Hitman with a Badass System

After Michael cleared out the beasts of Fire Realm, Gaya landed beside him. Rowena quickly emptied a bottle of healing potion of her own before Michael could give her a blood tonic. Her hand was completely drenched in blood. Thanks to the healing potion, the scars, bruises, and the wound on her shoulder quickly healed as the rosiness to her face slowly returned. The trio waited for the shadow monster to approach them instead of rushing toward it. While the shadow monster was on its way to Michael, he noticed a bright light on the horizon behind the monster. The entire sky above the horizon slowly grew brighter and brighter to the point Gaya had to cover her eyes.

"He started his tribulation," said Rowena.

Michael didn't give a damn about Noah's tribulation. Instead, he was focused on killing the shadow monster. It would finally give him enough experience points to trigger his own tribulation to reach the Half-Celestial stage. Of course, he had to upgrade his system before triggering the tribulation, but once he had reached level 10 of the Immortal stage, he would have the power of Half Celestial stage without reaching the stage whenever he took his complete form.

He always had a feeling Ethan's curse was a blessing in disguise. But deep down, one question kept nagging Michael, who actually cursed Ethan. The curse was powerful enough to possess sentience as well as the ability to teleport them from one realm to another. He wondered what kind of powerful being was able to create such a monstrosity. Interrogating the shadow monster was out of the question, and Michael had too many things on his plate to track down the curse's origin. Now that Sadie turned Noah's elites into one of their spies, Michael would be able to know everything Noah learns. Michael doubted Noah would let go of the man who cursed his father. Despite Noah's rule against killing, Michael saw the killing intent in his eyes. He saw the old Noah who slaughtered arrogant young masters and their families without remorse.

"Do we still need Noah's aid in defeating the monster?" Rowena asked Michael. Judging by the overwhelming power radiation coming from Michael, she didn't think they needed Noah. Once she could freeze the monster, she knew he would take care of the monster all by himself. Unfortunately, freezing the monster was not as easy as it sounded.

"Just like I said. I distract the monster. You freeze it," Michael reminded Rowena again. She nodded and clenched the blades tighter. The icy blue Cold Flames danced around Rowena's blades, taking the form of small coiling dragons. This was the first time Michael had seen these flames take such form. Looking at them made him wonder if his dark flames could take shapes or forms.

"DARK LORD!" The shadow monster suddenly roared, uttering Michael's name. Its thunderous roar shook the entire Fire Realm and caused several volcanoes to explode.

Michael himself was completely stunned by the monster's roar. From the moment he laid his eyes on the monster, he felt like the monster had deep hatred toward him. Now the roar confirmed his suspicion. The shadow monster definitely had it for him. However, the thought that a god was behind everything never came across his mind.

"That's new. I think you pissed the ugly off by taking it out of its host," said Gaya.

"The more it focuses on me, the easier it will be for you to freeze it," Michael said to Rowena. He didn't worry about the shadow monster anymore. In fact, he was excited to finish it off. By reaching the Half Celestial stage, he could finally start taking down the great eight clans one by one. The era of the Dark Lord was about to begin.

Letting out another roar, the shadow monster dashed toward Michael. Once it was just ten meters away from Michael, Gaya leaped into the air and knocked a golden arrow into her bow. On the other hand, Rowena prepared herself to join the fight against the monster with Michael. It was not a battle of wits or strategies. Rather, this was a battle of rage and power. Not the smartest, but the strongest would survive.

"Keep your distance from it at all times," Michael warned Gaya as she nodded. Just as Michael planned, he dashed at the monster, and on his way, he opened his arms as the dark swords flew straight into his arms. Rowena thought he was about to use the swords. However, he just unsheathed the swords and leaped into the air. In mid-air, he flicked his wrist as the Doom Bringer materialized in his hand.

Rowena raised her blades, sending the frost dragons toward the monster. At the same time, Michael clenched the Doom Bringer tighter as the ancient ice core imbued with the war hammer fired a stream of bone-chilling ice upon the monster from above. Rowena didn't expect Ghost to possess such a weapon. He always fought using swords, and seeing him use the war hammer felt odd.

The monster's top, where the ice stream from the Doom bringer hit, got covered in a thin layer of ice. But the ice layer was not strong enough to freeze the monster as it shattered in a blink of an eye. A couple of things happened at once. One, Michael flew above the monster, trying to freeze it with the Doom Bringer's frost. Second, he evaded the shadow monster's dark spikes. Third, Rowena ran around the monster while it was focused on Michael and fired a constant stream of Cold Flames. Just looking at the monster's ethereal body told Gaya that she could be no help to Michael. So instead of being in harm's way, she flew away from the monster.

She gained enough altitude to watch the entire battlefield. If there was a glass wraith or a crow who tried to intervene, it was her task to take them down. As Michael was battling the monster, the light rays on the horizon lost their glimmer. She would be lying if she said the thought of messing with Noah's heavenly tribulation didn't come across her mind. Since Michael gave her no order to do such a thing, she restrained herself from flying to Noah's tribulation and interrupting it.

The shadow monster managed to attack Rowena using its ethereal fist, except Michael interrupted the attack with the black shield. Gaya noticed the Cold Flames slowly creating a layer of ice around the monster's center. As a result, the monster gradually became slow and vulnerable for Michael to attack. Rowena expected Michael to attack the monster's belly, but he chose not to. She threw him a doubtful glare,

"Not the right time," said Michael. The battle between them lasted for almost three hours. Gaya watched Rowena almost die a couple of times, and if it wasn't for Michael's intervention, she would have been in big trouble. But that didn't surprise Gaya. What surprised her was how Michael and Rowena fought the shadow monster. They fought with such precision and coordination as they trained together for decades. They understood each other in the heat of the battle without words. Michael's power grew stronger as the Fire Realm turned darker. Finally, after three hours of intense battle, half of the shadow monster's body was frozen by the Cold Flames.

"DARK LORD!" The monster roared once again as Michael landed right in front of it. For a moment, Michael locked his gaze with the monster's glowing red eyes. The monster fired dark spikes at him as he slowly made his way to the monster. He blocked the dark spikes with the black shield and clenched the Doom Bringer tighter with the other hand.

Rowena breathed heavily and stood back, regaining her strength. After the long three hours of battle, she was exhausted. Using Cold Flames continuously took a toll on her body. Her legs shivered and begged her to give up. When Michael reached just an arm's reach from the monster, he retracted the shield into the space ring, held the Doom bringer with both his hands, and swung it with all his might.

Boom!

The Doom bringer hit the shadow monster and shattered the frozen core of the monster. Gaya saw a hole in the monster's body as it roared in pain. Gaya closed her ears due to the intensity of the roar. To their surprise, the monster grew smaller in size and weakened. It went from Half Celestial stage level 3 to level 2. But before they could rejoice, the hole in the monster's body closed itself.

"You gotta be kidding me," Rowena muttered with fury. After witnessing the monster heal itself, Michael immediately leaped away from it. As much as he would like to have another way of defeating the monster, there was none. The only way they had was to shatter its core until it could no longer heal itself, just like the glass wraiths. Meanwhile, Gaya noticed a couple of glass wraiths on the horizon, along with a flock of giant crows. She had to fly away from Michael to hunt them down before they could intervene in the battle.

Noah could have used the heavenly flames to attack the monster's frozen core if he was also there with them. In that case, the shadow monster would have grown smaller and weaker. Michael didn't have a clue how long Noah's heavenly tribulation would be, but he didn't think it was a good idea to rely on Noah. he preferred to take down the shadow monster by himself with only Rowena's help. That way, he could earn more badass points and deal the last death blow to the monster. The last thing Michael needed was Noah to steal his experience points.

After Michael landed beside Rowena, the shadow monster remained still for a moment as though it was thinking something.

"Heal yourself. The battle is a long way from over," said Michael.

"Where is that old woman, by the way? If we were teleported, there is a good chance everyone in the hall was too,"

Only then did the sudden realization hit Rowena. Her mother was standing in the hall with them. If they were all teleported, her mother would have ended up in the Fire realm somewhere. Just the thought of her mother wandering in the life-ending realm shook Rowena to the core.

"I have to find my mother," said Rowena. She didn't even bother to wait for Michael's response as Rowena flew away from Michael at lightning speed.

[The system did not see that coming] The system sarcastically said.