MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

Alex released the built-up darkness in his blade at the very last instant, causing it to surge forth at multiple times its original speed, catching the Skaven by surprise, who had his hand raised, pulsing with a corona of violet energy, ready to block it while his own dagger sliced through the heart of his target.

The dark blade carved through the air, leaving a trail of inky blackness as it sliced effortlessly through the fabric of space and the violet shield, meeting no resistance.

Its momentum halted only when it struck its target, and in an instant, a section of the creature's dark cloak disintegrated, erased by the sheer force of the blade.

Tendrils of darkness and violet energy erupted from the point of impact, writhing chaotically as the two opposing energies clashed, staining the surroundings in hues of black and violet.

The violent clash lasted only a heartbeat, yet in that brief moment, the rogue tendrils lashed out, claiming the lives of the unfortunate few caught on the ground below, and then, with a forceful burst, the creature was flung backward, sent hurtling away.

Alex stood in the sky, but not unharmed as his chest bore a gaping wound, nearly sliced in two, his torso grotesquely split open, with his rib cage and organs exposed.

Uncontrolled spurts of blood gushed from the wound, painting a grim and horrifying picture for any who bore witness.

As soon as the clash ended, darkness enveloped Alex, and when it dissipated, he stood there, fully healed, with the only sign of the damage he received being his torn-apart armor.

'I need to get better armor,' Alex thought, seeing how little protection it provided against a real challenge.

The armor Alex wore was a mid-rank legendary grade, and while great against elemental aspects, when tested against weapons fueled by elemental law, it was just a thick leather skin, especially when not being fueled by an elemental law as its power source.

'I was worried that I might be in trouble, but since I could see through his stealth, I should be fine,' Alex thought, feeling relieved after locating the disturbance of cosmic energy that gave away the location of the ratling.

Alex could not sense the Skaven Broodmaster's presence with his void sense, but his ancient eyes could locate him with ease by pinpointing the disturbance of law, and while that made things easier, it in no way made the battle against that monster fair.

Alex was up against a real Elemental Ruler, and the last time he fought one with his life on the line, he had help from Vorinax and the Monarch Aura, on top of the creature being created by Zero to be far weaker than the real deal, and he still was not able to do much damage to him, but this time it would be different.

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"Boy, you are something special," the creature said, turning visible, his left hand bearing the crippling injury he received in their exchange.

Alex had intentionally taken the second hit to catch the creature off guard and deliver a critical hit, and while it did not go as he was hoping, he did do some damage.

His left arm dangled by his side, his palm split open with shattered bone shards protruding through the flesh, barely hidden beneath the tendrils of violet miasma that cloaked the mangled limb, battling fiercely to erase the encroaching darkness that eroded it.

"My blade is forged from the spine of a Great Atranoch Centipede, imbued with the toxic essence of a dozen deadly creatures, and fueled by my law of Blight,"

"Yet you can heal from it like some immortal," the Skaven said, a sinister snicker escaping his lips as he deftly twisted his shoulder, effortlessly popping the joints back into place.

While he was talking, Alex took the moment to scan his status, seeing his name, title, a few skills, and his stats, giving him all the intel he needed to know about him, and knowing all that only made him more confident of his victory.

"I would like to test your limits, but since you have already served your purpose, it's time I put an end to you," Cthux said, and just as the sentence ended, a massive explosion roared through the city.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex caught sight of a massive sphere of blinding white light, rapidly expanding and engulfing everything in its path for hundreds of meters.

'Licinia,' Alex thought, a face flashing before his eyes as his heart sank, realizing that the area under attack was the right side of the inner area, the place under the protection of Licinia and the group under her command.

Alex forgot for a moment that he was up against an Elemental Ruler and turned toward the area of the explosion, waves upon waves of intense heat assaulting him in the face, only for him to suddenly have his vision tilt as if he were falling through the sky.

Alex realized that his head had been sliced away, and while his every nerve was consumed with boiling pain, it was not because he dropped his guard but because he saw the devastation caused by the explosion.

Two-thirds of the inner area were consumed, along with nearly a third of the right side of the outer area. Screams echoed loudly around Alex as waves upon waves of searing heat burned the flesh of those unable to withstand it.

But these cries were drowned out by the deafening roar of the explosion, a cataclysmic sound that had silenced the entire city.

Alex's body and head were separated by meters when a dark string manifested, connecting both of them, swiftly turning into a dark eerie chain that shrank, bringing the head and body closer, and seeing it, Cthux was quick to react, slicing through the chain.

But to his surprise, his dagger phased through the chain as if it were a mere illusion, and before his very eyes, the head was reattached to the torso, the wound mending in an instant, bringing Alex back from the edge of death.

"Boy, you sure have a scary look on your face," Cthux said, snickering as violet energy burst out from him, engulfing their surroundings in an instant.

Alex's vision was shrouded in a kaleidoscope of colors as he watched his surroundings shift and transform, getting cloaked in dense violet miasma.

The sky beneath his feet dissolved into a damp, toxic swamp, bubbling with foul, viscous liquids. Twisted, rotten trees emerged from the mire, their gnarled branches coated in oozing violet miasma that hung heavy in the air like a poisonous fog.

"Dragon Monarch Aura"

If Alex wanted, he could have used the concept erasure skill to erase the concept of Containment, making the boundaries of the domain crumble, making it crumble away since Cthux was not at a level capable of maintaining an open domain.

But that would allow the little vermin to run away or allow someone else to interfere, and that was the last thing he wanted.

"Boy, now you are trapped with me in my Domain, so let's see how long it takes me to dissolve you into a puddle of filth, and if you can recover from that," Cthux's voice sounded, coming from all directions, followed by his snickering laughter.

Darkness began to ooze out of Alex, the inky darkness flooding the surroundings and the sky, pushing back and erasing the violet miasma and toxic swamp, swiftly covering nearly fifty meters before coming to a halt.

"A cheap trick," Cthux said, appearing at the top of a tree at the edge of the darkness, staring Alex in the eyes, a mocking smile stretched across his face.

Cthux was about to say something, but no words came out, as he saw the darkness continue expanding once more, even as he used his element to erase it.

Cthux was left stunned as he saw his efforts bear no fruit; an inch that he recovered was taken back almost instantaneously, his element getting erased as it tried to extinguish the darkness, his law of Blight losing against the mere concept of darkness, a scene he never thought he would see.

Cthux had encountered his fair share of powerful individuals, and while he knew it was possible for an Elementalist to exert enough control over an element to challenge the law, to outright dominate it was beyond anything he had ever believed possible.

Cthux stared into the dark eyes of Alex, trying to see fatigue or fear, yet all he saw were two bottomless abysses, staring into his being like they could see all his secrets, and that made him feel fear.

'No matter how strong his control over darkness is, he can't possibly have enough mana to maintain it for long,'

'Yeah, and he's just an Elementalist. I'm an Elemental Ruler, a damned Ruler, and the last thing I would do before I go is suffer defeat at the hands of a mere insect,' Cthux thought, leaping back to put distance between himself and the expanding darkness.

"You are full of surprises, and how I wish I could extract those secrets, but we don't have much time left, so let's get this over with," Cthux said as tendrils of miasma and toxin took form around him.