NOVEL NEXT Chapter 205: Wrath
Azel was nearly pushed off his feet by the tornado.
The force of it was unbelievable.
Wind clawed at him with invisible hands, dragging his clothes, tearing at his hair, shoving his body backward as though it wanted him in the air.
All around him the world howled and screamed.
Branches whipped past him like sharpened spears. Dust and leaves cut at his cheeks, peppering his skin with a thousand tiny stings.
The roar was deafening, loud enough to drown out even his own thoughts.
He might have been swept away entirely if not for instinct.
He called the goddess blade back to him with a thought, and the weapon responded instantly, materializing in his grip with a flash of starlight.
He plunged the blade into the earth at his feet, driving it deep enough that it acted as an anchor.
Muscles strained as he clutched the hilt with both hands, aura flooding his arms, locking his body against the gale.
The other three weren't as lucky as they were sent into the air.
Still, the wind was strong enough to lift him an inch off the ground before slamming him back down again.
The earth cracked beneath his boots as if the storm was trying to dig him out by force.
Trees didn't stand a chance.
The ones that had ripped from the soil and spun through the air like toys in the hands of a giant.
A few familiars — those unfortunate enough to be caught too close were dragged screaming into the chaos.
Leaves and grit lashed at his face, little more than specks of nature but made into weapons by the speed of the wind.
It felt like a swarm of ants biting every inch of exposed skin.
He squinted, trying to peer through the haze, but all he saw was chaos.
A sudden weight pressed onto his shoulder.
The bird landed to him, its feathers matted with dust. In this state it looked almost comical, like a dirty ball of fluff that had been rolled through an ash pile.
'Don't worry,' the bird said, its voice echoing directly in his head.
Its tone was strained. 'She's not trying to kill us.'
Azel barked a laugh, though the sound was immediately swallowed by the wind.
"She's not trying to kill us?" His voice was incredulous. He barely kept his footing, forced to sidestep as the very earth under him shifted. "Then what do you call this?"
As if to prove his point, a massive trunk spiraled out of the tornado and slammed down where he had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.
The ground shook violently, the impact leaving a crater and flinging splinters like arrows across the battlefield.
"It looks exactly like she's trying to kill us!" Azel growled, pulling his blade free and bracing himself again.
'She's just angry!' the bird insisted, clinging harder to his shoulder. 'It happens… it usually happens…'
Azel opened his mouth to retort, but the storm beat him to it.
The tornado collapsed.
One second it was chaos, the next… silence.
The sudden absence of sound was almost more disorienting than the storm itself.
All at once, the winds died, the pressure vanished, and everything that had been suspended in the air came plummeting down.
Azel wasted no time. He sprinted forward, weaving through the falling wreckage.
Another tree slammed into the dirt where he had been a moment ago, sending up a spray of soil.
He rolled past another, then ducked under a tumbling boulder, it seemed everything was out to kill him.
"It's too thick…" he muttered, coughing as the dust from the storm rose in choking clouds.
He couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him, the dust here was too thick… He could see small shapes looming and vanishing, the outlines of trees and shattered debris as well, but the nine-tailed fox was nowhere in sight.
'Let me lend you my eyes,' the bird said suddenly.
Before Azel could ask what it meant, his vision changed.
The world sharpened, details snapping into clarity so precise it almost hurt.
He could see the individual veins of leaves coated in dust and even the tiny beads of sweat rolling down his own arms.
Every color was more vivid and every shadow became more defined.
For a moment the sheer sharpness of it all nearly blinded him.
'This,' the bird said with smug pride, 'is how I see the world.'
Azel exhaled sharply. "So this is what superhumans must feel like with enhanced senses…"
And then he saw her.
The fox.
Through the dust, her massive form stood out but alas something was choking her neck. It seemed her fury had prevented her from being able to protect herself even after all that effort to free her.
The other two poachers stood around her, working frantically.
One of them was already anchoring another chain onto her front wrist, his face twisted in concentration.
Azel's brows furrowed.
'How do they even plan to move her?'
Even if they managed to bind her, how could they smuggle such a being out without Plaides noticing? It didn't make sense.
But speculation could wait.
He dropped into a stance, tightening his grip on the goddess blade..
'Shouldn't you already be running forward?!' the bird squawked frantically, flapping above his head.
But Azel didn't move yet.
He let his energy build, his body drawing taut like a bowstring.
Then —
The world turned white.
Time slowed.
He was moving, faster than thought, faster than sound. His eyes narrowed on his target.
The two stronger poachers braced themselves, sensing the storm of killing intent racing toward them.
They were ready for him… He was just an Apprentice…
But Azel wasn't aiming for them.
His true target was the weakest — the man crouched near the fox's chained wrist, pouring all his energy into maintaining the binding spell.
His aura was thinner and weaker and even his body too but anyone could see he was the key to their plan.
'Is there a punishment for killing divine beings?' Azel wondered briefly as the starlight along his blade intensified.
His lips curled into a grim smile. 'Well… fuck it.'
He stepped.
The earth cracked beneath his foot, a crater forming as he launched forward.
The goddess blade cut through the air in a sweeping arc.
For an instant the sky itself seemed to descend, stars spilling from the edge of his weapon.
The poacher looked up just in time to see his death.
The blade cleaved through him cleanly, splitting his body in half. Blue blood erupted into the air, glowing as it sprayed across the dirt.
The corpse fell in two directions, lifeless before it even touched the ground.
Time snapped back to normal.
The other two poachers froze in horror, their eyes locked on their fallen comrade.
They didn't have long to process.
The fox moved.
Her paw, massive and heavy, came down with the force of a collapsing mountain. One poacher tried to dodge, divine aura flaring desperately around him, but her claws tore through him anyway.
Blood gushed from a wound that nearly split him in two, though his body flickered as divine energy scrambled to knit it back together.
The sheer terror in his eyes betrayed how fragile he truly was before her wrath.
The last poacher roared in desperation.
Divine power flooded his hands, condensing into a jagged weapon of light that pulsed with unstable energy.
His teeth gnashed together, madness burning in his gaze.
"We can still finish this mission!" he snarled, voice cracking with every word. His eyes darted between the fox and Azel.
"No matter the casualties… I will become Master's number one disciple—"
And then the world changed again.
"I believe that's enough." Plaides uttered, his voice spreading across the battlefield and just like that, everything stopped.