LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL

Chapter 198: You Are Suppressed

Elias’s hands tightened into fists, a deep sense of tiredness in his heart; at any time, he would have welcomed this chance to fight with his teachers. More than anything, he wanted to compete with these titans that had shaken his mind as a child.

Suddenly, the space around them vibrated, and the walls and ceiling began to press closer, as he had feared; the tests were not over.

"The cavern is collapsing." Elias pointed out.

"It is." Lyssa smiled a knowing smile. "So you’d better make this fast, or do you believe that you would last long against us?"

"If that is the case..." Elias’s eyes shone bright, and he bowed, "I am an Ascendant Candidate, and I..."

"Zip it, Elias," Rhys chuckled, "Just because you reach the Fury Forge in days does not mean that you can take us. If you can still be on your feet till after three minutes, then you pass the test."

Elias took one step back, while placing his left hand behind him, "Bring it on."

Rhys laughed, and shadows covered his body, and he vanished from sight.

At this time, Elias was not in his best condition, and even if he was in top shape, he still did not think he was able to win against his teachers. He had an idea of their capabilities after he was trained by them for years.

He knew how fast Rhys was, and how scarily precise he could be, even when he was moving at great speeds, in addition to the fact that his talent for shadow manipulation was a power that Elias had not seen much in display.

There were many things that Elias had to consider, but he allowed his instincts to take over his actions and allowed his body to flow with the motions.

Rhys vanished into the darkness at the edges of the cavern, and there was a faint sound as if the air had been sucked out of the cavern by a massive mouth, and then the shadows came alive.

They rose from the floor and walls, covering half of the space in this cavern, and they twisted into themselves, taking the shapes of hands, claws, and even massive fangs.

Each of these shapes was as large as Elias’s entire body, and he could feel the weight of these constructs despite the fact that they were made from shadows.

What level would a Siphon have to be to externalize their talent in this manner, certainly not Mist Phantom, maybe Amber Exile?

Claws emerged from Elias’s hands before they transformed into blades as his swarm rushed out of the pores of his hands.

Elias looked at Lyssa, and she mouthed to him, "Don’t die." The shadows fell upon him like a storm.

He dodged the first, rolled under the second, and to understand how hard these shadows could hit, he caught the third on his claws. His hands were pushed back a bit, but he felt his claws shred through the shadows, and it reformed a heartbeat later.

’Claws would not work,’ he thought, and the Ascendant Swarm responded to his thought in an instant as his bladed fingers merged and extended into a single long blade.

Elias spun and slashed, his blade carving through three more shadows, but they were endless. For every one he tore apart, two more took their place.

"Wow, you are fast," Rhys’s voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "But you’re not fast enough, boy, you grew too fast and have too much muscles, your coordination is shit!"

A shadow caught Elias’s leg, squeezed tight, and yanked. He fell, rolled, came up swinging, and found himself face-to-face with Lyssa.

She had not moved from her position, but Elias had been moving towards her as he dodged and attacked the shadows, knowing that he needed to take out one person so he could be comfortable dealing with the other.

Lyssa’s eyes were fixed on him, but her hands were working as if she were weaving, and a quick glance revealed that there was a thread on her hands.

It was thin, almost invisible, but Elias could see that it resembled a strand of light, which was connecting her fingers to the shadows that had been chasing him.

Was this her talent?

Now that he was close to Lyssa, she was able to see Elias’s body and noticed that the clothes he wore were the tattered remnants of one of the sets she had made for him.

"Did it serve you well?" she said, and Elias shrugged, "The pockets are strong."

She nodded as if satisfied with the answers.

"I will not be using the full extent of my talent against you; at your level, it would be too dangerous and may hamper your forging."

She brought up her hands, "I am controlling these shadows, but I can also control flesh. This task is to subdue you, not to kill you; still, do not take it lightly."

She suddenly pulled the thread, and the shadows converged towards Elias. Her words were just to delay him while she set up her attack.

Elias had always known Lyssa as a seamstress, and it had been easy for him to forget that she was a soldier because she never carried herself with that demeanor.

She had attacked him without any indication, one moment she was talking to him, and the next she was attacking, and her eyes had not changed. Nothing had given him any clue of her actions.

Elias slashed at the nearest shadow. His blade passed through it, but the golden flecks on the blade caught the thread inside the shadow, pulled, and snapped it.

Lyssa’s eyes widened.

"That’s incredible, your Armament was able to touch my threads."

"You have not seen everything I can do," Elias said, and he lunged for her.

Elias did not know what his teachers knew about his talents and his present attributes; even his Master did not know his present strength, unless his battle with the Rune Beast was shown to Rhys and Lyssa, but if they were seeing him as just a talented Fury Forge, they were in for a world of surprise.

He was fast, and more importantly, he had attacked when he should have taken steps to retreat.

His blade had been less than four feet, but as Elias swung it, the blade extended to ten feet, transforming a short, curved blade into an impossible, long weapon that would sweep past her throat.

Elias was ready to stop his blade if it touched her neck when she calmly caught it between two of her fingers.

From under his feet, his shadow bubbled, and Rhys rose out of it. His axes were in his hands, and he pressed one against Elias’s throat and held him there.

"You’re good," Rhys said. "But you’re pulling your punches, and right now, I don’t know whether to punch you or kiss you. Your trial has been going on for sixteen hours, and you are tired and wounded, and yet you still hold back?"

Elias gritted his teeth. "Then forgive me." From his right elbow, Elias created a spike, and he drove his hand back, and from his position, the spike should drive into Rhys’s heart.

The spike stopped an inch from his skin, caught in a web of thread that Lyssa had woven while he was distracted by the axe held against his neck. Elias had not even noticed how she did it.

She had wrapped it around his arms, his shoulders, his chest, and now she pulled, and he could not move.

"Enough," she said. "It’s over."