Chapter 85 The Monarch Of The Autumn Forest [1]

"I need your help..." Lloyd asked with a serious expression.

"On what?~" She asked with a cheeky smile on her face.

"Wow... I never knew you were such a pervert... Maybe I should ask someone else. At least then, I won't have to worry about being sexually harassed by a vampire in the middle of the night." Lloyd sighed before turning around.

However, before he could walk away, he felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from taking another step.

"Wait! I won't do anything! I promise!" She pleaded

"Nope." Lloyd tried to walk away, yet when he did, he couldn't help but feel like his legs were a little heavier than usual.

"Please! My life had been so boring. I've done nothing but fight weaklings since I came here. Make my life interesting!" She pleaded, yet this time she displayed a side of her filled with desperation that almost made Lloyd feel bad for her.

On the other hand, he would never be able to get the image of her clinging to his leg and fake crying out of his head.

"Sure, sure, whatever you want. Stop screaming like a widow with a recently deceased husband, and come with me. I can't have everyone waking up." Lloyd sighed.

"Oh no. What are you going to do with a maiden like me in the middle of the-"

"Say the word, and I'll send you to my shadow. Good luck finding a way out of there." Lloyd threatened, making her instantly seal her lips before making a zip motion, locking it, and throwing the key away.

While Veronica unironically thought that Lloyd would have taken her back to his tent, when they both left the protective bubble, she felt slightly suspicious of what they were doing. Of course, she still remained silent since Lloyd told her to, and even though she could have quite easily gotten out of Lloyd's shadow if she wanted to, she didn't want to get onto Lloyd's bad side.

Several monsters appeared on the way there, but since most of them were mid-stage first commandments or lower, Veronica did not have to do anything since Lloyd would instantly kill them by shooting a fire bullet through their brain, killing them all in an instant.

While the night was filled with powerful monsters that came in large amounts, this also meant that the weaker monsters would also come out simultaneously, creating a surplus of weaker monsters while also having a large amount of the stronger ones.

"Don't you want to sleep?" Veronica asked, completely forgetting about the seal she put on her lips.

"Not really. I have all the time in the world to sleep since I have tomorrow off, but for now, I want you to help me with something." Lloyd explained.

"What do you want me to help you with?" She asked.

"Well..." Lloyd thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to not tell the truth or at least bend it to a certain extent, yet when he turned around to look into Veronica's deep crimson eyes, most of his coherent thoughts went out of the window.

"I found this new way to cultivate. Whenever I kill a monster, I still have the energy inside the monster come into my body.

Then when I have a good amount of energy in me, I can divide it into different portions. Some of it is healing, some of it is used to replenish my mana pool, and the rest is used on each individual body part to strengthen the limb." Lloyd explained before frowning after realizing how much he had said.

"..." Veronica smiled brightly before stepping forward and tip-toeing to reach Lloyd's ear. Her stride was graceful, and the way she held her arms behind her back made her seem slightly dominant, yet at the same time, it felt like a way for her to puff out of her chest without making it obvious.

"I'm so glad you felt comfortable sharing your secret with me." She whispered, her breath tickling the back of Lloyd's ear while dyeing his face a new shade of pink.

They continued to walk for a few more minutes, and after walking for a while, they finally found themselves standing in front of what they could only describe as-

"Ooo! A bloodbath. How exciting!" Veronica squealed while Lloyd watched her do her thing while regretting the fact that he had brought her along.

"Looks like there was a battle here, and looking at how the orangy bears are the ones who are eating the bats, the bears were clearly superior despite their lower numbers." Lloyd analyzed.

"It looks like a few of them died. Look." Veronica pointed, making Lloyd turn his head to look at the pile of dead bears with a single bat standing them.

"I thought you said the bears won..." Veronica commented.

"Maybe they had a truce? Clearly, that bat is outnumbered... But-"

"It's stronger than bears on this side, who don't seem to have a leader anymore..." Veronica finished Lloyd's sentence off, making him raise a brow just for him to frown when he saw the proud smile on Veronica's face.

"Alright, you wanna kill them?" Veronica asked while tilting her head.

"Yeah. You're mainly here for support incase I almost die or something." Lloyd shrugged and stepped forward.

'The bat is half-step second commandment, and the bears are all peak first commandment... Alright, let's do this." Lloyd thought while dashing toward the bat first.

[Presence Concealment]

[Shadow Enhancement]

*BOOM*

Before the bat could even react to him suddenly disappearing, Lloyd appeared in front of its head with his hand cocked back as mana surged to his arm.

His fist moved like lightning, and within an instant, it connected with the bat's head, sending it rolling several meters away.

'I could use my lightning, but it is nowhere are strong as my shadows or my flames...' Lloyd thought to himself before dashing forward, yet the bat was ready this time.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Hearing the sound of two titans clashing, the bears tried to run away, yet the moment they did, they felt their bodies freeze in place, their muscles unwilling to move an inch despite trying their hardest.

[Blood Control - Motion Zero]

Veronica thought while holding her hand out and freezing the bears in place before looking back at where Lloyd was, watching his battle from the highest branch she could find in the area around them.

As the battle between Lloyd and the enormous bat raged on, the autumn forest leaves around them rustled and shook with the force of their blows. Lloyd's shadow powers were put to the test as he fought to defend himself against the bat's sharp claws and teeth.

The bat seemed to possess an almost unending supply of energy, its wings beating wildly as it tried to get the upper hand. Lloyd, however, was not one to be underestimated. He summoned a series of shadow arrows and shot them at the bat, each one finding its mark and causing the bat to cry out in pain.

Despite the bat's strength, the unpredictable way that Lloyd used his shadow abilities slightly overwhelmed the bat.

With Lloyd's eyes glowing purple, Lloyd smiled before-

[Shadow Expand]

[Shadow Enhancment]

The size of his shadow increased, before the very same shadow wrapped around Lloyd's already shrouded body, boosting his own strength and allowing him to land powerful blows on the bat.

However, a problem was quickly becoming more and more apparent...

'That little shit is flying too high.' Lloyd thought with gritted teeth, but that's when he remembered that the bat wasn't the only thing that could fly.

[Shadow Wings]

Slowly, the shadows shrouding his entire body began to lessen slightly, yet they weren't dissipating... In fact, it was quite the opposite.

The shadows slowly thickened near Lloyd's back before they morphed and transformed into a pair of two large black wings, spanning three meters in wingspan.

The wings shifted and flickered like they were alive, while the aura they gave off was sinister enough for even Veronica to feel them despite being several dozen meters away.

"What in the world-" She muttered, yet the sound of a loud explosion cut in before she could finish her sentence.

*BOOM*

Lloyd was catapulted up by the sheer power behind his wings and his [Flame Control], instantly reaching the same altitude as the bat, who froze in place for a moment.

Yet a moment was all Lloyd needed.

Speeding forward with a trail of blue flames left behind him, Lloyd reached the bat instantly before raising the blades he had taken out of his storage since he had completely forgotten to retrieve his katana from when he had dropped it earlier.

Razor sharp, the blades covered in blue flames hovered menacingly near the bat before Lloyd swung them faster than a blink of an eye.

The bat quickly moved out of the way and tried to attack from a distance, yet it was all in vain as Lloyd managed to strike it repeatedly with his flurry of fiery swings.

Finally, Lloyd's blades hit their mark and sliced the bat in half with a loud [CRACK], its body thudding against the ground as its blood oozed out all around it.

'We're pretty high up, and at the state that my body is in, I could probably survive a fall like this, right?' Lloyd asked himself while looking down at the forest below him.

From his perspective, the trees looked like ants, and the slowly falling back only shrunk in size the further they dropped.

Lloyd, knew that it would most likely survive the fall, so without thinking twice, Lloyd crossed his blades over his shoulders before engulfing them in blue flames that slowly condensed over the blade, making it twice as large as before.

[Shadow Wing + Flame Control]

The shadowy feathers on Lloyd's wings lit aflame while the shadows shrouding his body condensed as if they were trying to brace Lloyd for the G-force that was about to him.

[Black Shooting Star]

Lloyd's wings flapped for the last time, the tips of his black feathers becoming light blue as they all acted like thrust engines.

Lloyd looked like a black and light blue star shooting down from the sky, and before he knew it, he had broken several sound barriers before he found himself in front of the bat.

With the bat under his foot with both of them shooting toward the ground at the highest speed possible, Lloyd finally swung his blades right before they hit the ground, an action that not only incinerated the bat, but also broke his fall and sent out two pale blue arches of flames out of his blades that shot out through the forest for several meters in each direction.

Lloyd landed gracefully on his feet as if he had been doing this since he was born while the last of his feathers dissipated into shadows before finally looking up at Veronica waiting for him on her branch.

*Clap Clap Clap*

"Well done... I'm actually pretty impressed." Veronica complimented, yet despite knowing Veronica for smiling around him all the time, for once, her smile actually seemed genuine... Something that weirdly warmed his none, existent heart.