Chapter 90 The Monarch Of The Autumn Forest [6] - Puppeteer [2]

[The chapter before this has been edited. There is a time stamp at the top of the last chapter for you.]

Everyone in the area frowned, yet it was the monster who was taking the full brunt of Lloyd's killing intent. They all threw Lloyd a glance, yet they knew what was more important at that moment. Or at least what was more important to them.

Why would Lloyd spend so much time with them if he was a void walker? Why would he care if Roderick died? Why did he just break through into the first commandment? What were his motives if he wasn't there to kill them?

Was any of it real?

Was the meeting between Lloyd, Roderick, and Hime not a coincidence?

What if it's part of his master plan?

What if he planned all this? What if he is the reason Roderick is dead?

Those were the questions running through everyone's minds at that moment; however, while some, like Tina, had already written out Lloyd as a void walker, others felt their rage turning toward something else.

"Have I angered the void walker?! Hahahahahehehehe. I've never seen one so weak before." The monster snickered as it widened the space between its legs, lowered its body, and hung its lifeless arms to the ground.

A cruel smile appeared on its face, stretching from ear to ear, while its eyes glowed brighter than ever.

"How about I dissect your dead body?" It snapped its head to the right and instantly shot toward Lloyd.

[Shadow Expansion]

[Shadow Enhancment]

[Shadow Wings]

Shadows instantly shrouded Lloyd and increased his strength, yet instead of fighting the monster head-on, he did the one thing it didn't expect.

*Flap*

"Running away are we?" The monster asked, yet Lloyd simply stared at it from the air without answering.

'I don't want to waste using the rest of my breakthrough on this monster, but if I try to focus on breaking through, this bastard will attack me without a doubt.' Lloyd inwardly thought.

'Fuck it. This thing killed... It killed Roderick, and I will avenge him with or without anyone else.' Lloyd clapped his hands together as he remembered the information that had been poured into his mind.

*'When you start breaking through, remember one thing.'* Lloyd recalled the voice's words.

*' Your connection to the void will grow stronger; therefore, your understanding will increase alongside it... Yet as a void walker, you can reach unity with it. The moment you manipulate the void...'*

"The void becomes an extension of me..." Lloyd muttered while dropping to the ground, this time surrounded by his teammates.

However, despite all of them looking toward the monster with hatred, something overcame their body the moment Lloyd landed amongst them, causing them to move away from him.

Even Tina, to who Lloyd had thoughts of expressing his void walker side of him to, moved away from him and stayed at an angle that gave them a direct eye line of him.

While they all knew the monster was the enemy then, they could no longer trust Lloyd since he could be the enemy the moment the creature died.

Seeing that his teammates were wary of him, it slightly killed Lloyd on the inside, as if salt had been poured on the gaping wound that was Roderick's death.

Taking out his blades, Lloyd held them both at his sides before launching forward.

[Aspect of Void]

Purple runes trickled through Lloyd's blades before they were quickly covered in blue flames.

'Looks like I can only use aspect of void on one thing at a time.' Lloyd thought when his flames didn't turn purple.

Shooting past the rest of his teammates like a raven's shadow, Lloyd attacked and swung at the monster with a flurry of swings, yet when it saw him coming, it simply smiled.

"Come on, come on! Don't hesitate!" The monster taunted, laughing wickedly at the fact that Lloyd was trying to fight it.

"You can't hit me with your sword like that!" The monster said, smiling as it continued to taunt him.

Lloyd kept swinging his blade as fast as he could, but it seemed the monster could block every single strike.

*Thwack.* *Thwack.* *Thwack.*

Each strike fell short of the monster and sent it back a few steps, which caused the beast to laugh even louder.

"Hahaha! You think you're going to beat me with swords? Let me show you how it's done."

Lloyd gritted as he focused on the center of the monster's chest.

He wasn't going to let the creature mock him. He wouldn't allow himself to feel fear.

His blood boiled with rage, allowing him to forget the pain of Roderick's loss for a moment, yet the pain came back threefold and fueled Lloyd's rage once more.

This time he charged straight ahead, not caring if he took damage because of it.

He was becoming narrow-minded, yet he did not care. It was almost light he had gone into a berserk state, and that theory was only amplified after a wave of bloodlust shot out of his body and pulverized the grass around him as if it had real form.

The monster smiled at Lloyd's futile attempts at beating it, yet despite losing all his team's trust, every single one of them got into position. Everyone except Veronica, who, for some reason, had completely disappeared.

Swinging his blades at the creature, Lloyd watched it avoid and block most of his attacks before it extended its nails and swung toward his head.

However, before the swing could reach him, Lloyd made an uncomfortable turn as his feet exploded with blue flames, catapulting his kick right into the monster's face.

"I have to ask myself, did I really wait a month and a half for this?" The monster sneered, its face completely unscathed by the attack despite taking it head-on.

Lloyd's eyes widened slightly as he watched the monster's hand reach out for his leg. He quickly tried to focus on a coordinate for him to teleport to, yet before he could vanish, an iron-clad grip grabbed onto his ankle while the sound of cracking resounded throughout the forest.

"Ahh!" Lloyd roared and tried to kick the monster in the face for it to let go, yet it remained completely unscathed with a menacing grin on its face.

"Let go." A void was ordered. The instant the monster looked towards the source of the voice, however-

[Sky Dragon Technique]

The silhouette of a blue dragon with long wooden horns covered Rex's foot before that very foot slammed straight into the monster's face, causing it to loosen its grip upon Lloyd's ankle before being thrown back a few meters.

However, the monster quickly regained its balance by landing on its hands, but before it could complete the flip, pair of clawed hands shot towards its face, giving it a millisecond to dodge the attack.

Spinning on the palm of his hand, the monster avoided the attack by less than half an inch, seeing Hime's claws as more dangerous than Lloyd's. Lloyd's blades were covered in void runes.

Then the next attack happened.

A powerful blast of wind rushed forth from the dragon's mouth, forcing the monster to evade again. Then the air rushed out of the way, forming a wind wall between them.

With a mighty roar, the dragon silhouette released a blast of fire directly behind it. The fire rushed down the wind wall, pushing it back just enough to give the monster room to maneuver.

'Tina's magic.' Lloyd thought when looking at the fire and wind magic before him.

*Swoosh*

*Swoosh*

*Swoosh*

Several humanoid figures covered in dark flames shot toward the monster at subsonic speeds.

While some used daggers, hammers, and axes, others used swords, bows, and staffs to fight the monster. Of course, it had no problem killing these corpse-like creatures that were eerily familiar, yet it was only when he shot his hand through the last one that he realized that they were all actually dead.

'A puppeteer? How interesting.' It thought while pointing a finger toward where Lachlan stood.

"I think your forgetting something." Felix whispered with an enormous sword in his right hand as he swung it with amazing speed toward the monster's head.

But the blow missed as the monster easily blocked it with both arms.

"That wasn't so bad. What do you say though, my turn?" The monster grinned, and just when Felix crossed its arms, getting ready for the incoming blow to its stomach, the monster flickered before disappearing as hundreds of cracks formed in the ground and large chunks of the dirt below them flew in the air.

*Boom*

The sound of the air literally exploding as the monster moved through it caught everyone's attention. Before anyone could react to the sudden speed, the monster appeared before Rex, its foot in front of his face. Yet, instead of landing a direct hit and moving away, the monster stomped down onto Rex's face, instantly burying his head into the ground before flickering away once again.

Its eyes traveled through the scenery, and when it saw Lachlan shouting Rex's name, it grinned and appeared behind him.

"Lachlan! Move!" Lloyd roared, but it was far too late.

A hand shot through Lachlan's chest, destroying his heart and killing him instantly.