Rogue Villain-Chapter 349: Shockwave

The bird was skeptical. It was supposed to trust Ackster? It wasn’t so sure about that. But it could trust Mio, at least more than it could trust Ackster. The bird wasn’t at ease.

However, it was a creature that lived for speed. Through speed, it lived. The bird survived and hunted by going fast, so fast that no other being could catch up or react. The bird could fly so fast that not even it could properly react to its own top speed. All it could go on when flying at those speeds was instinct.

And instincts didn’t have time for thoughts. Without thoughts, there were no worries.

The bird’s mind calmed as it devoted itself to flapping its wings and pushing itself forward faster, faster, and faster.

Ackster’s weight made it more difficult, and each cycle of flaps by its four pairs of wings was accompanied by a heavy breath. But the continuous and endless stream of wingflaps, thanks to its eight wings, kept building the bird’s speed.

The world shrank to a single dot in front of them as their surroundings turned into blurred streaks. Of course, with everything around them being the same stale grey clay, it was all one grey blur with a dark bullseye right in front of them and far away at the same time.

Ackster’s eyes throbbed. Overhuman Senses brought beyond their limit with the full power of the Ex-rank Limit Breaker strained his eyes. He wanted to blink to relieve some of that strain.

But blinking now was suicide. Ackster and the bird could arrive the very next moment. If Ackster weren’t ready, he would turn into paste against a wall with so much force not even a spatula of Heavenly Iron could peel him off.

Fortunately, the faster the bird went, the sooner they would arrive and the sooner Ackster could relax his eyes. But going faster also meant more of a strain on his eyes. But if there was one thing Ackster couldn’t care less about, it was sacrificing his body or enduring pain.

And Ackster could tell they were close.

No, close wasn’t enough to describe it.

’!’

They had arrived at the end of the tunnel, and a moment later, they were on the other side of a large room covered in clay a few shades deeper than what had been in the tunnel. They were also on the other side of a large statue made from clay that now had a hole in its center.

The bird stalled and stopped before slamming into what looked like an enormous pair of double doors hidden by thick clay. It stopped too fast, and Ackster flew off. But he spun through the air and landed with his feet against the doors with his sword in hand.

At the same time, the shockwave caught up with them and exploded the hole in the statue’s center, turning the statue’s upper half into splatters of clay that reached the corners of the room.

Ackster took a deep breath.

’Okay, that was nice.’

That kind of speed gave him a thrill that he had been looking for ever since he found it was harder to die than live in any given situation. It had been a while since he actually feared for his life in a fight. But riding the bird at that speed, even if he knew he wouldn’t die if he crashed, was exhilarating.

Ackster glanced at the bird hovering in the air, curious about its limits.

However, he was forced to turn his gaze toward the clay statue when the clay on the ground moved and regenerated its upper body through its legs, making it whole again.

The statue turned its head completely around to look at Ackster and the bird. Its body followed.

Ackster narrowed its eyes as he met the statue’s gaze. The golem didn’t seem to have any clear and defined features. But it had a certain identity and character that he couldn’t quite explain or understand.

’Whatever.’

Ackster didn’t need to understand why the golem gave off the expression of being alive without being alive to feel its hostility.

It wasn’t strange, considering he had just flown through the golem and exploded its upper body. But Ackster hadn’t planned on sitting down for peace talks from the beginning. He pushed off from the clay wall, leaving behind a light crater.

He couldn’t fly as fast as the bird, but the burst power he got when using Limit Breaker on his Diamond Body made him almost flash through the air.

Ackster lashed out with his sword.

The golem with a speed surprising for its body, even after taking into consideration the strength Ackster felt, raised its arm to intercept Ackster.

’Did it move before I jumped?’

Ackster’s eyes had stayed locked on the golem the entire time. Its movements weren’t just fast. It anticipated what he was going to do and where Ackster was going to jump.

But it didn’t matter. Ackster’s sword cut through the arm like a hot knife through butter, at least at first. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

When he reached the elbow, the sword had lost too much power behind it to continue as smoothly as before.

Ackster tugged on the sword, pulling it out of the arm that was as thick as he was tall.

He had used the sword to see if his feeling of the golem being alive had a foundation. But the Demon Sword hadn’t picked up on any vitality. So, the golem wasn’t alive in that sense.

Without vitality, the sword wasn’t going to be useful against such an enemy, at least not like this. He would have to fortify and extend his weapon with sources. Ackster wasn’t averse to the idea since it might help him learn Anima.

But such a large and relatively soft enemy would help him put to practice what he had learned about his unarmed martial arts.

Ackster dropped to the ground before instantly bouncing back up and launching a punch against the golem’s palm that had recovered almost instantly after he cut it in half. The golem had read his trajectory and tried to squash him.

Instead, the golem’s hand turned into splatters of clay that went flying across the room.

’Disappointing.’