Online In Another World

Chapter 309 Reach The Zone

"Hurt that time, didn't it?" He asked.

It was clear that some damage was dealt to the sturdy hide of the entity this time as marks were laid on its flesh, yet it remained stalwart, facing him as changes to its shape took form again.

A chaotic evolution spawned from the centaur; crossbows of varying shapes protruding from its flesh, locked-and-loaded, primed for the Dragonheart. They stretched out in a black, metallic material that was evidently the bones of War.

"--I'm getting real sick of your kind always changing shape. Insecure much?!" He yelled out.

All at once, the dozen crossbows fired off with enhanced velocity, shooting rapidly towards the scale-clad young man. To deal with the majority of the arrows, he stomped down, invoking a terraforming spell; walls of stone rose from the ground to his left-and-right, deflecting a majority of the arrows.

With a clear path to War, he dashed forward, using the blade in his hand to deflect the incoming, bone-forged bolts that shot in his direction.

I'm feeling it again. Even if I'm dead right now–this Dragonheart blood; it's undying. In battle, it heats; I feel more alive than ever when I'm protected by these scales; more vibrant than ever while letting this blood let loose, he thought.

–Though it wasn't so simple.

SQUELCH

"...Huh?"

One of the crossbow bolts ended up piercing his shoulder, while another went straight through his left side, jabbing through his flesh.

How? I know I deflected everything coming my way, he thought.

Up until then, he hadn't faced it yet: the true horror of War's power. An ability that was the sole reason the entity wiped out every living creature on the desolate world it had come from.

That was, any projectile launched by it could bypass causality; simply put "cause" was removed from "effect".

Stumbling forward, he stopped for a moment as the barrage of bone bolts halted as War's unnatural body placed more ammunition into the weapons protruding from its flesh.

Blood leaked onto the ground as he huffed, looking at the projectiles lodged into his own body.

What's going on? I know for a fact I didn't let anything touch me–so how? He questioned.

Even if he couldn't quite grasp what had happened, he at least knew something wasn't right about the attacks he was facing. With that in mind, there was nothing else to do but keep charging forward.

Clenching onto the sharp-tipped bolt through his shoulder and the one piercing his side, missing any critical spots, he drew a single breath before yanking with all of his strength.

"Ghh–!"

Gritting his teeth, a cry of pain still escaped as his enhanced strength allowed him to tear the wide end of the bolts out, though tearing through his flesh in the process before dropping the blood-soaked projectiles onto the ground.

I don't know how it shot me, but I just need to attack it before it attacks me, right?! He thought, making up a split-second strategy with adrenaline flooding through his body.

Though his Undying Blood seemed to be inactive in his afterlife state, he naturally cast healing magic on himself, flooding his veins with the reinvigorating mana as it closed his wounds, but not before he was already racing forward.

A single dash at full-strength allowed him to crack the sound barrier, penetrating the length of the chamber in an instant as he jumped up, rearing his blade back as he aimed it for War's neck.

Got you…! He thought.

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

What caught him off-guard completely was the barrel that protruded from the front of the entity's metallic helm; it resembled a cannon, though what it shot out wasn't solid; an immense sonic boom was released from War's cannon, slamming directly against the Dragonheart.

"Nnnngh–!"

It had something like this, too?! He realized.

It felt impossible to gain any control of his limbs as they flailed in the highly-volatile wind made by the sonic cannon, instantly knocking him against the farthest wall.

The paintings hanging up fall down onto the floor as he found himself embedded in the thick, stone fortification, unplugging himself as pieces of his scale armor began to peel off.

A sight of crossbows being fully loaded again was dismaying as he jumped back onto his feet, finding himself too far from War at that moment to try and close the gap before it fired again.

Shit! He thought.

Just as he began the motions to conjure barriers of rock around himself, something else intercepted–

BOOM

A blast of smoke and pellets hit the war-embodying centaur from behind, causing it to falter for a moment.

"Huh…?" He looked forward confused, only seeing what it was once War turned to the side.

There he was: the goggle-wearing elven inventor who was far too big for his britches, holding one of his rune cannons in both of his hands. Pitch-black smoke swayed from the tip of the device's barrel as Blimpo held a nervous grin.

"C'mon! What're ya waiting for, Emilio?!" Blimpo called out.

Realizing what the purpose of the shot was, he pushed past the aching resonating through his body before bursting forth across the room again with azure flames at his heels.

"You're crazy, but that's exactly what we need to win–!" He called out in return.

War looked down at the thin elf, towering over the mortal with its grotesque crossbows pointing at him as a hiss of steam came from its visor like a breath of frustration.

"Errr, let's talk things through here…" Blimpo jokingly tried to reason while backing away.

Before any bolt could leave the crossbows, the four-legged monstrosity was intercepted again, this time from a slash on its back from the blazing blue sword of Emilio Dragonheart.

It was confirmed then; when focusing [Draconic Might], it provided enough strength to bypass the incredibly tough skin of War. Still, actually cutting through its heaping amount of flesh and steel-tight muscle was another task in itself.

HFFFF

War whipped around with speed, pushing out and morphing its flesh from its rear portion into a tail honed for murder: the lengthy limb was spiked, ending with a double-edged waraxe that rapidly swung in every direction.

"--!"

He was quick to react, feeling the weight behind the tail-axe approaching as he blocked the heavy edge with his sword just before flipping back.

"--Unless you want to be turned to ash, outta the way!" He yelled out, aiming his words towards his elven companion, "Grab the key and hide!"

The young Dragonheart had to get those words out whilst playing the dance of life-and-death, flipping around and dropping down repeatedly as War's lethal tail whipped around, cutting through stone like butter with each passing.

Blimpo sprinted in the opposite direction, jumping through the hole in the wall back into the cathedral with his sights set on the black key as sparks of blades and screeches of steel were audible from behind, "Don't gotta tell me twice! Do your thing!"

One thought crossed Blimpo's mind as he looked back, seeing the young man that was his companion managing to battle on seemingly even footing with the devilish entity:

He's so young…yet he's that skilled–it's like watching a master working his craft! It'd be a damn shame if somebody with your potential was stuck dead this early! Blimpo thought.

The very second that Blimpo was a good distance away, Emilio flipped around just as War released a half dozen crossbow bolts in his direction–this time, he countered with a sea of azure flames releasing from the palm of his hand.

He made sure to completely engulf the general direction the projectiles launched from, burning them away in the exact moment they were shot.

In that millisecond, it registered in his mind as the synapses in his brain were working in overtime with his reflexes surging and his perception of time heightened by his flourishing mana:

I'm not hit! He confirmed.

Though the quick burst of heat hardly budged War as it only shook off the blue embers, he used the momentary veil it provided to use a burst of wind to knock himself over to the neighboring wall.

It was a reflexive movement; animalistic instinct was amplified by allowing the draconic blood to run its course. With his own eyes, he didn't even see the tail-axe whipping towards him from behind yet, he managed to evade it before landing on a chandelier, having the height advantage on War for the first time.

CLICK

The bolts were loaded into the many crossbows protruding from its flesh once more–ready to figure.

It was a battle of milliseconds; a singular slip up and he knew he'd be skewered by those putrid projectiles. As such, with life and death itself being the stakes, so far removed from the realm of the living and in the depths of the afterlife itself, the mystical brain of the young man once more was vibrant in its environment–

["The Zone"]

Before the crossbows could be aimed in his direction, he descended from the lavish, yet dusty chandelier with a shock wave, using the force of wind to propel himself at heightened speeds.

Unknowingly, two sets of pitch-black horns protruded from his reinforced helm of scales; the azure complexion of his draconic armor shifted into a deeper blue, closer to an ebony shade. If War was a being born of violence, then the Dragonheart was one being refined by it.