Heir Of Chaos

Chapter 33: Dark Shot

As soon as the shock of the news died down, they started with the necessary.

The first, was to get as clear a review of the beast’s ability. Without it, all plans will undoubtedly fall through. freewebnovёl.ƈom

"So Sarah, is there anything you noticed about the bird that Austin forgot to mention?" The reason why Dale was asking her wasn’t that he doubted Austin’s competence or memory.

In fact, he trusted him more. The real reason was quite simple; Sarah was more powerful than Austin.

There might be indicators or subtle things that she would have noticed that Dormant people like him and Austin wouldn’t have.

She sighed. "Yes. There’s one thing I did notice. The bird, it seems to have a sort of shadow sense."

"The moment we entered a hundred-meter radius of its nest, that’s when it moved." Dale nodded.

There was also the chance that the ave just noticed them and moved to attack all things yet had to be considered.

’So it has shadow jumping, intangibility, and shadow sense all while having an instinctive mastery over its power?’

Dale felt a headache coming on and as if things couldn’t be worse, they still didn’t know where Trevor had gone.

’For all I know, he is getting attacked by an ascended swarm of bees with the power to bend reality.’

"There’s no point in crying over spilled milk. Rest up. We’ll tackle the bird situation later today." Gary spoke after lingering for a while.

Austin nodded and crawled to the tent, shielding himself from the sun. It was high noon and while the forest made sure they remained cool, it was very easy to get exhausted.

Sarah sighed as she forced herself to her feet. She was uncharacteristically grim about the situation.

The encounter must have shaken her more than she’d admit.

It wasn’t surprising though. After all, it wasn’t every day one traded blows with an unholy being as powerful as the shadow eagle.

Considering the presence of such beasts, how humans had managed to not only survive but expand settlements into the wilderness was beyond him.

Dale quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.

He walked some distance away from his teammates and the camp as a whole.

As soon as he passed the forest line, he stopped and pulled out Decay and Blight.

The two sabers glinted in the sparse sunlight that made its way through the canopy of leaves above him.

He lightly swung Decay and the tip of the blade traced an arc — producing a dark crescent slash that hit a tree, cutting deep through the bark.

A few days ago — before they got to the forest — he had asked Lord Byron about the slashes the sabers allowed him to produce and why they weren’t listed in the descriptions provided by the AIDE

The old man appeared to be rather surprised that the weapons were capable of such a thing, as he himself hadn’t been aware.

Through trial and error, they slowly came to a hypothesis: it was Dale who made the slashes possible.

This wasn’t to say that he was exceptionally skilled with the weapons or that they had chosen him or anything like that.

The actual reason was quite simple; it was a mere result of his active ability skill.

When Dale uses [Energy Pulse] while holding the weapons, the fabric of the saber absorbs it and converts the energy into a form it’s more familiar with.

Then when swung, it releases the stored energy as slashes.

While it seemed odd, it was well in line with the description of his ability skill.

[Energy Pulse(Active): Release a pulse of energy into any item or object to affect their operation. Requires physical contact]

He was technically affecting the operation of the sabers whenever he used the skill. The only thing was that it gave a rather desirable effect.

’Now that I have learned to use the pulse as a spike rather than a wave, let’s see if it will have a new result.’ He reasoned and took on a stance.

Dale placed his left foot behind him and his right in front of him as he crouched.

He lifted Decay and aimed the tip at the tree in front of him.

Pulling his arm back, he raised the saber until it was on the same level as his head.

Without hesitation, he used [Energy Pulse], concentrating it into a sharp spike as it entered the blade.

The tip of Decay darkened sinisterly as a small sphere of pure darkness spun itself into existence.

Light subtly bent away from it, making its edges unclear.

Dale threw out his arm while keeping the tip of the blade fixed on the tree.

The dark sphere launched out with a loud bang, the recoil dislocating his shoulder yet its power made it worth the damage.

It shot out at a speed only comparable to light and reached the tree, drilling a hole cleanly through it.

Even the next two trees behind it weren’t spared from the attack’s wrath before it dissipated.

Despite the crippling pain pulsing through his shoulder, Dale couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear.

There was no doubting it, it was an attack that truly lay at the peak of the Awakened rank.

His grip around Blight tightened and his shoulder popped back in place yet he barely noticed.

’This will certainly give us an advantage when facing the Ascended beast... whatever it is.’ Even if it couldn’t, one more Awakened-level attack would be invaluable against the bird.

Either way, things were finally starting to look up.