Chapter 546: Talent Harvest [Part 1]
Northern grinned at the multiple panels that appeared before his eyes as the elves prepared to attack him.
All of them, at once, remarkably using their talent abilities with the weapons they wielded.
[Do you want to copy Talent: A Thousand Wind Blade (A) for 300 Talent fragments?] [Do you want to copy Talent: Air Barrier(C) for 100 Talent fragments?]
[Do you want to copy Talent: Tidal Wave(B) for 200 Talent fragments?]
[Do you want to copy Talent: Windless Star(A) for 300 Talent fragments?]
And many more Northern saw, all appearing before his eyes simultaneously, thanks to the crew of elves ready to attack.
Each of them was coated in the aura of their essence, exuding a threatening intent with their form of attack.
Northern twirled Stainless in one hand, skillfully handling the lightning Odachi despite its difference in feel.
He thought for a moment whether to use Grengar and subtly shook his head.
"That'd be a cheat right now."
"What are you muttering to yourself about? It's too late to regret it now!" the leader of the cult yelled.
He extended his hand forward, grimly commanding, "Everyone, eradicate this cretin."
Instantly, the entire atmosphere was drowned in tension. Every elf moved.
However, Northern was no longer there.
The leader's eyes widened belatedly as he flung his hand to parry Northern's sword.
He staggered back, unable to contain the force that vibrated in his hands. His palms hurt as if he had struck a colossal bell with heavy steel.
His muscles almost instinctively dropped the sword, but he clenched tighter as he stabilized his footing.
The elves, their eyes burning with madness, wasted no movement as they saw where Northern had turned out to be. They all pivoted and shot towards him.
Northern grinned for a moment as they dove at him. The closest one finally lunged his spear at Northern's back, thinking he surely had a clean hit.
But Stainless had blocked it. Northern's hand was unnaturally bent back to deflect the attack.
He deflected it with a swift twist of his body, causing the elf to fly away, crashing into the roof of the underground and destroying the already weakened ground of that area.
Another two were already upon him, or so they thought.
Northern, with his pronounced speed, easily plunged Stainless into the eyes of one as he sidestepped the long sword that cleaved downwards at him.
Then he grabbed the other by the collar of his armor and threw him away with ease. The elf crashed into the pile of crumbled huge stones.
The others hesitated for a moment, gulping. But they quickly resolved themselves again and darted towards him.
Before one got to him, Northern suddenly narrowed his eyes and smiled.
Pow
Pow
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"Now, that's an interesting ability."
All three invisible air strikes were deflected by the air, leaving the elf behind the darting one with a pale face.
Northern, his attention locked on the guy that had struck from a distance, still deflected the hammer of the one close without looking at it.
He reversed his grip on Stainless and plunged it into the side flank of the elf as he raised his hammer for another attack.
A thread of lightning danced out of the sword, consuming the elf and burning him to a crisp. "You are interesting," Northern said as he-in a flash-appeared in front of the elf, rubbing his chin.
"How?" The elf's voice trembled. Northern's speed was just too incomprehensible for them. Another finally managed to successfully get close enough for a sneak attack.
His form slowly revealed, as if breaking out of space, as his dagger arched towards Northern only to be hung in the air.
He felt like he was still swinging in for the stab, but his hand was not touching Northern. "You think I didn't see you all the way from that side till you got close enough to land a hit? Tsk tsk, you are not a threat, so why should I care?"
He rolled his eyes over to the stealth attacker for a brief second and focused back on the ranged attacker from earlier.
"You, on the other hand..." he rubbed his brows.
'Since I don't have a lot of talent fragments, I can't be greedy. I'll just save the prospects, kill off the rest, and decide which talent I will take after that. Then I will kill off the remaining.' Northern deliberated amidst the commotion.
He finally turned his attention to the stealth elf who kept striking but to no avail.
"Black Lance."
The Black Lance didn't just cleave the elf's body into three parts horizontally; the cleave went all the way to the wall behind, cleanly cutting through the underground all the way to the ocean that surrounded Arcadia.
It meant that beneath Arcadia was three smooth cleave of the ground that could affect the
entire foundation of the city anytime, any day.
The leader of the elves saw this and felt cold sweat on his body.
There was nothing human about the way Northern was dealing with the elves.
'How? How is this possible? We are the mighty elves of Stuart; we are not like these cretins. We are superior in soul essence and have a stronger connection to the shape and trueness of our soul. We have mastered the art of talent utilization. And still, this human... how is he dealing with us like we are cockroaches?'
Northern wasn't even giving them time to act. Every attack either stopped in the air, was easily deflected, or the attacker's hands were already flying into the air before the attacks themselves were completed.
Gore splattered and sprayed with every movement and flash of his figure. And yet there were few that he would intentionally leave.
All the leader of the cult could see at some point were flashes and afterimages of the white- haired, young human.
The agonizing cries of his comrades paralyzed him. He froze there, his eyes trembling as Northern crudely dealt with every single one of them.
Northern wrenched his blade free from the last elf, splashing crimson gore across the ground
with the swing of his sword.
He then met the gaze of the leader, who was the only one he had not touched.
Black flames ignited on the shiny odachi, dulling the sheen of its blade. Simultaneously,
yellow sparks danced around the length of the blade.
Northern took gentle steps towards the man.
"So, are you ready to start talking? Where is my mother?"
He stopped and extended the sword directly to the man's face.