1297: Moment of Retribution

Moment of Retribution

He didn't even wait for the skeleton to manifest all the way before throwing a punch with nearly all his strength behind it. The air moaned and the space lightly rippled as it went straight through the skeleton as if it wasn't even there. 1

At the same time the skeleton swung his way but Hao Xuan weaved out of its path. Unfortunately, the air pressure created by their combined attacks sucked him in right as the second bony fist came at his face.

Hao Xuan pulled back as much as he could but there was no way to avoid it completely. So he channeled some chaos Qi into his arm to create a shield that could absorb the damage.

The skeletal fist landed and the shield of Chaos Qi burst apart as it was made from paper. It continued forward and slammed into Hao Xuan's chest with almost half its previous strength.

With gritted teeth Hao Xuan braced for impact. The fist made contact with a burning sensation and the force behind it was strong enough to slam him into the ground with a loud bang.

If it was just this much then Hao Xuan wouldn't have been too fazed but it was the accompanying yin energy of the shadow realm that was far more destructive by its very nature.

It passed through his skin and bones unimpeded and exploded inside his chest like a grenade. Hao Xuan managed to minimize the damage by bringing together a few motes of Chaos energy right at the end to block it but what little slipped through was enough to damage almost 10% of internal organs.

Blood shot out of his mouth but Hao Xuan was unfazed as he swung around to send an upper kick through its body.

But just like the last time it passed through the skeleton without doing any damage. Hao Xuan realized what was going on and immediately backflipped out of its range.

"I CAN'T HIT IT! I pass through it every time!"

*beep*

"Must be the entity's ability."

"No, it's not an ability its just not there. It's an incomplete shadow without a physical form. It used the Yin energy to forcefully manifest its fist to punch me but when I tried to attack it just phased through it."

"How can one fight a being that does not exist in this reality?"

Hao Xuan spat out a mouthful of blood, "I can try and attack when it's attacking, the timing would have to be absolutely perfect for it to work. I can't get distracted by-"

Before he could finish the sentence two more identical skeletons manifested around the first one. Then another four and another ten. Before he knew it almost all of the 30-meter square basement was littered with skeletons of all sizes and shapes.

Some were so small that he had to squint to see them clearly while the others belonged to full-grown adults. They had surrounded him from all sides.

"I could have dealt with one but this many...it's impossible."

Hao Xuan's face fell upon examining the feature of his enemies a little better. That was perhaps an even bigger shock because he realized that they belonged to the Orcen race.

"Why are you- I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU! I CAN STILL FIX IT! DON'T STAND IN MY WAY!" he roared frustratingly not expecting an answer but surprisingly the first skeleton that had attacked him actually spoke up.

"Liar...deceiver..."

"You can understand me?!" Hao Xuan mumbled in astonishment, "L-Listen to me, my name is Hao Xuan. I was supposed to come here a long time ago but I was stopped. What matters is that I am here now and there is a chance I can still help. Just let me get to the control room and I-"

The skeleton stomped on the ground creating a 2-meter-wide hole.

"Flase...god! Souls...our souls...you...DEMON!"

'Does he think I stole their souls??'

Seeing the look of disbelief on Hao Xuan's face sent the skeleton over the edge. In its eyes, he was still acting innocent...as if this wasn't his plan all along. It lunged at him with everything it could muster.

And following their leader's example all the other skeletons attacked as well.

Hao Xuan activated [Blink] to get out of the way but his body reappeared just a few inches away. The entire space had been locked down by the power of their combined attacks.

He tried to break the ceiling of the upper floor and escape through there but there were fists coming out of there too. There was nowhere left to go.

Time slowed to a crawl as the moment of retribution drew close. Usually around this time something would come to him, some kind of a risky idea to turn the situation around but that wasn't the case anymore.

And to his surprise, all the fear and panic were somehow washed away.

'Maybe this is how it should be. Dying at the hands of my victims...what could be more deserving?'

His heart was at peace. He had tried everything but nothing worked so all he could do was accept his fate.

Hao Xuan closed his eyes leaving himself completely open. It would be over with the first strike.

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