NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 234: The Rifts
Oracos stomped his foot against the ground multiple times in anger, unleashing quakes that split the soil further, "—This insolence will not go unpunished! To ash with you, mortal!"
Bursting forward, the draconic man erupted from the other side of the ruined stretch. The way the air cracked and heated up, it was as though the four-armed figure dashed like a jet through the sky.
Finn clenched his right fist in response—
[Chronos Trigger: Skip]
For that second, he bypassed the current moment, flocking to the next as Oracos simply passed straight through him.
It felt like becoming as weightless as a piece of paper for that single moment, though that singular moment left an imprint of exhaustion within the assassin.
"Hraaaah—?!"
The scaled man slammed his foot into the ground to force himself to break, spinning around in anger. It was like a bull seeing red, angered to have missed his mark from a thoughtless charge.
"Don't dodge, coward!" Oracos shouted, slapping his own chest.
"Why would I do that? Are you stupid?" Finn asked blankly.
Such a simple, blunt remark made the scale-clad man become as red as a tomato, bursting with veins, "Haah?! Who the hell are you calling stupid, mortal?! I've lived centuries—! Your fragile mind couldn't even process that!"
The draconic man leapt into the air, spreading his wings as he hovered above the flattened forest.
"Let's see you keep up those remarks while your flesh melts off your skeleton!" Oracos challenged, thundering his four fists down against the air.
Each swing made by the theatrical, scaled figure conjured a burning, azure fist. Dozens of them rained down like fireworks pointed at the ground.
It was no less of an impossibility than trying to avoid a single snowflake amidst a winter storm. Each blazing fist exuded exploding sparks, igniting the forest as the assassin stood his ground.
Finn stared past the bright, burning hands, looking only at the figure in the sky above.
["Blink Slash: Critical Connection"]
From the ground, dozens of meters into the air, he instantly met with the four-armed calamity. In that same instant, both wings were amputated from the man's back, cut away by a single, unseen motion of the dagger.
"Ghhh—?!" Oracos winced.
Finn flipped himself around without disregarding a moment, delivering an axe kick that sent his enemy colliding with the dirt.
"No more flying," Finn declared before dropping down soon after, landing nimbly like a cat.
A pillar of fire erupted from the crater that that man-dragon had crashed into, holding the angered roars of Oracos. He had to catch his footing as the soil split, giving out against the unreasonable strength of the raging beast.
Finn maintained his footing, balancing himself as he witnessed the four-armed calamity erupt from the dirt, launching up with a wave of fire following. The tidal wave of burning blow swept right for the assassin–
["Impervious"] [4:59]
–He triggered his brief invincibility as the heat simply passed right by him, readying himself as he found the towering, hulking figure right behind the fire. A flurry of blows came for his head, leaving him to bob and wave as the scale-clad fists swung with monstrous strength.
As he stepped to the side just as a wild, overhand strike came from the man-dragon, the force of it carved through the land like a temperamental storm.
'If I encountered him yesterday, it would've been trouble. But, right now? I can see right through everything he does–it's simple. I've got nothing to lose now, but I'm going to gain everything–I'll bring it all back,' he thought, calmly observing the raging, transformed warrior.
He flipped back as another wild set of swings came from the man-dragon, immediately landing on his feet as he pointed right at the towering barbarian–
["Gravity"]
–Before the rage-fueled figure could come to him, a downfall of gravity crushed the immediate area around Oracos. It rained down with enough force to pulverize the ground in a perfect circle, bringing the draconic man to a knee, mighty as he was.
"What...is this?!" Oracos struggled, becoming so red it seemed his eyes might explode in their sockets.
Finn didn't grant the otherworldly destroyer any words, silently clenching his fist as he pushed it further, locking a breath into his lungs:
["Gravity"] plus ["Supercharge"]
The amplification brought the pillar of force to multiply in its pressure many times over, immediately caving in the soil. A roar left the mouth of Oracos, turning into a bloodied scream before the four-armed figure was pinned down by the force. Only a moment later, the man-dragon was crushed by the gravity as his body exploded into a splash of red, like a full tick.
["Oracos, The Dread defeated."] [Anarch Coin: +12,500]
[Experience points: +1,000,000] [5,255,3200/10,000,000]
[Assimilated ability from ["Oracos"]: "Azure Burn"]
There wasn't much felt in the victory he claimed, as it hardly felt any different from vanquishing a simple monster. It didn't make his heart beat, nor did he feel any kind of joy–it was business. A single step in his path of reclaiming what was lost.
He stared at his hand, glancing at the perfect circle of a crater left where the bloodied stain that was left of Oracos was painted. The [Gravity] assimilated from the Moon was a powerful tool, though a part of it repulsed him to wield.
'I can't let my personal feelings get in the way. I have to reach the end by any means necessary,' he resolved.
The sound of uneven footsteps brought him to turn around, finding the ginger-haired ranger sheepishly approaching.
"Ah…Ah—you did it? That dragon—its gone?" Gilbert asked, glancing around as if afraid the beast might pop out again.
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"Done and dusted," Finn casually confirmed, brushing the dust from his shoulder.
It hardly looked to be such a nonchalant affair, considering the burnt, smashed state of the forest with entire trees smashed like pancakes.
"So…You really did that? Crap, what kind of monster are you, man?" Gilbert asked with a hesitant laugh, staring at the smoldering remnants of the woodlands.
"It's dealt with. Anyway, do you have any information on this place?" Finn asked, simply sheathing his daggers as he questioned the ranger.
"Right down to business…? You're something else," Gilbert sighed, ruffling his own curly locks.
With the smoke clearing up above, he looked up, finding a peculiar scenery awaiting. The sky was absent, instead made up of a conglomerate of square gateways, each peering into different sceneries—
Volcanic wastelands, medieval kingdoms ruled by magic, dystopian cities built of steel, hollow worlds with husks wandering, and even rifts of space drifting with lonely rocks.
"What…is all of that?" Finn asked, staring at that boundless sea of living sceneries.
"Not sure myself. That dragon—it came through one of those holes. Didn't look like it knew what had even happened or where it was," Gilbert answered, scratching his head.
"They're portals. Are those all different worlds, then?" Finn questioned.
"Different worlds? Guess that would add up…" Gilbert added, shuddering at that idea.
He stood there, gazing off into the distance, checking to the right, finding distant mountains, to the left finding more of the same. It was difficult to tell just what led to where, seeing as the entire world he stood in was a mystery in itself.
'At least the First Order had some sort of sense of direction…I don't know the first thing about this place,' he thought to himself.