Chapter 392: Tempest Fury [Part 1]
Northern endlessly drove his weapon through the horde of monsters, cleaving and tearing their skin apart in a vicious spray of blood.
His form was unstoppable, sometimes almost writhing, irregular in its pattern of
movements, and dealing with every monster with an equal level of ferocity they matched him with.
A piercing screech drew his attention upward.
A massive, serpentine creature was descending from the rift, its scales glinting like polished obsidian in the dim light.
Multiple heads writhed at the end of long, sinuous necks, each sporting a crown of wickedly sharp horns.
"Mr. Fluffy!" Northern called out, gesturing towards the new threat.
The beast needed no further prompting. With a powerful leap, Mr. Fluffy bounded towards Northern, who vaulted onto his back in one fluid motion.
Together, they charged towards the descending monstrosity.
As they drew closer, Northern could see the malevolent intelligence gleaming in the creature's eyes-something akin to what he had once seen in Night Terror.
This was not a mindless beast but a cunning predator that was probably one of the strongest existences in the rift.
The hydra-like monster lashed out with two of its heads, fangs dripping with caustic venom.
Mr. Fluffy dodged with preternatural agility, weaving between the strikes. Northern leaned low over his mount's back, Grengar held out to one side.
As they passed beneath the creature's writhing mass, Northern struck. Grengar's blade bit deep into the scales of one neck, drawing a spray of dark ichor. The wounded head thrashed in agony, nearly throwing Northern from his perch.
Mr. Fluffy circled around for another pass, but the hydra was ready this time.
It coiled its body, using its own mass as a shield while its heads darted out like striking cobras.
Northern and Mr. Fluffy were forced to retreat, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws and lashing tails.
Northern's mind raced, trying to formulate a strategy.
The creature's size and multiple heads made it a formidable opponent, and they couldn't afford a prolonged battle with more monsters pouring through the rifts every minute.
An idea struck him, born of desperation and audacity.
"Mr. Fluffy," he shouted over the beast's head, "I need you to get me above it!"
The beast beneath him tensed, understanding the command.
With a powerful thrust of his legs, Mr. Fluffy launched himself skyward.
They soared over the hydra's thrashing heads, and at the apex of their jump, Northern leapt.
Time seemed to slow as he plummeted towards the monster's back.
Northern poured every ounce of his remaining energy into Velocity Dash, pushing his body to its absolute limit.
Grengar became a whirlwind of death in his hands, striking with impossible speed.
By the time Northern's feet touched the ground, the hydra's body was crisscrossed with dozens of deep gashes.
For a moment, the great beast stood motionless, as if in shock.
Then, with an earth-shaking groan, it collapsed.
Northern stumbled, his vision blurring from exhaustion. Mr. Fluffy was instantly at his side,
allowing the young warrior to lean against him for support.
But there was no time to rest. More creatures were converging on their position, drawn by the fall of the hydra.
"There's no time to be tired..." he muttered and snapped his fingers.
A clone appeared next to him immediately. The clone was cloaked by a black aura that flowed around him almost like black flames, only it was vague and like the air.
Northern touched the clone, and it disappeared.
The black aura formed around his own body, his eyes radiated with renewed strength and
essence.
Northern switched Grengar to his other hand, folded and unfolded the hand he was initially using.
After the joints felt a bit free, he returned Grengar to his right and spun around in a swift blur, eyes darting around with calculating intensity.
With a tensed and steamy breath, Northern exhaled and shot away like an arrow of blue.
What followed was a cacophony of dead monstrosities left in the wake of his trails.
The twin-bladed staff twisted and turned in his hand like a whirlpool in space, jutting out at every angle and catching the monsters unaware with vicious curved blades that bit into flesh and cleaved even the toughest of hides.
Northern's vigor felt renewed as a surge of void essence filled his veins. His speed was immense, and at intervals, he would even use Shunpo, neglecting the concept of distance to reach a point and plunging his weapon into the monster before it caught wind of anything. The monsters continued to pour from above, while Northern felt the need to call upon his void summons or clones. He instantly decided against the idea.
He wanted to relish this moment for as long as possible. This was a great opportunity to gain
a lot of battle experience. No one was present here, so he didn't feel the need to hide any of his
power.
So Northern went all out.
WHOOM!
The sky instantly became black as Northern released the suppression on his void essence.
Time and time again, Northern had subconsciously mastered a minimal release of his void essence to keep himself from being discovered.
Void essence, while it may seem similar to soul essence, was vastly different. However, that difference couldn't be noticed when there's a minimal amount of void essence.
Hence, the reason why Northern had always been tightening the output.
And what he just did, that allowed the entire atmosphere and even the sky to change in an instant-was broaden the pathway of the output.
A tremendous amount of void essence escaped his body in one go, which caused the true nature of void essence to reveal itself.
'What the...'
Even he was stunned.
Everywhere seemed like it was covered in a veil of darkness, not a single trace of light could be
seen penetrating.
The sudden release of such an outrageous amount of his void essence had filled the atmosphere with uncommon darkness.
The monsters scrambled about, their vision obstructed. However, Northern could see
perfectly well.
'This is a perfect opportunity to end things.' Northern gripped the middle of the staff tighter and refocused his eyes with determination.
Northern wanted to take out the majority of the monsters before the darkness slowly faded-
it was only an aftereffect of releasing that amount of void essence that even he had no idea
would happen.
He spun Grengar over his head and swiftly landed it to the side, the air whipped against the ground, softly creeping backward as the curved blade hummed with dangerous energy.
"Chaos Art 2, second subform, TEMPEST REAVER"