LONE: The Journey Beyond

In the inner region of the maze.

Reven and the giant kobold looked at each other. They had a 10m distance between them.

Soon both of them took their battle stance!

The kobold raised his spear horizontally in his right hand and aimed its head towards Reven.

He held it like it was a sword not like the position used to throw the spear. But a position which gave him the ability to manoeuvre the spear more.

Reven also raised his fists. He put his right fist back in a punching stance and left his other fist open and moved it to make a stance used in Kung-fu.

He moved his lower half to make his overall stance a combination of Muay Thai and Taekwondo.

He formed a dagger of Ardor around his left arm.

After they both were ready, they silently looked at each other.

.

.

.

Quite a few minutes passed like this and…

Zoop-!

WING-! WING-!

They both vanished from their initial positions.

TANG-! TANG-! DANG-!

TUTUTUTUTUTU!

They both clashed with full force. Heavy sound waves started to generate around them.

Boom-! Bam-!

BOOOOM!!!

They kept vanishing and appearing in different places.

Finally, the kobold used an opening around Reven and slashed the spear diagonally downwards while Reven used his left hand coated with Ardor to block it.

The force of the attack was just too much for Reven as it sent him flying.

But…

Just before he was sent flying, he used his right hand and punched using everything he had.

This startled the kobold and pushed him backwards slightly.

Thud… Thud… Thud.

After multiple thuds, Reven's body finally stopped.

Bleugh-!

*Cough* *Cough*

Reven spewed a mouthful of blood as he stood up again as he looked at his opponent.

Contrary to his pathetic condition after that engagement, his face had a smile on while his eyes shinned brilliantly.

'This is it. Yes, I can definitely master it. No, I can not only master it but also incorporate it into [Vector Expansion].

Hell, maybe I can breakthrough to [Life-Force Sheath Realm] too.' Reven thought.

"Ready for the true fight, Human!" The kobold looked at Reven and said with a ferocious smile.

Reven also replied with the same kind of smile on his face "Hell Yeah!"

Then he closed his eyes for once and took a long breath to stabilize his body.

PHEWWW!

And said…

"[Vector Expansion]!"

As he opened his eyes.

The Ardor in the entire room started to distort as if it was defying the known and the unknown vectors. The room basically became a vectorless zone.

He and the kobold ran towards each other and clashed again.

But this time they were both on equal terms in strength. The intensity and the pace of the battle picked up yet again.

Thak-! Thak-! Thak-!

Dum… Dum… Dum…

Buzz-! Crackle-! Buzz-!

In the midst of the battle the kobold frowned a bit. He found that the attacks Reven used on him had a strange unstable sensation.

Every time his attacks collided with Reven's attack he would feel this instability increase even more.

Sizzle-! Sizzle-! Crackle-!

Boom!

'Tch! I lost my focus again.' Reven thought.

Just before Reven lost his focus and the unstable force stopped.

The kobold also realized that he was being played and got furious.

"You… You have been using me as a training target??? Human!"

No reply came.

'I need to leave it to my sub-consciousness maybe that will initiate my [Seamless Intuition] trait and [Perfect Compatibility] ability will handle the rest.' Reven thought inside his mind.

The kobold could hold back anymore and started to use his full strength against Reven while Reven himself also went all out using every bit of martial arts he had learnt till now.

The [Vector Expansion] had also come to effect as the kobold started to face some surprise attacks. But it was not much to the battle hungry kobold as his trained senses could easily detect their timings and deflect the attacks.

The battle continued on for about 3 hours.

Boom-!

Crackle-! Crackle-! Crackle-!

Buzz-! Buzz-! Buzzz-! BUZZZ-!

Currently Reven's entire body was vibrating. Though it was not at all visible to any watcher. But the kobold who was fighting Reven could clearly feel it.

The vibrating force was extremely unstable to the point every time Reven's punched or jabs landed anywhere from his weapon to his body it would totally make it numb for a few seconds.

And as the battle prolonged, the kobold's situation got more and more worse.

It was around this time, Reven completely closed his eyes which bewildered the guy.

He soon realized that Reven got an enlightenment.

But the problem to him was Reven was moving. No, rather it was right to say that his body was moving on its own because of [Seamless Intuition].

The battle became even more hard for the kobold.

BUZZ-! BUZZZ-! BUZZZZZ-!

The buzzing noise around the room increased and suddenly…

Reven stopped.

Then he simply raised his index finger and pushed it towards the kobold.

The kobold felt instinctive danger from it. His cells were screaming to get out of the place.

As Reven pushed his finger, the surrounding Ardor started to vibrate no it was better to say that Reven's quarks inside the atoms of the cells were vibrating which via [Vector Expansion] was transmitted through the Ardor and causing changes in the surroundings.

In simple terms.

His body was influencing the worldly Ardor!

An immense amount of physical force was carried by the Ardor which was capable of destroying anything in its way.

The kobold who sensed this tried to move away but the moment he tried to even move he felt the same kind of force from almost every direction.

The kobold closed his eyes due to the pressure and thinking that his end was near.

But…

Suddenly, everything just vanished!

"Huh-!"

The kobold opened his eyes to see why his senses calmed down suddenly, only to see that Reven was looking at him with a smiling face.

Reven had finally completed his [Vector Expansion] mystery.

[Ding]

[Changes in body cells detected.]

[Unknown Mutation is occurring.]

[Affecting all the body cells at a very fast rate.]

[Checking if it is harmful.]

[Innate Ability- Immunity is active.]

[Body response detected is Acceptance.]

[Not Harmful.]

[Innate Ability- Perfect Compatibility is activating.]

[Body changes are taking place.]

[Completed.]

[Innate Ability- Enhanced Physique has been strengthened.]

From the very quantum levels –Quarks- to celestial levels –any large object with defined mass-, he could now control the vectors in all of these domains.

His bodily quarks were now not only constantly vibrating like normal quarks but were also making the Ardor surrounding them to vibrate.

Inside every atom in his cells there was a vibrating force which fused and dissociated Ardor every single moment of reality.

"You lose." Reven said.

"Indeed. I lose, human!"

"So now you will fulfil my request."

"I never go back on my word, human."

"Good then, about time you tell me what's beyond this room and everything you know about the dungeon. Is that alright?"

"Okay I will tell you."

"Go ahead and shoot then."

"This place is called the Forfeited Land…"

-----

Parth was broken out of his stupor by a voice.

"Parth! How are you here?"

It was none other than Vera who spoke with a shocked expression.

"Huh-!"

Parth was pleasantly surprised to see Vera among them.

"Thank God… You are here Vera."

The usually less expressive Parth showed a rare smile on his face. After all it was finally some real progress in their work.

"So how did you got here?" Vera asked again.

"Well…"

With that Parth began to tell Vera what happened during the time she was pulled into the dungeon and how they arrived here.

"I see." After listening to him she realized what had happened on Earth and contemplated a bit. Then she asked-

"Is your Wrist-Band working?"

"Nope. After regaining consciousness, I checked it but no response from 'Empress'.

I think by now they would have realized something and have already made some moves by now.

"Indeed!" Vera exclaimed and continued "Now let me introduced you to them."

Hmm.

Parth nodded and followed her as she introduced the group to him.

…..