Chapter 504: Black Mist
Chapter 504: Black Mist
"Despicable goblins, you only managed to capture the great Lepri with your traps." A deep, raspy voice echoed from the ancient minotaur.
"This time, you will all die!"
The minotaur spoke in the ancient common tongue. As a wizard, Rayne had some knowledge of it and could understand it easily.
"Why do you harbor such resentment towards goblins?"
However, Rayne was not panicked by the situation of facing multiple enemies. Before deciding to enter the prison, he had already considered how to handle a potential ambush.
So.
Rayne suddenly raised his hand and slapped the ground forcefully.
"Steel Forest!"
In the next instant, dense Dark Silver ripples spread like waves from Rayne, engulfing the entire corridor in front and behind him.
Since this was a floating city, the floors of each level were almost entirely metal, though permanently solidified. However, the concentration of metal energy particles in the subspace was significantly higher than normal.
This was why the power of Rayne's metal-based spells was not only unweakened but also about ten percent stronger than usual.
"Swish! Swish!"
Sharp, jagged shrubs and thorns, gleaming with a Dark Silver luster, sprouted from the ground and grew rapidly!
"Moo~"
Seeming to sense a threat, the ancient minotaur, with black mist swirling around his face, snorted loudly. Two white gusts of air shot out from his nostrils, extending nearly two meters, and his thick black hooves lifted and slammed down forcefully!
"Boom!!"
A shockwave several meters in diameter spread from the point of impact.
Though it only covered a small area, it disrupted the growth of the thorns within that region, breaking the flow of Rayne's dawn spell.
"Hmm~"
Rayne was quite surprised by this!
To achieve this, the opponent must have had epic-level strength.
And then, something even more surprising happened!
At the other end of the corridor, the female goblin interrogator, clad in tight leather armor, suddenly accelerated, leaving a trail of afterimages behind.
"Hmm? Such incredible speed!"
"Completely different from the stiff and wooden movements of the goblin engineers and mechadactyl operators I encountered earlier." Rayne's eyebrows raised as he thought to himself.
While it made sense for the ancient minotaur to have reached epic-level strength, the female goblin interrogator's speed being so swift was highly unusual, a stark contrast to the rigid movements of the goblin engineers and mechadactyl operators.
This left Rayne momentarily puzzled.
But one thing Rayne was certain of was that the black mist had at least preserved the skin, muscles, and tendons that should have long since decayed.
"Was she an epic-level warrior in life, or has she been enhanced by the black mist?"
"Wait, could this black mist enhance specific attributes?"
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Rayne like lightning in the dark!
"The female goblin interrogator likely has a thief-like agility, while the minotaur has immense strength." Rayne's eyes brightened.
Against Rayne's dawn spell 'Steel Forest,' a ranged spell, the female goblin interrogator's speed was a perfect counter.
No matter how fast she moved, as long as she was within the range of the Dark Silver metal ripples, she would be attacked.
There was no escape!
Sure enough.
"Thud!"
A cactus-like spike shot up from the ground, piercing the female goblin interrogator from below and impaling her in mid-air.
But on the other side, another unexpected situation arose.
As Rayne's metal ripples approached the human necromancer, the necromancer suddenly raised a hand, and the Dark Silver ripples, like a stream encountering a rock, flowed around it.
Although the necromancer was pushed backward by the powerful energy of the metal ripples, he managed to resist.
"Hmm? Dawn Wizard's strength?"
"Enhanced by the black mist as well?"
"No, the power of a wizard's spells comes from psi energy, and it's uncertain whether the black mist can enhance that."
Rayne recalled the white-coated goblin corpse in the workshop. Although the goblin was an engineering expert, it was clear from how he activated the golems that he was also a wizard.
However, at the time, the goblin's response was very limited, showing no signs of spell enhancement.
The most crucial point was that both the ancient minotaur and the goblin interrogator were shrouded in black mist, while the human necromancer and the white-coated goblin were not, showing no significant black mist.
There was a significant difference.
Rayne's area-of-effect dawn spell, 'Steel Forest,' yielded little to no results. The only gain, perhaps, was immobilizing the female goblin interrogator.
At that moment, the ancient minotaur's counterattack began.
"Moo!!!"
"Lepri will crush you, you sneaky, backstabbing scoundrels!"
The ancient minotaur roared and swiftly lowered his waist, raising his elbow. He aimed his intact, sharp horn at Rayne and charged forward, his speed increasing. The momentum was like a herd of wild bulls galloping across the plains, unstoppable!
Meanwhile,
The withered human wizard raised his hand and aimed at Rayne, his body pulsating with metallic energy.
Sharp, meter-long spikes began to materialize in the air around him, their numbers growing by the second.
On the other side of the corridor,
The female goblin interrogator, who had been impaled and suspended in mid-air, suddenly drew her whip from her waist. She lashed it at the prison bars, pulled hard, and used the leverage to free herself from the metal spikes.
Though she dragged out a lot of black blood, her movements remained agile.
She kicked off with her short legs and charged at Rayne again. Her whip, now free from the bars, lashed out like a serpent, aiming for Rayne.
"It seems I have to make contact", Rayne thought. Due to the unknown properties of the black mist, he had been avoiding close combat with enemies tainted by it.
But this time, he had little choice.
Faced with attacks from both sides, Rayne's arms suddenly swelled several times in size, with Dark Silver scales appearing on their surface. The most significant change was in his hands, which had transformed into sharp, clawed appendages several centimeters long.
Rayne chose to undergo a partial dragon lineage transformation.
The high resistance granted by his dragon bloodline was a crucial factor in his confidence to engage in hand-to-hand combat without fear of the mysterious black mist.
"Clang!!!"
The sharp horn and the sharp dragon claws collided, sparks flying, and a metallic clanging sound echoed.
Instantly, the ancient minotaur's powerful charge was halted by Rayne's massive dragon claw, which single-handedly blocked the attack. Despite the minotaur's powerful black hooves trying to push through, the dragon claw held firm.
"Break!!!"
Rayne roared, his dragon-clawed arm muscles bulging. He single-handedly lifted the charging ancient minotaur and hurled him away.
The minotaur's muscular body flew backward like a cannonball, crashing into the human wizard who was still casting a spell. Both of them tumbled to the ground like rolling logs.
The numerous metal spikes that had been poised around the human wizard lost their energy and clattered to the ground with a series of 'ding ding dang' sounds.
"Snap!"
A sharp cracking sound of a whip came from the other side.
The wind rushed toward Rayne!
But Rayne was prepared. He had kept one dragon claw free to deal with the female goblin interrogator's attack.
As the whip lashed at him like a bolt of lightning, Rayne's dragon claw reached out and grabbed it firmly. He then pulled with all his might, dragging the goblin toward him.
Whether due to the influence of the black mist or something else, she refused to let go.
This allowed Rayne to easily overpower her and, like a discus thrower, flung her at the recently risen minotaur and human wizard.
"Thud!!!"
The female goblin, though small, was solid and heavy. Rayne's throw was powerful, and the three of them collided and rolled on the ground again.
As they struggled to get back up, a buzzing sound suddenly filled the air.
It sounded like something was spinning at high speed!
From their perspective, a several-meter-long line was streaking toward them at lightning speed.
But from the side, it was clear:
It was a Dark Silver Metal Disk with a bright edge, flying vertically and aiming straight for the three of them.
"Slice! Slice!"
A series of slicing sounds echoed.
The female goblin interrogator, the ancient minotaur, and even the withered human wizard—all three bodies of different sizes—froze in place.
This silence lasted for about a second before changes began to occur.
The female goblin interrogator's body was cut into three uneven pieces. Her head and upper body fell to the ground, and her buttocks, which she had been bending to pick herself up, were cut off separately. Only her two short legs remained standing.
Due to her awkward position when the 'Blade Disk' sliced through her, the cut was not graceful.
The ancient minotaur was much neater in its demise. Its massive body had been cleanly split into two halves, almost evenly divided. The intact horn on its head, which curved and extended outward, had also been sheared off.
Now, both horns were broken.
As for the final human wizard, since they were not aligned with the minotaur and the female goblin, they were only partially decapitated, retaining most of their body's integrity.
"Thud!"
As the withered human wizard's body hit the ground, Rayne remained motionless, not moving to check on the wizard. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and looked ahead with an even more solemn expression.
Because at that moment.
Two plumes of black mist began to rise from the remains of the ancient minotaur and the female goblin interrogator, intertwining quickly into a larger, swirling mass of black mist.
Then, from the half-severed head of the human wizard, a black beetle seemed to respond to some unseen call, transforming into a black arc of light and merging into the swirling black mist.
With the black beetle's addition, the black mist churned even more violently, like a raging inferno. Something strange was roiling within the black mist.
Suddenly, a black claw emerged from the mist!
Rayne focused his gaze and saw that the claw resembled an eagle's talon, thin but exceptionally sharp and powerful. It was entirely black, with a thick layer of black mist swirling around it, as if it were a claw reaching out from hell.
This single claw was just the beginning of the black mist's transformation. Soon, another black claw emerged.
"An eagle? Some kind of raptor form?"
But the next moment, Rayne's guess was proven wrong.
From the black mist, four black scythe-like limbs, similar to a mantis' forelimbs, rapidly extended, positioned around what appeared to be the creature's chest.
"Arms turned into scythes?"
At this point, Rayne no longer needed to guess.
The entire form of the creature was now visible, emerging from the black mist.
Rayne became even more cautious.
This was the first time he had seen such a terrifying monster. It had no arms, only four black scythes on each side, black claws for legs, and a head covered in spikes and a mouth filled with sharp, jagged teeth. Black mist enveloped its body, making it appear almost ethereal.
This was a creature that should not exist in the real world, as if some abstract being had materialized before Rayne's eyes.
Moreover, from the moment the creature appeared, Rayne's instincts screamed danger. Since becoming a Dawn Wizard, the last time he had felt such a strong sense of threat was when he faced the ancient fire dragon, Anguskim.
"Could it be that this monster is as formidable as Anguskim?"
"Indeed, this black mist is a serious problem."
"It must have been this black mist that caused the fall of the ancient goblin empire's capital."
Before Rayne could ponder further, the black monster launched an attack.
"Hisss~"
The creature unleashed a chilling roar, a sound so ghastly it seemed to disturb the mind. At the same time, its sharp claws pierced the metal floor with each step, moving with incredible speed. As it approached Rayne, it suddenly spewed a conical cloud of black mist at him.
"Chh!"
By this time, multiple parts of Rayne's body had transformed into a dragon. His neck sprouted a Void Dragon Head and a Red Dragon Head.
In response to the black mist, Rayne unleashed his own dragon breath!
"Roar!!!"
"Flame Breath!" A searing ball of fire erupted from the Red Dragon Head, rapidly expanding to engulf half the corridor in a blazing inferno.
"Void Breath!" The Void Dragon Head simultaneously expelled a pale blue void flame, sweeping toward the creature.
"Boom!!!"
The black mist collided violently with the two dragon breaths, sending a hurricane-like shockwave through the corridor.
Suddenly, a several-meter-tall black figure leaped from the smoke, its four scythe-like limbs slicing down at Rayne in rapid succession!
Rayne's dragon claws cut through the air, striking back at the creature!
"Zzz~"
Rayne's dragon claws struck the creature's black-scaled body, causing sparks to fly. The creature's body was as strong as specialized alloy, considering it had just been a mass of black mist moments ago.
In contrast, Rayne's body now bore a shallow but noticeable gash, with a few Dark Silver dragon scales cracked, though not bleeding. This was enough to make anyone familiar with the situation gape in shock!
Because, in terms of physical strength, Rayne's dragon form was now slightly at a disadvantage compared to the creature.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
