Chapter 568 - 566

Chapter 566

With another rumble, the clouds began weeping as the boy raised his weapon and pointed it towards the Three-Spined Aberrant.

"I’m back, boo."

"....."

The Three-Spined Aberrant gawked at the boy standing before him, snarling as he faced his opponent.

Ray’s weapons vanished from sight as the world wept around them. Rain fell with furious force, each droplet striking the ground with unusual intensity.

Yet, neither of them moved an inch from where they stood. They simply glared at each other, their eyes locked in an unrelenting stare.

Ray’s weapons finally returned to his System inventory, and he ran a hand through his hair.

"Now, where were we?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

The usual smile or cocky expression the Tribrid wore during battles, regardless of how difficult they became, was gone. His familiar taunts and snarky one-liners had disappeared along with them.

All that remained was the suffocating killing intent radiating from his body, a pressure that would overwhelm anyone who wasn’t strong enough to withstand it.

The Three-Spined Aberrant remained silent for a while, his gaze repeatedly shifting between the boy before him and the destruction behind him.

His eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn’t understand how any of this was possible.

Five minutes.

How had Ray dealt with a hundred Aberrants in five minutes?!

It was absurd.

Even as a Three-Spined Aberrant, he wasn’t confident he could accomplish something like that himself. He could take down One-Spined Aberrants with ease, but a hundred of them in five minutes?

That was simply ridiculous.

’Or was it even less time?’

The drones panned from one angle to another, capturing every movement and expression as though refusing to miss a single detail of the confrontation.

Unknown to Ray, the viewers were divided between watching Layla and watching him.

Since his fight against the Three-Spined Aberrant hadn’t truly begun, the majority had been focused on Layla’s madness.

Until—

Ray was no longer where he had been standing.

Then, just as his foot hovered above the earth to complete another step, he vanished.

Not through speed, but through silence.

It was as though reality itself had erased him from existence in that instant.

The next second, Ray appeared before the Aberrant in the blink of an eye, his clawed hand reaching for its face.

If it had been anybody else, they would have been caught off guard by the sudden appearance and the clawed hand snaking towards them.

But the Aberrant reacted swiftly.

It jumped backwards at the last possible moment, narrowly evading Ray’s attack as his claws tore through the space its head had occupied only a second earlier.

The air seemed to give way as the claw raced past.

Hurriedly, the Aberrant sprang upright, raising itself to its full height above the battlefield. It refused to let Ray maintain the advantage of their height difference any longer.

Without hesitation, it lunged forward, hoping to catch Ray off guard before he could steady himself after the missed strike.

Within a second, it was upon him, its foot hurtling towards the boy with enough force to send him flying.

However, the Tribrid pivoted on one foot, twisting his body just enough for the attack to sail past him and crash into the earth with a devastating crack.

Chunks of mud and earth flew into the air.

Ray’s eyes scanned the creature from head to toe, his gaze steady as his hands twitched, ready to strike again.

To his surprise, the Aberrant moved first.

With a fluid twist of its body, it launched its second foot towards Ray, the attack rocketing forward with blazing momentum.

Quickly, the Tribrid crossed his arms in front of his face.

WAM!

The kick hammered into Ray’s crossed arms with the weight of a warhammer.

His feet slid backward, heels carving trenches through the wet earth as he struggled to absorb the force. His teeth ground together, but his eyes remained locked on the Aberrant’s without a hint of flinching. The pain hammered against his guard, yet it wasn’t enough to make him yield.

With a forceful swing of his arms, Ray shoved the creature’s leg aside, using only half his strength.

The leg was knocked away for a brief moment, creating the opening he needed.

Ray darted forward like an arrow, claws slicing through the air as he kicked off the ground. His body shot forward with astonishing speed, closing the distance between them before the Aberrant could properly recover.

The Aberrant swung its own claw to meet his.

CLANG! BANG! BOOOM—!

Their claws collided at the centre with a thunderous impact. The ground beneath them shuddered violently, cracks spreading through the earth as though an earthquake were about to erupt.

But before the ground could settle, something unexpected happened.

The Aberrant began losing the contest of strength.

Its feet dragged backward as Ray steadily forced it to give ground, his claws pressing against the creature’s with relentless force. The Aberrant’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Ray didn’t give it time to process what was happening. He swung his other hand forward, and an orb of light crackled into existence in his palm.

The creature’s eyes widened further.

*How’s this possible? How can he still have so much energy left after—?!*

BAM!

The orb shot forward at an arcing speed and collided with the Aberrant’s face, triggering a catastrophic explosion. Part of its scales blew away under the impact, while its feet scraped backward across the ground.

Ray wasted no time capitalizing on the opening. Kicking the air behind him, he propelled himself forward like a bullet, catching the Aberrant off guard.

Before it could react, Ray’s hand clamped around its face. He drove the creature straight into a half-standing building, the impact sending rubble flying into the air as the ground cracked beneath them.

Without releasing his grip, Ray dragged the Aberrant forward, his hand grinding against the earth. Trenches and deep grooves tore through the wet soil as he forced the creature along the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Ray raised his free fist and sent it rocketing toward the Aberrant’s face. But just before the punch connected, the creature twisted its head aside.

Ray’s fist missed its target and slammed into the earth instead.

BOOM!

The ground shattered beneath his knuckles, sending mud and wet soil bursting outward like the Red Sea parting.

The Aberrant seized the opening.

With no room to build up momentum, it drove its fist forward at close range, hammering Ray’s abdomen with the force of four battering rams.

Ray’s eyes widened as pain tore through his body. Saliva threatened to spill from his throat, and his grip loosened as the impact ripped him violently away from the Aberrant.

His body was blasted backward, his momentum threatening to send him flying like a rag doll.

Meanwhile, the Aberrant slowly began lifting itself from the ground, preparing to recover from the exchange.

But before it could fully rise, a golden lasso suddenly wrapped around its neck, halting it in place.

The creature froze in surprise.

Following the lasso with its eyes, it discovered that the other end was connected to the Tribrid’s wrist.

Ray had stopped his own momentum.

"Contract."

One word.

That was all it took.

Ray’s form blurred forward, moving even faster than before as the golden lasso rapidly shrank, dragging him toward his target at a terrifying speed.

He swung his head backward, then hurled it forward.

WAM!

Ray’s forehead smashed into the Aberrant with bone-rattling force, driving the creature back into the ground at twice its previous speed.

The earth erupted beneath them, sending a violent storm of debris into the air.