Threads of the Soul

Chapter 497 - 497: Just Fast

"Where did he go? Where did he go?!" A soldier shouted, whipping his head around in desperation and constantly sweeping his gun around the room. Every crackle of lightning or whistle of wind made him flinch in terror as he was surrounded by nothing but corpses.Yet no matter how much he tried, he couldn't do anything to stop the claws ripping his throat out. After all, he couldn't even see the spy move at those inhuman speeds, never mind hope to defend himself.

With a crackle of his signature element, Lightning Tiger appeared seemingly out of thin air as he looked down at the guard in disdain while the poor man clutched at his throat and choked on his blood.

These men hadn't even stepped into the realm of transcended yet, even though they had mutated and stepped onto the path of glorious evolution. Their weakness was more than enough to justify their deaths, but the fact that some of their number had been disgusting abominations was what truly turned Lightning Tigers stomach.

Naturally he ignored the fact that his Captain was partially one of those abominations, all while he was currently serving a being calling itself Neptune and was controlling his friends soulless corpse. He hadn't quite yet found the proper way to rationalise those particular abominations, so simply ignoring them was the best.

He plucked the dying man's weapon from his hand, inspecting it curiously. Guns had gone out of fashion in many places. Requitals worked better, especially against stronger beasts, and didn't rely on dwindling ammunition.

While some of their numbers, as military men, had been slow to transfer away from using guns, they had eventually learned how useless they were compared to the real weapons that the Gods provided to them.

Yet these weapons were strange. Built from new material in a design similar to that of old guns, but with runic carvings along their body allowing it to function as a sort of railgun. It's only power source was a small crystal which Lightning Tiger had no possible idea of its origins.

This was even better than what they had heard in reports of the American's main cities. Yet it was given to these worthless runts? Lightning Tiger could barely wrap his head the baffling logic.

A small ball, roughly the size of a snooker ball, bounced across the metallic flooring with a satisfying tink with every bounce, until it started to roll and finally came to a stop against Lightning Tiger's foot.

He glanced away from the gun and down at the strange ball, which immediately split in half and sprung open as it started to spray out a thick cloud of gas.

Lightning Tiger's eyes widened in horror and the next second he appeared far across the room, clutching at his mouth and covering it with his hand.

A man wreathed in wooden armour strolled into the room, his face completely covered by a helmet resembling one belonging classic knights armour with nothing but eye holes as a weakness. A few flower buds, closed and waiting to blume, sprouted from different parts of his armour almost as if it was alive.

He glanced at Lightning Tiger's current position with a tilt of his head, before looking over at the cloud of gas that he had left behind.

"A Teleporter?" The man muttered, his voice muffled and distorted by his own armour, "No... Gas dispersal is all wrong. Just fast. Much easier to deal with then."

Lightning Tiger frowned deeply at the implication in the mans words. No... It wasn't even an implication, he was saying outright that he would be easy to deal with. The sheer ignorance and audacity of this fool!

Clearly, he did not know who he was talking to. Lightning sparked around his body as he disappeared in a blur, racing across the length of the room in less than time than it took this fool to blink.

Lightning Tiger raised his hand, as his fingernails had turned into deadly curved claws. But just before he could strike, one of the buds on the mans armour opened up. Technically it had been opening the entire time, he was simply moving so fast it seemed like it just happened.

The tiny, slow opening of the bud was enough to release a spurt of gas, straight at Lightning Tiger, that immediately burned his skin on contact and started to sizzle it even more.

He quickly leapt backwards and cut off his speed, clutching at his hand in agony as the skin continued to warp, sizzle and then decay. The tiny particulates of the gas were eating at his flesh, stripping it from the bone.

It was only a small chunk of his hand in the end that got damaged, but the simple fact that it had happened in less than a second, and that he had been predicted so expertly, put Lightning Tiger immediately on edge.

He watched with narrow eyes as the flower produced the rest of the cloud and quickly engulfed the man in his own acidic trap, yet a moment later he strode out of the cloud without so much as a wince in pain. His wooden armour unaffected from the acid. His only weak point, the eyes, shimmered slightly as the amber glasses his armour had formed pulled away.

"Care to try that one again? I'm sure it will work this time, If you are fast enough."

Lightning Tiger grit his teeth in irritation, still clutching his hand as he watched the man wearily. They had detailed reports of all those who had been seen fighting for the one known as Lord Corvus.

Most of these reports comprised of the Lighting Queen, the Black and White Knights and the one that could turn himself into a cloud. There were a few others too, such as the Grey Haired Swordsman.

But this one... they had no reports of this one and they had been watching them for close to a year. So where in the world had this mystery man sprung from? Was this the old man they had come searching for?

"Not wanting to play?" The man spoke again, his dismissive and condescending tone only driving Lightning Tigers irritation more.

"Then I guess its my turn."

A large flower bud, twice as big as his head, sprouted from the mans back. It bulged, as it was filled like a water balloon, before finally opening its petals and spewing out a cloud of thick, noxious green gas that quickly started to fill the room.