Requiem Of A Failed Hero

The air changed, everything happened so fast.

Raith's eyes were not that of an amateur, he had been able to so far follow even the quickest of movements, when the efficiency of God's eye was added to it. He could practically depict a person movement a second or two before they entered that movement, Godeye absorbed that movement with keen details and transferred it to his brain.

So when it came to predicting and following movement, Raith wasn't lacking in anyway. He was on point.

But the monk's pattern was too fast, before his eyes could tell what was happening, the monk was already in front of him. The world seemed to slow down from Raith's vantage point as the monk with a purple aura oozing from his palm struck Raith's chest, his arm leaving its mark and shooting out an expanse of wind that tore Raith's durable fabric from the bank.

Afterwards, Raith was hauled away like a catapulted stone, moving at a superspeed that he couldn't have helped himself against. He went on to crash in and out of what was left of the mountains after the monk's fight with Li Mingwu.

Raith tumbled to the ground and vomited blood. He grabbed his chest and found it hard to breath for a few seconds but it got better with time.

'Ahh! Ahhhaa... what the hell was that?'

[I think the monster is growing]

'Growing how?'

[It is adjusting to the level of difficulty you bring to it]

'Sage, I didn't even bring any difficulty, I'm not even difficult. At all!' Raith refuted internally.

[We have to find a way to defeat this thing]

[We still have the Greed domain, we can do this]

Raith stood back up with Sage's words. He looked around, no signs of the monk.

"Where the hell is he now?" Raith said under his lips while he darted his eyes left and right to find out.

[Behind you!!]

Raith felt chills run down his spine just as Sage warned, he ducked immediately not sure what was coming from him. His eyes widened with what he saw next.

The mountains landscape in front of him was horizontally slashed, over five hundred meters wide, was separated hovering into the air.

"Fuck!"

Raith with a horrified expression looked back to look at the monk with its oozing purple aura palm.

'He slashed mountains with just his palm?'

Raith wanted to die of shock but there was no time—he gave as much space as he could, leaping away the moment he looked back. But the monk was too fast.

It was right in front of him, pulling back its ram with palm pointed forward, he shot it right at Raith's face. But Raith stabbed a sword into the hand. It was just a hair's breadth away from stabbing into his widened eyes.

Crimson blood began to drop from the monster's hand which shocked Raith. It was a stone but his blade had through.

The monk disappeared and appeared afar, standing in the air. All the while, it's eyes was closed–slightly, it opened its eyes to look at the wound and blood overflowing from its hand.

Then it raised its head to look at the dark skies. It then crouched in the air and as sprang up into the sky with a sound tearing speed.

Raith squinted his eyes.

'What is this bastard trying to do now.'

[He seems to have figured out the reason why it has lost tur durability of its skin]

'Huh? It did? Why did it lose it though?'

[I can't believe you didn't figure that out. Even a monster figured it out]

'Don't talk to me like that, this is the wrong time for that. Why did it loose its skin durability before it does something bad'

[Your domain is sapping its away]

'Uh, so that was it? I guessed as much actually'

[Yea, you sure did]

'Anyway what does it hope to accomplish by flying so high?'

[Destroy the domain from the top]

[Since domains are like veils casted over an area. It may have figured that there would be a point where it limit rests]

'Sage, isn't this thing too wise to be a monster, or are you giving it too much credit than it deserves'

[We will find out the answer to your question in a few seconds–

Tremble!!

The whole place vibrated with a loud thud.

Raith raise one of his eyebrows.

"I think you are right, if so what do we do?"

[What else? This domain is the only reason you are able to bear this much of its onslaught. Should it be destroyed that's a dead game for you]

"Ahhh!!" Raith frustratingly scratched his head.

He lowered his legs to gather momentum and shot into the air. Leaving a splinter of stones in his wake.

Raith pierced through the wind at astonishing speed, almost like a launched missile.

Passing a few clouds, he reached where the monk was. The monk was constantly burying heavy palm strike into the sky. On a first glance, it looked like just the sky but the moment the monk's strike shook the air, a translucent veil could be seen for a second thereabout, then it would revert to the usual sky.

Even with the constant striking, the domain was not budging a tiny bit. Made Raith proud..

"What do you think a ruler's domain is some elastic you can just tear through?!" Raith shouted and flew towards the monster.

Seeing him coming, it's attention shifted and it pointed one hand forward.

"Ikmash!"

With the monster's loud shout, a force pulled Raith back. Slamming him back to the ground in a split second. Raith had no idea where it had come from, the distance he had flown to meet the monster was comparatively far, there's no way he should have been slammed on the ground in the twinkle of an eye.

The ground shattered into webbed splinters of stone and was elevated by the slamming force. Raith's back was assaulted by a tremendous riot of sharp pain, striking through every nerve.

Blood splattered from his nose and mouth upon the impact, and even after, he wouldn't stop vomiting, a puddle was almost being formed with the amount of blood he was losing.

"Ah fuck..." Raith struggled to catch his breath. All his body hurt.

'I must say, I miss the times I had soldiers to back me up. I know it sucks to rely on others but damn I loved it a lot'

Raith gritted his teeth in pain, he really would have to see this through all by himself. Moreso, he couldn't afford to receive a serious injury.

'I hate this'

The struggles were annoying. He had thought, he was going to sweep into this place. Take the monster strong and defeat it then sweep out but right now he was struggling.

Looking back at how he confidently talked to Ruan Zhaohui, he felt quite stupid.

'Damn, I'm getting every ounce of my money from that lady' He gritted his teeth once.

Shoving the torment of pain that raided his back, Raith slowly stood up. He first stopped on his knee, his hand resting on it. He took a few breath and then slowly to his feet he stood.

Then he looked up again. 

"What are the ranged skills we have to use?"

[Do you want me to activate skill Avarice Torrent?]

"Do"

[Activating Skill: AVARICE TORRENT]

In a moment, a golden aura sprawled over the air in front of Raith, and began to materialize into the black sword Raith could manifest, all though they were all gold.

'All of them look like Bal? Why?'

[Because you don't have any more gold in your dark sea. Hence, your blood swords are being used as payment. You will lose a lot of blood in the activation for this skill]

"Ah, alright damn. Just shoot it already."

All the swords shot forward, carrying trails of golden light, they sky rumbled with metallic sounds as the torrent of sword surged with lightning speed and blinding lights, bashing their targets relentlessly and birthing an explosion in the air that painted the whole sky with chaos.

The corner of Raith's lips shivered as it curved up.

'That firepower is insane,' he mused.

Following the next second as Raith attempted to move, he got dizzy and almost fell but picked stopped by resting his hand on his knee and bending a little to get himself.

[You have lost too much blood]

[You cannot continue to use the swords. It will affect your Stamina]

"I know right? But it isn't like there is another way. I have a feeling that strike is not enough to deal fatal damage to the monk"

Just as Raith spoke, a large crash was embedded into the ground a hundred and sixty meters ahead of him. He raised his head in high up.

'Did we get him'

Clouds of dust gathered around the crash area, he couldn't see anything yet so he strained his eyes more. Now, he could see a figure covered by the cloud of dust, it was standing up and walking out of the cloud.

The pace slowly picked up and it began to run. It flashed out of the cloud of dust, appearing by Raith's side, twirling in the air and landing him a kick that hauled him away.