Chapter 360 A Loser
There was no way forward, Raith couldn't afford to slack one bit - the monk also didn't seem to be getting faster or its punch pulling stronger force. To put it in a way, both of them seemed to have reach a grey line. They had touched their limit.
Although the monk still had skills up it sleeves, so did Raith, a way to counter them. And the monk seems to have come to that understanding. Now, it was headstrong about pulverizing Raith's with his punches. Every blow that Raith somehow managed to dodge was an evident of that - they pulverized the wind and made the air shake with a fearful roar.
Raith dodged and weaved, lunged counter attacks at the slightest of chances he could get. But the monk was faster, swift and brief with its punches.
Raith felt his his muscles giving in, throbbing with pain. He wanted to jump back, he thought about it. But he also knew, the moment he did... the monster would follow him faster than he can create a distance and that would be leaving himself wide open to itm
Raith ignored his thoughts and got stubborn, swiping his sword diagonally upwards, the monster retracted its head to dodge. Raith swung it back down, followed with a swift spin with the left sword aimed to slash of the monk's neck.
Of course, he knew it wasn't going to be successful. He had just decided to put his all into this. Since he was fighting for dear life.
He continued to press his advantage, slowly beginning to shift towards an active onslaught. The monk tried, lunged several attacks at Raith, he took every one of them on his blades and didn't take a moment of respite, he would lunge back a counter before even taking the next step, not caring if it was careless of him.
The monster was fast and Raith was beginning to understand that in order to match that level of his speed, he had to stop thinking. He had Sage. If there was a way to connect his actions to her thoughts and save himself the 0.001 second it took to execute a thought, then maybe there would be a significant increase in his speed and then he might be able to match the monk's speed.
This was why Raith began a reckless fight. Not thinking and just fighting. The number of slashes that his body incurred significantly increased, the monk was still very fast, and it was not totally possible for Raith to react purely on impulse.
His body was trying but it was hard not to think. Sometimes when the monster's bunch comes too late before he could block.
'Oh crap!' Was enough of thought to make his body lose focus.
To get to the level of speed he wanted, Raith needed to relinquish his thoughts in all totality. He needed to find a way to do it. This would probably have had more chances of success had he tried it while he was training.
But he never thought of it. There have never been a situation where he needed to think of it... and so, here he was trying to do the impossible with his life hanging on the line.
Raith pulled himself back, and twirled as fast as he can to launched a dual arched strike in from the monk's left. The monk smashed its fist into his ribcage before he could finish twirled, it grabbed his hair and slammed him to the ground and kicked him away.
Raith's body flung helplessly through the air. The monster got to it in a jiffy and buried its palm into his back. His body crashed into the ground with a lightning speed, disembowelling the ground its, broken shards of stone flew in all directions.
The monk still did not relent, with its stone body gone it had increased the ratio of its ferocity snd sought to take care of Raith with urgency.
Although that was so hard because he wouldn't die. The monk wore a downturned expression and he dealt with Raith over and over again.
Raith had managed to spurl away from the ground and avoid the purple ball of flames that buried the ground and caused an explosion that shrouded the land in a blinding purple light with the shades of darkness itself.
Although he didn't come out of it unscathed, he still survived and his domain was still there. That was after all the reason why he could take this level of damage and still be fine.
The domain of greed one way or the other reinforced his body. Although Raith wished he could discover more than just the body reinforcement it was doing.
He ran as fast as he could, as the monk reached out for him with its leg floating above the ground. Raith's body was almost tearing through the wind as he pushed his legs to their limit running away the monk's fiery grip. Jumping over falling trees and avoiding standing ones, leaping over whatever obstacles pose to slow him down... the scenery itself become a blue of hues before his eyes.
And yet the monk was persistently on his back. Unrelenting, eyes burning with viciousness, wickedly outstretched arm desperately trying to crush any of his part its grips. nOve/lb-In
The pursuit caused a transcendental destruction, the land suffered the impacts of the blows that missed Raith. Sometimes, despite Raith's desperate effort to avoid some obstacles, he would crash into rocks, sending splinters across every directions. Just before the monk further destroyed the place he would be gone.
But the pursuit wasn't coming to and - they became streaks of light, their body merging with the blurs of their surrounding as they perceived it. Raith was lost in an extreme struggle to prevent the monk from obliterating him in any way.
And the wind howled violently his eyes, metallic scents filled his nose and sometimes his vision struggled to grasp what it was in front of him, his movement were fast than his eyes could cope.
He was slowly getting faster, the distance between he and the monk growing wider. But successfully outrunning the monk was no way out of this situation, he still needed to fight. Damn, he needed a breakthrough.
With a fleeting thought, Raith tripped and tumbled over tremendously thrashing rocks as he went on a roll like spun coin.
He came to a stop and the monk landed in front of him, slowly raising its leg to dismantle head.
Raith was face-to-the-ground and was just trying to get up with blood dripping from his nose, slimy like saliva. His face was bruised all over, blood streamed down from his forehead through one side of his face and down his jaw, staining his clothes.
The monster slammed down its leg on his shoulder pushing him back to the ground. A slight tremor ran through the ground.
Raith stayed pinned to thr ground, the monster's heavy feet on his shoulder.
Was this the end? Was it that no matter how much he tried he was nothing without the abyss? Was that really his reality? The words Sage had said was sweet but it was getting harder to hang on.
The pain, Raith was subtly being tempted to give in. He was tired, he wanted to rest and some other side seem to be calling him to absolute ease. Moments like this are when one began to question what living has been for them so far.
When a certain feeling to abandon it all and just gives in overwhelms them. The feeling is so kind and nice, it promises no stress and just beckons them to stop trying so much.
Death has a cold embrace, for one who has been trapped in a fruitless effort, it can seem like rest but also it is robbing one of the time to see the results of one's effort.
Raith had never experienced ease. Even when power came from the abyss, he paid a dear price for it, dying every time. He died so much that he wasn't scared of dying now.
Maybe that was why the thought of it felt pleasing now.
But really that was just the thought pattern of a loser. Yes, a loser.
A weak minded person. A man who is not strong enough to give what it takes. He had come so far and yet he is going to give up? Give the abyss the choice of being right? That he can't be anything without the abyss.
Raith gritted his teeth. It sucked.
"Damn it suckssss!!!" He shouted smashing his fist to the ground.
A red and black aura exploded from him rioting waves. The monk gave heed to its senses and jumped away in an instant.
"Damnitttt! I want power goddamnnit!!! I want to be strong too!" Raith clenched his fist on the ground, grabbing the crumbles of rocked and crushing them as he tightened his fist.
He was in agony, he was in pain, he was desperate. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to be weak. He didn't want to struggle so much. He hated it. He hated this feeling. He hated it with all his gut.
He wanted more!
[You have met the conditions]
[Son Of Failure will be activated]
[You have completely assimilated with greed]
[Your desire for more shall be the source of your strength]
[Son Of Failure has been equipped has player class]
[Skill 'Failure Forged' has been created]
[Skill 'Copy' has been created]
[Skill 'Retry' has been created]
[You have gained a god-tier class]
[You have gained +100 cosmic reputation]