Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Chapter 731  Impasse

When Belial's creation made its appearance on the battlefield, everything fell silent for an instant and only the distant crackling of flames and crunching rubble could be heard.

Blood Lily, despite the persistent pain throughout her body, instinctively took a step back while her eyes were fixed on the creature.

For his part, Zylok narrowed his eyes, aware of the magnitude of the new threat.

The creature resembled an abomination of nature, a cake of flesh and human limbs with flames, a sight capable of causing discomfort and chills even in the bravest of hearts.

Belial, with his sadistic smile of pleasure, spread his arms and began to laugh at the warriors' reaction. "HAHAHAHAHA! Get ready for the real battle!" said Belial, his tone laced with irrepressible disdain.

Nihilus, the monster, was the kind of creature that emanated irrational malice and this made him extremely unpredictable. There was no way of knowing whether his power lay in being strong, fast or resilient, perhaps even a mixture of the two, so his first move was the one that would determine the future of this battle.

Belial stepped forward, watching his opponents' reaction with hungry eyes. "Ah, how satisfying it is to watch hopelessness and doubt blossom in their hearts." Mocked the demon. "But don't think I'm going to feel sorry for you after all you've done... Nihilus, kill them." He pointed at Zylok and Bloody Lily.

Nihilus advanced slowly and his footsteps made the ground tremble slightly, while leaving traces of his fiery footprints.

Bloody Lily looked at the way the creature moved and quickly came to a conclusion. 'He's slow! He can be beaten!'

However, it was a hasty conclusion, because the moment the creature overtook Belial, its speed increased considerably and its movements became crooked and ungainly, like that of a baby trying to run, only this added more unpredictability than ever to its movements.

Blood Lily's eyes widened and she almost retreated, but the image of Kaizen appeared in her mind, so she gritted her teeth, tightened her grip on her sword and moved forward. "Zylok, I'll take care of this thing while you take care of the demon over there!"

"Hmm! How arrogant of you to think you can take care of Nihilus all by yourself!" Belial sneered.

"On your left!" shouted Zylok, smiling too because Bloody Lily seemed to be smiling and swiped in Belial's direction with his vampire claws.

Belial's eyes widened and he narrowly dodged. He then jumped back several meters to gain distance. Even though he was physically strong, it wasn't in his nature to fight hand-to-hand. While in the air, Belial's eyes caught sight of Zylok's arms and he analyzed the vampire's claws, which acted as a strength boost for him, as his forearm, hands and fingers doubled in size, and he could see the vampire's glowing blood running through the veins that protruded from his arm.

"Now that's the shape of a monster! Worthy of a vampire!" Belial cracked a wide smile and shouted.

Zylok gave him a wide grin in response. "If, in order to beat a monster, I have to embrace the monster inside me, I won't hesitate any longer!"

At the same time, Bloody Lily reacted swiftly to Nihilus' onslaught. An agile dodge to the left, followed by a fluid backward movement, allowed her to avoid the first attack, but the flames emanating from the creature almost burned her. Even so, the player wasted no time and her counter-attack was an explosion of movement. She advanced without hesitation, and the crimson sword sliced through the air in a beautiful arc, targeting some of Nihilus' distorted limbs.

However, the creature, as if possessed of a supernatural perception, contorted itself in a disorderly manner and divided its limbs on its own, causing the sword to pass between an empty gap and escaping the blow.

Bloody Lily was not shaken by Nihilus' evasion. 'This thing can do even that? But there must be a limit!

Nihilus reassembled his normal form, so he slashed the air to buy time. Flames danced around him, creating a hellish spectacle, a blinding pyre amidst the darkness of the battlefield.

Bloody Lily waited for the right moment, because she knew now that the creature wasn't as fast as Belial, so she had a chance. She just needed to turn her body into an extension of the sword, an extension of her abilities.

Meanwhile, Zylok was facing Belial. The vampire, with his supernatural speed, charged relentlessly with razor-sharp claws, trying to pierce the demon's defenses while giving him no time to use any more magic.

However, Belial was fast too and glided like evasive shadows, evading the claws with diabolical dexterity while still having time to maintain a calm smile. In the end, however, it would be a problem even for Belial if, when the reinforcements arrived, he had dealt with these mosquitoes before.

Thus, a black flame suddenly enveloped his hands and he said:

"I think I need to teach you a lesson."

Then, at a moment when Zylok's speed was almost at its maximum, Belial launched his dark energy towards him. The vampire, quick as lightning, dodged the energy by leaning forward a little. The demon's magic almost grazed the demon's hair, which narrowly avoided the dark explosion that had consumed the ground where he had been standing moments before.

Zylok stopped and so did Belial: 'I have to be careful, if that thing had caught me, I'd be dead myself. Will I need to use that skill? No, not yet...'

"I bet you're thinking something like: 'If that magic had hit me, I'd be dead'. And yes, it's true, that's the black flame of hell, a kind of flame that never goes out. How about we play a game? I'll throw as many of those black flames as I can at you, and if you miraculously manage to dodge them all, I promise not to summon any more of my creatures."

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