Chapter 201: Ahhhh
Azaroth felt the essence pressure settle over them, and he frowned slightly because it was indeed an intense pressure, but that’s only if he’s stronger than them. Right now, all the pressure was doing was irritating him.
Before he could do anything about it, Catena shoved the essence pressure away with his own, careful to only use Initiate-level power, but even that was enough as the essence was lifted away immediately.
Rik staggered, not in surprise, but in shock from getting his essence pressure countered by a stronger Awakener. His team and Blac could feel what was going on, and the shock on their faces remained the same.
Blac smirked and slowly began to move backwards, gesturing for the warriors to do so as well. He took the darkness already around them and made it thicker and stronger. He whispered, "We don’t want to be among them when they face off."
Although technically, Blac is just as strong as Rik, he didn’t like fighting. Unless they called him in, of course.
The woman and the whole patrol climbed down and gathered behind Rik, their faces serious and hard. Rik brought out his sword, an enchanted longsword that began to glow red like molten metal. "Who are you? Why are you pretending to be someone else? Show your true self!" Rik demanded.
They were amused. The prison must have really messed with them if they found it so unbelievable that teens their age could be Initiate-level Awakeners. Or maybe even in the real world it might have drawn some eyes.
Azaroth finally stood. "I am leader of the warrior band. And this is my team. Do you want death? If you don’t, then get yourself out of here."
The patrol warriors stiffened. Leader? Death? Their eyes flashed with anger, and Rik raised his face in their direction. He released the power gathered in his eyes, and it tore out in a howling, rolling, twisting ball of fire and light.
Azaroth jumped up as his team scattered, and by the time he reached the ground, the attack had formed a smoking crater in the ground. "So you chose death."
"You dodged that, impressive. How about this!" Rik raised his glowing longsword up, and it flared as he began to bring it down, releasing the power stored there.
Azaroth gathered essence in his legs and pushed against the ground, propelling himself forward into Rik’s face. He then kicked out softly, and his leg stopped the downward momentum of the longsword.
Rik’s eyes widened as the sword he was supposed to bring down stopped midair with the boy’s leg holding it up. His eyes flashed with anger and fear because he’d already released the power he was gathering in the sword.
In that split second before the power fully released, he used his strength to try and bring the sword down anyway, but it was like trying to push against a rock. Not wanting to be caught in it, Rik released his hold on the sword and jumped backwards towards his comrades, and a shield dome covered them.
But it was too late for Azaroth to avoid it, and the sword shone with silver blinding light that threatened to turn all it touched to ashes. Azaroth knew he couldn’t avoid it, so he did the only thing he thought of at that moment.
He covered his hands with essence, both Chaos and fire essence, and then he quickly gripped the sword before the power fully detached. It was like holding pure fire or lightning, and if he hadn’t been using that much essence, it would have burned his hands to ashes.
Azaroth gritted his teeth as he used his weight to spin the sword around, and then he slashed! A bright, intensely ripping flash of light and heat, pure white, formed a crescent shape in the air that shot forward and slammed into the shield.
The dome shield rippled like a water bubble, and with a sharp crack, it crumbled. The attack from the sword still carried on, and with Rik dodging the head-on attack, it slammed into the patrol warrior behind him and cut him from the shoulder to part of his neck.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhg!" Thick with pain, the scream rose sharply in the air as the warrior gripped his right stump. Blood gushed from his neck and hand, and he rolled on the ground, which only made the blood flow faster and his wounds dirtier.
The four other patrol warriors froze as if they had never seen blood before, or a severed hand. Maybe never from their comrade, because they were usually the ones doing the cutting.
They finally sprang into action, but it was already too late because before they could do anything, the ground trembled and shook just before it erupted, and spikes of hardened earth jutted out in a rush.
The other patrol warriors avoided it, but the wounded one wasn’t so lucky, and with four spikes in his body, one in the lower back, another directly through his butt and out the other side, while the other two took the chest, he wasn’t left with much chance.
Catena stood beside Azaroth, his hand flat on the ground and his eyes flashing green. "Oh! I hoped to take the five of you in that! But oh well. We’ll be satisfied with that for now."
Rik and his team watched their wounded comrade in disbelieving shock. Just like that? They’d fought monsters more times than they could count, and now they had lost one of their own. Like that?
"You will regret this." Rik raised another sword from his waist, a normal one this time. And his team seemed to form some kind of formation beside him.
"What is that you’re holding?" Stallus asked.
Azaroth raised the sword, but for now the enchanted sword was just useless because it was in its cooldown. Still, its edge was sharp and would cut just as well. "A good loot," he replied to her.
