Spectral Regalia

Ch 78: True Opponent

Kael listened to Avrin's words panting with shaky breath. As the adrenaline in his body calmed down, his body tensed up, as the smell of something pungent and sour entered his nostrils. He looked down, seeing that some of the blood has stained him. Quickly covering his mouth, as he almost vomited, he turned to look at the shadow wall that was vanishing.

The creatures stood quiet for a moment, as the wall vanished, showing Avrin and Kael, as well as the headless body of their comrade. The creatures shrieked with fury as they dashed over towards Kael, who was stained in the blood of their dead comrade.

"Hmph..." Avrin uttered out, before he used Void Step to appear in front of Kael. As one of the draconians neared him, slashed its right claw towards him. Avrin knew he needed to figure out his own comfortable method of fighting.

Being able to use dark matter allowed him many opportunities. He could fight at a distance, or focus on hand to hand combat and even weaponry. But Avrin knew he had to adapt to any situation and challenge himself if he wanted to improve.

Just like how he put Kael in a life threatening situation, he needed to practice what he preached. As the claw quickly stabbed towards him, he swiveled his body under, before turning it at an angle towards the creature that was unable to properly maneuver in mid air.

Taking into account his instinct, his left hand opened into the form of a palm, dark matter forming a layer of energy, before he pressed it with great force against the creature's stomach. "Shadow Splinter." He uttered out, before a faint force of gravity rippled around the point where his palm met the creature.

Gravity around it rippled and space distorted faintly, before the creature's flesh twisted and tore. A force transferred through and shot out like a blast of air, blowing a hole right through the creature. The blast of air was a result of the force transferring through.

The air rushed forwards, blowing away several of the creatures, wounding them only slightly as well as dazing them a bit. The only casualty being the limp Draconian that fell to the ground with its eyes popping out of its head and tongue slumped out of its mouth, its body twitching.

"Master...incredible..." Kael couldn't help but utter with admiration. Avrin didn't reply, as he raised his hand to look at it. "-That did less than I expected. I'm sure I can make it more destructive. Being able to distort space and gravity, although faint, it's still there. I'll have to be careful; otherwise I might lose my arm in the process-"

Having freed themselves from their daze, the creatures charged towards Avrin again, this time more carefully, as two tried to flank him. "Tsk..." Avrin raised his hand, forming a Void Sphere that twisted and shattered into many small shards "Void Crystal..." Like bullets, the small spheres shot towards the Draconians, managing to hit several of them.

The void crystal shards had left bruise-like marks that very slowly tried to eat away at the creatures' scales, carrying penetrating force, but also the effect of eating away at the opponent's very being. Despite having force, the Draconians' scales managed to block most of the attack, showing that Avrin hadn't calculated the power added to the Void Crystal enough to be able to wound them gravely.

While the one's hit were madly scratching at the parts being slowly being turned to ash by the Void Crystal shards. Avrin examined it carefully, noticing that the effect had stopped, allowing the Draconians to retake their fighting stances and screech at him with fury. "-I'll make it stronger next time...-"

Using this as a time to test his abilities, he was caught off guard by a sudden shout. "Ha!" Kael suddenly raised his sword and charged to a nearby Draconian that was scratching madly at its wounds. "Kael, wait!"