Chapter 29: Realm Of Madness [25] Ten Days
There were many things Leonidas didn’t like about the Labyrinth...mostly the fact that it tried to kill him every other hour, but if he had to na his absolute least favourite thing, it would have to be the constant need to stay vigilant.
Anything could happen anyti, and Leonidas preferred not to die in his sleep; as such, he was always alert, especially after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Caw Caw. It had truly taught him how unforgiving the Labyrinth truly was.
The strain that ca with it was showing in his deanor.
"Oh shut up, you’ve been asking the sa thing for the past two hours! Two goddamn hours!"
His voice was soft, kinder than it usually was, lacking its bite. The fact just served to prove that he was close to snapping. And like the devil she was, Willow had been annoying him consistently, asking the sa question again and again.
"I’m serious, when are we going to get there?"
They had left their camp around ten days ago and were heading towards the camp Willow had seen while diving through the air like a wannabe bird.
Leonidas paused just at the entrance of the dead tree maze right in front.
With dark eyes, he turned to face Willow, but seeing the smile on her face only served to make him more annoyed.
I swear...the day I get my arm back, the first thing I’m gonna do is strangle this woman.
"Like I said before...I don’t know! If anything, you’re the one who should know. I’m not the one who saw the wretched civilization. Not !"
Willow chuckled at his reaction, probably about to insult him in so degrading way, but thankfully, the sound of footsteps stopped her.
Step Step Step—!
Imdiately, both Leonidas and Willow snapped into seriousness, weapons held out front. Leonidas held Blush in a reverse grip, ready to hack and slash.
His clothes—a sort of gift from Willow—ruffled lightly in the wind. He wore a long coat that fell to his ankles, crimson in color. Below it were his original clothes, infused with the crimson crystal of his roses. The outer layer—his coat—was made of the sa material as the walls of their shelter.
A velvety, thick cloth with properties of crystal, specifically its toughness. His new attire was comparable to an upper-tier one artifact.
For context, there were a total of six tiers, with the artifacts getting stronger with each tier. Blush, Leonidas’s pink long sword, would be a low-tier three artifact, only because the blade held no Hexes. By sheer durability and hardness, Blush was easily a high-tier four artifact.
Leonidas gave a quick glance behind him. The ground was still the sa shimring rainbow hue, a plethora of colors swirling into each other. Shrubbery and bushes grew here and there, hidden beneath titanic trees, separated by a vast distance.
They had been traveling upwards for the past ten days, yet the space was completely flat. The spires were simply too vast for any scaling to feel like a hike.
The sound of the footsteps echoed again, making Leonidas snap his gaze back to the forest. From the leafless rainbow trees, a glittering red eye erged.
A thunderous crash followed, as a couple of trees toppled like toothpicks disturbed by a slight breeze. From behind the destruction ca out a massive body, easily seven ters high.
The beast had scales of pure onyx chitin covering every inch of its massive body. Chicken-like thin legs sprouted from its downside, a dozen black legs, with three knife-like point edges sticking from the bottom of each leg, almost like tiny blades. Above, most of its head was taken up by the singular crimson eye, glowing like the sun itself.
When Leonidas’s gaze landed on the eye, his head shook as if it had been hamred. It was like he had just gotten an intense headache.
Ahh, a ntal ability.
Willow seed to have experienced the sa thing, as she gave Leonidas a little nod, silent understanding passing through them.
Chicken Eye moved, its malnourished legs carving through the air, threatening to tear the pair in two. Without a single thought, Leonidas fell back on his back, letting Blush et the pincers as he rolled over. Dirt clung to his coat, a mix of colors with a crimson backdrop.
Fortunately, he had avoided the attack without injury, other than the small vibrations in his arm. The bad thing was that Chicken Eye had a dozen more pincers, and three instantly shot to skewer him while he was still on the ground.
With a desperate roll, Leonidas narrowly avoided the first one and ford a shield from a bunch of crystalline roses to make a shield of sorts.
The two pincers crashed against the barrier, shattering it like glass. Thousands of tiny crystals drifted to the ground like fairy dust.
The pincers advanced, and although his shield was destroyed, it had managed to earn him enough ti to get back on his feet.
Just before the two pincers could pierce him, Leonidas activated the second advantage of his Bloom Edict, [Free Will].
From the multiple battles Leonidas had fought in the past ten days, he had figured out that imagining [Free Will] and [No Will] as tendrils was much better than what he had used the first ti—a pair of giant hands.
His Insenium manifested as invisible tendrils, and they wrapped around his body, instantly rejuvenating him, and artificially pushing him to the peak of his condition.
His control over Insenium had gotten better, and so had the applications of his Edicts. Everything depended on imagination, and his had expanded by leaps and bounds.
The two pincers closed in; they were so close that Leonidas could see the grooves and thin scratches that marred their surface. The marks seed fresh; maybe it had fought a battle recently?
Still, Leonidas had no ti to think about it. He stepped forward and swung Blush with every ounce of strength his body could muster. His arm cried out in pain as the blade slipped between the three blades that were at the end of each pincer.
Leonidas pushed against the terrifying strength Chicken Eye possessed, losing ground with every second. He was about to be flung back, but thankfully, Willow, who had been absent the entire battle, had reached her position.
Sothing dark fell from the sky, a beam of black piercing through the haze. It was a woman.
Willow had her sword pointed downwards, and as the beast realized what was happening, it was already too late. With terrifying strength, Willow pierced straight through the monster’s eye, her long sword entirely lost in the gigantic eyeball.
Strength quickly left its limbs, and Leonidas felt the pincers going slack. The tallic appendages fell with a heavy clack, and one by one, its other legs started falling downwards, until the pilgrim crashed into the forest, toppling trees and staining the brilliant ground with its dirty blood.
Willow stepped out of the wreckage—without her sword, covered entirely in onyx blood.
Goddamn. Even I have to admit...that was cool.
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