I am an Eldritch Entity

Valentina could see the almost palpable level of seriousness Eryndor was exuding.

Even though she knew about the abyss, since she wasn't the target, she wasn't as paranoid as Eryndor. She hadn't noticed that Kron was subtly luring them towards the abyss.

Even though she had agreed, Eryndor continued whispering.

"Look, I know everything is happening because of me. I'll compensate you for this alright? Trust me, I will. I keep my word."

Valentina only put a finger on her lips.

"Don't speak of compensation. I do have a trump card, it will let me contract my black snake in the Beast Seeker realm itself.

"However, I'll be unavailable for a while. You'll need to hold out for like thirty seconds."

Eryndor promptly shut up and held his spiked mace tight. There was a possibility that Kron might come after him seeing that Valentina had stopped attacking.

Any sane person would immediately realize that she might be preparing something.

As expected, just a few seconds after Valentina stopped shooting the white spheres, Kron gazed at Eryndor, their gaze locking on each other.

Kron's lips twisted into a smirk as he spoke.

"So you already knew. That was smart. A pity that smartness doesn't take you anywhere. It's power."

As soon as he uttered the last line, Kron's speed immediately shot up.

Edward sidestepped to block his charge, only to run into an afterimage. He was late.

Eryndor managed to glimpse that even small shrubs, and twigs sticking out from the ground and nearby bushes were cutting open Kron's skin as he ran.

Is that why he was delaying until now? That his extreme speed comes at a cost of drastic decrease in his defense?

Makes sense, Valentina's white sphere is far more lethal than any of my Sky Piercing Palm's elements. Can't help, one is an innate ability while one is an acquired skill.

The thought only lasted a moment, as he began waving the spiked mace around with a tight grip without even waiting for Kron to close the gap.

If even shrubs and twigs can hurt him enough, he would certainly be more wary of the spiked mace right?

As an additional layer of safety, he circulated Lightning Infusion and coated his body with lightning element Qi.

Turns out that was still not his full speed.

One moment Kron was heading towards him, the next moment he was already behind him. Eryndor didn't have the chance to change the direction of his spiked mace as Kron threw a punch.

"Peekaboo, behind you idiot."

Kron grinned.

Well, at least I was right about one thing, he really couldn't even touch me with the lightning element Qi coating my skin. With his paltry defense in that state, even the stun oriented lightning element might've fried him crisp.

Eryndor only had time for a single thought before he backstepped, creating distance and enough time to hold up the mace before the punch.

The impact sent him staggering backwards as Kron smirked.

Eryndor saw Edward running towards him, but there was still like two to three seconds till he reached.

He activated Lightning Infusion, his body sparking as he rushed forward, aiming a Sky Piercing Palm of air element at his opponent's throat—silent, and invisible.

The Silver Warrior twisted unnaturally, his twisting art letting his torso bend sideways at a sharp angle, the attack slicing only air.

Before Eryndor could react, Kron launched forward with a burst of speed, a palm amplified with offensive art slamming into Eryndor's ribs.

Crimson Armor took the first brunt, then the Sovereign's Cloak which abruptly consumed his energy of Consciousness to protect him.

No injuries, no harm done. The Cloak protected him completely, just the force behind the palm sent him skidding backwards.

"Oh? A defensive treasure? That's a nuisance." Kron frowned.

Eryndor didn't say anything, but glanced at Valentina out of the corner of his eye.

The young woman had her hand placed on the black snake, but her head happened to be turned in his direction, her narrowed eyes matching his with a knowing look, and her lips twisted in a teasing smirk.

Uh oh, she sensed Sovereign's Cloak?

Up until now, he had only worn Sovereign's Cloak, it was nothing but a random cloak on him. But when it blocked Kron's punch, it actually activated, it was an ability in action, and since he was in Valentina's range, she could sense it.

Fuck it, it's just another secret she would know of.

He recognised this wasn't the time to be worried about it.

Edward had reached by the time, but the problem was, with Valentina out of action, Kron was extremely bold in avoiding Edward altogether and heading towards him.

"How long will your treasure last anyway huh?"

Kron spoke, bypassing Edward as he punched Eryndor.

Gritting his teeth, he used Shadowstep, slipping under the warrior's extended arm to strike with Internal Fist, aiming for his gut.

The Silver Warrior grinned. His defensive art flared on his arms as he twisted again, catching the blow with his elbow. His knee shot up, smashing into Eryndor's side, sending him airborne.

Mid-air, Eryndor swung his mace, the spiked head detaching and shooting towards his opponent. The warrior blurred sideways, using direction shifting art to evade, then closed the gap in an instant, his hand shaped into a hook.

The expected attack didn't arrive, as Kron hooked his cloth and flung him in another direction.

Fuck, seeing that I have a defensive treasure he would rather carry me over to the abyss than attack me?

Eryndor quickly had a thought mid-air, and came up with a plan when he caught sight of Kron bypassing Edward once again to head towards him.

He should be using his extreme speed to catch up, I can do one thing.

Kron mentally heaved a sigh as he saw his target about to drop on the ground. He had flung him far enough that by the time that stage nine Elementalist reached, he would have already carried his target far away.

A pity he couldn't knock him out due to his defensive treasure. He would have very much preferred to do that so he could use his extreme speed without any inhibitions.

Just when he was about to cancel his extreme speed to pick up the guy who was already getting up, a tremendous amount of pain registered in his brain.

It was high enough that even with his abnormal pain tolerance he had developed gradually over several years through fighting and putting himself at risk, he felt a sharp pain that almost made him cry out loud.

His sight travelled down as he saw his body had been pelted by an immeasurable number of tiny stones, twigs, or any random object.

How? I thought they had used everything? I didn't sense any of the four energies. Was it his ability? Is it Telekinesis, didn't that guy say it was Passive Regeneration?

The amount of wrong information made Kron think that he might have been the one plotted against.

But why would someone give him such an absolute mind boggling amount of resources just to plot against him? These guys had just laid too low, not even letting the Federation know about their information.

The extreme pain momentarily halted Kron as Eryndor made a run for it. He had taken advantage of his low defenses to use his trump card - Telekinesis.

Yes, it might have been counted as weak in the earlier battle, but now? Especially when the defenses were lowered?

It was a trump card. The countless small objects he controlled made for perfect attack as he pelted the young man before he could cancel the martial art.

"Arghhhh, fuck it. You've gone and done it, I don't care about using it now."

Kron yelled out in frustration as he took out a knuckle duster. It glowed bright red as he made a run for them.

"I'm done." Valentina spoke and stood beside Eryndor who had already regrouped with Edward.

"It seems to be some one-time use treasure. No other reason why he wouldn't take it out until now."

Eryndor guessed out loud. However, he withheld another point which Valentina might've guessed as well, but none of them said it out loud.

The weapon might be extremely precious, but also lethal enough to kill the target.

He thought. Edward spoke quickly, "We should make a run for it, I have a bad feeling."

Valentina held up her hand, on which two snakes were coiled around, white and black. "No worries, just wait."

The white snake and black snake simultaneously opened their mouths and shot spheres of their respective colors, straight at the incoming Kron, who was completely bloodied from head to toe.

The man held up his knuckle duster, intending to take the hit through the weapon to heal his wounds.

The white and black sphere landed on him at the same time, but no one would've expected the result.

When the two spheres landed on Kron's outstretched weapon, there wasn't any blast like when the white spheres used to land.

Instead, a thin horizontal line of black and white segments extended in both directions at about two meters of distance. Then it burst, but there wasn't any fire or an explosive sound.

Pure black and white colors abruptly filled the spherical area around Kron as jagged crackling threads of both colors occasionally escaped the sphere just like lightning in the air.

It was silent, unassuming, pale, and devoid of anything flashy.

But the result? Deadly.

Edward gasped with horror as he beheld the aftermath.