323 A Single Clap
I woke up. No, it felt like I woke up, but I probably wasn’t out for that long.
The battle with Noir was still ongoing, as could be seen by how the god tamers were having a hard time blocking his attacks. The earlier divided tentacles were now focused solely on them after I fell.
“Ugh…!”
I tried to move, but my body refused to budge. My wounds were severe, and the energy I had was slowly slipping away, dissipating together with my life force in the form of blood. The ringing in my ears never stopped for a moment.
“…”
Slowly, memories started flowing into my mind. They were so fragmented that it was hard to explain in words what the things I recalled were. However, as soon as those memories flowed into my head, my body started moving by itself.
First, the curse that was loaded into my wounds, ravaging all throughout my body, was dispelled. It happened so fast that I didn’t even notice what I myself did. At the same instant, my wounds started to vanish, healing rapidly enough that they were visible to the naked eye.
From what I could see, my wounds were covered by void energy, proving that the healing powers that “I” was using were Ember’s Void Healing powers. But had Ember mastered that? I kinda forgot, but I think not…
With my wounds finally closed, the leaking life force and energy were resolved. I raised my body slowly, scanning my surroundings for information. Ajax and Vermeil were still busily fending against the swarming crystal tentacles, to the point that they were slowly earning wounds all over their bodies.
On the other side, I could see Ember and the others having difficulty fending off only a few crystal tentacles. Seeing that, I immediately decided to help them first before helping the god tamers’ side.
*CLAP!*
As soon as I stood up, just as I was about to run forward, my hands moved by themselves, clapping loudly. Although the force behind the clap wasn’t too much, the sound echoed all over the enclosed space where we were fighting.
I was wondering why I clapped, but before I could ponder about it, a much more astounding scene spread before my eyes. All the tentacles that were reaching for them suddenly halted before slowly scattering into the wind as dust. The crystal tentacles actually broke apart!
Furthermore, it wasn’t just those that were attacking the girls, but even the hundreds to thousands of tentacles that were swarming Ajax and Vermeil as they protected Zeshion, who was undergoing treatment.
Everything happened so suddenly that nobody could react properly to it. Even Noir was flabbergasted, staring at the dust of his crystal tentacles floating in the air. I wasn’t that different as I stared at my own hands, completely taken aback.
“… What the hell did I do?”
“Master!”
Just as I was getting lost in my own train of thought, Ember’s voice called my name, bringing me back to reality. I shook my head forcefully, rushing to the girls’ side. With a single step… I was already face-to-face with Igni, who was standing in front of the others, acting as their meat shield.
“Woah! My Lord!”
Igni leaned backward, avoiding a head-on collision with me. I, too, tried to slow down, but the momentum still brought me tumbling forward. Igni, Fang, Ember, and Hekate supported my body, softening my fall… Yep, they’re soft. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰
Wait, I have no time to think about such things!
“Fatima, how much longer?!”
I turned to her, who was doing the finishing touches with the large shell together with Minerva. The two of them were focusing so deeply that they didn’t even hear my call.
‘From the looks of it, I must’ve been out for just a few seconds… But what was that system message for…?’
I did recall hearing a system message before my consciousness faded. However, my memory’s too foggy to recall what it said specifically.
“Anyway, it looks like I still need to hold on for about half a minute!”
When I turned to look over to Noir, however, I felt shivers running down my spine. My body moved almost by itself, dashing forward before clapping once more. As soon as my eyes met his glare, it was as if my body already knew what to do.
The clap crushed all the incoming crystal tentacles that were rushing from all directions. Again, Noir showed a surprised expression before frowning deeply.
“WILL!!! YOU’RE GETTING IN MY WAY AGAIN?!”
Hearing his angry words, my face turned into a smile.
“Of course, I would. That’s my job!”
Although I said that, I wasn’t really sure why my body was moving like it was at the moment. It almost felt like I was playing a game in first-person POV and inside a cutscene, where I couldn’t control my character at all. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰
I kept running forward, ignoring the voices calling for me worriedly from the back. Even I was getting scared of myself, as all I could see was a blur of scenery as I ran forward.
Noir, of course, didn’t let me be for long. Knowing that the crystal tentacles were neutralized by a single clap, he changed modes and used normal shadow tentacles instead. As soon as he did, before I realized it, a shadow claw appeared on both my hands.
“Leader…! That’s!”
Fang’s voice echoed from behind, as this was her “favorite” skill to use when fighting. After all, it was versatile and could ignore most of the enemy’s defenses. However, unlike Fang’s version, mine seemed a little weird.
Instead of covering the fingers and extending forward to replicate a claw, it morphed my entire arm into a monstrous talon, extending half a meter forward, with a color deeper than the darkest nights.
The shadow tentacles approached, coming from all directions. However, my body didn’t bother to address the incoming attacks… until the last moment.
*SCHWING!*
With a single rotation using my frontward foot as an axis, I waved the claws around, slicing the incoming shadow tentacles into a million bits. Without reducing my momentum, I kept dashing forward, as if nothing happened at all.
“You…!”
Noir seemed panicked as I got about ten meters into his range. With a single glance, I could tell that all his attention was focused on me. Although I’m not really sure what’s going on with my body, I guess all’s well that ends well!
Join me in my lonely discord server: /DEVbwSbZUh
SeraphWedd
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