Dilan touched his abdomen, where the hole had been not too long ago and he nodded in satisfaction.
"Just like it used to be, perfect," He mumbled, ignoring the exhausted sigh of the bulky man, who was lying on the ground next to him.
"What the hell happened to you to become this strong, Dilan?" Rex asked as he glanced at his friend's abdomen as well. There was not even the slightest sign of a hole, let alone any trace of the grave injury left. This gave Rex goosebumps as he wondered whether his friend had turned in an even worse monster than he had been before the Primordial Ascension, or if he was just the same…only a little bit more supernatural.
"I just gave my best?" Dilan answered truthfully, shrugging his shoulders as if his answer was self-explanatory.
"Just like always, I guess?" Rex retorted, staring into the clear sky, and ignoring the turmoil and bloodbath all around him.
Dilan ignored the battle raging around them as well and he focused on his friend rather than the fighting monsters, humans, and other Ascenders. They were fighting with their life on the line and the uncontrollable desire to procure more Ancient Points so that they could finally improve their latent talent, their bloodline, their abilities, gain a special trait, or one of the countless other things that could be purchased from the Ancient God's Shop!
Dilan and Rex weren't really focused on the battlefield or the mission to collect more Ancient Points right now. They had a lot to talk about and catch up on, or so Rex thought.
"Yeah, just like always. Giving my best works out, one way or another, and if it doesn't it just means that I didn't do enough," Dilan replied calmly but Rex could clearly feel that he was not satisfied with everything that must have happened in the last few months.
And his assumptions were not completely baseless either. There had been quite a few times when Dilan had wished not to be the leader of the Undying Group or times he wondered if his decisions had been the right ones. In the end, Dilan knew that humans were not perfect and that he was bound to make mistakes but it annoyed him.
Especially, because his decisions not just affected him but others too. His group and the people who he cared about a lot had suffered because of his decisions and choices. At least that was something he had been bothered about in the past. His current life was a lot different because he didn't think much about the expectations and opinions of others. Only a few people were important to him and it was enough for him to know that they were fine.
That was also one of the reasons for him to be so happy right now.
Rex was doing fine if one ignored the disfigured face, which was the result of Dilan's beating.
"Don't touch your face too often. You will be perfectly fine outside the Ancient Battlefield. Narcissist," Dilan teased and he lay down on the ground of the Ancient Battlefield as well.
He knew that there was not much time for him to waste, but it would be fine to chat a bit with his friend, especially because he had unexpectedly encountered him after almost two years since they had separated from the underground fighting.
"Nobody asked for your opinion," Rex merely retorted while continuing to touch his face. He sighed deeply again and turned his head to Dilan.
"If Tanja breaks up with me because my face won't heal after I leave this place, I will kill you!" Rex added, slightly agitated about Dilan's way to 'make him recall' about his friend…
"Tanja is still with you? That's great. I would love to meet her again," Dilan said, not hiding his astonishment when he heard that Rex and Tanja were still together. The memories of two years ago resurfaced in his mind and he felt both elated and sad.
"I wonder how the others are doing. They're probably alive, considering that they have always been strong," He mumbled and Rex nodded his head.
"I don't know about most of the others, but Merlin, Kirvin, and Yalan are with us!" Rex began to smile and he got up from the ground as he sensed the killing intent of a monster horde that began to charge at them.
"They're with you guys? Are you wandering around in a small group?" Dilan's body jerked up upon hearing Rex. His expression brightened in an instant, only to see that Rex wasn't paying any attention to him.
Rex was more worried about the bunch of Tier-3 and Tier-4 monsters that were charging at them.
"Sigh…if it's really necessary, we can just kill them. We will continue our talk afterward though!" He declared before unsheathing the meteorite blade, Metir.
Dilan increased his Strength by reallocating his Health using [Switch], and he activated [Hulk-UP], [Walk of Thunder], [Second Acceleration], [Gravity Domain], and [Instant Teleportation] to appear behind the last monster of the horde before he summoned an Intermediate Lightning Spirit and an Intermediate Fire Spirit. He fused both Spirits with the Meteorite Blade, conjuring their powers to shroud his weapon with it before he leaned his body forward until he nearly reached the ground.
"Let the hunt begin!" Dilan shouted and it was no sooner that the ground all around him burst open as he gushed forward, killing every single enemy in the vicinity.
The perfect and razor-sharp blade of the Meteorite Blade cut through the hide and the flesh of his opponents as if they were made of tofu. Dilan didn't feel any resistance from the bodies he cut apart. This allowed him to continuously increase his speed and to kill more opponents in a shorter time frame as the fight progressed.
Dilan turned into a red-purple whirlwind that obliterated everything in his way while laying wrath and destruction on the surrounding battlefield even further.
Rex had merely started his fight with the third monster when Dilan appeared next to him once again. Slashing to his side, he beheaded the monster Rex had just been fighting, leaving Rex's mouth wide open.
At first, Rex wanted to teach Dilan a lesson for stealing his prey, but upon looking at his old friend, who had moved forward, Rex clearly realized something.
'Is that really the same dude I trained with in close combat?' He thought, his eyes widening at the sight of several hundred monster corpses that turned into countless particles one after another.
Rex could be considered Dilan's first Combat Instructor. Dilan had never officially learned close combat from anyone, but the bits he had learned from his friends had been more than helpful in his life, especially after the Primordial Ascension had started.
These bits had turned into something far stronger, something seemingly unfathomable in the eyes of the person who taught him first. Rex swallowed his saliva while his eyes never left the coldness that had emerged in Dilan's eyes.
'Just what did you go through?' He wondered, knowing deep down that Dilan wouldn't talk about himself or his personal life…he never did.
"Should we talk now?" Dilan asked, the coldness in his eyes fading away.
"Yeah…we can talk. I think there is a lot to talk about…" Rex said and it was not long after that they returned to standing around relaxed and speaking to one another.
However, contrary to Rex's expectations, Dilan began to talk a lot more about his experiences after the Primordial Ascension happened. This was truly out of Rex's expectations but it was something that made him feel oddly good.
'This bastard makes me feel grateful for just sharing what happened to him in the last few months…that's so annoying!'
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