Chapter 268: Run
Sylas felt like his body was on its last legs, but even so, these Level 17s were as fragile as paper before him. It almost felt like a joke that they were targeting him at all. Even while in pain, with <Madness Control> activated, it was like everything was under his control.
These three tried to sneak up on him despite the fact his visualization was still very much active, and the fact that he could still split his mind over ten ways. What they thought was sneaking up on him was just them becoming moths to a flame.
Sylas took another step and the two remaining Level 17s had their eyes widen in horror. They had already realized that Sylas had to be strong, exceptionally so to last this long on his own. But they also had no way of knowing if he had other support in the region, or if there was a hidden trump card that he was using, so they had yet to confirm that it was his raw strength alone that caused this.
In addition, they couldn't see through his stats even if he hadn't fused with the Basilisk King, let alone now that he had. With Madness activated on top of that, if they tried to sense his stats, not only would they fail, but they would even suffer a backlash.
In the end, they had decided to take a cautious approach, but that had ended with them suffering terribly in the end... no, suffering wasn't enough to describe this.
It was outright death.
"Run!"
Sylas turned a deaf ear to their roars, a fiery rage being stoked in his body.
Strength.
He had never wanted it so badly.
He had never wanted anything so badly in his life.
He cast <Astral Bind> on one of them. Although it was almost immediately broken, because the gap in Will was so large, the target was still stunned for a moment.
At the same time, the second Level 17 who was turning to run found a ballista bolt suddenly appear in its path, whistling toward him with over 600 Attack.
Tail Whip.
Sylas' tail lashed out toward the stunned Level 17 and her head exploded. The Gene Talent was only a weak F- one, but when it was matched with 662 Strength, it felt like a sledgehammer had just fallen from a skyscraper right onto her head.
Blood splattered as a CLANG! echoed in the distance. The last Level 17 just barely managed to block, but his wrists trembled and his forward momentum was entirely stopped. Just as he was feeling the horror, a second ballista bolt ripped through his back.
He shook then froze. Looking down at the large bolt coming through his chest, he found a hard time believing that it was actually running through his body. It felt more like he was looking at his own life through a movie screen. This couldn't possibly be real...
But then his gaze dimmed and he fell over.
At that moment, the government officials on the other side found their eyes widening.
Those three had been on their own mission, and none of the other government officials knew how strong they were. In their eyes, they were just one of them. However, even so, that didn't change how shocked they were.
If Sylas could kill three of them so easily, then what about the rest?
The moment they took a step into this place, they had already decided that all the benefits would be their own to benefit from. Although Sylas was beaten and bloodied, and had done most of the work, they didn't consider him to be a problem. Not only was he tired, but he was just a single person.
Even if there was another existence hiding away, it wouldn't make a difference.
They were the government, how could any upstarts possibly manage to deal with them? But this...
BOOM!
The water surged and writhed, but it was actually a dense Ice-Poison that was coming out from it. It even looked like it was hurriedly freezing the river over... though failing miserably.
'There's no way,' Sylas deduced immediately, 'the specific heat of water is far too high, let alone running water like this. There's definitely no existence just yet that can accomplish such a thing. What is it doing, then? Is it just too stupid?'
To put this matter into context, flash freezing a river like this one was something that Sylas would find far more impressive than having the strength to blow over a house in a single blow.
It was easy to ignore in day-to-day matters, but it took a lot of energy to heat water up, and by that logic, it also took a lot of work to cool it down. This was even more difficult if the water was moving like in this case.
There was simply no way the cobra could freeze this water, and even if it could, how would that benefit it?
Even so, Sylas was on high alert. <King's Bind> could freeze the body, but it didn't stop Aether flow or thoughts. If the cobra was desperate, then things were still fine, and it would also
mean that things were still under his control.
But in the case that it had an actual plan....
Sylas was entirely focused on this matter, so much so that he didn't spare another glance toward the government officials who couldn't decide what it was that they wanted to do.
Their targets were right in front of them, and yet, whether it was Sylas or the Arctic Emperor Cobra, no one dared to come forward to deal with them. It could be said that this matter was truly too humiliating for the government.
And that was precisely when a second group made their way over.
Legacy!
Sylas noticed this immediately, and he felt that something was fishy.
Logically, Legacy should have made it here first. Veridian was now their stronghold, so they
were far closer.
So why had they...
Sylas' eyes widened.