Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 807: Energy Source

Asher turned and walked away, not bothering with the Kobolds anymore. This was the first time he had seen Kobolds since his transmigration, but it didn’t surprise him, as all sorts of fantasy monsters existed here.

Asher walked without a single hint of urgency, as though he had all the time in the world, his steps purposely a bit loud to attract attention toward himself. Over an hour passed with nothing attacking him, nor did he encounter anything of interest, but the next instant, his feet came to a halt. At that moment, he was walking within a wide path between two canyons, and from the top of each canyon, enormous boulders began to roll down in unison, all racing toward him.

Asher couldn’t sense what had initiated the attack, which was a bit surprising given that he could sense everything within a one-kilometre radius. He hadn’t even sensed any Astra energy in motion that had pushed the boulders forward.

But he didn’t think too much about it; the enemy would eventually reveal itself.

Before the boulders could even touch him, Asher simply increased the gravity upon each one, immediately crushing them into rubble before they could even reach him. The wind and dust from the bursting boulders instantly covered the surrounding area, whipping against Asher’s face.

Asher remained where he was without even attempting to glance around, as though he was purposely creating an opening for whatever was hiding to make a move.

The next instant, from the two canyon walls beside Asher, four gigantic hands made of nothing but rock immediately shot out with thunderous force and overwhelming might as they aimed to crush Asher where he stood.

But the moment the four hands drew close, they immediately stopped in their tracks as though something was holding them back. The force behind the four gigantic rock hands pushed harder, but it was useless as cracks began to spread across them before they shattered under the strain.

Asher had simply manipulated space to stop whatever was coming toward him, effortlessly halting the attack as though time itself had frozen for it. In reality, he was merely freezing them in place through spatial manipulation. It was a space-type defensive skill he had created a few months back at the Sfar Academy.

Asher immediately moved. He could already guess what the enemy was. After all, it had manipulated Astra energy to perform that rocky hand attack. It was impossible for Asher not to sense it and pinpoint the source with his Perfect Astra Control.

He unsheathed Virelass once more as he unleashed a single upward vertical slash. Another slash appeared midair, a horizontal one that layered perfectly across the vertical strike, forming a cruciform. The cross-shaped attack immediately sped forward and, with a cataclysmic impact, tore into the grand canyon that stretched tens of meters toward the sky.

With a booming sound, it immediately split into four and exploded outward as more stone and dust filled the air, covering everything in a haze that made it almost impossible to see. And from the churning cloud of dust, a titanic four meter tall figure rose, its silhouette casting a long shadow across Asher and the ground.

It was what appeared to be a Stone Golem of some sort, but it seemed to be a special type. Upon its chest hung what appeared to be an energy source that pulsed with Astra energy... something akin to a core.

Asher’s mind spun as he stared at the orb on the Golem’s chest with a hint of surprise as he deduced why he hadn’t sensed the Golem despite it possessing such an immense energy source.

’So the core on its chest can blend with the ambient Astra energy within the canyon, camouflaging it completely,’ Asher thought to himself. The ability was something useful. Asher immediately made a mental note to create a skill like this for himself; after all, it had even escaped his own senses.

The Golem simply raised its enormous hand, and the next moment, the earth beneath Asher’s feet vanished as though it had never existed in the first place. An enormous hole appeared in its place, as though it wanted to swallow Asher whole.

But before gravity could act upon Asher and pull him downward, he simply defied it, floating in place without a change in expression.

Without missing a beat, he shot forward in a streak toward the Golem, but the moment he closed the distance, a huge wall of rocks and stone immediately appeared between him and the Golem, as though the structure had materialized out of nowhere.

The next instant, the wall of rocks and stone exploded outward with titanic force that swallowed everything within a four-hundred-meter radius in pure madness as a dome of orange flames, black smoke, raging wind, wind rings, and debris tore outward in every direction.

The air became choking and oppressive, but through it, Asher could be seen floating midair. He hadn’t expected the Golem to possess the ability to explode stones and rocks as though they were bombs. Anyone with such an ability while living in a place like this grand rocky canyon was simply living in heaven.

But still, the explosion made no difference to Asher as he appeared before the Golem, his fist clenched as he punched outward with immense force against its chest.

The weight behind the punch toppled the Golem backward as it immediately slammed into the scorched ground with a heavy boom. Asher flickered into existence upon its chest, his fist clenched once again as he prepared to strike, but then he immediately paused as he noticed that the energy source in the middle of its chest was gone.

Asher’s head snapped backward as various rocks on the ground began to gather together, forming a new Golem body. This time, however, it was even larger, standing at a height of five meters.

’It can move its energy source,’ Asher thought to himself as he saw the same energy source embedded within the new Golem’s chest. And with its ability to mask its presence through ambient Astra energy, it was almost impossible to catch or even notice when the energy source slipped away.

Asher didn’t fly toward it this time. Instead, he simply raised a hand like a martial artist about to perform a chopping attack. The wind around his forearm twisted and whistled as air pressure mounted, and without any further delay, he brought his hand down in a martial chop.

With booming force, a crescent-shaped wind attack tore outward and immediately cleaved through the Golem’s new body. Its form was carved apart into two as a diagonal slash split it from shoulder to waist.

This was a new Martial Technique Asher had developed a few months ago. Since Hilary could manipulate wind pressure around his rapier to form crescent-shaped attacks through sheer strength, Asher had used that particular technique as the basis for what he had just done. The difference was that his entire hand had become the sword this time.

Although it sounded simple, it was far harder to execute.

The Golem’s Astra energy source immediately moved again as it masked its presence through the ambient Astra energy, but before it could get far, Asher appeared before it like a ghost, startling the Astra energy source.

Asher bent down and picked it up. It wasn’t exactly an energy source; it was simply a tiny brown Golem Monster that wasn’t even up to one meter in height.

Asher stared at it. ’No wonder I couldn’t sense any form of presence or Class rank,’ Asher thought to himself, as throughout the entire fight he hadn’t known what class of monster he was facing.

Asher simply clenched his fist, killing the tiny Golem. The enormous energy within its chest flickered before dissipating into the air.

As for how Asher had been able to see through that tiny Golem’s camouflage ability, it was simple. With his Perfect Astra Control ability, Asher had sensed and taken command of every single Astra mote within a two-kilometre radius before he killed the five meter tall Golem. So from that point onward, anything that wasn’t under his control immediately stood out as an anomaly.

It had fooled Asher once, but it couldn’t do so a second time, as he had already found a counter almost instantly.

Truly, the Perfect Astra Control ability was overpowered, though only in the right hands, of course.