Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP

Chapter 391: Radiance

The deeper I descended into this strange darkness, the greater the pressure became.

The pressure kept building around me, weighing down my limbs and dulling my speed.

The wolf, however, moved as freely as it had at the start of the fight

Another realization followed immediately afterward.

This space was behaving like an ocean.

Not literally, of course. There was no water, no currents, and I could still breathe normally. But the deeper I went, the greater the resistance acting on my body became, much like descending into deeper and deeper water.

Strange. This space was acting like an ocean, yet it wasn’t one.

I frowned and tried something else, activating [Flame Orb] in the hope that it would at least give me some light. A sphere of fire formed in my palm, but the moment it appeared, the darkness swallowed it whole, snuffing it out as though it had never existed.

The flame didn’t sputter out naturally. It was simply extinguished, as though something had smothered it the moment it came into existence.

And the alpha chose that exact moment to attack again.

I felt it before I heard it.

The creature surged toward me through the darkness and unleashed a barrage of slashes far more powerful than before, the force behind them noticeably greater than the attacks it had launched near the entrance.

The strikes hammered against me repeatedly.

But ultimately...

They were useless.

Every slash was diverted by [Fractured Reality], the distorted space around my body turning potentially lethal attacks into harmless near misses.

I clicked my tongue and tried using [Flame Orb] again, but the result was exactly the same. The fire appeared for the briefest moment before being swallowed by the darkness, vanishing as though it had never existed.

That was interesting.

The space wasn’t suppressing skills entirely. I could still use Blood Slash, my ice-based abilities worked without issue, and even [Deathroot] remained available. Yet anything related to flames was extinguished the instant it manifested, as if this place itself rejected fire.

I had a feeling that defeating the wolf alone wasn’t going to solve this.

The creature was dangerous, certainly, but the real problem seemed to be the darkness itself.

Down here, the alpha was practically untouchable.

Every time I managed to react in time or predict where it would strike from, it vanished at the last possible moment. There was no sound to track, no scent to follow, and no visible movement to react to.

And with this darkness swallowing everything around me, there was no way to determine its location before it attacked.

This flows better and removes a lot of the repetition:

I couldn’t even use [Warp]. The skill required sight, and sight was the one thing this place had taken from me.

[Leap] was still an option. I could faintly sense my marks from within this strange space and connect to them whenever I wanted.

But leaving wasn’t something I was willing to consider.

If I escaped now, the alpha could simply continue hunting from the shadows. Worse, it might decide Ariel was the easier target and drag her into this place instead.

Retreating wasn’t the answer.

Which left me with a very irritating problem.

I couldn’t see my enemy. I couldn’t properly track its location. And with every passing moment, the pressure of this darkness grew heavier, slowing my movements as I continued to sink.

Another slash raked across my shoulder.

Then another tore across my side, followed immediately by multiple sets of jaws snapping at me from the darkness.

None of the attacks caused any real damage thanks to [Fractured Reality], but that wasn’t the point.

The wolf wasn’t trying to kill me anymore.

It was studying me.

Testing my limits. Looking for an opening.

And the longer this dragged on, the more obvious it became that this environment was designed entirely in its favor.

I was a sitting duck at this point.

If this continued much longer, [Fractured Reality] would eventually burn through my mana reserves from constantly deflecting attacks, and once that happened, things would become far more dangerous.

So I needed to act.

The alpha wolf seemed to have reached a similar conclusion.

Its attacks had accomplished nothing so far. Every slash, every ambush, every charge had been rendered useless by my passive defense.

That didn’t concern me.

What concerned me was the possibility that it would simply stop targeting me altogether.

And go after Ariel instead.

That possibility alone was enough to make me move.

I opened my system interface and rapidly scrolled through my available skills, searching for something that could turn the situation around.

Most of them weren’t useful here.

Then one immediately caught my eye.

And I grinned.

One of the three divine skills the Overseer had granted me.

[Divine Skills]

Hand of the Raging Sun: Your hand becomes an instrument of divine wrath, enveloped in searing solar fire. Each strike channels the fury of the sun itself, capable of incinerating corruption and burning through even the toughest defenses. The flames grow stronger against entities tainted by darkness or malice.

This flows more naturally while keeping your intent and tone:

My eyes lingered on the final sentence.

The flames grow stronger against entities tainted by darkness.

This was perfect.

I stretched my hand forward, and the skill activated instantly.

A sphere of white fire bloomed above my palm, brilliant and radiant, unlike any flame I had ever wielded before. It wasn’t merely fire but pure, overwhelming light, and the moment it appeared, the surrounding darkness recoiled as though it had encountered its natural enemy.

For the first time since being dragged into this place, I could actually see.

The black void around me rippled violently as the white radiance expanded outward, illuminating everything within its reach and forcing the shadows back.

And there it was.

The alpha wolf.

My eyes widened slightly as I finally got a proper look at it.

The creature was enormous, far larger than any of the wolves outside, and unlike the others, it possessed three heads, each one staring directly at the sphere of divine fire in my hand.

Its body was far larger than I had imagined, hidden within the darkness until now. Black fur covered its frame like living shadows, while six glowing eyes stared directly at the sphere in my hand with fear. Genuine fear.

The wolf immediately began shifting backward, its massive body retreating deeper into the darkness while the shadows around it writhed as if trying to shield it from the light.

I could tell what it was thinking.

It wanted to run.

But that wasn’t going to happen.