Chapter 397: Death
Sylas' eyes became ice cold.
Death.
It was a scent that he was becoming more and more familiar with. The first time he had met it in this world, well and truly, his mind almost collapsed. It was the most pathetic moment of his life, and it was a brand that was still fiercely stamped into his heart. Just thinking of that moment filled him with untold rage.
He knew why he had felt that fear back then. He hadn't awakened to himself, he still thought of himself as a normal Earthling, as a man who would be willing to go back to normal life if this Summoning nonsense was to end right this moment.
But now he knew that that wasn't him. If he had a button right before him now to reset everything to how it had once been, he knew that not only would he not press it, he would likely destroy it.
Adrenaline filled his limbs and his brain churned.
He didn't believe that it was possible for the system to give him a useless hint, least of all a useless System Reward.
Pressure descended on Sylas from all directions. It wasn't just the attacks, or the Domain, it was the world itself that was still continuously trying to kill him. The frigid cold was slowly turning his mangled mess of a hand blue, and his toes weren't escaping this fate either. Ice- Poison seeped into his bones, but Sylas' gaze was becoming brighter and brighter.
Suddenly, Sylas ducked and rolled, holding his arms tightly to his body to avoid their damage becoming any worse.
He used <Arctic Howl Mutant> again the instant he stood to his feet. At the same time, his Domain became more aggressive, eating away at the <Arctic King's Domain> of the first ape.
The icicles froze in the air. Because Lolaleen was the template the ape had used, they were far weaker than the ones her partner had used.
Madness flared and Sylas shattered the icicles apart with his Rune Soul, disrupting the Runes inside the skill. He was copying exactly what Lolaleen's partner had done, but this time, instead of using it to protect a second icicle against the wind, he was using it to obscure the second ape's vision.
At that moment, a targeted <Stunning Spike> pierced right through the first ape's head and Madness spilled over.
Ice and ice shards flew through the air, casting a pale fog over the region. It wasn't nearly dense enough to obstruct vision, but all Sylas needed was a small distraction.
The eyes of the Clandestine Apes went red as they howled into the air. They had no resistance to Madness at all, immediately losing their minds.
Sylas dashed out of the fog of ice, blood flowing down his body.
BOOM!
At that moment, the two apes clashed with one another. And yet, rather than sitting around and hoping one of them died, Sylas' foot actually pivoted into the ground.
The instant the two apes were locked onto one another, Sylas dashed back into the pale fog, rounding to the back of one and leaping up.
There was a slight of Madness in Sylas' eyes, one tempered by an eerie calm. His green irises practically left lasers of light in their wake, a dense flickering flame hidden within them.
Sylas flicked one of his arms out and his forearm snapped back into place with a sickening crush. Blood gushed and a bruise began to pool around the wound. By this point, his arm was already three times the size it should have been. Yet, rather than making him look stronger, it made him look like a mangled mess.
Right then, Sylas did something entirely unexpected and landed on the rampaging ape's back. The apes were barely much taller than him at 2.5 meters, so there wasn't much room at all. Yet, Sylas didn't hesitate in the slightest, his injured arm pressing right into its ice-cold fur. BANG! BANG! BANG!
Sylas was rocked, almost falling off the beast's back. He could only react quickly, wrapping his legs around its waist tightly. But there was a searing pain that came right after just as quickly.
The hard blows of the second ape landed on one of his ankles, breaking it.
Sylas' eyes bulged and his bloodshot gaze practically pooled over with the crimson liquid. But in a feat of earth-shattering Will, he tightened his hold around the ape's waist and pressed down on its back.
"EXTRICATE!"
Sylas' roar was practically like that of a wild beast's.
Extricate didn't work on living beings, it wasn't meant to in the first place. Not only did it require time, the main problem was that in a living being, the variables were too numerous. There were countless minor changes that happened in one's body during life, making it impossible to lock down Genes while a person was living and breathing. That was part of what made mastering Rune Flesh so magical, at least for yourself, it was like circumventing this rule.
However, Sylas seemed to have disregarded this rule entirely, using it on someone, or rather, some beast other than himself.
And it actually worked.
A blinding light came out of the ape's body, its rampaging roars not ceasing for even a moment as it clasped palms with the second ape.
As Sylas fell backward, the Domain of ice actually vanished around him. It was then that he was certain.
The first ape had lost its ability to copy his Ice-Poison.
A savage light flashed in Sylas' eyes as he rolled to the side and out of the way of a stomping foot of the ape.
<Chilling Scythe Mutant>.
His swelling arm drew a line across the air and a curved blade of icy blue shot upward and right into the roaring mouth of the second ape.
BANG!
The second ape had used Lolaleen as a template. It simply had no ability to resist Sylas' Ice-
Poison.
Suddenly blood began to fly through the skies as the two beasts began to tear each other
apart.
Sylas' eyes glowed, drawing another blade through the air.