Chapter 101: Thousands of eyes [Fixed]
He had just gone up eight levels all at once from killing the guild leader, gaining a massive numerical boost to his base attributes.
His strength, agility, and endurance had all spiked dramatically, making him stronger than he was just a few minutes ago.
Yet, even with that massive power boost radiating through his body, he could barely resist whatever force was pushing down against him.
The suffocating weight pressed relentlessly against Aegis’s barrier, testing his endurance to its absolute limits as the sky continued to tear apart above him.
His feet kept sinking deeper into the ground as the crushing weight from above continued to multiply.
The pulverized stone beneath his boots offered zero resistance, turning into soft dust under the unrelenting downward force.
The ring of Aegis trembled violently, humming with a high-pitched, strained vibration.
Its translucent shield flickered frantically, struggling to maintain the protective dome around his body against the unnatural atmospheric weight.
Leon could feel his mana pool drain at an alarming rate, that it felt as if a massive hole had been punched directly into his soul.
He gritted his teeth until his gums bled slightly, his jaw locking tight as he tried to stabilize the shield.
He panicked internally, thinking to himself, ’The damage... isn’t reflecting!’
He had already tried actively reflecting whatever force was pressing down on him, expecting Guardian’s Dominion to fling the pressure back into the sky.
However, it was like the invisible force itself was directly fighting against Aegis’s reflection mechanism.
His knees trembled violently under the insane burden, shaking like thin leaves in a hurricane.
Despite his incredible stat growth, the weight grew increasingly more powerful with every breath he took.
Finally, his resistance gave way, and one of his knees touched the shattered floor with a heavy, dust-kicking thud.
The sudden drop in height rattled his frame, forcing him to plant his hands on his front knee just to stay upright.
Sweat poured down his forehead in thick streams, stinging his golden eyes as he stared at the strained green dome above him.
’Does this mean whatever attack this is... is beyond what Aegis could reflect?!’ he thought.
He had never encountered this catastrophic problem before, and now that he finally did, he felt completely lost on how to handle the situation.
Without his ultimate defense reflecting the incoming damage, he was forced to endure the full, agonizing weight of the force using his raw mana pool alone.
Suddenly, from the jagged, dark cracks in the sky above the ruined building, a voice echoed loudly through the atmosphere.
The sound was grand, cold, and inhuman, carrying a terrifying authority that caused the shattered concrete fragments on the ground to vibrate.
"Leon Allistar, you have committed the grave offense of disregarding the entire player guild association, and will now face consequences." it declares.
Every single word rang out like a divine judgment, declaring his guilt without offering any room for appeal.
Leon looked up toward the tearing heavens with almost all the strength he had, staring into the cracks spread across the sky.
From deep within them, he could clearly see thousands of tiny black eyes staring down at him.
The unblinking, pitch-black orbs swarmed within the spatial tear, looking down at his kneeling form with disgust.
Leon shivered in pure, visceral fear as he stared up into the spatial tear at the thousands of tiny black eyes looking down at him.
His skin went pale, and cold sweat dripped from his chin as the sheer malice from the heavens washed over his body.
’What kind of thing is that... a monster?!’ he thought in disbelief.
The unblinking orbs possessed an ominous presence that felt entirely beyond anything a normal human or high-rank player could ever hope to comprehend.
No matter what kind of terrifying entity it was, he was however completely sure of one single fact: it was after his life.
The cold judgment in those thousands of void-like eyes made it abundantly clear that they had come to eliminate him from the world entirely.
He clenched his jaw until his teeth throbbed, channeling a spark of stubborn, fiery defiance back into his soul.
’Face consequences? Like hell I would!’ he thought, gritting his teeth.
He refused to submit to whatever self-righteous authority was staring down at him from the sky, threatening to erase his existence.
However, despite his fierce conviction, he knew deep down in his heart that he was currently in a truly terrible position.
His body was trapped in a kneeling posture on the floor, forced to endure the agonizing pressure pressing down from above.
He couldn’t release Aegis or lower the shield for even a second, or he would be immediately crushed into dust by the force pressing down on him.
Maintaining the defensive barrier consumed his focus entirely, severely limiting his available methods of fighting back or executing an offensive counter-attack.
Suddenly, a bright blue system notification flared into existence right before his eyes, breaking through the dark dust hanging in the air.
[Your affinity with Ring of Aegis grows stronger!] [New Skill Unlocked: Brave Escape (SS)]
Leon was under too much strain to carefully read through the detailed description panel of the newly unlocked ability.
However, the second his eyes caught the word ’Escape’, he instinctively guessed it could be just the skill he needed at the moment.
It was a lifeline handed directly to him by the ring right when his mana pool was about to hit absolute rock bottom.
’Brave Escape!’ he thought.
Immediately, the Ring of Aegis shone, and he vanished from the battlefield in a brilliant flash of green light.
For a long moment after he vanished, the ruined Roaring guild headquarters was filled with silence.
The violent pressure in the sky gradually subsided, leaving the shattered concrete slabs and fallen beams lying in total quiet.
Thick gray smoke slowly stirred in the air, swirling around the silent center of the destruction in lazy, shifting patterns.
The rising smoke gradually coalesced together, forming into the malnourished figure of Pale Smoke standing quietly among the rubble.
Pale Smoke hissed softly into the quiet air, a dark, sinister smile curling out of his thin lips.
He looked down at the empty, shattered crater where Leon had just been kneeling a second prior.
He adjusted his dark collar, muttering under his breath in annoyance, "That coward... so he had another card he had been hiding, and he used it to escape!"
He clicked his tongue in frustration, annoyed that the young hunter had managed to slip right through their fingers at the very last second.
Suddenly, without any warning, he heard a booming, ancient voice echo down from the massive cracks splitting the sky above.
The voice rang out like sharp, heavy thunder, reverberating through his soul as it declared, "Leon Allistar..."
Pale Smoke froze completely in his tracks, every single muscle in his thin body going stiff as a wooden board.
The color instantly drained from his pale face, and he started sweating buckets in panic.
He didn’t dare to make a single loud movement, holding his breath as the oppressive presence filled the ruined area.
’I never expected one of those old men to move on their own... I thought they were going to leave it to me.’ he thought.
He had assumed he would be the one tasked with hunting down the rogue player, backed by the authority of his superiors.
However, after watching Leon kill Teon though, a powerful S-rank player, he realized just how delusional he had been thinking he could take him on alone.
He remembered the brutality with which Leon had shattered Asura’s core and crushed the guild master’s throat without flinching.
He swallowed hard, his throat feeling completely dry as reality crashed down on his arrogant expectations.
He knew that even though his own stealth talent might be strong and versatile, against an opponent like that, it might as well be completely useless.
He let out a shaky, silent breath as he stared at the spot where Leon had vanished into thin air.
’ But still... you’re cooked, Leon Allistar, having the heads of the Player Guild Association as your enemies is fucking insane!’ he thought.
Nobody in the entire world had ever survived drawing the direct, personal wrath of the top authority ruling over all registered players.
He glanced back at the sky with extreme caution, his eyes trembling as he looked up into the dark, jagged rifts tearing the clouds apart.
He noticed the thousands of tiny, pitch-black eyes shifting within each individual crack, staring down with anger.
The unnatural sight made his blood run completely cold, and he shivered violently in pure terror from head to toe.
The sheer pressure radiating from those unblinking orbs was enough to make even a seasoned veteran want to drop to his knees and scream.
At this exact moment, all he felt was pure pity for Leon, who would now be having this terrifying old man as his sworn enemy moving forward.
He knew that no matter where the boy ran or what skills he unlocked, the power of the association’s elite would relentlessly hunt him to the ends of the earth.