want to know what she does, where she goes, and why. So keep her safe, and with that. You’re dismissed” he reiterated as he stood next to the window, observing the outside world with a smile.
“By your word your highness” Ryon answered as he used his shadow step to disappear from the room.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
‘Something is going on here. But I think it’s best I don’t dig into it’ Ryon thought as he finished recalling the meeting, his gaze turning towards the tree-covered mountains, a slight shiver going down his spine.
‘Weird. Why did that happen’ he thought as a confused look filled his face,
{!}
Ryon then felt something in the air, it was as if the air all throughout the area had suddenly gained a rough and grainy texture, his gaze once again turned to the tree-covered mountains, and to his shock, near the top of the mountain, a bright pillar of light had emanated from the ground. Shooting up into the sky, parting the dark clouds that were above it.
“What the..”
Suddenly, a set of five large circles filled the area that was previously filled with dark clouds. Each of the circles was bigger than the last, but these circles were massive, the smallest one being the size of the largest wyvern with the last one even stretching out to where he was standing.
{!}
Ryon’s senses fired off, which made him immediately jump off the cliff and using his shadow magic, quickly put some distance between him and the circles. He hid next to a tree and watched as the rings all glowed a blue color for a short bit, each one giving off a distinct humming sound.
VRRRRRRNNNN
Suddenly, all five circles fired pillars of light the size of the circle it originated from, hitting the ground and causing a massive shockwave as the pillars of light annihilated all of the things that were beneath them.
The shockwave was so strong that it even hit the area Ryon thought was a good distance away and ended up sending a medium-sized log on an impact course with him that struck him in the torso and knocked him unconscious yet again.
‘What..the hell…was that…?’ were the last thoughts in his mind as he faded into the darkness.
But as Ryon fell unconscious, Amelia stood over a hundred charred and still burning corpses of S-class monsters.