A huge beam of cursed energy rushed forward directly annihilating everything in its path.
Swoosh!!
Souta moved his body but the beam still managed to graze him. His skin quickly turned into ashes and his muscles started to rot.
'A powerful curse!!'
He narrowed his eyes and controlled his parasite to regenerate the affected area.
Swoosh!
The old man appeared behind him. Souta tightened his grip on the vajra sword and quickly slashed it.
[Archetype: Vajra Extremity]!
[Second Form: Thousand Oak Absorption]!
Black lightning formed on his palm and it spread out beside him like a spider web.
A wave of cursed energy smashed into it.
Boom!
Souta closed his palm and the black lightning disappeared along with the cursed energy.
The blade of his sword which was close to the old man suddenly stopped.
Hmm?
Souta narrowed his eyes only to see a small barrier made from cursed energy preventing his sword from reaching the neck of the old man.
"If you really wanted to stop me, you should've used your monster release." The old man said before he raised both of his hands.
Swoosh!
He punched Souta's sword before he grabbed Souta's collar. Then, he lifted his feet and kicked him away before launching a beam of cursed energy.
"Shit!"
Souta was blown away but he quickly stabilized himself in the air thanks to his [Gravitational Ball] spell. The beam of cursed energy was about to hit him so he opened his other palm.
[Archetype: Vajra Extremity]!
[Second Form: Reverse Moon Oak]!
A vortex of black lightning formed in front of him. The vortex shoots the cursed energy he absorbed before.
Boom!
Two cursed energy collided.
Souta took a deep breath and stared at the old man. He didn't just stay in the Athen's Champion for more than twenty days and do nothing. He wouldn't forget to train his skills wherever he is.
The mastery of his Archetype had increased so his second form could now absorb an attack that's equal to a peak S-rank. If raised his mastery level it would be enough to absorb the attack of the powerful shackled realm experts.
"You, you can absorb my curse energy...?" The old man said and then he noticed something from Souta's hand. "It seems that you couldn't properly control it."
Souta's hand was decaying due to cursed energy.
Souta simply shook his hand and his hand started to regenerate.
"Just like I said you're just a fake. That's why I can absorb your attack if not then I wouldn't be able to absorb it."
The second form couldn't entirely absorb the cursed energy of his opponent. The cursed energy that the old man used exceeded the output that the second form could absorb. So he suffered a little bit of backlash.
"Your regenerating ability is magnificent but you can't remove my cursed energy that easy. It will continue to eat you until you can't regenerate." The old man said.
Souta didn't say anything and simply slashed his sword forward.
[Archetype: Vajra Extremity]!
[First Form: Mahayana Tribulation]!
Black lightning rained down on the old man powerfully. Dozens of houses turned into rubble in an instant.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The old man moved his body left and right. His speed was fast as he avoided every lightning that fell in his direction. Then, he flew in Souta's direction.
Swoosh!
Souta gathered his best feram on the blade of his sword.
BOOM!!
The two exchanged blows at high speed. In just a few seconds, they already threw hundreds of attacks on each other.
The buildings around them were collapsing one by one as they couldn't handle the aftershocks of the battle.
Bang! Bang!
Souta flew and crashed into a building. Then, the building exploded as a beam of cursed energy swallowed it.
BOOM!
"Just like I said you couldn't fight me in your current form."
The old man said as he waved his hand directly blowing all the dust in the air revealing Souta's figure laying on the piles of rocks.
Souta simply sighed. The old man was right. Ever since the battle started, he never landed a hit on his opponent. All he could do was to defend against the attack of the old man.
"If you're not going to take this seriously then I'm going to force you."
The old man said before he flew into the sky.
Swoosh!
Souta stared at the old man who was up above the city. He slowly stood up and shook his body. Some of the wounds that he received started to close as if nothing happened.
But he didn't heal all of his wounds. These wounds were crucial to him to increase his strength. All the accumulated wounds would boost his stats because of [Draw Blood].
'Okay, this boost in stats is enough. It's time to get serious.'
Souta said inwardly. The reason why he didn't use everything that he have got before was to accumulate wounds. He also wanted to test his opponents to see his chances of killing or capturing.
The ground started to shake heavily. In the next moment, an enormous amount of cursed energy burst in every direction. The quantity of this energy was terrifying as if it was about to fill an entire sky.
"Shit! Is this guy serious..." Souta said while looking at the terrifying scene in the sky.
He glanced at his arm and felt that the cursed energy that was trying to eat him was growing wild. It was as if it was trying to eat him in desperation.
"At this rate, most of the people in this dukedom would be affected by the curse."
This was all the cursed energy he gathered in the past few decades. This was the reason why his power level rose several times in just a few days.
...
Eztein, the organizer, and the others stopped fighting as they turned their heads above. All of them saw an immense amount of curse energy flowing in the atmosphere.
"What the hell is that?!" Eztein muttered.
"Oh, our Lord is about to make a move! This city will fall today!" The organizer said with anticipation. His eyes were filled with hope.
Eztein slightly turned his head and glanced at the organizer. "Your Lord?"
"Yes, the successor of the Creep Lord will appear today!!" The organizer opened his arms widely with a mad look on his face.
The other worshippers fell to their knees. They started to pray to the Creep Lord.
"That's not even a god-level yet you people are worshipping whoever is that," Eztein muttered as he tightly clench his fist.
"Hehe, our Lord will guide us toward the greatness." The organizer laughed as he faced Eztein.
"You will eat shit after this! My boss will handle your great fucking lord!" Eztein smiled before he charged forward.
...
Alice had a gloomy expression on her face. The enormous amount of cursed energy in the sky came from the pillar that she wanted to destroy.
She failed her job and realized that things will turn difficult starting now.
The quantity of cursed energy was too much that it started to affect her. After all, she was just fighting close to the pillar and it wouldn't be strange if the curse affected her.
"They just keep coming at me."
She muttered. She slew ten people yet another ten people were blocking her way from destroying the pillar.
"I just need to destroy it and Souta will handle the rest."
She said before she launched herself on the group of people wearing dark green cloaks.
Boom!
...
The experts living in this dukedom were starting to feel despair after seeing the enormous amount of cursed energy.
They were fighting for their survival, slaying every people that attacked them. Even though the people that they were killing were once they knew, they still do it because of their will to survive.
But after seeing the clouds of cursed energy...
"Hehe! Is this a joke?!"
"How could this happen?!"
"Why?!"
The experts stared blankly at the sky. They could fight but the curse was affecting their power level. The only thing that they could do was to struggle until they die or wait for their own death.
They couldn't even rely on the nobles anymore.
The entire city was filled with despair.
...
Clouds of cursed energy covered the sky above the dukedom. It blocked the light coming from the sun as shadows slowly encroached on the city.
A pair of red eyes were gleaming in the cloud. The eyes were filled with a murderous aura that could paralyze normal people.
Ohm!
Souta slowly opened his eyes and looked at the scene before him. His body started to inflate and a vast amount of best feram burst out suppressing any cursed energy near him.
[Monster Orb Release]!
His mouth cracked open revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. Layers of flesh moved from his hand and it covered the vajra sword to fit his size.
"Settle down."
His aura flared up once again. Black and white energy covered his body.
[Dual Element Drive: Dark and Light Force]!
