Chapter 36: Barry vs prince

The strong wind kept swirling around my jacket as I faced the Prince. My mid-stage Ascendant power felt totally ready in my arms.

Prince Raymond didn’t wait. He sprinted forward, his feet barely touching the piles of gold coins on the floor. He swung his sword straight at my neck with incredible speed.

I raised my arms, blocking his blade with my bare forearms. My matte-black wrist scales took the full hit, sending a shower of bright sparks into the dark room. The force of his attack was huge, pressing my shoes deep into the gold coins, but my new muscles held firm.

The Prince smiled nastily, trying to push his blade down harder. "You have decent strength for a beast, but you cannot match royal training!"

"Your service is terrible!" I shouted right into his face. I instantly activated my new skill, [The Customer Is Always Wrong]. My voice carried a massive wave of pure administrative authority that cut through his words completely.

"this conflict is a total safety management is rejecting your inventory claim entirely!" I roared.

The effect was perfect. The Prince’s eyes went completely blank for a split second, and his sword hand froze in the air. His whole body locked up mid-push from the sudden blast.

I didn’t waste the moment. I balled up my left fist and delivered a massive, solid punch straight to his cheek.

The hit sent Prince Raymond flying backward across the vault. He crashed into a row of wooden shelves, breaking the wood completely as several blue monster crystals tumbled onto his head.

"Ah! You bastard!" the Prince screamed, standing back to his feet. His face was bright red with pure rage, and blood was dripping from his lip.

He gripped his sword with both hands, and his powerful aura flared up twice as big as before. Suddenly, the light on his blade split apart. In one smooth motion, his single sword duplicated into three identical glowing blades that floated right around his shoulders, all pointing straight at my chest.

"Let’s see you block all of them at once!" the Prince roared, waving his hand forward.

The three glowing swords shot toward me like rockets. The speed was too much to dodge on two human legs in this narrow space, and I could hear Suzy let out a panicked gasp from the corner.

[system: warning! High-tier magical projectile incoming! Recommend immediate form shift!]

’Changing form !’ I thought. Without a single sound, my body completely dissolved into a thin line of cool air. The three royal swords flew right through the empty space where I had been standing, crashing into the wall behind me and making the whole room shake.

I shrunk all the way down into my completely invisible snake form. Moving like a quick black line through the piles of gold, I zipped straight across the floor, completely out of sight.

Prince Raymond blinked, his jaw dropping as he stared at the empty space. "Where did he go?! Did he teleport?!"

He didn’t see a thing. I shot right up the back of his foot, glided past his waist under his red royal tunic, and drove my fangs deep into the bare skin of his neck.

The venom from my fangs shot straight into the Prince’s neck, pumping the volatile fluid directly into his royal veins. For a split second, his whole body stiffened up, his eyes widening in pure shock as he felt the cold sting right against his neck and shoulders.

"AGHH! Get off me!" Prince Raymond screamed, his voice in high, panicked. Before the venom could take full effect, the Prince released his full power all at once. A massive wave of energy exploded from his skin, creating a wild blast that tore through the entire vault. The force of his aura burst was too strong to hold onto. It knocked my tiny snake body right off his neck, flinging me through the air across the dark room.

I hit the ground , sliding down into the piles of gold coins with a dull thud. My body felt a bit sore from the impact, but my eyes kept tracking the target.

Prince Raymond was staggering backward, clutching the side of his neck with both hands. His royal tunic was messy, and his face was rapidly changing colors. The venom was hitting his system at maximum speed, completely scrambling his high-level Ascendant brain.

"What... what did you do to me?!" the Prince roared, shaking his head violently as he tried to focus his eyes.

But he couldn’t focus anymore. The venom wasn’t just paralyzing his muscles; it was completely short-circuiting his mind, filling his head with infinite retail rage. He looked at the wooden shelves, then looked at the empty air, his hands shaking as he pointed his sword at nothing.

"The layout of this storage facility is completely unacceptable!" the Prince suddenly screamed, his voice getting loud. His face was a bright, furious red, and his veins were popping out of his forehead. "Where is the head manager?! I demand to speak to the high regional council right now! This entire kingdom has terrible service!"

Down by, Suzy watched in complete awe, her hand still holding her injured arm as she stared at the crazy royal prince. "Barry... is he... is he yelling at the shelves?"

’The venom is running through it right now so it’s normal, manager,’ I thought, my invisible snake form sliding quickly through the gold toward her position.

The Prince was completely lost in his own hallucination. In his mind, he wasn’t looking at an empty vault anymore. He was seeing thousands of angry, screaming retail customers waving complaint forms in his face. The pressure was driving him totally insane.

"Get away from me!" the Prince shrieked, swinging his sword wildly through the empty air. "I am the Prince! I don’t care about your return policy! Your coupon has already expired!"

With a frantic twist of his wrist, the Prince gathered all his remaining magic into his blade. He swung his sword in a massive, blind circle, releasing a huge, jagged wave of red energy that shot straight across the room. He wasn’t aiming at us on purpose, but because he was swinging wildly, the stray magical attack went flying directly toward the corner where Suzy was standing.

The red wave was moving incredibly fast, cutting through the gold crates and turning the coins into melted scrap. Suzy’s eyes saw the attack coming right for her chest. With her silver sword lying on the floor out of reach and her arm hurt, she couldn’t move out of the way in time.

I didn’t hesitate for a single second. Without a sound, my body dissolved into a line of cool air. I shot across the room and instantly turned back into my human form right in front of her, my custom black business suit appearing completely intact.

"NO!" I barked out loud, my voice carrying the absolute authority of the [The Customer Is Always Wrong] skill.

The corporate verbal block slammed into the air, making the red magical wave slow down for a brief second, but the Prince’s Ascendant power was too much to stop completely with just words. The jagged energy kept coming.

I braced my feet deep into the floor, extended my arms, and caught the red wave bare-handed right in front of Suzy’s face. My matte-black wrist scales flared with intense yellow light as I absorbed the full impact of the stray strike.

The force of the hit was massive, pushing my body backward until my shoulders slammed hard against Suzy’s chest, pinning us both against the wall. I felt completely hot against her skin, and I could hear her taking breathless gasp as she held onto my waist to keep us both from falling. The intense closeness made her face turn a bright, burning red once again, her heart thumping frantically against as my muscular frame shielded her from the blast.

"Barry..." she whispered, her voice low, shy, and full of intense embarrassment as she looked up at my sharp face from inches away. "You... you saved me again."

"I told you, Director," I murmured, my yellow eyes locking onto hers through my messy black hair. "A good manager never lets his director hurt, Just stay behind me."

I turned my head back to face the center of the room. The red wave had faded into sparks, but the Prince was still standing there, his breathing ragged as he tried to shake the remaining venom out of his head. He was slowly breaking through the hallucination, his eyes locking onto my body with a look of pure, murderous hatred.