CHAPTER 58: BOLT

Attacks rained down on Asher from every direction, left, right, above, below. The air screamed with each strike, deafening in its fury. Every movement carried crushing weight, each swing capable of shattering bone and earth alike.

Yet Asher moved like water flowing through chaos.

His rapier and hand had become a phantom, flickering with impossible speed, deflecting, parrying, blocking in rapid succession. Each motion was precise, economical, and instinctive, as though his body operated on a rhythm no one else could hear.

Despite the overwhelming barrage, his eyes remained calm. Focused.

His chest rose and fell in steady rhythm, his breathing controlled, unshaken by the violence around him.

He searched for openings in the endless assault, and when he found even the smallest gap, he struck. Virelass would dart out like a serpent’s fang, sharp, swift, lethal.

But every time, the orcs met him.

Their defenses snapped into place with uncanny timing, as if they could see his attacks before he even moved. Their reactions weren’t just fast, they were instinctual, predictive.

The soil tore beneath their feet as they pushed forward, two forces colliding at speeds that blurred the eye. Dust and grit spiraled in their wake, but Asher’s focus never wavered.

His gaze locked with one of the orcs, and in that split second, a smile curved at the corner of his lips.

Then, everything changed.

His rhythm shifted, fluid turned sharp, defense became offense. Without warning, Asher surged forward, Virelass flashing toward the orc’s neck with blistering speed and ruthless efficiency.

The orc faltered, caught off guard.

But instincts honed by years of bloodshed, caging, and survival surged to life. It stepped back in a blur, moving to evade the fatal stroke.

Almost.

Just as Virelass was about to whistle harmlessly past where the neck had been, Asher twisted his wrist. The blade curved mid-air, a seamless, unnatural adjustment, as if it flowed like a living thing.

Virelass descended.

And tore.

With a sound like ripping canvas, the blade bit through the orc’s chest in a clean, savage arc, carving downward in a perfect line.

A spray of thick, green blood exploded into the air, painting the grass beneath them a darker shade of battle.

Before Asher could follow up, the second orc was already upon him.

The spiked club tore through the air, entering his Omni Perception like a crashing wave. He saw it, read it, but it was too close, too fast. There was no time to dodge. No space to shift.

Too late.

Then it came.

Lightning.

A burst of pure brilliance, violet and violent, erupted around him. A crackle split the air, sharp and deafening, like the roar of the heavens tearing open.

And Asher vanished.

In his place, only a bolt of purple lightning streaked across the battlefield, searing a jagged path through the air. The ground where he had stood erupted from the shock of raw elemental energy, scorched and cracked in a perfect line behind him.

The orc’s club slammed into nothing but air, the force of its missed strike toppling a tree in the distance.

Asher reappeared behind the first orc, its chest wound already beginning to mend, the creature’s natural regeneration swiftly taking hold. In a blur of motion, Asher’s rapier sprang to life, its blade flickering toward the orc’s neck with blinding lethality.

Before the beast could so much as flinch, Virelass carved cleanly through its throat, like a heated blade slicing through softened wax. A geyser of green blood burst upward, splattering across Asher’s hair in a vivid spray.

The severed head tumbled to the earth, rolling like a discarded stone, moments before the orc’s massive frame collapsed with a resounding thud.

The second orc bellowed in a frenzy as it witnessed its companion’s brutal demise.

ROOOAAARRRR!

A deafening sound wave surged from its throat, tearing through the air toward Asher’s position, threatening to obliterate him into nothing but mangled flesh.

But Asher responded in an instant.

Virelass rose skyward, its blade catching the light, then, like a conductor of wrathful divinity, it drew upon the storm. Veins of purple lightning crackled along its length, thunder snarling in its wake.

With a motion both forceful and elegant, Asher brought the rapier down in a sweeping arc, a devastating crescent of pure, baleful lightning carved through the air, howling with ruinous power.

With a storm’s thunderous roar, the lightning collided with the onrushing sound wave, erupting in every direction with the fury and madness of unrestrained destruction.

Trees were torn asunder in an instant, their leaves scorched to ash. Stones blackened and split where the lightning kissed them. The lingering resonance of the sonic blast struck with brutal force, rattling the bones of all nearby and threatening to rupture their eardrums.

Smoke veiled the battlefield in a choking shroud, swallowing the chaos in a suffocating gloom.

Then, without warning, a violent gust burst outward, dispersing the smoke in a single breath, as the orc swung its massive club with raw power, parting the haze like a god of war unveiling its wrath.

With another guttural roar, the orc surged forward, its speed and strength magnified to terrifying extremes. It had entered its berserker state.

In the blink of an eye, it closed the distance between them, and its colossal club came crashing down from above with the weight and judgment of an angry god.

But it was futile.

In its frenzy, the orc had traded clarity for raw power. Speed and strength surged through its veins, but its judgment was lost to madness.

And in that madness, Asher found his advantage.

He slipped through the orc’s wild, uncoordinated strikes as effortlessly as a dragon’s breath swallows a fireball. Lightning crackled along Virelass and danced across Asher’s form, wrapping him in a storm of purple arcs. With a swift sidestep, he evaded the club’s downward crash, and in that same motion, Virelass carved through the orc’s kneecap.

The creature collapsed to one knee with a howl of feral rage, its club swinging blindly in retaliation, but Asher had already vanished, leaving behind a crackling bolt of lightning.

He reappeared beside the beast, his rapier a blur as it thrust cleanly through the orc’s shoulder. Another flicker, another flash, Asher was behind it.

One final stroke.

Virelass cleaved through the orc’s neck with deadly ease, severing its head in a seamless arc.

The berserker’s fury died with it. Whatever power had driven its rampage faded instantly. The massive body collapsed in a lifeless heap, and Asher, without sparing it a second glance, turned and walked away, the storm humming quietly around him.

Everyone stood frozen, their expressions painted with disbelief, as if reality itself had just been twisted before their eyes. Asher had dismantled two Veil-ranked monsters as though they were nothing more than bothersome flies.

They had witnessed the ease with which he moved, graceful, measured, and untouchable. He wasn’t panting. He didn’t break a sweat. Not a scratch marked his body.

He was... serene.

’Was that really his first battle?’

The question echoed quietly in their minds, unspoken but mutual. Every time they thought they had grasped the extent of who he was, Asher revealed something even more unimaginable.

And now, he had unveiled his element: lightning. But not just any lightning. Purple lightning, vibrant and violent, the same shade that shimmered in his hair and eyes. A perfect, terrifying harmony.

Green blood splattered across his frame, and somehow, it only made him look more divine, like a god of war stepping down from the heavens.

They had seen it. He had split a sound wave. A full-force, deafening shockwave hurled by a berserk orc, and he had cut through it like it was air.

’Isn’t this too much?’ Ella couldn’t help but wonder, her thoughts ringing with disbelief.

She knew the truth: a single strike from a Veil-ranked orc was more than enough to cripple her. Orcs were monsters of raw muscle and brute strength. But these weren’t just orcs. They were Veil ranked. A different breed entirely.

They had expected a fight. They had hoped for it. But what they saw... they couldn’t comprehend.

Asher felt their stares, but said nothing. Alongside Tom, Hito, and Ella, he stepped calmly out of the First Training Ground.

"Can you stop looking at me like that? I’m not some peacock flaunting its feathers." he finally muttered, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

"It can’t be helped," Ella replied, her tone half-serious. "I’m just wondering... are all Suns and Moons like you? If they are..." Her voice trailed off, unfinished.

Asher shook his head, offering nothing more.

"See you tomorrow. Goodnight." And with that, he turned and walked away, disappearing toward his room.

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