I Refused To Be Reincarnated-Chapter 727: No Talks, Only Carnage

A caw like grating scales echoed through the forest. Pines swayed like mere sticks about to be ripped off at their bases, while the ground rumbled under the basilisk’s predatory charge.

Yann hoisted Adam over his shoulder before he could summon his demonic cleaver, the effort tearing out a guttural growl from his lips. The teenager’s unnatural weight, however, barely distracted him as fur erupted from his skin and his legs swelled with bestial power. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

As his muscles strengthened, the weight faded, and his voice rang out in a desperate whisper. "The enforcers, the council—even the rector—will feel your blade. Run! That’s all we can do, lad."

He continued, the words searing through his breath like molten pieces. "It’s an ancient magus-level creature that feeds on demons and ghosts—the Ashenveil Grove’s guardian!"

Wind whipped Adam’s hair against his face as he raised a brow. Did the creature sense his demonic bones, the cleaver’s presence inside his soul sea, or could it somehow perceive his ghostly past? Perhaps a mix. Not that it mattered.

He could see the basilisk’s burning glare ignore Yann, the forest, and the world to lock on him, feel its desire to tear his limbs, then crush and devour what remained of him with that beak lined with teeth. Somehow, it appeared maddened, as if the mere sight of him had enraged the creature beyond reason.

Even worse, it was catching up with each second crawling by. He would smell its putrid breath on Yann’s back in the next moment, then feel its icy teeth in another.

There will be no talks or negotiations with it. Only carnage.

He placed a firm palm on Yann’s lower back, lights resuming the summoning of his weapon in his other hand. With a push to increase momentum, he threw his legs up, soaring over the shoulder.

Yann yelped as he tumbled, but spun in the same movement. Throat dry, he watched Adam spin over his shoulder, then land right before the charging beast. But his eyes locked on the forming blade.

"Don’t summ—!" Yann’s voice cracked, then died in its throat as the light vanished. His shoulder sagged, his eyes closing. It was over. The rector in person would rush from his college to arrest them. Exile this time would be a luxury. He knew it, for anyone dealing with spectral and demonic matter only faced the most torturous death ever recorded in mage’s history. And he doubted even Yuehua Ji could do worse...

He had to escape. Far. Far enough so they wouldn’t suspect he had any dealings with Adam. That was the only solution.

Before a second passed, he snapped his eyes open, legs already bent. However, he couldn’t help but cast one last glance behind. His source of wealth, gone before a single prestige was raked in... how unfair.

Meanwhile, the basilisk let out another screech, and Adam smirked. The light in his palm swirled and dispersed, revealing a somber, crystalline sword. The edges glinted with sharpness capable of tearing through the fabric of space, while the corona of stars blazed on the frame.

"A single warning is enough," Adam finally snorted, mana and qi wrapping around his muscles as he lowered his posture to face the beast.

"And I don’t want that damned cleaver’s help." He begrudgingly muttered the last part to himself as he raised his Chronoscar overhead.

The beast’s lips curved, its forked tongue slithering on its beak like a living snake. Time to eat.

Adam watched it throw its head back, then propel it at him, beak whistling. Simultaneously, soil fell off three talons that shot at his sides.

Against all logic, he lunged forward. The talons shredded the air behind him, and the beak dug a crater where he had stood.

And now, he was right beneath the basilisk’s extended neck. A single swing was all he needed to rip its throat open, yet he didn’t. Instead, his body flickered.

A beam of radiant light pierced through his chest a split second later, vaporising everything it touched. The pines behind him were incinerated, and dark gases overwhelmed the forest’s eternal grey mist, plunging it in a stench of carbonisation.

Yann barely dodged the impact by throwing himself on the ground. He rolled, picking himself up with the grace of a drunkard. Then, he scrambled through the burning forest without looking back.

"I told you it was a magus-level creature, you fool! What did you expect? That it would let you strike it with that toothpick of yours?" He hissed through gritted teeth. Yet, a wave of relief flooded his tense features. "At least he didn’t use the demonic blade. I’ll pray your soul won’t suffer... too much."

As he leapt over brambles and gnarled roots, almost at a distance safe enough to let out the breath he had been holding, he found himself forced to turn again.

SCREECH

The beast roared. No... it was wailing.

Feet sliding on the damp earth in a forceful halt, he watched the surreal take place.

The beast trashed, wings hurling gales that dissipated what Yann had thought was Adam’s torn chest—only an afterimage! So the real one... His eyes darted upward, where rifts distorted space and glacial trails followed a curved arc. And at its end, he saw the somber sword, its edges slicing through the back of the basilisk’s rising neck and Adam, taking support on a mana platform as he swung.

White feathers smeared in blood were cascading down at the sound of cracking scales. The very air seemed to chill enough for him to shudder despite the distance as he understood Adam had teleported a split second before the beam seared him to oblivion.

And now he was...

"Hahaha. I wonder if you still think of yourself as the predator?" Adam drove his blade further into the basilisk’s neck, making it howl louder and clarity return to its maddened eyes. "I don’t think I could have defeated you had you fought with your accumulated wisdom. Too bad. It’s too late now."

His other fist crackled with spatial energy as it smashed against the hilt. Gravity instantly multiplied, the blade singing through the flesh like paper. In a heartbeat, it exited from the other side of the creature’s thick neck.

With a last screech, the basilisk’s head crashed on the ground in a downpour of scarlet blood, its beak open in disbelief and its pupils constricted as the frozen trails exploded into jagged spears of ice that pierced through its limbs and organs. It had waited fifteen thousand years to finally feed on his favourite dish...Yet, it died? How?

It closed its eyes for the last time, its long life ending without an answer.

Yann’s mind buzzed with questions. What manner of weapon was this? And what exquisite control over space! But more importantly... His lips curved like a knife.

The basilisk’s nest was free to plunder now!

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AN: sry for yesterday. I couldn’t write with how much my eyes stung.