Chapter 62: Full Strength
Selina turned and looked at Jamie with a puzzled look as she questioned.
"What are you talking about? How can he be an Adept?"
Jamie turned towards her and let out a sneer as he stood up.
"Can’t you fucking see? He threw both of us from one side of the slab to another without even using a spell. From the beginning, his attacks fucked those nightmares more than ours. How can you not see it? Fuck it’s as clear as day!"
Each of his statements made them frown as they recalled everything up to this point, and he was right.
From the beginning, Jaden was way more relaxed than they were and in no way was he in any danger till now.
Navin’s expression, however, was much more grave as he was the only one who knew about Jaden entering the forest south of Nightshade City.
All of them stared at Jaden in a daze as it was such an unbelievable feat—he had reached the Adept stage in just a month, when even three months is considered unusually fast.
"How is this even possible?" Arden questioned with a stupefied look on his face.
Navin replied to him as he shook his head.
"It shouldn’t be..."
Jamie, however, had a different thought running through his head.
’Heh, even without your memories, you are still an anomaly.’
Jaden’s voice tore through the room once again.
"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? MOVE!"
Hearing his voice made everyone come out of their thoughts, and they began running towards the bright gateway.
Jaden unsheathed his sword and looked at the half-humanoid, half-spider nightmare before him with narrowed eyes as he channelled his mana into the sword.
His sword began to emit a dim glow.
’I have to end this fast, otherwise the mana will turn the sword into dust.’
He used [Gust Step★] with [Gale Steps ★★] to increase his speed as much as he could and attacked the nightmare with the [Falling petal sword ★★]
His body moved fast enough that it appeared to be teleported as he reached under the spider’s abdomen and struck at it with his sword; however, before the sword could do any significant damage, spikes appeared at the abdomen and flew towards him.
’Blasted hell!’
Jaden jumped a few steps back, but a spike still managed to hit him on the shoulder. The spike did not affect him as his body was enhanced by the [Iron Body Form ★].
"Its first skill allows it to turn into mist, its second skill is an AOE, and its final skill keeps it safe from attacks from beneath... Isn’t it too op?"
Jaden concluded as he moved again and attacked the legs of the nightmare. The nightmare responded to his attack by using its other blade-like legs to attack him.
Jaden parried two of the legs, but the third one struck him at the shoulder.
"Ugh!" A groan escaped his lips. He grabbed the second hand and spoke in a low voice.
"Mournful Wail."
Just as he spoke, his astral core flared, and death mana flowed out of it. After mixing with the mana within the mana core, it began to circulate within Jaden’s body and soon, a dreadful wail came out of his mouth.
The wail was not actually a sound; instead, it was the death mana leaving his body that produced it, thus it worked on the nightmare before him, even though it had no ears or any other hearing organ.
The nightmare’s body shuddered under the onslaught of the 2-star spell. Jaden’s lips arched up as he stepped towards its blade-like legs with [Gale steps ★★] and cut off one of them.
He moved towards another leg and chopped it before the nightmare came back to its senses.
Just as the nightmare came back to its senses, it turned into mist and began to dash at the five figures, who were making their way towards the bright gateway.
Jaden’s playful smile faltered as he followed behind the nightmare with the help of [Gust step ★]
"Shit!" He muttered with a dark look as he thought of other ways to capture it.
His aether core flared once again as he called upon the shadows to bind the nightmare; however, the nightmare was about to reach the others.
Even so, before it could reach them, lightning surged through the ground and ceased its movements.
Just as its movements stopped, the nearby shadows wiggled and black chains shot out of them and captured the mist.
Jaden’s steps faltered due to the heavy amount of mana he had used to use [Umbral Chains ★★] and [Surge Line ★].
He tightened his grip around his sword and flowed most of his remaining mana into it before using [Gust Step ★] to reach its head and chop it off.
The nightmare’s head fell with a heavy thud, and the slab shook with it. Its lifeless body also turned into white fine dust, leaving a single luminescent, glassy white orb.
This spirit core, however, had a much brighter glow. Jaden walked towards it and picked it up; the core was as big as his hand.
"That’s what a D rank spirit core looks like, huh?"
He said before crushing it and absorbing it, he suddenly felt his mind sharpen and expand noticeably.
"Hah... that was something..." he mumbled as he stepped towards Selina and others, who stood at the platform before the gateway.
However, just as he did so, the slab shook and began to crumble.
Seeing that, Jaden tried to use wind magic to reach the other side faster, but he had no mana.
"JADEN!" Selina shouted as she looked at him with widened eyes. Jaden gritted his teeth and began to run towards them with all of his strength.
’Blasted hell!’
He reached the end of the slab and jumped towards the platform; however, the ground beneath him shifted, weakening his jump.
"NO!"
He shouted, and his eyes widened as he fell towards the endless void beneath; however, before he could fall, Navin positioned his spear before him, which he grabbed to climb onto the platform before the gateway.
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AOE = Area of effect ( Skills that affect an area, similar to Surge Line. )