Way of the Knights

Chapter 212 - 6 Months: Paul And Mark

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*Slosh* *Slosh*

Waves as huge as a two-floored building ruthlessly crashed the shores of an unknown island. 

The cascades were relentless, the roaring strength it carried could easily crush a human into a meat paste. The scene was hair-raising, the raging waves was unceasing. It was like the Sea God was visibly angered or provoked which caused the sea to boil.

No one in the right mind would dare to even come close to the shore once they see this, yet there is someone who was just foolish enough to do so.

It was a young man with a soaked blond colored hair locks. His face carried a manly vibe despite his height. His skin was tinged with a healthy wheat color, he standing one foot forward with his shield raised, his other hand carried a long spear behind him while he passively endured the ruthless cascades of the sea. 

His face was rough, there were even traces of stubbles on his jaw. His expression was stone cold, even the raging waves of torment wasn't enough to shift his expression into something new. He chest was bare, revealing his impressively toned upper body. His muscles were coiled together, seemingly working as one to resist the unforgiving rage of the Sea God.

He had been standing in the same shore for nearly a 24 hours now, and not even once did he dropped his guard nor the waves were able to make him step back from his position. 

If one looked closely, as the waves hit his body, some of them will be blocked off by his shield, the rest will be dispersed evenly onto his body. Strangely enough, his body wasn't wet because of the waters, glistened with sweat instead. As the rest of the waters hit his body, they will blocked off by a strange membrane, preventing them from landing directly on his body. 

Under the glaring sunlight, this membrane almost resembled the surface of the water. It rippled with a navy blue light as it covered his body, making him look somewhat strange. 

Suddenly, the young man heard a joyful hum on his ears. An archaic voice then echoed in his head.

"Level Surpassing Task. Complete!"

After hearing this, the raging sea suddenly calmed down. The enormous waves were gone in a blink of an eye, making one think that all of that were nothing but mere illusions. 

The young man's knees buckled as he laid on the shore. His previous expression, which is stone cold, was now replaced by an expression of wanting to cry but had no tears.

"God damn!" He exclaimed under a hurried breath, "I'm beat bro! I need to freakin' rest."

This young man was none other than Paul, who just passed his Level Surpassing Task.

These six months hadn't been kind to him. Each day passed with him feeling his body ache all over the place. Who wouldn't be exhausted after enduring those nasty waves for hours straight? 

"Do you want to tackle the Limit Surpassing Task?"

"God damn, are you shitting me? There's more? Ugh!" Paul whined, he had the urge to faint upon hearing that archaic voice echo in his ears once more.

In fact, the task that he passed just now isn't the same task that he received upon his first arrival here. 

His original task is to endure the waves for 24 hours. He passed this one month after his arrival. He didn't know that there is another task prepared for him, which is called the Level Surpassing Task. 

The Level Surpassing Task, required him to endure the raging waves for 24 hours without moving an inch from his spot. 

This was a difficult task, specially once he realized that the waves became bigger and stronger. He just now finished his task today with difficulty yet here comes another one. Who wouldn't whine in this situation? What's more is that it's called: Limit Surpassing Task. That name alone was enough to make him shiver.

"Let me rest for a week at least, then I'll accept this god damn task!" Paul said, still refusing to move from his spot.

"Affirmative. Limit Surpassing Task: Survive the wrath of the sea. Scheduled one week from now."

Paul felt like he was drenched in cold water after hearing that. He paled and said: "Survive the wrath of the sea, huh? Well…"

"Fuck…"

***

*Bzzt* *Crash* *Boom*

"Grr…" 

In the sloped road towards the mountain peak, Mark uttered a low growl as he allowed lightning to flow through his body.

There was a crazed expression on his face. His clothes were in tatters, his hair was dishelved, his body trembled in pain. If anyone saw him like this, they would think that he's not from a noble household but rather a homeless man.

He grounded his teeth as he struggled to digest the remnants of lightning on his body. He had long since lost count on how many times he tortured himself to get used to this pain but it never worked. 

Unlike Paul, Mark only received a single task. And that is to reach top of the Myriad Lightning Peak. 

Mark understood that he had no chance of evading these lightning bolts, even before he started walking towards the mountain. His speed is no faster than lightning to begin with, so he's left with no other choice. He had to endure these lightning strikes.

That being said, the thought was simple but the experience was horrible. 

Mark wanted to die during the first few days. His body was constantly charred with lightning yet he hasn't even been able to take at least 10 steps onto the mountain. He was in so much pain that he nearly broke down. But before he lost consciousness. A figure of an ancient snake appeared in his mind and hissed at him. Suddenly, he felt the lightning remnants took some sort of a unique path inside his energy channels. He entered a strange state in cultivation and upon waking up, he felt stronger. His Body Path and Energy Path even experienced some sort of a breakthrough. What's more is that, the following lightning strike that struck him felt less painful.

Mark found the reason behind this scenario. This was the blessing of the Primal Lightning Serpent. 

He recalled asking Raven about his Spirit Entity before and he remembered him saying that it gives him a high affinity towards lightning. When he said affinity, he thought that this will only work against Lightning-based attacks, not actual Lightning, yet here it is.

During this six months, Mark advanced so much that regular lightning doesn't hurt him anymore, in fact it became his tonic as he traversed this mountain. 

As for the Green and Violet Lightning Bolts, they posed more challenge but Mark eventually conquered them. In a sense, this kinds of lightning only posses a higher voltage compared to the regular ones. He only need to be struck at least a dozen times for each color and he was good to go. Additionally, he could do some amazing things, such as redirecting the lightning or producing his own version. This was a great boon for him since he knew that not just anyone could withstand these kinds of lightning like he could.

Now for the Red Lightning that exists halfway through the mountain. Those were the ones he was dealing with right now and it had been a tough struggle for him. What sets the Red Lightning different from the rest is that it has another effect aside from the staggering voltage it contains. 

Each Red Lightning Bolt, contained a dense amount of bloodlust that constantly tried to erode his consciousness. 

It would've been fine it was just a high voltage but nope. Now he had to deal with not only enduring the lightning remnants on his body but also the bloodlust that wanted to corrupt him. He had to guard his consciousness repeatedly to resist and it's rather taxing to do two difficult tasks at once. 

There were multiple times where the bloodlust broke his defenses, causing his eyes to go red and rouse an evil intent from his body. However, Mark fought it will all he had. He absolutely couldn't allow to be corrupted by a mere side effect. 

He managed to endure five rounds of Red Lightning strikes, but he was mentally exhausted. He wanted to retreat towards the base of the mountain so that he could rest but his feet refused to move. Mark was too exhausted to continue, his heart pounded in nervousness since he knew that he had little to no time before he got struck by another one. But he couldn't move.

"Am I really going to die here?" Mark voiced helplessly as he saw the red lightning condensing above him.

Just as despair started to grip his heart. His mood turned sharp, his unwillingness soared to the maximum and it invoked a slumbering beast inside of him. 

A silhouette of a large serpent rose behind him. It glared at the red lightning, seemingly provoking it to strike down. At it did, the serpent opened it's jaws wide and swallowed the lightning. 

Mark's eyes flew wide open. His body shivered not in pain but in excitement. His charred skin started to scab away and his exhaustion melted along with the wind.. His eyes brightened up as he hurriedly sprinted down the mountain.