Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 45 45: Let’s finish this as fast as possible

Leon currently had a mana pool of 240, but after several automatic activations of his passive skill Cold Mind, along with his earlier use of Darkness Manipulation during the fight with the Fog Cat, his reserves had dropped to 220. Until now, that hadn't posed any real limitation. He had never once found himself in a situation that required him to draw on everything at once.

This time was different.

Standing face to face with the advancing giant boar, Leon understood perfectly that fighting conservatively, saving mana, leaving himself a safety margin, would only earn him a faster death. There was no other choice. For the first time since the apocalypse began, he decided to unleash almost his entire mana pool in a single use.

He thrust his hands forward, and his muscles tensed violently, as if his whole body were struggling to withstand the strain. Two hundred points of mana were ripped from his reserves in one brutal surge and forced straight into the shadow beneath the colossal boar. In the same instant, he activated Darkness Manipulation with the full force of his will.

Leon's face went pale as a sheet, as if all the blood had drained from it. His knees buckled slightly under the sudden loss of energy. Draining nearly his entire mana pool wasn't something his body was used to. Still, he endured, gritting his teeth and focusing what little clarity he had left on a single image, held in his mind with almost painful precision.

He imagined the shadow not as a flat stain on the ground, but as a violent medium capable of motion and aggression. From it grew long, needle-thin spikes, razor-sharp, thrust upward with savage force, piercing the beast's massive body from below, striking where even the thickest armor was useless.

The effect was immediate.

ROOOAAAR!!!

From the shadow beneath the giant boar, dozens of black, unnaturally thin spikes erupted. They shot upward at terrifying speed, slamming into its underbelly, tearing through soft tissue and punching clean through its body, bursting out more than a meter above its back. In a single moment, the ground beneath it became an execution ground, as darkness itself turned into a tool of internal slaughter.

A horrific, agonized sound tore from the red boar's jaws, low, trembling, filled with raw agony. It had been only four steps away from goring Leon with its massive horn when its movement abruptly stopped, its enormous body freezing in place as if the connection between will and muscle had been violently severed.

The beast lifted its head skyward in a reflex of pain, its body shaking heavily. The hot steam rising from its flesh began to pulse chaotically. Most of its internal organs had been damaged by the alien darkness that had erupted from its own shadow, and it was unmistakably suffering a level of pain it had never known before.

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the darkness vanished.

Within a single second, it dissolved into the air as if it had never existed at all, leaving behind only silence, the stench of hot blood, and the devastation carved into the beast's body, undeniable proof that what had just happened was painfully real.

Darkness Manipulation was truly terrifyingly powerful. Valeria had known that for a long time. She had heard stories of similar abilities wielded by far worse, and far more horrifying, beings. But until now, Leon had mostly faced weaker enemies, opponents that could be defeated with simple, efficient solutions. He had never been forced to draw on this power to its full extent, nor to explore applications beyond crude, but effective, shadow chains.

The price of such an attack, however, was brutal.

The mana cost, especially spent all at once in such overwhelming quantity, hit far harder than Leon had anticipated, even with his reinforced body and trained mind. Draining nearly his entire pool left him feeling as if all the fuel had been ripped out of him at once, leaving behind nothing but a heavy, hollow shell.

The giant boar writhed in agony, its massive body slamming sideways into a nearby building as it struggled to comprehend what had happened. The strange spikes that had erupted from its shadow and impaled it had vanished without a trace, leaving only dozens of clean, puncture-through wounds. Thick red blood began to pour from them, dripping to the ground and steaming almost instantly in the cold air.

The building it struck didn't last even two seconds.

With a deep, thunderous collapse, the structure gave way, exploding outward in a massive cloud of dust, rubble, and shattered concrete that rained down like a heavy storm, emphasizing just how catastrophic the destruction was.

Before the apocalypse, humans had no mana in their bodies. They weren't built to store or expend it. But Essence Record had changed that, granting them the ability to grow and wield mana in ways once confined to fantasy. Now, having spent nearly all of his mana in a single attack, Leon felt utterly drained, his body weak, heavy, and alien.

But he had no other choice.

Clenching his teeth, he forced himself to stay upright. His pale face lifted as he fixed his gaze on the enemy, a bitter smile forming on his lips. Even after such devastating damage, the beast hadn't fallen. It was stabilizing, regaining itself, and staring back at him with murderous intent.

The boar's green eyes burned with rage as it staggered forward, every step laced with pain but never stopping. Its red body was smeared with darker crimson, blood seeping steadily from dozens of wounds, as if it were slowly tearing itself apart from the inside, yet still advancing, ready to kill or die.

At last, the wounded boar reached the building Leon had been standing on and, without hesitation, drove its massive horn forward, not just at him, but as if it intended to erase the entire structure from existence.

Leon reacted instantly.

He didn't try to hold his ground or find a better angle. He simply threw himself off the roof at the last possible moment. Almost simultaneously, the three-story building collapsed with a deafening roar, as though struck by heavy demolition machinery rather than a living creature. Concrete, bricks, and wall fragments blasted outward in every direction.

Leon didn't escape unscathed.

A massive chunk of concrete slammed into his back, knocking him flat and pinning him to the ground. A short, strangled sound tore from his throat.

"Ugh, "

The weight was crushing, forcing the air from his lungs, but instinct and his reinforced body kicked in before panic could. Gritting his teeth, Leon twisted with all his strength and drove his fist into the concrete slab, punching straight through it as if it were brittle stone rather than solid construction. He burst free in a cloud of dust and debris.

A thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't spare it a glance. He knew exactly what would have happened if his muscles hadn't been strengthened so thoroughly, he would have been crushed outright, or left too injured to continue fighting.

The beast gave him no respite.

The moment Leon regained his footing, the red boar was already charging again. The fury in its green eyes was so intense it felt as though the rest of the world had ceased to exist. All that remained was the need to devour the human who had dared wound it, no matter the cost.

Its strength and endurance were monstrous, but the effects of Leon's earlier attack were undeniable. Dozens of puncture wounds riddled its massive body, internal damage mounting as blood continued to spill heavily onto the ground with each step, leaving a dark red trail behind it.

As a creature that had already undergone its first evolution, a First-Order being, the boar was a minor ruler of this territory, a monster that had never truly faced danger. That was why its rage only intensified. Being wounded by something so small, so insignificant, was utterly unacceptable.

Leon understood the situation clearly.

Seeing how easily the beast had destroyed a building, and knowing exactly what would happen if that horn struck him directly, he didn't even consider meeting it head-on. In his current state, that would be suicide.

Instead, Leon relied on the only real advantage he had left: Agility.

It was his highest stat, the only one that still genuinely surpassed the boar's capabilities, even after its evolution. If he couldn't win through strength or endurance, then he wouldn't try.

Ignoring the pain in his back. Ignoring the emptiness left by his drained mana. Leon clenched his teeth and sprinted into the streets between the buildings.

He knew one thing with absolute certainty.

If he stopped, even for a moment, the monster would catch him.

And there would be no second chance.

He had no illusions about a direct confrontation.

He couldn't defeat the giant boar in close combat, even at full strength. His only viable strategy was to turn the environment, and the beast's own size, against it. What made it terrifying in open space became a liability in narrow passages and among structures never meant to contain something so massive.

For the next several minutes, Leon did only one thing.

He ran.

He darted between buildings, changed direction abruptly, vanished around corners, and deliberately exposed himself just long enough to provoke the beast before disappearing again. Each time, the red boar responded exactly as Leon anticipated, charging headlong into buildings, smashing through walls, collapsing structures as if they were made of cardboard rather than concrete and steel.

After the tenth destroyed building, something began to change.

The hatred and fury in the boar's green eyes were still there, but now there was something else as well. Something Leon hadn't seen before.

Fatigue.

Even a First-Order monster couldn't ignore continuous blood loss forever.

Its strength was still terrifying, its endurance immense, but the relentless charges, the initial wounds from Leon's attack, and the steady hemorrhaging finally began to take their toll. Its pace slowed. Its steps grew heavier. Its movements lost their fluidity.

Leon noticed immediately.

Without slowing, he leapt toward another nearby building, rebounded off the ground, and vanished behind another wall, ready to seize this fleeting advantage and end the fight as quickly as possible.

"Let's finish this as fast as possible."