86. Kill!
[Unitopia, Eastern Continent]
Unfortunately, proclamations alone would not deliver him from the jaws of death. It was again by the breadth of a single hair that he twisted away from the launched blade. This time, facing his opponent, he was at least able to catch a glimpse of what attacked him.
A tall, willowy silhouette. A vague approximation of a man, but its limbs were too long, its neck too thin and its head...it's head was...
The soldier found his gaze glossing over what lay above its shoulders as if it didn't exist. He had no time to ponder on that before his attention was rudely brought to the present by another attack. The monster's left hand was hidden, but its right ended in a rough looking blade, chipped and scratched all over. As it swung it forwards, a piece would be launched off like a silent bullet.
But I can see it!
Once more, the miraculous eyesight of the soldier was able to capture its movement in perfect clarity. But that still wasn't enough. Despite staring hard enough to pop a blood vessel, as the creature swung, it was as if the piece of shrapnel teleported in front of his face with a burst of wind.
This time, he was not so lucky.
Jumping to the side, he avoided decapitation, but the jagged edge of the shrapnel still scored across his right cheek, erupting in sharp pain. He drew in a cold hiss, bringing a hand up expecting to feel blood, but feeling it dry. The study of his spectral anatomy would have to wait, however.
I dodged them earlier and now I can see it, so why? It doesn't matter. I can't let it swing again!
Making his mind up, he got into a crouched position. Channeling his spectral energy into his legs, he felt them swelling with supernatural strength. Letting it build up, he burst into motion, his feet kicking up the dirt behind him.
The creature, if it was caught off-guard, did not show it. Simply raising its bladed arm once more, it swung forwards. But this time, the soldier did not dodge. As if reading that intent, the creature seemed to strengthen the blow, putting its all into ending the life of the insect before it.
The soldier grinned.
It underestimated his ability to change directions. If he wanted to, he could just as easily come to a stop with the aid of this spectral energy, attacking its unprotected side.
But that's how losers think!
Instead, he continued barreling forwards, rapidly picking up speed. At the same time, he raised his hands before him and attempted something he had never done before. The flow of energy in his body was still something he could barely understand, nothing more than instinct that guided his ability to strengthen.
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But he had already succeeded in grasping the river, taming the beast, to escape the cube. He simply had to do it again. Watching in almost slow motion as the creature launched a piece of shrapnel directly towards him, all thoughts of failure were erased, leaving behind only the moment, everlasting.
With a soundless roar, he grabbed at the spectral energy channeled towards his legs, and diverted some to his hands. For a split-second, it resisted. But the will of the soldier was iron, and it gave in.
His hands glowed similarly to his legs, the creature either uncaring or unnoticing.
Let's see if you remain so unconcerned for long.
Just like before, the launched projectile was at a speed even his enhanced eyes, able to follow the motion of raindrops as they fell, could not keep up with. But it didn't matter. It had targeted his neck and face three times, it may have been a gamble, but the soldier liked those odds.
Seeing the shrapnel appear in front of his face, a sense of euphoria flooded his body. His hands, already raised, like a torch warding away the encroaching darkness.
The shrapnel collided with his impervious palms, shattering into a million fragments. The creature, as if noticing the anomaly before it for the first time, took a step backwards. But it was too late.
The soldier was already before it and with those same hands, he reached forwards. Its attacks may have been untraceably fast, but he had noticed that its body was slow. Lumbering and ungainly, with its oversized limbs and thin body.
The soldier, on the other hand, was faster than he had ever been.
He grabbed at the body of the creature like the claws of a tiger, the strange metal making up its surface bucked and yielded like butter beneath his fingers. His hands pierced through with ease, coated with an oily fluid that burst out of the wound like blood.
But that was hardly enough.
With a maddening whoop, the soldier gripped deep with both hands and used his forward momentum to tear apart. He could feel it give beneath him, an ecstatic feeling running through his body at the thought of ending this abomination.
But it would not be that easy.
An unholy shriek sounded from above him and, sensing the gaze of death, the soldier aborted his motion halfway. Pushing the creature away, he used that momentum to jump backwards. And not a second too late.
Colliding with the ground he had just evacuated, a pillar of light intense enough to outshine the sun landed. Accompanied by a roar like that of a jet engine, and a scorching heat that left the ground running in rivulets of magma.
It continue for several seconds, the soldier backing away as he felt even his spectral form begin to heat up. At last, it faded, leaving behind a strange, runic pattern inscribed into the ground in molten metal.
The creature was also stood a bit further back itself, though upon seeing its wounds, the soldier could not resist a gleeful laugh. Although he had fallen short of ripping it apart, its torso was marked by a deep vertical gash leaking black, oily fluid that sizzled as it hit the ground.
It was hunched over as if in pain, cradling its body with its bladed hand.
Its other hand was revealed, made of a strange, golden crystal. It was giving off smoke and the smell of burnt ozone permeated the air. Crucially, the soldier narrowed his eyes at what was engraved onto its surface. The same symbols as those left in the ground by that pillar from the sky.
A projectile I can't see coming, and as if that wasn't enough, how about some kind of magic orbital strike for good measure? We'll see how well it manages with its arms torn from its hideous body!
Looking at the wounded monster like prey, the nameless soldier crouched once more, tensing his legs, ready for the inevitable blow. After a few seconds, as if at some unseen signal, the two abominations flashed into motion, both of their mangled minds fully engulfed with a single goal.
Kill!