章節 11: 11
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"It looks like my dessert has arrived." The seductive sound of Evelynn's voice echoed directly in Mark's mind, tempting him to obey, but a wave of coldness swept through his consciousness, allowing him to regain control of his body. Without hesitation, he jumped back and drew his sword.
Red flames projected from the blade as he went on high alert. "Looks like the dessert wants to play." Evelynn's voice echoed again with a laugh, and at that moment, Mark realized she had vanished from inside the warehouse.
This was Evelynn's terror, her main ability, "The Veil of Night." Mark muttered as he swung his sword around him, spreading flames with the wind and forming a circle of fire around him.
"Hoho, it seems you know me; I'll play with you a little." Her voice came out of nowhere, and Mark's eyes narrowed as he saw the bodies of the victims start moving inside the warehouse. One by one, they stood up and walked outside with slow, lifeless steps.
Their eyes devoid of any life or emotion, and their faces full of agony, would give anyone nightmares and shatter their minds instantly. But not Mark. He knew these bodies were just empty shells with no combat power.
Ignoring them, Mark began scanning his surroundings fervently as the flames burned. His Sharingan spun rapidly as he tried to control his breathing.
"Ahh, someone help me!" At that moment, Mark heard a woman's scream coming from inside the warehouse, and the door opened before a purple-haired woman ran out, followed by the zombies.
Upon seeing Mark, the woman seemed to have a glimmer of hope and quickly ran toward him. "Please help me!" she cried, and Mark silently opened a gap in his flame barrier, letting her in.
"Thank you so much," the woman said, tears in her eyes. But before she could take another step inside the circle of flames, the sound of flesh being pierced was heard, "Sun Breathing, Seventh Form: Sunflower Thrust."
Mark's sword pierced through the woman's heart, making scorching flames erupt from her back. "Illusions don't work on me, Vora." When Mark mentioned that name, the woman's body rapidly changed, transforming into a beautiful female demon with sharp claws.
But soon, the demonic being began to scream. "AHHHH, IT BURNS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS!" Vora screamed as the flames engulfed her body and devoured her entirely.
Vora was one of the demons consumed by Evelynn, another of her ridiculous abilities. Using the Veil of Night, she could devour demons and make them part of her existence.
"YOU, VORA WILL KILL YOU." Vora said, but Mark pulled his sword back and, with a quick move, decapitated her, leaving her flaming, headless body. But even without a head, the body kept moving, slashing its claws toward him, startling him.
CLANK!
The sound of metal clashing was heard as her claws met Mark's sword, sending him flying back. "What tremendous strength. But more than that, how is she not dead?" Mark's mind raced as he saw Vora's body moving on its own and coming at him again.
Mark didn't dare face the claws again and started dodging. Luckily, although Vora was very strong, her body seemed to be driven by instinct alone, with no technique or skill other than brute force and speed that, to his Sharingan, made her as slow as a child.
Swoosh!
The wind cracked as Mark dodged again and counterattacked, cutting off Vora's hand. "At least it's not regenerating." Mark thought and calmly dodged and counterattacked, slowly destroying her body and making her unable to attack.
At that moment, Evelynn, who was observing everything from within the Veil of Night, was very confused. This was one of the few times in hundreds of years of existence that she felt fear of something as simple as fire.
"This fire seems made to burn demons." Her instincts constantly told her that if the flames touched her, they would never stop burning until Mark died or she disappeared.
This would have also been the case for Vora, but since she was tied to Evelynn, she could only die if the latter did. But the fire was preventing Vora's regeneration, putting her in a state of eternal burning.
Mark's current flames were a result of the fusion of Sun Breathing, created by Yoriichi, the greatest demon hunter, and Hanma blood known for its strength and vitality.
But of course, as an almost-ancestral demon, Evelynn had some ideas on how to overcome Mark's abilities. At that moment, on the battlefield, the soulless bodies slowly approached the circle of flames and were instantly set ablaze.
But oblivious to any pain, they laid over the flames, making the wall of fire disappear due to their bodies. Mark, who had just cut off one of Vora's legs, felt a sense of danger and immediately made a slash behind him.
In that instant, Evelynn's tail emerged from thin air, its sharp tip aiming for Mark's heart, but his sword intercepted it halfway.
Clank!
The sound of metal rang out, and Mark felt as if he had been hit by a truck before being sent flying several meters. "What power," he thought, looking at his arms trembling violently.
A cold drop of sweat fell from his forehead as he considered what could have happened if he had been hit. But he didn't have much time to think.
He didn't have much more time to think. "So, this is the rat I have to kill, Evelynn. You have definitely become softer." A voice sounded behind him, and Mark felt a massive presence behind him.
Steem, another demon tied to Evelynn, was there. His giant humanoid body with fish-like features due to his ears and scales made him look as terrifying as a river monster.
"Damn it!" Mark could only mutter this as he tried to form a wind barrier to his side. The next moment, a fist as big as his head shattered the barrier and hit him.
BOOM!
There was a loud crash as Mark was sent flying dozens of meters before crashing into the wall of a house, raising a cloud of dust and spitting out a mouthful of blood. His left arm was broken, along with several ribs.
Paff.
Mark could barely stand when he fell from the wall, feeling his vision blur and his legs tremble as blood trickled down his head and body.
Stimulated by the pressure, his Sharingan spun rapidly and gained another tomoe, but Mark knew it was useless at this moment. He could see the shadows of Steem and Evelynn approaching him with devilish smiles.
He knew that if they captured him alive, all that awaited him was torment and endless agony. Spitting out another mouthful of blood, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand up.
"Look at that, the little boy is resilient." Evelynn's voice echoed around as she slowly approached, laughing, but in an instant, her smile disappeared as her instincts began to scream warnings of danger.
At that moment, Mark's eyes unfocused due to pain and blood loss, but his Sharingan still spun constantly. He seemed to have lost consciousness while standing.
"What splendid determination. I'll savor every moment of your agony until your soul breaks," Steem said, continuing to approach Mark without fear.
When Steem was less than ten meters from Mark, he felt something was off. Flames began to rise from Mark's body, igniting part of his clothing and revealing his bare chest.
Mark's steady breathing started to alter the air around him, and if anyone looked closely into his body, they would see his lung contracting, forming the face of a demon.
At this point, flames began to stream out of his mouth, expelled by his lungs, lifting clouds of dust that formed the face of a bloodthirsty, flaming ghost behind Mark.
Steem felt fear for a moment but immediately grew angry upon realizing it. "You almost fooled me, boy, but I'm sure you don't have much strength left. This trick of yours won't scare me." Seeing the wounds on Mark's body, the demon convinced himself that it was just a last show of resistance and prepared to charge.
Mark, now unconscious, slowly raised his sword above his head with his still-functional right arm and held his breath as if anticipating something.
In this infinite second, Steem took a step forward, and then there was a half-second flash before the demon realized Mark had vanished from his original spot.
"What happened?" Steem said as a red slash mark appeared from the top of his head to the ground.
BOOM!
A sonic boom was followed by an explosion of red flames erupting from Steem's back and rising to the sky. His body, split in half, slowly fell to the ground, each half collapsing to the sides.
In front of him stood Mark, body completely hunched over, and his sword blade deeply embedded in the ground below Steem, now split in two.
Evelynn, who witnessed this scene, took a moment to understand what had happened, but soon after, she gave a devilish smile and began to laugh. "So that was your trump card, boy. Not bad, not bad." She said, approaching him again.
Her whip-like tail swayed in the air, preparing to pierce Mark, who was now lying on his back on the ground, completely exhausted. His arms and legs were entirely bruised from the previous attack, and his skin was pale from blood loss.
Time seemed to slow as Evelynn's uniform footsteps echoed, the moonlight glistening and the marks of destruction from the earlier battle spread everywhere, making the port look like it had been through a small-scale war.
In reality, only about 30 minutes had passed since the battle began, and the guards were already shouting that there was fire at the port, with the heavy steps of armored soldiers approaching the scene.
But they wouldn't arrive in time to save Mark. "Die," Evelynn said, launching her tail with the intent to pierce Mark's head, but at that moment, a crimson shadow grabbed his body and pulled him to safety.
Katarina let out a sigh of relief when she saw Mark was still breathing and looked at the demonic being before her, feeling a primal fear. She had heard stories about demons and supernatural beings inhabiting Runeterra, bringing pain and suffering to those who encountered them, but she had always thought those were mere fairy tales for children.
Yet, faced with the beautiful woman radiating a clearly evil aura before her, Katarina began to sweat cold. She was breathing heavily, indicating she had run a long distance to get there.
Rewind to an hour before, Katarina couldn't calm her thoughts and constant doubts and decided to search for Mark and question him about what he meant earlier.
She searched for him all over the city, even asking guards who told her he headed toward the slums. On her way there, she saw red flames rise from the port and immediately recognized them as Mark's, running toward the port, thinking it was an enemy attack or an assassination attempt.
She didn't know why, but she felt worried about Mark; not even she understood why. But she feared something might have happened, and when she saw the high flames erupting, she picked up speed, moving between rooftops like lightning.
By sheer fate, she arrived just in time to save him. "You owe me for this," she said to the unconscious Mark, drawing one of her daggers and pointing it at Evelynn, who looked at the two and clicked her tongue.
"Young love is so beautiful; what a pity I can't witness more of your relationship." Evelynn said, glancing out at the ocean where the first rays of the sun were beginning to rise.
"Tell your man that I'll be back one day." Evelynn said, and Katarina blushed for a moment, trying to explain, but Evelynn pulled a veil from the air and covered her body along with Steem's, making them disappear.
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Hello everyone, I am the author. Are you enjoying the combat writing? I would like everyone's opinion on whether the dialogues and combat scenes are well-written.
章節 12: 12
In case someone didn't understand the last part, in the world of *Baki*, characters with Hanma blood can awaken certain parts of their body into demonic forms, developing unique abilities.
Examples include Baki's *Demon Brain* and Yujiro's *Demon Back*.
Our protagonist awakened the *Demon Lungs*.
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At the moment of the fight between Mark and Evelynn, in the highest Solari temple on Targon, a Solari priestess abruptly stood up, startling the other priests who were conducting the ceremony.
"Priestess, is everything alright?" One of the priests approached her and asked, but she seemed somewhat entranced at the moment and did not notice his question for a moment before looking him in the eyes. "Inform everyone, the Sun's Son has been found," she said, and the priests did not seem to understand what she meant for a moment before nodding in confusion.
"But Priestess, Lady Leona is already the Aspect of the Sun," one of the priests said, and the priestess looked at him. "You don't understand. The flames of the sun run through his veins. The Aspect revealed to me that this man, alongside the Aspect, will lead the Solari to glory in the difficult times to come!" she spoke, and soon the entire temple was in an uproar, with the news quickly spreading throughout the tribe and then the entire Targon region.
"The Sun's Son is on the land, and the Solari are looking for him." These words echoed from person to person, tribe to tribe, and soon reached merchants.
But Mark, the main target of this prophecy, was unaware of this at the moment.
----------------------------------
Mark slowly opened his eyes. He felt a recurring pain in every corner of his body and couldn't help but let out a groan of pain as he tried to move.
His body was now almost completely bandaged, but besides the muscle pains, he felt that his broken arm had already healed, though it was still a bit difficult to move in some ways, and in a few more days, his full recovery would likely occur.
Looking around, he noticed he was in a room he recognized as one of the castle's chambers. Noble accommodations and furniture were spread throughout the room. "I think I overdid it," Mark thought to himself, remembering the events that had occurred earlier.
Thanks to the *Sharingan*, even after becoming unconscious, he still remembered everything that happened until he completely passed out, with his last vision being Katarina looking at him worriedly.
Recalling that memory sent chills down Mark's spine. "I must have been hallucinating," he murmured to himself, convincing himself that Katarina's worried expression was just a figment of his imagination due to blood loss and pain.
At that moment, the door to the room opened, and he saw a sight that scared him more than when he faced Evelynn. He saw Katarina enter the room with a tray of bandages and give him a smile of genuine happiness, not the usual mocking one.
"Mark, you're awake," she said, and Mark felt chills throughout his body and began to sweat coldly, immediately activating his *Sharingan* and looking at Katarina, hoping this was an illusion.
"Hahaha, are you so scared? Traumatized after facing that demon?" Katarina laughed upon seeing him activate his *Sharingan* and fearlessly approached him. Mark froze at that moment and allowed Katarina to treat him while he carefully observed her with his active *Sharingan*.
After being absolutely sure that she was real, a big question fell onto his mind, "When and how did this happen?" Mark wasn't foolish. In fact, he was an expert at deceiving women in his past life, also known as a womanizer and playboy.
He had developed a protocol of simple steps to make any woman fall for him, provided the conditions were met. These steps were: interest, coexistence, and finally...
"Stimulation," Mark murmured to himself and realized that this was not the cunning and cruel Katarina from the game, but a younger and more innocent version who had not yet experienced the cruelties of love due to her overprotective father.
Mark's face could not help but show an expression of disbelief, and his eyes met Katarina's at that moment. They stared at each other in silence for a moment before she looked away, pretending not to be embarrassed.
"Damn, it's real! She's in love with me!" Mark shouted in his mind and deactivated his *Sharingan* but did not dare to relax. He was in a body of just under 20 now, and if Katarina took the initiative and caught him by surprise, he wouldn't know what General Du Couteau would do to him if he found out that his perfect assassin was seduced.
"You're awfully quiet, want to say something?" Katarina asked him, and Mark took a deep breath for a moment and decided to try to be as natural as possible. "Yes, I'm fine, just a bit surprised," he said, and Katarina's eyebrows raised as a provocative smile appeared on her face.
"Surprised by what, I wonder," she said playfully and brought her face closer to Mark, making him retreat to the edge of the bed, but she continued to follow him while looking into his eyes. "You know, ever since I saw those red eyes of yours for the first time, something in them intrigued me. Could you tell me what they are?" she said and placed her hand over Mark's, preventing him from continuing to move away, and cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
"My God, she's seducing me unconsciously!" Mark quickly reached this conclusion when he saw Katarina approaching him with a provocative look.
As a professional assassin, Katarina had received seduction training, but for her, it was just a technique to achieve a purpose. However, now she unconsciously applied the principles of those techniques in her approach toward Mark, making him feel suffocated.
At that moment, a guardian angel appeared. With a gentle movement, the door opened, followed by a voice, "Officer Riven reporting for..." A woman with white hair and wearing a Noxian military uniform entered the room and saw the scene of Katarina leaning over Mark, causing her words to get stuck in her throat.
"I apologize for the interruption," she said and turned to leave the room decisively, but Mark took the opportunity to move away from Katarina and stand up. "No need to leave, feel free to stay," he called out to Riven, who hesitated for a moment upon seeing the looks Katarina was giving her before stepping back into the room.
About 30 minutes later.
Mark nodded with satisfaction as he read the reports and messages Riven had brought with her. But most importantly, there was a letter from Swain informing him that his deeds had been passed on to the high command of Noxus, and he had been immediately promoted to Major of Intelligence in the Noxian army, with Swain pulling some political strings and sending him 2 battalions, each with about 500 soldiers, under his command.
The letter also mentioned that Swain had been informed about his encounter with the demon and had already requested some trusted runic blacksmiths to forge a custom set of weapons and armor for him.
Incidentally, Mark had been unconscious for 4 days, and the city guard had been reinforced, fearing that Evelynn would return to finish the job, but that did not happen. She seemed to have vanished into thin air just as she had appeared.
"At least some good news came out of all this," Mark murmured to himself and looked at Riven, who was making some tea to serve to Katarina and him, with the latter clearly in a foul mood as she pretended to read some letters sent to her by her father.
"I must have messed up the entire timeline now," Mark judged internally. The future of Noxus, Shurima, and Ionia would probably change drastically, and perhaps even the future of Zaun and Piltover would be severely altered.
Taking another letter, Mark felt his heart tighten upon seeing the family crest on it, "Medardas." Mark murmured, seeing the wolf crest, and slowly opened the letter.
Despite not being one of the founding families, the Medardas are one of the oldest families in Noxus, controlling almost all maritime routes of Noxus, making them one of the richest families in the empire.
The current matriarch of the Medardas, Ambessa, is also known for her tremendous cunning and willpower, and Mark knew she had personally killed and skinned all the Medarda family relatives who revolted when the old patriarch died without leaving a will.
All neighboring families wanted a slice of the Medarda wealth, but Ambessa found them one by one and killed them while still pregnant with her youngest daughter.
As far as Mark knew, she would also be one of the vanguards of the Noxian army in the conquest of Shurima. However, it seemed that Mark had stolen that merit from her by breaking Shurima's defenses before the invasion even began.
Mark quickly read the letter and realized that it had not been written by Ambessa but by her son, who was known for being more diplomatic. After skipping the formalities praising his deeds, Mark quickly got to the main point.
(We hope to negotiate the usage rights for the port of your new city.)
"Negotiate, huh," Mark murmured. Since he and Katarina had essentially conquered the city alone, the city would likely be handed over to their families to govern.
Mark thought for a moment, and his gaze fell on Katarina, then Riven, and finally on the papers detailing his promotion in the Noxian army, and he had a rather bold idea.
His current situation, although not bad, was far from sufficient to prevent several disasters from occurring in the world. After all, he couldn't be in Zaun, Demacia, and Freljord at the same time and stop nexus events from happening.
He might not even be able to handle the events in Shurima with his current strength. He needed time and a good place to train and develop his power.
In that regard, there were two places that could allow him to grow in power and develop his abilities, as well as gain new ones: Ionia and Targon.
"But I'm not keen on facing those hypocritical Gods and Aspects and their tribes full of internal conflicts," Mark thought to himself. In his plans, if he wanted to save the world, not only were the general threats his enemies but the Gods were as well.
Beings of immense power who constantly interfere in the lives of mortals, bringing destruction and suffering while watching their followers shed senseless blood for them.
"So, that leaves Ionia." He thought, picking up a pen and paper before starting to write a letter to Swain. Katarina was surprised to see him writing with such a determined expression and couldn't help but approach.
"What are you planning?" she asked, and Mark paused as he looked at her. "I can't believe I'm going to say this," he thought internally and took a deep breath.
"I plan to trade the city's port rights for ships and military supplies before heading to Ionia. Also, Kat, I want you to come with me," Mark said determinedly, and Katarina blushed at hearing him call her by her nickname.
Mark had called her that before, but this time she felt there was something different. "You plan to conquer a continent with 2 battalions of soldiers?" she asked, but Mark shook his head.
"Who said we're going to conquer? I was planning to migrate."
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