Chapter 85 - Blind Mode

The foot slams down with a loud crash, sending out shockwaves of air that shoves everything around it back. The monster laughs giddily, lifting its foot up to see the carnage, but the sharp grin disappears when it sees mounds of ashes below its feet, with no blood.

I try to catch myself from the huge amount of force that slammed into me, but when I put my foot down it simply spins out from under me and I tumble among other undeads before finally landing on two vampires who break their necks breaking my fall. They snarl and try to bite me, but are paralyzed from the neck down otherwise. I groan, standing and stabbing through both of their heads as I stare up at the monstrosity.

"The fuck did you do?" Eniyala asks exasperatedly, lowering herself to her feet using a few chains of light.

"Why is it my fault?!" I shoot back, glancing at Lynsel and Yorun. They're being protected by Termi, who shields them with her… well, shield, from the force of the foot stomping and any leftover vampires.

I pry a detached gray hand on my arm off, tossing it away as I look at the monster glaring down at us.

"When is it not your fault?" Eniyala gripes, and I shoot her a glare. "You try taking out the source, then. Pretty sure he's somewhere in there." I gesture rudely at the towering figure, earning a growl that shakes the dirt.

"Why should I? You're the reason why it's here."

"I…" Giving up, I sigh, stepping forward. 'Where do I even start??'

An idea pops in my head, and I turn to Eni. "Step back."

She shrugs, doing what I say without much protest, and I face the monster once more. It's reaching down, intending to grab me, and I hold the blade vertically above my head.

"Haaah," I exhale forcefully, pouring my Mana into the handle. It extends, growing forcefully like an inflating balloon.

The handle extends, and I clutch it in both hands in order to pour more Mana in. The twisted hilt unfurls, turning into two rectangular long blades. Finally, the blade begins to widen and extend, steadily but slowly growing larger and larger. It grows taller than me, then taller than Lynsel, before slowing considerably. I was running out of Mana to pour, and I grit my teeth as I feel my Stamina leaking down from the strain. "Grrrraahhhh… Huh?"

A flash of silver runs several times over across the body of the monster, and it splits into several pieces, chunks crashing to the ground. The resulting earthquake and wall of air slamming into us pushes us back towards Termi's shield, who is using her Land Manipulate Spell to keep the ground around her from shaking and brace herself against the wind. I ram into the engraving of a kite shield popping out of the center with my back, but before I can even wince in pain Eniyala lands on top of me, pushing all air out of my body and again, ramming my back into the hard piece of metal.

When we finally fall off the enlarged piece of metal, I flop to the floor, gasping for breath, and Eniyala lands on her knees softly.

"Did you do that?" She asks, staring at the chunks slowly rotting to dust in the distance.

My sword has returned back to a handle, the eyeball squinted nearly shut on the ground next to me. The backlash of Mana shooting back through my hand left it with an unpleasant feeling, like the static of your nerves when your hand falls asleep.

I shake it out as I look at the carnage. 'I definitely didn't.'

"Uhhh… Yeah, I did that. New Skill, check! Haha…"

Eniyala, hearing my response, just raises an eyebrow and shakes her head slightly, but her retort is cut off by the sound of shearing flesh.

One of the chunks of greenish meat and mottled bones are ripping open from inside, and a head pops out of it. The head has long, ashy silver hair that continues flowing from the flesh until the man gets out up to his knees, and is pulled back into a tall ponytail on top of his head, so it probably falls past his feet. His skin is almost bone-white, reflecting the setting sun like a mirror. He has an ornamental silver and gold sword sitting on his hip; a simple leather strap holding it in place, and clearly worn. He has classic black robes in an almost yukata kimono style, with the abstract shape of a skull on his chest. It was painted in a white that would almost match my hair, if he wasn't covered in bits of zombie meat and bone chips.

His light gray eyes land on me, and he begins to growl, which is certainly a sight when even from this distance, I can see a chunk of what looks to be either a finger or a toe stuck in the corner of his lip.

"You! You were destroying my beautiful creations! And you destroyed Masterpiece! My poor baby!" He wails for a few seconds, dropping his head and placing it into his hands, then cuts off suddenly, looking back up with a glare. "You must die and join my collection."

"Man, was I actually reincarnated into some novel or old TV show or something? Why does everyone love those cliché ass lines? 'Join my collection?' Come on, man, be a bit creative."

Everyone stares at me judgmentally for a few long seconds after my mini rant, and I blankly stare straight ahead. ''Okay, everyone loves their clichés, got it.''

"Raah!" The man yells, leaping at me and drawing the sword. "A simple longsword," I note, my voice accompanied by a click…chick! As the handle is popped up into my outstretched hand. I swing it over my shoulder, the blade materializing quickly, and my sword meets his in a loud CLANG!

We both hold our position, our eyes locked on the sparks occasionally flying off from the movement of both sharp edges scraping. The screech overpowers the sound of his gritting teeth, but as it isn't as consistent I can still make it out.

"Man, you were already ugly, but that does not help your look."

"Shut the fuck up!"

He pushes off, holding out his free hand palm-first at me.

"Darkening Fog!"

[Skill Detect Dark is forcibly being activated.]

[Dark Magic detected!]

"No shit, Sherlock," I mutter as I prepare for the attack.

A mist-like black Mana forms around his hand, and gusts forward like fog blown by wind. It's not very fast, but spreads over a wide range, like a wall coming towards me. "It's counterintuitive for me to back off from a Magic user, so…"

Instead, I dash forward, swiping three wide, horizontal arcs in front of me to try and split the fog. "Passing Stormfront."

The blade cuts through, only making small gaps before the Mana hits me, and all I see is a dark gray fog in my vision. "It's just a fog spell? Really?"

A chuckle hits my ears, which feel enhanced due to my lack of sight. "Enjoy fighting while you can't see?"

MOVE.

I push off the ground in a sideways leap, narrowly avoiding a burst of air by my side — likely a thrust from the man, which I can't see from the fog. It's so thick I can't even see my sword in front of me.

As my feet touch the ground again, a trickle of doubt makes its way into my mind. 'Shouldn't I have jumped out of the cloud by now? He couldn't have spread it this far, could he?"

<The Tutorial suggests the user use Analyze+. It will provide with all information needed.>

"Why can't you just tell me, you damned useless Tutorial??"

I swipe away the Tutorial's message, activating Analyze+. And… nothing.

"What the hell? Are my Skills locked?"

<Whoops! The Tutorial forgot that it is special. Activating 'Blind Mode.'>

"Blind Mode? What—"

A feminine, A.I. sounding voice speaks in my head.

||The user has no sight. Analyze+ cannot be used.||

||Other unusable Skills: Critical Sight+||

"I'm blind?!"

"Ha! You found out much quicker than most. But your fate is still sealed!"

The voice echoes around me, rendering it untraceable. But my Instincts are on high alert, using every other sense, including Sixth Sense, to pick up where the man could be.

LEFT. RIGHT. BEHIND.

"Three of you?" I wonder, dashing ahead and to my left, swiping up diagonally at a slightly black shape amongst the fog. It seems that my Mana vision is still somewhat working, though not much. My blade meets… is that bone? Cutting straight through it, I hear the hissing of another summon disappearing. "Shit."

"You blind buffoon! You'll never get me like that!"

"Asshole. If I'm going to be stuck not seeing… Eni!"

"We can't! There's a dome of smoke around you guys, and Analyze says it's blinding!" I hear faintly; it sounds like it's down a long tunnel.

"Can't you use Wind Magic—"

"Hell no! I don't wanna be blind!"

"Neither do I!!" I shout, but my Instinct kicking in again cuts me off from saying more as I step back. My foot hits something soft, but firm at the same time, and my foot feels slowed by being touched by it. I yank it forward, eventually pulling it free. "Ew."

"You lot talk too much for my taste," a voice snarls.

I turn my head towards the voice; it's not echoing as much… or maybe I'm getting used to my hearing?

"If you hate it so much, then why don't you shut the fuck up?" I ask, extending my sword as I use another arcing horizontal slash. 'Please reach, please reach, please—'

Tang!

I feel resistance with a grunt stopping the long blade, and I grin. "Found you."

Planting my right foot, I dash forward at my maximum speed, keeping the blade locked on the object blocking my sword. As the tip flies forward and hits the strange substance — probably the wall of the dome Eniyala mentioned — I shorten it continuously to prevent slowing me down. It feels weird to hold my sword up while running, but the time of having to do so is short, and even as the object tries to move to the side, I keep my pressure on it until my blade feels like it's normal length. Even though I can't see, I grin. "Hey, motherfucker."

I hear a gruff gasp, and a ball of condensing black Mana starts to blot my vision. I pull my sword back, thrusting it forward.

||Skill Heavy Thrust was activated.||

A scream splits my ears as my sword meets a shoulder, easily digging through. Immediately, I feel the fog weighing on my eyes starting to lift, and the first thing I'm able to see again is Mana. In the corner of my eye, I see movement, an arm swinging at me. Reflexively, I wrench the blade 90 degrees and spin, beheading the zombie jumping at me.

My balance is a bit off from my blotted returning vision, and I find myself spinning full circle. "Ah, shit."

My blade sinks into and cuts through a large chunk of flesh, and the fog from my eyes and the dome falls in time with the thu-thunk of the zombie's head and another object's falling.

The party members stare in shock at the screaming man on his knees, missing half of his right forearm and having his left shoulder torn to shreds. Spittle flies from his lips and drool crawls down his chin as he screams at me. "Fuuuck! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Termi points slowly at the kneeling man. "I think he plans to kill you."

I give her a blank glare until she raises her hands up. "Okay, bad joke, sorry."

||Skill Detect Dark has been forcibly activated.||

||Dark Seed is blooming!||

"Tutorial, turn off Blind Mode now. I'm not blind."

<Aww. The Tutorial thought the user would enjoy voice of a woman in user's ear—< p>

"Turn it off."

<Fine. >:P >

I sigh and swipe the messages away as Blind Mode is turned off, converting them back into visual screens. Everyone is staring at me muttering to myself, but I try to ignore it.

Instead, I remember the message my Skill had informed me of, and turn to face the crippled enemy. The dude was clearly in no state to summon anything, with his mouth agape and eyes wide. Black mist pours from his eyes, mouth, nose and ears, while black blood falls from his stump and the hole in his shoulder, making a deep red puddle around him as the mist rises from that too. I'm not sure if half of the spectacle is only visible to me because of my Mana vision, but at the very least, the strange look on the man's face would turn everyone else's attention to him as well.

With a flash, his eyes dilate until they're completely black, and a red dot of Mana glows from the center. A wide, unsettling grin spreads across his face, his teeth shifting to points and similarly turning black.

[Rakial Bool has transformed into Lesser Demon Bezion.]