Chapter 158: Thunder!

The black-haired Succubus stared blankly after hearing Erik’s words, then burst into laughter. She clutched her stomach, laughing so hard that the black veins on her neck twitched nonstop, as though he had just told the most absurd story in the world.

"You are the real man?" she forced herself to repeat before laughing even louder. "A man who does not know how to value himself, yet risks his life for a few women? You call that masculinity?"

Erik did not argue. He glanced at Elowen, who was struggling to hold her bow with her uninjured arm, then looked back at the black veins running along the female soldier’s neck.

He had heard her true voice through those possessed lips and knew something was controlling every movement she made. What he needed to defeat was the one behind it, not the body being exploited.

When the woman realized he still had no intention of backing down, her smile gradually vanished. "Fine! If you insist on dying for a Succubus, I will grant your wish!"

Dark Mist surged into the guard station. Dozens of tentacles rose from the stone floor, forming swords, spikes, and claws before flying at Erik all at once.

He twisted aside to avoid a blade and shattered an incoming claw with his left fist, but the broken black fragments immediately crawled across the ground and gathered into another wave of attacks.

Destroying them one strand at a time was no different from trying to punch a river apart.

Erik felt the elemental forces moving around his body. Wind helped him evade, while ice and fire strengthened each punch, but none of them were fast enough to stop the endless barrage. Within his Heavenly Gate, he suddenly noticed a silver-violet energy he had not truly used yet.

Lightning Element.

It was part of the power he had borrowed from Meira. Erik had never controlled this element at high intensity, but right now, he needed speed more than anything else.

He immediately withdrew some of the Wind, Fire, and Ice Elements radiating around him, channeling his mana through the pathways running along his muscles.

Crackle! Crackle!

Silver-violet sparks appeared around his left wrist, then raced up to his shoulder, spread across his chest, and flowed down both legs. Within a few breaths, countless thin arcs of lightning had wrapped around his body, leaping continuously across his joints. The bloodstained figure in the guard station now shone like a torch made of thunder.

The stone beneath Erik’s feet crackled. Dust near him was repelled from the ground by the electric charge, while his black hair rose slightly under the endlessly mounting mana.

The female Succubus narrowed her eyes. "Another element? What else are you planning to pull out?"

Erik did not answer. He could feel his muscles tightening, his heartbeat accelerating, and every nerve being stretched to its limit. The power flowing through his Heavenly Gate allowed him to control the Lightning Element, but his Bronze Rank 1 body was not durable enough to withstand that level of acceleration. Even knowing that, he lowered his center of gravity and raised his left fist before his chest.

The female Succubus swung her arm, and a black blade shot toward him.

Boom!

The ground beneath Erik exploded. He vanished from his original position, leaving only several jagged violet streaks of lightning across the stone floor.

The blade missed. Before his opponent could turn her head, Erik had already appeared at her side, his left fist sweeping through a bundle of tentacles that had risen from her shoulder.

A deafening blast rang out. The entire bundle shattered, and the female soldier was forced sideways by the shockwave.

Erik did not strike at her exposed chest. Instead, he dropped low and drove a second punch directly into the layer of mana around her elbow. The black tendrils instantly scattered.

The female Succubus staggered back, eyes wide. She had seen him standing in front of her just moments ago, yet in an instant, he had appeared right beside her. Even the being controlling the Dark Mist could barely react to such speed.

"Wait, you..."

Erik pressed forward. He slipped past three incoming spikes, rammed his left shoulder into the tentacle armor, then punched the point where the tendrils connected behind her back. Ice no longer covered his fist.

Instead, dozens of thin lightning bolts exploded on impact, burning apart the strands of Dark Mist that had crawled toward him.

But this new power was far from free.

After his fourth burst of acceleration, a sharp pain suddenly pierced Erik’s chest. He froze for half a beat, tasting blood in his throat. Dark red blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, dripping from his chin onto his collar.

When Erik took a deep breath, blood began seeping from both nostrils. A long ringing filled his ears, followed by a hot, damp trail sliding down from his left ear.

Elowen saw it, and her face immediately turned pale.

"Erik! Blood... Your ear is bleeding!"

He heard her voice as if it came from somewhere far away. The pressure of the Lightning Element had exceeded what his mana pathways could endure.

Even keeping his balance required sheer willpower. But when he saw the female Succubus raise her claws toward Elowen again, Erik still gritted his teeth and rushed forward.

An explosion rang out as his left fist shattered the claw before it could reach her. He spun around to shield her, while the lightning covering his body continued to flash painfully bright.

"Stop using it!" Elowen choked out. "Your body cannot take it!"

"I know." Erik exhaled, blood once again trailing from the corner of his lips. "But if I stop now, we will both be in trouble."

He did not say he was fine. Even Erik knew that no one would believe those words now.

The female Succubus, who had retreated near the wall, suddenly stopped. She looked at the blood on Erik’s face, then at the arcs of lightning violently snapping around his body.

A man capable of fighting was already strange enough to her. But a man willingly using power until he injured himself just to protect someone else was even more incomprehensible.

"You really are insane..." Her voice lowered. "Do you know how many Succubi out there would willingly give their lives just to have you look at them once? Why must you torment yourself like this?"

"Because the woman standing in front of me is also a Succubus." Erik looked directly into the female soldier’s eyes. "And she does not deserve to die because of what you are doing."

The woman faltered for a moment. Then she burst into furious laughter and swung both arms, forming a long black spear aimed straight at his chest.

Erik flashed to the left, dodging the spear tip by a hair. His left fist was already before her throat. With one more push of mana, that strike could have crushed the exposed part of her neck.

But he held back.

His punch shifted toward the bundle of black veins beneath her shoulder, shattering the Dark Mist armor without touching the female soldier’s flesh. His opponent was knocked sideways and immediately used that opening to lash a spike into his side.

Stab!

His clothes tore open, blood splashing across the stone floor. Erik gritted his teeth, used the Lightning Element to force his body away from the spike, then turned and threw another punch. This time, his left hand was aimed at the female soldier’s temple before she could raise her defenses.

He stopped again just before making contact.

A wave of lightning swept across, crushing three tentacles clinging to the back of her neck. The remaining force knocked the female soldier aside without striking her head directly.

The controller began to realize something was wrong. Twice now, Erik had been able to strike fatal points directly, yet both times, he had voluntarily changed the direction of his attacks. It was not a matter of poor accuracy. He was deliberately giving up chances to severely injure the host body.

"You are holding back against me?"

"I am not holding back against you." Erik wiped the blood under his nose with the back of his left hand, electricity still running along his fingers. "I do not intend to kill the person you are controlling."

"Ha ha! How adorable!" She laughed brightly, though the black veins around her neck had tightened violently. "If I had known you were this soft-hearted, perhaps I should have used this body for a few more interesting games."

The tentacles suddenly split into dozens of sharp blades and attacked from every direction. Erik accelerated again, Lightning Element surging around his calves in bursts.

He shattered one blade, twisted his hips to dodge two claws, then slammed his left elbow into a bundle of tentacles reaching for Elowen.

But every time he forced his body to move, his heartbeat became more chaotic, and blood flowed more heavily from his nose and ears.

Elowen raised her bow, but her vision had blurred with tears. She loved Erik’s gentleness, loved that he did not want to hurt an innocent female soldier.

But watching him repeatedly give up strikes that could end the battle terrified her enough that she wanted to scream. If he kept holding back, he might be the one who died.

She fired a wind arrow, slicing through the bundle of tentacles targeting Erik’s back. When he looked back, Elowen tried to keep her voice calm, but could not hide its tremor.

"Erik! I know you want to save her, but you have to live too!"

Her words made Erik pause for an instant. He looked at Elowen, saw tears streaming down her cheeks, and saw that the arm holding her bow had nearly lost all strength. Then he turned back to the controlled female soldier, where the black veins still writhed like a web of parasites.

"I know," he replied, his voice hoarse. "I am trying to save both of you."

[Contract Resonance Remaining: 03:17]

Erik understood that he could not keep fighting on instinct. Lightning Element gave him speed, but if he kept forcing his body to move as he had been, he would collapse before the timer reached zero.

He deliberately reduced the electricity radiating around him, leaving only streams of mana flowing along his legs and left arm. The pressure on his body eased slightly, but blood still lingered at the corner of his lips.

Erik carefully studied the black veins on the female soldier’s neck and noticed that whenever she created a large weapon, the veins behind her nape contracted a beat beforehand.

That was the point he needed to destroy.

Just as the female Succubus raised a wall of tentacles, Erik burst forward again. Lightning flashed around his ankles, propelling him past the edge of the wall.

She immediately turned, a black blade chopping down at him, but Erik had already dropped low, dodged close to the ground, and rushed behind her.

One fist shattered the armor over her shoulder. The second swept toward the back of her neck, but this time Erik deliberately held back, concentrating the lightning only on burning through the bundle of black roots clinging to the female soldier’s skin.

Boom!

The black veins exploded. The female soldier collapsed to her knees, a scream of pain bursting from her mouth. But within that scream, Erik heard another voice, faint and broken.

"Save... me..."