Chapter 214: Marked by Lightning, Forged in Wind
The forest trembled beneath the shockwave of Silver’s dive. Wind screamed around me as we dropped like a comet. Leaves tore free from branches.
Marcus Holt didn’t hesitate. The moment Silver’s crimson beam forced him down through the trees, he burst out from the ruin of shattered trunks like a missile of cold fury.
His cloak burned away from the wind pressure, revealing glinting armor underneath, marked with the Holt insignia.
His eyes locked onto me.
“You,” Marcus growled, voice edged with disbelief. “Billion Ironhart”
I stood on Silver’s back, my shirt flapping on me in the air’s rush, and met his gaze without blinking. I could see it—the moment his surprise shifted into intent.
He wasn’t here to talk.
Marcus vanished in a blur, and my instincts screamed.
I reacted before thought. My hand whipped behind my back and my staff materialized with a surge of Essence—sleek, violet with glowing runes down its shaft. The moment it settled in my grip, I swung it forward.
Metal met metal.
His sword crashed into my staff with a sharp, ringing blast that sent tremors down my arms and a shockwave through the air. My feet skidded across Silver’s back as I took the force head-on. The air split around us.
I gritted my teeth and whispered:
“[Essence Engine].”
A sharp hum echoed in my chest as the generator core came alive. Essence flooded my system, refined and responsive. Then I followed with the second key.
“[Psynapse Overdrive].”
My perception burst outward, flooding me with layered senses. The world slowed—Marcus’s motion became frames, his balance, his next step, the angle of his sword, all visible at once. My staff burned in my hand with potential.
Marcus stepped back mid-air, flipping and landing on a jutting stone nearby. He looked at me with new eyes now. “You’re… not just some trainee.”
“Guess not.”
With no more words, we clashed again.
I surged forward across the air with a wind-boosted dash, my staff leading the way. Marcus parried, but I twisted mid-motion and cracked the lower end of the staff against his ribs. He grunted, sword flashing to keep me at bay. Sparks flew as he spun and slashed horizontally.
I ducked, and Silver dove behind him in that instant.
The hawk’s wings folded sharply as he accelerated, claws outstretched. Crimson wind gathered around his beak and he screeched again—another focused beam of energy lancing toward Marcus.
But Marcus was already reacting. His blade shimmered as he swung it in a wide arc.
“[Edge Severance].”
The beam split in two.
The sharpness of that swing cut the wind itself. Trees behind us were sliced cleanly in the wake of his motion. Silver banked left, avoiding the counterstrike.
My legs bent as I lunged forward.
Using wind to launch myself upward, I spun midair and brought the staff down like a hammer. Marcus raised his sword one-handed to block—but the impact cratered the rock beneath him. Cracks webbed outward. I followed with a side-twist, jabbing the staff’s butt into his gut.
He slid back, boots tearing across the stone, and then lunged. His sword came alive with slicing intent—every swing now forced me to readjust, my staff barely keeping up with the barrage.
“Your technique is polished,” Marcus admitted between strikes, “but you’re still just a brat.”
“We will see about that.”
Marcus grinned and flipped back, creating distance. “Fine. You want me to go all out?”
From the sky above, Silver dropped again, wind swirling into a spiral.
Marcus stepped forward and slashed upward.
“[Rend].”
A vertical wave of compressed sharpness tore through the air, aiming to slice Silver in half.
Seismic Burst fired from my feet.
BOOM!!
I appeared between them in an instant, thrusting my staff forward and activating [Spatial Shield].
The Essence in my core surged as the skill clashed with my defense—and I held.
I landed back on Silver’s back, my feet finding their place with practiced ease. The moment I touched down, I gave the mental command and Silver shot upward, wings carving through the air like blades.
Each beat of his wings unleashed slashes of compressed wind, slicing through the space Marcus stood in. Trees splintered. Rocks cracked. The crimson mist swirling around Silver thickened, trailing behind us like the breath of something ancient and furious.
As we rose higher, I activated [Absolute].
“Fast,” I whispered.
My muscles tensed—then compressed. I felt it instantly. The weight of gravity loosened its grip on me. My body lightened. My thoughts sharpened. The air resistance lost its bite. Everything about me accelerated.
I checked my Essence reserves. The numbers ticked down in a steady rhythm.
A pulse echoed from my chest, and my attention locked onto it.
The Null Core.
It was absorbing Essence from me—quietly, continuously—then channeling it through the tether between me and Silver.
‘So it takes Essence to maintain Silver.’
I should have been worried. But I wasn’t.
If I was becoming anything in this world, it was a limitless generator.
I clenched my fists and forced my channels open, drawing energy from every particle around me. My Essence pool surged as I rebalanced the intake. The flow increased. Stabilized.
Then I turned inward and commanded the Essence surging through me to shift.
Lightning.
It responded instantly. Sparks danced across my arms, coiling around my fingers and crackling at my shoulders. The arcs kissed the wind, feeding on the speed, snapping and snarling across my skin like living things eager to be unleashed.
Lightning laced through every nerve as I stood tall atop the hawk streaking across the sky.
Marcus Holt was down there and I was done holding back.
Everything I had, I would bring it crashing down.
And I would capture him alive.
Silver screeched, his voice slicing through the sky like a war horn.
He snapped into a sharp dive, wings tucking slightly as he shifted momentum. Wind gathered in tight spirals around his feathers, the element bending to his will.
Then, he surged downward like an arrow loosed from the heavens.
His speed climbed fast, too fast. The forest rushed up to meet us.
But just as we reached thirty feet above the canopy, Silver twisted—wings flaring wide, momentum shifting. In a seamless motion, he turned horizontal, skimming the treetops with deadly grace.
The pressure from his flight tore through the forest below. Trees bent, snapped, and splintered from the sheer force radiating off him. Bark exploded in bursts, leaves scattered in his wake.
And our target was Marcus, just straight up ahead.
Silver screeched again, louder this time, as four churning vortexes spun to life above his wings. They twisted violently, each one compressing until—
Wind blades fired out like a hail of bullets.
Marcus’s eyes widened in disbelief. He slashed at the first few with his sword, cleaving them midair. But they just kept coming—endless, relentless. Each gust sharper than the last.
We were almost on him.
And I could see it, that flicker of hesitation in his eyes. Panic.
I grinned, raising my staff and leveling it directly at him. Lightning crackled across my skin, wild and furious, then funneled down the length of the weapon. A glowing orb of energy formed at its tip, humming with raw voltage.
Then I fired.
A blinding beam of lightning tore through the air, screaming toward Marcus with impossible speed. He tried to dodge, twisted past one of Silver’s wind blades, and brought his sword up to intercept the beam.
But he failed.
The lightning struck his side, exploded on impact, and launched him off his feet like a ragdoll.
His body crashed through trees, ripping a path through the forest as wood and debris scattered in all directions.
10th Chapter of the day. Also, should I add beast taming tag now? or beast summoning? or just leave it as it is?