Reincarnated, reincarnated, and reincarnated again for revenge [BL, H] Chapter 134: The battle for Monas Kye (Part 3): Ryan awakeni

CLANG!!!

「Ho?」 Akaban's lips curled into a sinister smile as his swift attack, aimed directly at the young ogre Clan Head's throat, was deflected by an invisible barrier. This brief moment of confusion was all Kailos needed to leap backward, distancing himself from the bloodthirsty hero.

「Rowan-kun?」 Kailos asked, eyes never leaving Akaban. 「Was that you?」

「Yes, Kailos-dono!」 Rowan rushed to his Master's father from behind. 「I'm sorry I reacted too slow.」

「No, I'm amazed you could cast a barrier that quickly. Even I couldn't follow his movement at all.」 Kailos shook his head. 「Thanks, Rowan-kun. I owe you one.」

「Please, don't mention it, Kailos-dono. We're facing one of the Six Heroes here. We must work together to survive this battle.」

「Indeed... The fabled Six Heroes. Each one's power is said to rival an upper Catastrophe, or perhaps even a Celestial Class entity. His presence here has tipped the balance of this war in the Yin Empire's favor.」

Celestial Threat? Isn't Ryuu-chan considered a Celestial Threat too? Rowan glanced toward the other side of the battlefield, where Ryuu was locked in combat with another dragonkin. He's busy fighting… Didn't the intel say that the other dragonkin is a Heavenly General? If only he were free to help us with this guy.

「A barrier caster, huh?」 Akaban's bloodlust suddenly subsided, replaced by pure curiosity as he studied Rowan. 「You don't appear to be that strong, at least not compared to the ogre beside you. Yet, how were you able to predict my attack so precisely and erect a barrier so quickly?」 Akaban's eyes scanned Rowan from head to toe, seeking any hint of a worthy adversary. Despite his assessment that the young man's prowess posed no real threat, the swift construction of a protective barrier suggested hidden potential.

「Figure it out yourself!」 Rowan smirked. He couldn't reveal to his enemy that he commanded the temporal element, allowing him to slow down and manipulate time around himself to observe and counter his opponent's moves. This power had recently awakened within him, a result of pushing his limits and creating time bubbles around the dungeon to give the Grasslanders more time to recuperate and train for this decisive battle.

「Hmm… Maybe it was simply a fluke,」 commented Akaban. As he finished speaking, he discreetly swung his arm, sending four Nen-infused scalpels toward Rowan at subsonic speed. However, the small blades suddenly stopped short, half-piercing the thick barrier Rowan had just erected. 「Not only were you able to follow my movement, but you also created a barrier that stopped my Nen-infused attack, which can supposedly puncture through ten feet of concrete. Interesting.」 Akaban licked his lips.

「You don't have the luxury to stand there and focus solely on Rowan kun, Akaban!」 Kailos, having gauged the hero's strength and formulated a battle plan, leapt forward with his flaming sword in hand.

「I am well aware!」 Akaban smiled. He quickly reloaded his scalpels, placing them between his fingers like claws, and swung at the ogre. His attacks created a series of parallel slashes that pummeled Kailos, forcing him into a defensive stance.

「,」 called a voice from behind Akaban. 「.」 The activation of the Arte move caused Akaban to turn around. What greeted him was ten different swords dropping down and floating around him, along with a yellow flash aimed directly at his heart. Swiftly, he raised his scalpels, effortlessly blocking the incoming blade. Before he could study his new opponent, the figure disappeared, leaving behind traces of faint lightning discharge. The figure reappeared to his right, grabbing another sword floating in midair, and attacked Akaban again from the side. Clang, clang, clang! The series of attacks continued as Akaban leisurely repelled them. Although none of the strikes were effective, for the first time since the clash began, Akaban found himself on the defensive as the figure kept teleporting from sword to sword, attacking him from all sides.

「Enough!! !」 shouted Akaban. Four giant crimson crosses made from dripping blood crashed down around the figure, trapping him. Dozens more formed from a layer of bloody mist, floating around before converging on his trapped opponent and exploding in a shower of blood.

「Ryan-chan!!!」 Rowan called out, worry evident in his voice.

As the dust settled, Akaban was surprised to find the yellow-haired teenager unharmed, surrounded by pieces of paper talismans that had protected him from the attack.

「That's... Ren-chan's?」 Rowan breathed a sigh of relief.

「Hoh... Why didn't you create a barrier to protect him? It's not like you couldn't react in time.」 Akaban grinned as he realized Rowan's weakness. 「Unless, you can't continuously cast so many high-quality barriers in such a short timespan!」 To test his theory, Akaban launched himself at the green-haired teenager. As he had hypothesized, instead of protecting himself with a barrier, Rowan was taken aback and tried to dodge the attack.

「It's a 4-on-1 fight! Don't think you can ignore us all just to focus on Rowan-chan!」 Ren called out. The former elven prince created a Runic dragon and cast it upon Akaban, forcing him to halt his assault on Rowan and turn his attention toward the roaring, etheric dragon. Despite how ferocious Ren's attack looked, with just a swing of his hand, Akaban bisected the dragon and dissipated the Runic attack into thin air.

「Ha, this is getting annoying,」Akaban cracked his neck. 「I guess it's time to get serious.」 He allowed his Nen to emit unrestrained from his body, causing all four of his opponents to freeze in shock.

「That's...」 Kailos muttered.

「One of the Six...」 Ryan gulped. Standing before him was the pinnacle of the class, a position he had once hoped to achieve when he first embraced his role as a hero before the fateful meeting with his Master. Now, seeing one in person, he realized how unattainable that dream had always been. The power gap between him and a member of The Six was simply too great. Such pressure reminded him of the creature the Chaos-infected Prime Minister had turned into or when the Chaos-infected Ryuu was finally released from his seal. Simply put, there was no chance of victory.

…But, he and his harem brothers would stand and fight regardless, for they were his Master's devoted tools. They had promised to assist Kibadios in his quest for vengeance against the Astral, if they could not overcome this opponent standing in front of them, they would all prove to be nothing but dead weights that held their Master back during the destined clash between them and the Astral. Ryan held tightly onto his sword as lightning sparks cloaked his body. With one swing of his attack, the electricity spread around the battlefield and splashed at Akaban, creating a loud explosion. As the dust settled, just as he had expected, the dreadful hero was still standing, his body experienced minimal damage. Ryan swept forward, thrust his sword downward. From behind, Kailos discreetly approached the hero before slashing his flaming sword upward. Both simultaneous attacks pincered Akaban in place. Still, the slashes never connected to the hero's flesh as Kailos and Ryan had hoped for, since Akaban easily stopped both blades with his scalpels.

「」Grinned the hero. As soon as Akaban activated his skill, both Kailos and Ryan soon noticed hundreds of blood droplets started to form and suspended in midair around them. The droplets suddenly vibrated, before spreading themselves into sharp, thin sheets of blades and swirled around the black-suit maniac hero like a vortex. Although they knew not what their opponent's ability was going to be, the two men instinctively leapt away from Akaban. Still, that was not enough since the radius of the vortex suddenly expanded, its sharp, bloody blades cut deep into the two retreating combatants' flesh. 

「Ughh!!」Moaned Ryan. The blond hero and his master's father had escaped the worst possible outcome, yet, their injuries were fairly extensive causing the pair to fall down, rendering them unable to move back any further.

「」Rowan quickly clapped his hands, activating his Skill, calling forth a warm flame which suddenly engulfed the battered ogre and his harem brother, healing them up in no time.

「Rune of Power: Lion fist」Taking advantage of Akaban's distraction as his attention was focusing on the other two, Ren teleported from behind the menacing hero and slammed him with a Rune infused punch. The Rune that the former elven prince invoked materialized as a large, etheric white lion head that covered his hands. In this form, just one punch from Ren could shatter a portion of a stone cliff. The elf was excited since he could feel an impact as he saw Akaban being pushed back due to his attack. Still, the earth shattering damage never materialized as the hero cladded in black suit stood tall despite receiving the attack at point blank.

SHRETTT

Just simply one swing of his arm, Akaban effortlessly shredded the runic lion glove before he closed in and delivered a swift kick in the elf's chest, sending him flying and crashing into rows of trees some distance away. 

「Ren chan!!」Called out Rowan worryingly. 

「< Baihu Roar >!」In the midst of despair, from afar, Amaira, the mutant beastman growled, sending the shockwave aiming upon Akaban.

「< Xuanwu Crush >」Before Akaban could find his balance after being hit directly by Amaira's sonic blast, Baxley activated his skill, summoning a humongous turtle shell crashing down onto Akaban. 

「< Wing of Zhuque >」Last to enter the battlefield was Erik, who called forth his Arte before joining in the fight. Unlike the last time when he fought against Kibadios, this time, the Yves had enough time to unleash one of his most powerful attacks. Erik floated up in the air with his burning phoenix wings, gathering up the embers in the shapes of feathers into a large fireball above his head. As more feathers gathered, the sphere became more and more enlarged, its color turned from orange to deep red as if it was filled with raging hot magma. Once ready, Erik raised his bare hand up, grabbing the gigantic burning sphere and dragged it downward, projecting it at Akaban, who was still trying to hold up Baxley's attack. The impact caused by Erik's Arte attack emitted a loud crashing sound, followed by intense heat waves that radiated from ground zero to around the battlefield. With his quick wit, Rowan hastily constructed a weak barrier around the attack to contain it, allowing Kailos, Ryan, Amaira, and Baxley to retreat back. Of course, due to the sheer power of the attack, Rowan's barrier did not last for more than 20 seconds before it, too, was shattered into pieces. 

「 Rune of Destruction: 108 Hell Gates 」Screamed out Ren. The elf was now wrapping one of his arms around Rowan's shoulder to allow him to stand upright, while the other hand held onto a small glowing talisman. The moment he casted his Rune, 108 pieces of talismans suddenly appeared and surrounded Akaban before all shooting incredibly powerful black beams at the hero as the inferno fire created by Erik was still burning bright.

「Haa… haa… ha」Baxley's breaths came in ragged gasps as he struggled to inhale amidst the oppressive heatwave.「It doesn't matter no matter how many times I witness this attack, the intense power always puts me in awe. On top of that, it seems like Ren kun had also casted another impressive attack in tandem with Erik's…」

「Do you think it's enough to end him?」Amaira stared at the burning hell in front of her. 

「I hope so, because if he survives such attacks, it means we're screwed.」The giant laughed.

The mercenaries' confident look soon turned despondent as the burning flame dissipated and the talisman scattered into dust. Despite generating enough heat that turned the stones around Akaban into glasses, the hero still stood high. The only damage one could observe was how his clothes were now completely charred, with some parts of it even seeming to melt into the hero's flesh. 

「How did he survive that??」Amaira shouted. 

「...」Erik had descended behind his two companions, though he made no comment.

「It's his Nen…」Ryan noted.「He coated his body with enough Nen to protect himself from our attacks.」

「But if it's true… how much Nen can he really generate? I have never heard of someone who possesses enough Nen to use it as a protective defense like that… not against such powerful skills.」Kailos gulped. 

「That man… is not human…」Ren's arm touched his bruised stomach.「That brief moment when he kicked me and our bodies connected… I could feel it… His Nen is almost limitless.」

「Ren chan… Don't try to talk.」Rowan frowned as he tried his best to heal up the injured elf.

「Now, my turn, okay?」Akaban smiled. The man raised his scalpels up before dashing toward his still dazed opponents. In a blink of an eye, both Amaira and Baxley had already collapsed as blood splattered out from the slashes they received. Akaban was moving at such a speed that both of the mercenaries did not realize what had happened before they noticed their bleeding wounds. Erik, on the other hand, fared a bit better since he was able to clash against the hero for a brief moment before, he too, was abruptly defeated. His Arte, which took the shape of a pair of flaming phoenix wings, slowly faded as the Yves fell down from the air, his body was pierced deep by multiple scalpels. Dozens of slashes were soon inflicted onto Kailos and Ryan, since they too, were unable to keep up with the hero's relentless attacks. As Akaban moved toward Rowan and Ren next, the healer tried to erect a barrier to stop the incoming threat, but with most of his strength spent on invoking to heal Kailos, Ryan, and then Ren, the teenager's flimsy barrier was certainly not enough to block off Akaban. 

「Now now now…」Akaban stood in front of the two remaining foes, his hands each grabbing around each of the boy's necks, crushing their windpipe.「A young man with the ability to keep up with my attack and another with incredible Runic ability… I had high hopes for you people. But in the end, just like most others, you all disappoint me. This fight was nothing but a waste of time.」

「Ahhh… Garrhhhh」

「You…aaahhh haaaa…」Ren struggled to breathe as both he and Rowan were lifted up from the ground by Akaban's cold hand.

No, not again… The young man thought to himself as he mustered all his feeble strength to stand up and fight… I won't let…

「Now, die…」Akaban squeezed his hands, causing his two victims to convulse in pain and agony.

「Ren chan… Rowan chan…Don't…」Ryan finally could make some sound as his muttering became louder.「Don't you dare hurt them!!!! Don't you dare hurt my family!!!!!」Screamed out the exhausted blond hero, his consciousness seemed to disappear as rage took over his body and mind. Twice now, he was too powerless to protect those he loved, whether they were his party members or his brother. Since then, he had sworn to himself there would not be a third time, not when he was still alive.「Ultimate Arte !!」

「Huh? That rookie hero… Has he just awakened an Ultimate Arte?」Akaban was shocked, yet he could not hide a faint smile on his face. After all, for the battle crazed hero, the chance of fighting against someone possessing an Ultimate Arte was not that often. 「Code:04? What kind of Ultimate Arte is this?」Since Ryan's awaken has completely attracted his attention, Akaban quickly threw away the half conscious Rowan and Ren on the side before finishing them off. 

「Now, little hero, let me see what are you capable of?」Grin Akaban before he, again, projected severals of his Nen infused scalpels at the blond teenager. His eyes turned wide open in astonishment, though, once he noticed his attacks had completely stopped midair, though not because of any invisible barrier or anything.「How?」

Just in the few seconds Akaban took to analyze what was happening, the scalpels' blades suddenly turned around and aimed at him. His own attack was now flying off in his direction where he stood. It all happened so fast that before he could barely instinctively react by raising his hands up to block the blades, they had already pierced through his flesh. Normally, such attacks would not have affected him; however, since those blades were infused with his own Nen, it allowed them to easily penetrate the thin, yet seemingly infinite Nen layer that was coating his flesh and acting as a defense against any external attack. 

「Haa… ha… This…」Akaban pulled his scalpel pierced hand closer to his face as red warm liquid dripped down from his wound.「This is my blood?」Akaban grinned as a maniac. 「Ha… hahaha… My own blood… It's been such a long time since I last bleed.」

「Not enough…. I need more…」Ryan used his sword to prop him up.「JUST DIEEE, AKABAN!!!」Rays of lightning suddenly struck down at Akaban from the cloudy sky. Had this attack been launched at the man moments ago, he would have shrugged it off, but now, with the metal scalpels that pierced his body used as conductors, electricity easily broke through his defense and directly made contact with his flesh, causing a loud explosion. Not giving Akaban any chance to counterattack, Ryan continued his assault, with small sparks starting to coalesce around all pieces of metals around the battlefield before they all slipped away and escaped from their confused owners' hands. The swords, shields, halberds, all types of weapons floated up before flinging themselves at the black coat hero, who was already dropping down to his knee after receiving a direct lighting attack. Some of the weapons had appeared to finally plunge deep into his flesh while more and more flying off toward his unmoving body. In the end, a giant ball of metal weapons had enveloped the hero before they were being bent and condensed inward. As Ryan clenched his fist tighter and tighter, the giant pile of weapons slowly crumbled into a dense metal ball that entrapped Akaban inside. 

「This is Ryan chan's Ultimate Arte?」Rowan leaned back.「What is it?」

「... It… it seems like he can control metals…」Ren, the more experienced fighter between the two, finally realized.「His Ultimate Arte granted him the power over Magnetism? It looks to me that because Akaban's scalpels were made from metals, Ryan was able to control them and redirected them at the man. Such a counterattack caught him in a surprise, enough to wound him. Then, taking advantage of the blades that have already pierced through Akaban's defense, Ryan followed up by attacking him with his Lightning elementals… and lastly, crushed him inside that … giant metal ball thing made by the weapons around here.」

「Did we win then?」Rowan couldn't help but grin. 

「If Ryan really breached Akaban's defense, then… maybe, we really have wo…」

BAMMMM

Before Ren could finish his sentence, the giant metal ball made from weapons suddenly shattered and exploded into pieces. In the middle, Akaban, who was still on his knee while being fully covered in his own blood, slowly stood up. 

「Impossible… He's still alive…」

「Look at those injuries… any normal human being would have already died from the blood loss alone.」Rowan gritted his teeth in frustration.

「How?? Why won't you die?」Ryan cried out. 

「Who knows. I wondered the same question many times before.」Akaban looked at his blood soaked hand as strips of blood were unnaturally floating and circling around him.「What's your name again, Young man? Was it… Ryan?」

「None of your business. Why do you need to know?」The blond teenager, who was completely exhausted after overexerting himself, defiantly responded.

「Because you really caught my attention. No one has inflicted such injuries onto me like this for quite some time… No one has used my own weapons against me like you did. Granted, I merely caught off guard by your awakening of an Ultimate Arte, but it still counts.」Akaban wiped the blood off his face.「It's just… 」

「Just?」

「Just too wasteful to kill you off now… Maybe giving sometimes, you may truly give me some entertainment in the future, little hero.」

「Haaa… it doesn't matter if I die! I will not let you leave this battlefield unharmed. Not when you're trying to go after Master!!!」grunted Ryan and he inched forward. 

「Ryan's right!!!」Rowan and Ren stood up from behind Akaban.

「You have to step over our dead bodies if you want to …」Ren suddenly stopped short his sentence and looked up into the cloudy sky.「Yue?」

「Heh… Let's postpone your death sentence here.」Akaban cracked his neck.「Because something even more interesting is disrupting our fight right now.」

All of the sudden, a large floating island abruptly broke through the layers of clouds that covered the morning sky as it seemingly fell through the sky as if it was a comet crashing down the earth.

「「「What's… that?」」」All three of Kibadios' harem members asked.