Chapter 113 113(114): The First Ring VII

Cole was not proud, he would never admit this to anybody who ever got to find this story out but, somehow he had actually fallen asleep. He has no idea how long he had been asleep, but hopefully it was not for long as a massive roar seems to shake the air, and the at was enough to wake him up as he surged upwards, his hand grasped tightly around Black Malakai.

He wanted to check out his stat page, but something told him that would be the biggest mistake he could possibly make right now. He picked himself up out of the pile of ash he had been buried under. He tried his best to make sure it didn't get into his eyes or nose or any other part of his body. But try as hard as he could it wasn't completely impossible to be unscathed, unless of course you actually are. He quickly gave his body a once over and realized that he had no more injuries left.

He looked around And was startled by what he saw, there was an army of darklings ringed around him, they were obviously giving him a side berth and at the same time they seemed to be protecting the object in the middle of the island that was in the middle of the underground lake. At the forefront was the darkling woman he had met. They all just stood there staring at Cole as he got himself up to a standing position then gave a small laugh as he noticed them all take a few steps backwards.

"What's wrong? You guys are all acting as if you have seen a ghost, I thought you all wanted to kill me?" he asked as he took a few steps forwards, forcing the ring to widen as they all still tried their best to keep away from him. So ultimately even if they seemed like just common animals, it looks like they had a level of sentience that they could rely on to warn them of danger.

"What sort of accursed creature are you? You are like us but at the same time you are not. You feed of the essence of the living and all living things, so by all means you should not be able to feed on us. We might have a physical form but we are ephemeral, we do not exist on this material plane but on one that you would have no conceptions of. What sort of monster are you?" the female darkling asked again as Cole shrugged.

"I'm a special kind of monster that's known as a 'Raen Demon' not that it would mean any thing to you, you freaks are probably cut off from the rest of the universe with no idea what's happening. But what I am doesn't give a shit of how ephemeral you are, I guess you could liken me and what I do to the legends of jormugandr and the pet hound of Houyi who swallowed the moon.

All things give off energy, and ephemeral or not as long as it has life it has energy and you all are made fully and completely of energy. Which pretty much makes me the biggest bane in all of your lives. And you forced me to adapt in ways I never thought possible. So unless you can accurately kill me from where you are standing…. I am going to either kill all of you now or leave…. But that depends on what choice you make from what has been made available." Cole said, taking a few more steps backwards and forcing the darklings to shuffle back.

"You do not die, you have immortality, true immortality. There is no way I can let you go! You are much to valuable to me. If I can keep you alive you will be a recyclable source of food for me, without having to worry of running out of stock. I can not let you go!" the Darkling woman said and in that same motion moved forwards a step as her other darkling partners also started making their moves forward too.

"Fine then…. This would probably be painful for me, but it would be worse for you." Cole responded as he used [Shadow Dance]

This time his transition into the skill and it's deployment was so easy that Cole showed up in front of the Darkling and swung his sword down. Black Malakai blazing with black energy around it's blade as [Black Cut] was activated. He infused a bit of negative energy into the strike and slashed outwards, but Darkling woman vanished into motes of light, utilizing s teleportation skill of her own that brought her behind him. The attack still went forwards and reaped the lives of the other darklings.

He felt her place a hand on his shoulder as that same draining feeling that she had previously used against him was felt. Cole immediately activated [Wrath Drive] shutting off the pain behind a curtain of cold murderous focus as he turned and pulled with his hands, instinctually pulling a huge chunk of energy out of her body.

She screeched and smashed her foot into his chest to push him away, blasting him into the crowd of darklings which quickly ran in the other direction. Attacking him was the job for the darklings with long ranged capabilities. An aspect of the darklings he had not realized existed until the first energy bolt smashed into his face as he was down, and then he was drained under a deluge of it.

[Spectral Rover]

Was what he used this time gave him a clearer perspective of his environment as he noticed that he was being attacked by darklings shaped like bell plants or were they bell flowers? It pretty much reminded of a Pokémon and the plants vs alien games. He moved away, and after taking a long hard look at his surroundings, he identified what was probably the exit away from this place.

Cole knew that fighting all of these things was definitely out of his our new, perhaps if he had looked through his stat page and consolidated his stats then he might have a chance, but any moment of carelessness would cost him. So he had no other choice but to run, but ultimately…..he knew these things won't let him go easily. But that was okay…. He welcomed the challenge.

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