[4-Dimensional Thought]
The world around Lloyd quickly shifted into a black-and-white one, while at the same time, his eyes became listless and cold despite glowing far brighter than ever before.
His aura became as calm as a link in the spring, while his voice...
'How... Disappointing'
His voice had become completely monotone, without a shred of emotion or mercy.
Not an ounce of pain could be seen on his face, and before the monsters before him could understand what had happened-
*Zhip*
"Over here, morons," A voice called out, and as if they had understood what he had said, they all began to growl while charging electricity between their horns.
On the other hand, all the other lightning bolts quickly changed their trajectory.
Appearing before Lloyd in the blink of an eye, an explosion went off with the power of several lightning bolts.
Yet, past his arm being torn off, Lloyd was completely unscathed and standing on top of one of them.
Lifting his arm up and opening his hand, a black and violet staff flew into his palm in less than a second before a powerful aura exploded out of him.
The aura was suffocating... No, it was like nothing the monsters had ever felt before. Their instincts told them to run, yet their bodies didn't dare move an inch from where they stood.
After twirling the staff around his fingers, Lloyd finally got into fighting position and aimed the staff toward the largest goat.
*Boom*
*Crack*
The goats barely reacted in time as the bipedal creature flung itself at them. Barely.
Turning into lightning, the largest goat quickly appeared at Lloyd's right and prepared to ram him with lightning-coated horns.
[Void Step]
As it moved forward, it barged against thin air before losing its balance and tumbling down the mountain.
Looking back at the other dozen goats, Lloyd narrowed his eyes before an idea came to mind.
'While a staff is a defense-type weapon...' Lloyd's eyes began to glow as mana surged through his body.
On the other hand, the goats seemed to have gotten agitated at the fact that the biggest of them had been thrown down a mountain, so in response, they did what they did best.
*Crackle Crackle*
Lightning more powerful than any lightning they had created before shot down from the sky and revolved around their horns and hooves.
[Shadow Enhancement]
Lloyd didn't waste a second before shooting toward them at his highest speed, and seeing him do so, the goats reciprocated to their fullest content.
[Flame Control]
'Incinerate'
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtSwinging upwards, Lloyd created a flame that instantly engulfed the goat, but he was far from down.
Side-stepping, Lloyd averted an incoming goat, and before it could understand that Lloyd had dodged its attack, a foot covered in shadows slammed into its stomach.
As its feet left the ground, flames burst out from the foot before catapulting into the air with an explosion that pushed the closest goats back.
Yet he didn't stop there.
As Lloyd's foot reached its maximum height, Lloyd quickly turned his before creating an explosion to change the momentum in less than a second and create a devastating kick that smashed into the side of the goat's head.
The instant the kick landed, the goat's head exploded into a crimson rain of brain matter and blood.
Despite the gruesome sight, Lloyd didn't bat an eye as he created a small burst of flame near his chest to move himself away from another incoming charge.
[Void Step]
However, as the goat tried to turn around to attack Lloyd again, it suddenly saw a hand engulfed in black, and orange flames appear in front of its face before-
*BOOOM*
An explosion quickly turned it into ashes before spreading and turning three other goats into charred remains.
'Defense-type weapons can easily kill if underestimated.'
Flames quickly enveloped both tips of the staff before creating sharp edges.
Without thinking twice, Lloyd threw his staff right through of the goats, and just when the second one was about to dodge, he quickly used [Void Step] to appear right above the staff while grabbing it and stabbing down at its back.
A cold glint shone within Lloyd's eyes at that moment, as within the same instant, he did not hesitate to swing to the side and slice through the goat, allowing all its fried organs to slowly fall out from the non-cauterized wounds.
This carried on for a few more seconds as Lloyd slowly massacred the remaining goats, and when the largest one finally returned with a few wounds littering its body from head to toe, Lloyd decided to end it swiftly.
*Boom*
An explosion rang out as Lloyd appeared in front of it and thrust his staff right through its stomach before turning it and flinging it off the mountain.
As it tumbled down, Lloyd quickly used [Void Step] to appear behind it and grabbed its horns before flipping it over and slamming it into the ground.
With a few cracks and a loud thud, the goat's spine snapped like twigs as its skull caved in, instantly killing it.
Walking up to the edge of the mountain, Lloyd calmly looked down at the goats that were either twitching in pain or lying dead on the ground before finally turning around while raising his hand in the air in order to retrieve his staff.
It took less than a second for his staff to return to his hand, but he could not help but raise a brow when he felt the staff's weight change all of a sudden.
Looking at it for a moment, Lloyd thought of the staff getting heavier, and as if the density changed in a matter of a moment, he felt the staff quickly put more and more weight upon his hand until he couldn't hold it anymore.
'I see...' He thought before returning the staff to its original weight.
'If its weight can change, then it should be able to-...'
[Exapnd]
In the blink of an eye, the staff expanded to a size that matched its weight, and the more Lloyd decreased its weight, the smaller the staff got.
Nodding slightly, Lloyd's eyes quickly scanned the area around him before concluding that there were no more goats coming, yet from what he had seen so far, the largest goat within the herd he had just killed wasn't actually the boss monster, and was just an advanced monster, a bit like the half-step first commandment goblin he killed in his raid with Osmygold's group.
"To think mid-stage first commandments would fall so easily..." He muttered before leaving the mountain range.
***
1 Hour Later.
A man covered in both blood and gore stood in front of a cave. He had only one arm, yet despite the wound being open for anyone to see, no blood came out.
A long black and white staff could be seen attached to his back despite nothing holding it on.
*ROOOOOOAAAAAR*
As the man stepped into the cave, a powerful roar sent a gust of wind toward him, yet despite the trees behind him almost being uprooted from the wind alone, Lloyd stood unflinchingly as his mana aura erupted in a flash of violet before taking the brunt of the wind.
With skipping a beat, Lloyd walked into the cave, and despite having his mana take the brunt of the winds and sound waves, the fact that they went on for several minutes only confirmed Lloyd's suspicions on how powerful the creature within was.
After walking for several minutes, Lloyd finally saw the first semblance of of inhabitants when he looked at the cave's walls.
Blue electricity could be seen traveling up and down the cavern walls, yet despite the incredible energy that radiated off the electricity, Lloyd still moved forward.
[4-Dimensional Thought] had run out after he left the part of the mountain range he stood in, and so did the pain and the built-up emotions after replaying the gorry scenes in his head.
While Lloyd knew they were just monsters and that he was simply defending himself, he could not help but feel slightly nauseated when he left his emotionless state.
For him, it almost felt like becoming Null again, but a lot more intense... As if he was a passenger in his own body.
*Crackle*
Lloyd focused on the goats before him, snapping himself out of his thoughts.
'They're much larger than the big one I fought before. I'd say they are about the size of a horse now, while the biggest one before barely reached my chest.' Lloyd thought to himself before wielding his staff.
While the size of the goats had changed, Lloyd also realized one or two other significantly large differences between the ones he had fought before and those before him.
"Peak first commandment and wings... Nice." He muttered in self-deprecation before slamming his foot into the ground and shooting himself toward the closest out of the two.
*Swoosh*
Quickly covering his arm in shadows, Lloyd enveloped his staff in flames before throwing it as hard as he could, yet unlike the last goats that simply died on impact, this one covered its horns in lightning before deflecting it upwards.
[Presence Concealment]
[Shadow Claw]
Watching Lloyd disappear from where he stood, the goat widened its and immediately became alarmed, but within the blink of an eye, it felt a powerful killing intent wash over it and paralyze it where it stood before something slashed at its side.
'No deep enough.' Lloyd frowned before using [Void Step] a moment before a lightning bolt struck where he last stood.
Due to using [Void Step] for short-distance teleports, they didn't use too much mana, but at the same time, he couldn't overdo it since he wasn't using [4-Dimensional Thought] which would have allowed him to use his abilities in a way that was much more efficient both in both speed and mana.
Appearing in front of the goat he had just attacked, Lloyd pointed his open palm toward its face.
"Incinerate." He muttered; within the blink of an eye, the goat was swimming in flames.
*Zap*
A flash of blue light entered Lloyd's line of vision as the other goat shot toward him in the form of a lightning ball.
'Shi-' Lloyd couldn't react in time as the ball of lightning beamed through his chest at lightning speed, leaving a scorched hole in its place.
Yet, instead of a look of pain or dread appearing on his face, it slowly morphed into a demonic smile that stretched from ear to ear...
A smile that made even monsters shudder.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm[Flame Control]
[Self-Destruct]
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
"Well... That's 40% of my mana gone, just like that... This is why I hate [Shadow Clones]." Lloyd inwardly complained while slowly submerging out of his shadow.
"On the bright side, the cave's entrance is much bigger now." Lloyd chuckled before creating flames under his feet to fly toward the cave.
Having one arm made balancing his flight pretty hard, but after a few seconds, he got the hang of it...
"So... You must be her new toy. Am I correct?" An ancient voice echoed through the cavern and entered Lloyd's ears.
"Toy?" Lloyd tilted his head a little, but when he saw the creature that left the cave, he could not help but leave his mouth slightly agape.
While the creature was still a goat, it was enormous beyond belief.
Its wingspan reached from one side of the save to the other despite the cave having recently been renovated by an unexpected explosion, yet that was not what caught Lloyd off-guard.
The creature before Lloyd had three different eyes. Two in the normal spots and one large one on the forehead.
"Hey. If you give me that electro orb of yours, I'll leave in peace." Lloyd waved his hands, yet all he received with a powerful glare that almost made him kneel from the pressure alone.
"If you even touch the orb of lightning, I'll make sure you leave in pieces!" It roared with enough power that it almost ripped off Lloyd's mana-formed cloak.
'Half-step second commandment... This thing is completely out of my league.'
"You void walkers always think you know best, don't you!" It roared again, this time making the entire mountain shake in its fury.
"You infiltrate our homes and steal our resources like it's nothing, and you expect us to simply watch as you massacre us?
I have learned more things than you can ever imagine by absorbing energy from the Lightning orb.
I know things that you could never understand!
So I'll say it once and for all and send a message to that woman! For all of our fallen bredrin-" It looked towards the clouds as they began to circle around its area.
To Lloyd, it felt like everything happened in the blink of an eye.
The sky going dark.
The speech.
The clouds, the lightning, and the thunder.
Everything happening in the blink of an eye.
Even Lloyd could not help but feel a shudder go down his spine...
And then he heard it. A pair of words he felt like he had heard before, but had simply forgotten.
As if they were the two most important words in the English language, it roared-
"NO MORE!"
*Crackle*
*BOOOOOOM*
[That's a little bit of foreshadowing for you guys. Wink Wink. If you enjoyed the chapter, please vote using your power stones. I've been feeling ill all week, so I'm sorry if the chapters haven't been up to standard]