Chapter 35- Bloody Slash
Chapter 35- Bloody Slash
'Huh… The scarred man…' Realizing who it was that came for his rescue, Akio felt slightly confused as he never thought this rough, careless man would care if he died or not.
However, for some reason, he seemed to see that Akio isn't worth dying.
"Oi, brat! Drink this… It's gonna kick you up again…" He said as he gave him a flask that had some green, slightly vibrant liquid.
It was the same kind of flask that Akio received from Tin before and it was basically a healing potion. However, this one was noticeably purer.
With a dazed look, Akio extended his hand and grabbed the flask before he opened it slowly and emptied the content in his mouth. Realistically, he could've hesitated to drink it since it could be poisonous. But, in such a situation, where he suffered from a very strong concussion and his brain had most likely sustained some damage, there was no need for Keth to go to this extent just to finish Akio off.
Besides, Keth didn't seem like the type of person to use these methods to kill. He was more into 'in-hand' methods instead.
After he made sure Akio drank it all, he stood up and turned around as he punched the palm of his hand, ready to fight whatever was the thing that hit Akio.
"This is a favor. I gave you my one and only healing potion. You better return the favor later, brat! Fighting you when you become strong enough will definitely be worth it, eh." He said coldly before dashing away.
Hearing that, Akio almost chuckled. He had thought of many possibilities for why Keth had saved him but he never assumed it will be this absurd. He had saved him merely because he wanted to fight Akio in the future. How much of a battle junky was he?!
Closing his eyes for a second, Akio left the potion to work its magic on him. In a few seconds, the strong feeling of nausea dissapeared, and the bleeding on his head started healing quickly.
Akio approximated that the speed of this healing potion was at least 4 times that of the one he got from Tin. The quality was drastically different.
In less than a minute, he was able to stand up again. Looking around him, Akio blinked a few times.
The arena that was filled with monsters a moment ago was now filled with corpses. The stench of blood dominated his senses. But, he completely ignored it and picked up his sword.
'Whatever hit me… It's extremely fast…'
Not only did Akio feel as if he was hit by a train, but the speed was far from anything he can handle at the moment.
As he was like that, a series of windows popped up one after the other.
[You have killed a level 17 Lizard Knight.]
[You have +4 Agility.]
[You have gained +4 Stamina.]
[You have leveled up from level 11 to level 12.]
[You have gained +2 points to allocate freely.]
[You have leveled…]
[You have gained…]
Putting the notifications aside, Akio cracked his neck and rubbed the pain that still lingered on his head.
After that, he searched for Keth and Toru. But, it didn't take him long to find them as they were exactly where the most chaos was happening.
In the darkness right ahead, both of them were fighting something huge. It was even bigger than even the Lizard Knights.
But, because of the distance, Akio couldn't discern what it was.
*BOOOOOM* *BANG*
Explosions happening everywhere shook the whole place. On one hand, we have Keth, who was the one to fight the thing head-on without backing off. However, that didn't seem to be that fruitful. His attempts at tanking hits and trying to overpower it weren't working great. He was getting thrown left and right easily. But; weirdly enough, he didn't seem to be sustaining any major injuries from the hits.
On the other hand, Toru was more passive but still tried to land hits whenever he can. The look on his face as he fought was quite goofy ignoring the situation he was in.
"I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! I hate this!!!!" He kept repeating as he ran around.
*BANG*
After being blasted by one hit, he fell down on the ground violently.
"WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Screaming like a girl, Toru fell on his face.
"Ptuh! A tough nut to crack." Spitting out, Keth smiled.
'They are really struggling.' Akio thought as he looked at his sword.
The young man would be lying if he said that he didn't contemplate trying to escape at the moment while the monster is occupied by the two Crusaders.
However, he quickly shook that idea away. Not only did he have no idea where he could even go, but the chances of him failing his escape were also high.
'I would only end up making them my enemies.'
Having to fight the monster is a thing, but, fighting two mysterious people that had powers he could never fathom. They might have something as strong as Death Paths for all he cared. Killing the monster seemed to be a more viable option.
After making up his mind, Akio took a deep breath and rushed to the heart of the battle. When he got close enough, he finally could see what was lurking in the darkness, and in his honest opinion, he wished he didn't have to actually take a glimpse of it.
The creature was very similar to a lizard in appearance. It had the same body, the same limbs, and the same long, pointy tail. The differences lay in its face, particularly its mouth. Instead, of a normal mouth, it had a huge, open hole instead.
The hole was a perfectly shaped circle, toothless and tongueless. Inside of it was akin to a dark abyss that could suck people in. Its eyes were wide, and slit, with only the pupils having a red color while the rest of the eye was nothing but darkness.
The only thing one would feel from seeing this abomination is fear and repulsion.
"Beware of its mouth! It can pull you in to create more Lizards!" Toru said when he got closer to Akio.
Nodding his head, Akio decided to take a different approach to this fight than all of his previous fights. Instead of a direct confrontation, he wanted to sneak up behind it and try and deal with a very strong attack that could render it motionless at least.
From what he observed from Keth's fight, the monster used its tail for most of its attacks. It had crazy speed, precision, and most importantly, crushing strength that could break bones with one swipe.
The other attack it does is to simply inhale with its hole-for-a-mouth and try to suck in its enemies. However, this attack didn't work on Keth as he had two extremely strong legs that can hold on against the suction power of the monster.
'It seems to be completely occupied with him…'
Squinting his eyes, Akio quickly crouched and moved away from its vision as far as possible. Then, he made his way around it.
Even though this was an extremely risky move, Akio had made sure to signal for Keth before doing it. The latter didn't take long to catch on and quickly move according to Akio's plan. He changed from passive-aggressiveness to full-on attacks that kept the monster completely focused on him.
Meanwhile, Akio turned around the monster and stopped slightly far away from it where he was still close enough to be able to experiment with something he had.
'Who thought I will end up using this now even though I thought it was something I will avoid.'
After taking a deep breath, he stood up and lifted the sword in the air. His hands tightened around the sword and his muscles contracted, ready to explosively swing the sword at a moment's notice.
'Bloody slash…' He thought.
Immediately, a strong feeling of pain assaulted his body as if someone had torn a part of him.
But, clenching his teeth through it, Akio quickly slashed down with as much strength as he could muster at the moment.
At the same time, a red aura surrounded the Blood Eye Odachi's blade. It's already bloody color turned even more intense and vibrant as if the sword had gained a life of its own.
Then…
*Swish*
The moment the swinging motion ended, a huge, red slash manifested and flew toward the monster at an extremely fast speed. Even Akio couldn't keep up with its movement.
*BAAAAAAAAAAAANG*
(A//N: Thank you everyone for supporting the book with power stones, golden tickets, and comments. I'm deeply grateful. Let's all keep it up :) )