After running for what felt like minutes, I managed to get Yuki and myself out of the forest, where I saw Vanye, Lazuli, Jasmine, Talis, and a somewhat healed Clampa; setting Yuki down, I heaved a sigh of relief, glad that they were safe. "You two are okay, right?" "Yeah, we're fine, Jasmine." As Yuki responded to Jasmine while removing her helmet, I stepped forward, following right behind her, only to freeze.
The dread that had disappeared when we exited the forest suddenly returned in full force, causing me to cough blood, earning me my wife's concern, but I had time to respond to them when I heard the faint sounds of footsteps from behind. Unsheathing Trina and Zartha from my body, I turned around, eyeing the forest that not even [Heroes Gaze] could pierce through now.
"A-Alex-" "GO! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Snapping my head behind me, I yelled furiously at them all, causing them to flinch, but I only grew angrier when I saw them just standing there. "DID I FUCKING STUTTER!? LEAVE! YOU'RE ONLY HOLDING ME BACK!" Finally, after practically barking orders at them, only then did they react by running away.
"Alex…" "Yuki, please, just go." Even if I was looking at Yuki, I could still clearly see her hesitant expression, but in the end, she followed the others, chasing behind them, doing their damndest to gain distance between whatever was approaching us.
With me being the only thing standing between whatever was in that forest and my family, I gripped my greatswords tighter than ever while I stared at the forest; it was remarkable that my intense gaze hadn't set a tree on fire. As the footsteps grew louder, eventually, the person emerged from the forest, and part of me was taken aback when I saw her.
She was a young woman, probably around my age, and she was beautiful, the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on; everything about her was perfect: her face, skin, hair, and her figure. I would've called her a Goddess if it weren't for one thing: her eyes. Her eyes, while beautiful, contained nothing within them, no light, no life; even the shadows themselves seemed to keep their distance, afraid of being swallowed.
'W-What the hell is that?' Nervously gulping, I analyzed her status, but almost everything was hidden except for a few things.
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Name: Katrina
Species: High-Human
Tier: 3
Level: 356
Experience: [9%]
Class: Destroyer (Genesis)
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Besides the most basic information, everything else about Katrina was hidden, yet even her bare bones information had shocked me. This was my first time encountering another high-human, yet what truly shocked me wasn't her species, no, it was her class.
'Destroyer? Genesis?' According to Master, Genesis was a level that hadn't existed until I was born with the [Hero] class, but now there was someone else with a similar level, not to mention, just from the names alone, we seemed to be polar opposites.
Now, I had no intention of stopping some demon king or something, but this? This was different. I knew, maybe it was an instinct as the hero, or perhaps it was something everyone else could sense, but within the depths of my very being, I knew… 'I need to stop her.'
Just as those thoughts crossed my mind with utmost determination, I felt Katrina analyze my stats, causing her face, which had been utterly devoid of expression, to suddenly break as I saw a sliver of curiosity flash through her eyes. "Hero? You're no Hero." Furrowing my brows at her words, she suddenly opened her hand, revealing a deep blackness that was unlike shadows, and it felt sinister.
Heeding her command, the blackness formed the shape of a scythe, which she grabbed with both hands, all while staring into my eyes. Without warning, Katrina suddenly lunged at me, causing me to grit my teeth as I swung Zartha and Trina upwards, blocking her scythe, causing us to enter a deadlock with our faces merely inches apart.
Pushing her off me, flinging her back into the forest, I chased after her, using everything I had learned to increase my power as I swung my blades, launching two full-powered [Void Slash], causing them to cleanly cut through the air and trees in their way, but with an upward slash, Katrina slashed right through them before stabbing the butt of her staff onto the ground.
Slowly, the darkness of her staff began moving, snaking onto her arm, reaching her shoulder in only a few seconds before expanding all around her, forming protective armor. 'Fuck me.' Tightly clenching her scythe, Katrina casually swung it, prompting the surrounding trees to disintegrate, causing my eyes to widen as what she did wasn't simple, disintegration like Vanye.
However, I wasn't given time to truly understand the implications of what she just did as she lunged at me, moving far faster than before, forcing me to parry with Zartha, knocking her curved blade to the side, while she followed up by hitting my face with the butt of her pole, causing me to click my tongue. 'Not only faster but stronger as well.'
Landing on the ground, Katrina kicked me, which I blocked with my own leg while enveloping Zartha within space mana and Trina with fire and wind mana before slashing downwards, nicking her skin through the armor. Annoyed at my shallow attack, I pressed my advantage, quickly forcing her onto the defensive as I attacked nonstop, refusing to give her the chance to even form a counter-attack.
Realizing how inexperienced she was, I gave it everything I had, leaving behind several injuries, most of which were just shallow wounds, but even they would eventually stack up; I needed to kill her here and now, when she was still inexperienced, or next time, it'll be FAR more difficult.
Finally breaking past her defensive stance, I swiftly swung both of my swords, cutting through her wriggling armor, leaving behind two deep, bloody gashes across her chest while flinging her back. However, just as I dashed towards her to finish her off, the ground subtly shook, followed by a roar, but this time, it was several times closer. "ROOAAARRRR!"
Knowing what was to come, I gritted my teeth, ignoring my safety as I stabbed at Katrina just as the wave of overwhelming power slammed into me. Instantly, my vision swam, followed by immense pain in my left eye, next was my brain, which rattled like a baby's toy, then my organs, each one exploding within my body, and then finally, my skeleton, cracking and breaking underneath the intense power.
'I-I can't see.' Feeling the sensation of my blade stabbing into flesh, I limply fell onto the ground beside Katrina, who slowly stood up, her appearance nothing but a blob through my blurry vision as I realized I failed, the roar having deviated my stab away from her heart.
As my vision darkened slightly, I looked, spotting a massive blackish blob, the actual figure a blur, and not even a second later, I felt an intense pain around my waist while a deep, primordial darkness consumed me.
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Third POV
Sitting upright with a grunt of pain and phenomenal effort, Katrina grabbed Trina, who was stabbed just a few centimeters away from her heart, and pulled, removing the blade from her chest while the darkness seeped into the wound, plugging it. Glancing to her right, Katrina glanced at the massive, reptilian-sized head chewing upon the remains of Alexander's body, its massive teeth half the size of a fully grown human shredding his flesh and armor like they were paper.
As Katrina slowly stood up, receiving help from both the scythe and the reptilian monster the size of a three-story building, she took a few minutes to gather her bearings before raising her head, looking in the direction where Alexander's allies had fled. However, before she could chase after them, a massive sword arc with traces of divinity suddenly emerged from the depths of the monster's stomach, slicing it cleanly in half.
Quickly reacting, Katrina turned around, distancing herself as she gazed at the monster, which had accompanied her for nearly thirteen years. The monster was split in half longways, and within its midst stood Alexander, his body slowly dissolving in the stomach acid, yet he healed just as quickly.
With Trina in hand, Alexander snapped his gaze at Katrina, who, for the first time since escaping, flinched, causing a faint smile to make its way onto her face while her eyes finally contained an emotion. "Alexander." Muttered Katrina softly as she stared at Alex while a flying monster suddenly swooped down, picking her up and carrying her away.
Alexander, watching her leave, points his sword at her, launching lightning bolts her way, yet a swarm of flying monsters emerges from the forest, creating a blanket within the sky as they protect Katrina's retreat. Gritting his teeth, the remaining half of his mana is absorbed into Trina, causing him to clench his pained heart before slashing his sword, launching a massive, wide-arc with traces of divinity, cutting through every monster within its path.
However, when the sky was finally clear, Katrina's figure was nothing but a speck within the sky, and with no mana to chase after, he was forced to watch her successfully flee.