Odyssey of the Blind God

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ

Most of Nial's senses were unaffected by the huge box's effect. It only influenced his dark energy and the mana around him, which was already more than enough for Nial to feel a heavy pressure weighing down on him.

'Good thing that I trained moving and fighting without my mana perception since I had my lovely encounter with the inability to sense mana in the Fairy Queen's territory,' Nial thought, the corners of his lips curling upward.

His mana perception had been the replacement of his eyes. However, now that his second pair of eyes had disappeared as well, he was back at the starting point. Of course, his other senses were extremely sensible and he was able to control his Vengeance of Chaos ability as he had accumulated bits of Chaos inside his body. The accumulated crimson moonlight was not affected by the mana distortion effect of the huge box either.

That was more than enough for Nial to know that he had some means to fight at the very least. His hands were still mantled in the crimson chaos while the sounds of footsteps coming closer, people surrounding him, and their distinct smell came to him with a draft.

It looked like the big box did not only replicate the gravitational force of a celestial body but it provided oxygen and the means to create sound. The ground beneath him was clearly solid which was rather interesting.

But, of course, Nial didn't have the time to focus on the big box. After all, he was being attacked by the remaining Demihumans that approached him slowly and carefully.

'Even if I cannot see, I can still defeat all of you!' Nial told himself inwardly while adjusting his combat stance. The footsteps were getting louder and Nial instinctively moved to the side, avoiding a club that would have smashed onto his head otherwise. With a swift movement, Nial inched closer to the Club-wielder and he issued several high-velocity punches where he presumed the target to be. His first attack missed the Demihuman's abdomen by a few inches, but the follow-up attacks were clear hits.

Nial adjusted his attacks the moment he noticed that something was not even close to perfection. His first punch was not precisely aimed, which was fixed in the following attacks. Nial stopped his attack after the fifth high-velocity punch issued with the fists that were mantled in the crimson chaos. Traces of the crimson chaos spread across the surface of the Demihuman he had hit, and the seept inside him, destroying his defenses one layer after another.

After the fifth hit, Nial had been forced to end his attack, but it was not as if the Demihuman would have been able to endure much more than that, to begin with.

He grasped the shoulders of the Demihuman he had attacked and hurled the body around. The Demihuman was not yet unconscious but he could hardly do anything against Nial's actions. Nial threw the Demihuman behind him, where the footsteps were the loudest. Twisting his body and twirling around, Nial rushed behind the body he had thrown at the Demihumans as a means of distraction.

Three to four Demihumans had been hit by the attack. He used the distraction and the tiny opportunity he was granted to inch closer once again and prevent the Demihumans to use their mid-range weapons such as longswords and spears properly. He forced the Demihumans to adjust to his way of fighting. At least that was what he expected until a cold breeze brushed against his cheeks.

He had instinctively moved his upper body to the right where he was greeted by the sound of a blade cutting through the air. Nial had to chop at the origin of the cutting sound, using his crimson chaos mantled hand. A sharp pain reached Nial's leg and the back of his hand but he survived the attacks that reached him.

Nonetheless, Nial was baffled and unable to understand how the Demihumans were still able to use mana. He clearly felt the mana inside the blade that had cut through his crimson chaos, slicing the back of his hand, let alone the obvious use of mana as the cold breeze impacted, warning him from the attack that hit him just a moment later.

'They can use mana? No…that's not it either,' Nial thought in confusion. If the others were to be able to use their mana freely, they wouldn't fight that way. It was quite obvious that their strength was not further enhanced and that they couldn't use their abilities either. The cold breeze was nothing special and the mana injected in the blade that sliced him was not exactly a lot either.

Unfortunately, Nial was not given much time to find out the cause of the mana-based attacks that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. His senses depicted something that was more worrisome. What he heard forced Nial to adjust his tactic and potentially risk some more injuries. That was a necessary risk to defeat a few dozen Demihumans at the Mythician rank. They were at the same rank as Nial even though their physical strength was quite a bit lower than his.

Nial had a perfect foundation, always using the most arduous and longest way to cultivate in order to create a cultivation based on the highest possible quality. While most people were not even able to create seven Mana Pillars, Nial was easily able to create nine Darkness Pillars. It was only obvious but the achievements he made in the past were not without reason. They had all been part of the reason for his current strength, and Nial wouldn't allow a bunch of Demihumans with far less talent than him to overwhelm him.

He put in much more effort than all of them, and it was only obvious that he wouldn't give up now. Nial shot forward with that thought in mind. He pushed out his flat hand that impacted exactly where he wanted, on the flat side of the blade that had sliced the back of his hand earlier.

Once again, Nial sensed some mana inside the blade. It couldn't do anything against him this time but that was not what attracted his interest.

'They use mana through their weapons!' He figured quickly.

It was not that hard to figure out what was going on but that didn't mean he liked what he perceived. It was still bothersome enough for him to end up in the tricky situation.

Whenever he attacked, the Demihumans wouldn't remain idle either. They weren't in a round-based card game, after all!

Nial pushed the blade aside and jumped upward with his leg raised. His knee smashed against the jaw of the Demihuman, who had been too focused on wielding the blade that he missed out on protecting himself. Nial, on the other hand, was forced to twist and twirl his body in far more uncomfortable angles than usual.

He was in a truly tricky situation and could hardly control the tide of the battle. It was rare that something like this happened. After all, he was usually the person in charge of the battle's rhythm!

Thus, the change of the person in charge made him uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable at that!