Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 526: The Hunter Stalks

The Elders floated forward slowly. Owlhead and Shadowhound took the lead this time, putting their lives on the line for treasure. The remaining three Elders followed. Jack watched from a distance.

As their feet treaded on air, they cautiously surveyed the space ahead of them. The lotus bloomed—the dirt remained still, lifeless if not for their knowledge that it wasn’t.

The attack came without warning. A hand phased into reality, already formed and present, and dug for Owlhead. He crossed his arms to defend—a blast of psychic energy erupted, shaking the other monster. Its strike remained devastating. Owlhead flew back, through the other Elders, and barely managed to steady himself after a mile. A thin trail of blood flowed on his forehead—yet, he was okay.

“Lure it out!” he shouted.

The Elders fanned out, approaching the monster from different directions. A torrent of fire launched into it, followed by a claw swipe and what seemed like brown vomit. Shadowhound leapt at the enemy, blasting it with solid darkness.

All these attacks approached the lotus and disappeared as if crossing into a different reality. Energy rippled out. A bodiless moan echoed through space, an injured giant, as space around the lotus warped and collapsed. A new sight was revealed.

A whirlwind of dirt, floating around the pristine lotus and protecting it. It had been hidden in a space distortion before, its energy undetectable next to the treasure it protected, but it now lay bare for all to see. The many attacks had disturbed the monster, yet not broken it.

A second moan arose. The dirt covering the island took to the air, drawn towards the center of the whirlwind by an invisible force. More and more of it gathered, slowly coalescing into a humanoid shape.

The Elders wouldn’t let it finish transforming. They attacked again, blowing up the dirt as it began to gather. They couldn’t disperse it entirely though. A second hand appeared, slowly trailed by a forming arm, and joined the battle.

The original dirt hand—which they now saw was connected to the whirlwind by a thin stream of dirt—shot sideways, slapping one of the Great Silver’s early A-Grades. The second hand matched the strike from the other side. They closed around the female double devil like twin mountains, slamming shut.

She got splattered, dying a horrible death.

Owlhead held a piece of silver paper, yellowed by age. His teeth were gnashed, and his grip tight around the paper. His eyes frantically searched the forming elemental. “We must find the nucleus!” he shouted.

“I know!” Shadowhound replied.

Perhaps shocked by the death of the female double devil, the two remaining early A-Grades—one from each faction—had slowed their attacks. The dirt gathered faster. It formed a giant torso, supported by two great legs and ending in a featureless head. As the final bits spun into two arms, connecting to the floating hands, the elemental roared without a mouth, shaking space and the minds of all who heard it. A few of the watching disciples cried out, leaking blood from their orifices.

“Fall back!” Strawpin commanded. “It’s too strong for us!”

The elemental towered a mile into the sky. It raised its leg and kicked at Shadowhound. There was no time to dodge—the strike obliterated him, making him dissipate into a cluster of tiny shadows. “Shadow Clone!” a voice came from the void, and a second Shadowhound appeared near the dead one, having barely dodged the strike. He was panting, his shadows flickering—that was not an easy technique to use, yet he’d had no choice.

The elemental roared again.

Jack narrowed his eyes. With the elemental fully formed, its aura was clear for all to see. It was situated somewhere between the late and peak A-Grade—facing a handful of middle and early A-Grades, this should be a slaughter.

“We need to run!” Strawpin shouted, but Jack ignored her.

Come on, he thought, staring intently at the battle. You knew it would be strong. Surely, you have some trump cards. You can’t be this stupid!

“Shadowhound!” Owlhead shouted. His hand still gripped the piece of paper, his eyes frantically searching the elemental’s body. “I can’t see its nucleus!”

“Me neither!” the other Elder replied. “We need to strike hard!”

“What are they talking about?” Jack asked.

Fiend Prince arrived beside him, calmly watching the battle. “Elementals are regenerating creatures. The only way to stop them is to strike their nucleus. Typically, you just keep hitting it until the nucleus reveals itself, then you deliver a powerful strike there. That is impossible in this case. The Elders have their trump cards, given to them by the Overlords to protect us, but there is no point using them if they can’t find the nucleus. And, without those powerful attacks, they can’t inflict enough damage to reveal it. This monster being an elemental really fucked them over.”

Jack fell into thought. He needed this treasure. If the Elders couldn’t win this battle, he’d need to help them—maybe sneak in and use Black Hole, his most powerful strike, to expose the nucleus and let them destroy it with their trump cards.

However, if that happened, he’d have revealed his power. They’d also be wary of his black hole, not letting him charge it. If he fell into a brawl with them in that state, there would be no guarantee of victory…but what choice did he have?

At worst, I’ll just escape, he concluded, gritting his teeth. “Brock! Take Starhair and go—”

He didn’t have time to finish his telepathic words.

The Elders didn’t know he’d been about to help. As they saw this lifetime opportunity fade before their eyes, they grew desperate. A new darkness covered Shadowhound’s form. It shone with black light so intense it surpassed the physical realm, shining directly on people’s souls. Blood dripped from within the shadows, yet the elemental seemed entirely unaffected.

Because it wasn’t the target.

The Great Silver faction’s remaining early A-Grade Elder, a brown blob with multiple eyes and limbs floating over its form, staggered. All those eyes blinked, then shone dark. The Elder threw itself forward, heedless of caution or danger.

“Shadowhound!” Owlhead shouted in outrage.

The brown blob Elder approached the elemental in a straight line. It was predictable. A hand fell from above, aiming to squash it.

The Elder exploded.

Brown flesh flew everywhere, then was immediately disintegrated by the greatest explosion Jack had ever witnessed. Even in the suppression of the Dark Canal, a new sun appeared. Everyone averted their eyes. Heat and light traveled together, destroying the world in one massive shockwave. The island below rumbled, parts of it collapsing into the sea, while the elemental, who’d been the closest to the explosion, released a low moan of pain.

When the light receded, Jack saw a crater burned into the island’s surface, as well as a large hole where the elemental’s waist used to be.

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“Incredible!” Fiend Prince shouted. “He controlled the other Elder and forced it to detonate its inner world! What admirable ruthlessness!”

“Elder Blob!” Strawpin yelled.

“How dare you, Shadowhound!”

Owlhead’s face was warped with fury. Shadowhound hadn’t chosen his own Elder for this suicide tactic, but Great Silver’s—this was clearly deliberate.

Shadowhound staggered—move after move had taken a toll on him, but he could still fight. “What are you yelling for, you idiot!?” he shouted back. “There is no other way! We need to find the nucleus!”

“You should have used your Elder, not mine!”

“I’ll use mine as well!”

“You better!”

The only remaining early A-Grade Elder, a burly, biblical devil-looking individual, paled as he heard this. He immediately turned and ran. Owlhead was already behind him. A palm strike landed squarely on the Elder, launching him straight towards Shadowhound, who teleported and bit the devil’s head off. A shadowy version of its head appeared in place of the original.

The devil went rigid. A moment later, it launched itself at the elemental, forgoing all notions of safety.

The elemental now missed its waist, but as the attack hadn’t hit its nucleus, it wasn’t really injured. Its legs and torso still stood as normal. More dirt was rising from below, reforming the missing waist. As its attention was focused there, however, it delayed its reaction to the devil Elder’s advance.

A second explosion rocked the world. The reforming waist was blown away completely, and so was the elemental’s chest, the dirt disintegrating and scattering everywhere. Only its head and limbs remained, its middle section once again reforming. But it still stood.

“Elementals can’t store the nucleus in their limbs!” Fiend Prince shouted excitedly. “It’s in its head! They can do it!”

“Now, Shadowhound,” Owlhead shouted, charging at the elemental. He tore the silver paper in half, unleashing a burst of powerful Dao. It eclipsed the two self-detonations from before—this was a part of an Overlord’s strike, the strongest force in the universe.

A silver dragon head appeared in the sky, ephemeral yet real. It opened its mouth to release a beam of silver energy, right at the elemental’s head. Space shattered where the beam passed.

At the same time, Shadowhound’s form flashed, activating some talisman himself. A massive leg appeared, gray and covered in scales. It was as tall as the elemental’s, yet moved with far sharper intent. The leg cleaved upward in a fierce kick, aiming for the head, as was the silver beam.

The elemental saw the threat. It stopped reforming, investing all of its power into defense. Barrier after barrier of dirt manifested, shielding the elemental twelve times. The silver beam crashed into them. The first barrier was pierced through without resistance. So were the second and third. It took nine barriers to waste the beam’s energy, and the tenth even cracked a little.

The elemental moaned. There was another attack.

The massive kick smashed right through the remaining barriers. All they achieved was to slow it down a little. The leg then crashed into the elemental’s head, shattering it completely, dispersing and disintegrating the dirt. A massive canyon was cut into the darkness above, extending for miles.

As the elemental’s head dissipated, there was a sound like breaking glass. All the dirt seized for a moment, then collapsed to the ground, no longer held aloft by magic. A single brown core fell as well.

The elemental was no more.

But the battle wasn’t over. Jack suddenly appeared behind Elder Owlhead, stepping out of the space crack he’d been hiding in. He had four arms and was taller than before, while one of his fists was replaced by a spinning black hole sucking in the ambient Dao.

Owlhead turned around, too late to react.

Jack had chosen his moment carefully. He’d waited for the exact do-or-die moment in the Elders’ fight against the elemental, when everyone’s attention was completely focused on the clash between the overlord talismans and the dirt barriers. He’d used this moment to slip into a space crack and charge his black hole attack, then teleported right behind Owlhead and struck him instantly.

Owlhead had only been paying attention to the elemental and Shadowhound—he registered no other threat. Coupled with the fact that Jack had chosen the single best moment to attack…he was caught off-guard. He didn’t have time to dodge or defend. A well-timed black hole struck him in the chest, sucking in his innards and exploding, killing him instantly. Not even his core remained. A middle A-Grade Elder had died, just like that!

Everyone froze, their victory celebrations cut short. It wasn’t just Owlhead. Nobody had seen Jack move. Nobody expected such a stunning turn of events.

“What did you do!?” Shadowhound shouted, instinctively rushing away from Jack. A moment later, however, he realized who it was who killed Owlhead. He started laughing. “Thank you!” he yelled. “I was afraid Owlhead would best me, but you just went and killed him! What a nice young monster you are. You secured me the lotus! If you desert your faction and join mine right now, I can take you as a personal disciple—I like your style!”

Strawpin was at a loss for words. Rage and indignation bubbled up inside her. Jack had stolen the spots of her fellow disciples, ran off by himself, then returned only to betray her faction and assassinate a middle Autarch Elder. At this moment, she hated him more than anyone else in the world!

Fiend Prince, on the other hand, laughed. “That’s the Fiend King way of doing things!” he exclaimed. “I knew I liked you, Jack Monstrous!”

“Fuck you, Jack!” Strawpin shouted.

Jack, however, ignored them all. He turned his body to face Elder Shadowhound, aiming a fist at him.

The Elder frowned. “What’s the meaning of this?” he asked.

“I did not betray any faction,” Jack intoned slowly. “I killed Owlhead because he was despicable, and also in my way. I will kill you for the same reasons. That lotus is mine.”

Shadowhound paused for a moment. Then, he laughed again. “Are you serious?” he asked. “Are you insane? You can’t possibly think you can take me!”

Jack smiled coldly. “You specialize in Will attacks. Since your element is darkness, you have an affinity for space and chaos, as well as absorption. You are also an expert in suppressing groups of weaker enemies through soul domination. Amongst middle Autarchs, you rank somewhere in the middle of the pack—neither strong nor weak—and, most importantly, you don’t favor direct battles but ones of subterfuge. Right now, injured and exhausted, you’re about as weak as a middle Autarch can be. Am I correct in my assumptions, Elder Shadowhound?”

The Elder had fallen silent. A moment later, he snorted. “You planned this all beforehand,” he said in a low voice. “Fine. Have it your way, young monster. I applaud your spirit, but no amount of preparation can surpass an absolute difference in cultivation. Whatever attack you used on Owlhead will not work on me. All your elaborate plans will fail. You have been blinded by greed, and you failed to realize that against someone like me, you are just not worthy.”

Jack’s smile remained. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

Throughout his cultivation journey, Jack had explored treasure-filled locations more than once. Trial Planet, Green Dragon Realm, Black Hole Church… He was no longer the greenhorn he used to be. Now, he was an experienced cultivator who could be as ruthless and calculating as needed to always emerge on top.

Choosing Owlhead as his first target had been deliberate. He’d kept his cards hidden and was relatively uninjured, marking him as the most dangerous opponent in one-on-one combat. Shadowhound, on the other hand, had exerted himself multiple times, had revealed his strengths and trump cards, and was also injured. Jack had confidence he could take him.

From the start of the battle till now, everything had played right into his hands—including what was about to happen.

“Shadow Realm!” Shadowhound shouted. A flash of darkness spread from his body to cover the entire world. Everything else disappeared—it was only him and Jack in an endless, featureless, black expanse. The Elder laughed. “I’ve spent endless millennia perfecting my shadow arts. Defend against them if you can, boy!”

The shadows morphed into countless beasts and weapons, all charging towards Jack. He smiled. His body became a missile which crashed against them. The battle began.

***

In the outside world, the other disciples saw Shadowhound and Jack exchange threats, then suddenly go still. Both were frozen in mid-air.

“They’re trapped in a battle of wills,” Strawpin said. Her eyes flashed cautiously. “That’s… What do we do?”

“Isn’t it clear?” Fiend Prince replied. He spread his fingers to reveal sharp claws. “We kill them both, then fight between ourselves for the lotus. I have to say, this Jack Monstrous did us a huge favor. No idea what he expected to happen.”

“Mm. I agree,” Strawpin said. She believed in her faction, but she was also an experienced monster—in the face of a treasure like the golden earth lotus, assassinating an enemy Elder and a sort-of traitor was nothing much.

The other disciples rallied behind these two and made to fly onward. However, a person suddenly flashed before them. It was a humble-looking brorilla, standing straight with his hands behind his back.

“What are you doing?” Fiend Prince asked.

“Nobody will interfere in my big bro’s fight,” the brorilla replied, calmly facing the two peak disciples of the entire Space Monster World, as well as thirteen of their peers.

The disciples frowned. “You can’t be serious. Do you really think you can stop all of us by yourself?”

Brock cracked a confident smile. “I might.”