Chapter 399 399. ONSLAUGHT
Noah felt unable to answer the hollow. This being his second time in a dungeon he had started to find it normal for the bosses to be capable of speech. But it felt unnerving nonetheless.
"You're a strange one, are you?" The hollows fear but also curiosity-inducing voice bellowed forth, but Noah remained silent. For the time being, at least.
"Let's fight if you have no words to say to me. I'll kill you and be done with this," The hollow threatened, bending its knees to suggest that it had a series of techniques available to it.
"What exactly are you?" Noah found his lips parting to voice his thoughts.
"You're called hollows, but how did that come to be?"
Noah's question seemed to annoy the figure, but it straightened its knees to gaze at him.
A few moments of silence had to go by at that juncture in their interaction, but the Hollow wouldn't leave Noah's question unanswered.
"I believe the dungeon has already informed you of my cursed state. Heck, it even went ahead to name me that." It started.
Its strange voice rang out when Noah nodded in affirmation.
"I am a being who once stood at a height that would be considered terrifying. And truly I was."
"Believe it or not I used to be human. But a certain period came where my pride led to my fall," It or he, seemed to sigh.
"I have been informed by the dungeon that going into details about the said event would initiate a punishment. So I'll be as vague as possible," Its tone grew cold even if there was no tone, to begin with.
"I crossed path with a really powerful entity and they emptied me of myself, before giving the great dungeon my custody and all that I owned," It explained before falling silent.
Noah could put two and two together to conclude that the time for words had ended. Nevertheless, its words were still on his mind.
Allowing his golems to emerge from the many magical circles that expanded around him, Noah had no doubt that they would be unable to do much to the Cursed, but he called them forth anyway.
The Hollow watched his golems appear in limelight and their numbers crossed 300. Noah wasn't about to spare any expense on fighting it, and it respected him for that since those who had, never exited that place alive.
Tension built between the two forces. Noah had long since called upon his speed armor and his dagger, but he knew far too well that only after the initial clash could he properly gauge how much of a task killing it would be.
Noah silently watched the still Hollow from his spot within the ranks of his golems. It seemed to wait for him, and only after about a minute had passed did it make its move.
Noah watched the black figure disappear from its position and the ground shattered as a result of its acceleration.
Nothing he had at that moment could help him follow the Hollow's unholy movement speed.
And the seventy golems that directly vanished from Noah's control further increased the pent-up tension in his mind.
Danger exploded forth within the bounds of Noah's mind, and he felt his body move on its own taking to big steps to the right.
As if predicting the event to come, Noah watched a huge portion of the ground merely a few feet from him vanish, and a significant portion of his golems vanished with that strange occurrence. The hollow had sped through his golems and the ground suffered as a result.
Noah caught his breath in shock and awe. Had he not moved his fate would have been no less brutal than his golems.
'Do I even have a chance?' Noah felt beads of sweat break on his forehead, before sprinting away from his golems, into the open field.
He felt a pair of eyes exert their gaze on his rapidly moving figure, and the world seemed to slow down for the arrival of the Hollow.
Noah watched with the fear of death; its black leg coated with a silvery hue approach his chest with fatal speed.
Pushing his hands forward in an attempt to stop the speeding limb, Noah had the thought to unleash as much ice as he could to protect himself.
The result of his actions was a series of walls that sprung Into existence between his figure and the Hollows leg.
Doom appeared In Noah's mind, however, when he saw that the speeding feet smashed through his walls with relative ease, but it missed his chest and landed on his left shoulder.
Noah's armor crumbled at the mere grazing of the leg and his figure was sent flying a moment later.
The kick had turned him into a blurry projectile, one that crossed the incredible space between the daytime portion of the field to reach the night-time portion.
His rapidly spinning body touched the ground and bounced forward. Each time he made contact with the ground craters formed.
Noah eventually came to a stop, but the pain that filled his mind pulled him in for a bit.
He hissed in pain and the sight of his completely crushed shoulder managed to make him frown.
The injury ran deep. As deep as his entire left arm. He could swear that his arm would be blown away if the wind blew too strong.
Noah regained focus at some point and he had to stand and leap upwards, finding that his former position turned into a huge crater since the Hollow had performed a downward smash with the back of its feet.
"I swear it's on Elder Sarah's level," Noah cursed, silently marveling at the size of the crater. "Probably stronger."
His feet eventually touched the ground and the Hollows gaze fell on him again.
The two glared at each other and Noah soon realized that his arm was healed.
"Time to get serious," he muttered understanding that death was a possible outcome. The Hollow was not like the others. He felt certain that it had other abilities.
Sparks crackled around his fingers and even his figure.
He had long since worn a robe during his days within the dungeon, but he felt certain the attire would come out of the battle in shambles. That was of course if he survived the Hollows onslaught.