Kapitel 26: Battle between Aces

Lin stood stunned where he was. "So fast. I can not even keep track of their movements". He could not even take a single step. All he could see were beams of light shooting around and destructions occurring around him. Akrakus suddenly appeared and whispered to him, "Do not just stand here glancing around; you do not need to see them. Just release your power around however you like; I will bring them over". It happened in a split second, and he was gone already.

The pressure from the battle almost grounded Lin to paste, but a shadow enveloped him to ease off the pressure. "The pressure is reduced. It is now or never". Power exploded from Lin, and he began throwing fire and lightning balls around without proper aim.

A giant black sword with on jagged end appeared in Akrakus' hands. Shadows accompanied his every movement, doubling the impact of his strikes. With every swing of his sword, a shadow appeared and attacked alongside him. It made every strike of his have a double impact effect. Rocks, crystal shards and metal poles came at him from three directions. The calamity beings were not relenting in their attacks either. They attacked him from various angles, but he kept creating more versions of himself with shadows to keep them at bay.

Seeing the black fire and lighting balls flying all over, Akrakus kept pushing them towards the balls flying around. The metal-wielding calamity being was the first to be hit by it. It immediately had a faint burn mark on its wings. It was angered by this and exclaimed, "Akrakus, do you think you could defeat us with this paltry trick of yours?" It growled at him.

"Nope, but now, I know he can wound you. You would have shrugged it off if it was someone else of the same level, but he is different, isn't he? Be careful, though; more is going to come your way soon", he said and spun his sword at an incredible speed. It began to suck in all the balls of fire and lightning Lin was throwing around. In a gust of winds, he scattered it towards the calamity beings. "This changes things", Akrakus thought as he looked towards Lin, who was now on his knees.

"Tch! This guy is as annoying as he was when I first met him", the crystal-wielding Calamity Being shot many crystal shards to defend itself against the attack. "This is all because of that guy. I should just kill him already." He turned his attention to Lin and fired several shards at him. Within a blink, the shadow that wrapped Lin moved him out of the way as a giant hand formed and grabbed the crystal-wielding Calamity Being by the ankle and slammed it onto the ground.

"Keep your eyes on the battle creep. Your opponent is me. Stop picking on the kid", Akrakus said and slashed towards the metal-wielding Calamity Being. It blocked the attack but got pushed back by the attack. It turned to the rock-wielding Calamity Being, "Rock, clamp the guy into the ground. I would hold Akrakus back", it said and fiercely charged at Akrakus. Swinging its staff with great ferocity, it slammed Akrakus into the ground. A deep crater appeared in the ground, and a cloud of dust filled the air.

Lin had now slowed down as he was already nearing his limit. In a battle of this magnitude, it was a surprise he was still holding on. "Damn it! He is crazy asking me to participate in a battle between Aces. That is like signing my death warrant, but something is a little off with how he is fighting. He is directing minimal pressure from the battle at me deliberately. It is like he wants me to understand something, but somehow, it felt like when I first fell down that hole in the territory of Kore."

"Chaos element? System, what is that?"

"If it is a notification from the system, then it should be safe, right?" After contemplating for a while, Lin decided to try it. "Yes", he replied.

The air around Lin suddenly changed. His power slowly rose. He absorbed the chaos elements that reached him. As Akrakus battled, he noticed the shadow shielding Lin disperse. "What!?" he looked towards Lin and saw the weird phenomenon around him. "That kid, did he just make a breakthrough in the heat of battle? Drak, this is one interesting guy you chose." Akrakus said with a grin and sent shadow beasts and figures to guard him.

Lin coughed up blood as he was knocked to the ground by the pressure after the shadow protecting him from it dispersed. "Aarrrh!" he wailed. "I thought that guy's shadow shielded me. How did it disperse?", his mind rampaged on. He couldn't tell what had happened. His body absorbed chaos elements, but it was so great he could not lift himself from the ground. It was like a mountain lay on top of him. "It's only a matter of time now; once he breaks through, I will be sending him away" Akrakus smiled and continued to battle the three calamity beings.

Lin struggled through the pain in a bid to stand but was not able to. He felt the pressure was going to squash him at any moment. "Though I can level down this way, with this kind of pressure, wouldn't I be crushed before I finish? Though I am not much help in this battle, Akrakus is shielding me while fighting those things. If there is anything I could do to help even in the slightest…" though the levelling was torturous, Lin did not want to be a burden. He closed his eyes and began to focus, trying to find a way to help, if it was just a little.

"Since I can't move, I should try drawing power to make the energy balls without moving my body. But how? Per what that man said in that vision about weapons, I should be able to make them and control them as if they were part of me". After the thought, he slowly gathered power and allowed it to seep out of his body as he focused on gathering it at a specific point away from him. A ball of fire began to form but dispersed after a short while. His first attempt had failed. "First attempt failed, but it's a good start. I will try again".

Akrakus was nearing his limit as he was protecting Lin while fighting the calamity beings. "I am nearing my limit. It would be troublesome if that kid did not finish quickly before my strength run's out. I wish I could kill him and those guys too, but 'he' won't forgive me if I did that."

"Give up, Akrakus, do you not see? The pressure from the battle is killing that man. I must say, I'm surprised he is still alive. Any other person would have been dead already, not that it matters anyway; please allow us to put him out of his misery", Rock said.

"Tch! I would like to see you try, you maniacal parrot", Akrakus provoked. Rock snapped as its eye turned red. It roared to the sky, and the ground began to tremble as pillars of rock-like dragons made their way for Akrakus. "Shit! He is pissed", Akrakus said and swung his sword fiercely, filling the sky with sword lights which cut down the rock dragons headed his way.

More rock dragons took their place as crystal shards joined the mix, all headed for Akrakus, crushing him into a puff of smoke. Metal turned and ran towards Lin but jumped back after a sword light made it to its chest, sending up a gush of blood. Before them was Akrakus; what they had just destroyed was one of his shadows.

Lin had been trying to create an energy ball out of thin air for almost an hour. The battle showed no signs of stopping soon, and he had not made much progress either. He had forgotten about his levelling and only focused on perfecting his craft.