Chapter 95 Twice As Strong, Twice As Tricky

Walking off, I left Gabriel and Naomi to their own devices. It was about time that I finished my self-appointed mission. Initially I was only going to train them so that they felt indebted to me but as I started to train them more and more I felt a small joy start growing in me as I saw the progress they were making.

Gabriel's successful deployment of a full body reinforcement, her increased combat awareness, Naomi's reflects growth and shield mastery. Every time I saw them grow I felt joy, it was an odd feeling that I had kept on thinking about as I walked further and further.

Once I was a suitable distance from the duo I stopped my thoughts of them forcefully and prepared another pulse.

I was going to finish gathering the fragments of the veil now and no later.

BOOOOOM

All around me I could feel the change in the atmosphere as hundreds of veiled guards rushed at me, the animals startled creating the echoing sound of hooves on the ground adding to the haunted atmosphere that they created.

However I just smiled, I felt at home in the ghastly atmosphere that they had created, it was like the hunting of souls was what I was born to do.

…

It barely took minutes before I was surrounded by hundreds of veiled guards, that didn't surprise me, though what did was that there was something more, a veiled guard with twice the soul as the others.

Nothing compared to my own or Darwin's but it was enough that it matched the soul of one of Melia's nymphs.

'Strong' I thought to myself, the very fact that they had a soul comparable to a tier 4 existence was exhilarating. Why a tier 4 being didn't have a soul as large as Darwin's or mine was a question to be asked another day as I was caught up in the excitement of a strong fight.

"Though it would hardly be fair with all these cannon fodder, would it" I muttered to myself.

With a flex of my will the leg armor appeared again, fog spreading throughout the forest area that we were in.

I grabbed ahold of the fog and manipulated it into thousands of spears made of ice.

"Guh"

I felt a significant portion of my reserves fade away as the aether needed to perform this act was used up. I was not done though, closing my eyes activated my soul sight to its maximum performance.

In just seconds I had found the origin of every soul around me and with a flex of my aether I sent the spears that I had made flying straight for them.

…

[You ha-

[Congra-

I swiped the system messages away as I focused on the opponent in front of me.

Unlike the other veiled guards the soul dressed in elaborate gear, made of some metal that shone with an ominous light blue, it covered everything except its joints and head. On the chest armor was a symbol that I had not seen on the other veiled guards, it was in the shape of two feathered wings with a double sided scythe sticking out the top. Looking further up I saw that its face was uncovered, no helmet nor cloak to cover its ghastly appearance.

It looked vaguely humanoid with two eyes, a mouth, and a nose, however that was where the similarities ended. Its skin was completely transparent and it had no ears where ears should be. Instead I could see that on its neck were holes that seemed to imitate the gills of a fish. The weapon that it held did not stand out at first but as the surprise of its features faded I couldn't help but notice how its weapon, a double sided scythe, heavily resembled the emblem that it wore on its chest.

That was as far as my observations got before it charged at me, seemingly done with observing me as I had observed it.

It must have thought me a mage though as it did not bring up anything that would help against physical attacks, it just charged mindlessly, thinking that I could not do anything at close range.

It would soon find out that its biases were wrong as when it drew close I crouched down and with a mighty push slashed upwards.

CLANG

My dagger had done nothing to its armor except create a gash but I could feel the astonishment from the soul of this being as it did not expect what he thought as a mage to attack with such speed.

However, his shock was soon discarded as whatever training he had gone through kicked in. With a twist the scythe that was as long as my whole body was seemingly cut in half as the soul compensated for how close I was by discarding the range the scythe gave him.

CLANG

CLANG

I had to quickly dodge and block the rapid attacks that came from the soul as he took advantage of his strength to launch dozens of attacks in the span of seconds upon me.

It seemed that the soul was not built for speed as soon enough the attacks that had constantly pushed me back slowed down to something manageable.

The strength of the attacks was still there but the speed that made them worrying to me tapered off.

Taking advantage of this I spread the fog further, this time I did not create weapons from it but instead thickened it, taking the vision of the soul from it.

The attacks slowed down even more as the soul saved its strength, not knowing where I was.

I carefully prowled around, making sure to form a spear of ice every so often to harass the soul. While they did nothing as the spears were quickly parried, it served the purpose to put him on guard, to make sure that he could not rest his mental strength.

BANG

Dust rose from behind me as something flew and impacted the ground. Looking back I saw that it was the scythe handle that the soul had discarded at the beginning of the battle. However I couldn't help but notice the string attached to it, the string that I had just accidentally touched.

'Shit'