Chapter 173 - Unshackled (Patreon)

POV Kim Min-Jae

Nylian and Aias immediately disappear in a blast of golden flames that engulf them immediately. The flames explode toward where Nat is pointing, right toward the trio of warriors sitting to his right.

Golden flames devour everything in their path. A huge part of the room is gone—walls, ceiling, furniture. The door we entered through. All melted from existence, and the remaining uneven edges where the flames struck still glow red-hot.

Even though Nathaniel's attack was pointed away from us, the heat engulfs the entire room, I scream from pain as I feel the heat on my skin to the point where serious burns appear on my skin.

I smell burned hair; some clothes catch on fire, and I hear multiple members of our group scream from pain as well as Biscuit howling too, surprised by the side effect of Nathaniel's attack.

Our wounds immediately start healing, and I can see them closing in front of my eyes, yet it hurts so much.

I hear Lily breathing heavily as she holds her burned hand, Aaron and Dennis also groan in pain.

Then Nathaniel turns toward us, toward the king and the remaining warrior, Edwal, who was able to escape.

Half of Nathaniel's face is burned to the bone, his skin and flesh gone. Burns cover most of the right side of his body, and his right hand is charred and blackened husk.

Yet he doesn't care. He says something in a casual tone, and I feel my heart beat wildly.

Right now, even terribly wounded, he seems invincible, and even though I got wounded by him, I can't help but feel deep admiration for him.

He is everything I always wanted to be.

***

No one is moving, and I use this opportunity to let the healing aura heal my wounds. It's not as quick as I would like it to be, but it's enough. I'm still able to fight, and half of the enemy forces are gone.

The king and Edwal both look like they don't know what to do or feel. For the first time, I see genuine confusion on their faces, as if they can't understand what happened and stare toward where Aias and Nylian were. The only things remaining after them are the beautiful sword and bracelet; my flames were unable to damage them at all.

Yet, it was enough. I compressed them as much as possible, massively reducing the area of the explosion, and burned their bodies before they had a chance to regenerate.

The others got hit by heat I wasn't able to control, but that much is fine; it will regenerate fairly quickly.

"This is really confusing. I don't know how to feel," the king shifts the crown on his head, and the remaining warrior only waits for orders. Edwal has lightning cracking around his body, and his initially shocked face smiles again. The man forces himself to do so. He even laughs shortly as he looks toward where the bracelet and sword are.

I absorb the heat from the room and turn it into kinetic energy, adding more to it. Then I shoot it at the king in a thin cone, and his head explodes; the body flails for a while, and the crown falls to the ground.

Before I do anything else, the head is back. It regenerates at dizzying speed, and the king only bends down and puts the crown back on his head, "I consider this dinner to be ruined already, so why don't you take care of your guests, Edwal?"

I boost my body, and Edwal appears in front of me; his pale blue eyes are cold, and his fist hits my chest, barely slowed down by [Redistribution].

My body hits the wall, not wounded because of how much mana I'm using to strengthen it and infuse it with mana. The armor barely forms around my body, and Edwal hits me multiple times. Golden lightning trails his limbs and strikes my body, burning it. Everywhere the lightning hits me, the wounds heal slower.

I release a blast of kinetic energy, and he is thrown away; half of his face is missing but healing already at a speed that is much higher than mine.

The javelin pierces his body, and the red and white lightning flows through it, for a moment fighting against his own golden one, and disappearing. The javelin then flies back to Tess's hands.

I exchange a simple glance with Tess and boost my body, running toward the king, who is already fighting against the others.

Hadwin gets thrown against the wall, and when Sophie tries to control him, the king just cuts off his own head; then, before she has a chance to do it again, he molds some mana into a projectile that flies at her.

Sophie doesn't hesitate and reaches out toward it; [Manipulation] interferes with it and makes it miss. At the same moment, blue flames engulf the king, but he only takes a single step, and stomps, and the flames disappear as if blown away by wind. The projectiles that I shoot at him disappear in the same way, deleted out of existence.

Hadwin charges the man again, and the king casually sidesteps and kicks the older man, right toward Sophie, who barely dodges. Isabella's flames disappear once again, and another projectile is shot at Sophie when she tries to manipulate him.

Meanwhile, with [Perception], I see Tess exchanging hits with Edwal, lightning cracking around their bodies, while Min-Jae continues to shoot projectiles at the blonde warrior when given the opportunity and continues to make his body heavier.

The twins move quickly and with perfect sync, dodging even Edwal's quick slashes, and sometimes when Edwal hits them, they disappear, just an illusion created by their skill.

My dark yellow flames blaze into existence and in a stream as thick as my wrist hit the King, who just stands there. The flames disappear the moment they get to a certain distance from him, and I continue to track his mana. The way he moves it and uses it.

The king is absorbing them. It's as if he is taking them into some storage, and after a few seconds in this storage, they disappear totally. There seems to be a limit to that storage, but my flames don't fill it at all. It is massive, giant, and it will be impossible to overwhelm him like this.

My heart beats, and projectiles boosted by kinetic energy disappear as well, the absorption or storage skill ignoring the speed they are moving at. Kinetic energy disappears too. Orbs filled with tricolored mana as well, and his ability isn't even overwhelmed at all.

The king then pulls out the sword.

I dash at him at the same moment he dashes at Isabella, and his silver sword cuts through the dagger I got from Beyond. My mana, my [Resonance], do not stop him at all. I hit his body with mine before he reaches the little girl and dodge his blade. This time I try to cut off his arms.

He laughs, and his sword moves like a flash, confusing me and instead of me hitting him a deep wound appears on my chest. The wound is immediately healing, yet at a much slower speed than his wounds. He steps closer toward me.

I [Focus] and boost my body to the point it creaks under the pressure and slash against him. Then I watch, and in the black vision of the focus as he blocks each of my strikes. As if teasing me, he doesn't even cut the blade made of mana; he just lets it slide along his blade, showing immense skill with a weapon in his hand.

Then he kicks me, and the moment his leg touches me, I force my skill into overdrive and absorb all of the kinetic energy of the kick, not moving at all nor feeling his kick. It's only as if he touched me with his leg.

A blast of kinetic energy, further strengthened by the one I was collecting, explodes his hand, and the sword gets separated from his body.

Before I can grab it, another kick sends me flying, breaking a few ribs that immediately start healing. The king's hand is already back, and he picks his sword up from the ground.

At that moment, Hadwin hits him with his shoulder, and the king is sent flying, crashing through the remaining furniture in the room. Before Hadwin charges again, I use a bit of kinetic energy to throw Hadwin away from the path of attack from the king, and three mana projectiles hit the ground in an explosion of debris, and a shockwave is sent toward our surroundings.

I then see Edwal jumping out of the window and flying far into the distance, golden lightning trailing him. Without any hesitation, Tess jumps in a similar way, and the [Lightning Armor] around her body surrounds her in red and white sparks as she pushes herself far ahead. Min-Jae and the twins follow her quickly.

"It's nice to see that Edwal is having some fun; it's tough for him," the king says as he fixes his clothes, his green eyes piercing, and for the first time, he looks like a ruler. Standing here proudly, surrounded by enemies, yet calm and confident.

"Hadwin, take the others and find where the saint is; Lily can kill her with her skill," I take a step toward the king and block him from getting to the others.

In deep [Focus], I take on multiple of his attacks, ignoring the wounds on my body and slowly releasing my mana more and more. It puts pressure on me; it starts hurting me, but I'm getting healed, am I not?

When he rushes at Lily in a last attempt before they get out, I do not even hesitate for a moment. I charge him, my body breaking and healing under the strengthening and my mana. Then the king moves immensely quickly, much faster than before, and I feel a slash on my legs. Lily screams, and I see my legs cut off over the knees flying through the air.

With a speed that is faster than I was able to reasonably manage, mana rushes through my body. It tears my circuit and hurts my brain. Then, instead of falling to the ground, I take a step and, instead of my cut-off legs, there is a replica made of translucent blue mana that I move as if I would move my body. Not missing a moment, I kick the king with a leg made of mana and cough up some blood.

The king laughs and even says something, but I do not listen. I reach toward the ground and pick up a silver bracelet I was moving toward during the entire fight. The laugh immediately stops, and I put it on my arm at the same moment as the king rushes at me and shoots a few projectiles my way.

My [Resonance] activates, and I use the bracelet; I resonate with its mana and connect myself to the item. In a flash, my legs are restored.

"How dare you!" he screams.

I ignore him and release my passives and constructs that were limiting my mana, and the entirety of my mana pool reverberates around me. I use it to boost my body, and my limbs explode under the pressure only to be immediately restored. My brain hurts; my heart is tearing apart. But it's all regenerating instantly.

Ignoring the pain, my kick sends the king flying away, the man unable to see my attack at all. Then I look at my hand and over my palm, an orb forms. Mana rushes inside of it, blue, light blue, and purple, swirling to the point where it starts to shine. The orb immediately fills to the brim while I disregard the wounds it causes me.

And then I do something I wanted to do for a long time. A thing I wanted to try ever since I realized that I might not use one of my skills the way it was intended to be used.

The orb fights against me, held back only by my mind that is getting healed as all of this pressure keeps wrecking it. I activate [Focus] and consolidate it. But this time I do not use it on myself. I turn it toward the mana over my hand. I grab it, I hold it, and then I [Focus] that mana to a much smaller point.

It hurts me, and my body keeps regenerating as I do something I shouldn't be able to do at my current level.

The mana that is about to explode stops and the orb becomes even smaller, and its color changes.

A small black orb hovers over the palm of my hand, and in that pitch-black darkness, tiny sparks shine inside like stars in the sky.

***

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