Chapter 10 - New Nickname?!

Just like when he had fought with the first mermen in Altean City, Karna’s senses sharpened at that moment, and time itself seemed to slow. He ducked his head to the side and avoided the hand that had been trying to grab his face.

He jumped back and took some distance from the strange man.

“Attacking without explaining anything? Shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?” Karna asked. Although he seemed calm on the outside, his mind was filled with questions.

{Who is this man? What does he want? He said something about us killing his subordinates?}

“Oya. He dodged!” the little girl accompanying the man exclaimed. Karna carefully observed the strange pair. The man was around six feet tall. His features looked ordinary, just like an average salaryman back on Earth. But the speed that he had just displayed was far from ordinary. The girl on the other hand was probably around five feet tall and didn’t look older than twelve. She was wearing a simple white dress.

“Tch…” the man seemed annoyed that Karna had managed to dodge.

He vanished.

{Huh? What?}

Karna felt himself being lifted off the ground. Before he realized what was happening, his head was slammed into the ground. Even though the snow had cushioned his fall, it felt like he had slammed into a brick wall.

A sharp pain erupted from the back of his head. He tried to stand up but the man was holding his head down.

“Oi, release me.”

The man didn’t release him but instead strengthened his grip.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Karna said. If this man was going to keep attacking, Karna had no reason not to fight back. Human or not, whoever disturbed his peaceful monster-hunting time with Aika was an enemy.

Karna threw a punch. He couldn’t see because the man’s hand was covering his face but he could still guess that the man was standing right on top of him. The wind roared as the snow around him was blown away. The hand on his face was taken off.

“That hurts…” Karna quickly stood up. The man, on the other hand, didn’t look like he had gotten hit by the shockwave. He was standing beside the girl.

“You. You’re not human, are you?” the man asked. Even though he remained expressionless, he sounded a little surprised.

Karna replied with questions of his own. “ So who are you? Why are you attacking us? Can I take it that you want to fight?”

“Enosis. Third Guardian of Abyss.”

{Guardian of the Abyss? Isn’t that part of the game’s story?} Karna had read about that title in one of the books on Xion Online.

“Demons?”

“That’s right. I’m Asthenia, the Fifth Guardian.” the little girl accompanying Enosis said.

The Seven Guardians of the Abyss. Those were part of the game’s lore; titles that were supposed to be used for the bosses in the game.

“So two bosses are coming out of the way to visit us? I should be thankful.” Karna laughed.

“What are you talking about?” Enosis asked.

“Nothing. I’m just glad that you’re not a player. Aika, it’s fine if I kill this guy, right? He’s a demon.”

“Do whatever you want brother.”

“You heard her. Get ready for a beating.”

“Oh? So arrogant already!” Asthenia exclaimed.

⧫

Aika walked off to the side to give her brother space to fight. It looked like Karna was having fun so perhaps she didn’t want to interrupt.

The girl named Asthenia also left Enosis’ side and came up to Aika.

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of attacking you. I’m just here to watch. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Aika.”

“You seem calm for someone who’s about to lose a sibling.”

“Brother? Lose? Impossible.” Aika smiled.

“Oh. Where’s that confidence coming from? I think there’s no way Eno will lose to a kid.”

“That’s because you don’t know my brother.”

“That makes sense. But you don’t know Eno either, do you?”

Just as Aika and Asthenia turned back to the two who were fighting, Enosis’ black suit was ripped to shreds. A black aura like smoke appeared around his body. He dashed straight at Karna. The snow under his feet was swept away from the force of his leap.

His right arm slammed into Karna with a loud bang.

Karna was thrown off his feet, landing several meters away in the snow.

“See? Enosis is much stronger.”

But Karna stood up only a second later. Despite taking a blow similar to that of a truck crashing into him, he didn’t look injured.

Now Asthenia was confused. {Did Eno not hit him? No, that can’t be. If not, how would he get knocked back in the first place?}

Enosis rushed at Karna again. A punch using all his force.

His fist slammed into Karna. No, it slammed into the air several centimeters in front of Karna with a loud bang. A split-second later, Enosis was thrown back. (What was that?} Asthenia had followed the exchange closely but didn’t know what had happened.

“So that’s how it works,” Karna said with a smile.

⧫

Barrier - Produces a barrier around self. Able to nullify attacks.

Karna had finally figured out how the mysterious barrier worked.

He just had to imagine a barrier and it would form. He had tried it on previous occasions but had thought that it didn’t work because the barrier could not be seen.

When Enosis had hit him the first time, Karna had formed the barrier on his skin. It had nullified the damage from the attack but hadn’t stopped him from getting thrown back. For the second attack, Karna had tried to imagine a barrier in the space in front of him. It had stopped Enosis without him getting slammed into the snow.

Despite using barriers to block most of the attacks, Karna had taken some damage— almost 100 points just from getting thrown around.

Karna [HP: 2214/2300]

What he was concerned about most was that he couldn’t see an HP bar on top of Enosis. Blindly attacking without knowing how much damage he was dealing was just pure folly. Well, in the first place, he hadn’t even landed a hit on Enosis.

Karna brushed off the snow from his clothes as he stood up.

“Physical attacks don’t work on you?” Enosis didn’t seem fazed that he couldn’t touch Karna. The dark energy around his body started to condense and wrap itself around his arms. “Then what about magical attacks?” The energy shot forward from his arms like two serpents lunging at Karna.

Karna didn’t have any time to dodge. He didn’t know if would work on magical attacks but he had no choice but to try. The black serpents stopped in front of him.

{Yes! It works on magical attacks too.}

But Enosis’s attack hadn’t ended yet. “Rumble.” he activated a spell.

The air around Karna started to vibrate.

{Huh?} Karna didn’t know what was happening. The vibration started to intensify. An invisible force was shaking the air and ground around him. He had a bad feeling about the strange vibration {This is not good…}

Karna jumped to the side just as the two energy serpents exploded. Flames and smoke engulfed him. He had dodged a second too late.

Karna [HP: 1866/2300]

“That’s some serious damage,” Karna said as he came out from the explosion looking like he walked through a war. But although his clothes were battered he hadn’t taken much damage. He had successfully protected most of his exposed skin.

He had tried to cover his whole body with a barrier but it hadn’t worked. He could only create one big enough to cover half his body.

Karna used in an attempt to catch Enosis off guard. But Enosis effortlessly dodged it with his insane speed.

{I won’t be able to land a single hit at this rate.} Karna was starting to worry. No matter how much damage his shockwaves could deal, it was pointless if he couldn’t land them.

Fearing a situation like this, he had even left 30 attribute points unallocated. He could allocate those points into AGI but could he become as fast as Enosis? It was highly unlikely that thirty points would change anything.

{Hm… I have to catch him off guard somehow} thought Karna.

If he couldn’t land his attacks normally, he had to be creative.

After seeing that his explosion had dealt some damage to Karna, Enosis looked ready to launch another magic spell. The black energy started to gather in his palm. It formed a sphere and started to slowly spin.

It was at that moment. Karna punched the air behind him.

A shockwave roared through the landscape. But instead of blasting behind Karna, it exploded right into him and pushed him forward.

Karna was launched off the ground towards Enosis. His speed was far from enough though. He used another in midair, suddenly accelerating. Then another.

He was forming barriers behind him and hitting them with shockwaves to propel himself forward. After doing it three times, he was already so fast that he could barely make out his surroundings.

{Now!} Karna used right when he passed by Enosis. Enosis released the dark sphere from his hand at the same time. The shockwave was faster than the sphere. The two attacks collided right in front of Enosis.

Bang! Dark flames engulfed Enosis as the shockwave obliterated the dark sphere. Karna landed about ten meters away from the explosion of flames.

{Did I get him?} Karna looked on to see how much damage he had managed to deal. He had put in so much effort to land one shockwave on the demon. Karna would It took several seconds before the black flames died down.

What stood in place of Enosis was a single eyeball floating in inky smoke.

“Ah… It’s been a while since someone managed to push me this far.” Enosis’s voice came from the strange eyeball.

“Wait. What happened to you?” Karna was wondering why an eye was standing in the place of the demon.

“This is my true body. Mortal… get prepared to face the consequences of angering me.” Enosis roared. The black smoke around the eyeball started shifting like a living creature.

{This is going to be tough. I can’t even see his HP bar. How do I know how much more damage I have to deal?} Karna stood up and got ready to continue the fight.

But before the second round of Enosis vs Karna could begin, Asthenia appeared between them. “Sorry Eno. You’ll have to sleep for a while!” she declared. A white cube flew out from her hand and quickly grew in size, engulfing Enosis.

“Asthenia, what are you—” Enosis disappeared before he could even finish his question. The cube shrunk and returned to Asthenia's hand after swallowing him.

“Sealing success. Thank you, Nana!” Asthenia jumped in joy.

“Huh? What did you just do?” Karna was confused now. Weren’t Asthenia and Enosis allies? Why was she attacking her own ally?

“Hm? I just sealed Eno. It’s all thanks to you, Nana. You weakened him quite a lot!”

“Nana?”

“Isn’t your name Karna? But that’s not cute so I’ll call you Nana.”

{What is with this little girl? She is making no sense...}

Fortunately, Aika came to his rescue.

“Brother... I made a deal with Asthenia.”

“What deal?”

“We decided to cooperate because our goals align.”

“Oh.” Karna didn’t know what to say. What goals was Aika even talking about? But if it was something Aika wanted, he had no reason to object. All he had to do was to make sure that she was safe.

“She is not our enemy anymore.”

“That’s how it is. We’ll be working together from now on, Nana!!” Asthenia added from the side.

Karna tried his best to ignore Asthenia. “Uh… Okay. Just explain the details to me.” He told Aika. He wanted to at least know what the deal was about and if he could trust Asthenia.