"Shit..." Lloyd cursed before jumping to the side and taking Haley with him.
The scorpion's tail shot right passed them both and smashed onto the rocky floor, its stringer stuck in the ground, stopping it from moving momentarily.
However, just because it had been missed, did not mean the team was safe yet.
Lloyd grabbed Haley by her waist and instantly exited the tail's attack range. He knew how scorpion tails worked. They weren't grappling hooks or fishing rods.
They were limbs, capable of moving right and left, so Lloyd made the best of the situation by moving as far away from it as possible, while keeping their mage safe.
Of course, Lloyd knew that no one in the team would be of much help unless Alex were to join in. The rest of the team would only slow him down, and so far, he had no idea whether or not he was capable of fighting something of its prowess.
"It's an amethyst seal..." Lloyd muttered, yet due to the way the valley had been created combined with the fact that the place was dead quiet, everyone heard him loud and clear before using their own mana-sensing techniques to confirm what he was saying.
They all froze. Ignorance was bliss, yet they didn't have that luxury, nor did they have the pleasure of fighting against a monster that would hold back against them.
The creature was out for blood, and Lloyd had no idea if he could fight against an amethyst seal monster all on his own. Sure, if he used his bloodline abilities, he would more or less destroy the creature, but doing so would essentially mark his death.
When the stringer was finally free from the rocky ground, Lloyd unsheathed his blade and charged forward.
The moment the stinger shot toward him, he sliced horizontally, parrying and deflecting the incoming attack away.
Lloyd quickly slid under the tail itself and was now next to Derek, who was shuddering uncontrollably.
It was as if the fear of god had been put into him, and Lloyd understood that feeling. It was a mixture between dread and fear. It was the same feeling he felt when he fought against the goat with three eyes and the same sensation as the one he sensed when he failed to stop the dungeon break.
The two D ranks were also frozen, yet at this point, they were just here so Lloyd wouldn't lose any points from either killing his own teammates or allowing the weakest of them to die.
Dashing in front of Derek, he slammed his palm into his stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs before launching him way past Haley while at the same time keeping his conscious so as to not put his life in danger with that move.
'What's the best move here...' Lloyd thought before an idea came to mind.
A weird smile appeared on his face, yet because he was the person at the front, no one really saw it.
"Alex, get them and leave. I'll stop the incoming attacks." Lloyd said, making Alex furrow his brows, yet he still did as he was told.
Alex flickered and appeared above both Haley and Derek before throwing the two D ranks to them and returning to Lloyd.
"You got a plan?" Alex said, yet from his tone, it seemed like he had his own plan.
"Nah... You?" Lloyd asked, certain that there was no way to stall the creature without one of them dying or gaining some sort of new strength.
Lloyd brandished his katana and shot forward.
The woman-spider-scorpion thing had lowered itself using its spider webs. It clearly wanted to be in the battle now that her tail wasn't doing all the work.
Of course, her tail was still a very strong component as to why it was winning, as not only was it agile and large, but the poison was quite unpredictable.
*Spurt*
The poison shot toward Lloyd, yet he quickly dodged out of the way.
"Alex?" Lloyd asked, thinking that Alex had suddenly left without him and possibly even abandoned him.
"Yes?" He asked without a single drop of guilt or sympathy in his voice.
"Would be real nice if you were to help me out instead of just staring at me like a mentally handicapped idiot." Lloyd sneered, making Alex's expression instantly turned dark.
Looking back, he could see the team doing exactly what they had been ordered to do. They were as far away as they could get from the battle. Their prowess was far too low to allow them to travel further, but Alex understood that no matter what they did, they would not be able to see the battle from all the way there.
Then he shot forward.
Yet, unlike what most would have expected, he wasn't aiming for the monster...
He was aiming at what he considered a monster in his eyes. He was aiming for Lloyd.
"Shit." Lloyd shouted while turning around and blocking the incoming attack. Yet, the monster did not ease up on Lloyd, taking advantage of the situation he was in by plunging its needle into Lloyd and pumping venom into his body.
Lloyd loudly grunted before grabbing the tail and taking it out of his body. The fact that he didn't have blood didn't help him, but he knew that the man before him was too focused on taking Lloyd's life to understand what had happened.
Lloyd quickly flipped over the incoming monster, dodging the attack by shooting upwards and, at the same time, defending himself from Alex by allowing the scorpion to attack him instead of Lloyd.
Alex barely dodged the strike before parrying it with his blade to extend it further and increase the time it took for another attack to shoot toward him.
"You are the work of evil, demon!" Alex shouted with anger for the first time.
"What the fuck are you blabbering on about." Lloyd sighed, making Alex angrier than he was before.
"I saw your folder. You think you can go on like this forever. I know that you are a demon and a worshiper of the devil. Admit it, and I'll make your death easy." Alex spoke with the utmost pride.
"Tf... Where are you getting your information from? Wronginfo.com?" Lloyd asked, inwardly laughing at his own joke even though he knew that no one else would do such a thing.
"I know about your purple eyes. You cannot hide the demon within you because you are the demon. And I shall be the one to exercise you and gain fame and money from the church. Void walkers like you are not allows in the Solaris empire, and I shall be the one to purge you!" She shouted and charged forward.
'So it's some kind of cult that bases everything on genetics, like the color of your eyes.' Lloyd thought while sighing.
For anyone who was in the cult, Lloyd paid his sincere apologies and his most hateful curses.
While some may have been adopted or even birthed into the cult, those who joined on their own for their own desires had Lloyd's hate. He promised that in the future when he is an unstoppable powerhouse, he would destroy the church and cleanse them the same way they tried to cleanse people with different genetics.
However, as Alex attacked him, Lloyd realized that his attacks were no longer threatening.
Sure, Alex had an amethyst seal, but so did the monster, and its exoskeleton was extremely strong.
From the start, this had never been a fight between Lloyd and Alex; it was a fight between Alex and the monster...
And that was exactly what happened.
The monster shot its tail toward Alex, completely ignoring Lloyd, who was behind it, observing without having attacked yet.
"You think you can kill me?" Lloyd asked with a smirk.
"Shut up!" Alex roared, while slashing the scorpion's tail as it shot toward his throat.
However, instead of it being simply deflected, the tail slammed into the ground with power as cracks appeared on the exoskeleton, both shocking the monster and Lloyd alike.
Alex kept swinging maniacally at the monster, yet he never found himself getting close to Lloyd in any way since the monster was between them, and Alex was the only person fighting against it.
*Fwoohm*
The killing intent the monster released as it let out a shrilling scream that sent goosebumps down even the spines of Derek, Haley, and the other 2.
Its killing intent flooded the area around the monster, and at the same time, it froze Alex in place, causing him to even stop breathing.
However, just when Lloyd thought that he was going to be fine, the unexpected happened.
Black runes appeared all over Alex's body before his body mass increased by two, and he was covered from head to toe with muscles that would have probably put him on the list for people to join bodybuilding competitions if he was this kind of physique.
Alex's sword surged with red and black energy, and before any of them could react, he swung the blade.
*BOOM*
A loud explosion could be heard, followed by an enormous dust cloud.
After most of the damage from the monster and absorbing it, Lloyd created a shield around himself using a mixture between fire and darkness, the same way he summoned Hade's chains.
The darkness was the solid, while the first was the protection. Together they would become a dark fire that could be both touched as if it was a solid physical object, and a flame that could destroy anything in its path.
He also used some of the arcane runes he learned from Tina to create a barrier out of arcane magic.
Of course, it instantly shattered since Lloyd's proficiency with arcane magic was abysmal at best.
The fire shield held up thought and allowed him to make it, but that's when he heard something from above, and when he saw it hurling toward him, there was only one thing he could think about...
'Is this it...?'
*BOOM*
The dust cloud rose again as Alex returned to his human form and went to find the humans he was supposed to be guiding.
Of course, he made sure to take a full video of the situation as it happened so that when he went back to the church, he could show the church and its people so they would believe him and show them that he was the person to kill a void walker. He may have been basing his entire belief on the fact that Lloyd's eyes were put as "Purple" in his record, but it didn't matter to him.
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets.
Rewards for hitting certain milestones/quotas are in the synopsis.
Comments