Chapter(16)

Episode(16): Boss Fight(2)

SOVEREIGN OF DEATH~(16)

Crackle!

Thunder boomed and sparks of lightening as thick as a bodybuilders arm mercilessly struck the ground. The entire area was filled with lightning and if Nagisa wasn't quick to react he might have already been stunned and burned to a crisp.

Luckily Nagisa managed to feel something was wrong thanks to his perception and react in time.

He retreated from the area bathed in arcs of lightning while looking warily at this new opponent.

Nagisa knew a bit about wolves after killing so much for such a long time. Not only did they have a good physique well rounded for attack and defense, they also had natural recovery far surpassing that of any humans. 

Even if you gathered a dozen humans with the recovery skill that still wouldn't be enough to compare at all.

Nagisa was slightly envious but he also had a physique he had carved from his blood, sweat and tears. Coupled with his abilities, he wasn't any worse than them but rather he was far better.

But it was mainly thanks to this that Nagisa concluded that all monsters had great physiques regardless of race. It was then that he felt that it was unfair. They already had such terrifying physical prowess and yet magic was added to the list?

So far he had already fought fire and ice, he never expected his next opponent to be a lightning wolf.

[So troublesome!]

Just the fact that it could manipulate lightning gave it a huge boon to its speed and reaction.

Still, he wasn't much concerned. Nagisa dodged the attacks of the wolf by a hairs breath while analyzing and observing its pattern.

Its speed was fast, however Nagisa felt as if he could surpass its speed if he used his mana while going all out. He wasn't too worried about the speed since he could combat that aspect without much stress.

What he was mainly concerned about was the lightning surrounding its body.

Not only was it so bright that it made it hard to see, just being grazed by a residual spark would stun Nagisa leaving him open to any attacks.

Even if it was only for a single second Nagisa knew that was long enough for this wolf to capitalize and land its own attack.

This left him with no choice but to continue dodging its attacks while observing and trying to come up with a solution.

Thinking this was his only path, Nagisa could only bear with playing a game of tag.

The two figures streaked around the forest so fast that the other wolves had a hard time of keeping up.

By the time they arrived at the scene where Nagisa and the lightning wolf had been fighting, only a spark of lightning and a streak of blue light was left.

At the same time, the lightning wolf's sharp claws tore through the air just barely missing its target, it was fast enough to fool the eye but not Nagisa's eyes.

He easily avoided with a step back. But as the attack missed, it tore a tree on the other side in half.

The wolf growled in anger as it flew and rolled but it didn't waste a second and charged directly at Nagisa again arriving just above his head in a few seconds. It was ready to claw down and tear Nagisa into mincemeat.

However Nagisa moved his body away avoided the attack yet again at the very last moment.

Nagisa had dodged easily, however he grunted at the end.

That was because as he dodged, a spark of lightning grazed his cheek stunning him for a slight moment allowing the lightning wolf to nick him with a follow up slash.

Although, Nagisa regained control of his body in time and evaded, slight bruises like this would occur from time to time as a result of the sparks of lightning just grazing against him.

Nagisa clicked his tongue and used his mana spreading it to his feet before vanishing from the spot the next moment. Seconds later he stood on a tall tree while watching the lightning wolf rampage in the forest.

[This is an issue]

He couldn't get close to his opponent but his opponent had enough speed to close the distance and get close to him. Although the wounds that he gained now and then were insignificant he didn't like the fact at all. 

What he needed was a definite way to get close and not be affected by its lightning. Apart from having equipment resistant to the lightning he didn't know what else he could use to offset its effects.

'I don't have any lightning resistant weapons do I?'

Nagisa rubbed his chin in contemplation and could only think of one thing. Using extreme speed to surpass even the lightning. Before he could be stunned by the lightning he'd need to off the wolf as quickly as possible.

Thinking for a while, it was the only way he could really get rid of this opponent. He nodded.

Although Nagisa was confident, he wondered for a while if his speed could surpass the lightning but shook his head. Why worry when all he needed to do was trust his skills?

Nagisa jumped down without hesitation and spun his body. At the same time he circulated the mana into his arms and through his sword before he swung it with tremendous force. 

A blade of concentrated mana flew from the sword tearing through the air.

Feeling a sudden surge of energy, the lightning wolf quickly turned only to see the surprise attack shooting towards it and could only cross its arms in an attempt to block.

However it was too late and the wolf was sent flying back until it helplessly crash into a tree.

Under the force of the collision, the tree broke and fell backwards with a loud crash.

Meanwhile, Nagisa who had just landed bent his knees the moment his feet touched the ground. He did so while tightly grasping the hilt of his sword and preparing to charge out again.

His gaze never left his target as he circulated mana into his feet and arms without worrying about reserves.

A huge swirl of mana surrounded Nagisa, but the strangest thing happened.

It kept shrinking and shrinking until it merely covered his body like a small layer of mana. But the lightning wolf was far from relieved as it scurried to its feet and blasted away in a streak of lightning.

[Trying to flee?]

Nagisa scoffed and in the next moment his body moved at the speed of light completely disregarding everything around him.

The lightning wolf felt the killing intent behind him and turned but the moment it did, its entire arm from its shoulder was severed in an instant. It didn't even have time to scream before it fell from the trees with a thud.

It rolled on the ground while its blood painted the forest soil in a dark color. The wolf wailed as the pain of losing its arm assailed it. It grabbed its shoulder as blood constantly spurted from the wound and there was madness in its eyes.

At that moment' footsteps came from the dark patch between the trees and Nagisa slowly walked out. Unlike before he was completely fine and unharmed by the lightning.

He also had this to show for it-

[Congratulations! Your understanding of movement increases! Mana control and Agility related statuses all permanently increase!]

Nagisa couldn't see his personal stats but now he was sure that he could avoid the lightning faster and better than before. He no longer feared the lightning grazing him since he was just too fast to begin with.

Although, more speed meant more mana but with his mana recovery speed he could handle it. It was no hassle.

The wolf growled as it saw Nagisa and stood up. Anger and hatred were obvious in its bloodshot eyes as its mana surged. Prepared for an attack, the wolf gathered its mana with a vengeance.

But, Nagisa didn't run.

He waited patiently for the wolf to finish gathering its power until finally. A second passed however it was like an eternity. The wolf glared at Nagisa while Nagisa confidently smiled back at it.

The two didn't speak, they didn't need to. All was clear as day from their expressions.

The next moment, the second had passed.

Shu*

Both of them vanished at the same time. When their figures appeared again, Nagisa and the wolf had already closed the distance between each other.

With its remaining arm, the wolf clawed through the air wildly.

The speed of its attack caused the wind to whistle as it tore forward, but the target of the attack never stopped. Nagisa merely shifted his body while lowering his posture to avoid the attack. Then he drew his sword confidently along a trajectory. 

The claw missed, however the sword made target and severed the wolf's remaining arm. As blood splattered, the wolf turned its body and at the same time Nagisa drew a stop with his left leg. 

He also turned and swiftly drew an arc horizontally with his sword splitting the wolf's belly open. The wound spat out a large amount of blood instantly making the wolf's expression ugly.

Maybe it also noticed it wasn't going to survive, so the wolf gathered its mana in its body. All its mana was sucked into its body like a sponge sucking up water.

Seeing its action, a sense of Déjà vu assailed Nagisa and he acted quickly. Recalling the flame wolf that self-destructed, Nagisa gripped the hilt of his sword and in single second he drew sword stroke after sword stroke splitting the wolf into several pieces at once.

He did it without hesitation by instinct. It was the right action to take.

But it was pointless as it was too late.

Boom!*

An explosion rang out with Nagisa at its center. The entire forest shook as sparks of lightning and a cloud of dust covered the blast radius. 

Not far away, a figure stood on the branch of a tree while coughing and fanning the smoke away.

[Cough, thank goodness I unlocked more speed beforehand or I probably would have died]

Nagisa, who used his extreme speed to run at the speed of sound to escape dying a burning death stood while looking at the mess. His heart was in turmoil but for a completely different reason.

[This still counts as my kill right?]

He was worried he wouldn't level up because the wolf exploded itself. Nagisa felt like he was robbed of a treasure he saw first only because the other party had a bigger background. Hopefully he'd still get the XP if nothing.

Just then, Nagisa turned a gaze and jumped from the branch he was standing on. Floating midair, he watched a the tree was turned to dust in a pillar of flames before he landed on his feet as nimble as a cat.

Nagisa then watched the pillar of flames as it roared to the night sky.

Seeing how the human stood there distracted by the flames, the Ice wolf general tried to take advantage of the moment and created ice spears. They swirled at a speed was sure to drill a hole through anything then without waiting, it sent them flying at Nagisa.

But even while the spears of ice streaked through the air, not even the wind was riffled. Everything from their intent to their sound was so discreetly concealed that it would have been hard for a normal person to notice.

Yet, Nagisa whose attention had solely been on the flame turned slightly avoiding the first spear. He then turned clockwise avoiding the next before he twisted and turned evading every attack with just the slightest adjustment of his posture.

Roar!*

Somewhere along the way, a wolf had snuck in with the attacks and tried to bite Nagisa. On the other hand he juts grinned and with a palm he sent the wolf colliding with a spear. Twisting his body he avoided the wolf as it sailed by him and grabbed a spear out of the air.

As he held the ice spear Nagisa could feel the coldness that chilled even the bones. He looked at the spear with envy but recalling he had an ice sword he only grinned. 

Nagisa then twisted the spear around his body using it to clash and parry the ice spears one after the other. After the barrage was over, Nagisa used his momentum to throw the spear with all his power. Of course his target was the ice wolf.

Its speed broke the sound barrier as the wind pressure alone blasted away all the wolves in its path.

Danger signals rang out in the ice wolf's head seeing such a terrifying force. It was in a daze for a while before it howled realizing that this was a spear it created so why should it be scared? It tried to take control of it by force.

It invaded the spear with its mana trying to control it but soon realized that by the time it override the force and power it was thrown with it would likely be impaled already.

With intelligence, how could the wolf still think its idea was great? But was already too late to move so it could only summon an ice shield with all its power in an attempt to survive.

The next moment the spear closed the distance and collided with the ice shield. The force of the collision was like a huge nuclear explosion that sent everything around it flying away.

Shockwaves like that of a giant force rampaging shook the shield and the ice wolf was nearly sent flying. Still, it knew it had to stand its ground or the ice spear would kill it as soon as its focus wavered.

But no matter how much the ice wolf resisted the ice spear had too much power behind it. It could only resort to shifting the shield and letting the spear fly off in another direction.

It took a lot from the ice wolf, but it managed to make it work as the ice spear flew off crashing into several trees before vanishing into the darkness.

The wolf panted heavily while looking into the darkness thinking it could get a breather. Its mind had completely wandered allowing it to forget that it was still in a battle.

That was why-

[Die]

'!?'

The wolf looked at Nagisa who was bringing his sword down with an unbelievable expression. It was like it was asking him why he was there. But it didn't even get the chance to shriek as its head was completely lopped off from its body.

Or, that should have been the case.

*clang!*

Nagisa's sword bounced off like metal and he retreated a distance back. An annoyed expression of anger and irritation was displayed as he grit his teeth.

This was the second time that he had been blocked from killing an opponent.

The wolf that blocked Nagisa howled as it pounced on him. Veins bulged all over Nagisa's body as he met the wolf exchanging blows with it.

Nagisa clashed with the wolf while observing its strength realizing it was stronger than the others but he wasn't much worried. Wolves circled around the two attempting to join the battle at the same time but Nagisa merely responded by taking out the ice sword.

He clashed with the wolf twice forcing it back before twisting his body and waving the ice sword. A blade of ice shot out instantly freezing all the wolves that were closing in on him.

Everything from the ground to their bodies had been encased in ice shocking even Nagisa to silence. He looked at the sword in his hand with awe.

'them not having names is inconsistent though. I should really think of new names for these swords'.

Witnessing his distraction, a wolf with wolverine claws struck down from the air. It wanted to kill Nagisa while he was distracted and unaware.

Still, even while he was admiring his swords Nagisa never let his guard down. 

He sheathed his sword and drew them both at the same time. By the time the wolf realized that Nagisa had vanished from its vision, its vision was already twisted like a roller-coaster as its body and heady separated at the same time. 

Nagisa let out a breath before he turned and looked straight at the king.

Most of its stronger wolves were still alive mainly because Nagisa didn't get to finish his kill. For the normal wolves, they all turned to frost particles after a few seconds of being frozen.

But that wasn't the most important thing. What really shocked Nagisa was that the frost particles floated towards the sword and as they were absorbed he could feel his stamina quickly recovering.

He was both shocked and happy at this discovery.

Although it seemed like a hidden effect it didn't harm him in any way so he was happy to have it. Now he didn't need to worry about his stamina being drained so long as he froze the wolves and absorbed their particles into the sword.

Still, this didn't mean the remainder of the fight would be a cakewalk. No, the remainder of the wolves were strong and Nagisa could feel it otherwise he would have longer gone to the 31st floor.

But so what?

Nagisa walked forward. His walk was as though he was drunk and wobbling about to fall at any moment. But the next second, Nagisa started to run forward and with a stomp he pushed himself off the ground.

Even so, no defense was taken nor was there any action to stop Nagisa in his charge.

Nagisa wondered what made them so arrogant, but at the next instant a wolf in silver fur appeared beside Nagisa.

It threw an attack right at Nagisa's blind spot. With no other choice but to stop, Nagisa forcefully planted his foot to the ground. His feet tapped slowly, but the ground broke away like fragile glass.

However Nagisa ignored this and turned his waist while holding his sword down as a shield before his body.

But-

The sword was knocked away and fluttered in the air before it stabbed into a tree.

Nagisa retreated slightly while looking at the wolf. He had already concluded that this wolf wasn't like the rest since its strength surpassed the other, but seeing its stance like an orthodox boxer made him raise an eyebrow in surprise.

He never expected a dog to box. Seriously, would pigs end up flying in this world as well?