The Last Dainv

Chapter 228

"NOW FIGHT ME!"

The move was telegraphed to Gale's Breath of the Void before it had formed. The chimera's attack would target different parts of his body simultaneously. The goat aimed for the head, the lion for the torso, and the dragon for his legs.

Weber materialized from space storage immediately. Dainv Combat Arts guided his movements, allowing his body to twist in ways that no human should. A duck, a jerk, and the last movement was to block the dragon's maw with Weber.

Gale's body flew from the impact, reaching towards the edge of the arena of the tower. Small clouds blocked the view of the ground from where he was, but Arad didn't wait for him to marvel at the view.

Arad's form split into three distinct beasts. Each one wore a crown of eyes. The goat charged, the lion pounced, and the dragon took a deep breath.

Weber sliced at the incoming goat. Edge sparking against its horns, veering it off course. Dash towards the front transitioned into a slide, allowing the lion's pounce to miss completely above him.

Dragon blew towards Gale as he came to a stop on his slide. A breath of pure darkness that radiated heat came at him.

Breath of the Void reacted on its own. He saw his own tendrils block the incoming darkness. A flurry of needles poked into his back as the flame burned his tendrils.

It didn't hurt. Or maybe it was just the adrenaline. But it was the first time he ever felt pain from his own tendrils. With a bit of a shake, the flame dissipated.

Something solid hit Gale in the back, sending him skidding once again towards the edge of the tower. He smashed Weber to the floor, stopping his body from falling off.

No more distractions. Whatever happens, just accept what the fuck happened.

Gale said that to himself, but he knew that his legs still shook at the sight of the chimera.

It circled him as if waiting for him to get back up, and so he did. The grip on his arms grew even tighter, and he charged.

There was no thought to it. He needed to survive. He needed to go all out in the beginning. Breath of the Void was let in.

Billions of patterns, shapes, and lines formed all over Gale's skin, clothes, and armour. It seeped into Weber, causing the metal to become etched with the same patterns.

Colours inverted. The once dim arena turned into bright daylight. On the artificial sky of the sector, galaxies spun slowly and lazily.

Arad's form still looked the same. His colours didn't change. What changed was Gale's perception of him. No longer did the chimera look disgusting and wrong. His mind began to believe that the form of the being in front of him was just normal.

His legs still shook, but less so than before. A deep breath of cold air telegraphed to Arad that he was ready. All three heads made a small grin.

The lion and dragon attacked simultaneously. Gale spun, Weber extended outward. The blade caught the lion's paw while he twisted his body to avoid the dragon's snapping jaws.

He staggered but kept his footing, Weber in constant motion. The goat's head met with the blade. Gale allowed the momentum to spin him. Weber's edge grazed the goat's back on its return.

Lion's paw appeared in front of Gale's head mid-spin. Weber caught the claw, deflecting it to the side. A desperate punch to the lion's face sent it flying backwards.

That's right, Gale. Whoever is in front didn't matter. Big or small, the only thing he needed to know was how to kill it to survive.

The chimera's bodies reformed into one again. For a split second, it stayed still.

Phase Touch activated. Weber slashed forward. Reflection activated. A wave of sharpness hurled towards Arad.

In another split second, Arad turned its back against the wave. Reflection hit the dragon's scales. Sparks flew everywhere.

Below Gale, a ring of light formed. Roll to the right. On his original spot erupted black flames. Arad was already charging at him with its horns.

Gale jumped. Weber extended downwards. Horns hit the blade. He spun and slammed down his feet.

Wrong move. He forgot about the tail.

It whipped at him, smashing him into the floor face first. His body bounced once. Breath of the Void telegraphed Arad's move once again. Lion's claw was in mid-swing against his back.

A twist of his body and an upward slash. The edge met the soft part of the paw, slicing the lion's arm in half.

Another ring of white appeared below him while he was in mid-air. Breath of the Void's tendrils moved to block it.

The flame erupted upwards. This time, it felt like hundreds of needles poked in and out of his back as his tendrils blocked the flame.

His feet finally landed on the floor. Breath ragged. Blood dripped from his forehead. Back sore. Hands numb.

Wishful thinking said that the fight was at best even. His breath had suppressed its stage to Resonant. However, Arad had been gaining ground, exposing all his openings.

"How mortifying," Arad's voice rumbled as its three forms merged back together. "The stench of your fear gives me second hand embarrassment."

Arad circled him, all of its eyes. "The children of Cev did not know the concept of fear. That diction did not exist within them. Yet here you are, reeking of it."

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Gale spat blood onto the floor. "Then maybe I'm not what they were."

"Clearly. Your brethren would be ashamed to see the last of their legacy as I am now."

The chimera split again. Three bodies working together, two pouncing at him, one preparing for another breath.

Alter activated. Sword lengthened into a spear. The lion lunged first, the goat followed. Spear's hilt drove to the floor. He jumped and propelled himself in between the lion and the goat towards the dragon. The maw and horns missed him by just inches.

Gale landed in front of the dragon. It took flight, circling overhead as a stream of darkness from its mouth forced him to roll sideways.

"You're still lacking conviction, boy." Arad's dragon head hissed.

Distort activated. Gale's form vanished. However, he immediately saw the crown of eyes from each creature still tracking his movements regardless.

The lion pounced from behind exactly where he was dashing to. He forced himself to slide, avoiding the lion from below.

"Did you think my eyes are for decoration?" Arad laughed from all three of its forms.

Gale dropped the invisibility. "Worth a shot."

The dragon breathed another stream of darkness. Gale spun Weber's spear, creating a barrier that split the attack around him. Needles stung at his arms as the flame stayed on his skin.

Before he could recover, the lion was already on him. Its claws raked across his back, staggering him forward. The armour he had been wearing sliced and shattered off his body.

Weber shortened to a sword again. Spinning back, he swung Weber horizontally at the lion's head. Again, before the swing hit the lion, the goat rammed against his flank.

He flew sideways. But before he was knocked out of the arena, Gale swung wildly, diverting his momentum towards the floor. Once he was near enough, he lengthened the sword again and struck it towards the floor to prevent himself from falling off.

"Your adaptability is commendable," Arad said as the three forms regrouped. "But you waste energy on ineffective tactics."

Arad moved in one unit once more. Its massive claws swung upwards, a deep void trailing its claws.

Weber deflected it to the side. Gale used Weber's contact on the claw itself to propel himself back to the centre of the arena.

Arad had already split the lion off of himself. It pounced at Gale in the centre. The chimera had read him like a book as the lion's claws once again struck upwards at him.

He could only block, his hands already too numb to feel his grip. When the claws hit Weber, it flew off his hands, spinning and lodging itself in the metal.

"What will you do now, trembling child?" Arad reformed into one again, grinning and looking down upon Gale. It waited, not doing anything, probably wanting him to take back the sword from the floor.

He was outclassed. Everything he did was read like a book by Arad. A being of who knows how many years old, playing him like a fiddle. Even as he used Dainv Combat Arts and all his skills to the fullest, there was nothing he could do. Reflection, his strongest skill, was useless in the constant close quarters.

"Look at you. This pathetic state," two of Arad's mouths laughed while the goat didn't. "If not for that breath running through your veins, I'd have splattered you across this tower in seconds."

Gale's eyes flicked to the Weber. Moving towards it, he picked it back up. Was the sword always this heavy or was he just being beaten up too much? His eyes moved back to Arad in a glare. "Bull fucking shit. I never asked for any of this crap. Kill me if you want."

"And yet here you are standing and fighting for your life against me." Arad snickered, and the inverted shadows deepened.

"It's not for me who I fight for," Gale said. Losing people is part of life. If he can do something about it, why won't he fight? He'd make this nightmare demon fight for every inch and for every scar it gives him, even if he's outmatched.

The chimera's crown of eyes squinted at Gale. It moved back to around the centre of the arena, opposite of Gale. "Listen to yourself. Such a noble sentiment from a Dainv, if I've ever heard one. Your kind enslaved me. Reduced me to a mere pet. This courage you present is only half of what it should be."

Something inside Gale snapped. Who was he to talk to him about courage when he had done his best to jump at every danger? "I jumped into this goddamn arena, DIDN'T I?!"

Arad laughed. The tower swayed at the slow interval of its laugh. "You're like a child who dips his toe in the ocean and claims to have swum. You let the Void trickle through when it should be a flood. Look all around you. The mountains of death and flesh."

The trace of breath that Arad had fed him the visual forcefully. From below, when he walked through the flesh road, he only saw what was in front of him. When he climbed the tower to get to the top, he never looked down. And now, the extent of Arad's power was on display.

Mountains and mountains of flesh stretched out across the entire sector. Blood from the flesh flowed like a river. A skeleton of a giant, where the highest peak of its skull reached a 3rd of the way to the top of the tower.

"Tell me, young child. The tide does not even compare to what you see before you. Do you fear that image or do you fear me?"

Gale forced his hand to stop trembling as he held Weber. Imagining the tide he'd have to face could be much grander than what he saw in this sector, would he have enough power to protect those bound to be more important than him?

Arad sighed, a low rumble rattled the debris on the metal floor. "The word 'fear' isn't just in your vocabulary. It's written into every fibre of your being."

"So what? Before I'm a Dainv, I'm human."

"The stench of it makes me want to vomit," Arad said. "Let the void in, boy. Or do you fear what you may become?"

His right hand once again tightened on the hilt of Weber.

Fine. If he didn't die by this monster in front of him, then he'd die from the loss of sanity.

A cold, deep breath flowed into Gale's lungs. Breath of the Void expanded further inwards, into his bones, blood, veins, and Origin Core.

Let it in.

[Warning: Breath of the Void integration at 88%]

The whispers came in first. Voices came from everywhere of unknown language. The loudest one came from Erebus, stuck on the floor. It screamed and whispered at him. Kill the disgusting pet. Kill it. You know you want to. Just kill it. Snap its hideous three necks.

The world twisting came next. Colours shifted into spectrums he'd only seen when he let the void in too deeply. The fingers of the arena bent at angles that were not there before, producing not a flat arena but one of multiple platforms that raised and depressed.

Arad's form changed too. The hideous crown of eyes changed into two eyes per beast it inhabited. On its form, a majestic minotaur full of golden armour and a golden crown. A regal gryphon with talons that shimmered with starlight. A coiling dragon that orbited the two whose scales shined of stars and a reverse scale that held 12 suns.

Was this Arad's true form or had his sanity twisted what was hideous into the object of beauty?

A deranged smile on Gale's lips opened wide. Weber extended into a spear once again. Phase Touch activated, lighting up the circuits of the weapon.

Without hesitation, he stabbed forward. Reflection cast out into a single point. A projectile of pure cutting force shot from the blade, distorting the air but having no whistle in its sound.

But Arad didn't move. Its massive paw swatted the reflection aside. The reflection point dissipated, scattering sparks everywhere.

"Young Dainv. Let us dance."

The minotaur raised its arm and clenched its fist towards Gale. In that instant, reality warped. Dark clouds formed around Arad's body, coiling like smoke. Plasma arced inside those clouds.

And suddenly, the space between Gale and the three bodies compressed. Minotaur, gryphon, dragon, all already poised for an attack.

Pure instinct and reflex drove Gale's reply. In that same blink of an eye, Weber shortened, and the flat met the minotaur's punch, the gryphon's talons, and the coiling dragon's maw. Feet skidded against the metal, stopping just before the edge. One more inch and he'd fall.

His eyes looked back at the three bodies. Was it not Arad's intent to directly distort and alter, to twist and compress the distance between them?

As Gale dashed forward once again, swinging Weber, he told himself, just keep fighting.

Let them break his body, break his bones. His spirit and mind will never break. He'd die before anyone puts him in a cage again.