Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 97: In The Zone

Stanley was in the zone. His body moved with the grace of a dancer, weaving in through the incoming attacks that he had already known was going to happen.

His sword flickered, moving so smoothly with each attack that it didn’t even look like it weighed anything.

Numerous cuts appeared on the two limbs of the Crawler with each second passing.

Stanley had at some point stopped caring about paying attention to the battle entirely. He wasn’t even paying attention to Crawler itself.

He was simply dodging the attacks with minimal movement, based on what his power of foresight was showing him.

He moved to the right with his eyes closed, slicing the limb as it fell next to him. The mud slapped on his face, but he had known that.

He cut the limb twice and even managed to cut off a chunk of it before jumping on top of it to dodge the second limb while attacking the first one.

He jumped onto the second one and started cutting it up as the first one moved back into position to attack.

Stanley kept attacking, waiting for the limb to move when his powers showed him a different vision he had not been anticipating.

The third limb was attacking.

He quickly jumped to the side and landed on the ground as a large bang made the ground shake around him. He quickly wiped the mud off his face and looked at the Crawler.

He looked to the side briefly and saw that there was no one. He could, however, see a red puddle on the groud.

Another dead Defender.

Just how many were going to die today?

He gave no thought to the question after it surfaced in his mind. He simply went back to attacking the Crawler.

He did not care that it had 3 limbs attacking him. He did not care that it was going to get harder. For some reason, he did not foresee himself dying in this battle at all.

Stanley once again started dodging the attacks while cutting up the Crawlers.

Rain had come back at some time, placing the entire surrounding in a hazy light that removed much visibility from the area. The soudn also made it hard to hear the people talking so one never knew what someone else was saying unless they were incredibly close.

However, Stanley didn’t care for these things. He was the only person fighting here, so he needed no coordination with anyone.

Despite using 3 limbs, the Crawler couldn’t attack all at once which was helpful for Stanley. It had to take turns attacking with its limbs. While there was certainly a massive improvement to its attack patterns from last time, it wasn’t so massive that Stanley was helpless.

He fought the Crawler all by himself as no one saw any good moment to join in on the fight. They were also busy with the other 13 Crawlers that were still there.

Stanly cut off a part of the limb that the monster had attacked, which disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. He then dodged and sliced the other limb twice.

The third limb came back, which he scarred horizontally. He moved back, ready for the first limb to fall again.

As it did, he arrived next to it and attacked to cut it up again. However, just as his sword landed on the tip of the limb, he realized that he hadn’t cut up much this time around at all.

He was surprised when he realized what was happening.

It wasn’t that he had missed his attack or that he wasn’t strong enough to cut more, but rather that the limb that he had cut just now had not recovered.

Stanley jumped onto the limb, stabbing onto it with his spiky shoes while the other limb fell where he had stood previously. He looked at that limb and smiled when he saw that the cuts he made before was still there.

The wriggling, inky black vines on the surface of the Crawler were no longer regenerating. As such, the Crawler was starting to die.

"Just a little more," Stanley saw and attacked.

Instead of just slicing or stabbing, he started hacking onto the limbs. The more he did so, the more damage they would take.

Previously it was useless as it made one too tired too fast, and was pointless given that the Crawlers regenerated. However, now that the Crawler had run out of its regenerative capabilities, there was no doubt in Stanley’s mind that this was the correct reaction to the situation.

He could cut through a limb with 2 to 3 good hack if he got the angle right. So, he started hacking away the limbs one by one, through multiple turns.

The other two limbs that the Crawler stood on was quite healthy, but it wasn’t using it at all, using only its three limbs. The monster wasn’t intelligent enough to know what to use or when to stop.

So, even as Stanley cut it up, it still continued attacking away.

Stanley dodged and dashed and dealt immense damage to the beast. Not all limbs were hacked away. Some were simply riddled with scars from the constant cuts that was slowly chipping away at the Crawler’s life.

Stanley dashed in one last time as he saw the future that was going to happen in 2 seconds. He arrived right underneath the monster and stabbed his sword directly onto its main body.

The Crawler stopped moving after the attack, stiffening up. Then, its limbs buckled as it all collapsed onto Stanley.

Stanley stood there watching the Crawler fall on top of him. He did not move as he knew that there wasn’t any danger in his future.

A large plume of dark smoke fell onto him, spreading around him as the Crawler finally died.

Stanley looked through the smoke at the world around him, but barely any light came through the smoke. He saw specks of light through that smoke, almost as if he was looking through the Veil itself.