Draco walked forward calmly, flourishing his blades with a flair. His steps were light and his armor made no sound as he moved. His eyes were trained on King's form, or the last place he remembered it to be.
Qiong Qi did not move, only sitting on his haunches as he frowned. Roma summoned her Witch Slaves, who made Aisha and all the nearby Dryads blanch with fear.
For a fae race member, life energy was their core affinity. Towards beings like the Witch Slaves who devoured life energy, it was akin to an ant seeing an anteater.
However, the Witch Slaves milled about aimlessly, looking lost. The same thing happened to Roma, as she had no idea who exactly they were supposed to be fighting.
Even Draco could not see King. The Ultimate Stealth would be broken only when King initiated an attack on a person. Even if Draco hit King, until the Ultima Sunt hit him back, King would forever remain elusive to him.
However, Draco wasn't bothered.
Why was this so? Fighting an enemy you couldn't see or easily sense was too taxing, not to mention that he and King were of the same Rank. Sure, his combat ability surpassed King's, but with King's natural advantages, it was arguably disadvantageous for Draco.
What exactly was the source of Draco's confidence?
All this rapidly flitted through King's mind. He remained frozen where he was, sub-consciously refusing to believe that a mere human like Draco could see through his Ultimate Stealth.
This allowed Draco to approach him, making King's heart go colder and colder with every step. He felt the urge to flee begin to overwhelm him and he almost bolted away, but he noticed something.
Draco's trajectory was a bit off. It wasn't that noticeable with how many steps there were between them, but it grew more and more as he got closer. King paused and observed this with a solemn expression.
His mind whirred as he thought of various possibilities.
Draco suddenly stopped and swung his sword out in a random direction that was just barely four meters away from King. This swing was a total miss, yet it created a sharp sword wind that billowed around King.
When the Ultima Sunt saw this, he was first stunned and then he began to laugh internally.
Of course!
The fellow had only been able to glimpse his approximate location through whatever means he used, and he had tried to use this to pin him down!
However, unfortunately, the fellow had been wrong! Now that King knew this, a large majority of his fear bled away as he began to tactically retreat from the area.
Fight Draco? What a joke!
The moment he attacked, his one and only greatest advantage would be nullified. His Supreme Intelligence would be wasted on him if he did something so idiotic.
No, despite how uncomfortable and depressed it made him feel, King would rather run away and silently cultivate his strength until he could directly kill the fellow in one fell swoop!
After consuming Draco's flesh and gaining his power, King might be able to further enhance his own arsenal of abilities.
If King couldn't manage to kill Draco though, he would just forget it all and flee. As an Ultima Sunt, his growth potential was higher than any living being. He would definitely become powerful enough one day!
Before King could leave though, he saw Draco's copper-colored sword swing out towards his position!
Without any suspense, that blade would directly cut him in half!
King naturally leapt back in order to avoid this blow.
'Could it have been a lucky shot?'
The answer came in the form of a follow-up overhead swing that threatened to lop off at least one of his hands. King could only dodge this one, and just barely too.
'How??? How?!?'
King's mind kept screaming this question as he was forced to use every ounce of power in order to avoid Draco's follow up attacks, all if which were lightning fast and precise!
King began to feel terror assail his senses, which as a rare emotion for an Ultima Sunt. After all, they were the scourge of all living organisms, beings that even the gods feared.
How could he feel fear from a normal human?!
Even though he wanted to anger himself to rid himself of his fear, he couldn't. That was because he needed a clear head to survive this conflict, and anger was the last emotion that would help with that endeavor.
King refused to believe that Draco could see him like this. The fellow was definitely relying on some mysterious method to sense his location, but he couldn't hit him because there was some sort of delay.
Otherwise with the speed Draco displayed, King feared that he would've long been dissected into pieces.
In that case, he was still forced to dodge. If he attacked, the Ultimate Stealth ability would be broken. If he defended, he would soon be cornered by Draco.
King was facing an intense life and death crisis!
For Draco, it wasn't such a big deal. He kept swinging his sword with ease, barely burning any of his inhuman stamina as he did. With his body rebuilt by his bloodline, his Horned Demon Inheritance had primarily given him almost impossible strength and stamina.
He could fight like this for a good long while. That was not even factoring in the fact that Guinevere's Necklace boosted stamina regeneration by 20%. In essence, it was the case where the regeneration rate was higher than the consumption rate, so his actual stamina pool was untouched.
But the key question was; how was Draco managing to fight an enemy he couldn't see or sense in anyway?
Draco could only smile bitterly as he asked himself this question. The answer was slightly discomfiting to him currently, but it was the truth.
It was a technique he had developed especially to kill Riveting Night. Just thinking about that now made him so uncomfortable that he almost couldn't breathe.
He shook himself out of it and continued his attack.
In their previous timeline, Draco did not have his bloodline unlocked, so he was fundamentally weaker than Riveting Night in all of their fights, which had further pushed him to become stronger.
Often, she would use her Shadow Assassin skills to remain stealthed during their fights. When that happened, Draco could only use other skills along with Control to sense her location.
After breaking her skills, she would then use the Goddess of Light Inheritance to coat herself in light energy and remain hidden. The difference was that this method was foolproof.
Using the example that was directed at Jada and Jade, Jada had too low of a 'State of Being' in the real world to divine Draco's future in relation to his bloodline. Similarly, Draco's Control was unable to sense Riveting Night when she directly used bloodline techniques like that.
He had thought it was a unique skill, but it clearly wasn't the case with what he had learned to far.
So how had he been able to combat an enemy he couldn't see back then?
Old timeline Draco had devoted too much of his life into killing Riveting Night, so his efficiency was extremely high in devising ways to do just that.
The main weakness of the Ultimate Stealth, as well as Riveting Night's light-based concealment, was that it only concealed their visual forms. In King's case, it went as far as to hide his sound and smell.
However, it fundamentally did not make them intangible.
There was a difference between being intangible and being invisible. Being invisible meant that you were unable to be detected by sight, sound or smell. Being intangible meant that you were unable to be touched!
Ghosts and spirits that could pass through walls were intangible.
As long as they existed in the corporeal world, they could be detected!
The easiest way was the technique Draco was currently using, the Wind Sonar Technique.
Just as the name suggested, he used the wind as a form of an echo to suss out the physical location of his cloaked enemies. With the sharp wind generated by his sword swings, it was easy for them to buffet the true bodies of his cloaked enemies.
With his Void of Perfection active, he could follow the sharp winds and notice the areas where the draft was unable to pass through, yet contained no visible entity.
It would be like a black spot in his senses, outlining the persons form. However, it would only form a brief image before he would have to generate another wave of wind to outline them.
In a sense, it was just like the echolocation of orcas, just that it relied on wind to work.
On that note, Draco truly regretted not taking magic a little more seriously. Oh, he had plans to master the various fields of magic, but he wasn't like some noob player who would dip their hands in a bit of everything.
You would gain absolutely nothing in the end.
Boundless was far too complex a game for each field to be so easily understood. Even Draco didn't dare to say that he had reached the pinnacle of the sword.
This was exactly why he had only bought bow skills as well as equipment, and the rest were auxiliary skills meant to assist him in general combat. He had decided to learn Archery first, then he could try the spear, the shield and various other weapons and combat styles.
Magic was on the back of the list, because it was a wholly different field and Draco had very little knowledge about it. Of course, to the current playerbase, his knowledge was enough to quantify him as a sage.
However, to the people of the previous timeline, he truly knew far too little about the intricacies of it.
If he had some wind magic, this would be incomparably easy. He wouldn't have his sonar delayed by a few milliseconds, it would be feeding him the location of the Ultima Sunt in real time.
Thinking that, Draco suddenly paused in between his strikes, swiveling his body to the left.
That was the last location in which he had detected The Ultima Sunt to be at with his Wind Sonar Technique.
Draco put away his swords and made a friendly gesture. His lips curled into a slightly mocking smile which contrasted his actions though.
"Oh dear Ultima Sunt. Why run? Why hide? Why prolong the inevitable?"
King was surprised by Draco's sudden change, but he just listened to his nonsense while thinking of ways to escape.
"You don't need to bother wondering about how to escape, because it's impossible. I'll be honest with you, I possess a domain ability that encompasses over 50km. Apart from anomalies like you, no one can ever sneak away or escape from me."
Draco's hair began to swirl and billow as a black light slowly emerged from his body. It caused a light wind to erupt from him, not strong enough to display King's location, but enough to make him aware that some sort of phenomenon was occurring.
"Look into my eyes. Can you see how unique they are? I'll tell you the truth, they are the eyes of a God."
'WHAT?!' King's mind almost cracked as he heard Draco' words. He had felt a terrifying and hateful aura from Draco's eyes that had been one reason as to why he feared Draco so much.
He had his own suspicions, but he had never thought that they would be the eyes of a God!
Draco's face didn't change, but the Horned Demon and Dark Angel Inheritances began to stir. Both of these dealt with negative emotions, so they could smell King's fear.
It was these Inheritances that also sussed him out the first time. The Black Dragon was the representative of Draco's bloodline because it was what he felt most affinity for.
In truth, the black mass was formless and shapeless. It encompassed all his bloodline abilities, but the form of the Black Dragon was just what it felt most comfortable assuming.
Draco began to take steps towards King's location. This time, the fellow's negative emotion outburst wasn't brief, but prolonged.
To King, the Gods were his ultimate taboo. His race had developed a fear of the Gods due to how brutally they were slaughtered, not even leaving ashes behind.
Everything had its ups and downs. King's acquisition of his bloodline memories gave him new abilities and new powers, but it also came with the primal fear that his race developed.
Draco preyed on this fear to discover where the fellow was located.
If one really looked at it critically, Draco's strength had erupted due to his dark and negative emotions. When his bloodline had been sealed, he was free of its influence, so he had ended up a good guy as well as a little underwhelming in the previous timeline.
However, after being sent into throes of hatred and anger, he had rapidly grown from a remarkable talent into the number one son of heaven. Clearly, his negative emotions had played a big part then.
As a devil, Lucifer encompassed the seven deadly sins as well as all the evils of the world. Greed, Anger, Pride, L.u.s.t, Gluttony, Sloth and Envy. Other negative emotions like fear and sadness also fell into that category.
He could sense them in others the same way a hound was able to sniff out specific smells in the wild.
When King saw Draco approaching him, his mind whirred and he did his best to smother his fear, but it was too late. The first time, he had suppressed his emotions so fast that Draco was unable to get a lock on him.
This time, Draco knew exactly where he was. He had chosen to walk up to him slowly in order to slowly increase his manipulative effect, dragging out King's terror a little longer.
However, Draco had no idea the Ultima Sunt race possessed Supreme Intelligence. If not for the extremely special circ.u.mstances, Draco would never be able to discover King like this.
Frowning, he realized that his 'sight' of King had been abruptly cut off. He snorted and blinked right beside King, grabbing out in a sharp thrust.
Before King could dodge, his throat was captured in Draco's palm. He was dragged off his feet and brought to eye level with Draco, whose face was locked into a dark frown.
King's heart crumbled. He hated himself for being so weak, he hated Draco for being so omnipotent and he hated his bloodline for giving such a stupid and unfair weakness in the form of an irrational fear.
Draco still couldn't see King, but he began to squeeze the fellow's throat, applying incremental pressure onto it.
What Draco wanted most was not to kill King, but to see him. Once he could see what the Ultima Sunt looked like, he could decided whether he wanted this race.
One should know, all he had seen so far was King's Ultimate Stealth.
Compared to his Total Invisibility skill from the Herald's Cloak, King's skill was much better but not very useful to him personally. Maybe to someone like Eva, it would be a godsend.
So he applied pressure on him, to force the fellow to fight back.
King could reason all this as well with his powerful mind, but he couldn't do anything about it. He wanted to suppress his instincts, but he couldn't. Once air stopped entering his lungs and the blood got trapped in his head, he raised his arms up to struggle with Draco.
As they rose, he fought with them every step of the way, but it was futile. King eventually grabbed Draco's wrists, trying to pull them apart with whatever force he could muster.
Draco let go of him, allowing him to fall.
King fell to his knees and coughed weakly, gasping for air. However, he suddenly paused as his mind reminded him of something. He slowly looked up to see Draco's blood red eyes gazing at him darkly.
Before he could utter a word, a leg came kicking out at him. The sheer force of the blow sent him crashing into a tree, breaking through it.
When he fell at the other side, he coughed and made a rasping sound as he breathed heavily, his body wracked with pain. King's back was bent and he felt like his spine was broken.
Draco casually walked towards to him, eventually standing over him like an eclipse of the sun. King's eyes could not make out Draco's form as the light of the sun entered his eyes unfiltered, but he felt his body shiver when Draco stomped on his throat.
The fellow placed enough force into it that King was struggling to breathe, yet was lax enough for him to remain conscious.
Draco leaned over King and smiled viciously.
"Poor… King? What an arrogant name. You are the final boss of this unique quest, but you met me far too early, and now you're being beaten like a dog. How anti-climatic."
What Draco said was the truth. He was very astute, not to mention he knew the AI extremely well.
It was clear that the script for the Flora and Fauna quest included King as his biggest enemy and final boss. Because of that, his Eyes of Caelo had been heavily nerfed so that the final fight could be grueling and meaningful, allowing Draco to earn the race change, as well as the quest rewards, properly.
Draco had realized this and acquiesced to it. He understood the rules and was willing to work for the increased benefits, despite being nerfed. Even when Vadoma had revealed all of that lore, he had been doubly sure that his decision to allow the nerfing was good.
Draco guessed that in the original script, he would visit the Dryads after the gypsies, encountering their culture and people, finding a way to complete their hidden quest.
King, who had been hiding in the forest to acquire more mass to consume and strengthen himself, would notice Draco, feel apprehension and push himself to get stronger.
He would dive into that lake, find out his origins and wield a heart-stopping power, forcing Draco to unite all the races of the Four Point Valley despite their conflicts with each other, in a massive final battle against the parasitic monsters.
He would fight King while the races of the Four Point Valley fought the parasitic monsters. After defeating King, he would lead his people to victory, celebrate it and claim his hard earned rewards.
The end.
However, all of that was ruined by one development that was not accounted for in the original script.
When Draco logged out of Boundless, through some miraculous event, he had unlocked his bloodline.
It was this one act that changed everything.
After all, Draco's Eyes of Caelo failed to see King, his Control failed so see King, everything he possessed failed to see King.
It was through his unlocked bloodline abilities that he found King.
Once that happened, the whole script was derailed and left to what it was now.
The underdeveloped King was forced to fight, if one could even call it that, against Draco who had been strengthened more than ten times compared to what he was before he logged out, what the original script accounted for.
The scenario had been turned on its head with Draco gaining unparalleled power while King struggled to match it.
All of that led this outcome, with King pressed under Draco's boot. A proud and powerful boss who was meant to be Draco's greatest challenge so far, was resolved so easily.
Truly… life was unpredictable.