It had been a long time since Matrix had experienced a truly interesting battle. Even his encounter with Scarlet hadn't been captivating enough. He had been knocked down for a split second, admittedly, due to his nonchalance and a sudden surge of external power she seemingly received out of the blue (something he fully intended to interrogate her about later). Even then, it was all part of a feint, an attempt to discern the nature of her power. Beyond that momentary lapse, he hadn't exerted much of his energy, and he hadn't even been trying.
But now, things would definitely be different.
The World King launched himself into the air, the ground caving in beneath him and unleashing a massive shockwave that rolled outwards. Ascending, Matrix discovered he wasn't alone. Strategically positioned werewolves grinned down at him, their fangs bared. They seemed to know he was coming and had prepared their formation meticulously.
The wolves, Matrix surmised.
He recalled seeing normal wolves darting around the periphery of his vision outside the dilapidated fortress, one of which he had personally slain. He had dismissed them as an extra layer of protection, but it turned out they were spies in disguise. What was worse, even with all those werewolves right before him, he still couldn't sense most of them. That was no problem, however, not all of them had that fiery red glow in their eyes, so he would win regardless.
In a split second, he quickly made a head count. There were thirty of them, but only five possessed that distinct buff, their eyes blazing red. And the one who had fired the projectile, likely their leader, was planning to retreat. It seemed they had an idea of whom they were dealing with.
The World King smirked. They were all dead; they just didn't know it yet.
A short distance away, a massive creature surged into existence just in time for a crowd of wolves to descend upon it. Three of these wolves had the angry red glow burning in the depths of their eyes, while the other twenty were normal werewolves.
A daring werewolf swung from a tree branch and sprung towards the Giant in a furious flurry of claws and fangs. A swift fist connected with his entire frame with such speed that it flattened one side of his body before the momentum of the hit sent him spiraling away like a rag doll. He collided with a tree, shattering it into a cloud of splinters, while he himself ended in a pile of broken bones.
Simultaneously...
"They are here – twenty-four of them,"
the Oracle quickly informed Se'mudara. A beam of light shot into the sky, summoning an army of two scores of incandescent angelic replicas. Five Mudarians cornered the nearest wolf and tore him apart, leaving a blood puddle in their wake as they moved on to their next target.
Matrix received both messages in his mind from his generals at nearly the same time.
"We are being attacked!"
"They have seen through our formation and are dangerous! I give you the order to fight… to the death!" he replied.
The world descended into a flurry of activity. The World King covered himself with a sparse cloud of baryons, granting him the ability to puppeteer himself mid-air, an ability even more effective than flight. He could literally walk in the air, just as he would on land. He moved with a speed that made the heart of the closest wolf shudder, but not for long. His heart quickly stopped beating as his head spiraled downwards, along with his lifeless body.
"Frder!!!"
A werewolf yelled, using one of his pack members as a boost to barrel toward Matrix.
The werewolves couldn't fly, of course, but they were formidable jumpers. Gravity, however, was beginning to win the battle against their initial upward thrust. Some were already halfway down, their synchronized leap a desperate maneuver to distract Matrix from slaying their leader – a pragmatic but ultimately foolish decision. Regardless, their most skilled jumpers were still airborne, suspended in their doomed arcs. Those were the ones who would die first.
The raging werewolf lashed out with his claws, but Matrix moved with liquid grace, as effortlessly as water flowing around a stone. He barely had a split second to marvel at such speed before the World King's leg connected with his neck. Something snapped, and the world dissolved into a blurry haze. He hurtled away, colliding with another werewolf in the distance.
As they fell, a sharp, throbbing pain ripped through him, momentarily numbing the concussive force ravaging his brain. He looked down at his abdomen to see a spear, forged entirely from dense baryons, embedded within it – and also the wolf behind him. Life began to slip away as he plummeted. His last conscious thought was a confused wonder at why his head was so far from his body.
Some of the wolves who had already landed thought it a brilliant idea to gang up on the World King. They pounced, their wolfish grins in full, menacing display…for an instant. They didn't even have time to register surprise before Matrix leisurely detached their heads with the god-slaying blade. Since they weren't gods, he didn't need to feign weakness to activate the blade's divine god-slaying attribute.
Barely six seconds had elapsed since the spectre's death.
At this point, the remaining wolves realized that despite their preparations and numerical advantage, they couldn't hold a candle to the herald of death standing before them. The normal wolves quickly retreated, and the enhanced werewolves, who had been guarding their master's successful escape, surged forward. Matrix recognized, from the cadence of their movements, that they were entirely different. Each one moved as a part of a singular, coordinated unit. It was easy to tell that they were battle-hardened warriors, forged in blood and gore. But as much as he would have enjoyed tearing them apart, the information he sought resided in their leader's brain.
So…
Matrix abruptly surged toward the dilapidated building and crashed through it. The speed was so extreme that he crossed the entire structure before its physics could even react, sending dust and debris billowing everywhere. The next moment, the World King was already a great distance away, in pursuit of their fleeing leader.
He's very fast…
Matrix thought, impressed and intrigued as their leader tore through the dense forest like a lightning bolt. He used the trees as cover. Since the World King couldn't sense him, Matrix was forced to land and follow his wake on foot. And then, the true chase began.
Matrix was gradually closing in, but the distance between them was still almost three kilometers.
However, Matrix never ran out of tricks. This technique was akin to portalling, but because the mass of the teleported object was so small and the distance wasn't too great, Matrix could refine the precision to near-perfection. And since the portal needed to convey the object was also small, he required less time to create it. Regardless, all of this didn't guarantee success, but that was fine. It wasn't the first time he would attempt such a maneuver.
The muscles in the World King's arm went taut, bulged as he sprinted. Suddenly, the blade in his grasp was launched into a small portal created right in front of him. In the distance, the god-slaying blade emerged and pierced the werewolf leader's heart from behind. Blood sprouted like a crimson stream.