The officer division screamed and ran for their lives like a pen of chickens on harvesting day. Their footsteps trampled upon the blood red earth, squishing audibly into the moist crimson ground filled with the remains of their "comrades" with each step.
William chased after them like a wolf hunting sheep, even though he wasn't capable of intelligent thought at the moment; he still had enough of a brain to comprehend what was going on. And that was a betrayal.
With this in mind, the chimera switched its target to one of weaker power. The central division of Readers had been preparing as many restraining abilities as they could. However, once they saw the officer division turn their backs on the plan, they could only prematurely activate their preparations.
Several debuffing skills were then fused into a series of ethereal rainbowish chains, wrapping around William with immense speed and with the force of a titan. Chaining him in place and restraining his movements for the time being. In addition, the chain's special effects were imminent; they sapped William's strength and Ingenuity, as well as rendered his ability to move useless.
By this point, William was sick of this tug of war. But he had to keep on pushing, or else this entire operation would come crumbling down.
He managed to move his three heads to gnaw at the chains barely, but they proved unresponsive to the chomping.
However, he managed to catch a glimpse of the people ahead of him beginning to retreat. This was because of the increased level of danger due to the officer division's retreat.
Additionally, the ingenuity cost of the incomplete chains was so high that it could only be maintained for a short while, so they had to high tail it out of there before things got worse than they already were.
Suddenly, a bright light to the side caught his attention; a giant, rotating spear of light with a vortex of glowing energy at its head was being formed by the artillery division, aiming directly towards him.
'Bad...'
He tried to move; however, the numbing and weakening effects of the chains were powerful, and his movements were limited to crawling around. Which he did, to varying degrees of success. Without any other options, he opted for his most trusty skill.
[Skill: Bane of Existence, has been activated.]
A wispy, empty grey energy permeated the body of the chimera creature, tearing through the chains grafted onto it. His massive, terrifying body erupted out of the constraints and exploded towards the artillery division, galloping through the crimson blades of grass that had been trampled by those who came before.
Seeing the shadowy chimera approach them, the Artillery division prepared to fire the projectile. If they wanted to survive, they had to wait until the most opportune moment, that is, when he was closest.
The chimera got closer and closer, a hundred meters, fifty meters, twenty meters, ten meters...
Once it was within ten meters, the leader of the Artillery division, a brown-haired woman with hazel, dazy eyes, released the projectile.
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[Epic]
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A small amulet the colour of mercury appeared in front of William. It was in the shape of a square, and had several geometric engraving on it that were in the form of constantly alternating lines, with only ninety degree rotations throughout it. In the center of the square keychain, was a golden embroidered drawing of a small frog.
The shoddy drawing of the frog then began to expand and exit the range of the keychain, forming into an abstract array in the air, as if painting on the air vertically with a metallic liquid, rotating clockwise. It was in between William and the Artillery attack, and it intercepted the latter, taking it into the array and sealing it within the abstract-looking frog drawing. After it was caught within, the drawing formed into more of an orb-shaped seal and began to shrink, until it was around the size of a fortune-telling crystal ball. Before tumbling to the ground, as if just an ordinary rock.
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Seeing this, Lian thought, 'That was really underwhelming...', she then continued observing the battle from afar, not wanting to miss anything crucial. "You got this boss!" She remarked with a toothy grin.
To the side, was a half eaten sandwich, that seemed perfectly divided in half, unnaturally so.
She then thought to herself. 'Say, you said you can see the future right? Would it be catastrophic if you told me the outcome of this fight?', she questioned with interest.
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Meanwhile, the situation with William was looking bad...for the artillery division. As the shadow chimera tore through their ranks with ferocity. He continued to devour everything in sight, until his Ingenuity levels began to run low.
By that point, the majority of the Artillery unit was dead, and the other two units had already retreated deep into the forest, likely forfeiting the battle entirely.
He was constantly being pelted by coloured blasts and beams of energy, however he instinctually moved his vital areas around to dodge the attacks, effectively negating any lethal risk. Though, regenerating the lost area of shadow flesh did take quite a bit of Ingenuity to do.
After clawing his way through the last members of the division, he was forced to divide with Xiao Wei, splitting back into two separate beings.
The backlash of the split this time was far worse than before, especially since he had utilized the form for much, much longer. His brain was scrambled and each part of his body was so sore he couldn't move a thing. Not to mention the wave of exhaustion that caused him to immediately pass out on a patch of bloody grass in the center of the valley.
Two figures sprinted onto the field after seeing this, Fei Kangzhen and Li Jiaojie. Li Jiaojie scooped him up and lugged him over his shoulder, and Fei Kangzhen made sure to look out for any potential attacks that might target them while weak.
They troopered through the bloody marsh that had spawned after the carnage that had occured earlier, each step made the ground gush dark crimson liquid that it had previously absorbed, as if regurgitating it just to drink it again, a gruesome sight.
After a minute or so of fast jogging towards the woods where they had came from, they had reached the bottom of the hill that lead to the woods. After all, the valley was essentially in a bowl-like shape, and only by climbing its sides could one leave.
Then.
As they began to make their way up the tall ramp, it felt like the night became a bit darker. It was as if the night had become alive. All of a sudden, Li Jiaojie and Fei Kangzhen felt as if something was watching them, something behind them at all times. It was as if their own shadows had developed a will of their own, a consciousness.
The shadows of everything in the nearby area began to stretch and stretch, before detaching and surging towards the center of the valley, at the bottom of the bowl shape where most of the crimson blood congregated, which formed a small lake of blood. The shadows converged in the center in a dark, abyssal vortex that seemed to devour the entire lower area of the valley, overshadowing the lake of blood and replacing it with a sea of shadow.
In the middle of the sea of shadow a dark figure arose, fully hooded in a dark overcoat, pants, and clad with a few golden armaments all throughout his outfit. In his right hand, was a smooth and sleek shadow katana, and in his left, was a short, jagged-edged dagger. As the figure arose into the air from the shadows, his arms began to outstretch to the side.
"The shadows call, the new moon rises."
He stared at the moon, which seemed especially full today, before beginning to laugh. At first, it was a smirk, then a chuckle, before devolving into psychiatric maniacal laughter befitting of a psychopath.
"I am the Lord of Shadows. The one who walks with the night, the one who embraces the darkness, and the one who conquers the abyss. Who dares interfere with my operations?" He said while shadowy eyes began to appear all throughout the nearby area, several of which, instantly locked onto Fei Kangzhen, Li Jiaojie, and the unconscious William, who had made it all the way up onto the mountain, taking advantage of the long intro sequence the man had taken to try to escape.
As soon as the eyes locked onto them, the two moving were paralyzed, as if their own shadows were moving against them.
Then, shadowy tendrils began to form around them, locking around the necks of all three of the men, ready to cut at a moment's notice.
At this moment, William began to regain consciousness, thankfully he saw and heard everything whilst unconscious thanks to his skill. This situation would have ordinarily been disastrous for their team, however, William had noticed something immediately after regaining consciousness.
His pendant glowed slightly, as the strings of those he knew drew closer.
He stared at the Lord of Shadows, who was staring at him whilst floating in the air above the shadowy sea.
"Lord of Shadows...It's a pleasure to meet you in person...But, I think you've got something wrong here...You're lightyears stronger than me. I can't beat you, but he can." He spat coldly before tilting his chin to his left, towards a certain man and his entourage.
The sharp voice of a familiar sounding man echoed throughout the area as he did this.
"I respect your work, Truth-Seeker. Thanks to your distraction we managed to save the rest of the members of our team. Now, it's time for me to pay back my debts. We may not get along in terms of ideals, but I think we can both understand what the move here is."
The Song of Vengeance, Sang Pianyi and his followers, had arrived on the scene.