MMORPG: Ascension of the Strongest Spirit Master
Chapter 52: Evolving

Chapter 52: Evolving

The sickles had cut through both spectral wolves, and while the poison hissed deep into their forms, it did little to slow them down.

For normal beasts, the wounds Vlad had delivered would’ve crippled and killed, but these were not creatures of flesh and soul.

They were constructs of spectral magic, lifeless puppets bound by the Moon Wolf’s will. So even with their bodies torn and one of their skulls nearly split in half, they didn’t falter, didn’t reel back, didn’t hesitate.

The one with its skull pierced still leaped claws flashing forward, but Vlad moved with it, stepping back and dragging his blade with him, ripping the embedded sickle free and tearing open the face of the second wolf in the same motion.

As he slid back, Vlad planted his foot, heel grinding into the ice, and swiftly pushed to his left away from the mad rush of the spectral wolf, while also snapping the chain taut.

The sickle buried in the first wolf was ripped loose, pulling the beast off balance and sending it tumbling to the ground.

Vlad hadn’t even regained his balance when a flash of silver light appeared mere feet away from him, a maw of crystal fangs snapped through the space where his head had just been.

The Moon Wolf had closed the distance in a blur of silver, crossing nearly ten meters in an instant without a sound, its silver eyes locked with emotionless hunger.

Vlad didn’t think. He didn’t need to, as the Moon Wolf’s body lunged to follow him, he whispered the command and flooded his legs with reinforcement.

His muscles tightened like drawn cords, power compacting through his bones, and at the same moment, his form shimmered and twisted, vanishing into ghosted movement.

Vlad used ghost weave combined with the dash skill, escaping the wide claw swing in a blur, ice cracking beneath his feet. The chain slid through his hand as he took hold of the sickle, driving the blade into the pristine silver coat of the giant wolf.

Vlad stepped back creating distance from the moon wolf, while his sickles flashed. The chain whipped coiling, and snapping like a live thing at the spectral wolves that didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate even with harrowing wounds.

They struck like extensions of the cold. His poisoned blades landed their marks, slicing into the two specters, and delivering more cuts and poison that ate through their health bar.

Each time Vlad pivoted to maintain the distance, he used the chain not just as a weapon but as a leash, a tripwire, or a weighted line to disrupt movement and bait openings.

With each passing minute, Vlad displayed precise and evolving control over the chained weapon. The swings were measured, and precise, the chain wrapped around enemy limbs, then unwound mid-spin.

Vlad was not a master of chained sickles, at least not yet, but he was learning it, and he was learning fast.

He was also making progress with the second aspect of his trait, slowly evolving his mind to visualize things that had yet to happen, and when it came to training visualization, there was no better method than live combat even though it was mentally taxing.

’Bad face would lunge from the right in 2 seconds.

Vlad reacted by wrapping the chain once around his wrist, shortening the arc of the left blade, and caught the wolf’s paw, redirected the strike, and in the same movement, slammed the second blade into its neck.

’Pale face from the left in two seconds,’

Vlad dragged the sickle down and the wolf with it, before delivering a high kick to the face of the wolf that came from his left.

He quickly followed by pushing the struggling wolf away, barely avoiding having his face torn off, and reeled both blades back. Vlad dashed forth and lashed outward in a twin slash, both blades forming an X of green light that met the beast’s chest with full force.

It was a critical hit draining what was left of the beast’s health, and making the wolf’s form split and dissolve into vapor with a shudder.

’Moon wolf from above. Need to defend the attack, and...’

Vlad’s mind calculated the next seconds, still far from doing it instinctively but it shouldn’t take long before he reached that state.

As expected the moon wolf descended from above, Vlad expected it to use Silver Howl or Moonlit Rend and since the former skill wouldn’t be the best option, he prepared to deal with the physical attack.

He let go of the sickles catching the chains before they hit the floor, and gave the mental command to cover them with reinforcement as he began to turn his wrist.

The airborne wolf swung his claw releasing five silver slashes, curved like the crescent moon. The two sickles held in place by the chains spun around Vlad like two giant verdant shields and met the energy slashes in a violent clash.

The silver arcs cracked against the sickles’ poisoned edge, releasing bursts of green mist and sparks of silver light.

A few broken pieces of silver slashes slipped through his defenses, and hit Vlad, cutting into his armor but the only damage he suffered was a hit on his head, which left a deep cut that bled and painted the side of his face Red.

Vlad staggered a step back from the force of the hit, but he smiled as he met the icy-cold gaze of the wolf inches away from sinking his fangs into his face.

The wolf was upon Vlad, its jaw stretched open and its long, clawed limbs circling him, making it hard to escape but impossible.

Vlad ducked and stepped in, avoiding certain death, and even though he sensed the one remaining spectral wolf lung at him from the left, he did not immediately shift his focus to him.

Instead, he took the opportunity and threw one of his sickles up with a twist. The chain wrapped once, then twice, around the hind leg of the beast, and then was pulled taunt making the poison-tipped steel dig into its leg.

’Venomous Bloom,’ Vlad used the second spirit skill, while in that same instant, he was pulled back as the silver wolf landed, saving him from the jaws of the spectral wolf.

Vlad slid on the ice as he used the chain to circle the moon wolf. The beast growled in anger, its eyes moving to the chain coiled around its leg with poison bleeding into his body so it tried to remove the sickle, only for another sickle to swing toward its face, forcing it to pull his face back to avoid it.

Vlad needed the chain to stay on the wolf for ten seconds to plant the poison seed, and with one wolf gone, this was the perfect time to execute his most damage dealer skill.

The wolf turned to face Vlad and instantly lunged at him with a low growl. Its body shimmered turning blinding to look at it, while his powerful claw ripped into the ice pushing its massive bulk forth at incredible speed.

Vlad slipped away, but the moon wolf turned and this time it first jumped back forcing him to step close because of the chain binding them together and then the beast lunged at him again, the radiance of its skill glowing brighter.

The spectral wolf closely followed its master, pouncing on Vlad the moment it dodged, but Vlad had his instinct guiding him perfectly even when his vision was compromised.

The battle was getting tough, and it would become tougher with each passing second because Vlad did not plan to use the beast transformation and if possible not even the spirit convergence.

He did not want to use Sovereign’s Gauntlets, because it would be obvious, that the transformation was not a trait but the effect of a powerful item.

And maybe someone out there knew about the three Dominion Artifacts forged by Oroxon. If they knew, and if they saw him use one of them, then it was very likely that he would be chased across this world by powers with longer shadows than he could afford.

As for why he didn’t wish to use the spirit fusion, it was solely because he wished to push his trait to the next step of evolution, and he knew it wouldn’t be possible if he used the fusion.

At least, not in this battle.

So he fought smart and patiently.

He reversed his grip, sensing as the last spectral wolf darted in from the side, trying to catch him with a low-angle pounce. He waited till the last moment and then moved with light speed, turning around and driving the blade into the open maw of the wolf.

Vlad dashed forth and pulled the blade with him, tearing a massive gash through the wolf, draining all of its health, making the beast fall face-first on the icy floor and turn to smoke.

Now there was only the Moon wolf left, and with ten seconds gone, its fate was all but sealed.

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