Chapter 541 - 541: Self Detonate

Silva kept the flames going a little longer, until the column of fire had burned the stone around the rider black and the air shimmered with heat. Then he cut it off and came down slowly, his wings folding as his boots touched the ground.

The smoke drifted across the landform. A crater sat in the middle of it, glowing red at the edges.

He expected it to be over.

It wasn't.

After a few seconds, something moved inside the crater. The rider rose to its feet, slowly, as if it had only been resting. Its cloak hung in burned rags, and its body was shaking.

Then a sound came out of it.

It was a deep, cracked voice, rolling out in a low chant, in a language Silva did not understand. The words scraped against each other like stones. Each syllable made the ground tremble a little more.

'What is it doing?'

The rider's body began to twist.

Its limbs bent in ways that limbs should not, and its back split open. The cloak fell away in pieces, and what was underneath was not a man. It was a twisted mass of eldritch horror, a massive body of intertwined flesh wound together in a grotesque tangle. Four black eyes opened along its head, each one blinking at a different time. Its arms had grown long and thin, hanging past its knees, and in its hands, the bow had grown as well, until it was nearly as tall as the creature itself.

Silva stared.

"Yeah, I did not see that coming either," Zion said

The monster raised its bow.

It pulled the string, and an arrow of darkness formed between its fingers. It was far larger than the ones before, as thick as a tree trunk, and it hummed with a sound that made Silva's teeth ache.

It fired.

Silva threw himself upward. His wings snapped open, and he shot into the air a heartbeat before the arrow hit the ground. It landed where he had been standing, and the whole landform exploded. Stone and dust blasted outward in a ring, and a deep scar split the floor in two.

The monster did not stop.

It drew the string again, then again, firing arrow after arrow in a rapid chain. Silva wove through the air, rolling left and right, the shafts whipping past so close that he felt the wind of them. Each one exploded on impact, throwing shockwaves across the void.

'Too many. I have to get closer.'

He tucked his wings and dove.

He flew straight at the monster, dodging two arrows and cutting a third out of the air. He closed the distance and swung his sword with everything he had.

The monster swung its bow.

The weapon twisted in its hand, bending and flowing, and in the blink of an eye it had turned into a massive sword made of pure darkness. The blade came around before Silva could react.

SLASH!

It cut across his chest, and the force threw him backward through the air. He slammed into the ground hard and rolled, leaving a trail of blood across the stone. A deep gash ran from his shoulder to his ribs. It began to heal slowly, the edges knitting together, but it hurt.

He pushed himself up, coughing.

The monster stomped.

Darkness surged beneath the ground, a wave of black energy rippling across the floor. The stone split apart as it traveled, ripping up in great slabs, and it reached Silva before he could jump. It slammed up under his feet and hurled him into the air.

He tumbled, spinning, and for a moment he did not know which way was up.

The monster's sword changed again. It narrowed and lengthened into a spear, black and gleaming, and the creature drew its arm back and threw it with all its might.

Silva saw it coming. He could not turn in time.

SHUNK!

The spear drove into his chest.

Everything went dark.

For a moment, there was nothing. No sound, no pain, only a silence like drowning.

Then Silva snapped back.

He gasped. He was still in the air, his wings beating weakly, and he looked down at the spear sticking out of his chest. The shaft was warm and slick. He gritted his teeth, wrapped both hands around it, and pulled.

It came out with a wet sound. He threw it aside.

The wound began to close.

He flapped his wings and steadied himself, and his eyes turned toward the monster below. It was watching him with all four black eyes, waiting.

"It's not that easy to kill me."

Silva closed his eyes for a second. Then his body changed.

His wings stretched. His limbs grew and darkened, scales rippling over his skin, and in a few seconds, he was a massive dark dragon hanging in the void. He threw back his head.

He gathered his flames.

It was the deadliest breath he had ever prepared. A ball of fire began to form inside his opened mouth, black at the center and edged with white. It grew larger and larger, and the air around it bent. It looked like a black sun, hungry and heavy.

The monster raised its arms.

Silva let it go.

The flame came out in a compressed blast and slammed into the monster's chest.

BOOOOM!

It tore straight through. A huge hole opened through the center of the body, and the flames kept burning around it, widening the hole and eating through the twisted flesh. The monster screamed. It clawed at the fire with its long arms, and the flames spread across them.

Silva cut off the breath.

He swooped down at full speed. The monster tried to fight, raising its arm to strike, but Silva dodged around it, grabbed it with his claws, and threw it down with a roar.

It hit the ground and cracked the stone beneath it.

Silva landed and charged, swinging his claws and tail. The monster tried to rise, and he knocked it back down again. Blow after blow landed. It could barely lift its head.

Then something changed.

The monster stopped fighting. Its four eyes narrowed. It curled its long arms around itself, and a dark light began to gather inside its body, thin at first, then brighter.

"Silva!" Zion shouted. "It's gathering energy! It's going to self-detonate!"

Silva did not hesitate.

He seized the monster in his claws, spread his wings, and flew to the edge of the landform. He did not stop at the edge. He hurled it with all his strength off the side of the planet and into the abyss.

It fell.

It dropped deeper and deeper into the dark, shrinking to a speck, still glowing from within. Silva watched it go. The light grew brighter, and brighter.

Then it burst, far below, a flash of black and violet that lit up the void for a moment and faded.

[You have gained 100 EXP]x10