Chapter 618: Trouble
'Trouble...'
Sylas immediately realized that things wouldn't be so easy. But the moment he grasped onto the tendril of Will this person hidden in the darkness was using, he also knew that the moment he laid eyes on them in real life, he would be able to see through them in an instant.
As for now...
Sylas clenched his teeth for a moment and flexed all the muscles in his body. His diaphragm expanded and became as solid as a rock before he roared out with a majesty that covered the battlefield.
<Arctic Howl Mutant>.
The beam of light crashed into Sylas' defenses, freezing in the air beside itself. Before, <Arctic Howl Mutant> could only freeze attacks for up to 2000 Defense for a split instant.
But now...
It blocked even this beam entirely. At the same time, the unfortunate Fortress Troll found itself frozen as well.
Sylas took a step, planting a foot on the iced-over Troll club frozen to the ground. <Surfing Frost> surged, and a pillar of frosted blue shot him into the skies.
He reached back with a claw, and for a moment, he seemed to pause in the air, his steely green eyes meeting that of the Fortress Troll.
It was a Demonic creature of great strength, a monstrous beast that would level even city walls. And yet, at that moment, meeting Sylas' gaze, it felt as though it was the small character between the two of them.
<Focused Claw>.
Sylas' hand descended, his fingers piercing into the thick skull of the Troll.
His body flexed, and his veins pulsed across his body as he pulled down with all his might.
He spun in the air, his hips torquing and his torso forming thin wiry strands of muscles that bulged along one another as though jostling for position.
And then he erupted with all the strength he could muster.
BANG!
The Troll's head tilted forward, its body leaning slowly for only a moment before Sylas used his hold on the fractures in its skull to send it flying downward.
The Fortress Troll only had time to feel the beam of light from the Berserk Golem unfreeze. The moment after that, its head was swallowed up by the beam of light, a trench being formed after its body.
When the beam blinked out of existence, leaving a line in the skies that slowly grew thinner, all one could see was the headless corpse of the Fortress Troll rebounding against the ground.
The smell of burnt, rotting flesh filled the air, its neck sizzling over with a burning scab.
Sylas, though, hardly gave it a look. He had soared even higher into the air, having used the Troll's skull as a rebound.
Two Exploding Bolts shot through the air but were too slow to enter the maw of the Golem. Sylas also didn't have any Fire Runes to make use of, so they were only of normal, average strength.
However, he didn't plan on relying on it to begin with.
The Golem stumbled back as two bolts exploded on its body. The first cracked its Aether shield, and the second crumbled it to pieces.
Rains of fire fell from the skies once more, but Sylas was focused on something else entirely. The Golems of this battlefield were war weapons, not living creatures. They had been built by someone, and they were powered in ways that living beings wouldn't be...
And they likewise had to be controlled.
Normally, the only easy way to take them down was to wait for them to attack so that they had to distort their Aether protections themselves, like when Sylas had sent a bolt flying into one of their mouths.
But outside of this, they were the hardest to target on the battlefield.
However... now that Sylas knew what was likely going on behind the scenes, he knew exactly what he had to do.
He had learned this method of Will and telekinesis usage when he met the snail beast of the volcano all those months back. Since then, he had been working and refining it, but the opponents he came across only had stronger and stronger Aether, making it more and more difficult for him to use his Will to interrupt their skills.
But he had a Counter Skill that he had traded for long ago after his talk with Alex enlightened him to the fact that he would need one to fool the eyes of the Grimblades.
Unfortunately, it was too low in Mastery, and it cost far too much Aether for him to use it casually. Plus, if he was casting it on an opponent and not on himself, it took too long precisely because of these two factors and wasn't viable in battle. This was why he never added it to his battle rotation.
Right now, however...
He didn't need it.
His normal Will was more than enough.
Now that the Golem no longer had its Aether protections, it was finished.
Sylas' overwhelming Will blossomed forth, and a palm of green and violet plowed into the Golem from above.
BANG!
The Golem was driven into the ground. But what was odd was that its body seemed perfectly fine. It hardly had a crack on it.
Instead of Sylas driving it into the ground, it might even be more accurate to say that it collapsed after it lost connection with the one controlling it.
'Good.'
Sylas thought.
Then, a path of ice appeared before his feet as he sent out Exploding Bolts toward every Golem. He surfed through the skies, sending out palms of Will that caused one Golem after another to fall from their high perches.
At some point, their owner seemed to realize what was happening, and all of the Golems turned to Sylas at once. Forgetting everything else, they unleashed one beam after another. Sylas ducked, curled, and slid through the skies. As though he had eyes on everything, he dodged one beam after another. Even when they crossed in his path, he seemed to see through
it in advance.
The Golems only fell faster.