Chapter 188 - The Giant Fire Samander

  Ricardo:

  As I tried to escape the explosion's reach, I realized I didn’t have enough mao use a pilr for a boost.

  "Where do you think yoing?" the boy shouted. Suddenly, a vine snared my ankle, dragging me bad throwing me near him. He stomped on my chest, pinnio the ground as roots coiled around me.

  "If we're dying, we're all going together," he said, ughing.

  Eliza leaped at him, but he deflected her attack with the metal sword, tering her with a powerful strike.

  “Fming Breeze!” she yelled, releasing a cloud of fire toward him. The boy stomped the ground, raising a barrier of water to shield himself.

  He turowards the golem and pointed his sword. Vines began to around the gigantic creature, pierg through it, stopping it from infting further.

  "Scared?" she shouted, trying to kick him, but he caught her leg and spun her around, smming her into a tree.

  Eliza crashed hard ao the ground.

  “Scared?” he repeated, advang toward her.

  Eliza stood up, blog a kick, then mao stab her dagger into his leg. The boy headbutted her, unfazed by the pain.

  "Do I look scared?" he asked coldly, pulling the dagger from his leg and tossing it back to Eliza.

  She stood, blood running down her face.

  "The dagger oisoned…" she muttered.

  "I know," he replied, ign the poison as he tinued trolling the roots that ed around the golem.

  The golem roared, ceasing to infte. I noticed the roots were eling water ihe golem, extinguishing the fire accumuting within.

  Eliza, making a final attempt, unched herself with a burst of fire, surrounded by a ring of fmes, but the boy ighe fire, enduring the burns as he kicked her. The golem spat fire to aid its master, but the boy geed a wave of water with a swift stomp, colliding it with the fireball. He then delivered a powerful kick to Eliza, sending her flying.

  The golem, desperate to protect its master, lu the boy, swinging its massive tail. Nathan raised a stone barrier, blog the impact.

  Earth element? He had that all along!

  The stone barrier held against the samander’s strike, giving the boy a ce to leap towards the creature, now wielding what looked like a lightning spear. With precise aim, he drove the spear into the golem’s head, causing it to roar in pain, thrashing violently to break free. The boy was thrown aside, but he nded agilely, ready for arike.

  The golem, enraged aermio crush Nathan Evenhart, lunged with a massive leap, its gaping jaws ready to swallow the boy whole. Its massive jaws, like iron gates, came crashing down with destructive forathan, however, showed not a hint of hesitation.

  With swift precision, he shoved his hands ihe creature’s jaws—one gripping the upper jaw, the other the lower—stopping the monster's advance. His body shoh an intense blue light, as sparks of electricity snaked along his arms, illuminating the se with a vibraric glow.

  The soul golem began to charge energy deep within its throat, preparing a devastating fire ray.

  "Not so fast!" Nathan shouted, his face torted with the strain. trating mana into his hands, he unleashed a burst of wind from his arms, f the golem’s jaws open with a tremendous crack.

  ‘CRACK!’ The sound of bone echoed through the forest.

  “ARGHHHH!” The golem roared in animalistic pain, its jaw hanging grotesquely.

  Nathan didn’t waste a sed. Seizing the moment of weakness, he summohick roots that burst from the ground with astonishing speed. The roots coiled around the creature, invading its open mouth with a relentless surge of water, flooding the golem’s interior.

  With the golem paralyzed, Nathan readied his decisive blow. Gripping his azure sword firmly, he charged at blinding speed, his eyes locked on the creature’s ot. In a swift and brutal motion, he drove the bde into the golem’s face, tearing through its stony skin and ripping its cheek apart.

  Simultaneously, Nathan spun through the air, his body enveloped in a surge of electricity and wind. The azure sword cut through the air on one side, while the metal sword in his other hand glowed with a menag hue. Each rotation amplified the force of his strikes, creating a devastating vortex around the golem.

  ‘SLASH! SLASH!’

  The sshes were swift and brutal, shredding the golem’s stone flesh as thick, magical blood spttered across the battlefield. Each blow forced the beast to recoil, uo withstand Nathan’s relentless assault.

  With a final, fierce yell, Nathan desded in a devastating spin, his swlowing like beas of pure destru. The azure bde aal sword cleaved through the golem’s ned jaw with a resounding crack, causing the monster’s jaw to finally give way and crash heavily to the ground.

  The golem's body trembled violently, its form colpsing uhe sheer force of Nathan’s assault. It let out o roar of agony before colpsing into a heap of debris and blood.

  "Now you ’t bite me anymore," he said with a cold smile, waving his hands as a sea of roots and vines engulfed the golem. The earth beh the creature opened up, sinking it into a deep, water-filled pit. The realization of what he had been doing all this time hit me. All the water geed was being absorbed by those dead roots and carried into the deep pit he had created.

  He reparing a sea of water beh us the eime, pnning to trap the golem! This kid had a strategy to defeat the creature from the moment he saw it!

  I had mao free myself, watg and waiting for the right moment to strike, but the sight of Nathan trolling the elements so effortlessly paralyzed me with fear.

  Eliza's Soul Golem is trapped beh the earth. I 't make the ground split open, and the creature is weakened by the water, further immobilized by roots. Eliza has no other option but to dismiss the creature, allowing it tee in its mana gem and prevent excessive mana ption. The Soul Golem has been pletely tained.

  When the boy turned his back, I didn't hesitate. I leaped forward with full force, but he reacted quickly, swinging his sword and blog my strike with precision. Before I could retreat, he spun swiftly, grabbed my arm, and, in a brutal move, hurled me against a tree with a loud crash. Without hesitation, he drove his metal sword into my stomach, the bde pierg my flesh with searing pain.

  At that moment, Eliza rushed forward, seizing peared to be an opening. However, he sidestepped at the st instant, grabbing her by the ned, with overwhelming strength, hurled her directly at me, causing us to collide violently.

  "Sea Serpent!" he shouted, and a colossal serpent of water emerged, slig through the air at high speed. In an instant, we were struck by the creature's crushing impact, flung upward like mere toys.

  We were thrown far away, flying through the air for dozens of meters, the trees around us blurring past rapidly. Our bodies whipped through the wind before crashing into the highest branches, snapping them on impact. We tumbled wildly through the forest, each rotatiing more pain as stones and roots battered us until I finally smmed into a thick trunk, my vision shaking from the impact.

  I slid across the ground, still spinning amidst mud a leaves, until I stopped at the edge of a distant river, my entire body throbbing with pain and exhaustion. Beside me, Eliza, bloody and gasping, had also been violently thrown to the ground, yet she still mao stand, her eyes filled with determinatioe her weakeate.

  "If I recall correctly, you both said you were going to kill me," the boy taunted, striding across the river's waters with a anding presence, his eyes locked on us with merciless disdain.

  “Damn it... You’re just a farm boy; you shouldn't have this level of skill," Eliza muttered, struggling to catch her breath as she fought to stand. “I wish I’d been hired to kill you and your mother years ago, when you were still a baby. I would’ve enjoyed beating her face to a pulp," she added, letting out a bitter ugh.

  Before she could read strike him with a dagger, the boy propelled himself forward with an explosive burst of wind, closing the dista blinding speed. Eliza tried to raise her arms in defense, but it was futile. He delivered a devastating kick to her abdomen, making her double over in pain, followed by a brutal punch to the face that sent her flying backward.

  Desperate, I tried to jure a stone spike, but my mana was depleted, and the spell failed before it could form. My legs trembled from exhaustion as I watched helplessly.

  “You said you’d hurt my mother’s face?” he asked, his voice dangerously calm. “You just gave me an excellent idea.”

  Without hesitation, the boy ran again, this time pressing Eliza’s face against the rocky ground. The sound of flesh and bone grinding echoed brutally as he dragged her at high speed, propelled by fierce gusts of wind. The fri left a trail of blood and sparks along the way.

  With a merciless motion, he hurled Eliza against a tree, making the trunk shudder from the impact. The tree cracked slightly, and Eliza colpsed, her body visibly battered and broken.

  "Where are the two assassins who swore they'd kill me?" he taunted, his voice dripping with disdain, while keeping his hand poi Eliza. Bolts of electricity erupted from his palm, striking her with relentless force. She vulsed on the ground, her body trembling in agony as she tried, in vain, to escape the shock.

  He then slowly turo me, his eyes shining with a chilling ess. He pointed his hand, and a bolt of lightning shot towards me. The electricity struck me squarely, surging through my body with excruciating pain. My muscles spasmed involuntarily as I struggled to withstand the paralyzing shock.

  “I don’t tolerate anyone harming my family,” he tinued, his voiyielding, resonating like a final judgment. The lightning strikes kept ing, each surge cutting through me like knives pierg my flesh.

  I was already exhausted, with not enough mana to create any defense, and the shock peed deep into my skin, causing unbearable pain. My hands trembled, and my body felt paralyzed by the relentless attack.

  "Let's have a little chat," he said with cold ess, before shifting his gaze away from us, as if we were no longer a threat.

  Damn… I thought, watg him walk away.

  The boy turned his back to us, resuming his walk over the river’s waters with disturbing calm, as if the chaos around him was nothing more than a routine se. In a fluid motion, he bent doicked up his metal sword that had fallen into the water, lifting it effortlessly as the gleam of the bde reflected the sky above.

  “Ricardo!” Eliza screamed, but I subtly sighat I was still alive. Half of her face was raw and bloody, a harrowing sight.

  "How many i people have you killed?" he asked, his voice cold and merciless as he approached her.

  "Screw you!" Eliza spat in his face, but her spit was effortlessly repelled by his wind trol.

  He gripped her neck with a force that made me feel the immi danger.

  "I anded you to answer!" Thunder cracked across the sky, intensifying the heavy atmosphere.

  I must kill this kid!

  I discreetly slipped a knife from my ste bracelet into my sleeve.

  I’ll have to strike from the shadows.

  "I’ve killed many," Eliza finally admitted, her voice a mix of pain and anger. Without hesitation, Nathan tossed her in my dire, and she tumbled across the ground, stoppio me.

  The boy advanced slowly, the sound of his steps eg through the water, eae bringing him closer. I grabbed Eliza's arm, trying to help her stand, but his shout froze me in pce:

  "Leave her!" The and reverberated in the air, leaving me paralyzed.

  Nathan jured a ball of fire in his hand, which soon shifted into an intense blue glow.

  "I bet you’ve abused that fire power of yours," he said, his tone a blend of sarcasm and menace.

  "You have no idea…" Eliza muttered, spitting blood into the river.

  "Then I'll give you the exact same sentence," Nathaed, his voice as cold as the wind that now howled fiercely around us.

  Panic gripped me, and without a sed thought, I grabbed Eliza, trying t her away as quickly as possible. But before we could escape, Nathan surged forward with terrifying speed.

  In an act of pure desperation, I swung my arm, trying to stab him with the knife I had hidden in my sleeve. He, however, caught the bde with his bare hand, allowing it to pierce his skin without even using wind to defend himself.

  "That was your patheti?" he taunted before nding a punch that sent me sprawling.

  Damn it! There's no way!

  I fell backward, struggling to rise, but my body felt heavy, and the situation seemed increasingly hopeless.