novelAlta Chapter 97: PERSONAL GAINS
Chapter 97: PERSONAL GAINS
Max’s daggers thrust forward uninterrupted, one aimed at his neck, the other at his head.
Air.
The dagger’s sliced through plain air.
As if expecting that to happen, Max stomped his foot hard on the floor, creating a tremor that swept through the entire field.
On the floor, Zain’s tiny form staggered from the tremor.
He looked up, at Max’s massive foot, already descending for the second time.
Zain rolled, the foot cratering the earth where he stood a breath before.
He stood up almost immediately, shooting upward as his body expanded back to fill size mid leap.
He drove his sword towards Max’s jaw.
Max tilted his head, the blade slicing the empty space his head once was.
He grabbed Zain’s wrist before he could pull it back.
Space wrapped around the grip, the air around Zain’s arm compressing inward.
Thought took over as Zain shrunk his arm to nothing before the space could fully fold.
He leapt back, a few meters to create space.
Max was already there.
His dagger sliced through the air, arcing towards Zain’s spine.
Zain’s body shrunk, then went back to size again, a few meters away.
Without stopping, he lunged, his sword carving a thin silver line as it lashed towards Max’s neck.
Max’s left hand moved in a blur, catching the sword with the flat of his dagger.
A tearing sound made Zain stop.
He looked down, at his side.
There was nothing, no blood, no wound.
But he felt it, in his back.
Max withdrew his right hand, the portal he had opened closing as he leapt back.
Zain looked at Max, his eyes wide in shock as he tried to stop the bleeding by covering it in a dense patch of aether.
Zain’s aether did not hold.
It crumbled immediately it met the red aether, still clinging to the wound even after Max withdrew his dagger.
Max watched as he struggled, his gaze condescending.
He looked up into the sky, where Alfred and Aldren were still going back and forth.
Max looked back down at Zain, his gaze calm.
"You should have known, you were never a match for me," Max said as he walked towards Zain with slow strides.
"If not for my curiosity, you would have died long ago."
His dagger glowed with a red sheen. It was Max’s aether.
Zain looked at Max, his face sunken.
In his face now, Max seemed more like a god of death than human.
His sword hand trembled, shaking like he was convulsing.
How did it happen?
Everything felt like a dream to Zain.
They were just going blow for blow not quite long but Max had suddenly overpowered him.
Max did not wait for him to continue.
He flicked his wrist, sending his dagger flying through the air with a sharp whistle.
Zain staggered.
His skill had failed him.
In a moment of desperation, he swung his sword to meet the dagger, barely able to throw it back.
His body staggered backward and a tremor went through his arm.
Max caught the dagger flying towards him, then threw it back, this time.
He reduced the strength behind the throw this time.
Although the action was subtle, its intention was obvious.
Max had written Zain off.
The only reason he kept him alive was for fun.
That was what Zain thought.
He swung his sword to meet the dagger.
The effect was instant.
A wide, gaping hole spread from the wound on his back as the dagger appeared planted itself further.
Zain’s eyes shrank.
He had expected to party the dagger like before but instead, he only swung through air.
Max just turned back to the sky, watching as a body plummeted into the earth.
The person stood up and looked at Max.
Then at Zain’s body which stood rooted in place.
"I told her, no one on this planet can hold Max down currently," Aldren said, looking at Zain’s body as it finally gave out, falling to the floor with a thud.
"Focus if you don’t want to die as fast as him," Alfred’s voice came from above, his spear piercing downwards.
Aldren sprang backwards, jumping away from that area completely.
The spear plunged into the earth beneath, sucked in, before exploding outward.
The earth rose, rupturing from beneath as sand and rocks erupted around.
Alfred’s spear dissolved into a mist of purple as he looked at Aldren, who suddenly wore a smile.
"What? Did you finally run mad?" Alfred asked.
Aldren shook his head. "Take a look at your governor," he said, pointing towards Max.
Alfred turned to look at Max, then back at Aldren.
"What did you do to him?" He asked.
His voice was raised above normal.
It was the voice of someone who was holding back, finally snapping.
"Nothing much, it’s just poison," Aldren said, shrugging his shoulders.
Alfred looked at Aldren, his gaze unreadable.
But Aldren still seemed to understand it.
"I know what’s in your mind, when did I give it to him and how is it working on him?"
Aldren said.
Alfred did not agree, neither did he refute.
"Okay. You remember when I came for a drink?"
Aldren asked, rhetorically.
"The wine was poisoned."
He looked Max’s collapsed body briefly.
"As for how it worked, the poison freezes the aether of the consumer slowly. It has been working slowly due to reasons I don’t know. Maybe because he used such a strong move, so the freezing sped up."
Aldren said all of these with a detachment that made Alfred boil.
"What was I even expecting from you?" Alfred asked, shaking his head slowly.
"Killing my brother who took you in when you were about to be killed, I am sure there’s no one you can’t harm for personal gain."
Aldren looked at Alfred, surprise flickering in his eyes.
"Finally, you understand me," he said, a smile forming on his lips. "I couldn’t be more flatteredl."
As he said those words, his smile suddenly froze. "Too bad, you also have to be harmed for my personal gain."