!!!!! Pr Credits To Draconis & Tembulon who not only both pred it but improved this ch's quality greatly please rep them. Also Full Credits to Askard who maintains the Information Doc where a majority of spectral regalia information is written please Rep him to ^^!!!
So here is your ch for the week. so i was a bit conflicted with how i should take the pace of this dungeon should i do it slow or quickly. so im trying to balance things a bit sometimes the speed may be fast or slow either way i want to add uniqueness and content to the world.
Please Rate/Follow/Favourite/Share/Enjoy ch 78 :D
P.S for those ES fans a ch will be out soon with some important news.
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Kael listened to Avrin’s words panting with shaky breath. As the adrenaline in his body calmed down, his body tensed up, as the smell of something pungent and sour entered his nostrils. He looked down, seeing that some of the blood has stained him. Quickly covering his mouth, as he almost vomited, he turned to look at the shadow wall that was vanishing.
The creatures stood quiet for a moment, as the wall vanished, showing Avrin and Kael, as well as the headless body of their comrade. The creatures shrieked with fury as they dashed over towards Kael, who was stained in the blood of their dead comrade.
“Hmph...” Avrin uttered out, before he used Void Step to appear in front of Kael. As one of the draconians neared him, slashed its right claw towards him. Avrin knew he needed to figure out his own comfortable method of fighting.
Being able to use dark matter allowed him many opportunities. He could fight at a distance, or focus on hand to hand combat and even weaponry. But Avrin knew he had to adapt to any situation and challenge himself if he wanted to improve.
Just like how he put Kael in a life threatening situation, he needed to practice what he preached. As the claw quickly stabbed towards him, he swiveled his body under, before turning it at an angle towards the creature that was unable to properly maneuver in mid air.
Taking into account his instinct, his left hand opened into the form of a palm, dark matter forming a layer of energy, before he pressed it with great force against the creature's stomach. “Shadow Splinter.” He uttered out, before a faint force of gravity rippled around the point where his palm met the creature.
Gravity around it rippled and space distorted faintly, before the creature's flesh twisted and tore. A force transferred through and shot out like a blast of air, blowing a hole right through the creature. The blast of air was a result of the force transferring through.
The air rushed forwards, blowing away several of the creatures, wounding them only slightly as well as dazing them a bit. The only casualty being the limp Draconian that fell to the ground with its eyes popping out of its head and tongue slumped out of its mouth, its body twitching.
“Master...incredible…” Kael couldn't help but utter with admiration. Avrin didn't reply, as he raised his hand to look at it. “-That did less than I expected. I'm sure I can make it more destructive. Being able to distort space and gravity, although faint, it's still there. I'll have to be careful; otherwise I might lose my arm in the process-”
Having freed themselves from their daze, the creatures charged towards Avrin again, this time more carefully, as two tried to flank him. “Tsk...” Avrin raised his hand, forming a Void Sphere that twisted and shattered into many small shards “Void Crystal...” Like bullets, the small spheres shot towards the Draconians, managing to hit several of them.
The void crystal shards had left bruise-like marks that very slowly tried to eat away at the creatures’ scales, carrying penetrating force, but also the effect of eating away at the opponent's very being. Despite having force, the Draconians’ scales managed to block most of the attack, showing that Avrin hadn't calculated the power added to the Void Crystal enough to be able to wound them gravely.
While the one's hit were madly scratching at the parts being slowly being turned to ash by the Void Crystal shards. Avrin examined it carefully, noticing that the effect had stopped, allowing the Draconians to retake their fighting stances and screech at him with fury. “-I'll make it stronger next time…-”
Using this as a time to test his abilities, he was caught off guard by a sudden shout. “Ha!” Kael suddenly raised his sword and charged to a nearby Draconian that was scratching madly at its wounds. “Kael, wait!”
Avrin called out. But Kael had rushed ahead. Avrin was taken aback by his spirit and assertiveness to fight, and hesitated for a moment to give him a chance, but decided it was a bad idea.
Using the Void Teleport, the moment the creature realized Kael was charging at it, the Draconian swung its claws towards Kael, who tried to block it with his own blade. The creature, showing monstrous strength despite its size, managed to overpower his block, causing Kael’s body to swing at an angle, leaving him open.
The creature swung its claw towards him a second time, but before the other Draconians could use this chance to also attack, Avrin appeared behind the Draconian. As his arm reformed first, he grabbed the creature's head and pulled it back with great strength, managing to nearly tear it off its body, before it went limp.
At this point, the remaining Draconians all charged towards them, knowing that if they attacked together they had a chance. Avrin also realized that things would become more dangerous if the creatures grew desperate. As his body finished reforming, he grabbed Kael and pulled him enough to bring him to his side.
Avrin had to take them all out in one go, without leaving any left, as it was too late for him to cast a Shadow Wall. “-Something new…-” Emitting dark matter to his right foot, he spun, turning into a blur...
Someone skilled would have seen that as he spun, his right foot created a semi circle, and also that it was engulfed in dark matter. “Void Sweep…” Just like the Dragon Sweep that he had trained in, he combined it with his own dark matter.
The ground split and tore open, as debris shot back and the wind exploded with dark energy, engulfing the Draconians and blowing them back with great force, mangling their bodies.
For Avrin, the attack itself was simple. He was already proficient with the Dragon Sweep, and it was only a matter of imbuing his attack with dark matter and allowing the force of the attack to cause the raw energy to explode and catch his opponents.
The attack itself looked like a wave of purplish energy that covered their bodies, seemingly burning them, as the one's that weren't mangled to death were soon eaten away as they screeched in agony.
Kael looked behind him, as he had recovered from his stumble. But being slow to react, he had only seen the purple energy engulf the Draconians. Avrin frowned somewhat. “It's a bit unrefined. The energy was all over the place. I need to even it out and make sure the sweep itself sends an equal force around the trajectory”
Avrin began to ponder his own attack. On the surface, one would think he was disappointed, but inside he was overjoyed. He had managed to fuse two martial abilities with his own natural power.
“Master, that attack was incredible.” Kael stood up, a bit shaky, his face somewhat pale from the rush he had just received. He couldn't help but continue to talk, as Avrin had walked over and turned one of the bodies of the Draconians over that was being eaten away by dark matter.
“Why not use such an incredible attack from the beginning? I'm sure you could have defeated them quicker.”
Avrin turned to Kael, frowning a little. “If I did that, you would learn nothing. Thanks to this, I developed a new attack.” He said, giving a faint smile under his mask. Kael thought for a moment, and then nodded.
As he walked forward, he almost stumbled. He looked down, seeing his legs were shaking wildly. Avrin also noticed this. “You have a long way to go. But progress has been made. Let's get go-”
As Avrin was about to finish his sentence, he looked down the dark hall that they had come from, his Divine Sense managing to pick up dozens of mana signatures. “Oh, it seems they caught up.” He spoke quietly.
Although he couldn't detect the creatures or anything else, it had strangely allowed him to detect Felia’s mercenary group that was only a good minute behind. Kael was a little confused, as he looked behind, seeing nothing. But he assumed it was Felia’s group, knowing his senses were not like Avrin’s.
“Are we going to wait, Master?” Avrin shook his head. “No. Let's continue.” Kael sheathed his sword as he began to follow Avrin, who wasted no time making his way down the tunnel. “-Uhh, guess no resting-” He uttered in his mind helplessly, but not daring to ask Avrin for a break.
Leaving the scene behind, him and Kael ventured further in. Avrin being somewhat cautious, as Kael had resumed his position at the front. Avrin wondered why there were no traps using tools, and why the only form of defence was sending Draconians. It baffled him. “-The creator of this place is either very smart, or has no clue how to set up traps-”
Avrin could only feel more cautious. That was, until he and Kael stopped in front of a large metallic door similar to the one that contained the 4 armed Draconian. Avrin carefully analyzed the situation, even as Kael spoke. “Master...another door. Should we enter?”
Avrin remained quiet for a bit more. “-I don't get it. A tunnel, then Draconians, then a door with the large Draconian, then another tunnel with different Draconians and now another door-” He tried to quietly piece everything together, but put the thought aside.
Walking over and passing by Kael, he pressed both his hands against the large, gate-like door, before they creaked, causing some dust that had formed over the many years to fall, before the doors split and opened up, revealing an interior similar to the large room they had gone in.
Gazing around more, Avrin noticed that the ground seemed oddly spotless and shined. Like metal. Looking at the center, Avrin couldn't notice anything, as there was nothing. As he walked in, he looked around, seeing that the room was empty.
Kael walked in behind him, looking around curiously, before sighing in relief. “Master, it seems there's nothing here. We are lucky.” He uttered happily. Avrin looked at the end of the room, seeing the exit doors, and carefully walked in.
As they neared the center of the large room, Kael went ahead to resume his position in front, but he felt something strange happen under his metal boot. He felt one of the metallic tiles slide down, as if triggering something.
The sound was faint, as it rumbled slightly. Avrin’s ears twitched, as he looked at Kael, then at his feet, to the source of the trigger. “This...” As he was about to act, he looked around, seeing nothing happening.
Kael, who was shaking with fear, felt a strange sense of relief. “M...Master, it seems like it didn't do anything.” As Kael was about to raise his foot, Avrin called out. “Don't, you fool!” Avrin had dealt with this sort of thing in the military. When dealing with space pirates, who set up bases on jungle-like planets, they set mines that would activate after being stepped on, but wouldn't explode until the person removed their feet.
Such a tool was considered prehistoric in terms of technological advances, but these mines were not ordinary. They were often permafrost mines that had been tampered with to have this feature.
It was meant to instill fear and break morale. A group of people chasing those bandits one may fall prey to this, knowing that under his foot is a permafrost mine. It would result in him begging for help, wasting time for his team mates to disarm it, which would not always work, and also buy these bandits time to ambush or even discover them.
As Kael raised his foot, the room and the dungeon seemed to rumble slightly. Avrin looked around frantically, and Kael also looked around worryingly, with a look as if he had done something wrong. “Where…. Where...is it...” Avrin looked, expecting a trap, but it didn't arrive. It was then that he felt something that caused him to shiver.
“Above!” He spoke, gazing up at the ceiling that seemed to be high enough for the light of the torches to not reach. A large blur shot down towards Kael, but Avrin, who had discovered something would come from above, used his Void Step to appear before Kael.
The blur itself was fast, and Avrin had no time to form any weapons, as he had pushed Kael to the side. The blur smashed down towards Avrin, causing the ground to vibrate and crack. Avrin’s face turned pale, as red blood with slight traces of purple, showing that his blue and red blood had mixed, flew out from his cough.
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“Master!!...” Kael, who was pushed to the side and lying on the ground, yelled out. “T...This bastard...” Avrin began to raise his hands, but before he could emit dark matter, two large hands punched down towards his arms with enough force to break some bones. “Gah!” He nearly screamed loudly, but managed to keep it quiet, to not show it.
Gazing up at the creature that had broken his arms and caused the ground to shake again, he eyed it. The creature was only a few feet larger than the average Draconian, but it's scales and body had a yellow, earthen look, and it wore pieces of armor, as opposed to the faint cloth its counterparts had. The creature also had a large war hammer on its back that had a black glow and a detailed hilt, with a dragon’s head at the back.
As Avrin was about to counter attack, he widened his eyes, gazing up at the creature that spoke. “You white masked bastard…. I saw what you did to my brethren, and what you did to Little Brother… I'm going to tear you to pieces… I'm going to roast you after I beat you to a pulp, and then I'm going to rip that little runt over their apart.”
The Draconian’s body tensed up, as the veins under its skin appeared on its forehead. It showed a flaming rage of anger. Avrin grinned, as he emitted Nebula Mist from his body. “Shadow Wa-” Before he could continue the creature displayed extreme speed as it punched down towards Avrin and roared with fury. It began to barrage him with a quick succession of fist blows that were no weaker than a Master’s. As Avrin felt the pain shoot around his body, the creature, being smart enough to not let him use his ability, he could only use the Nebula Mist to try and coat his stomach where the creature focused on, to create a sort of shield, but in the face of the creature's mighty flurry of blows, as well as Avrin having not properly used the Nebula Mist to create a quick, on the spot shield, it only managed to defend against a few blows before the creature smashed it's fist down and shattered the thin dark matter shield.
“DIE!!...” It roared out with anger, as its brethren were killed by Avrin. Avrin coughed up more blood, as it began to trickle through the lips of his mask, as well as his neck turning more purple, before the color blue had become the only sort of blood to come from his mouth.
Avrin felt his body turn numb and his insides shake, but his durability was quite something. As his arms were broken from its attack before, the healing was slowed, as his body focused on healing where the creature was punching.
A half minute later, the creature stopped, and it looked at the bloodied Avrin, whose stomach was revealed, bruised and bloodied, with his clothing torn somewhat. “Pest… Killing my brethren …. And the great one's children…”
The Draconian seemed to still be filled with rage, as it breathed a sort of mana-like steam from its nostrils. When it stopped attacking, the ground had already become a hole with Avrin at the center and it towering over him.
“-Urgh…..-” Avrin coughed up a bit more blood as he wheezed for air. “-This thing is...much stronger...than the other one… Intelligent too…-” Avrin couldn't help but squeeze out a quiet laugh, which attracted the creature's attention.
“What are you laughing for? I'm not done with you yet...” The Draconian clasped both its hands together, before it emitted a powerful mana over both its clasped hands, raising them above its head.
“I was...w….wrong…you're not intelligent…. You're as dumb as the other 4 armed bastard...he...Hehe...” The Draconian, after hearing Avrin’s words, howled with fury, as it smashed downwards towards him.
Before it could even hit the halfway mark, a Shadow Pillar smashed it from behind, through the wall of the hall. The creature used its quick agility to sidestep and dash out of the hole as it back flipped out and landed a few meters away with well trained movements.
Avrin stood up weakly, as he also jumped out of the hole. “Tough….and agile…” Avrin raised the mask a little and wiped some blood away from his mouth. The creature remained silent as it eyed him like he was its prey.
“Kael...go wait for the others outside… Don't come in no matter what. If I don't return, tell them to get out of this dungeon as soon as possible.” Kael felt his body freeze, as his legs then began to shake. “Master...how can I leave y-” Avrin frowned, his lips turning down a bit. “GO!” Hearing him yell, Kael rushed off towards the entrance frantically as he panted.
“Forgive me, Master… Forgive me!” He called out with fear and guilt. “It won't make a difference whether he is out there or in here… I'll hunt you all down….mash you into meat and feed you to my brethren as a sacrifice to those who died, as well as the great one himself.”
Avrin took a deep breath before he emitted Nebula Mist, willing it towards the door, before forcing it shut and then willing the mist to harden to seal the door. The Draconian saw this and responded, as it saw Avrin’s unusual ability. “You reek of strange corruption… You must be a demon...learning the dark magic of your god...” The Draconian opened its mouth, revealing it's large, sharp teeth and lizard like tongue as it hissed towards Avrin.
As his body began to heal quietly, he tried to buy time for his wounds to make the most out of it. “You're indeed strong… Tell me...what are you exactly?” Avrin said as he reached up and removed his cloak, throwing it to the side, and then reaching up with both hands to undo his mask.
“Your DEATH!” Roaring out, the Draconian didn't give him any more time, as it saw with its precise eyes that the wounds it had inflicted were slowly healing, knowing his tactic. As it dashed on all fours, turning into a yellowish blur, causing the metallic-like tiles to split, it swiped its tail towards Avrin.
“Shit...” Avrin uttered quietly, moving his hands down quickly, leaving his mask on for the moment. He quickly jumped up in the air, forming two Void Swords, before slashing them down towards the creature that had, at the moment of him jumping up, turned its body to smash its fist towards him. Its height easily allowed it to reach Avrin, who had jumped in the air.
As the fist met the Void Swords, Avrin was met with an unexpected result. The Draconian’s mana engulfed it's fist and shattered the blades like glass, but it also expertly made a swift movement with its feet, closing the distance between it and Avrin, before plowing it's free fist into his stomach, sending Avrin flying back.
Avrin smashed along the ground before regaining his balance. He coughed out some more blue blood. “Urgh… That...was...nice” He smiled faintly as he held his stomach. “You're...pretty good. For a creature with your build” Avrin stood up, as he felt his body turn numb and the pain surged around. He found it hard to breath.
The Draconian narrowed its eyes. “And you're annoying to kill… Pest...you think you're capable of defeating me? I was handpicked by the great one as the second greatest fighter next to Elder Brother!”
Avrin’s right eye twitched a bit. “Elder Brother? There's one stronger than you? This dungeon is going to be tougher than I thought… I'll have to tread carefully after...I'm done here.” The Draconian gave a hissing-like laughter at Avrin’s words.
“After you're done here? I think you don't get it…. You are done here!” It rushed towards him, using the same movement and speed. Avrin regained his fighting stance, before spinning in a quick motion, his right foot emitting the same technique as before. “Void Sweep!” As the energy burst out, following the force of the air, the Draconian’s eyes widened, before it used its fist and arms to kick upward.
But it hadn't managed to dodge it all, as the dark matter caught onto its fist and began to eat away at it slowly. As it felt a burning sensation, it winced with shock as it landed back onto the ground, several meters to the side. “This vile magic…” It emitted its mana, focusing it over the dark matter, overpowering it and dispersing it.
This sight made Avrin tilt his head. “So that's one way to disperse it… What about this..?” Avrin kicked off from the ground, taking advantage of it gazing at its fist. Avrin formed several Void Spheres, firing them towards the creature like bolts.
The Draconian, still gazing at its fist, turned its body to the side, managing to avoid one of the Void Spheres, before it turned into a blur and began to avoid them all effortlessly. “Fast...” Avrin spoke with surprise. But the Draconian’s movements were not done. It landed on all fours and opened its mouth, gathering the mana there, before firing off a beam of mana towards Avrin.
“The hell!” Avrin called out in shock, before he quickly emitted his Nebula Mist in front of him. “Shadow Wall!” The Nebula Mist formed a 1 meter thick, 5 meter wide wall of dark matter, which soon collided with the yellow stream of energy.
The force lit up the room and shook the ground. Avrin knew the wall itself couldn't hope to sustain such an attack, so he continuously streamed Nebula Mist into the shadow wall. But it was proving too much, as the attack seemed to overpower his ability to feed it with dark matter, and he had no choice but to jump to the side.
This movement allowed the yellow energy to shatter the wall and shoot forward with devastating power, as it shot through the wall of the dungeon and skid across the ground. Avrin, who was gazing at the energy from a kneeling position, was shocked and interested. “That's dangerous… It has no explosive force, but that raw energy is enough to damage me greatly…”
The Draconian stood up on its legs, as steam emitted from its mouth. It snickered slightly. “You have some nice techniques, being able to stop my Terror Burst like that…” Avrin stood up and gazed at it. “Terror Burst? That shouldn't be the attack. After all, only dragons have the mana capacity to use such an attack.”
The Draconian snickered before its body began to tense up as its muscle mass seemed to increase slightly. Its earthen scales turned a dark yellow. “Lies…. The Terror Burst is a trait of a Dragon! I am half pure… I can only use this much... As long as I have mana, I can do this much…” He then roared out and dashed with quicker movements towards Avrin, as it swung its right claw down towards him after taking only 2 seconds to reach him.
Avrin felt that the creature was somewhat slower, but he knew its increased mass let it obtain more destructive force. He sidestepped, using his right hand to hit against the side of its left arm, before he ducked down, extending his left palm towards the creature's stomach, wasting no time to emit dark matter over it.
“Shadow Splinter!” As his hand collided with the creature's stomach, the space around it twisted slightly, before the force of the blow caused the creature to be blown back several meters as its feet slid across the ground.
Surprisingly, it remained standing, as it rubbed its stomach while rubbing its mouth from the green blood it had coughed out. “Strong… I can see why little brother fell to this attack…” Avrin chuckled softly. “You were watching, huh? Then you know I didn't kill him…”
The Draconian’s eyes glared at him. “You didn't...but I'll still gut you for injuring him…. And when your friends come here, I'll stomp them into dust…” Turning into a blur again, it rushed towards Avrin with no mercy, as it began to punch towards him over and over again.
Avrin, having gauged the creature's power, began to use his training, as well as his augmented vision, to get an edge, managing to avoid the creature's punches, but at the cost of being pushed back. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was cornered.
“-I need to turn the tables… Should I use Astaroth?-” He began to think. But he also understood the weapon itself was devastatingly powerful, to the point where splitting the dungeon in half was a walk in the park, at the cost of putting him at death’s door.
“Piss off!” Avrin called out, before his hands formed two Void Spheres that he fired at point blank range towards the Draconian. The Draconian gazed down. Having no time to dodge, it had no choice but to take them head on.
As they collided with its body, it felt a strange burning pain, but emitted it's mana to try and overwhelm the devouring force. But what it hadn't expected was that Avrin would use this to push it back.
“Dumb lizard! How about THIS!”