In the beginning, all he felt was that pulse...As if something was striking the earth slowly, beat after beat, until even the air itself began to tremble.Then came the sound:A deep inhale... as if thousands of lungs were breathing together.
The first line of glowing eyes appeared at a height of more than five meters, followed by a second line below it, then a third.Red circles with no eyelids... as if they were living holes staring straight into his heart.
Then his skin began to move.It wasn't normal skin... but black plates like organic metal, with light green smoke seeping between each one...A foul stench, like ancient rot mixed with a poison you couldn't name.
When its limbs moved, it was revealed that it had four long arms resembling tentacles, their tips coated in a sticky layer dripping silent droplets—but when they touched the rocks...The stone corroded instantly, creating a gaping hole.
Neil bit his lip in focus.Even as he watched the scene, his heart did not tremble, but he felt a strange tightening in his chest...A whispering feeling that any small mistake here...Would lead to a slow death.
In a low voice, as if speaking to himself, he said:
"So this is it... not just strength or speed... but a curse, poison, and hatred for existence itself."
All those eyes lifted at once.In an instant, one of the arms shot toward him at incredible speed.Neil stepped half a pace back, his body bending fluidly, and the rock behind him exploded with immense force.
He didn't wait a second.In the moment the arm passed by him, he turned and unleashed dozens of wind blades from his palm.But they didn't pierce the monster's body...They bounced back as if hitting a flexible shield that coated it.
It didn't move from its place, just stared at Neil like it was observing a foolish insect trying to headbutt a mountain.
Neil smiled faintly:
"Alright... a test round."
He raised his right hand, and a blue aura began to pulse around his body.Activating Energy Drain Mode.
The air thickened, as if every atom around him became part of his body...Every step, every breath, every blink... would be measured precisely.
Deep inside, he felt that old feeling return.The edge...Where you are either reborn... or end forever.
In a quiet whisper, he murmured:
"Come then... show me why they say you're a Rank A legend."
And at the moment when the four limbs launched together, and the toxic aura crept through the air,Neil leapt forward...To begin the fiercest trial of his life.
The moment Neil jumped forward, he felt that the very air turned against him.The ground shook beneath his feet, and the air became thick as mud, as if the entire area was now under the black creature's will.
One of the four tentacles came crashing down with immense speed. Neil tried to dodge, but the limb suddenly extended, reshaping its length to match its target.
A cold spike pierced his shoulder, and he felt the poison slowly seep into his veins.He stepped back twice, clutching the wound with his left hand.In his mind...He realized if he delayed even a moment, he'd lose control over his limbs entirely.
He looked up at the monster.The horrific body had begun planting its four tentacles into the ground around it.In the blink of an eye, green cracks spread across the ground, branching quickly, engulfing the space between him and the monster in a glowing web of poison.Any misstep meant instant death.
A deep crackling sound echoed beneath his feet, then he saw the ground was no longer solid...It was breathing.Small black masses emerged and disappeared among the cracks... as if the earth itself had become an extension of the monster's body.
It had claimed the entire arena.
Neil didn't look panicked, but he knew his mind needed to work faster than ever before.He looked around for any stable foothold.In his mind, analysis began:
"The poison field spreads at two meters every five seconds..."
"Each limb can alter its length during attack..."
"The poison dissolves living tissue on contact..."
He stepped forward, but felt the air attacking him as well.The rot's stench mixed with an acrid scent, drying his throat.
At that moment...
He suddenly ducked, and a third tentacle struck where he stood, shattering the rock.Then he jumped upward, the concentrated wind around him forming a pressure wave that temporarily pushed the poison back.But he knew...Even escaping upward wouldn't last.The tentacles could rise, and the poison could evaporate.
He smiled briefly, despite the sweat and blood streaming down his face:
"This is exactly what I want... pure killing instinct."
He closed his eyes for a second.
He focused his energy in his heart.He felt his pulse quicken...One... two... three beats...Then released everything in his chest in a single burst.
Full Energy Drain Mode.
The blue aura around him ignited like a vortex, and wind blades and pressure rose with every step he took.He began unleashing wind energy in short, focused bursts toward the nearest tentacles.(The energy refers to wind. The wind around him helps with healing though he hasn't mastered the element yet.)
Dozens of fine blades shot toward the tentacles' bases, where he assumed their defense would be weakest.Only then did the monster actually move its massive body, as if it had felt a real threat for the first time.
But the earth remained under its control.The poison cracks deepened, the air grew thicker, and Neil was now fighting something more than a giant body...He was battling a hostile environment.
He stepped half a pace back, gasping for air, while his eyes shone with a defiance unlike anything else:
"You don't understand... I don't back down anymore."
And at the moment the tentacles lunged again, he raised his hand high, preparing for a desperate maneuver that might be his last if he miscalculated.
A hail of punches rained down on him like a storm.
It wasn't ordinary striking...Each of the monster's tentacles transformed, detaching into massive arms ending in sticky claws, crashing down at speeds too fast to follow.
The first blow broke a rib.The second paralyzed his left arm.The third struck his jaw, flooding his mouth with blood.
Each hit injected poison directly into his body.He tried desperately to resist... to gather enough strength to block even one blow...But the poison coursed through his veins, making his limbs as heavy as molten iron, his chest burning like fire from within.
He tried to breathe, but no air entered.He tried to lift his head, but no longer felt his neck.
He fell to his knees, gasping.
The monster stood before him, towering, its deformed figure filling the horizon, each limb quivering with eagerness for the final strike.The cracks on the ground widened... the poison rising like mist, wrapping around his frail body, seeping into his lungs, slowly extinguishing his consciousness.
He raised a trembling hand, as if trying to cling to something, but grasped only air.His mind turned hazy, his thoughts fading.
"...Is this... all I've got...?"
A fourth blow fell on his shoulder, smashing him flat on the ground. He could no longer lift his head.His vision blurred, the monster's image multiplying and fading.He felt his heart slowing, his soul pulling away from his body bit by bit.
The poison reached his brain.He began melting from within.The heat became cold.The pain became silence.
He whispered inside himself, a sound no one could hear:
"...Dying? Like this...?"
The monster raised its final arm.If it struck, nothing would be left of him.Only then... in that deathly silence...A tiny spark burst from his soul, as if the last shred of defiance within him ignited.
But his body was already like a corpse.
In the darkness swallowing his mind, in a body half-lifeless meat,He felt a pulse...Weak...But unlike anything he'd known before.
An electric pulse.
At first, he thought it was a hallucination.A flicker down his spine that vanished so quickly he doubted if his mind invented it for comfort before death.But...As the monster raised its deformed arm for the final blow, another pulse came.Stronger this time.Like a spark of real lightning had stung his heart.
"What... is this?"
His foggy eyes widened slowly.He felt something grow in his chest...A heat entirely unlike the monster's poison...The heat of pure lightning, belonging to no swamp.
In that moment, his inner voice pulsed again:
"Get up... if you die now... you'll never know how far you could've gone."
The monster lowered its fist.It thought Neil was already dead.But its fingers stopped...Because the boy's half-dead body suddenly shuddered, then lifted a centimeter off the ground...And a blue spark exploded from his chest.
"I... am not done... yet."
He heard the echo of his own voice from between bloodied lips, but his eyes gleamed once again with a calm glint.He didn't know how...Or why it was lightning that came to him...But he felt no need to understand now.
Scene shifts slightly to the moment Denji Volt, wielder of lightning, dies at the hands of Julius Kaiser. Because of that, Neil inherits the lightning element by achieving the speed required to master it.
The poison freezing his limbs began to recede slowly, as if burning from within.His body now lit up from the inside with accelerating electric pulses...One pulse...Then another...And another, until his chest became like an old battery rediscovering its final charge.
The monster stepped back, for a moment seeming to show something like fear in its deep eyes.As for Neil...He clasped his trembling fingers together, stood upright, sparks dancing on his shoulders, wrapping around his neck, illuminating a face that nearly faded.
"Well then..."
His voice came out low, soaked with quiet rage:
"...My turn now."
Then in a pure lightning flash...He vanished from his place.
He had no choice.The poison had already entered his left vein, crawling like black ink through his arteries.He felt its heat burning inside, then its deadly cold freezing his limbs.
"If I don't outrun this poison... I won't have time to try the lightning at all."
His jaw clenched.He realized he was fighting on two fronts:The monster growing stronger every second, and the poison racing to claim his heart.
He didn't wait for the monster's attack.He ran, even though his leg gave out for a moment, sharp numbness stabbing through his knee.But he tightened his muscles, forced his body to obey.Every second was a battle.Every step was resistance to weakness.
The monster roared and lunged.Its claws emitted flashes of violet poison, as if its whole body had become a vessel for disease.Neil raised his right arm.Blue sparks ignited around his forearm in an instant, condensing into his fist.He had to strike fast enough to beat the poison.
"No... I'm not slower than it. Not even slower than death...!"
He focused on the monster's neck.Somewhere inside, he felt a numb sting rise to his chest, telling him time was running out.But his mind grew sharper than ever.The air of battle cleared... time itself seemed to slow.
With two steps, he split the earth beneath his feet.He charged, faster than he thought he could.And at the moment the monster swung its claws to finish it...
Neil disappeared.
The sparks ignited.A bolt of lightning cut through the battlefield like a blue ghost.Neil appeared behind the monster, clutching his open wound... panting.The poison hadn't stopped.But neither had he.
"You... have to fall... before I do."
His heart pounded furiously, as if trying to break his ribs from within.He felt the poison devour his entire left arm.His fingers could no longer move... only the pain remained, like a burning coal buried in bone.
But he didn't think of retreat.He didn't even think of survival.Only... to make this monster fall before he did.
He turned slowly, breathless, blue sparks dancing weakly around his body, reflecting both his weakness and determination.He raised his eyes.The monster staggered for a moment, as if the lightning strike had shaken its balance.But its neck hadn't broken.It let out a muffled sound between a roar and a death rattle.
"It's still standing..."
Neil growled through clenched teeth.He raised his only usable hand.Tried to gather his energy... but felt the poison nearing his heart.Seconds only.If he delayed, he'd collapse here... no, he'd die before finishing what he started.
He bit down so hard he tasted blood.He whispered in broken breaths:
"...Fine... if time's against me..."
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, sparks intensifying violently.
"...I'll shorten it!"
Everything roared around him.The ground shattered under his feet.A halo of lightning grew to envelop his body, blue lines etched on his skin like living tattoos.He let out a scream he didn't recognize as his own.Then charged, this time so fast the monster had no chance to defend or attack.
In a lightning flash...
Neil drove his only hand into the monster's chest.
His body was collapsing at that very moment.He felt his heart beat one last time... then a black numbness climbed into his head.But he didn't let his grip weaken.He clenched his fingers around the monster's beating heart beneath its deformed ribs.
"...We fall... together..."
Then he pulled with all the strength he had left.In an instant, the monster's glowing eyes dimmed... and it crashed backward in a deafening impact.
Neil remained standing over it.His arm trembled.His face pale as death.Then he raised his eyes to the dark sky.He smiled a weak smile... and muttered:
"...You were... a worthy opponent..."
Before collapsing onto the monster's chest, unconscious, beating the poison to the darkness by one final step.