Chapter 185 – The Summons

This is a strange sensation.

Calron could feel the touch of the wind on his cheek, but instead of grazing past him, it remained glued to his skin. 

The darklings that were madly rushing at him, all appeared to be moving painfully slow in Calron’s vision. He could see the wrinkles on their grey skin, the sharpness of their claws and even their slightly foggy breath.

Just as suddenly as the vision came, it quickly vanished and time returned back to normal. As Calron already expected this outcome, he easily dodged the three strikes that were about to land on him.

…………………

“Oy… what’s wrong with him?”

Eva frowned, seeing Calron struggling with lowly darklings when he was initially subduing them.

“Something happened to him. Look at his eyes, they are in confusion.”

Drien spoke, preparing to attack in case Calron let his guard down under the onslaught of the enemies.

“Give him time, I don’t think this is the extent of his prowess.”

Vala calmly stated while crouching down on top of the hill which had a clearer sight.

………………………..

“Enough wasting time, let’s finish this.”

Calron could still not figure out what happened with him, but his current situation did not allow him to explore or experiment any further.

Concentrating his Azure Lightning to the tip of his forefinger, Calron began to strike back against the darklings.

It looked like a plain blue needle with static lightning around it, but Calron knew exactly how vicious and fearsome that concentrated power of the Azure Lightning was.

“Gluguh… ”

A darkling choked on his own blood when Calron pierced his finger through the creature’s chest and dragged it towards his neck.

Calron’s main worry with the Azure Lightning was the amount of essence that it consumed and how quickly it drained his body of strength. By focusing his essence on a focal point, Calron could reduce his essence usage by a wide margin.

After killing that darkling, Calron kicked the leg of a nearby enemy who was bolting towards him and pierced his finger into another one’s kneecap after ducking the attack by yet another darkling. It was like fighting the wave of a tsunami. 

He could not instantly kill more darklings after the first one as they were all cautious of his finger and retreated the moment Calron struck.

I’m running out of time.

Calron was starting to feel the physical exhaustion after using the Azure Lightning for a few minutes. He did know how much longer he could last.

However, before he could make another move, the Saint stage leader of the darklings entered the fight and used his soul power to constrict Calron.

“Foolish.”

Calron turned to smile at the darkling leader at the back, his eyes now morphed into a bright grey color. This was the gap he needed to break through their defense.

*clink-clink*

Two metal rods floated out of Calron’s spatial bracelet and attached themselves to each of his wrists as they transformed into two mini-crossbows.

Calron shot a blue bolt of lightning at the darkling leader and the second one at a nearby enemy. The leader managed to dodge the bolt, but the other one’s head exploded the moment the blue lightning connected with his skin.

*hiss*   *hiss*

Calron shot two more bolts around him, taking down a couple more darklings in front of him.

There were now only four more darklings left including the leader.

As Calron was preparing to shoot two more bolts, the strange sensation returned once again. It came without a trigger, causing Calron’s aim to shift and miss his targets.

Those were the last bolts of Azure Lightning, as Calron was now out of essence and could no longer use the Divine Element.

“Back to old habits… ”

Calron chuckled, as he raised his fists and used the first ability of the Blood Legacy, the Formless Fist.

After realizing the amount of essence the Azure Lightning consumed, Calron decided on training his long-forgotten legacy in case a situation arose where he was drained of essence.  

Darting behind the enemy, Calron punched a darkling in the middle of his spine and quickly switched to his neighbor and struck that darkling at the back of his head. Both punches were not enough to kill them, but it did cause a major damage to their health.

“KRAAAH!”

The darkling leader howled, lunging at Calron before more of his subordinates were killed.

*swish*

The leader managed to scratch Calron’s arm, drawing blood from the shallow wound.

Calron ignored the injury and continued to hara.s.s the other three darklings, leaving the leader for the last. The darkling swiftly raised its claws to protect its face when it saw Calron throwing a fist towards it, but contrary to what it was expecting, Calron changed his tactics mid-strike and grabbed the darkling’s throat through the gap between its elbows.

*crunch*

Even without the help of his essence, Calron had a powerful body that could crush bones and flesh.

The other two darklings were already suffering from grievous injuries, so once their peer was dead and they saw the pile of corpses around them, they fell down to their knees and submitted to Calron.

“KRAKAAH!”

The leader roared in their language at the sight of the two darklings submitting, but it did not have an effect whatsoever. 

“Good, now it’s your turn.”

Calron easily twisted the necks of the two darklings, and turned around to face the darkling leader.

“GRAAAAH!”

The leader lowered his body to the ground, but unlike his subordinates, he was positioning himself for charging at Calron with full speed.

“I thought I would get a perfect pa.s.s, so I guess I have to pay you back for this.”

Calron laughed while raising the arm where the leader had scratched him.

The leader darted towards Calron, his claws aimed directly at his eyes. Rolling on the ground before the leader struck, Calron used an uppercut with his full force at the darkling’s abdomen.

Groaning in pain, the leader fell to the ground but quickly leapt back up and charged again at Calron. Wanting to end this fight soon, Calron stood still and waited for the leader to near him.

His next strike would end it.

“GRUAHHH!”

The leader pounced at him, his razor-sharp claws swinging at Calron.

Die.

Calron thought as he raised his fist, but right then, the strange feeling returned. Time slowed down for him yet again. However, Calron was prepared for it, so he grabbed the leader by his face mid-air and brutally smashed him to the ground.

A mini-crater formed where the leader’s head was pulverized.

All twelve enemies were neutralized. There was no sound in the air, besides the rotten stench of flesh and blood.

Silence.

And then, sounds of clapping followed as Drien, Vala, Eva and Felror all came down towards Calron.

“You’ll do fine in our next mission, lad.”

Drien congratulated the young man on his victory and flashed a grin. Eva gave a dismissive grunt, but also offered her compliments to Calron while Vala went ahead and patted the young man on the back repeatedly. Felror simply smiled at Calron.

“Thank you.”

Calron scratched at his wound in embarra.s.sment and accepted their wishes.

“Alright, we don’t have much time to waste. You’ve been summoned to the Royal Palace, so you should go there and wait for the Patriarch to come.”

Drien interrupted, recalling the Patriarch’s message through the communication crystal while Calron was battling.

“Palace?”

Calron asked, curious as to why he was summoned there.

He did not know yet, but this was the second battlefield that Calron would have to fight in today. The battle of politics at the Royal Palace.