Far earlier, before the ward collapsed, Ashhart had felt it— the creature passing the border and tearing through the Ward barrier. And the section of the ward broke like glass, before it could auto repair itself.
And after the creature entered the ward by tearing through it, Marshal Vaerin of southern border immediately ordered Selka the master of Rune Consortium to repair it as soon as possible, lest the infested sunlight leak inside and make everything more complicated.
The warmth of the sun was nothing like it had been before the seep. It was also changed for worse after the incident remembered as The Aeonic Seep.
The sun now corrupted with the Aeonic essence, had the power to make walking terrors from the inanimate object.
And that was the sole reason the Dawnshroud Ward was created, made by a forgotten savant to allow the humanity a second chance under the cruelty of sun. An effort to preserve the humanity in this ruined world.
Which was why Vaerin ordered Selka to speed up the recovery of Ward before they had to fight on two fronts simultaneously, even if it meant to thin out their whole forces for the wave.
Vaerin massaged his eyebrows, as he turned towards Asshart, who was leaning on his curved great sword.
"Can you defeat that creature?" he asked Ashhart.
Ashhart didn't say anything when he heard the question of Marshal. He only looked in the direction where the creature's mere presence brought dread upon everyone.
And just as the Marshal was about to ask again, Ashhart vanished with a trail of black streak before the Marshal.
It didn't even take Ashhart a couple of seconds before he arrived at the Warrior's Embrace, the sector just opposite to the southern border, crossing more than four hundred kilometres instantly.
And now, standing before the creature, Ashhart exhaled once— a slow and grounded breath.
The great sword on his back vibrated, as threads of illusory force tightened around it like the restraints on it were being freed slowly.
Ryke who stood to his side, had his pulse raced uncontrollably as a cold clarity hit him.
This wasn't looking like a boss fight. To him this was like two apex predators staring at each other. And— he was standing in the centre of it.
When the Nulith understood Ashhart calling it for the fight it leaned at him and growled.
"Theru may.... ul'vhar stronger...., laan'vhar... powerful… but shai aer'shul..... vhal'tronger from.... dhae fear that.... shai'aen surrounding."
Then before Ashhart could reply to it, its apertures flared open— one by one— as if a rotten flowers was blooming.
A tremor released through its cylindrical body, as the street began to shake.
It was not from an earthquake but— From the frequency.
A bass-deep vibration pulsed outward, breaking windows and turning those broken glass into humming shrapnel.
Civilians on the ground screamed in more incoherent terror— and those still conscious clawed more their heads as the infrasonic dread crushed them.
But— Ashhart he did not flinch to it.
He stood as if the wave passed through him like wind through the fog.
Then... he snapped. For a moment nothing happened.....but suddenly the madness of the people around began to quench.
They halted clawing their heads, the madness-ridden voice of theirs receding, before they began to drop unconscious.
Ashhart didn't do anything grand, what he did was simply, changing the direction of those infrasonic frequencies to save the surrounding people from their dreaded fortune.
The Nulith observing it growled again in annoyance and shifted its mass, angling trumpet like limbs toward Ashhart, as apertures of it dilated.
It began to build a new pulse inside its the biggest hole in its chest— denser, and focused, as if preparing a new symphony for killing.
Ryke who stood beside could also feel it, before he heard anything— as the illusory Nexus of his inside was vibrating like a cord. To him it felt like someone trying to speak to him through the rattling of his bones.
And then— the Nulith shifted, and no...it didn't run, instead it began to compress.
Air, sound, and... essence Aeon folded inward, before it launched itself like a bullet, its every limb snapping and turning it into a killing drill, pointed directly at Ashhart's chest.
The ground beneath its trail destroyed, pavements carved.
Ryke standing just at the side stumbled back from the sheer pressure and essence wave it radiated. Instinctively this made him lift his injured arm to shield him from it.
And as for who it was targeted? Ashhart, he simply tilted his head, took a single step— shifting half a foot at the left.
Just as he did it, the world's colours bent around for him, while motion-threads slid aside around his figure like a silk.
The Nulith tore past him, but its killing blow struck nothing but the diverted momentum.
Stone shattered where once Ashhart had been.
Ryke blinked in surprise as he saw this.
What Ashhart did, was not evasion, it was rejection.
As if the world around him itself refused to let the Nulith touch him, protecting him from the attack.
Ashhart exhaled once again, fingers brushing the hilt of his curved great sword.
"Is that it?" He asked in a lazy voice.
The colours around him tightened just as his fingers tightened around the hilt— the streaks of momentum began to fold inward, bending towards the blade like gravity.
Then spoke again, with voice steady and calm.
"…You said before that I was insulting you.... So here have some glimpses of it."
The Nulith in the back twisted its body back at him, its apertures full on work, screaming in infrasound waves that made the entire block convulse.
Ashhart's coat fluttered. But nothing else moved.
He stepped forward once, tapping the ground with his heel.
The air warped, this time not by the Nulith but by Ashhart.
And Ryke felt it— the shift, the pull, the subtle authority spreading over the area around.
Ashhart wasn't even preparing to attack, he was just unsheathing the blade of his.
As for Ryke who saw it from side line suddenly remembered that cut scene from the game.
A cut scene, so impressive that made most of player fan of Ashhart in an instant, a scene that was still etched inside his memories.
Two-Seal Series: Requiem Of The Returning Arc
Ryke heard Ashhart uttering this calmly, but their surrounding became anything but calm.
The world snapped into his rhythm, the moment Ashhart uttered it. Ryke saw him taking the stance with a breath and lifting the curved sword at the level of his face before flicking like a curved L motion.
And for the slash, Ryke saw it cut through the red swirl of Nulith's infrasonic howls.
He could feel the slash from Ashhart... stealing those momentum of howls while empowering itself as the first strike was connected.
For Ryke who saw this, found it was as terrifying as the cut scene. He only saw a colour streak past the Nulith, before a deep gash appearing in its hideous body.
The Nulith let out an agonised cry, but Ryke knew this wasn't all there was from Ashhart's attack.
And as if proving him correct, the slash curved. It returned from the back.
More fast.... And more deadly.
Then the second attack landed, ripping out a whole limb from below his arm or..... what it could be called.
The Nulith's cry became louder but to no avail, the slash came again, to give him more misery.
And thus a third slash was made.
Ryke knew this move.... It was the same attack that made every player of TAQ in his previous world a fan of Ashhart.
A never ending series of attack, that didn't care if his enemy was dead or not.... An attack that didn't care if the enemy before him yielded or not.... An attack that was made with only one motive.....be faster and deadlier..... and not dissipated till the enemy was cut into tiny pieces, that it can't be seen with naked vision anymore.
Or more precisely to the form only Ashhart could see or feel.
The attack that made the players give him a title on the forum.....
Blind Swordsman Of Seal