novelraw Chapter 199: Bad Luck
Chapter 199: Bad Luck
Before Lykos could make the decision to trigger his Synaxis, Wit made the choice for him.
The Demon stepped through the lingering smoke of the explosion, its eyes burning with genuine interest.
"That’s really great effort."
Wit admitted, dusting ash off its tattered cloak.
"Barely anyone your age can match you... excellent coordination."
It smiled, further exposing rows of serrated teeth.
"It’s truly unfortunate that you’ll die today."
The words hung in the superheated air as Wit walked toward them, hands clasped behind its back, exuding a pressure that made the ground crumble around it.
Lykos moved first, knowing that he couldn’t let this thing get close to Merlin, not while she was recovering from the recoil.
The crystalline swords at his side hummed and shot forward. He dashed behind them, using the visual noise to flank the Demon and aimed his staff at Wit’s blind spot, readying a point-blank [Ice Lance].
It was a perfect pincer maneuver.
Yet it didn’t matter; Wit saw him coming from a mile away.
It didn’t even unclasp its hands, simply sidestepped the Frostblades, letting them shatter harmlessly against the wall, and swung its elbow backward.
The blow caught Lykos square in the chest.
"Gah!"
The wolf-prince was launched backward, smashing into the cavern wall. The stone cracked behind him, and the wind knocked violently from his lungs.
He slid to the floor, gasping, his ribs screaming in protest.
"Lykos!"
Merlin’s eyes widened in fear.
She pointed both hands at the Demon, ignoring her exhaustion.
"Get away from him!"
A swirling vortex of flame erupted, snake-like and hungry, rushing to burn Wit to cinders.
Wit turned to face the fire, looking... disappointed.
"I told you, my fire eats yours."
It vanished.
One second, it was in front of the tornado...
Next, it was standing directly in front of Merlin.
Merlin’s face paled, her spells entirely ineffective against a creature made of the very Element she commanded.
She tried to retreat by igniting a [Fire Blast] to propel herself backward.
But Wit was faster, flicking its wrist to lash out with a crackling whip of fire aimed for her casting arm.
SNAP!
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Her scream ripped through the dungeon.
The whip wrapped around Merlin’s forearm, burning through her Divinity shield, through her clothes, and melting into her skin.
Wit yanked, and Merlin was thrown violently against the wall next to Lykos.
The impact dislocated her shoulder with a sickening pop, and she hit the ground hard, her vision blurring from the pain, her lungs collapsing momentarily.
"Merlin..."
Lykos wheezed, trying to stand up.
Wit walked over to the groaning girl.
It raised its foot and stomped down hard on her back.
Crack!
Merlin choked, blood splattering from her lips as her ribs gave way.
She couldn’t even scream anymore; she just gasped, paralyzed by agony.
"Weak."
Lykos watched her go down.
He heard the bones break, and something inside the wolf snapped.
The hesitation about Synaxis was gone, as well as the fear of exhaustion.
All that was left was cold, white rage.
He didn’t care about strategy anymore.
"GET OFF HER!"
Lykos forced his broken body to move.
His one tail turned into three, and a crown sat upon his head.
Every drop of Divinity in him was immediately channeled into his staff.
"Absolute Zero."
A massive, condensed spear of ice—dark blue and hard as diamond—formed in the air. It was faster and more potent than anything he had cast before, a desperate, lethal bid to kill the monster standing on his friend.
"DIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!"
He launched it.
The spear tore through the air, leaving a trail of frozen ground.
Wit raised its flaming hand and caught the tip of the massive ice spear.
HISSSSSSS.
Steam exploded. A brilliant flash erupted at the point of impact, blinding them for a split second.
But as the steam cleared... the spear was stopped.
Wit at first tried to hold the deadly projectile in its palm, but it had underestimated the wolf. The attack had pierced through its flesh, tearing through its arm until it finally snagged on bone.
Annoyed by the pain, it crushed it, shattering the ice into dust.
Wit turned his gaze to Lykos, looking both delighted and disgruntled.
"Now that had some intent behind it."
He stepped off Merlin and closed the distance to Lykos in a single stride.
Lykos tried to swing his staff, to summon another blade, anything.
Yet Wit’s hand shot out before he could.
It grabbed Lykos by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
"Ghhk!"
Lykos kicked and struggled. He clawed at the Demon’s arm, his fingers freezing the skin, trying to frostbite the muscle.
It did nothing.
Wit’s skin was too hot.
"You have potential."
The Demon mused, tightening his grip.
"High-quality Soul, good lineage, but you lack... despair."
Lykos’s vision started to fade as darkness crept in at the edges.
His staff arm hung limp.
Was he really going to die here? To this bastard Demon?
He was once the prince of Death, now Ignotus’s first sword!
He was supposed to bring glory to House Calamity.
He was supposed to follow Ignotus to victory.
He was... weak.
Wit looked bored again.
"Well. Goodbye."
Using its free hand, it reached down, grabbed a shard of Lykos’s own shattered ice spear, and coated it in magma.
It turned Lykos’s own Element against him.
In one brutal motion, Wit drove the magma-coated ice shard straight into Lykos’s stomach.
SHUK.
Lykos’s eyes widened, and his breath hitched.
The cold ice and the searing heat tore through his abdomen.
The shard pierced clean through, exiting his back.
"Gah—!"
Blood dripped slowly to the floor.
Wit held him there for a second, savoring the look of shock on the boy’s face, before casually tossing him aside.
Lykos hit the ground next to Merlin.
He couldn’t move or breathe, only stare up at the ceiling, watching his blood pool around him.
"You see, honor, bravery, and friendship..."
Wit stood over them, hands clasped behind his back again.
"It’s all useless against power and bad luck."
The Demon chuckled, the sound echoing in the burning tunnel.
"But don’t worry, I’m sure your Souls will feed our master quite well~."