Chapter 53: Sky Battle

The first thing he felt was the wind, then pain as if every bone in his body had been shattered; the third was the deeply unsettling realisation that he was falling.

"Bloody hell!"

His body tumbled helplessly through the air. Above him, the sky had turned into a chaotic jumble of wings, claws, scales and enormous flying lizards of various colours, chasing him. He twisted his body just as one of the wyverns lunged towards him. Its claws grazed the side of his body, tearing his clothes.

"Damn it!"

He drew his sword, ’Tear of the Fallen’, and instinctively swung it upwards; the blade struck the wyvern’s leg, and he immediately activated the sword’s second ability— the Explosion.

Flames flared around the blade, followed by the roar of an explosion that tore through the wyvern’s legs.

The wyvern recoiled with a piercing scream, but he didn’t even have time to process the damage he’d inflicted on it. Another wyvern took the place of the wounded one; he turned to face it and engaged it, just as yet another attacked him with the intent of taking a bite out of his handsome head

"Are you seriously?!"

He kicked the wyvern’s snout, using the force of the kick to propel himself aside. But the tail of a second wyvern struck him, sending him spinning violently.

His vision blurred for a moment and the sword nearly slipped from his grip. The world turned into sky. Then ground. Then sky again. Then ground.

He was falling faster and faster and couldn’t even manage to find a safe way to regain his balance because of the wyverns’ relentless attacks. He stared downwards in frustration and despair, and certainly didn’t forget to curse Rolan with one of the filthiest curses he’d read in a novel where the protagonist was a slums rat

"You son of *$-$($!@]{€{"

And yes, it was best that this son’s father didn’t hear him, or he might well be skinned alive...

One of the fire wyverns swooped down on him, trying to turn him into a roast, so he used the sword’s first ability – Crush – which froze the wyvern’s wings, allowing him to pass right past it and land on the ground

But he hadn’t even noticed another one that had crept right up behind him, using the Shadow Element. To his astonishment, his vision turned to darkness and something cold touched his neck...

His head was already inside the wyvern’s mouth, and it was already closing its jaws to sever his poor head from his body. So he hastily used his ability ’Collapse of the Stars’ directly inside the wyvern’s mouth, which turned the hideous creature into a spherical mass of goo before it exploded; naturally, his face suffered damage and first-degree burns.

He felt a sharp stinging pain in his face and head, but thanks to the adrenaline, he ignored it completely and focused on striking the next lizard. The creature screamed and veered away.

He used the recoil to change his course, but another wyvern immediately filled his field of vision. Its claws lunged at him. He raised his sword; the impact nearly shattered his arm. He was already beginning to feel exhausted and furious, and he pushed the creature away.

Another.

Then another.

He felt as though there was no end to it; unconsciously, he began to curse the Grand Duke, which caused the other man riding the dragon in the sky to panic, then decided he is, deaf and could hear nothing, whilst he watched the battle cautiously, fearing that a mistake might be made that would end with the foul-mouthed, wayward son dead...

...

Alexander took his sword and brandished it as if dancing in the air, with blood, body parts, flames and elements flying around him, and repeated small explosions—for he did not dare to unleash anything on a large scale.

Even if he had issues with his sense of danger, that did not mean he lacked common sense; if he were to use his abilities—or those of his sword—freely, without control or focus, he would end up as a pile of meat, a ready-made, grilled meal for these stupid lizards.

But this cautious approach didn’t really help him, because the swarm wasn’t dwindling: firstly, because he wasn’t able to kill them properly, and secondly, for every Wyvern he struck down, another took its place.

His breathing began to become ragged. His arms began to feel heavy. And his body was still falling. He’d completely lost control of the flow of the battle... In fact, he’d never had it to begin with; all he’d been doing was trying to keep his body in one piece whilst cursing and swearing at that malicious little bastard, Rolan.

"Damn it..."

The impact of one of the wyverns’ attacks struck him squarely in the stomach. His body was violently thrown backwards and blood spattered everywhere.

"fuck it—!"

One of the claws scraped his shoulder.

"—Fuck you all!"

Another blast sent one of the creatures flying.

He looked around. There were at least thirty of them. Perhaps forty. He could no longer tell the number. His mind was beginning to break under the sheer weight of the swarm of moving bodies. So fast. So many directions. So loud.

Then, in a moment of clarity, he finally remembered that he was not, in fact, that damned, mindless fool of a Rolan.

He is ALEXANDER, and he did have a mind! So he took a breath and tried to organise his thoughts beyond the instinctive curse directed at everyone who was to blame

Another one was sneaking up on him, using lightning as an element. He kicked it, and then there was an explosion from his sword.

He watched as it fell, leaving a purple trail towards the forest below.

He tried to catch his breath and looked up, but he couldn’t see that Rolanfuck.

"Damn him..."

So he stopped hesitating and used his Core ability once more, channelling every last atom of his energy into the sword to use it as a conduit, then unleashed his power—though he was careful to use it sparingly so as not to repeat what had happened hours earlier when his ability had turned on him.

[[The Core – Law of Chaos: Everything is Reversed]]

For a single second, the battlefield fell silent, then turned upside down; in that very instant, 80 per cent of the flying lizards into a bloody mist. The survivors all began to flail about, losing their balance; whenever they tried to fly upwards, they found themselves descending, and when they stopped flying, they fell upwards, so utter chaos broke out amongst them... Then they screamed at the top of their voices before they all committed suicide, causing Alexander to stare at them in astonishment and confusion, for he did not understand why!

Above all, he immediately deactivated his ability before it could affect him, and concentrated on his descent. Fortunately, his battle with the flying lizards had slowed him down, moderating his rate of fall given the height from which he was falling, so he used the corpse of one of the Wyverns as a foothold and kicked off from it whilst propelling himself towards the crown of a tall tree; as soon as he reached it, he clung on. When he finally gained a foothold, he climbed down until he reached a suitable branch, whereupon he finally gave in; he fell to his knees, vomiting blood

He was barely able to prevent himself from being affected by his own power; had he lost focus even slightly, he would have joined those flying lizards that had turned into a bloody mist

It seemed his ability had been upgraded, allowing him to reverse the flow of blood.

Instinctively, he compared the sensation to when he was in his domain, where he had always felt a subtle assault—one that not even the side character no.1 had been able to completely prevent back then.

So his ability was now trying to reverse the flow of blood in his veins... Consequently, he felt a chill and numbness in his limbs as he tried to catch his breath.

_________

Meanwhile, high in the sky, riding the dragon, Rolan coughed up blood, his face red with pain and agitation, whilst he certainly did not forget to curse the little imp.

Once he had finally calmed down, he raised himself up and looked down at the corpses of his beasts, and Alexander who was leaning against a branch, catching his breath. He looked at him in shock and with a hint of fear as he wiped the blood from his mouth and nose with a look of acute pain

Normally, the death of his beasts would not affect him much, but Alexander had used his ability, the Law of Chaos; yet somehow, the ability had affected the bond between him and his beasts and targeted him directly!

Perhaps Alexander himself did not realise the terrifying thing he had just done.

Taming monsters essentially means establishing a bond between the monster and its master, which involves the master’s energy flowing through the monster’s nerves to form the link for communication and control over the monster.

Alexander’s ability had attacked this bond in some way, causing it to strike Rolan directly. Had he hesitated for even a fraction of a second to sever his connection with the wyverns after sensing the danger, he would have joined them.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what had happened... No, it simply took his slow mind a little time to process the information he had, until his expression turned into one of stupidity and jealousy... just a little.

Although abilities are essentially divided into two categories—active and passive—

fundamentally, abilities... the more you understand it, the more creatively you can use it. However, achieving an advanced understanding of abilities may sound easy, but it is actually very difficult and can often even backfire.

Because when you acquire an ability from the Realm, you gain only the basic knowledge of how it works, its outcomes and its consequences; therefore,

to develop an ability and make it progress... you need years of practice or a deep scientific understanding of the ability’s mechanisms, workings, principles, laws and conditions.

There are so many other absurd requirements that people simply prefer to spend their time acquiring a second ability rather than trying to develop their current one—which no one even knows is worth the effort or not. and if the ability is developed incorrectly, you’ll lose it forever or yourself in the process; that’s why most people who aren’t mad aren’t even prepared to take the risk.

In any case ...