Chapter 38
All take a better look at the Assassin, many are seeing him for the first time since the war started.
Niobe answers:
"Many have said that in the past, but I am still here, they are 'NOT'."
Then she smiles with a mocking face.
When Krolok sees that smile and feels the pain that persists even now in his soul, he starts to feel anger towards Niobe even greater than towards Arthur, who killed almost all of them.
He looks at her and then turns to black smoke and disappears. Then monsters start to appear from all over the place, but now they are only a few Devils and more Dark Beings. And because of that, the people can fight a little bit easier. But they still know that at one moment there will be so many Dark Beings that it will overwhelm them with sheer numbers, so they can only pray that the big players can do something before that.
But Niobe raises her hands again, and now more balls of light appear, the size of basketballs, and she puts them in a line.
Then, when the monsters are approaching this line, the balls start to fire like a machine gun, and they are firing soul bullets that even if one bullet can't kill a monster, it still manages to make them wish they were dead, so painful is a hit directly to the soul. And if two or three bullets hit the same target, it is even possible to kill it.
Krolok watches Niobe, and he starts to become even angrier with each passing second. 'This woman is really pissing me off.'
Then he starts to become even more agitated, and that is not his nature. Something inside him changed, but it didn't change enough that he is able to see it.
Niobe looks at Krolok's hiding place and smiles, she knows that he won't last long. When she screamed, her aim wasn't to kill him, it was to put a tracker inside his soul so she can see him.
And she didn't only manage that, she also managed to affect his soul so that he is more prone to anger, and that will be his downfall.
So now it's only a waiting game, until he delivers himself to her.
She goes back to the last line, and she starts to send her monsters again to fight in the front line. Any monster that makes it past the Machine Gun Balls is killed by the waiting monsters.
And Elliot is firing his arrows continuously. The killing and spawning rate reaches a balance, they are killing enough so that it doesn't overwhelm them for now.
Krolok is now even angrier, and he starts to leak aura from his hiding place. Now even Elliot can find him at any time. So he looks towards Niobe and asks her:
"What happened with him, why is he giving away his hiding place? Is it a trap?"
Niobe looks at Elliot and answers while smiling:
"I left a present for him in his soul when I screamed. Now his anger is starting to control him."
Elliot looks at her, and again he is surprised by Niobe. So small of an action, like becoming a little bit angrier, can have such a big consequence. A powerful Assassin that before could hit you from the dark, and not even knowing how you died. Now, because of a small thing made by Niobe to his soul, his chances of dying are raised by 80%. And in a fight at their level, that is a 'Death Sentence.' He sees now how terrifying Soul Masters are, they can make you feel like it's your decision to do something, but in fact, you were 'Led' by them in that direction. He thinks, 'That is really scary.'
Then he says:
"Let's make him even angrier."
So he raises his bow and fires an arrow, exactly to where Krolok is hiding. The arrow is so fast that before he even realizes what happened, he is sent flying by an explosion like a sun. When he stops, steam and smoke come out of him. He was hit by the full power of the arrow, but he only received flesh wounds, the Artifact's power again at play.
Then he hears Elliot saying:
"Are you really powerful? Because without your Artifact, you would have already been dead since long ago. Ha Ha Ha!"
When Krolok hears him, something breaks inside him, and he screams towards the sky and flies towards them with a speed that makes him appear and disappear out of existence. His knives appear in his hands, and he sends an 'X' shaped aura attack towards the balls of light. The attack destroys everything like butter, including Niobe's monsters.
Then a free spot appears between the balls and monsters. He flies then with even greater speed towards the last line. The monsters are also using this spot, and again they overwhelm with pure numbers.
Elliot fires a few arrows towards him, but Krolok just turns to smoke, and the arrows fly through him. His speed is too great for the exploding arrows to do any damage. He also sends some aura blades, but Niobe stops them with an aura shield that covers most of the last line.
Then Krolok jumps up high and summons two bear-like monsters, but with the lower half of werewolves. When the two monsters appear in the air, they immediately start to roar towards the sky, and then a black smoke starts to be expelled from their mouths, creating a black cloud over them. This black cloud then starts to expand on its own, getting bigger and bigger. Until all the light disappears and night reigns. Now Krolok is in his element, and he is ten times more dangerous. He transformed into smoke the first second the monsters appeared.
Even if he is angry, he is still an Assassin. He will strike from the dark, at least that was his plan.
Niobe knows where he is. He wanted to kill Ray and cause some chaos on the human side, but before he manages to do anything, he sees Niobe appearing in front of him, her eyes looking directly into his, and then for a second he stops. Niobe hit his soul with a wave of soul power that took his mind out for a moment.
Niobe covers her hand again with her aura and hits his chest. Krolok, waking up from the hit, his mind alert again, looks down and sees that he was hit.
He raises his head again and looks at Niobe, then he smiles when he sees her shocked face. Niobe's hand pierced only a little bit into his chest, her hand stopped by the leather armor.
Then she backs off and says:
"That is a really strong artifact, that not only protects you from physical attacks but from soul attacks also. If you didn't have it, like Elliot said, you would already have been 'Dead' since long ago."
Krolok just smiles, and veins start to appear on his body. He then raises his scorpion tail and releases a poisonous cloud that immediately covers almost everyone around. The people stop firing towards the approaching and the bear-like monsters, so that they can put some distance between them and the approaching cloud of poison.
Elliot also turns towards them. He was the one who was keeping the monsters at bay for the most part. But he fires an arrow towards the cloud of poison, and then he turns back again to control the monsters wave that comes closer and closer to the last line with each passing second.
The arrow that he fired in the poison cloud explodes and turns to a wind so strong that it blows everything around, and the cloud disappears above them. Elliot's quick response saved the people, only a few were caught in it.
Then Niobe looks at Krolok and knows that her only chance to kill him is to destroy his soul. So she starts to gather her aura for a strong hit, the closer she is to him, the better.
Krolok starts to laugh when he sees Niobe looking at him with a wary look.
"What happened, why are you not coming? Are you afraid? I am an Assassin in plain sight, that means half of my power is gone. So why are you standing there, and not attacking? Are you planning how to kill me?"
The next second, he flies towards her with a crazy look in his eyes. Then, before he reaches her, he summons monsters, and that throws Niobe into an awkward spot. If she dodges, then the people will suffer, but if she stays to take the full hit, then she will suffer.
So she does what she can. She is also a summoner, so she starts to call her monsters. Then chaos forms everywhere. A war between the monsters is happening right there in the middle of the people. If Niobe's monsters lose, then all will die.