Bang!
The water rippled, something heavy crushing against Anne, who managed to block the attack.
“…..!”
Unfortunately for her, just as she managed to deflect one attack, another came from above. Then below. Then above again.
They struck from all directions, relentless and somewhat disorienting, but her emerald eyes glowed even brighter, piercing the darkness, catching every ripple in the water. With each shimmer, she saw the next strike before it came.
This was a special ability of hers that she had managed to acquire after killing a certain beast within the Crimson Sea.
It was a Terror-Ranked creature, and the main reason she was able to reign over the Crimson Sea for the past decade.
Without this skill, she wouldn’t have been able to make it to where she was.
Swoosh!
The water rippled again, and the attacks came again.
‘Damn it! Damn it…!’
Anne just barely managed to dodge the attacks again, her eyes falling towards the falling captain beneath the water.
Seeing the gaping hole on his chest and the fresh blood that was flowing out of it, she felt her heart sink.
She still couldn’t wrap her head around his death.
How could someone as strong as him die like this? It made absolutely no sense to her.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time to process the shock.
“Ukh!”
With several hands emerging all around her, Anne’s eyes flickered again as she traced the path of their attacks and dodged their attacks.
Her movements were nimble. She was avoiding everything.
But…
“…..!”
That was until she felt her back hit something.
‘When did I…?!’
Her heart sank when she saw the wall of the cave right behind her. Turning her head back to the hollowed, her face sank when she saw them surround her from all sides.
“Ah, this is bad…”
The situation had gone beyond what she had originally expected.
Surrounded on all sides, she was put in an extremely disadvantageous situation. Her eyes flickered, and her teeth clenched.
Looking around and seeing the figures slowly starting to approach her, the mana inside of her body boiled.
The situation was bad, but she wasn’t in despair. She had been through much worse, and she had yet to reveal her trump cards.
‘Not yet… ‘
Anne quietly waited for the hollowed to move closer to her.
Her eyes flickered beneath the water, locking onto the nearest hollowed. But just as she prepared to attack, something unexpected happened.
Swoosh!
Appearing from out of nowhere, a strange red light pulsed.
Then—
“….!?”
One of the figures froze on the spot as a red light pulsed around their neck.
Everything stopped at once as all heads flicked in the direction of the figure that had just materialized.
“It’s you…?”
Anne’s eyes widened the moment she caught sight of Lazarus.
She recognized him in an instant. Not because of how he looked, but because of the mana that he gave off.
He was the same guy from before!
‘He’s alive? And…’
Her heart froze when she saw him standing behind the hollowed with a flat expression. His expression was calm as his gaze eventually fell on her.
But the shock that gripped Anne only deepened as the hollowed figure before him slowly turned, its attention shifting toward the others.
Then—
Swoosh!
Something shot through the air, hurtling in their direction.
“What?”
Anne’s eyes widened as another hollowed was suddenly hurled through the water.
BANG!
The water rippled in its wake, then stilled. In the spot where the hollowed had landed, another now stood. This one had a piece of coral embedded in its neck, pulsing a faint red hue.
Anne’s gaze slowly turned towards the man who stared at the hollowed with narrowed eyes, his left eye twitching just subtly.
Lazarus was currently trying his best to withstand the pain in his mind.
He was having a really hard time.
[Resist. With your mental power and mine combined, we should be able to control all of them. The pain is not real.]
No, it was very much real.
There was no denying the pain that he was currently experiencing.
Lazarus’s hand shook as he directed his gaze towards the other hollowed and then back towards Anne.
He pointed his finger at her, and then the other hollowed.
His message was clear.
‘Stop them so that I can control them.’
“What…?”
Anne looked at Lazarus with a baffled look. She could feel his strength straight away. He was around Tier 6. She was struggling to understand how someone like him could control the hollowed like that?
Something about the situation was off.
However, understanding her current situation, she knew that she couldn’t afford to waste time thinking. She had to act fast.
Help him or not…?
The choice was obvious to her.
Her emerald eyes flickered, locking onto the nearest hollowed. With a sharp flick of her hand, a long black whip coiled into existence. Without hesitation, she thrust it forward.
It was almost as though the whip faded from her hand.
The moment she slashed with it, the whip faded from view before appearing right before the hollowed.
It was so fast that the hollowed was unable to react in time.
Kacha!
The water rippled, and the hollowed hurled in Lazarus’s direction as he stared at the incoming hollowed with a calm expression.
He extended his hand and flung a piece of coral toward the hollowed. It struck immediately, latching onto the back of its neck as a faint red light pulsed in the water.
The hollowed squirmed, and Lazarus’s expression paled.
[Focus on enduring the pain. I’ll control the puppets to protect you.]
The hive monster spoke in his mind as his head started to feel like it was being split apart. A couple of connections appeared in his mind at the same time, connecting the two hollowed with his mind.
Although he could sense control over the two hollowed, each attempt felt like a sledgehammer crashing into his skull.
It was really painful, and the more it hurt, the less he felt like he could focus on himself.
‘No, I must resist… I can’t fall apart here.’
Lazarus clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. At that moment, the hive monster linked to him seized control of the two nearby hollowed, forcing them to shield him from the incoming barrage launched by the others.
There were one, two, three… four hollowed in total that were trying to get to him, but as if in perfect sync, the hive monster managed to block all the incoming attacks.
Lazarus used this chance to close his eyes, allowing for the darkness to take over his mind.
He had to maintain focus.
He couldn’t allow the pain to bring him out of his current state.
‘Until I reach the fifth level, I have to maintain focus.’
He had to immerse himself further into the character.
He had to stop thinking of this as an act.
He had to become the character.
Lazarus, Lazarus, Lazarus…
The wandering merchant from afar.
He needed more layers. An Emotive mage with curse magic. No… That was too much like Julien.
He had to be different.
He had to…
“…..”
Lazarus gradually opened his eyes and looked around.
While the pain in his head still existed, it wasn’t as bad as before.
He could tell that the hive monster was sharing some of the burden with him. He didn’t know how many more hollowed he could control, but he decided to try his best to control as many as he possibly could.
But for now…
Tapping his finger, a sword appeared in his hand.
It was one of the many swords he had at his disposal.
The sword wasn’t anything great. Just a simple relic. But it was enough as he slowly raised it and looked around him.
Lines appeared in his vision, tracing all sorts of paths.
Lazarus finally understood what he had been missing the entire time.
It was the sword.
In order to fully adapt to the character, he had to change the way he fought.
BANG!
The water around him rippled as one of the hollowed he controlled hurled back next to him, its body riddled with all sorts of injuries. It was even missing one hand.
Right as the first hollowed fell back, the other followed.
Swoosh!
Lazarus watched everything calmly as his gaze settled over the remaining hollowed.
There were now three of them.
He could tell that their strength had reached the seventh tier, almost at the eighth tier.
They didn’t waste a single second as they shot towards him.
Lazarus didn’t flinch as they moved. Instead, he tossed a couple of swords to the hollowed around him as the golden paths in front of him expanded.
‘Go.’
With a casual look, he flicked his hand, and the hollowed under his control moved.
Swoosh, swoosh!
The two hollowed mirrored the exact movements playing out in Lazarus’s mind, their bodies now moving with a grace and fluidity that hadn’t been there before.
Lazarus’s mind split even more as he controlled them, but he didn’t bother with the pain.
He focused his mind entirely on the paths in front of him, tracing them in his mind with the swords in the hollowed hands.
The two moved in unison, effortlessly dodging incoming strikes while launching attacks of their own.
Swoosh, swoosh!
The situation turned around rather quickly.
In just a few moments, they started to push the hollowed back. That was in spite of all the injuries in their bodies.
Anna, who had been watching the entire time, couldn’t help but open her mouth in shock as she looked at Lazarus.
This…
Was she seeing things?
What sort of freak was this guy?
She had a hard time hiding her shock as she started to shudder. It all suddenly made sense. The reason why he had been so bold to appear, and how he had managed to survive, back when she had ignored him.
He… was a monster.
Anne pressed her lips tightly as she focused on her own hollowed.
However, just as she did, the situation suddenly changed.
“…!”
Before either of them could react, a figure appeared behind Lazarus. A large hand clamped around his neck in an instant, squeezing it tightly under its grasp.
By the time he managed to catch a glimpse of who it was, Anne’s voice rang out across the water.
“Sylas?”