I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse

Kairos did recall what Nyoka had said about swan songs, but still didn't really understand what exactly it meant. Still, he could get an idea from the collective emotions alone. Nyoka and the others were originally just cautious, but it flared up into tension. On the other hand, the other three were initially feeling desperation.

Yet, it disappeared rather quickly. They had given up, but perhaps not in the traditional sense.

Their bodies contorted rather violently, while the lacerations covering their body suddenly burst, bleeding as though they were fresh wounds. Both their size and strength increased several times over. Their skin shifted colors in certain places, with what looked like rips forming on their skin that had a dull gray look rather than black.

Their actual size hadn't grown significantly, but their proportions had changed drastically, becoming more of a horror show than something monstrous. It came to the point it was difficult to recognize what they originally were. Nyoka, who was in the air with one of them between his jaws, slammed down into the ground with a crash, spreading cracks.

Yet, the actual freak show itself appeared unharmed at first.

The monster struggled fervently within Nyoka's maw. He wasn't having too much trouble keeping him there, but in the end released the thing and backed off. Two very deep fang wounds were clear in its body, where the monster lost its blood incredibly quickly.

Still, that didn't seem to discourage it. In fact, it didn't seem to notice the grievous wound at all. Instead, it curled up into a ball before launching itself towards Nyoka. Along the way, spikes longer than its original body sprouted out, with the majority being black, and some of them being gray.

Nyoka quickly slithered out of the way, though the ball of spikes began rolling towards, the spikes retracting as they got closer to the ground and reappearing the other end afterwards.

The ball was noticeably faster than Nyoka, but he in his snake form was far more agile, able to turn corners fast enough to avoid him. While that was happening, the werewolf that Jeff was fighting lifted up his head and let out a howl.

Four extra gray arms, all of different sizes, suddenly burst out from his body, though they appeared to hold less flexibility, slowly and rigidly curling back into fists. On the other hand, Jeff simply remained on the spot, lowering himself slightly to get into a better stance. He didn't seem to have the intention to chase or run away.

If the werewolf wanted to, it could've just run away without much trouble. However, in its rageful state, it didn't recognize there was any other option other than rushing in. With a roar, it rushed back over. While its original arms hung by its sides, the other gray ones were primed and ready.

Jeff pulled back an arm, readying a counterattack. However, it was quite slow. In the end, the werewolf had made it to him before he could finish it. Upon reaching him, the werewolf slammed his fists one after another into Jeff with a clear concrete bang, though Jeff himself didn't actually move back.

Like last time, after being hit, Jeff's own attack came barreling towards the werewolf.

A deep thud resounded among sounds of bones cracking.

The werewolf's ribcage got pushed in. However, this time it stood its ground. While it was pushed back slightly, it was an incredible difference from being flung back like a football. The werewolf continued to throw punches, each arm doing so at varying speeds.

And while there was no visible damage, each impact caused booms to echo one after another. They were definitely not light, that was for sure. Even water drops could eventually break a rock with enough time.

As for the one facing Kairos, other than becoming a monstrosity, its claws had grown noticeably, though on top of that, a thick layer of dense black energy had grown on top, artificially extending their length even further.

With a swipe, that black energy shot towards him. He brought up his claw to block, and used his harden skill, turning the skin at his front rock-solid. Streaks of black lines flashed by him, and a clear clang resounded. He looked fine at first, but a moment later, cracks formed across his skin. Then, thin lines of blood burst out.

Kairos had seen it coming, but couldn't help but feel surprised by this sudden burst of power. While he didn't think that his use of the harden skill was perfect, he was also confident enough for it to last at least a few strikes before breaking.

Even if a perfect clone of himself attacked him, that would hold true.

Yet, it was broken in just one move.

In a situation where your defenses were not enough, generally you would have to resort to dodging or parrying them away. However, Kairos didn't see any world where he would be able to do such a thing. In the case of dodging, while the black energy from the claws only came briefly after the fox's swing, it was simply too quick, and he was too large. As for parrying, he had already tried doing that. Unfortunately, he was only able to mitigate a small part of it.

In the end, Kairos only saw one option he was left with. Match the fox's offensive with his own, betting on the fact that after all the blows, that he would be the last one standing.

Kairos began charging up a darkness spell, committing a third of his mana to the spell, so that it would be powerful, but also not take too long to charge up. The foxes second slash came seconds after the first.

The wolf's consciousness that merged with him wanted to run the fox down, and Kairos obliged to that. The two of them ran forward. Kairos swung hard with his reinforced claw, breaking apart some of the black energy, though most of it continued on and further broke apart his hardened skin and dug deep into his flesh.

As the fox went for the third strike, Kairos had gotten next to it, directly clashing his reinforced claw with theirs. The black energy violently bubbled right next to Kairos, but he just barely held it off by pushing back on their interlocked claws.

Though unlike Kairos, the fox could use both of her claws at full power, and did just that. Kairos brought his other claw up to block as well. He held it back, but the black energy immediately began digging into his flesh, splitting it apart.

In just a second, it had ripped through half his paw, and was only going faster. While that was happening, Kairos remained as calm as possible and faced the fox, before opening his maw.

With a flash, his spear shot out, landing squarely on the fox's face. It pierced partway through, jutting out where the nose bridge appeared to be, or at least where it should've been in the disproportionate mess it was now.

The hit itself was definitely a solid one, however the fox itself appeared unfazed, continuing to rip apart Kairos, filled with indignance and rage. He wanted to disengage from the scenario, but didn't see an easy way of doing so without severe injuries.

His darkness spell was only about half complete at this time, and he doubted releasing it right now would actually warrant much when they were so unfazed by everything else. While he was considering using the red prisms, Sara, in her giant eagle form, swooped down.

She captured the spear between her beak before using it as a handle to bring the fox up into the air. In just a few seconds, she was already soaring high in the air. The fox struggled, attacking Sara, covering her body with lacerations with its claws.

Despite the grievous wounds, Sara held on strong and continued on into her air.

The fox seemed to have a semblance of rationality, targeting the wings and injuring them severely. However, they were sturdier than what they looked, still able to continue flying despite that.

Eventually, when it got too dangerous, Sara directly let go, letting the fox fall down.

At the same time, the rolling spike seemed to give up on chasing Nyoka after a while, instead turning towards Kairos. Seeing this, several different snake heads split out from Nyoka's body, before shooting out like arrows.

The snakes threaded in between the spikes of the monster, wrapping themselves around them before biting down into its body. In response, the monster continued rolling, attempting to crush the snakes under their weight. 𝚋𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚘𝚟ｅｌ.ｃ𝚘𝚖

However, when the snakes did go under, they simply appeared on the other side unharmed. Without much care, they continued to shift the various places that they were biting, opening up more wounds and hastening the bloodloss.

Though as dire as its situation appeared, it simply continued rolling on relentlessly, targeting Kairos who was already fairly injured.