The Abominable One

Linfeng’s first instinct was to rapidly close in on the last spot Edrick had been visible and strike with all his might, but he only hit empty air. He focused on his other senses besides sight, but didn’t completely give up on his eyes. He tried to spot grass being crushed or otherwise moved unnaturally, but nothing helped him locate the Elt scion.

‘Where could he have gone to?’

He doubted Anoteros could have easily gone far without doing anything that would have given his position away, which would mean that he was still nearby–Probably standing still and watching the script holder flail around with an amused glint in his eyes.

‘I need to-’

Lucid Orbs began to appear in the area, forcing the protagonist to dodge instead of moving on with his plans.

‘Invisibility plus ambient energy manipulation… Damn it. Are they all formed from ambient energy, System?!’

All of them, without exception. Watch out for more spells, Linfeng

The system was quicker to sense the forming of spells, as indicated by ambient energy beginning to act unnaturally and condensing into a single point. The only good thing about this situation was that by using ambient energy, Edrick’s casting speed was far inferior to when he had been using his own inner energy.

Nonetheless, he was proving to be a competent spellcaster.

Alongside the Lucid Orbs soon came Wild Missiles, forcing Linfeng to remain on the defensive and constantly dodge, giving him no time to do anything else... Especially when he had no idea where his adversary was supposed to be.

Following having to endure projectiles from an orb to avoid a Wild Missile, Linfeng felt the same feeling that had momentarily frozen him in place earlier. This was another one of Edrick’s spells, Magus King's Deterrence. It was simply a spell meant to intimidate.

The protagonist instinctively kicked where he had felt it had come from, accomplishing nothing in the process but having his leg grabbed by an unseen hand. The scion became visible once more, and before Linfeng could react, a blade cleaved right through his leg between the tibia and femur.

The scion followed with a kick that sent Linfeng flying straight toward an incoming Wild Missile, forcing him to pour everything into defence to resist it.

“Well, well, well… That’s a nice piece of meat, if I dare say so myself”

Edrick ripped whatever clothes were still clinging to the disembodied limb and began devouring it on the spot, crushing the bones and nails with his teeth.

It all vanished within a few seconds under Linfeng's hateful gaze.

He could do nothing but focus his inner Yang on stopping the bleeding. Regrowing limbs was possible, but it would come at a cost in Yang that he could not afford right now. But he also couldn’t afford to fight with a missing leg.

Anoteros licked his bloody fingers as if he had just eaten a most delicious meal.

“What are you waiting for, Linfeng? Fight me with everything you have, will you? I’ve been hoping that you would prove to be an actual challenge, you know? Which you should be thankful for, by the way. I could have put an end to this circus a long, long time ago if I had really wanted to”

That was partly a lie on Edrick’s end. The script’s state had been quite good until recently. It would have been dubious if Linfeng could have even been pinned down and captured properly previously. However, for someone unaware that a script was protecting their well-being, it sounded like the absolute truth.

With his strength and connections, it definitely seemed accurate to assume that Edrick could have had Linfeng killed the second he wanted to.

The protagonist stared directly at the Elt scion–Only to immediately feel the earth beneath him shift as a Spiritual Bite was cast, forcing Linfeng to stretch out his arms and push back against the teeth trying to bite him in half.

Slowly, Anoteros was clenching his right hand, and as he did so, the spell grew in power as he fed it more of his inner energies.

“I’m nice, but not nice enough to just let you get up without a challenge, my dear Fenglin. Yes, I think that’s the best name… Come on, overcome this challenge, will you?”

“Go… Fuck yourself, Edrick!”

“I don’t think it is myself that I’ll be fucking. There are three candidates that I think of that I would gladly fuck before having to fall back on my trusty old hands”

“You… I won’t let you touch them!”

“Then break free, you fool. Break free and use all that Yang of yours to achieve your maximum strength”

Linfeng didn’t like it one bit that his own nemesis was encouraging him.

The script holder had to expend Yang to fight back against the ever-strengthening jaws threatening to close down on him.

‘Fuck, I’ll have to go all out to get out of this spell. That will give me less time to fight against him, but I don’t have a-’

Just as he was thinking this, the Elt scion was suddenly struck by what could only be described as a yellow laser of some sort.

The noble’s clothes were left singed as smoke rose from him, but he didn’t seem hurt. But it did distract him enough to allow Linfeng to lift himself out of the danger zone.

The attack had come from a large flower that was currently withering away rapidly.

“Ah, Yen’mila, was it? It isn’t your turn yet. I don’t have time to show you the ways right now”

The plant cultivator didn’t listen to him.

“Linfeng! Go all out and kill him!”

Edrick shrugged and smiled.

“Linfeng, go all out, or I’ll punch her real hard in her stomach”

“How can a human being be this despicable?”

“It’s all innate talent”

The Primordial Yang gathered into a single point within Linfeng’s body before spreading outward. The missing leg was replaced by a mass of Yang resembling pure darkness, allowing Linfeng to stand up without worry.

In response, Edrick Lucien Anoteros ripped off what was left of the clothes covering his upper portions, as his bones seemed to move beneath his flesh, soon transforming him into an abominable creature that was difficult to describe due to how many different beasts and beings it was made out of.

He retained a humanoid shape nonetheless.

As of now, this was the crown jewel of his many transformation capabilities combined into one… Sasquatch, Paraceratherium Magus, all intelligent species of Eltysia… This was the most stable and most powerful form he could assume.

Nonetheless, something was off about it. Something only he knew was wrong. The transformation included two black horns sprouting out of his forehead. They curved upward slightly and were completely smooth, ending both with a dangerously pointy protuberance.

He presumed that this was what it meant to hold a trace of the first horn…