Cycle of Ruin - Arrival: A LitRPG Series

Chapter 21

"What are you doing?" Zyla demanded as the weapon she was trying to stab through Leo's neck was shakily lifted away. "How are you doing this?" Her eyes widened in astonishment as the young man proceeded to overpower her. He squeezed her wrist until the dagger fell to the grassy floor with a soft thud. She lashed out at Roy with her foot, using his chest as a springboard to rip her arm away and create distance between them.

The youth took a single stumbling step back before he evenly met Zyla's furious yet wary gaze. "Kneel!" she barked at Roy, who gave her the faintest of smiles before stepping forward. Zyla took a step back in response, confusion blossoming on her face. "I, your master, order you to kneel, you pathetic worm!" she shouted.

Roy stopped at her command and Zyla gave an obvious look of relief, until he slowly lifted a hand to the collar around his neck. Green arcane symbols that weren't visible before began to glow along the white metal as his hand gripped the edge of his collar and began to pull. "Your words hold no power over me." The collar blazed to life like a descending star, an ominous creak filling the clearing. Then in a spray of shrapnel, the collar shattered.

"No-no-no...how is that possible?" Zyla muttered to herself as she backed away, her body trembling. She glanced down at her arms as if in shock to see them shaking. "This can't be happening. I refuse to let this happen!"

She planted her foot in the ground to stop her retreat and bared her teeth at Roy as rage seeped into her voice. "I was chosen by the heavens themselves, and I refuse to be cowed by a classless nobody like you!"

"Well then let's see which is stronger, the heavens or the abyss," came Roy's cool reply.

Zyla let out a wordless cry as she rushed forward, a metallic black creeping up the pale white skin of her arms. The single dagger still in her left hand shimmered before melting like a candle before a flame, flowing over her hand to form a thick gauntlet with a sharpened blade protruding above her knuckles.

The transformation finished by the time she arrived in front of Roy, who stood stock-still, his face as expressionless as ever. Zyla let out a furious swing with her right arm, a shockwave rippling through the air with the force of the blow as she aimed to cave in the younger man's skull.

He waited until the strike was inches from connecting before swaying to the right, letting her arm breeze by his ear, and the force it contained to explode behind him. It ruptured the ground, uprooting plants and trees alike as it carved a furrow in the earth for several feet before dissipating.

Roy gave no outward reaction as he proceeded to sidestep her follow-up strike, causing the bladed gauntlet to slice through a wisp of stray fabric instead of piercing the center of his chest. The strike held much of the same destructive power as the first, and a large portion of the undergrowth was speared apart as a lance of force shook the clearing.

So, this is a class...Leo thought as he strained to watch the brawler unleash a flurry of savage blows that devastated the surrounding area, Roy continuing to remain a step ahead of each one. He was glad their bout was moving farther away from him; he hadn't regained control of his limbs yet, and any one of those strikes would see his body splattered across the clearing. His fogged mind still held enough sense to wonder why Roy had saved him, and how he was able to fight against such an overwhelming opponent, given the disparity in their levels. It seemed the youth wasn't able to strike back under the ferocious onslaught, so it was only a matter of time until he made a misstep that would prove fatal...but lasting as long as he had was impressive in itself.

A nudge on his stomach drew his attention back to his surroundings. Pride loomed over his body, her snow-white fur blackened and burnt with several patches seared away entirely to reveal painful red burns beneath. He tried to move his hand to brush away some of the soot from her normally pristine fur, but only managed to squirm his fingers several inches in the air before his strength gave way.