Chapter 135: The Lands Between
Nobody knew what the creatures that existed in the Lands Between truly were. All they knew was that the wisest decision someone could make was to avoid them.
Unfortunately for Dadonus, this was not a possibility, as the creature came barreling towards him.
It was a massive, gorilla-like creature, charging forward on all fours. Its muscles were huge, but its body was not fully solid. Its skin looked like black smoke stretched over a powerful frame, tearing and reforming as it moved. Long arms slammed into the ground with each step, and its fingers ended in sharp, uneven claws.
Its face was the most disturbing part. It was still shaped like a gorilla’s, but split completely down the middle, with a wide mouth full of jagged teeth that didn’t quite fit together. Its eyes glowed faintly, and it had too many of them, scattered across its brow and cheeks.
As it ran straight toward Dadonus, its body flickered between solid and shadow, like it couldn’t decide what it was. Each step made a deep, unnatural thud, and the air around it seemed to twist, as if the world itself didn’t want it there.
Dadonus had to act fast, or the creature would crush even him.
He leapt into the air, so high that he seemed to be flying. But he knew the creatures well. They could jump too.
The gorilla-like creature leapt into the air, chasing after him. Both of its muscular arms were outstretched as it glided towards him, as though it wanted to pull the man into a vicious hug.
Dadonus wouldn’t let it.
Wasting no time, he pointed a finger at the creature and activated his skill: Gravitic Hold.
Suddenly, a colourless force field appeared around the gorilla, and it was left stuck in mid-air. The brutish creature struggled against the strange power that it had found itself trapped within, but no matter how much it moved, the force field did not budge.
Dadonus’s eyes began to bleed from holding the skill.
It seems that I’m rusty, he thought to himself, whilst still floating in the air. Never mind. It doesn’t matter.
"You will return to the ground."
As the cool words left his mouth, the gorilla creature was suddenly slammed into the ground, as if it had suddenly weighed a thousand tons.
The crater that it left from the impact was large, and if there were others in the Lands Between, they would hear the sound of the force from miles away.
Dadonus landed gracefully on the ground, immediately preparing his next skill. He knew that was not enough to finish such a creature.
If he had to guess, it was at least level 50.
He was right. The gorilla creature crawled out of the crater and immediately started barreling towards Dadonus again, this time faster than before. The beast managed to close the distance before Dadonus could stop it.
With its hands clasped together, the gorilla lifted its arms and attempted to slam them down powerfully on Dadonus’s head.
Luckily, the fallen god lifted his right hand in time, deflecting the blow off to the side and allowing it to slam into the ground instead. The gorilla’s fists cracked the ground, causing a small quake.
Unfortunately for the creature, both of its fists were momentarily stuck in the ground. That second was long enough for Dadonus to take advantage of.
Widening his stance, he threw a palm strike aimed at the gorilla’s abdomen. It was empowered by multiple skills, so if it landed, he knew it would rupture several organs.
But before the strike landed, the gorilla’s body became hard as steel, as though activating a skill itself. It was still struck, but rather than taking any physical damage, it simply slid along the floor on its feet from the impact.
The gorilla with ten eyes looked towards Dadonus, and at that moment, it seemed to have a smile on its split face.
"You are very ugly," the purple-haired god said. "I don’t want to look at you anymore."
Dadonus was done with trying to fight the beast in a physical fight. Being someone who had dedicated most of his level-ups to awakening class skills rather than fighter skills, this was not his domain.
So, he activated another skill before the gorilla could approach him again.
He knew that this would require a lot of mana, which was dangerous. He had only just returned to the physical world recently, so his mana supply was still low.
But he saw no other way to end the battle with certainty.
"You will never leave this," Dadonus said as he activated Endless Capture.
Suddenly, thick chains wrapped themselves around the gorilla’s body. They were so tight that it struggled to move.
Dadonus took a few steps back and watched as the gorilla struggled against the chains.
Its muscles rippled with such ferocious strength that its skin began to tear from their expansion.
Then, a chain link broke. Then another, then another.
The gorilla broke free with a triumphant look on its face. Yet when it looked over at his opponent, it was confused by his unreadiness to fight.
Thinking that it would get a free chance to kill him, the gorilla charged forward again - or at least it tried to.
After taking one step, the previously destroyed chains reformed themselves and restrained the gorilla creature just as they had before.
It struggled and struggled once more, using all of its power to break free.
It succeeded!
Once freed, it tried to attack his opponent again, but a single step found it back in the chains again.
The purple-haired god looked at the gorilla with an indifferent look on his face.
"I told you, you will never leave this."
He approached the gorilla and watched as it struggled. Unfortunately, it had used a lot of energy to break free the previous times, and this time wasn’t fast enough.
Dadonus dashed forward and activated Trapbreaker Strike, a skill that amplified his physical output against those trapped in any of his skills.
He used his fingers to strike the gorilla in its head. His hand cracked through the creature’s skull and pierced its brain.
He withdrew his hand, which was slick with colourless gore, and watched as the gorilla fell to the ground.
Then, he felt something ping in his mind.
"Wow," he said, already heading towards where he knew Adal was waiting for him. "I leveled up."
