Black Heart (1)

Whoosh, punch! Swoosh- crrraaaacckk!

But just as she had her jaws opening and just a couple meters away from Ciemnosc, a sneaky Vocón Link from Ciemnosc's right palm connected to her lower jaw, which Ciemnosc pulled upwards and then punched right back down to shut her mouth! The Creature had where a nose should've been, punched down so hard she immediately went down with her head falling first.

Air swept away in rapid but small bursts of winds at an astronomical amount as both bodies collided and even more so as she began dropping from the high heights. But just then, as she closed her eyes and then opened them in a narrow appearance, Ciemnosc shortened the length of his Vocón Link and also extended his right arm downwards before pulling as if he was holding onto someone’s wrist, not being affected by inertia as he forced the Creature up.

Meanwhile, ice creaked below them, surrounding the small section still covering the lowest parts of her body. The ice, which was spreading to a barely noticeable speed to the naked eye of a cultivator, cracked open as soon as Ciemnosc’s brutal force traveled down from the head of the Creature to the now-icy Little Lake. It was already expanding all over the deepest waters and was beginning to reach the deep waters of the Little Lake. It would all become an ice lake in a matter of minutes!!

By then, the people around the reconstructed outposts, shipyards, and ports around all sections of the Little Lake would realize something was wrong. And by then, it was evident they couldn’t manage to do anything, as the ice would impede them from investigating, yet they could tell from a distance the fight between 2 powerful beings.

‘1st stage of the Ashes Apperception realm.’ Ciemnosc wore a facial expression that was genuinely calm and at ease, but his inner self-thought as he discovered the strength and cultivation level of this Creature. He was excited! He felt like he was back at being a little punk and was trained by an older sister now and then, sparring on odd occasions but always beaten down in the end.

That feeling of battle lusted came unprecedently, but Ciemnosc kept a calm and quiet face. Inside, he was burning with excitement as he saw the Creature look at him with its eyes slightly opened to a narrow, as its chin and the whole head forced up this time.

Ciemnosc raised his right arm, his forearm bent as his right hand ‘claw’ was stiffened, crooked, and dark Power Energy began to pour into it. His right hand then began being covered by an opaque layer of dark Power Energy, the thickness of his hand increased as if it had gained a new armor, but this was not simply him utilizing his Claws out to cover his whole arm as armor. That would be disgusting.

Swish, crreeshhk~.

‘Let’s try this.’ Instead, this was Ciemnosc’s first attempt at playing directly with his dark Power Energy ever since cultivating the Conflagrate realm! His right palm began feeling like some sort of boiling was occurring. But this was merely the sensation of a Conflagratre realm cultivator employing a deathly technique, according to the records, which would only change when cultivating to the Obsidiafying realm.

While his thoughts were simple, his face gained a hint of lust as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and he brought his right hand covered in dark Power Energy up to the right side of his face. His Vocón Link passed to his left hand, as its ‘base’ simply traveled from his right palm to his left one, through his right wrist, elbow, shoulder, chest, collarbone, and finally, his left arm.

The Creature’s neck revealed itself to Ciemnosc, slightly thinner than the rest of its body and vulnerable to his right claw-like hand!

Ciemnosc immediately sent his body down. His left hand didn’t need to grasp the Vocón Link as his floating figure immediately pushed downwards. His Vocón Link elongated and impulsed his body down while still connected to the Creature’s under chin!

Ciemnosc’s claws rapidly found their way to the Creature’s skin, and without missing a heartbeat, he plunged the tip of his fingers into it! It was too problematic, however, as the Creature had a skin-like armor, which despite looking so smooth and tender, was actually impossible for Ciemnosc to plunge deeper than half his claws.

Yet, with the dark Power Energy as it covered his right hand, Ciemnosc left trails down its neck as he continued to go down, and the Creature was semi-paralyzed with the punch from before. Both had extreme bodily strength, though one was already at the Ashes Apperception realm, and the other had barely entered the Conflagrate realm.

‘My cultivation base is unstable still, and I have you here to fix that.’ Ciemnosc’s thoughts weren’t like his eyes as he made them. His eyes felt a little lost, as if he was going mad, but he was obviously not. And as he kept making a ‘small’ line of dark Power Energy from what he could at least plunge half his claws into the Creature’s skin, the Creature was already recuperating and twisting its body.

As it moved around, Ciemnosc’s trajectory from the inertia of being pushed down by his already stored back Vocón Linkwas diminished and then entirely disappeared. At the same time, Ciemnosc lost his momentum, and he was now floating in the air. The Creature kept moving as it brought ice a couple of hundred meters up with the thrashing it made.

Fwuoom-.

Ciemnosc could only float in front of the Creature’s body while raising his right hand, his palm facing the sky and positioned above his head to the right. His wrist was facing him, and he could see his veins; turned pitch black. Just as he was about to clench his fingers, which were still opaque with dark Power Energy, and with a lazy and delicate gesture, the world cast a shadow upon him as half the sun became obstructed by a big ‘fist’-like overshadowed image.

Ciemnosc was facing the east after the constant thrashing of the Creature. And as he focused on his deathly technique, the ‘fist’ revealed itself to be the same color as the Creature with its two blue and violet fringes. More than that, it wasn’t a fist or a limb like an arm or leg, but its tail!

Whoooosh~… GRWAAAWL! KWGUAH!

Seeing how the tail that was just below the ice had already gone hundreds of meters up, as wide as the length of an armored car and as thick as a house, Ciemnosc immediately clenched his right hand, his eyes’ pupils and irises shrinking as he prepared himself to take the hit. Unfortunately for the Creature, however, its torso suddenly felt scorching damage done to its skin. Then its inner body, as a tenebrous noiseless sound, went out, and it felt like it was just scratched again just now by the same claws!

Grwaaaw! The Creature roared, and with his broad Spirit Sense, Ciemnosc could see how its torso, exactly where he left a trail of his claws and dark Power Energy exploded as if a monster large enough to bear claws such that it could instantly make that attack on the Creature acted and injured it without any warning nor intent left in it to prevent it.

The Creature became pushed backwards as its upper body bent and its middle sections directly arched forwards, revealing a hump that Ciemnosc directly eyed and from which his left hand was already extending to 20 meters and more in order to connect with it and glide around it with a pull and doing some more floating backwards.

Pshiiift… PAM!

However, just as Ciemnosc was floating with all his might away from the Creature and barely connected himself to the hum at the back of the Creature, the left side of its body acted incredibly quickly to converge pure energy around its Power Energy!

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That pure energy became part of its Power Energy, while its Power Energy was, on the other hand, of a crystalline light blue colorful light. Like shards of ice, they went out of her body and materialized tens of meters below its neck, forming what seemed to be a limb. It was not a reveal. It wasn’t like it had a hidden limb somewhere. Instead, the pure energy becoming her Power Energy was like a piece of art!

And as more and more Power Energy converged there, they became an actual fist, already punching down and with a perfect aim towards Ciemnosc. The fist consisted of solid, extremely solid, and dark blue ice. And as Ciemnosc was targeted by it, he could feel as if he was locked down, as if he could only receive such an attack and nothing else.

‘Oh, damn crap.’ Ciemnosc thought right before the fist came punching down at him. He had a tiny hope that the direction he took, detouring around the right side of her body would free him from the hit. But the fist had a life of its own as it hurried towards him and even moved in the air as if it had a guiding system that he had never seen before.

While Ciemnosc took note, his eyes became lost in thought, understanding, and inspiration. He became an extremely fast-flying body whose entire front was hit squarely by that dark, icy fist. As soon as he felt the punch, his body became immobile. He could only feel his limbs sprawled to the front as his head hung down, his body arched backwards, and he was flying faster than he ever could.

Rather than flying, he was shot into the air and straight up a couple hundred meters away, crashing into the solid ground with the soft snow acting as the most useless cushioning terrain he could ever imagine. Never before was he treated like this. All he found up until now were useless cultivators who didn’t know how to throw a punch. Yet, he now found not only a rival but one big enough. And with seemingly innate capabilities that allowed it to brutalize him.

Swiiish- thruak!

Ciemnosc’s body blasted into the ground. Snow 20 meters all around the landing zone went off and into the air, exploding as if a missile had struck there, but all it managed to do was send harmless explosive waves.

“... huff, cough cough!” Ciemnosc, who was ‘hidden’ in the snow and dirt, felt his arm almost breaking, but it had its whole skin from the side open, and blood came out of it. From his upper arm to his knuckles, it was all open, and his bones were visible as his flesh pumped here and there along with his heartbeats and even moved at a similar rhythm.

After coughing a few more times, his ribcage accommodated itself again. And Ciemnosc didn’t feel like a mountain was bodyslamming him from the right side of his body against the ground anymore. As soon as that happened, he felt like he was mainly fine and in no danger; whatsoever. Thus, he stood up in a jiffy and looked towards the Little Lake, where he could see her. With her mouth wide open as if smiling and humiliating him, but also amid doing something…

“!” Ciemnosc didn’t hear anything, except when it happened as a diminutive ‘pew’ went off, and all he could feel was his skin numbing and trembling like his heart was being teased and scratched ever so slightly by the hand of death. He immediately brought his Vocón Link out, and with a quick jump upwards, he floated even higher as his right hand held the whip’s base and began making spins with it in front of his body in the air.

… PSHIFT, clog clog cloggg~!

Ciemnosc sent dark Power Energy into his Vocón Link and empowered it to employ a type of twirl-barricade that now stood before him. It came from his dark Power Energy, so it was atramentous. Of course. But as it finished in just a couple of seconds, he felt the sunlight all around it was devoured by it. And could feel the darkness and opaqueness of everything just a few tens of centimeters around the extreme perimeters of its structure.

Crruughh- phhshk.

At that moment, the beam of icy crystals formed in the middle of the Creature’s mouth and forced him to try and elaborate something crossed through the twirl barricade that was supposed to protect him from it. But rather than ‘crossing’, it broke through the twirling barricade without any trouble. Although it slowed down for a whole second, it was still not enough for Ciemnosc to escape it as it seemed to follow him. Locking onto him like the punching fist from before.

The beam of frozen crystals was as thin as a baby’s head, but it seemed as long as the distance between Ciemnosc, punched away, and the Creature. But when it came into contact with his dark Power Energy-based twirling barricade, like a bottomless, dangerous twirl near the seashore, it was consumed by it little by little.

However, it wasn’t enough. It was not an actual art, and it was also Ciemnosc’s first time ever doing something like this, even though he performed them in a way that was impossible to go better than this. These couple of attempts were still the first time he ever got to utilize his dark Power Energy directly and not just passively enhancing or protecting himself.

The beam still crossed through, and as it had become as thin as a baby’s finger, it still reached Ciemnosc’s right chest, pushing him backwards even more before he found his footing in the middle of the air behind his crumbling twirling barricade.

‘!!... So powerful!’ Ciemnosc’s eyes were wide open as he felt his entire body penetrated. A tiny speck of light blue Power Energy escaped his back before being eaten away by darkish smoke, fog, and mist that seemed to adhere to it. Her Power Energy, as the most fundamental and basics of all deathly techniques, was consumed and weakened so much that only her Power Energy remained.

And yet, even that little bit of Power Energy was as if running away and trying to escape in terror out of his body. Naturally, it was futile as Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy, or his body and nature in general, devoured what remained of her Power Energy and technique.

“Hohoho, oh…” Ciemnosc kept still tens of meters above the ground level, almost sharing top height with some trees still around that had grown recently. Trees grow very fast when close to the Little Lake’s shores, let alone right at said river shores. Afterwards, with the Creature looking at him from afar, as the Little Lake was their ring to fight in, Ciemnosc grinned big time before floating at his maximum speed towards it!

… Graaawwr… PUM PAM PAM POOOMM!... Pshiiift- … BOOM. WHISTLE~, SWISH pam pam pom pam pum pum pam pam…

The battle continued as Ciemnosc used his body like the piece of magnificent art that it is. His Claws were barely doing anything to the Creature, and she could skillfully slam her body against him, headbutt him, swat him down, blast him away, or sweep him to the side with her tail. Not a single ounce of Power Energy was necessary for both of them to beat the shit out of each other.

And since Ciemnosc’s claws could barely break open her skin, he focused on breaking her body from the outside and concentrated on his prowess breaking apart her insides. But there were times that they used the sharp and feral parts of their bodies to gash at each other, of course.

Her teeth, always hidden, were so sharp and powerful that they could break Ciemnosc’s skin up to gnashing against his bones, breaking every muscle and tendon apart almost as simply as taking a step. Her tail could only become sharp when covered by Power Energy, which she could hit Ciemnosc whenever he was making a number— combo —on her body.

Whenever those teeth came gnawing down on him, Ciemnosc had to beat the crap out of them, or else he would’ve been cut off all of his limbs and even killed off from the many time that he had to push those sharp, silver-plated-like teeth away from his head and poor throat. As time went on, her teeth targeted by Ciemnosc’s punches and kicks every time. They had become a messy set of used-to-be beautiful sharp teeth, leaving only broken ‘pillars’ around her mouth.

Then there were his Claws Out, taking every possible advantage to make more and more cuts around her body, even her head, as it became an obsessively terrifying sight to behold. But in Ciemnosc’s eyes, she was as cute as she first greeted him and even more as they knew each other better for every hit they landed on the other.

Her ears were left alone, but her forehead, top, and side of her head riddled with bloody scars and ample cuts, accompanied by varying gashes here and there, which looked more and more terrifying than the several meters long bleeding openings.

There came a time when many scouts and curious powerful cultivators at the Obsidiafying realm came to investigate. At first, scouts simply came and departed, relaying news and giving the general direction of where Ciemnosc’s fight with ‘her’ was ongoing. Naturally, they dared not come anywhere ‘almost’ near their battle, as all they could see was a ‘little monster’ fighting a tremendously enormous monster from a distance.

Nobody could come by the water, as not only was it turned into ice out of nowhere but in just a matter of instants where nobody could react by the time it reached the port they were around.

When those ‘peak’ powerhouses were nearing the battle zone, they could figure out a thing about the ongoing battle and saw the giant monster fighting ‘the air’ from afar. Their instinct to hunt something bigger and greater than themselves filled them up, and they couldn’t hold their joy and horses to fight it and conquer or kill it.

But when they finally neared the battle zone and were close enough to identify the veracity behind those ‘body slams’ and punches exchanged between that giant monster and a mini-sized another monster, they got cold feet. They didn’t even doubt their honor and pride as they backed down slowly and watched the battle go on.

When they thought that the little monster, not even visible from such a distance, could match this mountain-destroying Creature, they sweated even more, becoming incapable of staying around any longer. They left Ciemnosc and her alone to fight with ‘gusto’ as much as they wanted. From the early lights of the morning to the evening. They fought on and on until the giant slouched its body more and more, and the tiny one, compared to the big girl, became slower and drowsy.

…