"Zax, remember that we are not here to fight. We gotta find Liu quickly and run!" Adam said.
"I know that," Zax replied briefly, but she was not sure of anything.
The situation could be only described as dire, and that was true even if the fact that Zax was giftless and Adam's power wasn't limitless were ignored.
Adam was not stupid to not understand that Zax needed Cristal more than he did. Her previous armor was strong but it couldn't even be compared to Cristal.
"Cristal, distract the illusionist with Zax, and I will take care of the other guy. Our goal is to pass through them as fast as possible." Adam added.
It sounded so easy when he said it like that but the monsters alone were already frightening enough, to the point that if a normal person were in Zax's shoes, they would have passed out from fear.
And that was not all, the two gift holders in front of them could be anything than weak. Adam was certainly lucky to have Cristal and his almost unstoppable power, but there was no telling when he would run out of luck.
These two armored people stood on top of what looked like a gate, if someone could identify the structure like that, because the whole castle and the area around it already looked like it was in ruin for thousands of years.
"Dastre, did you run away from these kids?" The one who was called commander asked the person next to him as he looked at Adam and Zax.
"Don't let their appearance fool you. My sense told me that they are more dangerous than they appear to be." Dastre answered, he sounded like he tried to defend himself. "As I explained, the boy possesses a strange power… It might even be the same kind as the lord's." He added.
"…" The commander didn't say anything and looked like he thought about something. "Mm. He seems rather composed in front of this situation. Did he come all the way to save his lover? I can't say I dislike his courage, but he and his friends are just out of luck."
"You are right, after all, even without us, the Lord is invincible., Dastre commented.
"Well, there's no telling if he has guts or just stupid, because, even heroes run out of luck." The commander said as he looked at Adam and Zax rushing toward the castle.
Then, the commander reached his hand and said. "Go!" And as he did, the monsters rushed at Zax and Adam.
"Cristal, can you initiate combat mode with your current state?!"
"Yes, I can, but it wouldn't help much," Cristal replied.
Cristal was equipped with powerful weapons by normal human standards, but when it came to high-level monsters and gift holders, it couldn't even deliver a lethal blow.
Adam had already activated his power and the monsters were immobilized, but the other ones kept pushing forward. "That should be enough to distract the illusionist!" Adam shouted as he crushed the monsters that approached him.
Zax darted towards Dastre while avoiding the flying monsters. Cristal initiated the combat mode, and she turned into full body armor, covering Zax's body from head to toes.
Zax's hands turned into mana guns and three automated battle drones appeared from her back.
'Nanotechnology is sure convenient.' Zax thought. She knew that she had become a burden to Adam rather than a help, so as long as she could fight, she would give it her all.
The only person that Zax loved was her mother and Liu who reached out to her when she had nowhere else to go. So, as long as she could contribute to saving Liu, even a little bit, even if she couldn't do that much with her little hand, she wouldn't hesitate.
Piu! Piu!
Zax shot at the flying monsters that rushed towards her from every direction. There were big insects and even lesser wyverns.
"Leave those in the back to me," Cristal said to Zax.
"'Kay, let's do this!" Zax replied, trying to ignite her courage.
The suit and Cristal's high-level computation helped Zax to target the monsters' weak points with more accuracy.
Numerous patterns appeared inside of the suit's helmet, and Zax was intelligent enough to understand their meaning.
Cristal made real-time simulations to find the best trajectory to avoid the monsters' attacks and exploit their blind spots.
He was smiling, not because he took pleasure in killing these monsters, but because he was already way past his limits.
He felt his legs getting heavy and his movements slowing down. He had abused his newly acquired skill, but there was no time to take a bit of break.
"Graaa!"
The monsters wouldn't wait for him to take a few minutes to catch his breath.
Consequently, Adam didn't focus on attacking and avoided monster attacks while conserving energy.
The monsters were enraged and uncoordinated and Adam merely had to find the right timing to immobilize and then release them, resulting in them attacking and crushing their peers.
"Graaa!"
"Out of the way, damned beasts!"
Cristal and Zax had to deal with the flying monsters as they moved forward, and Adam had to deal with the ones on the ground.
Adam was more used to fighting monsters after killing almost hundreds of them. His power was the biggest card in his hand, but he had started to not only rely on his power and Cristal all the time.
This situation pushed him to his limit and he had to take risks and make choices by himself, then deal with the consequences.
Still, he was alone against a horde of monsters and he needed more than just determination.
He had become more fearless and more ruthless, but he wasn't even aware of it.
His body adapted to the energy generated by the neutral primordial particles more quickly than anyone else, and his strength had almost increased hundreds of times, but it was not enough.
Adam's time was numbered, and even if he pushed his body beyond its limit, no one knew what would happen. He might just die.
But Adam forgot about all of that, and only focused on how to deal with the enemy in front of him.
Adam moved swiftly forward, avoiding the monsters' attack, immobilizing them, jumping on their head and crushing them if he could, then took advantage of their height to dash forward again without wasting time landing on the ground.
Swoosh!
Then he landed on another monster and crushed its head with his sword while immobilizing the monsters that leaped toward him, releasing them, and jumped again and let the monsters crush each other.
He did this other and other again, and it was an extremely awful situation to be in.
The monsters reeked of an awful and suffocating smell, and their interiors were extremely disgusting.
When Adam slashed their head and cut their carcass, their brain melted and covered his body.
Adam needed more than just a strong power to go through all of that.
"Sh*t!" Adam spat out. Sometimes the plasma wasn't strong enough and couldn't cut through some monsters' skin.
However, Adam couldn't stop moving even for a second, otherwise, the other monsters would push the immobilized monsters forward, and even if they were paralyzed, he would still get crushed.
Adam put all of his strength into his speed and could avoid a monster attack as long as he saw them coming.
This required a lot of concentration and there was no room for mistakes.
The smile on his face didn't vanish and he felt adrenaline rushing to his head.
Finally, he managed to get closer to the armored person standing on top of the huge stone gate.
Cristal and Zax also managed to avoid the flying monsters and had already reached the gate.
"You seem to have some interesting power. This must be the reason why I lost contact with Gralt." The commander said as Adam leaped in the air and tried to approach him.
"Wha-?" Adam gasped. His usual plan was to get closer to the enemy as fast as possible, neutralize their power, and dealt with them without giving them the chance to pull out another trick.
However, for some reason, he was stuck in midair and was unable to move.
He felt invisible forces pulling his body from different directions.
"You seem to be too confident in your power." The commander said as he looked at Adam. After he said that, Adam was pulled violently by a mysterious and crashed to the ground.
Crash!
The commander's power was something that Adam never expected. Adam could neutralize the effect of elemental powers, but what about something different.
"Adam!" Zax shouted.
"I knew that you will be able to deal with him, commander," Dastre said. "You are only second to the Lord when it comes to fighting. But, this little kid is my opponent? For real?" He added as he looked at Zax who was still small even after wearing Cristal's armor.
Adam couldn't find out why his power didn't nullify the commander's power, but it was an undeniable fact that this was the worst outcome.
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