Chapter 55 Vengeance
Its bellow seemed to paralyze everyone in their tracks. Its murderous aura was extremely intense. It was like an almost tangible beacon and seemed to physically distort the air around it.
Then it moved. A blur so fast that it appeared in Sabine’s face as she blinked, throwing a vicious punch aimed at crushing her head. Hutrar threw an Echo fireball at it, but it ignored the attack until Mael conjured a beam of light and hurled it at the remnant at the last moment. It immediately jumped back three steps, dodging it.
“It is afraid of my light Echo. Let us corner this thing and kill it fast,” Mael said, his leadership instincts kicking in fully.
“You blocked it again?” Malouf said, growing increasingly frustrated with Vandal’s defense.
“Is it so shocking that I can block your attacks? You think because you are a Stage 9 Resonance Warrior you can easily kill me?” Vandal mocked.
He released his aura in full force.
Malouf’s face showed shock.
“You are not Stage 3. You are… you are Stage 6. So you hid your resonance level?”
“I do not believe that you should still be able to contend with me. I am using the Sky Blade. It is a cursed Echo weapon, and I am at least still three levels above you,” Malouf said.
“Your berserk bloodline… you have a strange bloodline that enables you to fight above your level.” Malouf’s face shifted in realization.
“You will die for sure this time while that remnant rips your friends to shreds!” Malouf signaled Anwar, and they both leaped backward, forming simultaneous seals. The atmosphere turned eerily more dangerous and darker.
“Palms of Death!” Malouf yelled.
“Shit. That bastard has a fragment skill,” Yazmeen said in shock. She had no time to worry about Vandal as the remnant launched at them again. Its bloody aura shrouded it like a second layer as it went after Sabine once more. This time, Yazmeen surrounded her fists with Ruin Echo and threw a punch at its back.
Mael conjured several beams of light and shot them toward it, causing it to once again move and avoid the attacks with surprising speed. Then Jaclynn raised a small jut of earth from the ground, causing the creature, in its haste, to strike its heel and fall backward directly onto Yazmeen’s Ruin-empowered fist.
BAM
It staggered forward as Mael shot a spear of light Echo straight at its midsection.
“Ahhh!” it screamed in pain, the light burning a hole at the point of impact.
“You think you can kill me that way? Weak. You are simply a fool,” Vandal said as his fragment skill book turned a page within his soul. He drew back his fists and punched forward rapidly.
Nephilim Fists of Destruction: Vacuum Hammer
Violent gusts shaped like fists shot forward and expanded as they collided with Malouf’s and Anwar’s combined fragment skill.
BOOM
The shockwave drove them back and cracked the ground beneath Vandal’s feet, compressing him downward and forming a depression in the earth. Still, he stood firm while they were blown backward.
Then Vandal suddenly leaped out of the crater. Another page turned in his mind as he wound up his left fist, aiming it at Anwar.
Nephilim Fists of Destruction: Titan’s Punch
A chaotic burst of force Echo gathered around his fist as he launched it toward Anwar.
Anwar was still reeling from the first impact when he felt the hairs on his skin stand on end.
“What is this?” Anwar looked up and saw a violent, transparent mass shaped like a fist descending upon him.
“No!” Malouf shouted in shock. He had severely underestimated Vandal. He did not expect him to have enough energy for another fragment skill attack, and of a different kind at that. It was too late. The force Vandal unleashed collapsed upon Anwar in a flash of white light before he could even scream.
For people like Malouf, they possessed a major flaw. The less calm they became, the more mistakes they made.
Boom
After the explosion and as the dust settled, Anwar was nowhere to be seen. He seemed to have vanished from existence. The only trace of him was a burned scarf he had tied around his neck.
“Anwar!” Malouf cried out.
“No!”
His voice was so desperate that it rose above the ongoing battle behind him between Vandal’s group and the remnant.
“You… you killed my brother!” Malouf pointed at Vandal, tears in his eyes, staring at him with intense hatred.
“You will die for this!” Malouf screamed.
He severed his left hand, causing blood to spray out.
“I offer my flesh and blood to you. Drink of me, feed on me, and kill my foe,” Malouf said calmly despite the intense pain and the blood pouring over his blade. He no longer cared.
The blade drank his blood like a starving beast. As it did, it grew darker, taking on a deeper shade of red. It resembled something bloated with blood, yet instead of swelling, it became longer, sharper, and more sinister.
At the same time, a guttural scream rang out, it was the remnant. It had struck Jaclynn, who barely managed to defend with an earth barrier before being sent flying into a wall.
Vandal turned back to Malouf and saw that the sigils on his blade were glowing, a nefarious aura emanating from it.
Despite his bloodied state, Malouf stood upright. The air between them became unnaturally cold.
Vandal took a few steps back, sensing something was wrong.
Why is everything suddenly so cold? Why does my blood feel sluggish?
“Ha ha ha. Vandal, did you not say I could not kill you? Did you not call me weak, a fool? Did you not kill my brother before my eyes, daring me to act? Today, you will breathe your last!”
Rumble.
The ground cracked in Vandal’s direction under the weight of an invisible force.
Malouf swung his blade downward toward Vandal, releasing a soundless and formless attack. It was incredibly fast. It reached Vandal’s face in the span of a blink, the distance seeming almost nonexistent as it descended toward his skull in a sickening, almost unnatural motion.