Chương 56: Requiem of Eternal Rest - Ⅱ
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? THAT GUY IS SUPERCHARGED WITH LIKE A WHOLE FUCKING COUNTRY'S WORTH OF ELECTRICITY!"
"But…" Her voice trailed off, worry etched on her face. With an annoyed grunt, Astrid yanked her hand off from his grip. Before she could look back at Arthur, a thunderclap resounded, making her flinch and jump back on pure instinct.
With a sharp crackle, Arthur dissolves into a swarm of glowing cerulean particles, his form melding as it raced like a bolt of lightning toward the nearest spark.
Before anyone could even consider what was happening, he was already in front of the chosen spark's location, his body reforming from the dancing lights.
The air around him hummed with residual electricity, the faint translucent glow fading as he solidified.
Before the first Wujin's eye could even turn towards Arthur and catch a glimpse of its attacker, Arthur's sword sliced through the thick, layered commissure – which was the muscle covering the intersection point of the upper and lower jaw – and made its way cleanly through its body.
And before the whole situation of Arthur basically teleporting even registered in anyone's mind, the Wujin in the lead's body was cleaved cleanly into half.
The upper half flew over and landed a few yards away due to the momentum and the lower body collided into Arthur and stopped right there, in his feet.
Arthur stood there, motionless as a few drops of noxious blood fell on his wrist. His eyes were set on the Queen who was hiding behind the Queen's Guard, her membranous frills retracted.
They vibrated once, and a shadow closed in on Arthur.
The world around him had gotten really slow and his mind was reading every danger and providing hundreds of solutions to him at the same time in a matter of a few seconds. However, this overload made his body unmoving as it was his physical limitation.
The maw of a Wujin closed in on his head, ready to chomp it up in one fell swoop.
Arthur's mind raced; however, his body was unable to dodge.
Without even looking back, he tried to search for a passing spark.
A small spark was scurrying around right behind the Wujin that was attacking Arthur. Letting his body fall to the back, he activated it once again.
[Slipstream]
His entire body vibrated and he disappeared, the Wujin's maw chewing on open air.
Appearing right behind it, Arthur willed Arcanum into his body and pushed away the hundreds of thoughts and focused on a single one.
A single upward slash.
Arcanum flicked like a whip from the tip of his sword as it cleaved another Wujin, the two halves of it falling on either side.
"This bastard!" Michael exclaimed in excitement. "He learned the sword extension from that Ed guy mid-battle."
"Might be a bit late, but who on Earth is Ed?"
Michael looked to the side. "Are you serious?"
"Very serious?"
"Very, very serious?"
"Yeah."
"Then I won't tell ya." Michael scoffed.
Astrid let out a tired breath. "Are you autistic?"
"Say that again, you dumb blonde."
"Say what?"
"The thing you just said."
"I didn't say anything."
"You just fucking did!" Michael snapped.
"Didn't know you were schizophrenic as well."
Michael let out a frustrated sneer. "I am so going to kill you, you brat."
"Yeah, yeah." Astrid brushed him off. Her eyes had not left Arthur even for a single moment. Peeling them away for the first time, she turned around and faced Michael. "I think we should get going too."
She pointed at the left flank battalion. A lot of them had climbed the long path and were now charging towards Astrid and Michael.
Cursing underneath his breath, Michael nodded. "I will lure them into the ravine." He spoke and narrowed his eyes on Astrid. "Not sure why that freak trusts you, but if he does, there must be a good reason." He paused, his words causing Astrid's eyes to widen. "I will trust ya as well. Focus on the work you've been given. Don't worry about the monsters coming y'er way."
"Alright…?"
Astrid couldn't really put a finger on what she was witnessing. The sudden shift was quite jarring.
"Don't mess it up, ratatouille."
Turning around, he started to walk away, waving his right hand while his left one nonchalantly slipped into his pants pocket.
Shaking her head to empty her head, she focused on the task at hand.
'He has trusted me with this one job. I can't mess it up! And I can't let this pretentious bastard laugh at me anymore as well!'
On the battlefield, Arthur's form was a mere blue as he blipped in and out of the vibratory existence for brief moments. Each time he appeared, a Wujin's head flew into the air, painting the blank canvas with a sickly green shade of blood before vanishing into a bright flash followed by a thunderclap.
As he side-stepped and disappeared, he took a hold of the spark closest to the queen and appeared right behind her. His sword had no glint as the sun was hidden behind a veil of grey clouds.
As the sword slashed through the air in a powerful downward slash, one of the Queen's guards rammed into him, his shield flaring outwards.
At the same time its meaty hand – that was like a Gorilla unlike the usual soldiers – lowered into a stance and thrust a huge, crudely carved weapon made out of stone at Arthur.
Arthur planted his feet into the ground; however, the guard's strength was superior to his own. Still ramming the natural shield into him, the Commander Wujin continued trying to get an attack off him. However, with the thick shield in between them and the Wujin's own, beefy arms, it was almost impossible to reach him.
Arthur's senses that were constantly being electrified were taking in everything. But at the same time, his body was protesting. Begging him to not use the 'Phase' once again.
Arthur immediately spun and the Wujin stumbled forward. His sword blurred and
Arthur immediately spun and the Wujin stumbled forward. His sword blurred around himself in a full circle as the 6 soldier ranks that had jumped him had their faces cut in half. Arthur didn't bat an eye to the lifeless bodies as he went straight after the commander rank.
With his face impassive, Arthur lashed out with a punch, his fist clad in blue lightning. The shield crumbled and the Wujin looked upwards, spasming while he was being shocked to the ground.
Another commander, one of a different shade of green, swung both of his.arms down at him in a clubbing motion.
Taking a step back, Arthur phased out of existence only for a few seconds before reappearing behind the Wujin whose attack landed atop his peer, crushing his head underneath the force of his attack. Lightning jumped like a sentient being from the dead Wujin to the other one, locking him in a series of convulsions.
Arthur whipped his sword once again and lightning crackled as an extension of the sword. Since it was not his own technique and he had just learned it from Ed, its effective range wasn't as much as Ed, but it was still quite destructive.
The whip made of lightning hardened like a blade and then like one huge tidal wave of death, the sparks that branched from it cleaved and sheared through hundreds if not thousands of soldier ranks. As soon as the extended blade of electrifying death subsided, Arthur bolted forward like a missile and his sword lodged into the heart of the commander Wujin that was still pinned to the ground via electricity.
Its hulking body fell like a huge boulder atop the other commander's body who had his head crushed.
Despite the nauseous stench of the Wujin's blood, Arthur turned a blind eye to everything. Seconds stretched into minutes which further morphed into the first hour.
Another commander rank bolted towards Arthur. However, he already knew of their weaknesses now. Before it could retract its frill, which also served as its shield, Arthur shot forward. His sword swung in a diagonal slash.
The commander brought its hand upward and caught the sword.
However, that was exactly what Arthur was waiting for. The sword had already weathered out due to fighting and slashing the Wujins whose scales were so hard that only a HEAT tank was able to kill it. Arthur had long left the handle of the sword. The ring around his index finger morphed into silver claws on his fingertips and Arthur went straight for its jugular.
The silvery claws dug deeper into its throat and poisonous blood squirted out in a thin stream. Avoiding it, Arthur applied more force until his claws dug deeper until it touched the creature's tongue. Yanking it out with one powerful tug, Arthur phased out once again.
The Queen's frills were perpetually retracted as she gave constant orders, trying to make a defensive wall of her subjects. But no matter how much she tried, Arthur was able to exploit the holes in their defences and after a few minutes, their formation would crumble, descending into a slaughtering chaos.
Atop the hill, Astrid was standing on the upper end of the ravine from where the crack between the mountains extended downward into a steep valley like trap. The fog was heavy as clouds descended down, and her vision was blurry.
Her hands trembled against the rough textured surface of the ground.
Her fingers were pulsating with a subtle hum, Arcanum lightning up the node inside her mind that activated the Arcane Art.
She let out a shallow breath and a small cloud of fog escaped her lips.
'Any time now…' She focused, trying to not let it waver.
As if on cue, something huge flew and crashed into the mountain beside her before slowly slipping into the ravine below.
As Astrid looked down, she saw Michael herding the Wujins like a dog herding livestock. The Queen had already sent a command to leave Michael and Astrid alone and focus on the bigger threat.
Arthur.
However, Michael was holding his own very well against them, not allowing a single one of them pass him.
"Alright, ya ugly bastards! First to get past me gets a free cheesesteak from me!" He cackled like a maniac as his fist drove into the one who had passed his right flank, followed by a loud splatter as its skull got crushed and the impact made a crater beneath him. "Come on, ya dogs! Try better."
His Arcanum was alive and pulsating, like a sparkler candle. The Queen's sail-like frills opened once again, thrumming as all of the Wujins that were going against Michael immediately turned around and started to flank to the side and then planned to regroup together.
Michael sneered.
'They're going right into his trap.'
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