Chapter 151
“You want to know how this is possible?” Eryke the Fifth grinned.
He felt a strange energy stirring within him, something familiar, as if it had always been a part of him since birth.
His blue eyes began to glow, a brilliant light shining like stars scattered across the night sky.
Curious, he extended his hand and willed it with his heart.
Immediately, a small stone from the ground shot upward and hovered before his outstretched palm, spinning rapidly with an intense force.
“Hmm?” He slowly closed his hand around it.
In an instant, cracks formed across the stone’s surface. It shattered, crumbling into dust.
“This feels… amazing.”
Eryke the Fifth clenched his fist, a thrill surging through his chest.
Then he turned to the Valkyries, who were watching him with wary eyes.
“Just what are you?” one of them asked.
“What do you think I am?” Eryke the Fifth replied with a tilt of his head. “I’m human, of course, just like you. And…”
His expression shifted, turning from casual to something feral, like a beast on the hunt.
“My greatest goal is to take revenge on the Dragons, those monsters who slaughtered my village.”
He roared with fury, his voice laced with such conviction that the Valkyrie instinctively stepped back.
Even though they were Level Nine, and Eryke the Fifth was only a mere Level Four, they still recoiled from the sheer weight of his voice alone.
“You’re traitors to humanity,” he said, no longer shouting. His voice was calm, deep, and steady as he pointed at them. “Attacking a fellow human for your own selfish desires.”
It wasn’t the one who shouted the loudest who held the most strength, true power came from the weight behind one’s words.
And as the Valkyries listened, they felt something stir within them, something they had long abandoned.
A feeling they had forsaken when they chose to become nothing more than swords for the kingdom.
For a brief moment, silence fell between them.
“What, cat got your tongue? Why aren’t you replying to me?” Eryke the Fifth asked, his voice laced with mockery.
With a thought, several stones lifted from the ground, spinning in the air behind him, sharp edges angled toward the Valkyries like a warning.
The Valkyries remained silent, their eyes locked onto him.
“Hmph. What’s there to think about?” said the Valkyrie Eryke had once strangled. Her voice was cold, her gaze like steel.
“He’s a criminal who has disgraced our nation. That crime is punishable by death.”
With that, she lunged at him, sword drawn.
She was fast, blurring through the air like a streak of silver.
Eryke responded instantly, hurling the spinning stones in her direction.
“Hmph,” she sneered, unfazed.
“Against a Level Nine, attacks like these are completely ineffective,” the Valkyrie said coldly. “Our Telekinesis forms a protective layer around the body, shielding us from most external assaults.”
As expected, though the stones struck their mark, they barely left a scratch.
The Valkyrie closed the distance rapidly, her sword gleaming with intent.
Eryke the Fifth took a deep breath, bracing himself. His fist shimmered faintly with starlight, pulsing with the energy he had only just begun to grasp.
She was nearly upon him, then, abruptly, she pointed a finger at him.
“Telekinetic Blast.”
An invisible wave surged outward, crashing into him with crushing force.
“Huh?”
That was all Eryke the Fifth could think before he was hurled through the air, crashing into the wall with a thunderous impact.
He forced himself to stand, pain lancing through his body—
Only to feel an invisible weight press down on him, like a massive hand trying to crush him whole.
“Ahhh—!” Eryke cried out, the pressure unbearable as it drove him toward the ground.
“Oh? You can endure two hundred kilos of force? What kind of monster are you?”
The Valkyrie’s voice was filled with scorn as she raised her hand again and slammed it downward.
The pressure doubled, becoming suffocating.
And beneath it all, Eryke was changing.
Adapting.
Evolving.
You have to understand, even Drayken, during the attack on his wedding, had only fought against Level Six Telekinetic humans.
And while he was confident he could take on a Level Nine, even he wouldn’t be certain against all these women combined.
Adapt was a terrifying skill, yes, but it needed time. And against an opponent like her, time was a luxury Eryke the Fifth didn’t have.
Pain surged through him as he dropped to one knee.
His body trembled, his breathing grew ragged. Every muscle screamed in resistance.
For a moment, there was defiance in his eyes, flickering like the last embers of a dying flame.
But in the end, it wasn’t enough.
The invisible Telekinetic hand crushed him fully, slamming him to the ground.
“Hmph.” The Valkyrie sneered in disdain, lifting Eryke to her eye level with a flick of her hand.
“Quietly follow us.”
“What if I don’t?” Eryke the Fifth replied without hesitation, his voice steady despite the crushing pain.
…
…
A glowing blue prompt flickered before his eyes. Eryke the Fifth’s grin widened.
He was battered, broken, and on the verge of collapse, but this edge of death felt more like a treasure trove than a grave.
This was his kind of door.
Though he couldn’t level up the skill with destiny points, his Adapt skill had done the impossible. It had evolved his Telekinesis in the middle of combat.
‘A cheat and a half,’ he thought, exhilarated.
If this was how Adapt worked, then theoretically, so long as he wasn’t instantly killed, he could become invincible.
With his skill now enhanced, Eryke was able to resist the Telekinetic Hand more effectively. The crushing pressure began to lessen, the force offset just enough to grant him a moment of relief.
“Hmm?”
The Valkyrie frowned, sensing the shift.
“Why is it suddenly less effective?”
She gritted her teeth and tightened her invisible grip, trying to crush him completely.
But before she could go any further, another Valkyrie appeared behind her and placed a firm hand on her shoulder.
“Stop it.”
“What? I’m so close to killing this guy,” the first Valkyrie snapped.
“Our orders were to capture him, not kill him. Are you planning to disobey orders, Elsie?”
“N-no,” Elsie replied with a shutter.