In a blue vibrant looking world called Xemini— easily a thousand times the size of current planet earth. A vast desert stretched endlessly beneath the scorching sky.
"These bastards sure are persistent" spat a young man with a voice thick with hatred,wiping the blood spilling out of his mouth with his sleeve,while running like his life depends on it— because it did.
Moving at immense speed, sonic booms ripping through the air behind him, sand storms erupting in his wake,his long black hair with streaks of purple flying wildly in the air, as he pushed his body to it's limit.
Far behind him a furious shout, echoed in the desert,
"You half breed cunt, you better stop and hand over the treasure—I might give you an easy death".
Thundered a gorgeous looking woman with flaming red hair,eyes deep black like the night sky and thin waist, wide hips and a round perky bottom. Wearing a red battle armour that clung to her body like a second skin, shamelessly highlighting her sinful body further, her pointed ears gave away her identity as an Elf.
Beside her are six other elves all following closely behind her, chasing after the young man in the front with rage and murderous intent. From their expression alone one can guess the worth of the stolen item.
"I think the bastard is heading for the forbidden zone" said a burly looking elf with fear in his voice.
The group stiffened instantly.
"Oman", the red haired woman ordered sharply, " use your soul ability to catch up to him. Stall him till I get there. Do not engage him recklessly". The urgency in her tone evident, can't allow him to reach the forbidden zone otherwise things could get ugly.It was clear the so called forbidden zone is not to be taken lightly.
" As you command princess" replied a lanky looking elf with dark circles under his eyes, twin daggers rested in his hands.
Crouching low, placing both of his hands on his shadow, he whispered in a low tone "Shadow ability: shadow movement" immediately, his shadow peeled itself off the ground and covered his body from head to toe, with a flicker he disappeared.
Up front, while the elves were conversing, the black haired man–Arian– continued his desperate sprint.
'If only I was stronger, he thought bitterly. Heaven knows I would have killed these animals'.
Looking behind to check on his pursuers who were still some miles behind, just to see one of the elves disappear into a flicker, giving him the scare of his life.
"SHIT!!"
Arian shouted, his heart slammed against his ribs, looking around his surrounding searching frantically for any clue, clutching the blackened staff like weapon in his hand tightly while still running with even more desperation.
'a movement ability?, of all things, why didn't he use it before,fuck–fuck—fuck!,am screwd, that slut of a princess must have planned it'.Arian thought in panic while cursing the princess for being cunning.
'Calm down you dimwit, she should know he can't beat me, his only here to slow me down, I just…..'
interrupting his thought process was,
His instinct– honed through years of survival in hellish slums— screamed.
Danger.
Appearing behind him like a phantom was the lanky elf, flashing twin daggers, one dagger to the neck and one to his ribs in a seemingly perfect ambush.
Twisting his body in an impossible arc, Arian swung his staff to his back in the direction of the dagger coming for his neck with immense strength, the wind screaming like as if Reality was tearing apart.
CLANG!
His staff collided with the dagger, the collision paused the world for an heartbeat— then detonated.
Shockwaves rippled outward as the elf was flung back tens of meter like a ragdoll.
Arian staggered and looked down at his ribs where a two inches deep wound could be seen bleeding freely. looking up, the elf was already standing up while holding his broken hand.
"You pure blooded elves sure are strong" he mocked.
Looking at the two meter tall, brown skinned, black haired with streaks of purple, crimson colored eyes and a devilish handsome face with his slightly pointed ears betrayed his lineage: half dark elf.
Oman grimaced " I admit I can't beat you and you are surely talented," he said coldly, but you are nothing before the princess so I would advice you surrender and hand over the storage bag you stole from us before she catches up to you, I will beg for you to recieve a swift death" he finished while looking at Arian with condensing gaze like he was beneath his feet.
Arian blinked.
Then he laughed.
Slowly at first….then widely.
" Haha, haha!!!, this is definitely the most hilarious joke have heard all my 19 years of life" he laughed wiping tears from his eyes, "a weak dumbass like you telling me to surrender is just too funny, like how delusional would a person have to be to utter such naive and stupid words is beyond me, seriously like how delusional can u get?"
Oman's face twisted with rage. 'i just have to stall him for half a minute more' he thought to himself.
" I guess an half breed like you cannot understand the grace that is being bestowed upon you"Oman finished with a sneer.
Arian looked at the elf and said " Do you think I can't kill you before the rest of your people arrive or do you think i am stupid enough not to realize you are rage baiting me"in an amused mocking tone.
The elf didn't answer, it wasn't needed, his tense and shaky muscles, sweat dripping from his face traveled his thoughts.
"I can smell the fear you are trying to suppress. And fear is good, I am a very vengeful soul" Arian continued
Looking behind the elf into the far distance, Arian could faintly make out the silhouettes of his pursuers drawing closer to them by the second, shifting his gaze back to the elf, he exhaled slowly.
Gripping the staff loosely and carelessly in one hand like he is about to let go, adjusting his stance by bouncing on his tip toes.
He moved.
—
Racing towards the elf, he activated his soul ability,
ASSIMILATION.
He assimilated himself into Space itself— for a single agonizing second, anymore and he would likely die– torn apart.
Since the rank of the ability was too low to control space effectively,he could already feel his body tearing apart in that second alone.
Teleporting mid-air to Oman's injured side, Arian saw terror bloom in the elf's eyes. Shadows surged from the ground—but it was too late.
Bringing down his staff,he whispered
"Assimilation: Gravity"
His staff's weight multiplied twentyfold—already weighing over five tons, it now felt like a divine instrument of judgment.
While simultaneously channeling all the 201 Ethereal star power he had gathered through years of bitter cultivation, his strength erupted.
The air itself screamed then split like an inevitable action,creating air vacuums in its wake.
The air screamed.
Reality split.
The staff descended.
Then it happened, Arian's staff connected to his head, his whole body gave way without any resistance bursting into a blood shower looking darkly beautiful.
The staff landed on the ground, splitting it in the process and forming a large crate tens of meters wide,the impact sent him flying hundreds of meters back.
While all of this took time to explain, from Oman's appearance to his death took less than a minute.
Standing up shakily while looking at his bloodied body that was still trembling from the impact and pain—which was an old friend at this point already.
"I don't think I can make it to the forbidden zone, well I didn't stand a chance against that bitch anyway, if it weren't because she underestimated me or –was simply toying with me–,I would have been caught long ago" Arian concluded with a bitter sigh.
Then he proceeded to sit down cross legged staff by his side and closed his eyes to wait for them to arrive.
—--
Whosh, whosh, following the sound of sharp winds, the elves arrived barely a minute after he sat down, opening his eyes to look at them although he could see without opening them through his Divine sense, he still enjoyed seeing with his sight anyways.Settling my gaze on the sinful beauty in my front standing just meters away, with the rest of the elves circling me.
" Princess Lillian, daughter of Carnes, child of the fire spirits, apostle of disaster". "it is an honor ." he said in an indifferent tone while into her black eyes.
Looking at the peasant who dared to steal from me and even had the sheer audacity to kill my subordinate, his crimson eyes looking into mine without any ounce of fear, respect or reverence–only indifference, Lillian felt rage like never before she wanted nothing more than to burn him into crisp.
Before she could speak, one of her subordinates shouted, "How dare a lowly half-breed utter Her Highness's name without bowing?! Die—!".
Yelled in rage about to rush up to him.
" That's enough" Lilian said,not removing my gaze from the thief, displaying an impressive level of cool headedness for a so called– spoilt, pampered princess.
Arian was taken aback by the level of self control the princess possesses for a moment before he shrugged it off, since she was a princess this much was already expected, What got him thinking was how to handle the treasures in the storage pouch while staying alive and reaping the most benefits.
The thing is Arian has always been immensely greedy_ eh ehm cough,I mean protective of his properties which means sharing is quite hard for him at this moment.
Knowing he was in no condition to fight the group, scratch that the princess alone could kill him easily–since she was already in the 4th rank— ,' I guess I should bargain with the princess, but would she even consider conversing with me, she is most likely to just attack me in anger.The best thing is to make use of their greed by displaying the treasures themselves' he concluded.
Because he knew and understood that in this world,– even universe– status meant nothing in the face of benefits, only lust and greed reign supreme.
Looking at the princess once again who had murder in her eyes,he smirked then winked at her–before she could do or say anything, he controlled the storage pouch with my Divine sense to release all the treasures.