BXBX NOVEL Chapter 46: Confronting the Rift Master
Even a single percentage of unsealing its bloodline allowed it to use an ability similar to high level magic, teleportation. It made Rain involuntarily remember its origins.
The race of these monsters originally only dwelled in one place, namely space.
But even for a race that was born and lived in space, they had incredible power and affinity with the cosmic element. There was even a legend that their ancestor was the God who created all the universes, for which they received the title of the first children of space.
And they lived up to that title, as their skill in controlling space was unrivaled, making them almost omnipotent in their native environment.
Then how did they get captured by the Academy?
As usual, defeating a strong monster required an even stronger monster. In this case, it was the principal of their academy, Ophelia.
She was one of the few people in this world who could enter space without being corroded by its cold and, thanks to her unique bloodline, stay there long enough to catch these monsters.
However, these monsters, along with their incredible talent in controlling space, had an innate unwavering pride that made them prefer to die rather than serve humans. Therefore, even with her power, Ophelia was unable to subdue them and only had to seal their cultivation and bloodline to use them only as rift cores.
It didn\'t allow them to utilize their full potential, but these seals ensured that no one would be torn to pieces by these monsters.
And now that seal began to fall from the rift master in front of him, gradually allowing it access to its true power once more. It was not easy to deal with it before, but now it might be even more difficult.
\'Why did this happen so much sooner than it did to the hero?\'
Rain couldn\'t find an answer to that question because he wasn\'t given the time to do so. Rain ducked sharply, and the next second the tree behind him was shattered into tiny splinters by the monster\'s powerful claws.
Rain quickly did a roll and created distance between him and the monster, but even that could do little to help him, as it could now teleport in the surrounding space, which along with its advanced intelligence, gave it a huge amount of options to attack.
And unlike the hero, Rain couldn\'t rely on his luck or the World\'s Will to dodge them. But he wasn\'t too worried about that, because he still had his main trump card up his sleeve.
\'Nari, if you\'re able to notice the spatial anomaly around, can you sense it before it teleports?\'
[...I can try, but keep your guard up.]
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Rain focused his full attention on his opponent. It stared at him for a while with amusement in its eyes before silently disappearing from its position.
[Left.]
Hearing the system, Rain abruptly turned in the proper direction and it was just at the instant the toothy maw of the monster appeared in front of him. Thanks to his timely reaction, Rain was able to dodge it.
Immediately afterward, the monster froze in place in bewilderment, noticing that its victim had somehow escaped. It once again used teleportation to catch him off guard. But not only was the situation repeated, but the young man even managed to strike back after his evasion.
Annoyed by the two failures in a row, the monster continued its attack in this manner, not believing that this man would lead like this every time.
As it did so, the system analyzed the spatial fluctuations, telling Rain the direction from which his enemy should have jumped out. Though Rain only had a moment to spare, his keen senses from his bloodline allowed him to react in time. Sometimes he even managed to catch it off guard and strike first, knowing where it would come from.
Together with the long-range support from Aelorian, Rain not only regained his position, but also gained an advantage. Of course, it was too early to rejoice, for the seals on the rift master were growing weaker by the minute.
[Bloodline: Wanderer of the Cosmic Void (99% sealed) → (97% sealed)]
They continued to move around the battlefield and exchange fierce attacks, destroying everything in their path.
It seemed that it soon realized that the man was relying on something other than luck, as he had successfully dodged its attacks for the umpteenth time and even managed to attack back. Therefore, it immediately changed its tactics.
Pulling back slightly, as if it wanted to make another lunge with its claws at the young man, it teleported sharply towards the elf girl, who still wouldn\'t stop hindering it with her arrows.
In just an instant, it crossed all the space separating them and appeared in front of her, baring its dangerous claws and bringing them down on her frail body.
However, Aelorian showed no sign of panic, and before the claws touched her body, a faint aura of wind appeared around her and the attack passed its target.
Her bloodline ability made her immune to these kinds of attacks, but had one glaring weakness, it still needed to be activated. So it wouldn\'t have worked against sudden attacks like the one she\'d been subjected to in the forest. But now that she knew about the monster\'s teleportation abilities, she never let her guard down and was ready to activate the power of her bloodline at any moment.
Even after the monster\'s strike failed, Aelorian did not create distance between them, instead deftly putting away her bow and pulling out two long daggers before quickly delivering a couple of precise blows to its body.
As it was about to attack back, an arrow suddenly flew into its back, piercing through its protective cover. It turned sharply in the direction from which the attack had come, and saw Rain, with a slight smile on his lips, pulling the bowstring for another shot.
Before it could pick its next target to attack, Aelorian caught its attention again.
Over the past day of teamwork, they had realized that even though they each had a favorite weapon, in one case a sword and in the other a bow, they could usually switch between ranged and close combat as well as between different weapons without losing skill.
Rain didn\'t doubt her ability to stand up to the monster in close combat, because he had already fought her in sparring matches and knew about her annoying bloodline, which made him have to resort to some tricks for a quick victory.
Rain cold-bloodedly drew the bowstring, and every time he released it, the monster let out a faint growl.
Of course, Aelorian still had a hard time in close combat with such a huge monster, surpassing her in both size and strength, and her bloodline also had its own time constraints, so they soon switched roles again.
Perhaps it was because of Aelorian\'s annoying ability or just its hurt pride, but the rift master no longer tried to attack the elf girl, and focused completely on Rain, forgetting about everything else.
[Bloodline: Wanderer of the Cosmic Void (97% sealed) → (95% sealed)]
With murderous intent, they continued to exchange blows, each one making the surrounding air vibrate. Rain continued to dodge the powerful blows, parrying the others and using the sword techniques he had learned from Astrid and those he knew from his home world.
[Bloodline: Wanderer of the Cosmic Void (95% sealed) → (92% sealed)]
The rift master\'s seal was weakening and it was regaining its space control abilities, making each new teleportation faster than the last. As time passed, Rain was having trouble keeping up with it, even with the help of the system.
When he finally decided to change his approach, the monster\'s mouth opened. Rain immediately braced himself for another attack, but it didn\'t happen.
"You\'re pretty good at dodging… for a human."
For the first time since the battle began, Rain heard something other than a growl from it.
And its voice was surprisingly... normal? It was a rather high and beautiful voice, one that Rain wouldn\'t have been able to distinguish from a human\'s if he\'d heard it on the street. And if it weren\'t for the huge arrogance in that voice, he might even have found it pleasant.
What surprised Rain even more was that he understood its words, even though he was sure he was hearing the language for the first time.
[This is one of the functions of the system that allows the host to understand and communicate with almost any creature, if it is intelligent enough.]
Nodding at the system\'s explanation, Rain quickly cast a glance at Aelorian, who showed no unresponsiveness to its words.
Coming to the conclusion that she really didn\'t understand its language, Rain lunged at his opponent again.
He understood the language of the rift master and could communicate, but so what?
Rain had come to this place with a specific purpose and regardless of its words he would not change it. And while his enemy was wasting time with words, Rain preferred to attack it.
However, the rift master continued to speak.
"Is it because you have the support of the Goddess of Darkness?"
Rain unconsciously froze for a second, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at the monster in front of him.
\'How did it...?\'
***
Thanks for reading, everyone.