Chapter 883 How Many?
It felt like he got hit by a truck.
Sylas had been through a great many things in this world, but despite the fact he had danced on the edge of life and death, right this moment, he still felt as though this was the worst blow he had ever felt.
The fist's power seemed to jet right through him with a piercing strength. His skin didn't rupture, and yet it felt like thousands of blades were rotating around the location where the fist landed, shearing through him and turning his inner organs to mush.
His eyes practically bulged out of their sockets, his pupils constricting. His body curled involuntarily and a mouthful of blood was hacked out from his lips, spraying into a mist of crimson.
The wind tore around him as he was sent flying back in the form of a whistling meteor. His armor almost caught fire beneath the friction, sparse embers flickering around its cracks.
By the time he hit the waters, it felt like his entire body had been turned inside out, the lake itself colliding with his back so solidly that there was hardly a difference between it and the ground.
A geyser of ruby waters shot into the skies, the altars that littered the surface of the lake shaking and swaying beneath the impact.
Aki exhaled a breath as though finally receiving some sort of release. He raised his hands, the claws of a white tiger facing the skies with a menacing sheen. The crimson lights reflected off of them like blades, every flicker sounding like the sharpening of blades.
If the Scorpion Warlord Armor had its own unique abilities, one could bet that the Tiger Warlord Armor certainly did as well. The main difference, though… was that Aki had activated all three layers while Sylas had only mastered one.
Aki landed on the surface of the raging waters, the space immediately beneath him turning eerily calm as though it had entered a separate realm from the churning lake around it.
He walked forward as Sylas slowly pulled himself out of the depths of the blood lake, coughing up another mouthful of blood. The latter huffed for breath, his eyes looking up to meet Aki's own.
Sylas had been prepared for a necromancer sort of character. After all, the last time he came across Aki, all he had done was control rotten creatures from afar.
What he didn't expect was this rampage of close physical combat skills.
What he expected even less was a Warlord armor.
It didn't make much sense to him. While he still didn't know why the Scorpion Warlord Lineage would appear on Earth, what he could be sure of was that their intentions weren't as sinister as he originally assumed.
But now, he was second-guessing himself. Had he made a mistake? Or was there not as much of a connection between these two Warlord Armors as he thought?
His mind was hardly wrapping itself around what was happening when Aki appeared before him. He felt a claw wrap around his throat, his body wrenched out of the waters and lifted up until his feet dangled in the air.
"Tell you what…" Aki said slowly. "… Hand me the Gluttony Seed and I'll happily let you live."
A sickeningly sweet smile spread across his lips.
But what he received in return was a placid pair of green eyes. Sylas looked at him in silence, his thoughts and emotions entirely unreadable.
Aki chuckled.
"Those eyes… I really don't like them. You wouldn't like what happens when I'm unhappy. I just might pluck them out of your skull, what do you think?"
Sylas' tail whipped at Aki's head, its stinger flaring with life. Runes pulsed across it, the last of his golden Blood Essence pooling into it as he aimed directly at the crack in Aki's skull.
Before the attack even landed, Aki slowly shook his head.
The tail passed through him as though it wasn't even there.
"You haven't noticed by now?" Aki asked. "I thought you were intelligent. The Warlord Armors do not touch. You still have your little boost to your Physical stats, but your attacks have always been flesh against flesh. Have you wondered why?"
The sickeningly sweet smile on his face deepened, so much so that it almost darkened as though a shadow were falling over his face. As handsome as he was, he seemed particularly twisted right now—it was hard to even look at him without feeling a churning sensation in your gut.
"They don't like us fighting," Aki continued, his smile not fading. "There was a little pact signed between the peaks many eons ago to prevent us from always being at each other's throats. Then our armors were tweaked so that they couldn't interact. Any battle just becomes a regular old street brawl. Well… if we're at the same level, that is."
Aki's free hand reached down and poked at Sylas' stomach. Though the latter didn't so much as wince, that blade-like sensation in his body became more intense. It was almost as though countless miniature blades were churning through him.
"Poison is nice and all, but I've always preferred sharpness. I wonder… how did my fist feel? Would you like to experience it again? Or do you want to give me what I want?"
There was no response.
"Hm, I guess that's your reply then."
Aki released Sylas' throat. He moved so fast that his fist seemed to land before Sylas even began to fall to the waters beneath them.
Aki's knuckles landed on the same exact location. It was like he had copy and pasted his previous attack, landing it so solidly that the echoes of sharpening blades reverberated in Sylas' ears.
For a moment, Sylas' consciousness faded beneath the pain.
He thought he would be sent flying back once again, but he found himself frozen in place, another mouthful of blood coming from his lips.
"That's two," Aki said lightly. "Your body wasn't in the best condition to begin with. How many of these do you think you can take?"