“It looks like my wish will come true.”
Noah sharply turned his wings upwards at almost a ninety-degree angle, such that they were near perpendicular to the ground. His overwhelming momentum immediately accelerated him upwards, where he gradually lost his speed as he climbed altitude. Slowly, he let himself even out, then began to lazily circle the crater he had spotted on the ground. Stretching the width of a small mountain, the crater was like a blip in the greenery of the forest. And in the center sat a figure, emitting an absolute presence.
‘Thump. Thump. Thump.’
The figure was instantly recognizable to Noah. If not for him, this phantom pain his heart was sending into his brain with every beat would not exist.
Noah slowly exhaled. He spoke no words. If the Demon Lord was the sky, then this figure was the mountain that touched it. This person was the one at the peak Noah once believed he stood on. And today, he would reclaim his spot.
The air screamed as the sound barrier was shattered with a single flap. Noah descended on the figure like a meteor descended from the heavens, and the world seemed to offer its full support. Every cloud as far as the eye could see was instantly melted and turned to rain under the pressure of Noah’s descent. Air was superheated, and a fiery plasma formed before the snout of the wyvern that was plummeting to the ground.
‘Mimicry - Cyrene! : Ogre x 2, Nymph x 4, Vampire x 2’
Cyrene, a Greek nymph with a story that highlights her as a protector, not only skilled in physical combat but also deeply connected to the pastoral and wild aspects of nature. She could be described as embodying the spirit of both warrior and guardian of the wilderness. And now, Noah would adopt her name.
Moments before impact, the draconic beast melted into a man with brown skin and piercing red eyes, hands clasped above his head in position for a spike. And the figure below had no idea. Or so it seemed to Noah. He couldn't see the slow smirk that began to form on the man’s face.
Impact.
Trees were uprooted, as if nature itself bent under the will of the celestial force, and were blown away. The already large crater now paled in comparison to the one that had now formed. What was a blip in the artwork of the forest enlarged to swallow up everything in its destructive greed to devour the canvas itself. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the center of the crater, traveling many times further than even the crater had. Even if it couldn't compare to Verdant Oakwoods, the forest Noah had flown above to get to where he was was truly large, taking him a quarter of a minute to get there, even though he had traveled several times Mach speed. Yet, the crater still occupied almost a third of it, with the cracks traveling all the way throughout. And the resultant shockwaves? It rippled through the forest, killing off a significant portion of the animal life inside of it. If humans lived within the forest, they would have suffered the same fate.
But the shockwaves did not stop at just going through the forest. They also traveled inward to the depths of the earth, where, coincidentally, two tectonic plates lay in intersection. The result?
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Earthquake.
All of this happened within mere milliseconds.
As the ground rumbled and shook, exclaiming its outrage at being provoked, the being that did so had no intention of listening. Immediately before Noah's spike, the figure fired a thick beam into the ground, preventing his fate of being face planted. And then, from the well he had created and been sent into, another thick beam was sent immediately upwards, which prompted Noah to jump back away from it.
The figure then shot out from the well, with lasers shooting out of his feet to propel him upwards. He then landed a few meters in front of Noah. And for the first time since their meeting months ago, they saw each other's faces.
“As expected. I suppose I can only blame my own combat naivety for letting you go last time. Considering your level of power now, though, it seems that there was more fun to be had than last t-”
“Shut it. Why chase Evan?”
“Ah, that? That was just Kuepit having some fun. I happen to be here chasing a funny feeling I had when she described your friend's escape.”
“Why attack me back then?”
“Not even going to ask for my name? I simply felt like it.”
“Why would you attack someon-”
The word had not even left Noah’s mouth yet when several trees with a smoking hole clean through all of them except the one directly in front of Noah sprouted from the ground following a bright flash that outshone even the light of the late noon sun. The tree was split in two down the middle as man tore through it the next moment and rocketed towards Noah, where both of them exchanged an explosive punch, both with their own right arm and Noah on his back foot.
A malevolent grin tore through the man's face.
"You talk too much."
The man, his feet still in the air after he burst through the tree and his fist still in contact with Noah’s, fired a laser point blank at Noah with the other arm that he raised. Another tree sprouted from the ground and squeezed between the two of them to protect Noah, who then followed up by taking his step back, turning the defensive stance he had adopted to meet the man’s fist into an offensive one. Noah launched himself at the tree now between the two of them, which acted like a liquid that conformed to Noah’s body as he dashed into it.
Tree armor, the specialty of Nymph magic.
The wood hardened and seemed to melt into Noah’s skin, armoring up Noah while not impeding his movements. The man did not expect this to happen. His momentum unimpeded, Noah grabbed one of the man’s arms, spun, and flung him into the other side of the colossal crater. Immediately following his throw, Noah dashed at the man yet again, but Noah would not catch him unprepared again.
This time, the man seemed to take the fight more seriously, letting loose five lasers that all burst out of his index finger at the same time, splitting up and arcing towards Noah.
One of these lasers could break through several trees. Noah was aware that he had to take larger protective measures than just many trees. Copying the man’s trick, he opened up the ground below him into a well, then consciously sprouted a tree in front of him and manipulated it to smack him to the bottom of the well with the nature control of a nymph. And this maneuver was just in time. Without the added momentum of the tree smacking him down, the lasers would have left a few holes in him as he waited for gravity to pull him down.
All this happened while the earth still shook, loosening the soil and making earth control underground significantly easier than it usually was. Right after the man crossed the zenith of his projectile trajectory to the other side of the crater, Noah used the earth underground to propel himself through it like a swordfish might dart through water, then burst out below the man’s feet.
However, the man had been expecting it once he saw that Noah could control the earth and had not resurfaced. Two lasers burned a hole right through Noah’s legs, instantly incapacitating him. Another two immediately followed, and nature did not—no, it could not protect him when both of them were in the air. His arms were blasted off. The regeneration of a nymph was activated. To no use.
‘Zwoom.’ Shoulders vaporized.
‘Zwoom.’ Thighs vaporized.
‘Zwoom.’ Stomach vaporized.
But Noah was not out of tricks.
'This will not go like last time, you fuck!'