Sylas found himself completely surrounded. The maddened howls of Demons almost seemed to attack his mind.
All the worst fears one might have had as a child seemed forced to pour forth from the heart.
The savage air was devastating to both the psyche and the body. The psyche because of the fear and oppression it pressed onto one's Will, and the body because...
They were truly powerful.
The bear demon lunged forward, its black hair bristling like steel needles and rippling with a dense black fog that almost made it formless.
Its body arched forward so far that it looked like it had tensed its entire torso purely to avoid running on all fours.
Given its posture and how top-heavy it was, it should have fallen over long ago. And yet, it was blindingly fast, its claws splayed out in both directions.
It opened its maw to take a bite out of Sylas, its arms slashing forward at the same time.
Sylas was finding it hard to even breathe in this dense Demonic Aether. A weight pressed down on his chest, but his Domin shook and rumbled.
A small space was cleared around him.
The instant the bear demon stepped into his Domain, he erupted. A pair of red-gold wings appeared on his back, and he accelerated forward.
A wooden spike shot up from the net of wood, ripping into the bear demon's chest as Sylas slipped to the side, grabbing its arm and driving a knee through its elbow.
A sickening crack echoed as the demon's limb fell limply.
Sylas grabbed onto its steely fur with a hand, ripping down on its shoulder and using the momentum to send himself propelling upward.
He could sense that the Demon was already beginning to heal from the earlier wound, but he hardly reacted to it.
His arms locked around the bear demon's neck as the wooden spike that ripped through its chest snaked around its uninjured arm.
In that moment, the bear demon found one arm too injured to move and the second immobilized as poison pumped into it, slowing it down further.
But none of that was worse than the twist and violent upward pull of Sylas' torso.
The bear demon's head was torn from its shoulders.
Sylas let the creature go.
Feeling an attack coming from his back, ice glided beneath his feet and sent him to the side.
He grabbed the arm as the blades that once aimed for his back just barely slid over his shoulders, his body moving completely on instinct.
His hip slammed into that of the second bear demon, and his abs flexed as he sent it flying over his shoulder and into the dense net of wood.
Several spikes formed at once.
The instant the creature's heavy body landed on the ground, it was skewered several times
Including right through its head and Demon Core.
Sylas unleashed a rampage on the Demon City, not caring for his own personal stamina at all. Even when his lungs began to scream at him, he pushed and pushed, seeking after nothing more than speed and more speed.
And then he saw them. Two monstrosities that loomed over all the others.
They must have been at least five meters tall even with their backs hunched forward like all the others. Their eyes had an eerie redness to them, and their maws dripped with a thick saliva that sizzled when it hit the floor.
Sylas took a heaving breath that might have been maybe 10% oxygen. The density of the Demonic Aether so near the Demon Gate was so exceptional that it could be said his stamina was less impacted by his fight than it was the fact there wasn't enough air to breathe. "Human... do you think we fear you..." Druvok unleashed a rumbling laughter. "... We allowed you to kill our kind only because it would give us time to complete our evolution."
"Here is where you will die." Balgros' rumbling cadence lost out in no way.
Sylas didn't speak a word. He didn't have the care for it at all.
Instead, his mind suddenly moved.
He had been going all out just to get to this point, but there was one thing that he had been saving. That was because he knew that if he used it too early, he really would have nothing left
by the time he got to this point.
Rune Essence bloomed.
The world was suddenly forcefully shaken and the darkness in the region was forcefully expelled around Sylas' Domain.
He took another breath.
This time, his lungs practically cheered in happiness as real oxygen poured into him.
His haggard breathing, his steaming skin, his pale countenance all seemed to reverse in a
His body might still ache, and his Aether might be running dangerously low.
Sylas took a step forward, closing in the distance in a single bound.
Before he even did, the two bear demons seemed to choke on the air. The concentration of
poison in the region had increased several times over.
Under normal circumstances, Sylas' poison caused 100 Damage a second. This could only be mitigated by using and continuously replenishing one's Aether skin.
Sylas was going all out. He had increased the concentration to a point where the Damage was
Although his Wisdom was also quickly being depleted, he didn't expect this battle to last very
By the time he crossed the distance between them, the Aether protections of the two bear
demons had already shattered.
His fist drove into the chest of one.
Druvok coughed up a mouthful of blood and found his Aether skin replenishment attempt
disrupted by a violent tug of Sylas' telekinesis.
The arrogant bear demon was sent flying into the distance.
By the time it fell to the ground, every ounce of flesh in its body was saturated with poison.
It bounced up once and then fell back down.
Sylas turned toward the wide-eyed Balgros, his expression indifferent.