Chapter 233: Chapter 233 Overwhelming Might.
"Please make it!".
She kept running in the forest when suddenly her feet stumbled upon the tree root that sprouted above the ground, making her body fall down and slamming her front body to the ground.
Xiao Lian grits the feeling of pain that assaults her body and turns her gaze above, only to find Serafina failed in her rescue and let Hina's figure fall to the ground.
Her mind blanked for a moment as she couldn't believe what just happened in front of her eyes. Suddenly, her eyes turned blurred, and her heart began to get crushed by enormous guilt and pain seeing her best friend at the last moment.
"...".
Xiao Lian is just muted in place, unable to receive what is happening before her sight. Her body turned listless without an ounce of strength left, and she stared blankly at the place where Hina had fallen off.
"...".
***
Soma, who finally reaches the twenty-first floor as usual, scans his surroundings in the air. This place was nothing compared to the intermediate floor, where he could still see the dungeon wall vividly from one place to another. However, this was completely another world. He could see the wall but it blurred because of the distance that was far away from one corner to another.
After several minutes of searching, he had already covered almost a quarter of the place, as he still had no conviction from which floor the current students had transferred to. The only lead he had was the floor within the advanced area.
He began to move forward to another location. From afar, he saw a silhouette of a flying monster flying to the ceiling. Then, after reaching the top, the monster dropped something from its grip, which made his eyes open wide. Upon closer look, it was a human with dangling hands that seemed unusable, crushed under the monster's strength.
"Crap!".
The event was so fast, and at the same time, Soma accelerated. The person who falls is already covering almost half the distance from above. He saw another human, a female, close to her distance but failed to reach the fallen human, which was another girl with short red hair. Soma remembered vividly after the distance was shortened slightly.
"?!".
Soma's heart began to be enveloped by heavy feelings as he began to grit his teeth and accelerate further, but it was already too late. Soma saw the red-haired girl swallowed by the tall tree, and his sight was blocked by the dense leaves that branch, creating a huge canopy, preventing him from seeing the horrific scene when her body shattered.
[Extra Skill Puppeteer activated]
"...That was Hina, right?!".
He didn't dare to look far below to see the bloodied scene that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He arrived near Serafina, who shed a lot of tears streaming down her cheeks.
His heart began to race uncontrollably, and he confirmed his speculation of whose figure Serafina was trying to catch. His eyesight starts to tremble, and below that, a red color starts to guide forth, cladding his entire body.
Serafina's mind blanked; she couldn't utter a single word, nor could she understand what had just happened in front of her. Her tears keep streaming down her cheek like a dam that has been broken, seeing another close friend she had ended her life before her.
"...Hina…?!".
"Kaaak!".
She heard that infuriating sound that came above her; her heart turned cold, and her pupils turned dilated into a dot, showing her menacing expression. Serafina's pupils turned red, accompanied by the aura surrounding her body that also began to turn red.
She raised her palm only to find two figures floating above her; one of them was the griffin, who was casually smirking, seeing its prey increase, and the other was Soma, with his calm, deadpan expression that was filled with darkness.
"...Soma?!".
"Kaaaak!".
The griffin, furious because of his appearance that had been ignored by Soma, let out its warcry that shook the surrounding air, and it made even Serafina, who had much distance, tremble in fright.
[Extra Skill Puppeteer activated]
[Drawing both Saint and Devil power to its maximum potential]
[Extra Skill Adapt activated]
[The user Physique and Mind start to change its composition(Mutated) because of the chaotic power it possesses]
[Both power resonance perfectly within the user body]
"Shut up".
Soma's body suddenly disappears from its place and reappears in front of the griffin, who still lets out its warcry, making it stop because of the shock. Then the griffin's sight shifted when a sudden heavy blow struck its left head, and its body was flung away toward the other way, descending before it slammed to the ground, knocking some trees in the surrounding area.
"Kaaak?!".
Serafnia, who realized the situation had changed, lifted her gaze and saw Soma silently watching the griffin, who was still writhing in pain because of his punch, cast his cold gaze to it.
Her mind suddenly stuck, seeing Soma with his usual appearance but cladded in a tremendous amount of killing intent, standing aloof in the sky, looking down on the land itself.
From what she knew, Soma's usual aura was blood-colored red, but the current Aura he possessed was much milder; however, behind those mild colors, it hid a colossal strength that could shake even a country. Truthfully, she began to fear him a bit.
Soma, who stood alone in the air, gazed at the surrounding scene, where it lost its shade of color and turned bleak into a gray reality. His mind still refuses to look down toward the figure of the girl who always stayed by his side, and now that girl was just dropped off from a mile above. His fury exceeded its limit, and he couldn't express it beyond words.
Without him knowing, somewhere inside him, someone smiled in satisfaction after receiving Soma's raw feeling, making him crack in laughter, which Soma shut it down with his thoughts.
[Soma, get ahold of yourself, you must not…]
A worried voice from Martial Saint that tried to warn him also got shut by his own thoughts.
"Kaaak!".
The griffin, who had already recovered, flew to the sky once more, but the moment he reached a certain altitude, its big body once more got stuck to the ground and raised a cloud of dust from the surrounding sand that got blasted by the impact.
Soma still retained its sanity as he held back in his punch because if he had done seriously in the first attack, with his current power, He was sure that the griffin would be turned into minced meat right now. However, even though he held back, the impact was still tremendous, as were the results. Below him appeared a crater just from his single punch striking the monster.
"...!".
The cloud of dust was blown away as the griffin below him let out a loud shrill that shook the land and made the air tremble upon its might. The Giffin's body was clad in a green aura that enhanced all of his basic strength, making the feather and fur around its body stand to no end; it was furious, for it had been humiliated by Soma.
"Kaaaaak!".
With its current strength, the surrounding tree got blown away by a blast from its warcry in its serious mode. Then, from out of nowhere, black clouds began to reform above Soma, and the surrounding area began to pulverize by the incoming storm that descended upon the land, obliterating everything that got caught in it.
In the blink of an eye, the griffin soared to the sky while looking down at him; however, looking at its transformation figure, Soma just scoffed and spoke.
"Second steps - Lightning Descent".
Thousands of tiny lightning bolts began to burst forth from his body before they condensed into the equipment he wore. Its purple color starts to change into crimson as it absorbs Soma's power directly.
"Kaaaak!".
The griffin once again let out its warcry while flapping its wind and appeared in front of Soma with its claws that inch from his neck, But Its movement was too slow compared to him now.
"Third steps - Lightning Strike".
A thundering roar happened within a moment of milliseconds, and it blasted away the griffin along with the black clouds that covered the sky. The griffin's body was slammed to the ceilings, paralyzed by the lightning that stung its nervous system.
The griffin, who had lost its ability to move for a moment, dropped down, and a clear panic rushed to its head because this was the first time the griffin had fallen from its territory.
Soma didn't waste time as he reappeared above the griffin and gave it an axe kick that sent its body straight down like a comet.
"Kaak".
The griffin groaned in pain as it struggled to stand up but felt that one of its limbs had broken from the earlier attack.
"Not yet!".
Soma, who stood before the griffin, raised one of his legs and dropped it down, creating a shockwave that shook the land. Feeling dissatisfied about any of this, he began to repeat the stomping again, again, and again. With each stomp he made, the earth trembled, the ground charred by the lightning, and it made the surrounding monster run from its terror.
He literally turned into a madman as he kept stomping the griffin's body, which turned into bloodied meat before it disappeared, leaving only a meaningless Mana core for what he had lost.
[You gained Exp!]
[You Level up!]
[BP: +5]
[Level 30!]
[Next Exp: 0/310]
[You cannot level up, for you still haven't met the requirement to unlock your first ascension to learn Martial Saint skill!]
[Your Exp will be stacked until you learn the skill!]
[Title acquired: Sky Conqueror]