Black Lightning

Zeno strolled through the Forest of Nightmares when he sensed several individuals hiding from the fog not far from his position. Based on how they spied on him, blood would rain down on the forest tonight.

They were creatures from other places who set their eyes on the demon's land as they heard the fall of the Demon King.

"Bunch of lizards," Zeno murmured.

Then he pulled out the black dice from his pocket and made it spin on his palm. Five dots lit up before the dice transformed into a battle scythe.

He hung it up on his shoulder and halted on his steps.

"Let's do it fast; if I miss my ticket back to the kingdom, I swear, I'll make sure your race goes extinct," Zeno shouted.

Then arrows rained on him from several directions, but as always, he didn't pay any attention to them and charged toward the silhouette hiding in the fog. 

He parried each arrow moving toward him with the scythe's blade while rotating it on both of his hands. Then creatures with blue skin dashed at him with spears in hand. 

They had a long snout and tail protruding above their hips. Their eyeballs were glowing yellow, while scales covered their bodies. Each of them had a necklace containing fangs, which differed from one another. Some had three fangs, while the others only had two or one. 

Zeno slashed the first creature that approached him, and he continued to attack the next one.

'Their numbers are still increasing,' he thought before parrying a spear aimed at his side and cutting the neck of its wielder.

"What was his name again?" Zeno murmured.

Then he swung his scythe in a vertical direction to slice two lizardmen in half.

"I almost forgot; heed my call, Chrysantheum!" He said it, smiling.

. . . . . 

"Chrysantheum, I knew it; you were here," a woman said while catching her breath after she climbed the highest peak in the Mountain Range of Phantasms.

She then sat beside the man whom she called and stared into the blue sky above. The two beings looked like normal human creatures at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they had two small horns protruding from their foreheads.

They were looking in the direction of the Forest of Nightmares when the man spoke.

"Tomorrow is the day; we, the ogres, will be the rulers of that place once the Demon King falls," he said.

However, the woman felt worried and tried to persuade him not to continue his plan of conquering the land. 

"Can we just stay here in the mountains and have moments like this? The Conjurer of Blue Flames is not an easy opponent after all," she uttered, looking at the ogre at her side.

Though, despite all the words she said, the man's resolute mind didn't change. He still insisted on marching his army into the most dangerous place, where even dragons wouldn't dare set their eyes on it.

"Once we conquer the demons, the other places will be a walk in the park, and Exgreia will have a single king, which is me," Chrysantheum stated.

On the next day, several hundred ogres moved to execute their plan. Their numbers were quite small for a war, yet their faces were filled with confidence.

All of them believe in their leader, especially because of his Legacy, which could dictate the result of the battle.

But, as they raised their weapons and fought with the demons, they heard a mournful cry, and it came from their king's lover. Then they stood up from their places, shocked and clueless about what was happening.

The Legacy that they believed to be their ace to achieve victory activated; however, it was aimed at them and not at the demons in the vicinity.

Their lives were taken in that instance as the attack pierced their heads and bodies.

. . . . .

Dark clouds gathered and rumbled above Zeno, and then heavy thunder resounded in the area before black lightning struck the land where Zeno was. Then, black spikes with flickering electricity protruded from the area.

Each of them poked every lizardman in the chest, and they were electrocuted as the spikes produced black lightning.

It happened in the blink of an eye, giving Zeno's enemies no room to evade. They didn't anticipate how the attack would work.

They were all looking above the sky, preparing themselves to dodge the lightning, not knowing that it would come underneath them.

Then Zeno looked at his left side and grinned.

"To think, there are those who manage to live," he said before he charged in the direction where he sensed the remaining lizards.

Black lightning clad his entire body; even his scythe was covered with it. Two small black dots appeared beneath his right eye.

His silver-colored hair turned black, along with his eyes. The scythe in his hand transformed into twin daggers as soon as he leaped to intercept the now-fleeing lizardmen.

A total of six lizard creatures survived the lightning attack, and all of them were slightly different from the rest that Zeno killed. They had a single horn on their snout, and their build was larger; even their height was twice as high as Zeno's, and aside from the scales on their bodies, there were spikes on their backs protruding down to their tails.

"It's too early to leave; I'm only getting started," Zeno stated as he inflicted a hollow cut on the lizardman's torso, whom he thought was their leader.

"What is an ogre doing here?" asked the lizard creature.

Zeno laughed upon hearing him, then charged to attack once more. The lizardman raised his spear to block Zeno's dagger, but black lightning descended from the sky once again as soon as their weapons collided.

This time, it was aiming at the group of lizards, but they did their best to evade it; however, like what happened before, spikes protruded from the ground and continuously chased them. The lizards fled for their lives and even threw their spears to run faster. 

After the attack, the dots beneath Zeno's right eye were reduced to one, and his weapon changed once more as the dice hanging from his dagger rotated. It turned back into a jet-black scythe that had lightning flickering around its blade.

The lizardmen's leader was unscathed by Zeno's last attack. His body stood up to the high burst of electricity, and even the spike beneath him didn't manage to pierce his scales.

Afterward, Zeno continued to harass his opponent while smiling; however, the lizardman didn't let him do as he pleased. 

He parried Zeno's attacks while finding an opening to land a strike. But he was caught off-guard when Zeno's scythe disappeared and a heavy punch landed on his stomach. He felt pain, and the lightning tickled him, but it was not enough to defeat him. Then he saw another fist covered with a jet-black gauntlet coming straight at his face. 

Zeno jumped up to reach the lizard's head, but the long tail of the creature blocked his fist and made him leap backwards several meters away.

'As I thought, I need Jack's Legacy, but midnight has yet to come,' he said inside his mind. 'I should've spun it into three earlier.'

Then he looked at the giant lizard, who was now walking towards him.

"I'm not an ogre, and sometimes I tend to forget what I really am," Zeno said, correcting the lizardman's view of him.

"Then, state your name, and I will tell you mine," the giant lizard said, staring at the man clad in black lightning. 

In each of his steps, the ground trembled, then he threw his spear away, and a trident made of water appeared on his hand. 

Zeno smiled as he replied. "Your name has no worth to me."

And he released some of his energy to increase the lightning flickering around him.

Then the two of them dashed forward with the aim of killing each other. Zeno hacked the giant lizard at his side with his scythe, but the giant palm blocked it with ease. Though the lizard's hand was cut and burned due to lightning, he still managed to smile at Zeno.

"Without those younglings, I can wreak havoc without worrying," he said. 

Then he pushed his trident forward to pierce the black-haired man's body.

However, a giant jet-black shield blocked his weapon's path. The next second, the shield disappeared, and Zeno was up in the air, aiming his fist for the lizardman's head.

His gauntlet was covered with black lightning, creating a much bigger attack. 

"Please don't disappoint me," Zeno said, grinning as he pummeled his fist straight into his opponent's face. 

His attack caused a huge explosion, and the giant lizard fell to the ground on his back. 

The lizardman's head rang and spun in circles, while the horn on his snout broke due to the impact of the attack.

"I made sure that you would survive that punch. So get up in there," Zeno said before he pulled back his arm to prepare for another punch, aiming for his opponent's abdomen that was lying in front of him. 

Then he struck it, but he hit nothing. The lizard rolled away to dodge. He stood up and wiped the bloodstain on his snout before he looked at the black-haired man glaring at him while smiling.

'That hurts,' he thought. 

Zeno's attack surprised him a lot; he didn't expect that his opponent could muster that kind of strength. 

Then he moved his head sideways, which made a crackling sound coming from the bones on his neck.

He created another trident before closing his eyes for a second, and as soon as he opened them, he charged where Zeno was standing.

Their clash resumed, and sparks of black lightning with several explosions reverberated throughout the place. The lizardman's scales were dropping one after the other as Zeno successfully landed his attacks.

'I need to escape; I will die here if this continues,' the lizardman thought while gritting his teeth and protecting his huge body from Zeno's punches.

He glanced in every direction to look for the perfect route to escape. However, contrary to his plan, the demon had already noticed his intention and was now luring him to run into the location of the ruined palace.

Zeno thought of something fun that made him smile with menace, and this expression of his brought anxiety to the giant lizard.

Soon enough, due to the series of movements, the two of them found themselves fighting near the place filled with ashes.

"Hey, do you want to live? Do me a favor!" Zeno stated this out of nowhere while hurling his fist at his opponent's chest, causing him to kneel on one knee.

The lizardman stared at Zeno, thinking about what he said. Though he didn't trust the man, he decided to play along with him.

"What is it?" He replied with the hope of returning to his tribe alive.

. . . . .