Chapter 166: Yellow-Eyed Entity (2)

The sickening crunch of shattering shadow-metal echoed off the damp stone walls, vibrating straight through Terrence’s bones.

Terrence’s eyes wavered further as goosebumps raised all over his skin, and he instinctively leaped a few paces backward.

His heart was ramping so hard against his ribs.

The heat radiating from the entity’s grip was instant and suffocating. Even though he had freed himself from that grip, he could still feel an invisible force lingering, remnants of the terrifying pressure.

’How powerful... I haven’t met someone this strong after Nerissa,’ Terrence thought, looking down at his trembling arms, which still throbbed from the entity’s raw force.

The air smelled sharply of scorched ozone and burnt iron as arcs of raw, pale-yellow electricity surged through the cracks in the ground beneath the entity.

BOOM!

Terrence’s shoulder slammed violently into the wet cobblestones, the force blowing out a crater of stone dust that stung his eyes. The taste of copper filled his mouth as his breath was violently knocked out of his lungs.

’What?! I didn’t see it!’

Terrence was suddenly thrown before he even knew what happened. And even worse, his body couldn’t react in time.

Above him, the yellow-eyed dweller loomed like a nightmare given flesh. Up close, Terrence could finally see the horrifying details through the gloom—the entity’s skin was a pale, translucent gray, crisscrossed with jagged blue veins that hummed with liquid thunder. His breath came out in hot, acrid huffs that smelled of sulfur and ancient decay.

"Is this the extent of your surface tricks?" the dweller growled, his voice deep and gravelly enough to vibrate in Terrence’s ears.

The entity raised a massive, iron-hard boot, aiming to crush Terrence’s skull into the bedrock.

SZZZT—

In the microsecond before the boot descended, Terrence surrendered his physical form completely to the shadows.

CRACK-THOOM!

The dweller’s foot caved in the cavern floor, sending a shockwave of shattered stone shards flying through the air like shrapnel.

[Transfiguration II: Shadow]

Ten paces away, the dark ink pooled and Terrence’s physical body emerged from it. He skidded across the slick floor, his boots making a sharp, high-pitched screech against the stone. Blood trickled down his chin, but his eyes were bright, burning with an intense, predatory focus.

His senses were dialed to maximum. He could hear the distinct, rhythmic pulse-pulse-pulse of electrical currents traveling through the damp air. He could feel the slight draft shifting through the subterranean corridor, signaling the layout ahead.

"Noir," Terrence hissed under his breath. "Spikes. Wall to wall. Don’t give him room to accelerate."

[Transfiguration III: Shadow Material]

The black puddle beneath Terrence’s feet exploded outward. Dozens of pitch-black, needle-sharp spears erupted from the shadows, piercing through the damp stone walls, ceiling, and floor in a dense, crisscrossing mesh of dark steel. The narrow tunnel was instantly turned into a lethal forest of iron barbs.

The yellow-eyed entity didn’t even flinch. Pale yellow lightning flared around his body like a blinding sun, turning the dark tunnel blindingly bright for a fraction of a second.

KZZZZT!

The sheer heat of the discharge vaporized the shadow spikes on contact, filling the air with thick, dark smoke that smelled like burning pitch.

Through the dense, blinding cloud of smoke, Terrence didn’t run away—he dove straight forward.

He closed the gap using the smoke as cover, his movements completely silent. He relied purely on his sharp hearing, locking onto the hum of the entity’s lightning core.

Terrence slid low beneath the dweller’s guard, his hands weaving black mist into two razor-sharp daggers of condensed shadow.

[Transfiguration IV: Weapon Creation]

With a lightning-fast double stroke, he slashed upward toward the entity’s exposed, glowing throat.

CLANG!

The shadow blades struck a dense barrier of compressed electricity hovering an inch off the entity’s skin. The force of the blow set off a deafening acoustic pop that rang through Terrence’s ears, making his head throb. Sparks rained down like golden fireworks, burning tiny holes through his clothes and searing into his cheeks.

"Predictable!" the dweller roared.

A backhand swept through the air toward Terrence’s head, compressed air howling like a gale-force wind behind the strike.

Terrence leaned his head back by a hair’s breadth. The gust of wind from the sheer velocity of the swing ripped the tattered hood completely off his shoulders and left a stinging red line across his cheekbone.

Capitalizing on the swing’s momentum, Terrence grabbed the entity’s extended arm with both hands, using his entire body weight to pivot over the giant’s shoulder.

A heavy, anchor-like mass of shadow fused Terrence’s boots to the ceiling arch directly above them. Holding onto the dweller’s arm, Terrence used the leverage to violently yank the massive creature upward, flipping him upside down and slamming his head straight into the stone ceiling overhead.

CRASH!

Chunks of ancient masonry rained down onto the tunnel floor, blinding the area in a cloud of heavy gray grit.

Terrence dropped back to the floor, panting as his chest heaved. His knuckles were raw, his right sleeve burnt away, and his muscles screamed from the sheer exertion of clashing with an ancient monster.

Through the rising dust, two glowing yellow eyes flickered back to life, untouched by the stone debris.

The dweller dropped back onto his feet, cracking his thick neck from side to side with a terrifying pop-pop sound.

Just with that sight, Terrence felt true fear for the first time in a very long while. He couldn’t even believe that he was experiencing this right now.

Where the hell did this individual come from, and how was he this strong without even a single hint of what beast contract he could be using?

At a total loss for information, Terrence only had one choice: move forward and push through.

He had to defeat this yellow-eyed entity... or rather, the guardian of this cell.

Why would such an entity even be here in the first place? Was this subterranean cell some kind of extremely important place in Suran City?

Who knew? Only the city administration had the answers, but Terrence didn’t have the luxury to care about political secrets right now.

"Not bad, boy," the dweller murmured, a cruel, jagged smile revealing rows of sharp, pale teeth. "My blood hasn’t boiled like this in a hundred years."