Chapter 58: Masterpiece of Entropy
Hurt. Everything fucking hurts. After Valerian somehow managed to move his arms in a laughable attempt to block the punch of the bear man, he was thrown into the side of a nearby mountain.
Upon his impact, the side he crashed into collapsed by the force of the object named Valerian hitting it.
Now lying in a crater with a cloud of dust covering everything around him, Valerian lay there, his body a complete mess.
His right side, where the fist hit, was completely obliterated, an injury that would have killed anyone else on the spot, but Valerian was still clinging to life. On the edges of the injury, a soft, mystical mist rose up, showing that his body didn’t consist of flesh but raw mana, mana that was escaping his body fast.
And the strangest part was that he was bleeding; instead of the normal crimson blood, deep purple liquid with stars dancing inside was flowing out of his half-destroyed body.
’I didn’t even know I could still bleed...’
The liquid that was flowing out of him wasn’t exactly "blood" in the traditional sense; it was his life essence. While similar to blood, it was also something completely different. It was the very physical embodiment of his soul and life, that’s why it wasn’t red, and took the form of something that represented Valerian’s being.
But no matter if it was blood or anything else, Valerian knew that losing too much would be bad, so he concentrated all his attention on his physique to speed up the healing. And the [Infinite Cosmos Physique] proved that all the effort he went through to get it was worth it.
The wispy wound began to close at a rapid pace and the lost parts of his torso and arm reformed in less than 20 seconds. Valerian touched the puddle of his life essence and, like a magnet, it moved into his hand and disappeared under his skin, settling itself in his soul.
After the process was done, Valerian still lay in the crater, his mind starting to comprehend the physical power of the bearkin.
’One good hit and I’m dead...’
It was a solemn thought. Up until now, Valerian always had the upper hand or at least a semblance of control over the situation, but now, being faced with an opponent that could end his life if he is careless for even one second filled him with a strange feeling...
Excitement.
He was excited; his non-existent heart was beating, yearning for a real fight. One that could drive him to the brink of death, forcing him to go above and beyond his limits.
Lucky for him, the person that could fulfill that desire walked through the dust and now stood over him outside the crater.
Goran looked down into the crater and was surprised that Valerian didn’t seem to be injured and there was not a single drop of blood around him.
"You are tougher than you look, kid."
The bearkin said, a slight bit of respect in his voice. After all, to him, this child just tanked one of his punches and wasn’t even injured; that deserved his respect.
"Oh, shut up. I don’t feel like talking."
Goran’s eyes widened because Valerian just spoke perfect Feralis, something that wasn’t taught to outsiders. That made it only more confusing why Valerian would attack them.
"You are one of us and yet you are siding with the humans. Why?"
Valerian looked up into the bear man’s amber eyes with annoyance and clear hostility.
"Don’t you dare call me one of you, lowly mortal."
’Woah, why am I so mad, and what was that about "lowly mortal"?’
Valerian himself was surprised at his choice of words, but right now he had no other choice than to write it off as his bloodline influencing him once again.
Goran, on the other hand, lost all the respect in his face and turned back into the commander here to kill the attacker.
"So be it, you chose death."
Without any warning, Goran swung his warhammer down, its head once again blazing with the same silver glow as before, and Valerian immediately recognized that as his density affinity.
Not wasting any time, he folded the space to escape into the air.
When the large crystal hammer hit the ground, a loud explosion rolled outward, and the mountain range they stood on began to rumble. While he wasn’t strong enough to destroy it, he could at least destabilize it, causing loose rocks to fall down.
Goran raised his hand, and in a throwing motion, all the loose rocks turned into missiles that all had the flying Valerian as their target.
Valerian stretched out his arms and channeled his space affinity. All the rocks that were flying towards him halted in the air as the space around them locked up, but stopping so many rocks that were flying at high speeds wasn’t easy, and Valerian could feel the weight press against his arms.
Releasing the space lock, all the rocks began to fall to the ground, but Goran wasn’t done.
He too took flight, flying through the swarm of falling rocks and boulders, but he didn’t bother to dodge or weave through any of them; he simply smashed through them with his robust body and armor.
As he neared Valerian, he used his earth affinity again to gather all the smaller rocks and launch them at Valerian, this time not like many large missiles, but thousands of tiny shards that each had enough power to breach through reinforced mana steel.
But Valerian still had the best affinity for mobility and simply folded the space again to reappear farther away behind the charging Goran. There, he began to prepare all the space mana he could muster up, and compressed the very fabric of space.
He pulled everything into a small, compressed ball, merely the size of a football. The surrounding space protested at the massive pull, but Valerian held it together, forcing the ball to compress even further with his hands, until it was the size of a ping-pong ball.
Valerian realized that he couldn’t compress it more as his rank wouldn’t allow it further, but even that small ball would wreak destruction on a large scale.
With shaking hands, he threw the ball of compressed spell at Goran. Silver lines like constellations followed behind the ball; everywhere it passed, the light bent around it, and then it finally reached Goran and exploded.
It wasn’t loud, it wasn’t visible, but it ate everything. All the rocks and boulders around Goran were sucked into the space explosion. Where they landed, Valerian didn’t know. Maybe the folds between space, or a place that existed between dimensions, or they simply ceased to exist.
While to everyone else it would look like everything was sucked into a small point, to Valerian it was an explosion of colors.
He always had a strong connection to his space affinity, even more so than to his other elements. If he had to pick one element that fit him the most, it would be space.
So this explosion of compressed space looked like the most beautiful picture, an explosion of stars and galaxies of colors and entropym, it was mesmerizing.
But there was one thing that destroyed the beautiful image of exploding space: it was the body of the bear man in his earthen armor, standing inside the explosion, unharmed and unmoving.
’What the fuck is that armor?!’
It irritated him. How the fuck could a simple earth armor withstand this beautiful masterpiece of space?!
Then he remembered the unique skill Arthur told him about: Creates a heavily hardened layer that drastically absorbs both physical and magical damage while stabilizing the body against knockback, paralysis, and spatial disruption.
’That piece of shit?!!’
Valerian was fuming. A strangely intense rage appeared inside him.
’How does he dare survive that?! Who does he think he is!!?’
The primordial pride sleeping inside his bloodline fully awakened, and the emotions that a lowly mortal withstood the attack of a supreme ruler of the cosmos coursed through his body.
’Fuck restrained, fuck a calm head. I will make him kneel.’
As the dark thought settled, the space explosion settled, and Goran stood unmoving in the empty air. While Valerian was too occupied with his inner pride, Goran was sweating buckets.
’I thought this was my end...’
’That kid isn’t normal, I have to kill him.’
After only barely surviving the implosion of space, Goran didn’t want to waste time anymore and wanted to end this, but when he looked over at Valerian through the slits of his armor, his heartbeat quickened and a primordial fear settled deep inside his soul.
Looking at the angry Valerian, something inside him, something ancient, begged him to bow, to present his neck so that he could be punished for his sins.
’Wh- what?’
It was a weird feeling to be afraid of someone weaker, but right now Goran couldn’t think about that, because the being that made him feel this primal fear was already in front of him, with his fist coated in purple-black lightning flying towards his face.