Reivan had tea while chatting with the Sword Star every once in a while, and he remembered that on one occasion, he'd asked Rolf about humanoid nightmare spawns.
"Why are you curious about that?" Rolf had chuckled while smoking something from a pipe. Even after pestering the old man countless times, he had never told Reivan what it was and a strange power had prevented him from looking at it directly with [Supreme Insight], but the Transcendent always had a loose smile on his face when he puffed one out—making Reivan think it was some fantasy marijuana that gave even Transcendents a high.
While thinking about how crazy it was that their strongest protector was getting stoned and could quite possibly get the entire kingdom killed, Reivan had shrugged.
"Just curious. Also, can you let me try some of that...?"
"No." The stingy old man had immediately slapped his hand away. "And for now, you don't need to worry about humanoid Transcendents."
"Why?"
"Because if I'm not around and one of them sees you, you'll die without even seeing the humanoid Transcendent. At least if you're ignorant, you'll die in bliss."
"The hell...?" Reivan had scratched his head in frustration at that answer. Over a lot of visits, he'd gotten close to the old man so he spoke his mind. "Coming here was a waste of time, then. You're not telling me anything and you're not even sharing your thing!"
"Now, now..." Rolf had placated him with a chuckle. "Rather than humanoid spawns, what you should be worrying about are the ones with a human face."
"A human face...? Nightmare spawns have human body parts all the time though. I've seen so many of them, there must have been one with a human face..."
"Well, one day, you'll have to run around in the Outlands mostly unsupervised for your initiation. When that happens, you have to look out for the ones with human faces."
"Are they stronger?"
"That's part of it. They usually have multiple elemental affinities and are more cunning than other spawns too."
"Cunning... so they run away when they can't win?"
Rolf had shaken his head with a smile. "No, they're not that smart. Only humanoids have a desire for self-preservation."
"Then?"
"So they'll just try and try again until their prey is dead. They're smart, but they still have the undying persistence of an ordinary spawn."
"Is that so..." Reivan had nodded.
Rolf had patted him on the head before returning to his pipe when had suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot."
"What."
"Be more careful of the ones with two faces."
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'Old man, this thing has three faces! You didn't hand out a memo for this one!'
Reivan continuously dashed around the battlefield, dodging left and right as worms were rapidly shot out of the spawn's six eyesockets. Even if he wanted to retaliate, he found it hard to do so with the opponent having the literal ability to fly. When Reivan tried to attack it with his remote-controlled swords — which he had decided to call his Serpent Fang Swords since that sounded cool to him — the bird dodged them with ease.
It cunningly stayed in the air and continued pelting Reivan with worms like its faces were machine guns.
'When is this stupid bird gonna run out!?'
He had been running around for an hour by now and the stupid bird just wouldn't stop. At this point, Reivan simply had to accept the fact that the stupid three-faced bird produced worms faster than it could shoot them. If he didn't have serpent fang swords to return some pressure to it, Reivan would have probably been shot full of holes.
'Those worms are bad news...'
The worst part was that even if he dodged them, the worms didn't disappear, staying on the ground they landed on. They were slow as heck so it didn't matter if they chased him. What mattered was that Reivan couldn't run to those spots anymore.
He'd accidentally stepped on one earlier and it had actually squirmed its way into his foot despite all of his defenses. It was a bitch and half trying to remove it from there while dodging.
And his situation was about to get worse.
Their battle had attracted even more nightmare spawns and Valter only seemed keen on blocking the Ascendants. Reivan killed the newcomers instantly and without trouble, but it felt like Valter had stopped blocking off the mortal realm nightmares entirely.
'This... is not sustainable. I have to make a move now or I'll gradually run out of mana.'
If it was just mana augmentation, the consumption was lower than his rate of recovery so it was fine. But from time to time, he was forced to use aetherblade arts to quickly dispatch a particularly strong nightmare spawn so Reivan could focus on dodging the three-faced one.
'Oh, wait a minute. This is the perfect opportunity to share Zouros' absorption ability!'
If he could use that, he wouldn't have to worry about magic power anymore. He could generously use his mana to strike at the three-faced spawn and then attack a few of the ordinary spawns to absorb their mana. Then it would be rinse-and-repeat until the three-faced spawn dies.
'Yosh! Let's do this... Uh, but how?'
"Whoops!" Reivan's feet surged with lightning as he side-stepped something big bursting out of the ground. He didn't look back and continued running as he mentally communicated with Zouros—who was watching his battle from far away.
'Hey, buddy! Do you have some spare qi? I need to use your absorption thingy!'
The giant serpent bobbed its head and sent a wave of warmth through their connection. The warm energy that was likely qi flowed into Reivan gently and his body welcomed it. Reivan recalled Valter's story and focused on his desire to borrow his serpentine partner's skills.
'For now... I wanna suck... Wait, no. Fuck, my mind has been ruined by the internet. Uh, I need to absorb. Yeah. Absorb the mana...'
Reivan charged forward and wrapped his blade with qi and magic power. He hadn't tried combining it yet, and he didn't have the leeway to try it out right now, but he figured it would succeed if they were both on his sword. Then he chose a nearby target and cut it in two.
Immediately afterward, he felt his mana pool fill up with a few drops.
'It worked! Wow, I can't believe this...'
Despite only making contact for a brief instant, he'd sucked...absorbed more magic power from a single hit. His stamina had been replenished as well, but Reivan wasn't too troubled about that since he could constantly restore that with [Effect Reproduction].
'It would be great if it didn't absorb stamina anymore, but stole more mana instead... Hm. Let's try it.'
Reivan killed a few more stray nightmare spawns but his new innovation didn't seem to work. That is until Zouros sensed his desires and donated a new batch of qi. With Reivan's next kill, his strikes no longer stole stamina but grabbed him more mana in return.
'Awesome! This was easier than I thought.'
His [Formless Willpower] probably had something to do with it. In any case, with this new power, he could now mount a proper counterattack against his flying adversary.
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"It's my turn now, bird brain!" Reivan skidded to a halt and faced the three-faced spawn's general direction. Lightning arced in his feet and he exploded upwards while his sword transformed into a pointed lance. As he pierced through the air, the lance's tip lit up due to <
'Get fucked, ugly!'
The three-faced spawn must have been caught off-guard by his sudden switch to offense. Its reaction time was late enough that Reivan's lance tore through its left leg. All three faces shrieked in pain but it barely kept itself airborne as it shot glares at Reivan.
'Damn, if only this thing didn't have both lightning and ice attributes! It's resistant to most of the moves I have!'
It was fine to use lightning aetherblade arts for mobility, but just like when he sparred with Helen, Reivan couldn't use lightning to attack—nor could he use ice. As such, he was stuck with attribute-less offensive arts.
'I don't know any offensive dark arts... And all of them sucked anyway, so I didn't learn them.'
Reivan gnashed his teeth in regret but it wasn't like his loss was pre-determined. He forced himself to a stop mid-flight by summoning a floating shield as a foothold. Then lightning burst from his feet again as he resumed his attack.
'You think it was over...!?'
It had just been attacked so it must not have expected another one right after. However, the three-faced spawn was much more alert than before so it was able to evade Reivan this time.
With a clock of his tongue, Reivan let himself crash downward before breaking his fall with a few well-placed floating shields. He then transformed his massive lance into a longsword as he resumed running.
'Time to refuel!'
Reivan refilled his magic power by attacking a few of the numerous stray nightmare spawns. He was like a runaway Truck-kun, everything he ran over was sent to the world beyond. The wind brushed past his face as he spent his magic power recklessly while throwing glances above, looking for a chance to launch another attack.
'Now!'
Just like that, Reivan launched attack after attack before returning to the ground and replenishing his magic power. Aside from the three-faced spawn, ordinary mortal nightmare spawns kept on joining in, becoming Reivan's neverending supply of magic power. With a way to restore resources, he could use mobility arts with impunity and generously chuck slashes of sharpened mana to harass the three-faced monster.
When the opportunity presented itself again, he would renew his assault.
'Sheesh. With this absorption ability, this fight is becoming easier than I thought it would be.'
As a wise man once said, if you shoot your load enough, one of 'em would hit eventually. This was the case for Reivan's fight with the three-faced bird monster. Even though most of his attacks were evaded, some of them still hit, causing the monster's injuries to gradually build up.
If things continued as they were, he would win.
'Hm? Did it finally start running out of worms...?'
Suddenly, Reivan noticed that the pressure on him had reduced significantly. There were much less bullet-worms getting shot his way. So he shot a glance upward.
'Huh? It's attacking something else... Ah! Shit! This cunning piece of crap!'
The three-faced monster was only using one of its heads to barrage him with worms, while the other two heads attacked other things—the ordinary nightmare spawns.
Reivan instantly knew what it was doing; the three-faced bird monster was reducing the number of enemies he could absorb mana from!
'Fuck...! I have to end this NOW!'
While the monster's actions would make things harder for him if he dragged the fight on longer, it also made things easier for him right now. So Reivan immediately switched gears and resolved himself for a final exchange of blows.
'I guess I can't put off using this forever.'
Silencing his apprehension, Reivan pulled out a power he didn't use very often so he could turn the tide of battle.
[Chaos Origin] has been activated!!!
You are now connected to the [Chaos Origin].
All of your essence is transformed into [Chaotic Energy]!
[Omni Resistance] and [Elemental Immunity] have been temporarily gained!
Reivan knew that the three-faced monster had been holding back from using any of its elemental skills to save magic power, but with his [Chaos Origin] activated the thing had done it for nothing.
'Alright, now I just have to not die to my own power!'
His body felt like something similar to blood was destroying his body from the inside as it flowed through him, but Reivan endured and constantly used [Effect Reproduction] to heal any injuries. Surprisingly, it didn't really work that well, so he couldn't maintain this state for too long.
Your overwhelming intent has bolstered your power!
Your heart burns!
Might has increased by +100%!
'Great! I needed the extra kick!'
Reivan summoned a lance and pulled his arm back, the veins on his arms and neck visibly bulging. With a powerful grunt, he threw it at the monster with all his might. Then lightning burst from his feet again, filling the air with the sound of thunder and propelling him upward like a streak of light, much faster than he had ever flown before.
The lance tore through the skies as it pierced through the surprised three-faced monster's stomach, leaving behind a gaping hole. All three faces shrieked in pain but Reivan wasn't done with them yet.
"Get fuuuuuucked!" Reivan summoned a shield and braced himself against it as he crashed into the monster's chest, sending it flying backward from the impact. Not satisfied, he quickly summoned a foothold below him and jumped up again, only this time, he grabbed onto the body of the bird and grabbed onto the hairs of its wings.
'I'm gonna suck you dry! Non-sexually, of course!'
It already took quite a bit of magic power from a single touch, but right now, he was practically hugging the damn thing! It definitely wouldn't last long at this rate. All Reivan had to do was hold on and endure any attacks.
The monster shrieked, obviously threatened by the rapid draining of its resources. As if it couldn't take it anymore, one of its heads opened its mouth and breathed out a thick cloud of icy mist.
Reivan smirked as he traversed its body and got on its back while ignoring the attack.
'This is the power of having information!'
He'd known the monster's elemental affinities from the start which was why he hadn't bothered attacking with lightning or ice.
But the monster didn't know Reivan's affinities.
It had seen him use lightning a bunch of times, but never ice. Even without [Chaos Origin], the attack would have likely done little to no damage.
Of course, since he had [Chaos Origin] active, even if the monster had used a fire elemental attack, it wouldn't have mattered.
"Hah!" While holding onto the monster with one hand, Reivan slashed out and cut off one of its head. Naturally, he hadn't gone for the one that had breathed ice, even wanting to thank that head for wasting the monster's magic power. He wanted to cut off another one, but a foreboding feeling made him un-summon his sword and grab onto the bird monster's hair.
Just in time, the bird monster started to descend while rotating rapidly.
'AHHHH!'
Reivan almost let go but managed to hold on by biting a clump of hair.
'I'm gonna get thrown off! Shiiiiiiiii—!'
Knowing he'd lose if he changed nothing, Reivan took the risk. He let go of the hair he was holding with his right hand and summoned a dagger before rapidly stabbing the bird as fast as he could.
Reivan stabbed the thing repeatedly until the monster's flesh was mutilated beyond recognition. Then, just as he was about to get thrown off, the dagger disappeared and was replaced by a clump of spell balls he'd taken from Xander.
'Eat shit!'
With a sneer, Reivan stuffed the spellballs into the wound and let himself get flung to who-knew-which direction. His vision spun but his heart was full as his ears were treated to a deafening explosion. A resplendent light filled his vision and a chuckle escaped his lips.
'If that didn't kill it, nothing will!'
Just as he was wondering what method he was going to use to get back to Valter, he was suddenly caught in the mouth of a giant serpent. It was surprisingly dry inside but Reivan unwittingly stared deeper down the throat and felt a shiver. He quickly looked away from the dark void and clambered out.
Thankfully, Zouros didn't feel like joining the list of Top 10 anime betrayals, so it kept its mouth open and still, enough for Reivan to easily get out and climb onto the massive serpent's back.
"Phew." Reivan heaved a sigh and let the tension drain from his limbs as his golden eyes stared at the center of the explosion. The bird monster was well and truly dead now, and none of the little ones on the ground could get to him.
'GG. EZ'
As he gazed at the resplendent lights of the explosion and internally flamed the defeated, Reivan suddenly had a thought.
'Oh shit! I didn't try the shadow form thing!'
Reivan bit his lip and slammed his palm into his forehead.