Awakening Domination System: But I'm a Slave?-Chapter 299: Attack [8]
The elite creatures vanished, simply ceased to exist in the space between one heartbeat and the next. No bodies. No remains. Just scattered ash and dissipating essence.
When the light faded.
Nothing remained.
Just scorched stone and the lingering smell of ozone.
Alaric turned slowly. He stretched his neck. Then he raised his hands, studying them with a frown.
What was that?
The crimson lightning. The fangs. The hunger that had driven him to drain Elena like...
Like what? What the hell was he?
[DEFENSIVE INTEGRITY: 40%]
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The building above him groaned. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling, spreading faster than thought.
The entire structure was collapsing.
Alaric moved.
His body blurred with speed that shouldn’t have been possible
CRASH-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The ceiling came down behind him in a cascading avalanche of stone and timber. Dust exploded outward in choking clouds.
The hallway he’d been standing in ceased to exist, buried under tons of rubble.
He burst through a shattered doorway.
And saw...
Academy grounds stretched before him, transformed.
The sky was black, not with night, but with smoke so thick it blotted out the afternoon sun. Everything had taken on a twilight quality, lit by fires burning across multiple buildings.
Orange and red flames reflected off the smoke, creating a hellish aurora that painted the world in shades of violence.
Bodies littered the courtyard.
Students. Faculty. Guards. Corrupted creatures.
Some were still moving, crawling, gasping, trying desperately to reach cover or allies. Others weren’t. Just broken forms scattered across bloodstained stone, their stories ended in moments of violence that no one would remember.
Everywhere, the sounds of combat echoed. Screams. The grinding shriek of metal on stone. The wet thud of bodies hitting ground.
Alaric’s jaw tightened.
ROAR!
Two corrupted figures emerged from the smoke to his left.
They saw him and charged.
Alaric’s hand came up.
[Fireball!]
The compressed sphere of flame shot forward and struck the lead creature’s chest, detonating on impact.
The other barely slowed.
[Lightning Bolt!]
White-blue electricity speared through the air and punched through the second creature’s skull, exploding its head.
[DEFENSIVE INTEGRITY: 58%]
He stood among the corpses, breathing steadily.
Alaric didn’t even look at them. He was already scanning for the next threat, his enhanced perception picking out essence signatures through the smoke and chaos.
There. Six more. Thirty meters northeast. Moving fast.
[Burst Step!]
He launched forward in a streak of flame, closing the distance in a heartbeat.
The six corrupted figures were harassing a group of Bronze Shield second-years, four students backed against a collapsed wall.
One of the students, a girl with short blonde hair, saw Alaric approaching and her eyes widened with desperate hope. "Help—please—"
Alaric’s hand swept forward.
[Wind Blade!]
WHOOSH!
SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!
They carved through the attacking creatures from behind. Two went down immediately, bisected cleanly. The third staggered, its leg severed.
[Flame Arrow!]
WHOOSH!
The compressed bolt of fire struck its head.
BOOM!
And detonated, reducing skull to charred fragments.
The remaining three spun toward him.
Too slow.
[Jolt Step!]
Alaric blurred with lightning-enhanced speed, and the creatures fell instantly.
[DEFENSIVE INTEGRITY: 62%]
"Thank... thank you," the blonde girl gasped.
Alaric nodded once and launched himself back into the chaos, fire and lightning dancing around his form, cutting through corrupted creatures like a scythe through wheat.
Left. Right. Forward. Each movement executed with lethal precision, each technique deployed with devastating efficiency.
Three more surrounded him, he created a Static Field that stunned them, then executed all three with precise Lightning Bolts to their heads.
CRACK-BOOM-CRACK-BOOM-CRACK-BOOM!
Bodies fell. Ash scattered. Essence dissipated.
This power. This strength. This is—
He killed another. Then another. Then three more in rapid succession.
His movements were becoming elegant, not just efficient, but beautiful in their lethality.
Then he vaulted over a collapsed pillar, and landed in the middle of what had once been the central plaza.
The fountain was shattered, its water mixing with blood to create pink streams that ran through the cracks in the stone.
Through the smoke ahead, he spotted movement.
He pushed forward, cutting through two more corrupted figures that tried to intercept him.
The smoke cleared slightly, and he saw them.
Elina stood in the center of a defensive formation.
Beside her, Professor Thaddeus Grimwald was coordinating three other faculty members, creating earth barriers, launching coordinated essence attacks, maintaining a defensive perimeter around a group of wounded students huddled behind them.
Professor Aldwyn was there too, one arm wrapped in makeshift bandages, her earth essence forming spikes that impaled any creature that got too close.
They were holding. Barely.
At least a dozen corrupted figures surrounded their position, a mix of standard units and two elite creatures that were systematically testing their defenses, probing for weaknesses.
Too many. They won’t last.
"Flame Sphere!"
Alaric’s voice cut through the chaos as he hurled a compressed ball of fire into the midst of the creatures. It detonated on impact.
BOOM!
Every head turned toward him.
Elina’s eyes widened. "Alaric—"
But he was already moving.
[Burst Step!]
He materialized beside one of the elite creatures, his fist already in motion.
CRACK!
It fell down.
Beside... Elina’s fist, glowing with golden essence, slammed into a creature’s exposed back.
CRUNCH!
The impact cratered its spine. It collapsed forward, and Elina drove her other fist down on its skull, finishing it with brutal efficiency.
CRACK!
She stood, breathing hard, blood dripping from split knuckles, and met Alaric’s gaze.
"You’re alive," she said, trying for hostile but landing somewhere closer to grateful.
"Obviously," he replied.
"Idiot," she muttered, but there was no real heat in it.
Nyra appeared beside Alaric like a ghost materializing from nothing. Her uniform was torn, but her expression remained perfectly neutral.
The corrupted figures charged.
Alaric and Nyra moved as one.
SLASH-SLASH!
The remaining creatures hesitated, their primitive instincts finally recognizing they were outmatched.
Alaric’s hand came up, lightning crackling.
[Chain Lightning!]
CRACK-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP!
The electricity jumped from creature to creature, dropping them one by one until nothing remained but smoking corpses.
Silence.
Broken only by heavy breathing and the distant sounds of combat elsewhere in the Academy.
Elina lowered her fists. "Is that all of—"
She cut off.
As they all felt it.
The temperature dropped.
Going from the heat of fire and combat to freezing in the span of a single heartbeat. Frost began to form on the stone beneath their feet, spreading in delicate crystalline patterns. Their breath came out in visible puffs.
And then—
Laughter.
Childish.
Alaric’s spine went rigid.
His head snapped upward.
Atop the burning eastern dormitory, a figure stood.
Small. Delicate. Silhouetted against the flames.
White hair flowing in a wind that didn’t exist, catching the firelight and seeming to glow with its own luminescence.
A tail swishing behind her, playful, catlike, expressing amusement without words.
Small horns protruding from her head, curved and elegant.
Lilith.
She stood at the edge of the burning roof, and looked down at the chaos below with crimson eyes that glowed with vertical slit pupils.
Her expression was delighted. Like a child watching their favorite toy perform exactly as hoped.
"Mmm~" Her voice was sweet, almost musical.
"What a wonderful show you’ve all put on! I’ve been so entertained!"
She clasped her hands together, tail swishing faster with barely contained excitement.
"But I think..." She tilted her head, that childish smile widening. "I think it’s time for the main event, don’t you?"
Her crimson eyes found Alaric across the courtyard.
And her smile became something else entirely.
Not childish anymore. Not playful.
Hungry.
"Hello again, my precious little toy~" she purred. "Did you miss me?"
Around them, the temperature continued to drop. Shadows began to move independently of their sources, stretching and writhing like living things.
And from the smoke and darkness, more figures emerged.
But they’re not corrupted creatures this time.
Lilith giggled again, the sound making everyone’s skin crawl.
"Shall we play?"
