Aki rebounded hard against the ground, shards of flesh and spurts of blood coming from his lips. The light of shock was still the largest in his eyes, his heart practically rotating in his chest as though it was doing flips.
It was rare that he was well and truly taken off guard . But he hardly had time to think about it as Sylas appeared high above him.
Blade Aura rotated all around him, slicing blades of Glassvolt Aether, forming in a continuous stream in the skies. It was as though he was emptying his body of all the Aether it had in a single breath, relentless in his pursuit of Aki's life.
In that moment, Aki realized that there was no time for shock. Time slowed, his perception also reaching a deeper state. He exhaled a breath, a malevolent look in his eyes.
He had sacrificed too much, planned for too many years, to fail at this last and final step .
A dark aura rippled out of him as he slammed a palm into the ground. A corrupt Aether fused with something that Sylas had simply never sensed before manifested. The horns on Aki's forehead seemed to lengthen just the slightest bit, a black fog forming wings to his back.
As his back rebounded against the ground, without his feet even firmly planted, Aki punched upward.
Their two fists met as one.
Sylas felt a great force nearly rip him apart, but the intent in his eyes grew stronger, his Will blooming and peeling away at the dark Aether with a vicious sort of purpose.
When he touched the Aether, he sensed that it carried hints of Will suppression, its Runes very similar to Blade Aura, but different. While Blade Aura cut Will, this sank into it, weeding its way in and seeping inside much like a poison.
Sylas knew immediately then what the purpose of Aki's Aether was.
And as though to respond, as Aki flew back to the ground and was sent soaring into the air, their fists forcing them apart, the deep fog dug into the ground.
One creature after another began to manifest, each stronger than the last.
Wolves and foxes, dinosaurs and extinct creatures of the past. Birds soared into the air and worms the size of eastern dragons pierced into the ground.
An army of darkness manifested into the world in the blink of an eye.
In one moment, Sylas had been in a one-on-one battle, and in the next he was outnumbered by a factor of dozens to just one.
A Rotten Hawk swept at him from the skies, its claws gleaming with the same menacing poison. It slashed at him without regard for its life, one of its eyeballs hanging out of its head.
Sylas grabbed its claw, meeting it head on without the slightest hesitation.
He didn't fear attacks against his Will.
He feared poison even less.
And more importantly than all of that… Aki wasn't the only one with an army.
The howl of King Beasts filled the skies. One after another, three Serpentes Emperors took form.
The Glassirith's crystal body shimmered, a contrast to the dark and crimson depths of the dreary land they were in.
The Bone-Tailed Lizard slammed a tail against the ground, the earth rocking and quaking.
And then there was the Basilisk King. Its head rose high into the skies, a crown manifesting above its head.
It opened its maw, unleashing a howl that froze the air.
Aki had made a mistake. A very large one.
Most Beast Tamers were limited by their Will. Because of that, there was a limit on how many creatures they could contract.
Even as a Legendary Beast Tamer, Sylas had his limits as well. There was a reason he didn't contract just any Serpentes he came across even though with his skills, raising them to King Beast likely wouldn't be too difficult.
If even Sylas had his limits, those with lower tier professions were even more heavily suppressed.
Aki, however, had a workaround. The reason he had an army that numbered in the hundreds was because Corrupt Beasts didn't have Wills. Because of that, they were easy to control.
But in the face of the Basilisk King and Voice of a King…
It was the worst sort of mistake to make.
All of the Corrupt Creatures froze in place, not able to move even a single inch.
In that very instant, Sylas firmly caught the Corrupt Hawk out of the air, grasping onto its other claw in quick succession and unleashing his might.
With a violent tug, he ripped it into two.
Extricate activated, its Blood Essence being manipulated into a Rune that hung high in the skies. It flowed so seamlessly, so perfectly, that it almost looked as though Sylas had pulled the Rune out from the body of the hawk itself rather than forming it after the fact.
His Progenitor Flame abilities displayed their might.
Down below, the Glassirith unleashed a howl that fused into the Basilisk King's, one Glass blade after another taking form and shredding the frozen Corrupt Beasts to pieces.
At the same time, the tail slap of the Bone-Tailed Lizard showed its use, Spinecoil Poison seeping out from the ground and drilling into their bodies.
One after another, the Corrupt Beasts shattered to pieces, their bones becoming shrapnel that drilled into the bodies of the others and buried them even further.
In no more than a few seconds, the army that Aki was so proud of was torn to shreds, more than 70% of it collapsing to the ground in heaps of oozing, rotten blood.
Sylas stood high in the skies, using Extricate continuously to form one blade of pulsing Blood Essence after another.
His Rune Spark Mastery displayed its truest might, his Crown making it so that Earth hummed to his rhythm, the very core of its strength itself fueling his every action.
Every blade pointed toward the stunned Thryskai that had yet to find an opportunity to stand on his feet.
And then, erupting in flames of white-green, they sliced down from above.