The moment Atlas felt the Boss’s spirit pressure descend on him, a grin formed beneath his mask as his eyes settled on the creature for the first time. It was over five meters tall, standing upright on two thick legs with a swollen stomach protruding from its body, its skin a mixture of dark crimson and black as if layers of dried blood had hardened over it.
No fur covered its body and no tail extended behind it, while two massive lower fangs curved upward from its jaw, remaining exposed even with its mouth closed, giving the monster an appearance far more brutal than the humanoid monsters from the previous chambers.
Atlas only observed it for a brief moment before arriving at a decision, ’Let’s use it to test Shadow Reaper... The Title said it’s Passive, so every attack should automatically deal fifty times more damage, that also explains why those earlier monsters died so easily.’
As that thought ended, a white transparent Spirit Blade formed around his wrist once again, stretching roughly twelve inches outward, its edges thin and sharp just like before.
The Boss immediately noticed the change. Unlike the earlier monsters, it didn’t rush in recklessly, instead it instinctively understood that the prey standing before it was dangerous. Without wasting another moment, it released its full spirit pressure and opened its mouth.
"ROAAAAAAAAARRRR!!"
The roar spread through the entire chamber as the walls trembled violently, spiderweb cracks appeared across the ceiling and loose stones, dust and broken debris were thrown in every direction. Several pieces struck Atlas’s body, but he ignored them completely, they were nothing more than pebbles to him, though he didn’t ignore the roar itself because...a monster wouldn’t release that much spirit pressure for no reason.
Atlas narrowed his eyes slightly as he observed every movement, ’What is it trying to—’ Before the thought could finish, the massive body disappeared from his sight and reappeared behind him almost instantly. His eyes widened, not because he failed to follow its movement, but because such speed coming from a monster with that enormous physique was unbelievable.
The surprise lasted only a fraction of a second before Atlas dismissed it entirely. From the Boss’s perspective, the prey in front of it simply vanished before its fist reached the target, but...In actuality that wasn’t what happened at all. Atlas had merely turned around and lowered his body at a speed far beyond what the monster’s eyes could even process, placing himself beneath the incoming arm while the Spirit Blade in his hand was already beginning its horizontal slash.
Yes...he had simply turned around and lowered his body into a crouch, the Monster’s massive build becoming its own weakness as it completely lost sight of what was below its chest, while Atlas’s Spirit Blade had already traced a horizontal arc toward its exposed stomach, his movement faster than the Monster’s reaction and before its fist could even finish tearing through the empty air, the white blade cut cleanly across its abdomen.
A long slash opened across the thick red skin as flesh burst apart almost instantly, purple blood spraying through the chamber while the Monster still continued the punch toward the place where Atlas had originally been standing, only then did the damage begin to register but... before the pain could fully spread through its body, Shadow Reaper activated in less than a second, though it was passive it still needed the contact Atlas had to complete.
Atlas had already retreated several meters away in that seemingly slow motion and simply watched with narrowed eyes as time seemed to resume again, his purpose from the beginning had not been to kill it immediately but to understand what fifty times amplified damage actually did during combat, because reading an Ability description and witnessing its effect were two completely different things.
The world only appeared slower from Atlas’s perspective because of the overwhelming difference in speed, though it was not time itself slowing down and only his perception processing everything faster than before...even that tiny advantage of mere milliseconds was already enough to decide battles between opponents of similar rank, while from the Monster’s perspective everything happened normally until... the amplified damage exploded throughout its body all at once.
"KRRUUUAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream spread through every chamber of the Ruin before escaping outside the entrance itself, reaching the forest and even the Central City in the distance where Explorers, merchants and ordinary civilians near the outer walls instinctively looked toward the forest, many of them trembling as primal fear surged through their bodies because regardless of distance, it was still the roar of an S-rank Monster, its spirit pressure mixed into the soundwaves so strongly that weaker individuals found it difficult to even remain standing.
Inside the Boss chamber Atlas quietly observed the result, the Monster clutching the massive wound across its stomach while staggering backward, its crimson eyes locked upward as wave after wave of spirit energy erupted uncontrollably together with its continuous screams, confirming exactly what Atlas wanted to know...the fifty-times amplification did not simply increase damage, it multiplied the pain the target experienced as well.
That violent wave of spirit energy was exactly what made everyone near the city walls feel fear rising from their instincts, the pressure carried within the scream spreading far beyond the Ruin itself.
And Atlas, after quietly observing the result for a few moments, finally reached his conclusion. ’This is enough, I avoided killing it to see the reaction but...this is becoming excessive, the scream might already be reaching the outer parts of the city, let’s just kill it and be done with it.’
The Spirit Blade still remained around his right wrist, its white transparent edge unchanged as Atlas glanced at it once before another thought crossed his mind. ’How about I use Shadow Shift?’ His gaze shifted back toward the Monster which was still staggering while clutching the massive wound across its stomach, purple blood continuously pouring onto the ground beneath it as he enhanced his perception and analyzed the surroundings again.
’Hmm...it won’t work, I can shift between shadows, but shadows themselves need light to exist, this entire chamber is covered in darkness so there is no shadow itself...I’ll test it somewhere else later.’
With that thought put aside, Atlas moved, his figure becoming nothing more than a blur before appearing directly behind the Monster in the next instant, his perception once again making the world appear slower as he calmly raised the Spirit Blade above his shoulder.
Even after experiencing this overwhelming speed several times now, he still found it abnormal, but he also knew this strength was nowhere near enough...not even close if he wanted to destroy every Human Royal and Noble directly or indirectly responsible for turning his life into what it had become.
Those memories surfaced for only an instant, yet that single instant was enough to stir the hatred buried inside him.
"Kh..."
His grip tightened around the Spirit Blade and without another thought he brought it down with overwhelming force, the slash carrying far more ferocity than the previous one and the moment his perception returned to normal, the Monster’s enormous body split cleanly into two halves, purple blood erupting upward before splashing across the chamber and staining Atlas’s clothes.
THUD!
The two halves crashed onto the ground one after another as silence finally returned to the chamber, Atlas simply stood there looking at the corpse, his gaze fixed on it while his thoughts went blank for several seconds, his lips parting slightly beneath the mask as if he wanted to speak something before ultimately remaining silent.
Only after a long breath escaped him did his mind settle again. ’Tch...I still have to become much stronger; this past of mine isn’t going to stop haunting me until I take my revenge.’
Shaking away those thoughts, Atlas looked at the corpse once more and spoke, "For now, let’s see what Traits it has and assimilate them...I couldn’t even determine its abilities because it died too quickly."
"Originate."
The Codex emerged from his chest with its familiar glow as the Sangius Stylus detached from its side and flew toward the Monster’s corpse, piercing into it before rapidly drawing out every drop of purple blood. Atlas immediately opened the second page and quietly watched the new Trait names write themselves one after another at the bottom of the page, but as the final name appeared his brows slowly furrowed.
"Three Traits?"
- - -
[A/N: Do not worry if it felt that this Chapter is too many repetitions of his speed, it was intentional for the future Chapters and also, if you were to ask the Boss died too quickly without showing any of its abilities and all, i would say it’s because Atlas is already too strong as already explained in the previous Chapters...so please note that and... throw some power stones, gifts and a super gift maybe? You decide Hehe~]
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