Chapter 1401 (1/2)

Kaan felt his Nether Suppression Cell shatter right as he reached the enormous body of the Transformative Image user. His plan had been to eliminate this element and then finally break the Ghosthound. Yet the sudden failure of his Skill caught him by surprise.

For a second, he didn’t know what happened. In all of his training, in all of the stories of his seniors in the Xyrt Brigade, there had never been a foe that could escape on its own from the Nether Suppression Cell. Sure, other parties could intervene, but it was an absolute guarantee against one target.

...perhaps I underestimated how badly I failed on this attempt. He was clearly still on this plane of existence…. Hmph, I can only blame my own incompetence, Kaan thought bitterly as he turned around. Truly, this fight had shown Kaan how pointlessly arrogant he had been in the past. A Nether spy had wounded him gravely, forcing him to reveal his Fate. When he returned to the Xyrt Brigade, he would train-

But Kaan’s thoughts came to a dead stop because a Randidly Ghosthound with eyes filled with emerald fire was already in front of Kaan with his arm raised and his body bent like a bow. In the next instant, he was lashing out to strike at Kaan, steam trailing out of his nostrils.

Snorting, Kaan brought his two hands together and smashed the two harmonies he held together. Their sweet note exploded outward and completely dispersed the spy’s momentum; at the very least, it was clear that the Nether Suppression Cell had dispersed his Nether. It now radiated chaotically off of him, no longer the dangerously thick energy it was previously.

Yet Kaan knew that stopping this desperate offensive would not be simple. As with his companion, the spy had seen his momentum dispersal one too many times. He activated his image of the dark egg and quickly accelerated forward once more. Kaan used a harmony to destroy that image, but the Ghosthound quickly switched to the strange monster with a spear for an arm. That image was shattered by Kaan’s harmony, but he easily switched again to become the life-giving tree.

The Ghosthound used that impressive golden aura to briefly force Kaan to pause. Kaan’s mouth warped into a frown. Fine, you truly want a direct confrontation? I’ll show you just how little you know of me.

The two harmonies Kaan had used to disperse the spy’s momentum floated up above Kaan and began to glow along with the two harmonies already present. Two released the profound aura of strength. One released a sense of indomitability. The final harmony provided flexibility and circulation. With this, his physical form was truly unstoppable.

When the Ghosthound slashed at him with a talon’d claw that was releasing a light grey energy, Kaan met it confidently. The light of his four harmonies was bright. Even if the Ghosthound had pushed past the limits of the System-

Kaan wasn’t able to put up the slightest resistance to that grey claw. He felt his arm literally crack and disintegrate from the impact. His forearm was annihilated almost immediately. Then the blow continued forward and struck his torso. Although his body was generally very powerful against straight bludgeoning attacks, the huge flaw introduced by the Ghosthound’s spear earlier in the fight meant that his right shoulder and much of his side was also crushed to powder in a single strike.

And then Kaan was only aware of himself being thrown sideways, crashing and skipping off of the ground in a series of small scale explosions of stone chips and dirt. However, they had been fighting on the slope; suddenly the ground fell away before Kaan’s horizontal momentum dispersed, which meant he was tumbling in the air. Growling in pain and fury, Kaan swiped his remaining arm and stabilized himself in a standing position, still shooting away from the Ghosthound.

Kaan’s eyes narrowed as he saw that strange grey energy dissipating from the Ghosthound’s image. What was left was a sorry figure, the Ghosthound’s metallic arm sundered by a huge crack. It made Kaan feel a little better to see that the spy’s arm was also shattered and hanging limp at his side from the force of his own blow. What the hell was that? That energy-

Then Kaan slammed into a nearby mountain cliff, fully two hundred meters away from his initial position. As the stone face collapsed on top of him, Kaan growled once more. Whipping his left arm back and forth, he clawed his way out and considered his current condition. Then Kaan mobilized every perception Skill that he possessed in order to determine the combat strength of Randidly Ghosthound.

For the first time in their fight, a flicker of fear emerged in Kaan’s heart. Is this Nether spy truly more powerful than I am…?

Although he maintained the emotional attack with his Fate, Kaan Swacc allowed all of his other pyramids to go dormant. Each was not a debilitating amount of mental energy spent, but the costs associated with them did add up. That was the reason that while Kaan possessed six harmonies and his Fate, he often only used two or three during fights. Mobilizing all seven meant that the amount of time he could fight for was shortened proportionately.

From this distance, Kaan’s eyesight made it seem as though he was standing next to the man. Because of that, he could see every tremor that was running through the Ghosthound’s body. Kaan could feel the weak and feeble circulations of Nether energy in the area around the spy’s body.

...so, the last desperate struggles of a dying man? But still, that attack… where did that power come from? I didn’t sense an image at all…

But one thing had become abundantly clear in this confrontation; Kaan Swacc had underestimated the Nether spy. The forces mobilized to strengthen Randidly Ghosthound had exceeded his imagination. Kaan even had the impulse to retreat. As long as he could provide his memories as proof, the Xyrt Brigade would gladly mobilize to investigate. And before the true powers in the Xyrt Brigade, this Ghosthound was nothing.

Yet Kaan immediately rebuked himself for that thought. How could I retreat now? Look at this man. I now torture his companion and his rage is obvious. He practically burns with it. Yet he doesn’t have the strength remaining after that last strike to even move. His left arm is now in shambles. Against this pitiful foe… am I really thinking about retreating…?