The Earth After Rebirth

Chapter 475: Ryu Unlocked

The attack was fast, faster than anything Kiro could track with his naked eye. The block came completely off instinct. Ryu was ready to tear his own hands the way it was vibrating from blocking one of its legs.

"Hooo!" The harbinger exclaimed amused. "How long has it been? two thousand? I shall have fun with you." It said with a gargling sound with an indescribable expression.

They both didn’t speak Harbinger but they were certain that the gargle coupled with the expression was its own twisted way of sadistic excitement.

He was still focused on that when it disappeared completely from his field of vision. Kiro felt the space behind him distort, he knew where the attacking was coming from, the problem was his body, it didn’t move fast enough.

The last thing he remembered was searing pain at the back if his head. His body flew closer to where Hiro and egg Isla were, the harbinger was on him in a matter of seconds, dragging him by the scruff of his neck.

When he came to, his back was against a big chunk of rock and the harbinger was smiling cruelly.

"It is a pity, you are a handsome boy. Won’t you be my slave?" It said running its snake-like tongue across his face.

"I’d rather die." Kiro said with rugged breaths attempting to wriggle himself free.

"So be it." It said with a shriel chuckle and in the same breath ran its claw across Kiro’s good eye.

The pain connected to every single nerve in his body, as though the harbinger slowed down time, it felt like an eternity, much worse than when he died. He let out a low groan, not wanting to give it the satisfaction of screaming out loud.

"Minimal reaction? Might as well break your neck."

Out of nowhere, Hubris jumped between the two. His maw wide open, his teeth much bigger than what Kiro remembered. He completely servered the one of the many limbs that threatened to end his master.

With nothing propping him up, he fell to his knees, trying his best to keep the blood out of his good eye but it wasn’t working, he kept it closed. Now both his eyes were pretty much useless, the eye was not damaged but it needed treatment he could feel it.

"Hubris what took you so long." His breathing was laboured.

It was their plan all along, it took Hubris quite some time to prepare. He knew his claws and fangs would not do anything with the harbinger’s hardened skin.

It wasn’t anything Kiro had seen before, growing his fangs and claws to be bigger, sharper and apparently poisonous because the harbinger was howling in pain.

"You stupid mutt, what did you do, why can’t I regenerate!" The panic in its voice could have never been faked.

Kiro slowly got up, clutching his staff close, both eyes unable to give him vision. He activated vibrations, the world was still quiet but the monster that needed to be slain in front of them made quite the noise, it was vibrating at a much higher frequency.

He blinked once, twice and he was in front of it. Kiro could feel how strong it felt despite having a limb dismembered, but his mission wasn’t to care about that. It was to continue be the bait while Hubris finds a perfect opening to strike a fatal blow.

Eyes closed, both hands in Ryu and all his might, he struck the side of the monster. He could feel that he made a dent, but it was unmoving, still focused on its limb that was not growing back.

But that seemed to wake it up, it didn’t even look at Kiro who was right in front of it. All its attention was on the hellhound, staring it down with the most venomous eyes.

Hubris didn’t move where he was as they locked eyes. The fear was enough to petrify an adult male but he was a hellhound and couldn’t afford to show such weakness, he stood low and observed. Getting ready to dodge if it decided to attack him first.

Kiro felt invisible, he didn’t like it so he charged once again. It tried to swat him to the side but he dodged, he found that relying on just vibrations was actually a blessing in disguise.

He could see attacks a second before they happen, which was enough time for his body to react. He blinked, appearing on the left side of it and targeted one of its eyes, the eye completely exploded and it howled in pain once again.

’I can hurt it?’

Just then, Ryu made a vibration Kiro had never felt before. If he hadn’t vibrated at the same frequency he was sure the staff would’ve hurt him. A blinding light came from it.

The staff was sentient enough to strongly resonate with Kiro’s seemingly ironclad will. It turned golden, even it could feel the opponent wasn’t anything they had faced before. Tasting its blood gave it a nudge.

A staff that was made solely for this, battle, writhed in blood. This was Ryu in all its glory.

Kiro might not have had his status window right then, but holding Ryu, its weight and how it felt in his hand, becoming even greater. He knew that the staff had been unlocked completely.

But he could see something else aswell, the staff had borrowed one of his skills. The destruction skill he had barely used, and he thought it was perfectly for a weapon that made the skill passive for it.

Hiro watched from a distance, when this happened he could feel the atmosphere shift. He was getting goosebumps all over his body, seeing his friend, now blind, unable to give up and still able to draw out that kind of power.

"He’s really just amazing isn’t he." He said as he chuckled, Hiro could feel his muscles relaxing. He was not even aware that they were so tense.

"You, how do you have that power?" If the harbinger was trying to hide its fear, it did a miserable job.

The voice was shaking, the confidence it had before was gone as it watched the staff transform the little kid it was toying with into something formidable.

He had his eyes closed but when he opened them they were bright yellow.