Chapter 289: The Lethal Ferocity of Darkness Bound With Flames
Seth’s frame burst into motion through the sea of shadows, his spear flipping as he conjured a portal too narrow for a human to pass through but just enough to fit his spear.
With a burst his spear streaked, stabbing forward, the shadow portal swirling open in reality, right beneath the underbelly of a low-climbing lizard-like beast.
Its crimson eyes flickered while its scales rattled, as the spear tore through its guts drawing blood, but before the damage could worsen any further.
The large lizard’s tail flicked, its frame turning into a formless burst of flames and shadows, converging in the distance in a blink.
Seth quickly retracted his spear, as his brow furrowed, ’these beasts... they must be an abomination born of the blend of darkness and flame.’
His eyes lit up in realization, that explained why their presence cloaking skill was so freakishly high.
But it also showed how difficult slaying them would be, especially since he had to make quick moves before the swarm of lizards completed their encirclement and launched a full-scale attack on his division.
If that happened, he would lose some men for sure, and Seth didn’t want that to happen, not only because he cared about his troops but also because these guys were humanity’s true assets.
They were literally the only combat force consisting completely of bronze humans, their reflexes, senses, racial traits, and intelligence all above those of base humans.
Especially since the more they face dire situations the stronger they become, their physique granting them not only the ability to adapt physically but mentally too.
Seth’s frame flowed through the dark, his forms seamlessly duplicating as a darkness avatar just formed.
Carrying 30% of his total combat prowess, with a shadow-manipulation-type effect that lets the avatar have access to the shadow replicas of his own items.
Plus with the boost from force embodiment, one would have to increase that prowess percentage to around 50%.
Vanishing with a puff, the avatar lunged at the group of huge lizards flanking the division from the upper right side.
Fighting with a reckless and absurdly lethal style, trading damage for critical strikes.
The darkness avatar had only a temporary consciousness, linked to the main one, allowing Seth to manipulate it in a manner lethal to his foe.
Treating the avatar like a suicide attacker, it took down as many monsters as it could, which was... one?
Seth’s heart skipped a beat, as he viewed from the shadow realm the injuries of the other two darkness lizards healing up, sealed by a wave of darkness.
This wasn’t funny anymore, summoning another darkness avatar, both Seth and his avatar burst into movement.
The two launched an attack at once, targeting the largest group of lizards, billowing with the smoldering heat of flames and the all-encompassing depth of darkness.
Scales rippled in response to the seven lizard group, Seth and his darkness avatar, moving in a timed sprint burst.
With a single cohesive movement, aligning perfectly with Seth, both figures zipped through the dark.
One bone spear and one shadow spear burst down through the head of the beast.
Its jaws and tongue smashed together like one huge unpleasant sandwich, twisting his spear, Seth funneled a lethal flow of essence, reducing the beast’s brain to mush.
Instantly the beast’s muscle lost all grip to the wall, falling straight down to the depths of the almost endless volcanic pit.
All this happened in a split second, the two attackers not even wasting a glance at the falling victim, already on the move.
Flowing through the dark, gliding smoothly through shadows, the duo of both original and clone landed beside another roaring target.
The beast tail flicked, but Seth had already registered this pattern to mind and knew exactly what came next.
His will flow unraveled into reality in a blink spanning a good distance of range, and instantly locking onto a certain area.
As flame essence and darkness essence collided in an invisible clash, reforming the frame of the foe who just erupted into an intangible mass.
Seth grabbed his clone by the neck, while bursting forward in full speed moving at levels the darkness avatar would surely have failed to keep up with.
Spinning through the pool of the shadow portals, he swung his avatar forward, its frame billowing with masses of darkness, its eye gleaming a brilliant shade of royal purple.
As its spear torqued, charged with an immense surge of annihilation force, whisking through the enemy before it fully reformed from its teleportation-escape-like skill.
Seth streaked down before the massive lizard could make a move, a massive great sword appearing in his grasp, as he heaved down with his might.
Decapitating the beast in one swing, the blade dispersed back into his inventory, while his hands punched through the wind catching the head before it fell with the body.
As tentacles burst out of the head and the body’s headless stump, severed at the neck, sank in to reattach both body parts together.
Seth’s grip grew tight, his finger digging into the lizard’s skull injecting lethal flows of energy straight to its brain, crushing it to pulp.
The head erupting into a splash of brain matter and blood, while the struggling headless body suddenly went stiff, the tentacles shriveling dry, as the entire headless frame went limp, lost grip, and fell.
Seth let out a short breath, bursting straight back into motion, his lungs burning from exhaustion, as all attacks done so far had been accomplished in a single breath.
From the first kill to now, Seth was planning on making the kill count a complete three.
His pathways surged with warmth, as his blood flow sped up, his veins bulging tight as the viscous flow of blood allowed the adrenaline to circulate.
His eyes growing brighter as his adrenal gland burned with fervor, his active racial traits activating.
A surge of strength flowed through him, his avatar mirroring his pace, as both sides bore down on their third target...
Only this time it wasn’t alone, a tail coated with obsidian scales rippling red whipped into their frames from the darkness.
His darkness avatar instantly dispersed into nothing, unable to tank the damage, while Seth’s armour tanked some damage, crumbling his abdomen plates, the force still traveled into his organs.
Rupturing a few, and throwing his blood flow and internal system into disorder.
He groaned, his grip going loose, his consciousness blurry and unable to establish connection with the shadows, he lost all hold and fell down the endless pit.
A crimson glare rushing after his plummeting frame as a massive lizard, one at least three times bigger than the rest, lunged at his helpless frame.
Its maws drew wide, its tongue snaking in the wind as drool pulled through its lips.
Its maws covering a good half of Seth’s frame, without hesitation, the jaws snapped shut, teeth sinking with a bite force that would put a tiger to shame.