Chapter 43: Phantom race.
Both of them understood then; Kazuka might be in danger.
Takeshi immediately ran toward the direction of the explosions. Airi followed behind, but she stayed atop the tree branches.
After running for a while, in the distant line of sight, continuous energy slashes were unleashed and glowed. This contributed to helping Takeshi and Airi know the location more easily. Airi was now on the ground and running alongside Takeshi.
Takeshi asked Airi with a look of doubt:
"Has a battle broken out ahead?"
Airi nodded slightly, her eyes staring intently into the distance.
"Most likely, but the problem is, is it a monster or a person?"
Takeshi suddenly remembered he had met the purple-haired girl.
"Earlier, before meeting you, I met someone in this forest."
Airi looked surprised.
"Really? What did that person look like?"
"It was a girl with purple hair, quite young, seemingly our age."
Airi frowned with a look of suspicion.
"A girl? What would she be doing in here?"
Takeshi: "She said she was the one who shot arrows at us when we were outside the forest."
"And before meeting her, I encountered a place she called an altar."
"She asked me if I let the hand in the middle of that altar absorb energy yet. Actually, before that, I really had my energy absorbed by it."
Airi grimaced with a look of confusion, not understanding what Takeshi was recounting.
"Huh? You tell it like that, how can I understand?"
Takeshi gave a sheepish laugh.
"Haha. Then let's leave it for another time."
Suddenly, a loud scream rang out.
"Aaaaaaaa"
It could be heard clearly; that was Kazuka's voice. Both were thrown into a panic.
Airi: "It's Kazuka's voice."
Takeshi: "It seems he is not okay, we must hurry."
Small explosions were now heard more clearly by them.
Dashing through the trees, they finally arrived. Before their eyes was the monster Kazuka had been facing; they froze for a beat at its form. And all around, large trees lay toppled in disorder and a large pit remained.
Glancing to the left, there was Kazuka; he was kneeling on the ground, one hand covering his bleeding eye. Takeshi roared loudly when he saw his friend injured;
"Kazuka!"
He intended to run over, but Airi reached out her hand and prevented him from rushing in.
"Don't be hasty. Even from this far away, the discomfort it brings can be felt. It is certainly not normal."
Returning to the time after the explosion.
The trees that Kazuka's slash passed through immediately collapsed.
Boom!!! Boom!!!
The monster was unharmed and leapt over the trees falling on the ground, advancing toward Kazuka.
Kazuka entered a fighting stance, energy radiating unceasingly. He decided not to run anymore.
-"You can die now."
-"Your relatives are all dead, let go."
"Damn it, why are such negative things appearing in my head? I haven't even been bitten; could it be due to the old bite? But I don't feel a damn thing?"
His body was again a bit unstable; his two standing legs felt shaky.
"Why do I suddenly feel so tired?"
He opened his eyes wide because he felt his deduction was somewhat correct.
"No way, when it evolves, it gets stronger? And now it doesn't need to bite me but still makes me suffer these effects?"
"Damn it, it runs too fast; running is useless. I will play with it for real."
He's gritting his teeth tightly, his two legs crouching down like a spring and snapping away. The ground cracked open, leaving a bit of smoke and dust flying backward. He lunged and headed toward the monster.
"Stop using this trick, you monster!"
When he closed in on the monster, the large hollow hole on the monster's chest immediately glowed. A gust of wind rose; the monster's chest seemed to want to suck something in.
Kazuka charged in; his soul was immediately pulled out halfway. The image of a wolf appeared.
"When approaching an opponent with a leap, remember that the jump must end when you land in front of the opponent. Otherwise, you are still in the air, and if you meet a difficult situation, it is very hard to handle. Therefore, you need to land first, then do whatever you want."
His feet stomped on the ground, at a large distance from the monster; although his soul had been pulled out halfway, he quickly recognized the situation and jumped back, escaping death.
He gritted his teeth, exerted his strength, leaned his body backward, and opened his mouth wide. Energy concentrated in his mouth, glowing extremely intensely.
A large pillar of light erupted from his mouth. That was an energy strike heading straight toward the monster, blowing away dust on its path.
The monster also opened its mouth wide. A source of black energy shot out.
Two energy sources collided; just like that, the two sides maintained it for a period of time. At the intersection point, the two energy sources flashed strongly and unceasingly neutralized each other.
Suddenly, Kazuka's energy strike was overwhelmed and was fading out. But he was nowhere to be seen at the spot where he previously stood and executed the energy strike.
He had quickly stopped the attack, knowing he could not match its power.
The monster also stopped spitting energy from its mouth, its eyes glancing around.
Kazuka hid behind the foliage of the trees that had fallen in the distance; a spear of energy was launched from behind the leaves. It headed straight for the monster.
Whoosh!!!
But it seemed the strike was off target. Seeing this, the monster just stood and watched it fly past.
Kazuka had calculated the off-target step; a tiny energy string was connected right behind that flying spear. When it flew past the monster standing there, other energy spears suddenly sprouted at the side where the monster was standing.
Thud!!!
They stabbed into the monster's body; 6 spears stabbed into its side. It let out a roar of pain. Black blood flowed from the wounds Kazuka caused and fell to the ground.
In that attack, Kazuka used additional jamming energy to be certain and create an opportunity for himself to attack it.
A rustling sound rang out. He immediately lunged out of his hiding place and rushed toward the monster.
It was also quite smart; energy from inside it suddenly erupted, surrounding its entire body extremely densely. It caused leaves and dust to fly up in many directions; the wounds were gradually healing.
Its chest glowed again, as if waiting for him to charge in and suck his soul. Knowing that, he stopped his charge and observed it.
Suddenly it disappeared from his sight.
"What? It's gone."
He turned his body around, observing and staying alert.
"Where is it? This damn forest is too dark; it's hard to see. It seems dawn is near, so the light from the moon makes the shadows of these trees so long."
Sensing a chill, it immediately appeared behind his back. Its chest glowed again, wanting to suck his soul.
But he did not allow it to do so; his body glowed even brighter.
Boom!!
An energy explosion caused by Kazuka. The monster recoiled; he jumped out of the smoke in the opposite direction from the monster.
Being in the air, a place where it is very hard to handle the situation, the monster appeared behind him once more. It seemed it felt it was a waste of time trying to suck Kazuka's soul, so it decided to attack.
A swipe with a foot like a human hand with sharp claws swung out. His eyes opened wide with horror, pupils dilated, mouth spitting blood; his body had to arch forward upon taking the force.
He flew down to the ground and rolled several times. Energy was trying to cover his wound and heal it. While flying to the ground from the attack, Kazuka reacted quickly and stopped the bleeding at that moment.
He propped his hands up and knelt on the ground. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the earth.
"Aaa."
-"I have too many openings; I must be more careful."
But it did not let him breathe easily yet. It closed in on him and opened its mouth wide; those teeth wanted to bite him once more. But he reacted in time, rolling several times on the ground to get away, then flipped continuously to keep distance from the monster.
Just finishing the flip, his eyes looked up to observe; when he had only just seen its form…
Once again, it disappeared before his eyes. He panicked and looked around.
"Too fast; moving this fast must at least make some sound, right?"
Right to his right, a black streak immediately appeared and entered his sight. Instantly turning over, energy formed a blade on his right hand.
"This direction!"
An energy slash swung from below upward; the ground was split in two, churning everything up.
The monster running toward him immediately dodged to the right. But he had anticipated that. Right after unleashing the first slash, he unleashed two other vertical slashes on both sides and waited for it to jump in any direction.
Thinking one of these slashes would hit, his eyes opened wide. His energy showed signs of instability.
-"Why resist it? Dying will bring liberation."
But suddenly all three slashes exploded.
"This time it's right next to the explosion; I wonder if it can avoid it?"
Boom!!!!!
He had jumped far away and was unharmed. The dust settled, revealing the monster with a series of scratches on its body. In some places, the black fur had been blown away, exposing its flesh.
"For real? It's still unharmed like that."
Suddenly, his right hand automatically deactivated the energy, making him confused as he looked down at his hand. His right hand then lunged quickly and grabbed his own neck, squeezing it.
Horrified by what was happening, he fell to the ground writhing. His left hand was unceasingly trying to stop the right hand.
"What the hell is going on? Die!"
"Why is my hand...? Die!"
Being strangled caused him pain, and he struggled on the ground. The monster then walked close to him; a mocking smile appeared on it. Its eyes narrowed like a mouth, and its mouth wore a large smile. In that nighttime setting, it was truly horrific.
"Caught you."
Being near the monster, his energy became even more chaotic.
-"My energy... so that's it. Is that why my hand automatically lost control then? Being near it causes this!"
Its chest glowed; his soul was again threatened. He tried to crawl up with difficulty; despite his right hand squeezing his neck harder, he only tried to exert strength to avoid being strangled to death. He directed his left hand straight toward the hole on the monster's chest. Like a gamble while at the threshold of death.
-"Could this hole lead to its heart?"
The monster seemed to feel a tickle, as if that was its weakness; it immediately recoiled backward. Although he had no energy and had to endure exhaustion, his physical strength was very good. He lunged and threw a punch toward the monster. It dodged to one side; its tail with those freakish hands immediately swung over and attacked him. A hand with sharp nails immediately stabbed into his eye.
Thud!!!
"Aaaaaaa"
He screamed loudly in pain; blood flowed unceasingly from his eye. His left hand covered one eye, trying to stop the blood while his energy was in chaos.
Even though the energy was chaotic, he still tried to throw a punch; energy flew out from the punch. The monster was surprised and jumped far back.
Chaotic energy does not mean it cannot be used, only that it is very difficult. If one still tries to control energy while it is chaotic, it can lead to internal bodily damage. Especially the unleashed attack might go off course or suddenly vanish into the air and become uncontrollable.
He knelt on the ground, his left hand covering his left eye which was unceasingly leaking blood. Energy from his hand and inside was trying to heal the eye.
At this time, Takeshi and Airi also arrived. Takeshi ignored Airi's words and rushed to Kazuka's side. Airi was surprised Takeshi did that. But there was no other way; she had to run after him, but her eyes remained fixed on the monster on the other side.
Takeshi ran to Kazuka and propped him up, then brushed away the hand covering Kazuka's eye; he was horrified to see Kazuka's eye bleeding, and the wound could be clearly seen.
Airi did not ask after Kazuka; she summoned Blood Chains and entered a defensive stance, her eyes never leaving the monster.
"How is he, Takeshi?"
Takeshi: "Something poked his eye."
"Hey, won't it recover, Kazuka?"
Takeshi frowned as he felt Kazuka's energy was a bit unstable.
"Is his energy in chaos?"
Kazuka, with a voice a bit tired and trying to endure the pain, tried to give a warning.
"Be careful."
Airi stood observing the monster standing still in front for a while. She frowned as she felt her energy…
"Hử? Is my energy in chaos?"
She then panicked and shouted loudly:
"Takeshi, take Kazuka as far away as possible. It seems this monster is the cause of his energy chaos."
Takeshi nodded and hoisted Kazuka onto his shoulder.
"Understood."
Takeshi carried Kazuka and ran far away.
"Remember to be careful!"
Running far away, Takeshi placed Kazuka down on the ground, reached out his hand with energy surrounding it, and pressed it against Kazuka's eye.
"You only need to recover internally; I will help you recover the eye."
Returning to Airi's side. She still stood silently there, observing the monster.
-"What kind of monster is it? Looking at it gives a feeling of danger... no, it must be extremely dangerous. I have a feeling this energy is like that of..."
-"This dog shape makes it hard to know; there are a ton of monsters with this form. But indeed, the black color is a bit rare."
-"I still don't know the power of... the Useless Princess."
She was then surprised; a bit of panic appeared on her face.
-"What the hell? Why did I think of that?"
At this moment, the pink flames burning fiercely on the chains became a bit weak. Feeling this, she was very bewildered.
-"My energy? Is it in chaos? It seems... die."
Airi grimaced and frowned in discomfort.
-"What the hell did I just think? Could it be that it makes others' emotions become negative? A type of urging others and striking hard at painful pasts?"
-"If so, it's not good at all; it will be very troublesome when fighting."
The voice of Airi's father appeared again in her head.
-"Why are you so useless? After so many years, only a little; when will you master them?"
Airi gritted her teeth; she took her left hand and punched her head a few times.
"Damn it."
Just as she finished speaking, the monster that was standing still moved; it disappeared from her sight, leaving only a black streak on the ground. Airi jumped back, startled. But suddenly, her father's words appeared in her head.
"Must try harder than others; while you are sleeping, how many others out there are putting in effort every day to surpass you?"
Airi then lost her guard; the monster closed in on her, its jaw expanded along with its mouth opening. But the Blood Chains did not let her be injured. It immediately created a shield layer interwoven with each other. The monster bit down and slammed its mouth into the chains. It recoiled.
The tail behind reached forward and rubbed the mouth that had just touched the pink flame on the chains. Its mouth was a bit burned.
The monster was quite contemptuous of its opponents; it usually did not surround its body with energy. This was a weakness, and earlier, if it had surrounded its body with energy, it would not have been burned when contacting Airi's Blood Chains.
A low voice rang out; it was cold and carried a terrifyingly gloomy air.
"It has been a long time since I saw a Blood Chain user. Being sealed for too long made me almost forget it."
Airi's eyes widened when he spoke; she was quite amazed.
"You know it, so you are probably not normal either? So why are you here?"
"Hmph, a brat controlling Blood Chains... this form of mine is enough to handle you; no need to enter the second complete form yet."
-"It hasn't fought for real yet? If as he says, he surely has another form? It must be very dangerous and much stronger."
"What do you want?"
"The red-haired kid is the one who accidentally summoned me; I want to absorb his soul and energy. As for the black-haired kid, I find him interesting, so I want his soul too. And isn't the red-haired kid a vampire? Yet he has those red eyes; indeed, few of the Human race have those eyes."
Airi seemed to realize something.
"Are you of the Phantom race?"
"What if I am?"
-"Hmph, so he is of the Phantom race; having abilities that strike at the perception and inner things of others is certainly not normal at all."
-"What kind of normal Phantom would have an ability? Moreover, he has more than one."
"Were you sealed?"
The face of the monster still stood there, the mouth had no movement, but the voice still rang out.
"Yeah, this is my humiliation; when I finish absorbing that red-haired kid's energy, I will go and take revenge on the entire clan of the one who sealed me and return to power."
"Saying so, it's been a very long time, right?"
"Yeah."
-"A Phantom lives longer, the stronger it gets, and the monster in front even divides into many different forms, making it even worse. What exactly is the origin of this Phantom in front of me?"
-"The seal for Phantoms of my Human race, I'm not clear how it works. But it can be seen, this Phantom in front seems to need to absorb all of Takeshi's energy to leave."
-"If so, when fighting later, will I have to fight while protecting people?"
Suddenly from afar, through the dense foliage.
Whoosh!!
An arrow flew toward with extremely high speed.
Boom!!!
It pierced through a tree and continued flying; the blue energy source on the arrow was extremely large.
It lunged straight toward the Phantom. The Phantom was still very calm; it walked in a circle. The black streak created every time it moved now formed a circle on the ground surrounding it.
The arrow flew near; the black streak on the ground immediately erected a large black screen to protect it, surrounding it in a cylindrical shape. Airi in the distance was also surprised by the stranger's arrow flying in.
Boom!!!!!!!
A large explosion swept away everything around; earth, rocks, and dirt flew in all directions.
Airi standing there was also surprised.
"The destructive power is too strong."
The smoke cleared; the large explosion caused the ground to form a large hole. The black screen lowered; the Phantom was not injured by even a scratch. Airi was horrified by what she witnessed.
"When it moves and creates a black streak right behind, when it connects back into a circle, it creates a solid defensive screen?"
In the distance, a girl jumped down from a high tree branch. That was the girl Takeshi had met before.
Airi strained her eyes to look into the distance.
"A girl? Could it be the girl Takeshi told me about? She is using a bow."
That girl shouted loudly toward the Phantom.
"You monster, you must be destroyed today!"
At this time, the sky had also changed color. Sunlight began to shine down. The place they fought was where Kazuka had slashed down a series of trees. This allowed light to shine into that space.
"It's morning. How could low-level Phantoms dare be under the morning light? It certainly is not ordinary."
The girl in the distance, with hostile eyes, reached back and pulled an arrow from the quiver behind her back. She placed it on her bow which had sophisticated patterns.
Drawing the bow taut, energy covered the bow and the arrow. Aiming straight at the Phantom.
"Hmph, another brat?"
The Phantom lunged away and disappeared from both their sights. The girl released the arrow, then reached back again and pulled out four other arrows.
Drawing the bow taut once more, but this time there were five arrows; energy was channeled into all five. The Phantom circled behind her. But this girl seemed very alert; she immediately turned her body around and released her hand.
Five arrows flew out; the monster opened its mouth wide and energy spat from its mouth, blowing away all five arrows. The attack continued and headed toward her.
Her right hand reached out and launched a ball of jamming energy toward the incoming energy source.
Boom!!!
A large explosion caused the ground to have another hole.
The Phantom thought to itself:
-"It seems that extremely strong strike earlier required it to concentrate a lot of energy to be like that."
Airi in the distance waved her hand; a series of chain heads flew toward the Phantom.
It dodged the lunging chains flexibly, jumping from place to place; the chains that were dodged stabbed very deep into the ground. The Phantom ran out of the open ground. Running along up a large tree. Its mouth opened wide, launching a black sphere that hovered in the air.
Just after launching, an arrow from the purple-haired girl shot toward; the Phantom jumped down and dodged it. The arrow slammed into the large tree trunk and left a large hole.
The energy sphere hovering in the air was unceasingly absorbing natural energy from outside. The light it radiated was extremely large and even overwhelmed the light of the sun.
-"What the hell is that? What effect does that sphere have?"
Suddenly, a series of energy beams shot out from the large sphere and headed toward both of them. Airi wrapped the chains around her body, creating a solid defensive layer. Those energy beams continuously attacked Airi's chains, causing shocks to be felt inside as well.
On the purple-haired girl's side, she turned and ran, her way of running weaving through the trees; the energy beams chasing right behind her stabbed into the tree trunks and exploded.
Hiding behind a tree trunk in the distance, she turned her face to the sky, aiming the bow upward. She fired a series of arrows into the sky. Then she knelt on the ground, taking another arrow out of the quiver. Drawing the bow taut, energy channeled continuously into the arrow.
-"Must kill it; if it is allowed to go, there will be a great disaster."
The monster was standing, observing Airi's defense. Suddenly in front of its eyes appeared Takeshi, his hand overflowing with energy for a punch. It was startled and jumped to the right.
But above its head, Kazuka had been hovering there since who knows when. His eye had finished healing. Energy formed the shape of a blade and slashed toward the direction the Phantom jumped.
"Caught you!"
The energy slash lunged down.
Boom!!!
The slash struck straight into the Phantom's back, pinning it tightly to the ground; the back leaked a bit of black blood, but then stopped.
-"You damn brats!"
Injured on the ground, the eyes opened wide, showing only the whites. The mouth opened and let out a roar; the ear-splitting sound made Takeshi, who was standing nearby, have to recoil and cover his ears. Kazuka, having just landed, also had to cover his ears. The arrows from the sky fell down, but the loud sound caused the arrows to be deflected and fall to the ground.
In the distance, the attack had just stopped. But Airi's chains lowered.
"What was that sound? Those two are too close to it; I wonder if this sound has any effect?"
She reached her hand forward.
Blood Chain Thunder Shadow Storm.
At her hand, the tornado was very small, but when it flew near the Phantom, the tornado was larger than a tall building. The Phantom was continuously cut into its flesh by the attack and was blown far away. The cuts piled up on each other.
At this time, Kazuka and Takeshi had strange symptoms; both knelt on the ground and unceasingly vomited. The energy sword on Kazuka's hand was deactivated.
He clutched his head, with expressions of panic: heart beating fast, palpitating, feeling like the heart was about to jump out of the chest. Shortness of breath, feeling like being choked. Chest tightness, chest pain, dizziness, lightheadedness, feeling like about to faint. Sweating profusely, chills and hot flashes alternating, body trembling. Nausea and abdominal pain. Feeling weak, loss of muscle control.
Looking at his trembling hand, his vision blurred, and everything seemed to be spinning. Kazuka asked himself:
"What... what is happening to me?"