Both himself and Excelsior dashed into the monstrous abyss around them, taking on the varying creatures of Darkness with courage fueled by continued proximity to death itself.
As Emilio leapt up, he engulfed the length of his blade in bright, burning flames, providing light for himself as he slashed through the neck of a purple-skinned, wrinkled slug monster with ease. An abundance of sludgy blood sprayed from the decapitated creature, spilling like a grotesque rainfall as Emilio landed back down.
"--"
Glancing side-to-side, he was now in the belly of the beast; the darkness-dwelling creatures completely surrounded him in their horrific forms; clamping their teeth, wriggling their tendrils, snapping their fingers, smiling with humanoid expressions, growling with beast-like features–it was a hellish environment.
The only guide for him in the depths of the seemingly hopeless situation was the flaming sword he wielded and the trust he had in his comrade to follow through with her own duties.
'Alright…let's get this started,' he thought.
Driven to the brink of total exhaustion as all of his remaining mana was focusing on a perpetual, light healing force flooding through his body, mending his tired, aching bones and closing any wounds he made along the way, he continued hacking and slashing through the creatures without any mercy.
SQUELCH
Blood sprayed as though he meant to dye the shallow water in its color; he leapt up, spinning around as he cleaved through the head of a woman-faced, giant arachnid, causing bright-green blood to spill out.
An unknown amount of time passed as he moved purely on instinct, flipping around the continuous attacks from the dwellers of darkness, moving nimbly as he cut through the beings mercilessly.
The closeness with death, the tiredness of his body, both physically, mentally, and in the realm of mana, led his brain to adapt to this stress, foregoing all other thoughts but survival, this was–"The Zone".
He was completely drenched in the blood of the monstrosities, running along the spilled entrails of the inhuman creatures as he dashed forward, running between the dozens of tentacles of a squid-like entity.
With a picture-perfect, overhead slash, he cut the squid monster in half, splitting it down the middle as its gooey body fell apart. As he dealt with the creature, his guard was let down for a split-second–
"Nngh!"
Slamming against the left side of his body, a brutal impact crunched against his arm and ribs before knocking him back. As he slid against the bloodied, entrail-spilled water briefly, he flipped back to his feet before looking up at what had hit him.
"Ge-he-he-he…"
The man-like creature laughed quietly in a bellowing sound, standing as tall as a mature tree, covered from head-to-toe in mangy, oak-brown hair with fists the size of boulders.
As he stood there, listening to the noises of the seemingly endless creatures that still surrounded him, he found his fingers to be trembling against the handle of his weapon; his breaths were labored as his throat was burning, just as his lungs and stomach were. It wasn't any sort of fear, but only the mortal limitations of his own body.
Even yet, pushed to such lengths, those memories kept flooding through his mind–the fresh, painful scenes etched into his mind that kept him moving forward.
As he stomped down, fighting through the aching exhaustion that plagued him down to the marrow of his bones, he squeezed the handle of his sword tight enough that it felt as though he may snap it in half.
"Raaaaagh–!"
"Hrraaagh!"
In response to the sasquatch-like giant's roar that emitted its putrid breath in his direction, he let out a war cry of his own. Limited to the reach of his own body, unaided by magic in that moment, he dashed at the same time the fur-clad beastly humanoid stomped towards him.
"Raaagh–!!!"
As it slammed its burly fists downward, he ducked down and slid across the bloody puddle, avoiding being crushed as he dodged straight between the colossus' legs.
"Hrrgh!"
He slashed twice, tugging the edge of his sword across the achilles' heel of both of the beast's feet, splitting it open and causing the tall, aggressive figure to fall down. Just as it fell, he didn't waste a moment turning around and hopping on its body, sprinting across its burly back as if running across a field of brown grass.
SQUELCH
He jumped up and landed, plunging his blade into the sasquatch monster's skull before pulling it out, rushing forward again without any time to stop after felling one creature. A squid creature sprayed bullets of ink in his direction, forcing him to duck and weave, sliding across the water and even deflecting a few projectiles before bisecting the monster cleanly.
"Ngh–!"
There was no telling how much time he passed slaughtering the masses of those which dwelled in the shadows, standing upon a hill of corpses, caked in blood of different shades and hard of breath, though still standing.
[Level Up!]
[Level 54 Achieved]
[New Skill(s) Acquired: Sapphire Whelp]
Wiping blood that he wasn't sure was his or not from his mouth, he looked around, still finding the scenery around him, only kept alit by the flame-coated sword he held, was occupied by monstrosities.
'At this point, even summoning one of my Soulbounds is out of the question at my current mana levels. I've healed myself enough times to die a hundred times over by now,' he thought.
Even as his body ached and trembled, yearning to slump over and pass out each and every moment, seeing the flickers of light in the impossible-to-perceive distance of the abyss, knowing his fellow Reincarnator was still fighting her hardest, he found the will to keep pushing.
"Hff…!"
Exhaling sharply, he flexed his body as he invoked a skill he seldom wanted to use in such a condition, but found it necessary as the lurking monstrosities began closing in, seeming to smell the weakness on him.
["Overheat"]
His internal temperature skyrocketed as his body was used like an oven, stoking a heat within him that caused steam to press through his pores and his complexion to redden. At the same time, his muscles were forcibly refined and bulkened, strained with painful veins that pressed against his heated skin.
It was a forceful overclocking of his own body, tapping into the draconic strength of his higher stages without actually having the necessary stamina to invoke them. The result was a temporary, taxing form that increased his muscle mass considerably, but felt as though his muscles were tearing themselves apart and his skin aflame.
Of course, such a risky transformation invoked by the skill was fleeting; he was forced to act quickly as he burst forward with tremendous power in his legs, allowing him to propel towards his enemies.
"Hraaagh!"
With a single swipe of his sword, the edge of his blade cleaved through the bodies of multiple creatures of the dark; through the abdomen of a giant, roach monster, the body of a six-armed, humanoid, and a creature that resembled a reverse centaur.
The boost to his physical abilities wasn't anything insignificant; a mighty blow that even knocked back many of the creatures behind the ones he had cut down, however, the side-effects were already being felt–
"Nn…!"
Standing there after performing the massive slash, he felt his muscles contract as if being squeezed by an unknown force, causing him to falter for a moment. In that brief moment of weakness, the creatures preyed on it, lunging on it.
"--Stand strong!"
Piercing through the overwhelming darkness like a shining beacon, a burst of light along with a yell came through, blitzing through the creatures before him with a dazzling light.
Excelsior arrived upon the monsters she had slew with her light-bearing sword, breathing out as she looked back at him while standing upon a hill of colossal corpses, "You're not done yet, are we?"
For a moment, he had to find his breath again through his strained body before holding a smile, wiping the sweat from his chin, "I'm just getting started."
"Good!"
Side-by-side, the two Reincarnators fought tooth-and-nail against the endless swarm of abyssal creatures. Though they hadn't known each other long, there was already complete trust in one another's lives.
"Nn…!"
Struck by the blunt force of a purple, hairy, slug creature with massive tentacles, Excelsior fell off her balance. It was clear she was already fighting on her last legs, but the blow stunned her, allowing the slug monster to close in for a lethal strike–
"Hraaagh!"
Intercepting the swarm of tentacles, Emilio got in front of the silver-haired woman before unleashing consecutive strikes, cutting through the limbs of the nightly creature. Tired himself, a few strikes slipped through his own defense, striking him multiple times in the torso before he finally broke through the slug's rapid attacks, stabbing his blade straight through its head.
"Hff…" He exhaled tiredly.
It didn't take more than a few seconds before there was visible, purple bruising on his body, affecting his ribs as he slowly backed up, regrouping with his ally. From the beginning of the encounter, undoubtedly hours had passed. As hard as they both had tried, all of their effort led to there still being an endless parade of horrific monsters all around them, with no end in sight of the overwhelming darkness.
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