301 Going Berserk, Revealing the Origin of the Enemy (1/2)
Day 44 – 11:41 AM – San Marcelino, General Nakar, Quezon
The ball of flesh became a terrifying looking face of what seemed to be a man in his prime. It could be said that following the shape, the face could be complimented as good looking. However, what made up the whole face was what made it terrifying.
Its eyeballs were made of countless sets of eyes that belonged to different creatures whether it was human, animal or insect. The nose, lips, mouth and ears were the same, clustered parts of the same sense organ belonging to different species of creatures. Anyone with excessive Trypophobia would surely faint from the sight of this creature.
Mark was shocked at the unexpected situation. Although he expected to encounter some supernatural creature, he did not expect something like this. As he felt when the contaminated beasts attacked, he expected something like a sylph that became evil and Amihan confirmed it herself. This in front of him however, was totally a different thing.
There was no sign of it being a spirit before at all. Furthermore, it said that it had just awakened. It was very likely that it was not the one that controlled the contaminated beasts. Mark could not help but take the possibility that there was more than one enemy. Due to these thoughts, rather than replying to the creature's question, Mark raised his guard further instead.
”What insolence. This Deity asking thee a questioneth.”
WOOSH!
The large face on the acacia tree spoke. All the mouths that composed its lips opened and closed as the same time as it spoke creating a hair-raising sight. Seeing that Mark was not answering, the creature was obviously displeased. A strong gale blew towards Mark forcing him to take several steps back and the centerpiece of [Defier] fell from his hands.
Mark endured the blowing wind and glared at the creature.
”I have no need to answer you.”
Mark pointed his right palm that had yet to fully heal towards the creature and two of the three crystals floating around his arm shined.
”Take this!”
THOOOM!
CRACKLE!
A beam of light and a staccato lightning surged towards the creature while intertwining each other.
BOOM!
An explosion occurred as the two attacks Mark released at the same time reached the creature. Dust, dirt, broken wood and the red lichen that covered the forest floor was thrown around the surroundings. The explosion caused the visibility around the acacia tree to drop due to smoke and dust.
However…
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
More than a dozen surges of miasma flew out of the smoke and dust towards Mark. His eyes shined violet and he dodged the attacks. Still, different from before where the attacks just flew off after missing him, these surges of miasma curved and turned evading the trees and obstacles in the surroundings and chased towards Mark once more.
Without a choice, Mark started to run around the huge tree as he dodged the surges of miasma. He ran around the trees, over the bushes and jump up the trees on the way. Due to his irregular movements, the surges of miasma reduced one by one as they hit the obstacles.
”Hoh? Thee has't some abilities, thee not?” The three meter face's eerie voice echoed with amusement. ”Alloweth me tryeth thee a dram m're.”
For the first time in years, Mark felt humiliated despite his trait as a Mutator. This, whatever of a creature this was, was actually using him for amusement. It seemed to find Mark being able to dodge the incoming attacks amusing. Even though there was a screen of smoke of dust from the explosion, it seemed that it had no problem seeing Mark as it moved its face around the trunk of the tree following Mark's movements.
Wind blew around the tree dispersing the smoke and dust which revealed the one attacking Mark. He could not help but frown.
The surges of miasma did not directly come from the face but the one flying beside it. It was a small girl with wings and clothes that seemed to be made with leaves and flowers. The small girl was emitting the same presence as Amihan. In short, she was another sylph. Compared to the three meter face, the several inches tall girl seemed to contrasting in size.
However, Mark frowned as she saw the sylph. Her head hung down while her body was emanating miasma. Furthermore, Mark could not detect any sign of consciousness from the sylph although she seemed to be alive.
The sylph raised her head and turned towards Mark. Her eyes were all black despite not being hollow.
”KREEEEEE!!!”
She released a deafening shriek unbefitting her size. At the same time, the feeling of animosity attacked his subconscious. It was the same animosity that he felt from the manifestation of miasma. For sure, the one that controlled that miasma and the contaminated animals was this sylph.
The shriek was too loud that Mark felt that his head was shaken and his eardrums would burst. As Mark was frozen due to the aftereffects of that shriek and the surge of negative emotional energy, the sylph flew forwards while sending uncountable surges of miasma from her body.
”Well, sh*t. I'm not that good in bullet hell games.”
Mark could not help but curse as he saw the surges of miasma coming his way. He shook his head and tried to resist the pain in his head.
He then activated his [Flash Precognition] as much as he could. However, the attacks were just too many that even the prediction lines in his eyes began to confuse his mind.
”Dammit!”
Mark jumped back dodging the attacks closest to him. Fortunately, the attacks did not seem to be the homing ones. Perhaps, this number of attacks was hard to control even for the sylph and the huge head. Still, the surges of miasma was still too many to count.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Swooshing sounds could be heard by his ears as he tried to dodge all the attacks with minimum margin as much as possible. If he did larger movements as he dodged, it was more likely that he would get hit as soon as the next attacks arrived.
”It can't be helped. I'll just bear the pain later.”
Mark murmured as his eyes turned sharper.
BADUMP! BADUMP!