Zero was no longer having fun; now, he was just pissed off. He had been fighting for nearly 30 minutes with no progress, as the spirit had chosen to fight cowardly, hiding behind the thick and tall trees of the forest it created, once again summoning trees and branches to swing or impale him.
He had activated his lightning cloak to amp up his power and speed, but it wasn't helping much when he couldn't focus on anything other than defending himself since he still needed to heal the injuries.
Zero swung his blade wildly, tearing through the massive trees that tried to entrap him. 'This isn't working; the trees just regrow every time I cut them. I gotta even the field if I'm going to win this!' he thought to himself, annoyed at how fast the trees were regrowing. If he didn't think of something soon, he was going to be overwhelmed.
From behind him, a dozen large sharp branches sprouted from one of the massive trees to impale him, which he promptly destroyed with a single slash. But then he remembered when he fought that big bird and the Draco. 'I got an idea, but I'll need to buy some time,' he infused his lightning magic into his arm, trying to replicate that orb he made moments ago before hurling it upward and leaping after it as it tore through the trees.
Finally, he had reached the upper part of the forest. He kicked the air to rise higher up into the sky, floating for a moment as he looked down at the forest below. He then created a few small orbs in his hand and flung them into the clouds, infusing his lightning magic into them, and causing the clouds to grow. Lightning strikes began to occur in the forest below as the cloud quickly grew. He kicked the air, flying into the cloud and floating inside of it.
He closed his eyes, focusing on returning to that place before he felt water beneath his feet. He opened his eyes to see a deep red ocean below him, the surface of it acting as solid ground. "So you are back here again?" he heard Haru say as he turned to see that Haru was sitting down on an extremely comfortable-looking chair that was also floating.
Zero let out a sigh. "Look, I don't have the time, but I need your help." Haru was intrigued and raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, what exactly do you need?" Haru asked, resting his head on his palm, already knowing why Zero was there but wanting to hear it directly from him.
"I'm fighting this spirit and need the power to break through its defense. So, I came to ask if you know anything that can help me?"
Haru closed his eyes to focus on a couple of ideas that could help Zero that he could offer before it hit him. "Ah! Well, there are a few things I could unlock that harden skill for you and also teach you something else, but..." he paused, which made Zero tilt his head. "Is something wrong?" Zero asked, wondering why he paused.
"Well, remember that time when your arm transformed into a gauntlet?" Haru asked Zero who remembered the short fight against that assassin he did not remember the name of the guy but nodded. "Well, you could try activating that skill again, but try mixing it with the harden skill and dragon claw technique to increase your power output!" Haru explained, getting off his chair.
"Wait, but I can't use that dragon claw thing for longer than 2 seconds before it breaks!" Zero said, grabbing his arm and remembering the hours he spent trying to activate it in the first place. Haru sighed. "That's because you're pouring too much mana into it. You have to control how much you use to create the arm. But luckily for you, there is a faster way. It just involves using that black gauntlet skill."
Zero nodded. "All right then, thanks for the help, Haru!" Haru walked up, placing a hand on his chest and using a bit of his magic to unlock Zero's hardening ability. "By the way, Zero, just a little tip, but after you kill that spirit, eat its heart. I need to check if you'll gain something from it as you did from that serpent!"
Zero was going to ask how he knew that but remembered they were inside his mind, or was it his soul? Meh, he'd ask later. His vision soon turned white as he opened his eyes to see the dark clouds with red lightning coming from them. Before leaving the cloud he summoned an orb of lightning that slowly began absorbing the mana and clouds around it.
As he let himself fall through the cloud, he saw the massive forest beneath, but he also noticed a barrier had been placed surrounding the entire forest; it also seemed bigger than it was previously probably double its size. Luckily, he was still inside the barrier. He suddenly sensed an attack and moved his head, barely managing to dodge the glowing spear that was thrown at him.
"Finally fighting me like a man?" Zero said, looking down to see the spirit standing on top of a tall wooden golem with a humanoid appearance. The spirit growled, clapping its hands together and summoning hundreds of massive wooden tendrils to try and impale Zero.
Zero kicked the air, dodging some of the tendrils before rocketing himself forward, landing on one of the tendrils. He slid down its mass and empowered his Greatsword with lightning magic, making it glow red. He leaped and spun like a saw blade, easily cutting straight through all of the tendrils. He stopped as he cut through the last one, noticing the spirit had disappeared from the golem's head. He turned around just as a slash came down, cutting his arm off at the elbow.
"How was that, asshole!" Zephyrion mocked, laughing at the look on Zero's face.
'What?' he thought in shock as he saw his arm get slashed off, letting his sword fall. But he quickly broke out of his shock, immediately conjuring dragon scales from his right arm to catch and hold his arm in place. At the same time, he aimed his other hand at the spirit, summoning a massive lightning strike to crash into it, slamming it down to the floor of the forest. 'Using them normally is easier than actually making that claw out of them. Good to know!'
'I should activate that gauntlet now to see if it attaches to my arm. Gotta think about something that makes me angry,' Zero muttered to himself as he tried to think about something that would make him angry. But for some reason, the image of a man with short blue hair... Just the sight of the man caused a pitch-black orb to appear. He immediately grabbed it, and it exploded in his palm, beginning to cover his arm, revealing a gauntlet made of black stone with red lines following its knuckles to the mouth underneath a set of four dark crimson-colored eyes.
The Primitive cloak of lightning covering Zero's body darkened and thickened as his sclera began turning black, and his eyes glowed a brighter crimson. 'So this is what activating it feels like. I couldn't tell before, but I'm definitely much stronger than before right now,' he thought as a smirk fell on his face.
Zero turned to the golem, rocketing himself at it, slamming his fist on its head and blowing it to bits before launching himself up. He looked down to see Zephyrion aiming its hand at him as it summoned hundreds of wooden spears behind Zero. One lance began to slowly form behind Zero. Zephyrion didn't want to give Zero a chance and fired all 100 wooden spears at the speed of lightning.
Even one of those spears could cause major damage to him, but he could negate the force by mixing two skills: the Hardening skill with the Dragon Claw technique and stacking them over the black gauntlet. But there was one problem. The technique would only last around 2 seconds. Taking this into consideration, he would need to counter all of them in less than 1 second and deactivate the technique before the 2-second mark.
In approximately 0.5 seconds all of the spears surrounding him were annihilated leaving nothing but him floating in the sky down below Zephyrion who had barely escaped the range of Zero's attacks was regenerating its arms.
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'It can regenerate? I'm gonna need to either bombard it with multiple attacks to weaken its regen or reduce its body to ash completely,' Zero thought over what he should do but also stared at Zephyrion who quickly regenerated its arms.
Zero decided on what he was going to do as the lance behind him finished taking form. He waved his hand summoning 3 more lances equal to the first and snapped his fingers sending all 4 of them into the storm clouds above.
'Now I just need to buy some time and I think how I'm gonna spend that time,' Zero covered his face with his right hand trying to ignore the burning feeling in his eyes as he activated hardening on his entire body creating stonish-looking patches to appear on his skin mimicking the same formation he used for making the dragon claw he created a pair of crude-looking greaves on his legs along with a gauntlet on his left arm to match. 'hm this dragon scale stuff feels easier to use now,' he smirked as the cloak of lightning crackled around his now slightly armored body.
"So Zephyrion, are you ready to fight me head-on now?" Zero asked wondering if the spirit was done fighting like a coward his words angered the spirit and its face contorted into a look of pure rage as it leaped at him with killing intent.
Zephyrion created a massive sword and threw it to split Zero in half. Zero weaved to the side smashing the middle of the massive sword splitting it letting it fly beside him suddenly wooden spikes extended from both sides of the broken blade impaling Zero.
Zephyrion rushed to attack but saw that Zero had allowed himself to be hit to draw him in closer before it could dodge Zero had already charged a small orb in his hand which fired out a beam of lightning exploding on impact as it struck its face.
Zero shattered the branches that entrapped him and kicked the air with full force rocketing himself at the spirit before it could recover slamming his fist into its face and twisting his body to hit its face with his elbow knocking it away from him.
Zephyrion shook its head and quickly summoned dozens of massive wooden pillars, sending them toward Zero who shattered the first landing on the second, and began rapidly punching the pillars as they tried overwhelming him he quickly broke through the last pillar that came and was met with a white fist which he caught.
Zero smirked, yanking the spirit's arm and pulling it closer to punch it with his other fist. He performed a low sweeping kick to knock the spirit off its feet, but as he tried, it backflipped away from him and rushed him. The spirit uppercut him, sending him up into the air, but he kicked the air, sending himself down back on the pillar, standing a few feet away from each other. Zero rushed in throwing a straight punch, which the spirit matched, clashing fists, causing a shockwave that shattered the wooden pillar beneath them.
The spirit quickly created a massive pillar below them they both landed on top of it standing in front of each other except something confused the spirit wasn't his eyes supposed to be white and red why were they now black and red? it decided to ignore that and create gauntlets and greaves matching Zero's own except they had green flames flowing through them Zero smiled and the spirit smiled back.
They entered similar stances they rushed at each other at insane speeds and both threw powerful jabs hitting each other's faces the spirit tried to back up but Zero stomped the ground stunning it for a split second then quickly followed up with a back fist strike aimed at Zephyrion's face but anticipating it, Zephyrion caught Zero's arm, and threw him away.
Zero flipped through the air before kicking the air, launching himself toward the spirit. He landed a powerful axe kick, forcing the spirit to block it with both arms, causing the ground around its feet to crack. Zero then flipped away, landing a few feet away. Without wasting a second, they recoiled their fists and rushed in, unleashing a barrage of endless punches.
As their fists clashed causing hundreds of shockwaves and booming sounds the reinforced platform beneath them was quickly destroyed but as they fell in mid-air they both performed dozens of rapid kicks at each other until they reached the ground, they paused for a second before rushing at each other and continued by continuing their clashing of fists this time with their full force the continuous clash of fists causing shockwaves that reverberated throughout the entire forest.
Zero was weaker than the spirit in terms of durability so to make sure he was dealing more damage than it he matched each punch from it with 2 of his own the spirit realized it was slowly being overwhelmed and backed away before summoning dozens of pillars to crush Zero but he managed to destroy all of them.
Zero made a small orb of lightning and flicked it at the spirit who easily dodged it but didn't expect that it would explode in a flash of crimson light blinding it and allowing him to leap from the ground into the sky 'Where did my sword go again? oh yeah, I dropped it damnit how am I gonna find it in this huge forest?!' Zero groaned in annoyance as he looked at the forest below him before turning his attention back to the spirit which had been rubbing its eyes in pain.
Zephyrion roared as dozens of spiked pillars came from the ground to impale Zero who shattered each pillar quickly but was suddenly struck down by a massive wooden hand the spirit summoned dozens of spiked pillars once again to impale Zero but as the pillars were going to turn Zero into a pine cushion suddenly a mass of crimson light emerged from beneath the hand enveloping Zero and vaporizing the spikes along with the hand.
Across the battlefield nearby was Zero's greatsword it simply lay there on the ground not even a minute passed before it began to shake and rise from the ground floating in the air as a crimson aura overlapped by a golden aura that covered the weapon it then blasted high into the sky to head toward its wielder.
In front of the spirit formed a spear except this spear looked vastly different from the simple ones it created before The polearm of it looked as if hundreds of branches were wrapped up around it and the blade part of it looked as if it was made of condensed and pure green flames it gripped the spear and rushed to stab Zero but its attack was stopped as Zeros Greatsword crash-landed directly in front of him blocking the strike.
"So you came to me thank you maybe after this I find out what your name is" Zero thanked his greatsword since it came to him although he didn't know how it did he was still grateful he gripped the greatsword handle two-handed it and entered a high stance.
Zephyrion tapped its spear on the ground causing a massive spiked wall to emerge before it Zero leaped to the side dodging the attack but it followed him so he covered his weapon with lightning magic for a moment and quickly swung his blade unleashing a dozen slashes that barely destroyed the spiked wall that continued chasing him.
'Just a bit more time!' he grumbled to himself as he leaped high into the air to gain distance but a massive hand tried to grab him out of the air he dodged it but as he did thousands of spears appeared to impale him and he used Blast step to boost his speed as he began to spin like a saw blade tearing through the spears reaching the hand he swung dozens of times slicing it to pieces in an instant.
The hand regrew quickly attempting to Zero but he swung again destroying it before he used Blast step again to gain distance he got a better look at it now seeing it was a massive golem nearly 5 times bigger than the first one it made before The spirit growled at him before it made the golem fall to its knees this confused Zero but soon saw the golem grew a mouth and eyes and extended its hand wide as a sphere made of green flames began forming.
'This fight is ending here' Their thoughts overlapped. the lightning covering Zero's body soon exploded into a massive aura as he used Blast step to fire himself up into the massive cloud there stood 5 massive lances all crackling with dark crimson lightning he placed his greatsword on his back before aiming his hand at them and the 5 massive lances began absorbing the massive storm around them but as they did he grabbed them 3 in one hand 2 in the other and began fusing them as they absorbed the storm forging an enormous Javelin.
The spirit poured all of its mana into the orb even pulling mana from nature itself to empower it causing the sphere to grow to a size of 200 meters the golem's hands held onto the sides of the sphere and began compressing it till it was the size of a small house then the mouth of the golem opened wide to eat the orb causing its teeth and eyes to overflow with the mana from the orb as they began to glow.
The massive cloud above dissipated, revealing Zero holding a colossal Javelin, his hand seemingly fused with the polearm. Meanwhile, the spirit extended its hand toward Zero, prompting the golem's mouth to open and unleash an enormous torrent of flames.
In Zero's mind, he thought an attack such as this deserved a name so as he prepared to slam down the massive lance he felt his body burning as dragon scales began to cover his body like a suit of armor he used Blast step sending himself down like a meteorite the blast from the spirit rushed toward him as he flew through it.
"Theia Keraunos!" he roared slamming down the massive Javelin. The air violently crackled with lightning as it engulfed the spirit along with its golem. As Zero held the lance down he soon lost control of the lance and an enormous explosion emerged but as he was enveloped dozens of black tendrils erupted from his body.
The entire forest along with the 10-kilometer barrier surrounding it that was placed to keep Zero contained within it was dissolved entirely leaving nothing but pools of molten material.
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A girl with Black hair was walking through a grassy plain when she saw the barrier was erased but she couldn't see what was inside the barrier "I hope I'm not too late"
To be continued...