Chapter 32: The Final Apex
The world was shattered into millions of frames per second.
My 110 Agility was high.
Not high enough to contest with that skull head but it felt like it was a new reality. Kael took his first step.
He made the move.
It shook the very foundations of the arena.
That was more than enough to describe that he was no average Joe.
He move like a Black Titan charging forward with his Soul-Reaver.
He charged for the killing blow.
The crowd could only see the blurs. They were moving at speeds high enough that many people in the crowds were in daze.
But I was the faster one. I could see him jogging.
Unknowingly, a small smile touched my lips.
A crimson timer had appeared which showed me the time I had left.
[00:60]
Kael swinged the Soul-Reaver in a wide, horizontal arc . Predictable. Telegraphed. He was relying on overwhelming power rather than technique.
I felt the need to dodge. My instincts were screaming at me.
I used [Serpentine Shift]. It wasn't just a movement. This movement rejected the physics.
I ducked under the black blade with ease. I felt the air which was so cold that it felt like moving razors on my skin.
And I was right to dodge the sword.
Wherever the sword passed, the white marble turned to dust. It looked like it turned to dust, but it was erased out of existence.
CLANG!
I was inside his guard, my fist, humming with C-Grade power, slamming into his chest plate.
The impact felt like hitting a mountain made of steel. the shockwave ran up my arm and I could feel a jarring, numb vibration spreading in my bones.
My bones went GONG!!
"You talked big as if you had something to show, Goblin." Kael's voice was a grinding rumble, his blue-flame eyes not even flickering.
"Got something more?"
[00:52]
He used his shield to attack me.
I twisted my body to dodge his shield but the edge still clipped my shoulder.
It's force was immense as it send me skidding back. But the real weapon was the Soul-chilling blade.
It was like a leech, eating away the warmth of my body.
It's hunger was truly immense.
He's too durable. My raw strength isn't enough. The timer is ticking. I need to change the plans.
I made a hard decision. I decided to activate that new resonant power in my chest at full power. "Time to stop playing with your toys."
[Sovereign's Chain: ACTIVATED]
The green aura of my own core, the mark of the Verdant Overlord, erupted around me.
But it didn't stay green. It changed and mixed into a mix of the aura of my teammates
. I received their unique traits that increased my power by a large margin.
I received Rolf's wild essence which was brimming with raw untamed power. Kaelith provided with stealth and shadow.
And Nyssa provided her calculating mind and superfast precision.
In the stands, people started whispering about the aura I was emanating.
"What is that aura?"
"It's like four different energies at once!"
They didn't see interference; they saw a leader manifesting the souls of his vassals as his own strength.
I was no longer just Grik who was alone. I was the squad.
[00:43]
"Try blocking this! ," I snarled at him, and charged.
I went all in this time and didn't pull back. I met him head-on.
I closed the distance between us and used Rolf's essence.
I felt the raw strength of the Werewolf.
My bones were fortified, my muscles were steeled, turning myself into a battering ram.
Kael swung his Soul-Reaver in a vicious downward chop.
"NOW!" I roared into the link.
As I ducked under the blade, my own shadow on the marble floor stretched, warped, and rose up.
It wasn't just a lack of light; it was Kaelith's [Shadow-Shriek] channeled directly through me.
A vortex of pure, screaming darkness erupted from my own aura, a silent psychic explosion that slammed into Kael's face.
His head snapped back, his blue-flame eyes sputtering wildly like faulty torches. For a single, crucial second, his perfect, lethal focus was shattered.
He's blind. He's disoriented. The runes on his chest are exposed. The nexus point.
[00:38]
That was Nyssa's opening. I didn't need a beam from the sidelines.
I was the conduit. As I lunged forward, I threw my left hand forward, palm open.
The crimson light of Nyssa's mana, the sharp, analytical energy she'd loaned me, didn't just coat my hand; it erupted from it in a focused, pulsating wave, the [Mana Scrambler].
The crimson pulse struck the central rune on Kael's breastplate, the heart of the soul-conduit.
BZZZZZZT!
The intricate blue runes across his entire armor flickered violently.
The soul-draining aura wavered.
The power flowing to his limbs stuttered.
For two seconds, his fortress had a hole in its wall.
[00:35]
It was all I needed.
I was already in motion, a green-gold-shadow-crimson comet.
I didn't aim for his chest or his head. I aimed for the structural weak point Nyssa had calculated, the joint of his left knee.
I poured everything into the strike, my overclocked strength, Rolf's fury, Kaelith's lethality, Nyssa's precision.
My leg became a spear of pure, condensed force.
"Sovereign's Judgment!"
The impact was not a sound. It was an event.
KRA-KOOOOOOM!
It was the sound of a mountain being split by a god's hammer. It was the sound of a star breaking.
The impossible happened.
Kael the Soulless's enchanted, soul-forged knee joint exploded into a shower of black shrapnel and blue energy.
The Death Knight, the unmovable anvil, the executioner of Squad Crimson, crashed down onto one knee.
The impact was so great that the marble floor for thirty yards in every direction detonated, a web of white cracks spreading from the point of impact like a lightning strike.
The ground trembled, a seismic shudder that ran through the entire stadium.
The arena was utterly, completely silent.
In his throne, Arch-Lich Malacor, the ancient, unflappable ruler of the Zenith Academy, shot to his feet.
His spectral form flickered with undisguised, raw shock.
I stood over the kneeling form of the Soulless, my chest heaving, the Overclock burning through me like a star.
My timer glowed red in my vision.
[00:12]