Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

Alberion kept his eyes wide for several seconds as he watched the Muxical shake both hands and claws, almost like it was trying to remove the remaining feeling from being pushed backward.

The Monster then lifted its head and looked at him.

A grin formed on its face when it saw Alberion’s pale expression.

Alberion’s face changed at once, the surprise disappeared and his eyes became serious as they narrowed.

’There is no point thinking about anything else right now... If I die here, the people behind me will die as well, First, I have to kill it.’

He moved into another stance.

The red and white robe around his body moved with the wind passing through the forest. His long-pointed ears were visible beneath his hair, making his Elven origin obvious, but Alberion paid no attention to his appearance.

His right foot slid backward in a smooth arc, hand lowered, back bent by only a small amount.

Then he released his control And -

BOOM!

The ground beneath his feet cracked.

At first it looked like Spirit pressure had burst out from his body, but that was not what happened. The pressure came from above and spread across the area as Alberion changed the gravity around him.

The force was much greater than the pressure Harleks had used while testing Atlas inside the Guild.

The ground directly beneath Alberion sank slightly. Cracks spread from that point and continued several meters in every direction. Some parts of the soil split apart as if the surface had turned brittle.

The Muxical frowned.

Its blank eyes narrowed as it looked at the cracks moving toward it.

The cracks were not spreading naturally, they were moving through the ground according to Alberion’s control, carrying the increased gravity with them.

The Monster became confused.

Only a moment ago, the prey in front of it had looked disturbed after seeing its earlier technique fail. Now that same prey was releasing something the Muxical had never experienced.

The cracks reached closer.

A large depression formed behind them as the earth gave way under the multiplying weight.

The Muxical did not wait.

Its body blurred just before the pressure reached its feet.

It moved with speed that surpassed the speed of sound, pushing from the ground and throwing itself away from the approaching cracks.

But in the next instant... something happened that it had not expected.

Alberion was already behind it...

The Muxical was still in the air, both legs raised and its body moving forward from the force of its jump, but Alberion had crossed the distance before it could complete that movement.

That should not have been possible according to what the Monster had already observed.

Alberion was fast. The Muxical understood that much after exchanging attacks with him for half an hour. But the speed he showed now was beyond his previous movements and beyond what the Monster expected even from a Special S-rank.

The reason was gravity.

Alberion had reduced the force acting against his own movement while increasing the pull in the direction he wanted to travel. His body was not producing that entire speed through physical strength. He was using gravity to drag himself forward while removing part of the resistance that would normally slow him down.

The result allowed him to move faster than his body should have managed on its own.

He appeared behind the Muxical with his Katana already descending.

The blade moved in a controlled diagonal line, faster than the strike he had used earlier.

The Muxical’s Instincts reacted immediately.

It could not dodge.

Both its legs were still away from the ground, and without anything beneath its feet it could not change direction fast enough. Twisting its body would not move it out of the blade’s path either.

So... it used Null.

The coating of Null and Spirit already covering its body became denser. The mixture gathered around its arms, shoulders, neck, chest and back, creating a thicker layer before the Katana reached it.

The blade descended.

A small amount of light passing through the forest touched the black edge for less than a second.

Then the Katana struck the Muxical’s raised arm.

WHOOOOONG!

A strange sound spread from the point of contact.

There was no explosion or shockwave this time.

Neither Alberion nor the Muxical was pushed away.

The sound remained for only a moment before disappearing completely.

Alberion narrowed his eyes.

The technique carried gravity through the blade. When the Katana landed, the force concentrated along the edge should have increased the pressure inside the Muxical’s arm and cut through it.

But the force had vanished.

He could still feel his Katana touching the Monster, and he could feel his own Spirit moving through the weapon, but the gravity attached to the slash was no longer there.

’It erased it again.’

He did not waste time thinking further.

The Muxical’s feet were about to touch the ground. Once that happened it would be able to use its speed again, and staying close without understanding Null would give it another chance to attack.

Alberion focused.

The instant the Muxical’s feet touched the ground, gravity increased around its entire body.

CRACK!

The Monster slammed down.

Its chest and stomach hit the ground first, then its arms and legs followed as the weight forced the rest of its body flat against the broken soil.

Alberion jumped backward before the pressure affected him as well.

The high-speed movement between them ended and the forest returned to its normal pace.

”KHRRKHHH!”

The Muxical groaned and pushed its claws into the ground.

The soil beneath its fingers broke apart, but it could not lift itself immediately. The gravity pressing over it was five times stronger than normal, and Alberion was using nearly half of his available Spirit to maintain that field.

He watched the Monster carefully.

’I am using half of my Spirit just to multiply the gravity around it five times, but...how is it moving again?’

Any S-rank Monster would have struggled under that level of control, especially after receiving a direct strike. Even if its body could withstand the pressure, its joints and internal organs should have been affected.

But the Muxical continued pushing upward.

Its arms trembled, yet they did not collapse.

Alberion did not think about the failed slash. He placed that question aside because the situation in front of him was more important.

Then he saw the gravity field begin to weaken.

At first the change was small.

The pressure over the Muxical dropped slightly, even though Alberion had not reduced the amount of Spirit he was using.

He adjusted his control and forced more Spirit into the technique.

The field weakened again.

Alberion’s eyes widened.

’What?’

The gravity itself was disappearing around the Monster.

It was not resisting the pressure through physical strength alone. The Null coating was making contact with the controlled force and removing it slowly. The process was not immediate because Alberion was continuously supplying more Spirit and maintaining the gravity, but the result remained the same.

The Muxical was erasing the technique faster than Alberion could stabilise it.

Its elbows lifted from the ground.

Then its upper body followed.

The Monster forced one knee beneath itself while the gravity continued fading around it.

Alberion understood that allowing it to stand fully would be a mistake.

Whatever the unknown energy was, it could remove a Fundamental Force when that force made contact with the coating around the Monster. He did not know the limit, but he had already seen enough to understand that keeping distance and repeatedly testing it would only consume his Spirit.

He needed to damage the body directly.

Alberion moved.

The Muxical had only raised half of its body when he appeared above it.

His Katana was held with both hands this time.

He pulled the blade upward and aligned it directly over the Monster’s head.

Gravity gathered around the weapon.

For the first time, Alberion stopped treating the Monster as something he could understand through the knowledge he had, the unknown energy around it did not block techniques in the ordinary sense, It seemed to remove the part of them that reached its body.

That meant using more power without changing the method would only waste Spirit.

So...he decided, he would strike it...with something that would kill it in an instant.

He was not trying to overpower the coating across a wide area. He was forcing all of the gravity into one narrow line and letting the physical edge arrive at the same moment. If Null erased one part, the other might still pass through before the Monster adapted.

Unlike the previous strike, Alberion did not spread the force through the entire blade. He compressed it near the edge and point, reducing the area where that strange energy could make contact with it before the physical blade landed.

The Muxical looked up...

Alberion’s arms moved.

The Katana descended in a straight vertical arc.

And the gravity around the blade... bent