Dreamer in the Apocalypse

004 – The One with the Prologue (Part 4/5)

BOOOOOM.

CRASH.

The entire forest shuddered and the trees in Raylin’s immediate vicinity were blown to bits, splinters of bark rained down on the forest floor.

As he glanced around him, he dashed in the direction of one of his assailants, that attack wasn’t enough to kill them, but it did all he needed it to do, before the dust could settle he located the second swordsman who was currently lying flat on the ground with a bloodied face.

‘Subclass ability: [Fury Unleashed]’

The red energy intensified around Raylin’s fist he jumped forward landing on top of his opponent and aimed to land a crippling blow.

Boom.

As his fist sunk down, a sudden interruption occurred, something strange occurred as Raylin’s fist continued to move, but it was no longer closing in on the swordsman.

The area around his fist stretched like an infinite rubber band, absorbing his entire arm.

“Seal,” a woman’s voice echoed through the forest.

Raylin’s eyes shrunk as he felt the space around his hand start to compress, “Dammit!” he cursed and focused on his arm suddenly the red protective energy shattered, but in its wake another piercing red energy emerged.

The red energy was brighter than the sun, while the energy poured out of his body he ripped his arm out of the stretched space, it snapped shut immediately after.

“Argh,” Raylin groan as soon as he pulled his hand out the red energy dissipated and revealed his hand, there was a bloody ring around his bicep where the stretched space tried to tear of his arm, as for the rest of his arm it was in a far worse state.

But he didn’t get time to examine the damage, the moment he pulled his arm free the swordsman had already recovered and swiped up aiming for his arm.

Raylin gritted his teeth and moved his hand to intercept the blade, metal struck metal as the blade collided into the exo-suit, not even leaving so much as a mark on the suit.

“That’s the first time this thing came in useful,” he murmured and pushed the blade away.

A moment later he activated another subclass ability, [100 Kicks], he immediately broke out releasing a barrage of kicks at his opponent.

But when it came time for his strike to make contact, he noticed the air starting to stretch where ever his legs moved, “I won’t be falling for that again,” he said to the mage who was hiding and leapt back cancelling his ability.

As he soared back another peculiar pulse of energy was emitted from his head, and when he landed, he looked out into the distance, his lips curled in a knowing smile.

“The two of you can come out now,” he said calmly.

“Hehehe,” a woman laughed lightly, but she stepped out into the open, her voice matched the voice he had just heard, and just a little way away, another woman stepped out holding a drawn bow that was charged with arching lightning.

As the woman drew closer he saw a mask on her face that was similar to the mask’s the other two wore, a mane of crystal blue hair stretched down her back as she drew closer.

“My, my, King slayer, your skills are even more excellent than the rumours say, I guess the rumours are true you were truly able to kill your general and the king he protected, all by yourself,” she said, her voice however was not coloured with fear, but rather excitement as if she was faced with an intriguing problem.

“But,” she said pointedly and extended an arm to point at his ruined hand, “It seems that those restraints are keeping you from you using your nuclear qi,” she said with a glint in her eyes.

‘Indeed,’ Raylin thought and examined his hand, it looked like it had just been cooked in a pot of boiling water, with blood and puss oozing out of it, the main damage didn’t come from the woman’s spell, rather it was his blazing energy that did the damage.

Raylin stood with a firm stature and glanced at his surroundings, due to the unfortunate circumstance’s he found himself surrounded in a box formation, but he looked on with no fear.

“I wouldn’t presume too much, if I were you,” he said during their standstill, they were each waiting – watching each-other to see who would make the first move.

“But before we continue I must ask you something,” he said looking around to gauge their reactions.

“Do ask, I’ll do my best to satisfy your curiosity, after all your feats are quite legendary,” the masked woman replied with a tone of admiration that was surprisingly sincere.

“We who live in the shadows have been your greatest admires for some time, it’s not every day you hear of someone killing a Dynasty General and King that lived to tell the tale, as a personal admire of yours I wouldn’t want you to die with any regrets King slayer,” the masked woman with crystalline blue hair answered in an amused tone.

Raylin sighed softly, “I’ve already confirmed that all of you are of the Fourth Accord, C – Rankers, no one of that rank can get to Elhaine without the restraints,” he pointed at the exoskeletal suit that was locked to his body.

Indeed, the suit was no boon but rather a contraption of magic and science used to restrain the power of an evolver, and in Raylin’s case it was restraining him to the pinnacle of the Third Accord, and a peak, D – Ranker.

“How did you get to Elhaine without the restraints?” he asked them his eyes glinted with suspicion.

He couldn’t be certain, but he felt like the blue haired woman smiled, “My, my, King slayer,” she murmured and curled her fingers to her chin, “I think you already know the answer to that,”

“It’s impossible for us to have gotten here through a gate nor with a ship, not even the Rulers of the galaxy would enter Elhaine without restraining their power, and with how ridiculously tight the security is on this planet there is no way anyone could slip in unnoticed,”

Raylin released a breath as his suspicions were confirmed.

“Naturally we came through the third way, honestly we were surprised beyond belief when we learnt of it, but then we were told that you already know of it, it’s how you left Elhaine in the first place and joined the Dynasty,” her voice was filled with praise.

“Since you know of that space then you can be certain that your contractor won’t let you live, even if you complete your mission,” he said to the woman.

She giggled softly, it was almost cute, “They are free to try,” she said in a confident tone and the other three chuckled in agreement.

Raylin struggled to understand where their confidence stemmed from, he was certain about his judgement of their power, and anyone that knew of the special route connecting the worlds was undoubtedly a behemoth in the outer world, people that even he didn’t take lightly, let alone the mob that surrounded him.

“You might be a spatial mage, but not even you will be able to outrun your employer,” he said to the woman.

“Ah,” the woman let out a surprised gasp, “You recognised what type of magic I use,” she said with glee.

“You’re not the first spatial mage I’ve had to deal with, but I’ll admit your particular use of it is quite unique,” he spoke, the mage danced gleefully his compliment seemed to make her happy.

Then without giving them any warning he vanished from his spot.

[Infernal Body]

[STR +100%, (4 minutes 59 seconds, remaining)

As the increased power surged through his body Raylin made a beeline for the Ranger, the Fighters and that Mage woman were troublesome, but the only one he determined that truly had a shot at killing him was undoubtedly the Ranger.

The Ranger was the one who fired of the first shot at the car, it was a devastating attack, and with it came a long charge time, from the look of things she seemed to be almost ready, and he didn’t want to take the unnecessary risk.

But as if anticipating his action, the two swordsmen dove in to intercept him, their green reinforced qi burst out in droves, as they swung their blade’s he noticed that the two had become slightly faster.

“That’s not enough,” he said and caught the bald man’s blade with his bare hand while kicking the other with a mighty force that knocked him back a dozen paces.

The bald swordsman put up a struggle to get his blade back but a moment later he chuckled at Raylin and jumped back releasing his sword.

Raylin looked up with a puzzled expression, and realised that the Ranger had escaped from his sight, to the right he noticed the mage, releasing strands of mana.

Her fingers moved as if each bore a mind of their own forming spell runes and glyphs with several lines connecting the symbols.

He didn’t recognise the spell but based on the complexity it was not going to be anything pretty for him.

Raylin raced in her direction, but the bald swordsman jumped back into his path, “Urgh,” he let out a frustrated groan, “You’re starting to annoy me,” he grumbled and moved faster than his opponent anticipated.

He pivoted on his one leg and threw out another full powered round house kick and this time the bald swordsman had no weapon to block, he didn’t even get to block as the kick smashed him in the chest.

CRUNCH.

His ribs crunched as it sunk inwards he let out an anguished groan as he soared through the air and smashed through a dozen trees each collision putting him in an even more miserable state.

“Hey,” the second swordsman shouted to get his attention, just as he planned to go for the mage, he turned around and his eyes turned cold when he saw the swordsman holding his sword against the driver’s neck.

“Stop!” he roared at the swordsman with his fury rising, in the chaos he had lost track of the elderly man.

“Your wish is my command,” the swordsman cackled and put his sword down, then he grabbed the driver and tossed him into the air.

Raylin gritted his teeth in anger knowing full well that the man would die should he land, he glanced at the mage and grimaced, then he jumped up to catch the man in the air.

[Honours Heart 2^nd activation]

[Protect the lives of the innocent even at risk to oneself]

[All stats +10%]

Raylin caught the man in mid-air, he landed with a heavy thud and held the man in his arms but it was then he noticed the man wasn’t moving, as he looked at the man’s back he found a dagger lodged inside the man’s body going through his heart.

[Honours Heart (Deactivated)]

As he placed the body on the ground he scrunched up his eyes and gritted his teeth as his body trembled with anger, “HONOURLESS SCUM!” he bellowed with such might from his lungs that the air trembled.

The swordsman looked at Raylin with confusion at first, but when the shout reached him, he crumpled to his knees and his eyes trembled as fear overwhelmed his every sense.

When he blinked again the massive figure of Raylin appeared in his eyes, ‘So this is the fury of the King slayer,’ he thought as his head smashed the ground and splattered against the forest floor.

The forest floor trembled like an earthquake had struck as Raylin continued to smash the broken body until all that remained were unrecognisable chunks of flesh.

[Killed Level 142 Fourth Accord Fighter]

[+0 exp gained]

He climbed up a moment later and looked at the mage, but it was too late, no sooner then he looked up her spell was cast, and the air stilled.

It was the calm before the storm, he felt a force acting on him and with every passing second it doubled in power.

He started to run away from the force, but he soon noticed that every time he raised his leg of the ground he was being dragged further back along the ground, it was one step forward tree steps back.

With great effort he dug his feet into the ground cutting tracks trough the earth, and he glanced back to see an odd ripple in the air that distorted the surroundings appearance, like looking through a glass lens.

Slowly but surely it was dragging him backward, despite his best efforts, the leaves and scattered twigs raced towards the ripple and gradually the loose dirt started lifting, but most of the power was centred directly on him.

He looked up at the mage his gaze serious, “You’re even better than I gave you credit for,” he acknowledged, “But like I told you before, you’re not the first spatial mage I’ve dealt with,” he said.

He could tell that beneath her mask she was gritting her teeth and pushing all her focus on the ripple that was sucking him in.

That’s when he did something that surprised her, he stopped resisting and let the ripple drag him closer, when the ripple was in his reach, he extended his damaged hand and grimaced as he thrust it into the vortex.

He gritted his teeth as the vortex started crushing his hand, but he carefully moved his hand around with great effort, then his eyes gleamed.

“I might not know this spell, but a spell as complex as this needs a core matrix, as well as a constant supply of energy, meaning it’s linked directly to you,” he said and he could see the panic in her body as he wrapped his breaking hand around the core matrix.

He looked at his status screen and saw that he still had one minute of [Infernal Body] remaining where his strength was doubled.

‘I guess I can use my Nuclear Qi for a few moments like this,’ he thought, and the blazing red energy erupted from his arm, and flooded the matrix.

“Aaaaaaaargh,” the woman howled in pain as steam started to roll of her body, she fell to her knees and blood started to gush out the sides of her mask, as she coughed like someone with lung disease.

But all the while she kept a firm grip on her spell as she continually poured mana into it.

“Velma!” she suddenly shouted, “Release it now!”

Raylin’s eyes narrowed as he saw the flash from above, “Dammit,” he cursed.

BOOOOOOOM.

The entire world shook, and a cloud of dust erupted as the forest floor and all its constituents were uprooted and sent asunder in every direction.