NOVEL NEXT Chapter 399: Almost
The abyss howled around him as Damon shot through the shattered ruins, shadows trailing in his wake. His instincts screamed at him to move faster, every step echoing with the pressure of those eyes boring into him.
His body flickered in and out of existence, each Blink tearing him farther and farther. Every teleport carried him closer to the faint glow of the ruined city gates in the distance. Safety was there, just a little further. Then he heard it.
A soft sound, lilting and amused, like silver bells ringing in a graveyard. A giggle. A young woman's laughter, delicate and melodic, yet dripping with something vile that made his skin crawl.
"You cannot run away from me that easily," the voice sang out, echoing from every direction at once.
Damon's scalp went numb. His body wanted to freeze, but he forced his muscles to keep moving, to keep blinking. Faster. Faster.
The laughter followed, louder now, brushing against his ears as though the speaker were leaning over his shoulder. "Come back here, little brat. Your blood smells delicious. Let me have some of that…"
"Fuck no," Damon hissed through gritted teeth, sweat dripping down his temple. He pushed his core harder, Blink ripping him forward again and again. The ruined gates were almost there. Just a few more jumps and he'd be out of this cursed place.
And then the world itself turned against him.
A black ball of energy blossomed in front of him, swirling into a vortex of shadows. The air warped around it, sucking in the light, pulling even his mana streams into its hungry spiral.
The woman's voice rang out again, this time with a cruel laugh. "I said you cannot run from me."
Damon's face twisted as he immediately tried to veer off, blinking sideways, then backward, but nothing happened. The skill didn't trigger. His body remained locked in place.
Cold realization struck him. Blink had stopped working.
"There we go…" The voice purred, close and triumphant. "The space here is solid, and you can no longer bend it. Now… how are you going to run from me?"
Damon's crimson eyes darted across the ruins. He wouldn't stop. He couldn't. If space was locked, then there was still shadow. He sank into ShadowMeld, his body vanishing as his aura collapsed into nothing. For a heartbeat, he was gone, sliding through the cracks of the ruins, invisible, intangible, safe.
Or so he thought.
A cold hand burst from the shadows themselves, fingers long and slender, nails biting into his collarbone. Damon's eyes widened a split second before he was ripped out of the darkness like a ragdoll.
The world spun. He slammed into the ground, skidding across jagged stone further into the abyssal zone, his ribs rattling with the impact. A coughing spray of blood stained his lips as he dragged himself up, claws digging into the broken plaza to stop his slide.
The melodic laughter returned, filling the air, wrapping around his throat like a noose. "Oh, little brat," the voice cooed, sweet and cruel at once. "Did you really think you could hide from me in the shadows? How adorable."
Damon's gaze snapped upward and froze.
A figure was stepping out of the swirling vortex. A young woman, her beauty sharp enough to wound, her smile bright and mocking. Midnight hair spilled down her shoulders like living darkness, and her eyes, black, pupil-less voids, glowed faintly as they fixed on him.
Every step she took pressed against his chest like a weight, space itself rippling around her form. She tilted her head, the smile widening. "Mmm. Feisty. Don't make me chase you too much… the more you resist, the more slowly I will devour you."
Damon's blood spears sprang into existence with a thought, a storm of crimson blades forming a halo around him. His aura exploded outward, sharp and violent, though his heart pounded like a war drum.
The woman only laughed again, the sound ringing through the abyss like a death knell. "Fight, run, bleed… it doesn't matter. You belong to me now. And oh, by the way, I love the taste of the poison in your blood. What a delicious flavor." She licked her lips.
Damon didn't wait for her to move. The storm of blood spears whistled forward in every direction, filling the place with a crimson hurricane. Each spear screamed with lethal intent, detonating on impact with molten bursts of energy.
But the woman only raised her hand. The spears froze midair.
Not all of them, hundreds of crimson lances still tore through stone and rubble, but every spear within ten paces of her halted in place, trembling like trapped insects caught in amber. Then, with a flick of her wrist, they shattered into harmless droplets of blood that splattered across the ruins.
Damon's gut clenched. This woman was simply teasing him and playing with him. Her real power was definitely leaps and bounds above his. There was no way she was merely a C rank being. She was probably a B rank being, or maybe even peak B rank, to be able to so easily control everything around her.
Her melodious laugh drifted closer, now directly in front of him. "Mmm. Lovely. I haven't had anyone throw this much power at me in ages. You'll be fun." She vanished.
Damon's instincts screamed. He twisted sideways just as a pale hand slashed where his throat had been. The air cracked, a line of shattered space hissing beside him. His counterattack was instant, claws glowing with blood essence, and he swung across her chest. The blow connected, her body shattering into black smoke.
A giggle from behind. "Almost."
Damon spun. Her void-black eyes glimmered with hunger as she walked casually toward him, as though she hadn't just been struck.
Rage and fear burned together in his chest. He was simply outmatched, and there was nothing he could do about it. The woman had him completely in her grasp, and she could not do whatever she wanted with him. Fuck it. He was not done fighting.
His mana core roared as he drew on everything. "Burn," Damon growled, opening his mouth.