When the sound of an ear-piercing thunderclap rang throughout the atmosphere, Tigryli’s heart sunk. He looked shocked and shaken by the appearance of the lightning. And, he was not the only one. However, the reason was soon made clear as to what was behind this abruptly generated fear.
“It’s the rebel—the Son of Thunder is here!”
“The Son of Thunder has come!”
Many of the ancient races cried out and although there was a difference in phrasing, they all mentioned one thing—the Son of Thunder.
Standing in the sky, a visible frown of displeasure formed on Ourami’s face. And, while Yia’s expression did not change much, his furrowed brows seemed to leave him mildly bewildered.
“Since when was there another celestial with the ability to call down the world’s judgment from the skies?” Yia questioned.
In the Secret Realm, the world’s judgment is what others knew as lightning.
The reason the ancient races and even the pillars were taken aback was due to a simple fact. There was only one individual in the world who could call down lightning from the skies and that person was the Son of Thunder, Astratis.
“No. Celestial or not, there is no other being in this world who can call down the world’s judgment besides the Rebellious Son of Thunder—at least, not in the world we’ve come to know,” Ourami stated in an indicative tone.
“What are you trying to say?” Yia asked as Ourami’s tone piqued his interest.
“Not long ago during my outside excursions, I came across some interesting mortals,”
“Interesting mortals? Do not jest. You’ve already contradicted yourself.” Yia interrupted.
How could a powerless mortal be interesting to beings of their caliber and standing?
“I was skeptical at first too, but you can not feel it, can you—the Ethos contained within that lightning?” Ourami asked.
Boom..!
Tigryli’s attack created a small shockwave; however, instead of blowing Izroth away as he originally intended, his attack was met with a flickering silhouette that scattered in every direction.
Tigryli narrowed his eyes and released a low growl when he realized that Izroth was attempting to flee from his grasp. Just now, he had briefly hesitated when the lightning revealed itself and almost made a complete fool of himself in front of not just his master, but another pillar as well!
To make matters worse, the person he was supposed to have slapped away in one strike had ignored him altogether!
“To make a fool of me in front of our master… You must die!!!!” Tigryli roared as his physique began to bulk up and his eyes turned bright red with bloodlust.
Tigryli shifted his stance from one that was upright to standing on all fours as he allowed his beastly instincts to take over!
The next moment, Tigryli kicked off his hind legs and sped forward after Izroth at a terrifying speed.
With his beastly transformation, the Keeper of the Third Gate was actually a step above Izroth’s speed—even with his Flickering Steps active.
‘Oh? It’s been a while since I’ve met someone who could keep up with me while Flickering Steps is active, let alone surpass me in terms of speed.’
But, Izroth was not too surprised that Tigryli could keep up with him. For one, Tigryli was someone equal to a being at the innate stage legendary realm. Though, more importantly, Tigryli possessed a set of powerful hind legs. His hind legs were shaped in such a way that they acted like springs that stored up a great deal of energy before exploding forward. This was one of the advantages of the enhanced beastly frame granted to him by his transformation.
‘At that speed, it won’t take him long to catch up. In that case… I’ll take full advantage of their carelessness.’
Izroth was well aware of how he was viewed in the eyes of the Pillars, Keepers, and Mandates alike. To them, he was only someone who was acting recklessly in order to buy time for his comrades to retreat. But, that could not be any further from the truth.
Zeeeut!
Izroth’s figure flickered around the battlefield as the arms of lightning followed closely behind.
There were no longer just the two arms of lightning he started with. In the blink of an eye, their number had already grown to seven!
Woosh!
Izroth slashed out with his Sword of the Storm as its edge swept clean across the neck of a nearby Megada. Then, in the same breath, the seven arms of lightning mimicked Izroth’s attack and also targeted the Megada. But, by the time it got to the fourth arm of lightning, the Megada had fallen under the sudden onslaught.
The domineering arms of lightning that gave off an oppressive aura were a result of Izroth’s Call of the Thunder God Third State: Heavenly Arms. Not only did it grant Izroth a massive attack boost that could grow over time, but it also conjured arms of lightning—each of which was capable of mimicking his attacks.
While the attacks made by the arms of lightning did not carry over a skill’s special effect or crowd control, it inflicted 10% of the skill’s damage as pure lightning damage that ignored defenses.
Though 10% alone was not too impressive, with an upper arm limit of 100, it could stack to incredible heights. This is why Izroth decided to go after the weaker enemies first. Once he gained more arms of lightning, even those stronger and more sturdy ancient races would find it challenging to survive the seemingly nonstop onslaught of attacks.
Crrrrckle!
After eliminating the Megada, the remaining arms of lightning swiftly shifted their target to the closest individual, which was a being of the serpent-like ancient race. This creature had a much weaker constitution than the Megada and was vanquished after receiving the three remaining consecutive blows.
〈System: Congratulations, you have defeated «Megada Warrior Karvos»!〉
〈Battle Alert: The duration of «Third State: Heavenly Arms» has been increased by 15 seconds and your attack has risen by 5%!〉
〈System: Congratulations, you have defeated «Serpent Fang Slith»!〉
〈Battle Alert: The duration of «Third State: Heavenly Arms» has been increased by 15 seconds and your attack has risen by 5%!〉
〈System: Congratulations…
At the moment, Izroth was quickly sweeping through the crowd of ancient races. With his Energy Vision Sense active, he picked off enemies with weaker Ethos and avoided those he could not finish in a single strike with the assistance of his arms of lightning. In this way, Izroth could build up as many stacks of his arms of lightning as possible in the shortest time frame.
Izroth kept his movements fluid yet erratic as he moved through the crowd untethered. And, every time Tigryli was about to catch up to him, Izroth would use a charge of his Instantaneous Movement or activate his Light-Feather Footwork to gain a small boost of speed.
This caused Tigryli to nearly go mad from anger. No matter how close he came, it seemed that Izroth was always one hair’s length away from him!
“Do you plan to run away forever?!” Tigryli bellowed as he came to a grinding halt, causing the earth beneath him to shatter.
Tigryli crossed his arms out in front of him as he deeply inhaled. As he inhaled, Tigryli’s chest expanded like a balloon.
When the ancient races who were close by witnessed the Third Gate’s actions, they wasted no time moving out of his path.
“Out of the way! Sir Tigryli is going to roar!”
“Move it! Don’t get in Sir Tigryli’s way!”
Half a breath later, as some of the ancient races were trying to stay clear of Tigryli’s path, the Third Gate’s mouth opened as a massive shockwave burst forth.
At first, there was no sound as everything within a fifty-meter radius seemed to fall silent.
During this silence, the entire ground in front of Tigryli was upended as the earth violently trembled.
…ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAR
A fraction of a second later, the sound finally managed to catch up to the emergence of the shockwave that was generated as a mighty roar descended upon the battlefield.
Despite some of the ancient races’ best efforts, many of them were caught up in the widespread shockwave.
Meanwhile, the shockwave from the roar managed to catch up to Izroth, who had kept the Third Gate just out of his reach.
This was not a typical shockwave with only pressure as its main driving force. It was flooded and saturated with Tigryli’s Ethos and carried with it a destructive wave of aura that wanted to level anything that dared step onto its path.
‘I can’t outrun it.’
Izroth had already consumed his last charge of Instantaneous Movement and the next would not be up for another few seconds.
‘Then… Guess I have no choice but to take it a bit seriously.’
In an action that went completely against the expectations of those present, Izroth stopped and faced in the direction of the shockwave.
At the same time, he adjusted his stance as a thick layer of essence wrapped around his Sword of the Storm.
