Chapter 1155 – New Attack & Two Matters To Address

Sylphie and the Forest King seemed to only intensify their “battle” as Jake and company chatted throughout, commenting on what both sides were doing. The others had also noticed the King’s instability with his attacks, and couldn’t help but comment on it.

“He’s trying something,” the Sword Saint said with a sense of certainty.

“Definitely,” Jake concurred. It reminded him of himself when Jake tried to upgrade a skill or get something down that he’d practiced. Every blow had minor variations, as if exploring every aspect of it, hoping to find that final missing piece.

“More than his attacks… his aura is changing slightly,” Dina added. “The way the energy flows with every attack. It’s like pathways of the new vessel are opening with every blow as the mask is allowing its energy and Records to bleed through.”

“Could be something like that,” Jake nodded. “But I also feel like it’s something within the mask itself. Within the soul of the Forest King.”

“He’s learning to move again,” the Sword Saint said with a deep breath. “It’s similar to someone who lost the use of a leg for a long time. He needs to relearn proper walking. No… rather than that, it’s as if he had been walking around with only one leg for too long and has now grown a second one.”

Jake slowly nodded, finding himself in agreement with that assessment. He and the others were quiet as the fight between bird and Unique Lifeform continued, the pace getting faster and the power of every exchanged blow growing.

Both were improving as they practiced, but one more than the other. The King attacked a few more times, switching between golden beams and blasts of force before he finally calmed his barrage of blows and lowered his hands.

“Something clicked into place,” Jake commented.

“Indeed,” the Sword Saint agreed.

“Do you two also feel it?” Dina asked them.

“Yeah,” Jake nodded. He felt an odd sense of pressure from the Forest King in that moment. One that was different from the Unique Lifeform’s usual aura, yet still slightly familiar.

Sylphie watched on as the Forest King seemed in thought before he raised his claw again.

“During the time when my life was never truly my own, something always felt off. Not just because of my state of being, but how my soul felt. My Path. It’s taking time to reforge that connection now… but as I feel it being realized, I also feel something else. Something I believe I should have felt all along.”

His claw began to glow golden again, Sylphie ready to react as the King spoke a final time.

“I would dare you to block this blow, but doing so would be unfair.”

A blast of golden light erupted from the King’s claw, this one different from any attack before. It didn’t even make the grass rustle, possessing no physical presence at all… yet Jake saw Sylphie’s eyes open wide as she didn’t hesitate to flap her wings, dashing to the side as the odd golden wave passed where she’d just been sitting. Even as it passed, it left no traces of having done anything, yet Jake couldn’t help but frown as he had felt something.

Something that reminded him a lot of the unique attack the King could unleash whenever he dropped the mask. The two others–no, Jake didn’t count Minaga as he was cheating by being a god–also seemed to reach the same conclusion.

“A soul attack,” Dina frowned.

“Not one akin to anything I’ve seen before,” the Sword Saint shook his head.

“Presence,” Jake said, having realized what the attack had been. “He attacked using his presence.”

The reason Jake had seen through it was because he had Pride of the Malefic Viper, which could do something slightly similar. Using Pride of the Malefic Viper, Jake could unleash mental attacks on anyone within his presence, and while such attacks hadn’t proven overly useful for Jake as he tended to fight powerful opponents with equally powerful mental states, it still had its advantages.

One of them was that it completely ignored defenses. One’s presence was a bit akin to the radiation given off by the soul, except the only thing that could counter this radiation was more radiation. Usually, this radiation wasn’t directly harmful to others, but only resulted in feeling pressured while near someone too powerful. It was a bit more complicated than that, but that was the gist of it.

The only way to attack using one’s presence was by infusing Willpower into it. That’s how gods could still crush a puny mortal like that, with their presence alone. However, Pride did somewhat disprove that as he could unleash a mental attack that, while it still relied on Willpower, wasn’t just him infusing harmful intent into it.

Now, Jake had seen another way to use one’s presence to attack. Jake also noticed something else as he felt for the aura of the King. He frowned and looked over at Minaga, looking for an explanation with the assumption that only the god could feel what he felt.

“The area his presence affects…” Jake muttered questioning tone.

“Truly the presence of a king, eh?” Minaga just smiled, not indicating he had any plans of elaborating. Not that Jake needed him to, as he already confirmed what Jake expected.

The presence around people varied based on their power and how much they consciously tried to spread it out… but even Jake had no confidence in making his presence cover as large an area as the King currently was. It spread out for several kilometers in all directions, covering them all, and from the looks of it, allowed the kind of attack the King had just unleashed.

What the King had done was launch an attack of pure soul force, using his presence as a medium to attack through. Rather than infusing some feeble mental attack into the presence or something akin to that, it was pure force.

Jake was genuinely interested in knowing what the effect would even be if struck by something like that, and he felt like he wasn’t the only one. Luckily for them all, Sylphie was also curious, and after dodging another two such blasts, decided to try to take one head-on.

Sylphie summoned plenty of defenses as a whirlwind of green appeared around her body, including her usually overpowered Green Shield, as she called it. It was enough for Jake to not feel confident in having his Arcane Powershot penetrate, and they all watched with bated breath as the odd golden wave struck her.

It phased straight through all the wind and even the Green Shield, blasting the Sylphian Hawk away as if she’d just been hit by a cannon. She spun several times before stabilizing herself, showing that the damage hadn’t been substantial, but the mere fact she’d been hit made the attack impressive in its own right.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“The shockwave struck her Soulshape directly, ignoring everything else,” Dina commented with a frown. “Usually, in order to strike the soul of another, you need energy to carry the attack and make contact in the first place. However, what the Forest King did was instead use his presence, bypassing the use of energy entirely, thus making the attack not interact with regular defenses.”

Jake was about to comment as the dryad instead flew forward, speaking to the Unique Lifeform and Sylphie. “If I may, would it be possible to strike me with that attack?”

Sylphie, who seemed to be preparing to go on the offensive and actually fight back, stopped herself after Dina appeared. The King looked over at her with surprise before he looked back at Sylphie.

“If the Sylphian Hawk permits it, I would accept having this brief bout end here. I have insights I need to solidify as they remain fresh in my mind, so protracting the battle would prove counterproductive,” the Forest King answered.

“Ree!” Sylphie answered, making it clear she wasn’t happy about it, but agreeing nonetheless as she quickly flew over to Jake. The poor hawk landed straight in his arms while giving off low, complaining screeches at getting hit before, clearly just fishing for Jake to scratch and care for her. Which he naturally did.

“Then please,” Dina said as she summoned her staff and landed opposite the King.

The Unique Lifeform nodded and raised his golden claw, releasing another blast a moment later. Dina responded by pointing her staff forward and summoning a thin green barrier right in front of it.