Chapter 416 Defeat?  

?'It seems Zero is in the mood to mess with me,' Alex thought, standing mid-air looking at the crystal of unrest cloaked inside a swirling vortex of dance death energy and torn apart remnants of various creatures.

Alex had ended the battle against Killian seconds ago, and in total, it took him a hundred and six seconds, and now he was waiting for the corpse eater to take form, which should have been done in another twenty seconds or so, but that didn't seem to be the case.

The thirty-second timer had passed, and the swirling vortex was not showing signs of shrinking, but instead, it was growing by the moment, making Alex realize he might be in for the worst possible scenario.

There were four types of Corpse Eaters, with their difficulty ranging from low to extreme, with low taking around twenty seconds to form and extreme taking sixty seconds.

Knowing the number of creatures he and his team had slaughtered, Alex was expecting to face a medium to high-difficulty creature.

But now, seeing the growing vortex, he expected to face the creature of extreme difficulty, and it could take the form of anything from a Serpent, an Elephant, a Hydra, or worse, a Corpse Dragon.

As seconds ticked by and the fifty-second timer was reached, Alex knew he was up against a Corpse Hydra or a Dragon, the worst of worst anyone could encounter.

Alex had seen all creatures from a Corpse Serpent to a Corpse Dragon in action, with the last coming to life against an alliance of eleven teams and a total count of fifty-five members, and even they failed to kill the abnormal calamity.

Like all others, the alliance of teams was only able to survive till the morning against a creature who could regenerate in a matter of moments and failed to kill it.

As seconds ticked by, Alex's thoughts were already clouded by the superiority complex fueled by the various thoughts, and fearing to go against the Corpse Hydra or the Dragon only fueled his rage, which he knew was surely shortening his already limited time, but he could do little to change it.

Alex had a total of two hundred seconds with Monarch Aura, and 150 of them were gone, and with every passing moment, his sanity was slipping away, but he still had enough clarity to do what he had planned. When only three seconds were left, in the completion of the sixty-second timer, Alex used the 'Arcane Trance' skill, using all his stamina to boost his mental strength by 400% and automatically recovering half his used stamina by burning through around 10% of his mana.

While the 400% mental boost made Alex perceive his surroundings at 0.2 to 0.3 speed, it helped little with dealing with the voices in his head, but it still gave him at least twenty extra virtual seconds.

If Alex didn't use the 'Arcane Trance' skill, he could keep the Monarch Aura active for another ten seconds, but he felt that having slowed down time in the heat of the battle was much better than a little extra time.

The three seconds were seven for Alex, and with his eyes fixed on the dissipating storm of energy, he began to create multiple spheres of darkness in a full crescent shape that created a semi-complete circle around the energy storm.

"RRROOOAAAARRRRRR---"

'Stygian Lance Bombardment'

The chilling roar was abruptly silenced as dozens of simultaneous beams of pitch-dark energy tore through the air, their malevolent presence swallowing the light of the surrounding hundred meters.

A deafening thunderclap followed by a massive shockwave was created on impact, ripping through the earth and sending jagged cracks sprawling across the landscape as if a seismic upheaval of unparalleled magnitude had struck the ground.

A dome that reached close to fifty meters in length and over a hundred and fifty in length was created, completely swallowing the death energy vortex.

The attack rivaled any peak Sixth Rank attack and had the power to deal critical damage to even the best of Elementalists and erase an unprepared target, but Alex was not done yet.

Alex raised his right hand, summoning a swirling sphere of darkness that rapidly condensed inward upon itself. As it grew in size, its ominous presence intensified, emanating tendrils of pitch-black aura that seemed to pulse with malevolent energy.

Within a mere three seconds, the sphere diminished from its original ten-meter diameter to a foreboding three meters, which was shrinking by the moment, albeit very slowly.

The bombardment had ended, and Alex didn't need the chaos and remnant energies to dissipate to know the results. What he saw made a satisfied smile sneak across his face as he surveyed the aftermath.

A dragon that had tattered flesh and ivory bones lining his hulking frame, its shape stretching nearly ten meters in height and close to forty meters in length. Two massive bony wings, or at least what was left of them, covered in destroyed fleshy membranes, lay unmoving atop its decaying body, with massive chunks of its form, flesh and bone alike missing, laid unmoving the twenty-meter-deep crater.

Alex had attacked the moment the dragon fully formed and was recognized as the Corpse Eater by the system, and by delivering a large area attack, he had not only dealt tremendous damage but also eroded away the majority of piles of bodies in the surroundings that were going act as the corpse eater minions.

'Stygian Annihilation'

Alex used the modified version of the dark sun spell, dropping the ticking bomb of elemental annihilation that had sapped away 11 million points of his mana, charged with the purest of darkness concept capable of erding away life and flesh alike.

But recovering the beatdown, the corpse eater came to life with a loud screeching roar, the dark crystal of unrest fixed in his ribcage pulsing with malevolent darkness.

The dragon opened his jaw wide, revealing a swirling sphere of death energy no larger than a basketball in size, which Alex recognized as the dreaded dragon breath.

Alex had expected the corpse eater to defend against the first attack but failed and then got pummeled by his second attack, giving him the prime opportunity to deliver a close, concentrated sword slash and end his life.

But it appears that the creature had taken the direct hit, only protecting his core, which explained the massive damage to his body, with little damage to the upper area of his back, and he had used the opportunity to prepare his trump card.

Alex was not worried as False Sun, as he called it, was currently the best single-target damage dealer skill he had in his arsenal when using the aura.

As the large orbe drew near, the dragon roared once more, and with it, the energy sphere in his mouth released a jet of concentrated energy that clearly shocked the space, leaving superficial cracks that spread like spider webs.

The very next moment, the dark sphere met with the beam of continuous energy, and instantly, the concentrated sphere of energy expanded like a wildfire, encompassing hundreds of meters, devouring the dragon as well, into a cloak of deteriorating darkness.

Alex moved back, his sword pulsing with a vast amount of darkness concept, all being concentrated on the, with no secondary energy empowering it as anything he might use would be erased by the potency of the darkness.

Alex was on the last of his time, his mind being a mess, and so did his senses, so he needed to end the battle as quickly as possible.

Alex waited a few moments to not jump straight into the heat of his own attack or the ongoing dragon breath before he finally moved, bridging the distance in an instant, with both hands firmly holding his sword, ready to deliver the last of planned combo to put an end to this battle.

Alex was exhausted at this point, having gone through a long day of hunting, a seven-hour-long battle against hordes and hordes of creatures at night, a minor clash against the Rutharok king, and then going out against Killian and, finally, the Corpse Eater.

It had been a long day, and the tens of voices screaming at him to let his instinct take over for almost the last two minutes was anything but nice, so he was single middle focused on delivering the final attack, knowing he didn't have the freedom to make a mistake that might ruin everything he had worked so hard towards.

As Alex's eyes met with the destroyed and crumbling body of the corpse eater, who had half his face and much of his body erased, he perceived esthetic as he raised his arm to deliver the final attack, not sensing the creature who had arrived behind him. N♡vεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Alex had begun to move his arms down to deliver the strongest slash he might when a large hairy hands with long, razor-sharp nails moved like a blur from both sides, slicing both his arms clean from just past the shoulders.