MMORPG : Ancient WORLD C.522 First Challenge (II)

?Zar'Thul's dark armor carapace vanished, revealing his beastly form, which slowly got engulfed in a growing blaze with an aura that danced between ashy white and deep black and slowly condensed to create armor covering his body.

Zar'Thul's lower body was cloaked by a dark aura that gave off a feel reminiscent of wind. His massive claws glowed with the ashy white aura that exuded pure destructive power, displaying their different natures, while his torso and upper arms were set ablaze by a mix of both auras.

"This feels much better," Zar'Thul said as he spread his arms wide, putting his hulking frame on full display.

'I will need to get serious against him,' Alex thought, understanding that the man before him was probably the third strongest individual he had faced below Sixth Rank.

Alex shifted the concept of unification back to its offensive nature, and this time, not just with three intents but five weapon intents, which was also his current limit with the said technique.

Before, his sword was encased in a thin layer of dark aura, but now it appeared encased in a veil of darkness that oozed out like it was set aflame.

The unified intent appeared as such not just because it was much stronger than before but because Alex did not have complete control over the five layered intents and was using the darkness to keep them in check.

Throughout the fight, Alex had been holding back the output of the unified blade intent because each second it was active, it took a toll on his mental energy, and making the intent stronger only burned through it faster.

Zar'Thul slammed his staff into the ground, making it stand upright with the energy field deactivated, before he lunged forward with terrifying speed, appearing before Alex in an instant, his claws closing the distance at frighting speed.

Alex reacted instantly, his chaos wings cleaving through the surrounding darkness, sending bursts of chaos energy at Zar'Thul's face.

In this small window of opportunity, Alex slipped under Zar'Thul's claw and delivered an upward slash, aiming to slice off his left arm, but to his surprise, his sword sank inches into his flesh before it got stuck, unable to move an inch up or down.

Zar'Thul roared, his wide jaw lined with razor-sharp teeth coming down, ready to tear Alex in half, while his massive arms closed in for a crushing bear hug, also pulling the sword stuck in tensed muscles.

Alex increased the output of his blade intent while he moved his knee up, delivering a solid hir square on the jaw, forcing Zar'Thul to shut his maw before pulling his sword out and using the void step to disappear from the closing death embrace.

Zar'Thul roared in laughter, the wound on his arm closing in before even a drop of blood could leak, showing his wild regeneration ability.

Alex moved in closer, meeting the beast head-on, praying or avoiding the aura slashes Zar'Thul threw at him with each swing of his claw.

Alex boosted the output of the unified blade intent, making his sword easily slice through Zar'Thul's skin and flesh, and with his superior speed, he was carving the giant up.

The damage did nothing to slow down the hulking giant, as it healed in mere moments, but even regeneration had its cost, and Zar'Thul's body could only heal him for so long.

Zar'Thul's roars became more frequent, and with the slipping of his sanity, his speed and strength grew, but it came at the cost of his precision. Each swing of his claws sent waves of aura energy that eroded everything in its path.

Alex's swings became more powerful and quick to match the offense, each strike sending out an invisible slash of pure force that tore into the solid walls and floor of the labyrinth, leaving deep gouges in their wake.

At some point, Zar'Thul took a beastly stance, using all four limbs and sounding walls to increase his speed by an astonishing decree that even gave Alex trouble.

Minutes later, Zar'Thul's body was cloaked in his crimson blood that leaked from the shallow and deep cuts covering his massive frame.

But Alex was not standing in any perfect condition, as besides the feeling of the mental drain, his left side bore deep claw gashes, the aftermath of the only solid hit that Zar'Thul landed on him, which also nearly killed him.

Zar'Thul raised his arms and sent out a blazing burst of aura, tearing the ground to shreds as massive Chuck flew out in all directions at speed faster than bullets, followed by a wave of ashy white aura, forcing Alex to stop and use his Chaos wings for protection.

Alex spaned his wings wide and used the Chaos shot bombardment to clear out the barrage of rocks and push back the shock wave of destructive aura rushing at him.

The passage rang with explosions as Alex pushed the output of blade intent to its limits, ready to deliver a battle-ending slash, sensing that Zar'Thul had firmed his feet in preparation for a big attack.

A guttural beastly roar rang out as both dark and chaotic energy was pushed away, revealing Zar'Thul, whose entire form was cloaked in a massive cacoon of blazing white aura. fre𝚎w𝐞bn𝗼v𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝗼𝚖

The aura slowly concentrated onto his claws, making them visibly grow by a few inches, and standing upright from his beastly posture, Zar'Thul spread his arms wide with a blooded smile stretched across his face.

Zar'Thul brought his arms down in a cross slash, sending forth a net made of ten arks of ashy white aura concentrated into thin slashes that grew to reach both sides of the wall, with each one being strong enough to carve through the solid stone with only increasing speed.

But Zar'Thul did not end his attack there, as without a moment wasted, he spun his hands around and slashed his claws back up, sending another ten aura slashes, angeled slightly differently than the first ten, leaving no more room than a few feet in each section of the expanding net.

Alex raised his arms high, firmed his grip on the sword hilt, and swung the blade with all his might, sending forth a razor-

thin slash of unified blade intent fueled by erasing aspects of darkness.

As the two forces met, there was a standoff, but it did not last long, as the Reaper slash sliced through the net of aura slashes and bridged the distance in an instant and met the smiling Zar'Thul, who stood with arms crossed.

The slash met little to no resistance as it began to dig into his flesh and moved forth without slowing down, and in an instant, both of his arms were sliced off before the slash dug into his massive frame, only slowing down when it was inches deep into his hulking frame.

The slash only stopped and began to break apart after it was more than halfway into the hulking giant, a few inches shy of cleaving Zar'Thul into two pieces.

The floor that had suffered from the intense battle finally gave up after being sliced in half and began to collapse into the depth unknown.

At the same time, both of Zar'Thul's arms fell to the floor as torrents of blood gushed out, painting his white fur coat and the collapsing ground in his crimson blood.

Alex also did not come out unscathed from this final exchange, as his left arm from below his shoulder was gone, and so was a large section of his ribs, having been sliced clean by a net of aura slashes.

Alex could have defended against the aura net, but if he had done that, then the opportunity to end this battle would have been lost because he might very well not have found another opportunity where Zar'Thul was left defenseless and was forced to take a direct hit of such caliber.

As his wings healed and the surrounding darkness faded away, Alex took out a potion and drank it before moving through the falling ruble, knowing the battle had ended, but Zar'Thul was still alive.