The darkness engulfed Arthur as he felt a horrifyingly suffocating feeling fill his heart. He clenched his teeth powerfully till they threatened to burst into small pieces. The entire world around him was changing in real-time as he struggled against horrendous pain.
He was confused, afraid, and alerted. He tried to grab his sword again, but his hand was shaking violently so he couldn’t even do that. The other mercenaries around him slowly disappeared as the ship started emanating a red hue. A smell of burning filled his nose.
His eyes teared up before it slowly shifted to stare at a silhouette standing right behind where Deka was standing. There, a familiar seductive woman stood motionless, staring at him with a beautiful smile.
The boy locked eyes with her and suddenly, all the pain and headache disappeared as if they were never there to begin with. His clouded brain cleared up and all the intense discomfort was taken away. Arthur’s eyes widened as he exhaled and inhaled audibly.
“Cough! Cough! God… dammit!!” He cursed as he slammed his fist on the ground powerfully. Then, he slowly stood up, swaying left and right. His face was still red from the intense internal battle he just had but he didn’t let himself catch a breath as he was now facing a very dangerous enemy.
Looking at the woman and then at the ship, Arthur’s eyes widened to the extreme. In the darkness, he could see burning fire filling the entire place as large chunks of the ship were nowhere to be seen. The entire right side had been wiped out of existence and the vessel started sinking due to it.
The fire slowly ate the rest of the ship slowly. Then, the boy saw several corpses lying around in their own blood, all belonging to the mercenaries he had been with for the past two days.
“Huh…?” He muttered in a confused tone. He couldn’t understand what just happened. ‘Why… What the hell happened?!’
He quickly stared at the woman again and the answer slapped him in the face again. It was her work, she had killed them.
“When… WHEN?!!” The boy yelled. ‘I was awake the entire time! She could’ve not put me under any illusion! It can’t be!!’
Arthur couldn’t grasp how he was tricked and put under such a spell. He thought his mental power stopped these attacks well and he had been extra alert to make sure nothing tricks him. However, out of nowhere, the entire environment around him shifted and all he could see was death and destruction.
While he was blissfully unaware, all the mercenaries were killed. Somehow, somewhere, he had slipped and that mistake… had cost him everything.
“You…” Arthur glared at the woman as he pulled his sword out.
The woman smiled at him sweetly before she turned around and walked away as if she didn’t care about Arthur.
“Hey! Stop!” The boy called for her as he dashed forward, intending to attack her. He didn’t care about anything else, he was completely angered by the outcome. All the effort he had put into saving that group of mercenaries was thrown in the trash in one simple second. He didn’t even have a chance to change the outcome.
Arthur wanted to expel that anger and frustration in any way and he couldn’t find a better target than the culprit for all of this. He knew that he failed miserably but he couldn’t think about it at that moment in fear of losing it.
Closing the distance between them, he slashed his sword, only for it to pass through her as if it were thin air.
‘Dammit!! I forgot about this annoying ability!’ He cursed inwardly. The woman continued walking for several more steps before she stopped again and turned to look at Arthur.
Then, she simply snapped her finger very gently. The sound traveled through the air into the distance. Arthur immediately looked around him, feeling a very sudden shift in the atmosphere.
“What did she do?” He muttered with a deep frown. “What the hell did you just do?!”
*RUMBLE*
Before he could even finish the question, he received the answer as the ground beneath him started shaking and the remaining parts of the ship swayed even more visibly, spreading the cracks even further across the main parts of the ship.
Then, out of the water, the large stone hand emerged very slowly, shaking the world with its mere presence. Its large size loomed over the entire ship as it spread its fingers wide.
“… Great…” Arthur gulped as he looked between the woman and the hand. All his senses flipped on as he realized the true disaster was about to strike him. Then, his body kicked into action as he dashed in the opposite direction.
A second later, the open hand descended on the ship as it followed Arthur. Its size made it easy to cover large chunks of the deck.
‘It’s going to squash me!!’ The boy panicked as he ran to the side as fast as he could. A moment later, the hand struck the ship with immense power.
*BOOOOOOOM*
A shockwave spread everywhere as wood bursts open like ticking bombs. Arthur immediately found himself in the air, upside down as he slammed into the ground with a loud thud.
“AGH!!!!” He cursed as he tried to stop his fall. Digging his nails into the wood, he looked up quickly. The hand was already rising up again, leaving a large crater in the ship. Arthur didn’t even understand how this vessel was still intact after that hit.
“You have got to be kidding me!!” Arthur cursed as he quickly channeled his mana into his sword and activated Frostborn. Then he dashed forward. The hand wasn’t stopping its assault. He knew he had to stop it before it destroyed the entire ship and made him drown.
‘Hurry!’ When he got close enough, Arthur leaped in the air, facing the hand head first. He didn’t fear it much, but the situation was bad… extremely bad. Explore more adventures at My Virtual Library Empire
“TAKE THIS!!!” Swinging the sword, he sent a large ice attack toward the stone hand.
*BANG*
The two forces clashed mid-air in a festival of light that illuminated the darkness of the world for a good few seconds. The ice tried to take over the hand, freezing it up. But, the stone being wasn’t an easy foe. Its sheer movement alone made the ice crack and shatter quickly.
*BOOOOM*
The first layer burst quickly as the hand continued descending. But, at that moment, Arthur had already sent several layers of ice flying toward the object.
‘Stop! Stop!!’ He yelled in his head while swinging his sword recklessly. ‘I need to stop it or this entire ship is gone!!’
Layer by layer, the hand faced the resistance and shattered through it with ease. But, its movement was slowing down visibly as the ice was slowly eating it. The special ice of the Elemental Oblivion made it work almost like fire. The moment it touches an object that has any form of moisture on it, it quickly spreads to it and starts eating it.
Since this hand had been submerged in the river for God knows how long, it was soaked in water… the best environment for the ice to thrive and spread.
The hand was not immune to it.
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets, and PS. Let’s keep it up!