583 Challenges
Such a high tier beast…
Skullius couldn’t fathom how, if his sequence of thought was correct, Red Rage had groomed those eggs he was so desperate to protect, into this within a matter of what? Weeks?!
And while looking at this creature before him…
Its dark skin that was somewhere between leathery and slimy, its thick bulky muscles constantly wriggling under the wet skin as well as the four thick humanoid limbs it had…
The dark sclera of its eyes and the yellow irises complemented by the tentacles that draped beneath them to reach its chest, acting like a beard…
This appearance… it was like the Galemonger’s, the monster that invaded Inhone City that time with a horde of its Cluster beasts!
This creature Red Rage had seemed to evolve into something similar to the Galemonger Maelstrom and its Tier…
“Tier 9…” Skullius said after a quick check with his guidance field, his mind kind of understanding the how of it all now. A bit.
Red Rage turned to Skullius with a look of pride visible even under the veil of his helmet.
“Magnificent isn’t he, Master? Like me, he is capable of super fast growth. He’s nearing Tier 10 already, several tiers above his brothers and sisters,” the Apostle said as he patted the large creature’s shoulder.
“I see. That outrageous amount of mana though?”
“It’s his natural ability. He can draw on mana from all sources as long as they aren’t secured and stores it either for his evolution or for usage outside of his mana core.”
Really?
That was broken.
It was natural for Skullius to think this way.
He moved closer to the creature.
His enemies seemed to be taking the time to analyse what was going on – at least the Mage was – as well and in the process waiting for the complete recovery of the bulky Form User.
“Hmm. That’s very intriguing. His presence is overwhelming,” Skullius commented before asking the obvious question. “Is he capable of sharing the mana he stores?”
Red Rage looked amused.
“Killin Max?” he said, to which the creature he had called turned to Skullius and extended its hand, a glow of mana brimming from its palm.
“Perfect,” Skullius said with a grin.
On the other side of this interaction, the bulky Form User recovered and glared at Red Rage with a formidably hostile expression.
“Relax. Don’t take losses like that too seriously when you are the one who charged in first,” the Mage instructed while watching the salamander on his sceptre dissipate into darkness.
Transmutation only lasted for as long as the mana infused into the original appearance lasted. The amount of action the transmuted item performed also dictated its life span.
“NGGHRRR! I’ll kill them all!” the muscular, half naked man growled as his Perfect Aura surged, finally forming a Genuine Incarnation.
The robed Mage sighed.
“If you are going to go crazy, be sure not to disrupt my analyses. We are simply waiting on Seddrik and that’s it. Get it?” the Mage spoke, knowing fully he wouldn’t receive an answer.
Still, he knew he wasn’t going to escape having to fight. Regardless of how much regard he held for himself as a Grandmaster Mage, none of his enemies knew what he was capable of.
Besides, he had remained here while Seddrik went to retrieve the objective solely because he didn’t enjoy having to deal with tedious stuff like that.
Therefore, he might as well indulge seeing as his opponents were preparing something fascinating.
Skullius was left grinning at the massive amount of mana gathered in the palm of his hand.
A large ball of compressed mana floated over his hand, the quantity of units of mana it bore being roughly twelve times the amount his core could hold, which was close to 350,000 units of mana from mainly blue cores!
“You’re right, Red Rage. I do want that Mage for myself,” Skullius said with a smile, his [Greater Mana Crafter] helping him lift the ball of mana up. “I’d forgotten that when you’re not being a pain in the pelvis, you’re actually helpful.”
“I’m flattered, Master,” Red Rage said before pointing at the mad Form User. “Killin. That’s your target. Make sure you kill him quickly. Otherwise I’ll strip you of your name.”
The creature tensed but it seemed hyped.
SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Large pores opened all over his body and sucked in large volumes of air!
Soon, the beast inflated as compartments under its skin designated for storing air compressed and held onto it. Afterwards, the pores on its skin closed shut!
The tentacled monster grew to easily become twice its original size with rock hard muscles that contained vicious mana and air.
Its eyes tainted the bulky Form User who was glaring its master until he focused on it, his teeth showing as his murderous intent to the beast.
“You want to fight me that badly?! Come on!” he yelled.
Red Rage flew back to watch while Skullius hoped over to stand at a closer distance to the Mage.
“So you’ll be my opponent?” the robed man asked with a chuckle. “Are you sure that’s wise? It wouldn’t kill you to simply wait until what we want is in hand, you know? We wouldn’t kill you without reason.”
“It would kill me actually,” Skullius said while twirling Demion’s Dance in his hand.
He then used his teeth to hold the sword before locking his hands, a great surge of his mana swimming out to touch on the ball above him.
“Hmmm?” the Mage titled his head curiously.
“I’d rather have the honour of carrying a Mage’s head back to Genhuis City,” the Hybrid Luman said as with excited eyes, he called upon [Just Light] in its most brilliant form and forged a massive construct that rose high behind him.
Its light was beautiful but different from Red Rage’s earlier.
The large, cracked bones of light that made up the trunk of the Precept of Light, as well as the rows of different sized skulls with different numbers of sockets didn’t represent something pure or innocent.
This light was all about obsessive control and carnage.
Red Rage was surprised this.
“This is new…” he said while folding his arms.
But of course.
This was his master after all.
He didn’t believe for a second that his master had run out of tricks and shocking powers such as this!
His absence had led to him missing out.
[Beads of Malevolence] spawned in the thousands, their numbers limited to an exact figure of 40,000 this time. Soft glows from a mark, half a skull, could be seen over them and with this, Skullius had the ability to move every single one of the orbs without any need for complex thought or control as the Precept of Light, the Preeminent Attegoth, did it all for him!
“Fascinating!” the Mage said as he saw the orbs floating all around, covering up all possible ways for him to run to on foot.
“Let’s do this!” Skullius said while grinning.
His figure bolted up with his special mana trait of weight making him extremely light!
His body turned into an elongated wisp of shadow as he dashed towards the Mage while using some of the [Beads of Malevolence] as stepping stones!
He had precisely 2000 orbs move at a staggering speed to attack along with him, building a harsh offensive against his opponent.
The movement of the orbs carrying mounds of weight emitted raging noises and as he saw them coming, the grey haired Mage smirked with a condescending look on his face!
When the first wave of orbs, arrived, he had already vanished, appearing at another spot devoid of many of the [Beads of Malevolence].
When the second wave came, he vanished again, then again and again!
Skullius had the orbs softly floating by move according to where he wanted to set his feet as he dashed. His senses were on full alert, letting him know where the Mage appeared and because of this, he didn’t have to race all over the space like a fool.
The straightforwardly attacking orbs suddenly shifted their pattern, zigzagging over hundreds of meters in order to make randomly teleporting a no-no for his opponent.
“Hahaha,” the Mage gave an amused laugh as he appeared in another spot, his sceptre extended to immediately generated a hazy blue barrier that knocked away the orbs.
The others shot at him in this new pattern and the grey haired man grinned as mana burst from him with a ravenous wave.
“Mass Transmutation,” he called softly.
…!
The hundreds of orbs that had reached him while carrying their incredible speed suddenly lit up with a brilliant white hue of mana!
In the next moment…
“Shit!” Skullius exclaimed, but not in panic.
He actually wore an intrigued and excited face as he saw the absolute insanity before him!
Hundreds of small black creatures now floated around the Mage – spiders, rats, mice, centipedes, cats, puppies, worms, snakes and so many more – their eyes showing a peculiar subservience!
These creatures shot towards Skullius and his orbs under the fierce command of the Mage, some of them bulging as they breathed out gushing pools of magma, others fire, other winds while several snakes twitched before exploding into massively destructive bolts of lightning that struck in all directions mercilessly!
The cascade of attacks brimmed, chaining to form a storm of inexplicable cataclysm that barrelled towards Skullius in a breath!
This application…!
This was too profound!
This wasn’t high level Magecraft at all!
It was simply the fusion of the most basic of Magecraft Patches that made an official Mage – Transmutation and Elements!
“Keep it up…” Skullius said as his focus reached a peak.
He sucked in a breath and dark red energy blazed from Demion’s Dance. He then pumped his cheeks with air and swung downwards in an elegant arc, one so beautiful, so powerful that for the first, he felt like all the power and skill granted by the skill [Epic Memory] in his sword had reached a cap!
There was no more additional strength that the sword could give!
Thus…
[You have mastered the skill ‘Parting Wave’]
[‘Demion’s Dance’ recognises you as its sole wielder]
…!
This was good.
Too good.
But Skullius wasn’t into that right now.
His slash, the [Parting Wave], was awe-some, in every meaning of the word.
The galloping destruction met a red slit, bordering on black, produced by the motion of the sword’s tip and a lull occurred for the briefest of moments before…
VRRRRRMMMM!
The amalgamation of fires kissing winds and winds cuddling lightning parted, their split masses being cast aside violently as a tear through the air ran towards the Mage in a mad charge!
…!
The pressure created by the division gave Skullius a magnificent silhouette as he was stuck in stance.
A magnificence that translated to his hype and Red Rage’s glee!
“Beautiful…” the grey haired man said with solemn eyes.
Yet…
His figure vanished and appeared a few meters behind Skullius, the remnants of spatial manipulation on his hand and… on the Hybrid Luman’s shoulder.
Skullius’ arm was gone and it took him a split moment to realise as he turned to his enemy who floated seamlessly.
“This is a rather dangerous weapon. Dare I say it’s power seems familiar. A dreading sense of death from the blade… A menace to its wielder… It definitely is the sword behind the story of Demion and Escus…” the Mage said while looking at the weapon held tight by Skullius’ severed arm. “How are you able to wield it without being corrupted by death itself?”
Skullius didn’t respond.
He regrew his arm and stretched out his hand to which Demion’s Dance shot towards him from his severed one and rested in his new grip once more.
A mark, half a skull, was on the green sword after all.
“Who knows? Maybe I’m death itself,” Silrat said to which the Mage laughed, genuinely finding the response funny.
“Death itself? That’s bold,” he said as he stored his sceptre into an unseen storage item.
His mana spiked horrendously, blobs of black, constantly shifting matter appearing around him.
“If you truly are death itself then shall I challenge you with my full might? Perhaps if I beat you, I may learn the secret to life without death.”
…!
A musing statement but for some reason, Skullius felt like it had all the seriousness in the world.
At that moment, space became tangible.
pAnDa (nov)e1
He exercised his powers as a Grandmaster, folding space with his hands, as if putting away useless paper and in doing so, everything within this rune protected space was pulled towards him.
Everything including the entire building outside this space – the Bryne Mansion.