Chapter 709: Falling Leaf

Proofread by Thomas F

Bam Bam Bam!

I approached the monster, becoming cautious. Pushing more aura into the Lord’s Eyes and Fast Reflexes.

I need to be as careful as possible. This is not a monster, I could fight. Even a single direct blast will be mortally dangerous for me.

I appeared behind it and moved to attack, pouring power into Gale of the Blade and Mauling Strike.

Roar!

I had just done that when the monster roared and turned, swiping its claws toward me at an incredibly fast speed, like swatting at a fly.

Immediately, I retreated and leaped backward, putting my sword forward while Lady Blackwell intensified her attacks to give me cover, but to my surprise, the monster didn’t chase me.

Instead, it turned back and resumed attacking Lord Kadyz.

There are injuries all over it, the spells of Lady Blackwell aren’t weak, but the Bear is bearing through them to try and finish off Lord Kadyz.

I stopped and moved at the bear again, but this time as well. It turned back and attacked me as I drove in to attack.

I retreated immediately, before moving to attack it again, but the monster turned and attacked me once more, and again I retreated to dodge it.

Roar!

I was expecting it to turn back to attack Lord Kadyz, like it had done before. It didn’t, it looked at me with burning rage and roared, before coming at me.

‘Slow it!’ I said to Lady Blackwell as I ran with everything I had. Pushing my skills to their limits and even beyond them.

Because this time, the monster is furious and it focused on me with the intent to kill me.

I shouldn’t have annoyed it so much, but I was aware of the risks. So, I don’t regret it; I just hope I will survive this.

Lady Blackwell cast spell after spell.

The Wood Lances, Poison Roots, Vine Shackles, and many more. The artifact enhances these spells and deals damage to the monster, but not quickly enough.

With that artifact, she has a chance to defeat this monster, but it’s going to take time.

The time we do not have. We need to deal with it as soon as possible, or a lot more people are going to die. Many had died already, but that number will be greater if we don’t deal with this soon.

I wanted to laugh as I thought about it, because here I am running away from the Bear with everything I have, and I am arrogantly thinking about dealing with it.

‘It’s coming!’

Came the warning from Lord Kadyz, and I took a sharp turn without thinking.

A moment later, I saw the red beam zipping fast inches away from my head. I could feel the scalding heat that burned my side of my hair.

It had crashed against the hill, creating a melting hole in it.

I shuddered seeing that. It’s what would happen to me if even the slightest sliver of that beam were to touch me. That thing’s attack is incredibly dangerous; I could not withstand it.

Even defending against it with a half-artifact might bring death.

That beam is at the level of Grade V spells; the spells that only Great Mages could cast.

Roar!

It roared angrily, seeing me dodging its attack, and came at me. Its speed seemed even faster than before, fueled by the rage it is feeling toward me.

I pushed more aura into the Blitz Steps. I cannot let it catch up to me. If it did, then I can say goodbye to this life.

I pushed and pushed, running faster, but the monster was matching my speed and even slowly gaining the distance on me.

It made the panic rise in my core, but I had stomped it down before it could affect my heart.

‘Incoming!’

Another warning rang out in my head, and I took the sharp turn immediately.

Feeling the beam, once more, this time even closer. I could feel its powerful heat on my cheek. It burned my skin, despite it not touching me.

The heat is intense, but that is not the most perilous aspect of the attack.

The most dangerous thing is the speed. It barely gives a chance to dodge. It is too damn fast.

It followed me, its pace quickening with every step. I poured my aura into my stride, surging forward with such speed that Lady Blackwell and Lord Kadyz fell behind.

That is a bad thing for me, because they are helping me survive against it.

Lord Kadyz was warning me while Lady Blackwell was using the spells on it to wound and slow it down. She is still casting the spells, but soon she will no longer be able to, if I continue to create more distance.

I am turning toward them, but I need to keep the angle wide so that a sharp turn doesn’t reduce my speed.

I took the sharp turns only because I didn’t have any other way to dodge the attacks.

I have Velvet Repel, but last time, it had reached nearly the breaking point. That was even after Lady Blackwell had helped me to whittle some of its power.

‘Incoming!’ Another warning rang out from Prime Kadyz.

‘Don’t turn!’ I was about to take the sharp turn when another warning rang out in my mind.

That fraction of a second was a great struggle, but I decided to heed the warning and kept moving forward; a moment later, the beam tore past my left.

If I had taken the turn. It would have burned me.

‘Shit!’ I cursed.

The monster isn’t so dumb. It predicted what I was going to do and attacked that way. If not for the second warning, I would have been dead already.

Soon, I reached the large hill and began to run down it.

Lady Blackwell and Lord Kadyz had disappeared. I could sense their position due to his skill. They are far, but not too far; I couldn’t just see them due to the hills.

That means he will unlikely be able to give me a warning. Many skills require some degree of vision, but here, there is none.

There are even trees in these hills. Most of the hills around the castle have only grass. Ignatius had cleared them, but I had reached the forested area.

They are sparse, so it is crushing through them, while I scurry to avoid them. Here. I could, but I wouldn’t be able to in those hills, at least not quickly enough before it could catch me.

It won’t affect the Bear much since it would just crush through them, like it is doing right now.

I was thinking of a way out of that when suddenly all the hair on my body stood up.

Trusting my instincts, I jumped and spun in the air. Only to see the beam coming toward me. This time, there are no spells to whittle down its power.

It is directly coming at me, and I couldn’t dodge it. So, I did the only thing I could.

I activated the Velvet Repel and pushed the aura into the skill. I pushed in more than I had ever done, while moulding and wrapping it around my rapier.

Velvet Repel is more powerful and mouldable, but it takes all my control, and it is far from as fine as Bell’s refined manipulation.

I brought down my rapier, pushing, activating the Gale of the Blade, Mauling Strike, and Razor Edge, pushing as much aura into them as I could.

At the same time, I activated the full power of my weapon.

I need them the strongest, because only then would I have a chance to survive this attack.

The attack reached me in an instant, and my rapier clashed against it.

I felt the immense power of the attack and was shocked. Despite it being an energy attack, it felt solid and began to burn through the Velvet Repel.

I pushed the aura into it, but it only slowed down. It didn’t stop it.

Knowing that my life is at stake. I gritted my teeth and pushed the aura into the skill with every ounce of focus, and it worked!

The Velvet Repel stopped burning, but only for a second, before it began to burn through it again, and a moment later, it created a hole, crashing against my sword and all my skills.

I could feel the power and the heat, despite covering my hands with aura. I felt the burning.

“Ahhhhh!”

That didn’t stop me from pushing every bit of my aura into my arms, my weapons, and my skills. I didn’t hold back on anything and pushed, roaring with all my might.

Rip!

It struggled, burning more powerfully before, finally, my rapier cut through it, turning into two pieces, which barely avoided my face.

Seeing that, I felt relieved, but a moment later, that relief turned into pure horror when I saw the giant bear almost in front of me.

Roar!

It roared in victory, finally catching the rabbit, and swiped its massive claws toward me. Those are massive and sharp; if they hit me, they will tear me to pieces.

The worst thing is that I couldn’t use Velvet Repel for a few seconds.

The skill takes time to repair.

I pushed those thoughts and swung my rapier, pushing every ounce of aura I could into the three skills.

Clang!

My blade clashed against its claws, feeling the power that fractured the bones of my body and made me vomit blood, before I leaped back, using the massive force of its attack.

This isn’t the first time I’ve used this manoeuvre to manage the massive force, but this time, I am injured enough that I could barely hold my weapon.

I stabilise myself quickly in the air; I had learned how after being thrown in the air many times during my spars with Bell.

I had just done that when horror appeared in my eyes. Much greater than before.

It is still coming toward me fast, crushing through everything in its path, but that is not bringing he horror to my face. No, it is a shining red crystal on its forehead.

It is shining much brighter than before, and it didn’t give me a good feeling. It was thinking that when the beams came out of it, deepening my horror further.

‘I am dead!’ I thought, and this time, it’s not expressions, but finality, seeing its attack.

Yes—beams. Plural.

Three beams come out of the crystal, and all three of them are coming at me. There’s no way I can survive it.

If I am lucky, I might survive one, but three, there is no way I would be able to survive that.

The finality of this understanding had stilled my heart.

I didn’t feel the panic as I had expected. The finality brought the calmness I had never felt before; it made everything clearer to me.

I could see the beams moving at incredible speed with unbelievable clarity.

Their long shape, their high temperature, which seemed to burn everything within their path.

I could see Bear and the expression on its face. The rage disappeared from its eyes. Now, there is delight as it realized there is no way I could survive the attack.

Still, the Bear is coming at me, crushing through trees. I could see the broken trunks, cracked branches, and falling leaves, looking to make the final kill.

My eyes focused on the leaves, and at that moment, I understood something that I had been trying hard to comprehend for a month.

Aura came out of me and formed the fractal of a leaf.

It looked like the thousand fractals I had created throughout the month, but this time, I had the understanding of Falling Leaf that I had been searching for.

The fractal burned and turned into a cyan blade.

It’s beautiful, but I could feel danger from it, which even stopped the monster in its tracks.

I didn’t even look at the beast; all my focus is on the blade. Which covered my rapier as I had willed, forming a beautiful layer of cyan around its blade.

“Finally,” I said with a smile on my face, and turned to the three red beams coming toward me.

Tap the Patreon link below to unlock 50+ Advanced Chapters, or join Free to enjoy character art, maps, and more exclusive content!