Chapter Sixty-One: Metamorphosis (Part Thirteen)
Zzzz.
At the critical moment, Carlos was enveloped in a surge of Thunder Light, his body flickering at an astonishing speed, suddenly appearing on top of a leaning wooden stilt several meters away in the wreckage of a collapsed shed.
On the other side, the Old Woman swung her hammer with all her might but missed spectacularly. With a loud clang, she slammed the hammerhead down onto the ground and cackled, “Haha! You slippery little brat sure knows how to dodge!”
“Hey, are you serious?” The Man stared at her, his expression a confused blend of disbelief and concern.
“Well, I can’t hit you anyway—”
In the midst of their banter, a thunderous crash echoed as dirt flew high. The Old Woman, having injured her right leg, surprisingly relied only on her left to leap up from the clouds of dust with her heavy hammer raised above her head, sporting a wild grin and charging at Carlos with intimidating ferocity.
“Tsk, at least patch up that wound first…”
As the wind howled from the swing of her giant hammer, Carlos sighed, pouting slightly. While mumbling to himself, his body transformed into a streak of lightning again, dodging the Old Woman’s second swing, but this time the situation was different.
The giant hammer slammed into the wreckage where he had just stood, producing a deafening boom accompanied by Apheir’s furious shout, “Noisy! I said it’s just a scratch—” Debris and dirt exploded upwards, and a fountain of water shot out from the epicenter of the blast, numerous water columns fanning out dramatically, flooding towards him with a thunderous roar!
Carlos’s eyes widened in disbelief as he hovered in midair, realizing he had nowhere to brace himself. As he quickly regained his wits, he reeled in the surrounding electric energy and dodged a torrent of water aimed right at him. While descending, he hurled his sword, which thudded into a wall thirty meters away, then, with fingers clawing, summoned arcs of lightning that twisted around the rising water columns, attaching to the sword blade and yanking his body forward.
“Little slippery brat—!”
As he zipped through the water veil, a thunderous curse roared behind him: “The last thing I like is you slippery types that can’t be caught! Let’s see you take this move—”
Carlos felt a clutch in his heart.
“d*mn that fat lady, she’s dead serious…”
After harnessing the lightning power to escape the water column attack, he caught his thrown sword again, backflipped onto the wall, yanking the blade free from the rubble. He hurriedly glanced up, searching through the deluge of falling water for the Old Woman’s hefty figure, hoping to anticipate her next ferocious attack.
Where is she…?
Carlos didn’t see a trace of Apheir in that direction.
One second, two seconds, three seconds ticked by—after the Old Woman’s shout of “Take this!” the anticipated onslaught didn’t follow. Realizing he’d lost track of her, he perked up his ears and listened carefully.
Moments later, it was as if a light bulb went off in his head. His face changed as he suddenly turned to the floating sphere above.
Bang—
A dull thud echoed.
In his line of sight, the Old Woman, hammer raised high and surrounded by spiraling water, leaped from the wreckage below, cutting through the scorching air with an ungodly force and charged skyward in a notably brutish manner!
“Kid, you fell for it! Ahhahahaha—”
Her hearty laughter boomed like a bell, mixed with a hint of madness, hatred, and undeniable delight, spreading from the center of the town.
“Hey—”
In the next moment, the Thunder Light surrounding the Man flared brighter than ever. He transformed his body into a rushing electrical current and with a bang, leaped in pursuit of the Old Woman.
Outside the town.
Shouts echoed, and iron hooves clattered.
In a formation consisting of eight hundred elite soldiers from the First Knights Order, the flag-bearer had already begun to dart through the crowd, passing orders to various squads. The tightly packed formation started to disperse and regroup, with two or three teams of nearly a hundred prepped elite cavalry quickly detaching from the ranks, merging with thirty members of the Faith Organization, all moving toward the front of the formation.
Above, the terrifying monster that had emerged from the town left a trail of raging flames as it sped westward towards the desert. The aftermath of the battle was still palpable, and they understood that Sword Saint Old Man was clashing with it. Although the sounds of confrontation faded into the distance, the town center, which had been nearly destroyed and was billowing with black smoke and infernal fire, still emitted distant booming echoes.
The dark clouds hung menacingly above everyone’s heads.
The straight beam of blazing fire shot up into the clouds, stirring up scarlet thunder, and with a thunderous boom, illuminated the desolate yellow earth for a brief moment.
Tension and a deadly atmosphere gradually spread throughout the ranks of golden armor.
In front of the formation, Bishop Aresta sat astride a robust Horned Horse, gazing toward the anxiously waiting town wreckage. After a moment, he reached inside his robe and pulled out a small charred fragment, resembling a burnt bone, which was faintly glowing a strange bl**d-red, trembling in his palm as if it sensed something.
The Young Bishop noticed it and couldn’t help but reveal a barely perceptible smile at the corner of his mouth.
[This is a small piece of demonic remains found by The Choir of Saints after the battle in Woodward Forest. It took quite some effort to obtain this from them. Hold onto it; if you sense any changes in the fragment when you reach there, be warned, you are close to what you seek…]
[Aresta, my dear brother. Remember, do not outsource your goals to that old, stuffy hero.]
Aresta had firmly etched his brother’s parting words into his memory.
“Knights, comrades from the Faith Organization, listen up—”
He tucked the bone fragment back into his robe, straightened his chest, and raised his head, while his Horned Horse raised its front hooves in response to his high-pitched shout.
Behind Aresta, the sharp vanguard composed of over a hundred men had just assembled, all primed and ready, waiting for the command.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—
Bloody thunder flashed across the sky, surging with power.
In the next moment, the Young Bishop waved his hand forward gently.
“Let’s attack!”
He squeezed his mount with his legs, and the great beast charged towards the town, followed closely by the hundred warriors, their iron hooves thundering, trampling through the yellow sands toward the swirling smoke and flames.
“Apheir!!!”
In the town center, the swordsman named Carlos morphed into a streak of lightning, dragging out a blazing arc from the wreckage, racing towards the plump Old Woman who had launched herself high into the air, hammer held aloft.
However…
He was running out of time.
Even as he pushed his speed to the limit, it seemed the Old Woman had anticipated him. As the Thunder Light burst from the wreckage, the water swirling around her transformed into arrows that whooshed toward Carlos at breakneck speed, making a whistling sound as they sliced through the air.
With no choice left, the Man had to halt mid-air, twisting and dodging the barrage of water arrows. Even so, one managed to hit him, the clear water arrow scraping across his chest plate with a clang, deforming the armor and causing Carlos to grunt painfully, losing his balance mid-air and crashing into a mound of scorching dirt and stones.
Meanwhile, the Old Woman’s soaring figure was now less than ten meters away from the spherical egg.
“d*mn it… stop—!!”
The Man clutched his chest in the wreckage, his expression one of agony, screaming out loud.
But in the next instant, his pupils shrank in horror.
“Watch out—”
Boom!!!!!!
Alongside a cataclysmic crash, crimson, blazing brilliance erupted from that floating sphere in the sky.
