Chapter 410: Fooled
Tiber chuckled. "Why are you still in the dream? Why? Why? Because I am far stronger than you!"
Xuehan shuddered, and his face was drawn with horror. "When? When did you even draw us into this dream?"
"From the very beginning," Tiber said as he began to walk towards them, one step at a time. But each of his steps seemed to contain several steps at the same time. The space around him was dark and brooding. The darkness looked to be alive, and different shapes began to flicker within.
Fear. Terror began to bloom in the minds of the three. Their bodies began to shake uncontrollably, their limbs locking. And yet, Tiber continued to come closer to them still!
Suddenly, Xuehan turned to Fengzhi. His eyes widened with fear, but his lips were set in a decisive firmness. He seemed to be dragging every shred of his will up to the surface as he roared in her face. "STAB ME WITH YOUR SPEAR!"
The roar shook Fengzhi free briefly. Her hand rose as if it was not under her command, or maybe it was simply instinct. Her arm thrust forward, ramming the spear straight through Xuehan!
The spear went through all right, but there was no blood, and the man himself was still breathing. Xuehan blinked, but he did not have the chance to open his mouth and speak as the space around him cracked like a fractured mirror before the three of them disappeared from their place.
Tiber watched where they were previously standing and sighed. "He's a decisive man, directly going straight to the source of the matter, and with one of them forcefully freed, the collective dream naturally can't hold them anymore."
But he didn't sound angry. He looked at the growing darkness around him and at the figures flickering there. "At least I got what I wanted."
He disappeared as well.
Back in the real world, everyone had been looking at the four fighters in surprise. The three opponents suddenly stiffened and didn't move. The only movement was that they began to tremble and sweat, their eyes wide.
But the funny thing was that Tiber could still move! He was moving toward them, one step at a time, leisurely too.
Such a terrifying ability terrified them because they couldn't accurately pinpoint what Tiber did. Even the observing Master Knights, Valtor and Eryndor, were stunned. They'd never truly seen Tiber fight face-to-face like this, as the man mostly preferred to stay behind Vale.
But unknown to all of them, Tiber was just as surprised. After all, this was the first time he had truly tested his abilities after the qualitative changes. Although he couldn't have kept the three under his dream to physically kill them, he could still cause serious harm to them.
Even more, his ability to devour and digest nightmares had completely changed.
His three opponents, upon realizing that they were now awake, first created distance between themselves and him. They examined themselves, and only then did they turn to face him again.
They were angry that they had been fooled without even knowing. Xuehan had an ugly look on his face.
Without hesitation, he gestured to the space where Tiber was, and the space, in a straight line, shook, warping and twisting. Instantly, Tiber felt a force grab his whole body like a hand made of iron and begin to drag him forward.
"Attraction!" Xuehan shouted, positioning his body, his hand clenched into a fist as Tiber was hurled toward him at incredible speed.
But before Tiber could reach him, the force of attraction suddenly wobbled and then disappeared. Tiber's dark eyes were locked on Xuehan, the muscular guy who now appeared to have fallen asleep!
And now, with only him under Tiber's attention, there was no easy and quick way to break away!
Since Tiber was already halfway toward him, he didn't hesitate and instantly began to cross the remaining distance, taking advantage before Xuehan broke free.
His hand formed into a fist of his own, dark energy swirling around it. He raised his fist, but then he suddenly jumped away before he reached Xuehan. The space he had been standing on was consumed by yellow lightning the next moment, burning a hole into it!
Aldwin and Fengzhi finally involved themselves in the fight!
The distraction to Tiber caused Xuehan to break free. His face first filled with confusion before he realized what was happening, and fury took over. He had been fooled once again!
Xuehan shuddered, and he hurriedly took several steps back. "How do you keep doing that!"
Tiber only shrugged. "How indeed. Well, are you going to fight me or not?"
The majority of those watching the fight were confused about what was actually happening. The fight hadn't started, right? Then why were the three moving away from Tiber? What's going on?
The expressions on the three were downright ugly. They looked as if they'd swallowed something too big for their throats. Xuehan turned to the others. "We need to coordinate. Make sure to check on each other and wake them up if they fall asleep. We must also force ourselves into constant action to stimulate our brains into not dulling!"
Aldwin nodded. His body rippled, and fine fur began to condense, growing on his skin at astonishing speed. "We need to attack him at range. We should not hold back anymore! I think the closer we get to him, the more potent his abilities become. We should be careful."
Fengzhi raised her spear. Yellow light sparked at the tip, glowing with brilliance. "Alright then!"
With that, she made the motion of throwing her spear without actually releasing it. Yellow lightning formed into the shape of the spear, like an afterimage, and streaked through the air with a popping sound.
So fast!
She truly wasn't holding back now!
The attack crossed the distance easily, and so fast that the majority of onlookers couldn't track it. And those who could doubted if they could dodge it!
But to their surprise, Tiber nimbly danced out of the way, his figure producing different afterimages of itself! He had successfully gotten out of the way!
But just then, a force gripped him, and before Tiber knew what was happening, he was roughly shoved to the side once more, directly into the path of the attack!
Xuehan had moved from his place, positioning himself opposite Tiber and then used his attraction to put him back in his previous place. The display of the minute precision of his attraction power showed the amount of control he had over his techniques and aspect.
This time, there was simply no way for Tiber to avoid the attack. The only thing he could do was raise his hand and use it to block it, gathering nightmare essence.
Boom!
The spear attack exploded into a shower of yellow light that fried the surroundings with lightning, sending dust and small stones upward.
But when it cleared, Tiber was still standing there. All around him, shadows appeared. They hung on his clothes, forming a formless cloak behind him. Figures flickered within as if there were things hiding inside.
And on the ground beneath him, the body of a monster-like thing lay there, destroyed and smoking. It was what had eventually taken the hit for Tiber!
"What is that?" Someone from the onlookers shivered, taking several steps back. He wasn't the only one either. A lot of Knights began to move backward. They were all feeling fear! A potent wave of unexplained fear and terror was spreading through the air, twisting the stomachs of all that it touched and bringing irrational fear to them.
On the palace stairs, Slya frowned and muttered. "This strong."
Valtor looked at her, his face filled with surprise. "I didn't know Tiber was this strong? Are the two of you like this?"
Slya hesitated, and then she nodded. "This is our reward for following his Lordship."
Valtor didn't doubt it.
Eryndor nodded. "The power coming from him should be equal to three or four Errant Knights. That's really impressive. And that fear... his aspect is sure interesting."
Tiber's three opponents thought the same thing as well. They were slack-jawed. "But... isn't his power to manipulate dreams? What's all of this?"
Fengzhi sneered. "Isn't this just an illusion to mess with our minds? To make it seem as if it's a Master Knight's power standing in front of us?"
Xuehan nodded slowly. "This is true. Because I can't put the two together. He's an Errant Knight, but his power is more than that? The fear is just an illusion! And that darkness behind him is naturally there to make him look bigger. He's nothing!"
Only Aldwin looked doubtful. "We shouldn't really be careless. Even if our eyes and hearts were fooled, our bodies, which have experienced years of instinct, cannot be wrong too, right? Right?"
Indeed, they could feel in their bodies that their opponent was strong. Not just bluffing.