blogombal Chapter 460: Fighting A Strong Monster (1)
Chapter 460: Fighting A Strong Monster (1)
Amon moved.
BOOM!!
The ground beneath his feet shattered violently as he kicked off the earth with explosive force.
Cracks spread across the forest floor while dirt and broken stones burst outward in all directions.
A dark blur shot through the forest.
At this moment, it was night.
Darkness covered the entire Whispering Woods while moonlight barely reached the ground through the countless trees above.
And for Amon—
This environment was perfect.
His ability, Death’s Darkness, became significantly stronger during nighttime. The surrounding darkness naturally strengthened him while shadow mana continuously flowed around his body like a living cloak.
Dark smoky trails followed behind him as he dashed forward at terrifying speed.
His black eyes remained fixed on the monster.
The creature was massive and heavy, but despite that, it was still unbelievably fast. Its long legs moved with monstrous power while the ground trembled beneath every movement.
Still compared to Amon right now.
It was slightly slower.
The monster reacted immediately.
ROARRR!!
One of its enormous clawed arms swung toward Amon with frightening force.
The claw tore through the air violently.
SWOOOOSH!!
The pressure alone caused nearby trees to bend sideways.
But Amon’s expression did not change.
Instead a smirk appeared on his face.
His left arm suddenly moved.
The darkness-covered hatchet left his hand instantly.
FWOOOSH!!
The weapon spun rapidly through the air while darkness mana wrapped around it like black flames.
A dark trajectory formed behind the spinning hatchet as it cut across the forest.
CLANG!!
The hatchet slammed directly against the monster’s claw.
A loud metallic sound exploded outward.
Sparks mixed together with darkness mana while the impact slightly pushed the claw away from its original direction.
The monster’s pale eyes widened slightly.
At that exact moment Amon arrived.
His sword already moved.
Darkness gathered around the blade violently.
[Umbral Veil Sword Art: First Form — Crescent of Dusk]
SHIIIIING!!
A horizontal slash cut through the air.
A massive black crescent arc burst forward from his sword while darkness mana surged wildly around it.
The attack tore through trees along its path while racing directly toward the monster.
But the creature reacted instantly.
BOOOOM!!
Both its gigantic arms smashed heavily against the ground.
The entire forest shook violently.
Then, the earth rose.
Massive walls of stone and dirt erupted upward before the monster like a defensive fortress.
The black crescent collided against the earth wall head-on.
BAAAAAAM!!
A huge explosion echoed throughout the forest.
Darkness mana exploded wildly while pieces of rock shattered apart and flew everywhere.
The collision generated powerful shockwaves that uprooted nearby trees instantly.
A thick cloud of dust spread through the surroundings.
Amon narrowed his eyes while moving rapidly through the smoke.
"So it can manipulate earth..."
That alone already made the monster far more dangerous.
Most monsters relied only on brute strength and instinct.
But this creature clearly possessed abilities beyond simple physical attacks.
Suddenly.
CRASH!!
One enormous claw burst out from the smoke cloud directly toward Amon’s head.
The speed was terrifying.
Amon twisted his body midair immediately.
The claw barely missed his face by inches.
The pressure from the swing alone cut several strands of his black hair.
Before he could fully stabilize himself.
Another claw arrived from below.
The monster moved surprisingly fast despite its enormous size.
Amon’s eyes sharpened.
Darkness surged beneath his feet.
Shadow Step.
His body vanished into darkness instantly.
BOOM!!
The claw smashed through the place where he had been moments earlier, completely destroying the ground.
Amon reappeared several meters away atop a broken tree trunk.
His breathing remained calm.
His black cloak of darkness moved softly around him while smoky trails continuously escaped from his body.
The monster slowly stepped out from the smoke cloud now.
Moonlight finally illuminated its grotesque appearance completely.
The black crescent slash had partially destroyed the earth wall defense and left a long wound across one of the monster’s arms.
Dark gray blood slowly dripped down from the injury.
But the wound was not deep enough.
The creature stared at Amon silently.
Its pale glowing eyes now carried clear hostility.
Amon rolled his shoulder slightly.
"...You’re tougher than I expected."
ROOOAAARRR!!
The monster roared again before suddenly charging forward.
THUMP!!
THUMP!!
THUMP!!
The ground shook violently beneath its footsteps while trees snapped apart from its massive body.
Amon didn’t retreat.
He ran straight toward it.
His boots hit the ground in rapid succession, closing the distance between himself and the creature with reckless, deliberate speed.
A grin pulled slowly at the corner of his mouth — not from madness, not from some hollow love of destruction, but from something older and more honest than either of those things.
This feeling.
This pressure bearing down on him from the creature ahead, the way the air itself seemed to grow heavier the closer he got — it reminded him of the island.
Of fighting with nothing but a blade and instinct and the narrow edge between living and dying. His blood moved faster through his veins. His body sharpened in a way it only ever did when the stakes were real.
This was the only way he could truly measure how far he had come.
The monster didn’t wait for him.
It raised both claws high and brought them crashing down simultaneously.
BOOOOM!!
The impact split the ground open. Stone and earth exploded outward in every direction, a shockwave of pure force that tore through the surrounding trees and reduced them to splinters in an instant.
But Amon was already moving — he dropped low, sliding beneath one of the descending claws as mana flooded through his body, sharpening his reflexes, reinforcing his muscles, pushing his speed just past the threshold of what the attack could catch.
He came up inside the creature’s range.
His sword flashed upward in one clean motion.
SHING!!
The blade carved a deep gash across the monster’s side. Dark blood sprayed outward in a wide arc, and for a single moment Amon thought he had the opening, thought he could chain the next strike before the creature recovered.
He was wrong.
The tail came from behind without warning. He felt the displacement of air before he saw it, and that instinct was the only thing that saved him, he got his sword up just in time.
CLANG!!
The impact hit like a battering ram.
The force launched him backward violently, his body crashing through one tree, then another, then a third before he finally hit the ground and skidded several meters through the dirt, one hand pressing down to slow himself.
He came to a stop in a low crouch, arms burning from the impact, fingers tight around his sword grip.
He shook out his arm once.
"...Damn."
That was not a normal tail strike. The raw power behind it was absurd. A monster with physical strength like that and mana control on top of it was a genuinely ugly combination.
The creature gave him no time to think further.
It raised one claw toward the sky. Mana surged around it. Dense and earth-flavored, heavy with pressure. Amon felt the ground beneath his feet begin to tremble.
His eyes sharpened.
He moved.
BOOOOM!!
Massive stone spikes erupted from the earth exactly where he had been standing. They tore upward with savage force, each one thick as a tree trunk, bursting through soil and rock in rapid succession.
One of them clipped the air beside his shoulder close enough that he felt it graze the fabric of his sleeve.
He landed on a branch overhead and immediately leaped again as more spikes detonated beneath him in a chain.
CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!!
The forest was being unmade around them. Trees collapsed. The ground churned and split.
Amon moved between it all in a constant flowing motion, reading each eruption a half-second before it came, letting darkness mana run through his legs and keep him one step ahead.
He landed on a thick branch and steadied himself for just a moment.
"This thing is seriously dangerous."
He had fought Rank 3 monsters before. Most of them were already on the ground by this point in a fight. But this creature operated on a different level entirely.
Its physical power alone was a problem, and the earth manipulation turned every surface around him into a potential weapon. There was no safe ground here. Literally.
The monster’s attention locked back onto him.
Its jaw opened wide.
Something gathered deep in its throat. A dark, compressed glow that pulsed with building mana pressure.
Amon felt the danger register before his mind fully processed what he was looking at. His body was already responding, darkness surging harder through his veins, flooding every limb with reinforcement.
The monster fired.
BOOOOOOM!!
The beam that left its mouth was not a breath attack. It was a cannon shot, a concentrated column of compressed earth mana that detonated everything in its path the instant it made contact. Trees didn’t fall. They ceased to exist.
The ground didn’t crack. It erupted. A straight line of absolute obliteration tore through the forest in less than a second, and the shockwave alone was enough to flatten everything within ten meters of the beam’s path.
The beam passed through empty air where he had been standing.
He moved through the dust and came directly behind the creature, landing without sound, one hand already raised.
His expression had gone calm. The grin from earlier was gone. What replaced it was something quieter and considerably more dangerous.
The focused, narrow look of someone who had finished reading the situation and arrived at a conclusion.
"Let’s try this."