“We cannot give you one of the new skyships, you are too weak. What if something happens?” Kaldrek said to Maike.

Maike and her new friend had desperately tried to get one of the new ships, but so far with no success.

“Oh, come on, Kaldrek! You know I am one of the best scouts,” Maike said in a sweet voice while leaning forward, showing more of her cleavage.

“Stop that! I won’t let you go out alone with the newcomers. You are all too weak. What will you do when you get attacked by a beast over level 60?” Kaldrek argued his face turning red.

“Why can’t you come with us? I checked, and you are not in the group that is heading for the mountains,” Maike said.

“What beast will dare to attack us when you are protecting us?” Maike said with a smile.

“Please, can’t you help us find that man?” Sachiko asked. “This means so much to us.”

“Ah, okay, fine, but only this once. There will be no more exceptions,” Kaldrek exclaimed already regretting his decision.

“Thank you, Kaldrek; you are the best,” Maike said while hugging the warrior, who tried to shy away.

“This is so cool!” Hanako cheered while they were shooting into the sky with the small boat.

It looked like a medieval sailboat. The only thing that was different were the golden runes all over the boat and sail. Within hours, they reached the spot where Thalion had saved the family from certain death.

“Wait here; it won’t take long,” Maike said while jumping to the ground.

The boat was hovering a hundred meters over the tree canopy, waiting for her.

“You have ten minutes; I will come down and get you if you take longer,” Kaldrek shouted from above.

Maike was searching the ground with her skill scout’s tracking. It was wind-based, and soon after she activated the skill, clouds formed. They soon transformed into the form of a giant scorpion biting Hioshi. It started switching forms into a spider and then into a man with a black mask. His whole equipment was covered in red runes. She watched as the masked man defeated the beasts and then took off into the sky. Maike didn’t see the fight in detail, but well enough to say that Thalion was far stronger than most anticipated. She saw how a threat made out of wind hung in the sky and then turned to the side and disappeared.

“Got him!” Maike internally celebrated.

“We need to go that way,” Maike said to Kaldrek when she was back on the boat.

“So how can you be so sure?” Kaldrek asked, puzzled, while the boat picked up speed and shot in the direction of the threat.

“It’s my skill; we are on the right path. I am sure,” Maike said confidently while happily nodding.

“This is the wrong path,” Kaldrek said eight exhausting hours later.

“No, I am sure that the direction was right,” Maike defended herself. “Look, those trees are very dark; wasn’t he always taking those midnight sun roses?”

“You could actually be right,” Kaldrek muttered reluctantly.

“I believe in Maike,” Hanako said, and I would like to thank Thalion for saving our lives.

“Oh, this isn’t going to end well,” Kaldrek thought. Didn’t the guy know that Thalion was a wanted man? They were lucky; he wasn’t hunting that guy; otherwise… yeah, no use in thinking about it.”

“Does this part of the jungle feel weird to you too?” Hioshi asked when they were almost over the darkened parts of the jungle.

The darkened jungle was only a few hundred meters wide until the normal green with bioluminescent glowing jungle started again.

“Yes, now that you say it, is someone screaming over there?” Kaldrek said, with sweat running down his back.

He felt fear emanating from that place. This must have been how Luke Skywalker felt before he jumped into the black hole in episode six.

“Maybe we should turn around; I don’t feel safe,” Sachiko slowly said, clearly afraid of the place.

No one had time to answer as, with a loud crash, the boat exploded into two pieces.

Kaldrek turned around in fright and saw that a man had flown straight through their boat, breaking it in half, and time slowed down as Kaldrek started to assess the man.

Everything about that guy was off. He wore a black shendyt like the old Egyptians in the movies. His skin was white, like he had never seen the sun before. His body was slim and not very muscular, which would lead to a mage or light warrior class. On the contrary, those couldn’t just smash through a ship like it was made out of paper without getting harmed.

He had a black spear in his hand and a black crown on his head that looked like something Sauron would wear, with five large black spikes reaching up. In one of the spikes was a black crystal embedded, which hummed with a terrifying amount of power.

Then there was the disgusting, powerful aura the man radiated, which awakened the urge to just run from that man. It was not just the strong aura; there was a presence in it that was pushing against his mind, making him shiver in fear.

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Time reversed to normal as both halves of the ship were falling to the ground; thankfully, they had all been in the front half. This would make it easier for Kaldrek to protect the others, but he had a feeling that he had no chance against that man. The others screamed loudly in surprise and fear, holding on to the falling boat while Kaldrek and the man started their fight.

Kaldrek summoned his armor and drew his sword to block the black lightning the man shot at him. The power of the skill was immense, and he crashed into the others as he was thrown back after slicing at it with his sword.

Before he could do something else, the man was in front of him, piercing his sword arm with his spear and grabbing him with his other hand by the throat. Kaldrek watched how the boat with the others crashed into the ground below him while fear was seeping into his body from the man’s hand to a point where he couldn’t move at all.

Sachiko had summoned plants around them to shield them from the impact as the boat smashed into the ground.

“Who was that man?” Sachiko shouted in fright.

“We need to run; there is no way we can fight him,” Hanako said, wide-eyed.

“Maybe Kaldrek is strong enough to defeat that guy; he was one of Kael’s best fighters,” Maike said in a low voice.

At that moment, a body slammed into the ground in front of them. It was Kaldrek, he didn’t look badly injured.

“Come on, Kaldrek, we need to run!” Sachiko said while running over to him.

Then they saw his eyes. They were wide with fear. He lay on the ground, his whole body shivering, unable to move.

“Greetings, my new friends; we will have a lot of fun together,” the man who destroyed their boat said in a hissing voice, now floating ten meters above Kaldrek.

Maike wanted to answer something as black smoke shot out of the man’s hand, hitting all of them.

The smoke entered their minds, rendering them all unable to move.

Maike couldn’t move while the man carried her. Her whole body was stiff as a board. She wanted to move, to scream at the man, but it was like the signals her brain sent never arrived in her limbs.

They arrived in a clearing where a giant black pillar was rising twelve meters into the sky. Her eyes widened as she realized that people were stuck in that pillar. Over forty people were trapped in the pillar; only their heads and sometimes their shoulders were outside of the massive structure. All age groups were represented, as she also spotted a few children trapped in the massive pillar.

All of them looked on in fear as the man came closer and pushed her body into the pillar, with only her head sticking out. The pillar gave way like water, but the moment his hands stopped touching her, everything became solid again, and she was stuck.

The fear not only mounted; it was like all their minds were connected in an endless spiral of fear. She helplessly watched as the man carried all her comrades over and pushed them into the pillar one by one.

“That was a very rude interruption. I was in the middle of my cultivation session,” the man hissed after putting the last of her party members into the pillar with only their heads outside.

Maike felt the fear of all the others trapped in the pillar spike to new heights. She had to watch, unable to do anything, as the man shot black lightning at the pillar, and they all started to scream in pain and agony.

<–

Thalion had had enough of all the soul cultivation he had spent so long on and was almost finished with his human body at that moment. That meant he had integrated multiple spirit veins, which made his soul hum with power.

At that moment, he was four kilometers in the air, eagerly flying to the black spot in the forest he had spotted before landing. Time to do one of his favorite things: snacking on plants. The spot didn’t look too big, and he probably would be finished in a few hours, but everyone needs to take some time off. Something was off with this place as he came closer.

It felt like this part of the forest was haunted. How interesting! Time to check it out, he thought, as he dove down, landing in a clearing. He could feel it now; it was like a presence in the air that tried to burrow into his mind. Good thing he had worked so hard on his soul.

He pushed his senses out and felt many people a hundred meters in front of him. One of those had incredibly powerful blood, or sinister blood would be more accurate, while the others were very weak.

“Holy shit! What the fuck is going on here?!” he thought after coming closer. A man was sitting in front of a dark pillar where many humans were captured, all in pain with wide eyes.

The man’s eyes shot open as he must have noticed Thalion’s approach. The next moment, he moved with incredible speed, and the fight began.

Thalion’s sword appeared in his hand, and he deflected the blow of the black spear. When he looked into the man’s eyes, he felt a presence pushing against his soul. With every exchange, the pressure mounted, and with a thrum, the sanguine thorn awoke, completely ripping apart the influence of the other guy. The man was very fast and a skilled fighter.

Thalion was fighting hard against the man, but he was slowly losing ground. He used a mana wave to push the man back and shot a blood thorn at him. The man, sadly, completely blocked the mana wave with a swing of his spear and dodged the blood thorn with a quick step to the side. Black lightning shot out of the man’s hand, but Thalion easily blocked it with his sword while a sanguine vine shot out of his left arm with incredible speed.

<–

Kaldrek watched as the fight unfolded. He had never seen anyone move so fast. The red sword and the spear moved with speed almost too fast for the eye, and both bodies were radiating power.

After minutes of fighting, the man got hit by one of Thalion’s attacks, but the wound closed itself within seconds.

He saw how Thalion, in response, unleashed a powerful mana wave, throwing the guy back, and then he transformed. Kaldrek had heard stories about the umbral predator, but nothing came close to the creature that stood in the clearing. Darkness was gathering around the creature, and the light dimmed in its monstrous presence. With incredible speed, it charged at the man, who shot black mist at the beast.

Black tendrils made of darkness shot out from the Umbral Predator and ripped the skill apart. The next exchanges were fast, and even when the man got badly injured, he recovered in seconds. The Umbral Predator was no different, as its wounds also closed very quickly. The fight grew more intense by the second as the umbral predator applied pressure on the man with fast and powerful attacks.

Then the man managed to hit the Umbral Predator with lightning, driving it back a few feet, but before it could react, the man pushed his spear into the belly of the beast. The umbral predator didn’t seem to notice the spear stuck in its body as it grabbed the shoulders of the man and ripped him in two.

The man screamed in pain, but Kaldrek saw how the half of the body that still had a head was wriggling and started to heal fast. How was something like that possible? The umbral predator clearly noticed that too, and with multiple swipes of his claws, ripped the body into pieces. It even continued to regenerate for a few minutes while the umbral predator continued to annihilate the body of the man. Then it was over.

“What was that guy?” Thalion wondered after he got a kill notification.

You have killed Human Level 57

He pulled the black spear from his body and transformed back into his human form. Thalion couldn’t wait any longer to turn back. The umbral predator couldn’t fight back against the mental attacks of that man since the sanguine vine couldn’t support him in this form. He lay down for a few minutes after drinking a healing potion.

This was by far the strongest enemy he had ever faced. Something was terribly wrong with that dude. What class did he have to gain such power? It had to be above mythic, at least, since his class, the sanguine archon, was not that strong, and he could only keep fighting because of the assistance of the sanguine thorn

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep