Chapter 540 - 540: The rider

"Tch, still coming at me." Silva clocked his tongue and gripped his sword, he closed his eyes for a second and raised his blade above his head with his eyes pinned on one centipede.

"Void slash." He called out in a calm voice and then went for the slash, his blade cleaved through the air and in an instant, the void slash travelled through the air, cutting everything that was infront of it until it slammed into the centipede, it sounded like lightning in that moment.

The centipede let out an insane screech and then collapsed into the planet, dust rose and moved with the shockwave.

[You have gained 50 EXp]x10

Silva did not celebrate.

The centipede lay broken on the ground, still twitching, but he did not lower his sword. He could still sense something. A presence, sharp and steady, sitting where the centipede's back had been.

The dust began to settle.

Through the haze, a figure rose to its feet. It was a rider, standing on top of the dead monster's back, more than seven feet tall, wrapped in a full dark cloak. A bow hung from one hand. Its face was hidden in shadow, but Silva could feel it staring right at him.

The rider was still alive, Silva did not really expect him to die from that attack though.

The figure raised the bow without a word.

It pulled the string back, and energy began to gather between its fingers, thin and bright, taking the shape of an arrow. The air around it hummed. Silva could feel the pressure building, and he knew what was coming.

'I need to move.'

He shot forward before the arrow was fully formed.

He kept his sword low and to the side and cut across the ground in a diagonal line. The rider released the string, and the arrow flew, screaming through the void. Silva slashed.

SHING!

The blade split the arrow in half. It detonated a moment later with a thunderclap, and flames and smoke burst across the landform. Silva did not stop. He pushed straight through the blast, his cloak burning at the edges, and came out the other side with his sword already raised.

The rider met him head-on.

It swung the bow up and caught the blade across the limb. The two weapons locked together with a loud screech.

CLANG!

Silva pressed down. The rider pushed back. Sparks sprayed between them, and the ground cracked under their feet. Silva twisted and slashed again, a heavy, explosive swing, and the rider blocked it. Another slash. Another block. Each strike hit like a hammer, and the rider slid back a step with every one.

But it did not fall.

It was a competent fighter. It read every swing, shifting its grip on the bow, turning the blade aside at the last second. And whenever Silva gave it a gap, even a small one, the rider moved. It drew the string back in a flash, and an arrow of pure energy fired point-blank.

Silva threw up his sword and blocked.

BOOM!

The explosion hurled him back across the landform, his boots dragging furrows in the stone. Smoke rolled over his face. He shook it off and charged again.

"Seems this one has some good level of skill to push you." Zion said as Silva attacked.

They fought like that for several moments, back and forth, trading blows. Silva would press, the rider would block and fire. Silva would take the blast and come at it again. Neither of them gained any ground. The clash echoed across the void, and the other floating monsters circled slowly, watching.

Then Silva saw it.

It was a gap, only for a heartbeat. The rider had pulled the string back to fire, and for just a moment, its chest was open.

Silva opened his mouth.

A compressed flame breath roared out, dense and white-hot, and slammed into the rider's chest.

WHOOSH!

The rider was thrown backward. It flew across the landform and hit the ground, skidding through the dust, its cloak smoking.

Silva did not give it a second to recover.

He raised his sword and swung, and a crescent of flame tore across the air. He swung again, and another followed. Then another. He unleashed a barrage of flame arcs, one after another, each one fast and explosive.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

They hit the rider one by one, cutting deep, bursting on impact. The cloak shredded. The rider tried to raise its bow and block, but the arcs came too fast, and each one landed before the last explosion faded. It staggered under the barrage, unable to recover.

Silva charged in behind the flames.

He came down with a heavy slash, and the rider barely got the bow up in time. It blocked, and the force drove it to one knee. Silva kicked it in the chest and knocked it flat onto its back.

The rider tried to rise.

Silva spread his wings and shot into the air.

He rose above the landform, high over the rider's head, where the dark stretched out above him in all directions. He hovered there for a moment, looking down at the figure struggling to its feet.

'This ends here.'

He took a deep breath. Flames gathered in his chest, thick and heavy, compressing tighter and tighter until they burned white.

The rider looked up. It raised its bow.

It was too late.

Silva opened his mouth, and a concentrated breath of flame blasted down from above, narrow and violent, slamming into the rider with full force.

BOOOOM!

The rider was driven into the ground. Rock cracked and crumbled around it. The flames kept pouring down, a column of fire in the dark, and Silva did not let up. The flames grew and covered more space with the rain fed struggling beneath it to even get back to his feet.

For some reason Silva was feeling much more stronger now that he was in the abyss and his strength was rising rapidly.