The Innkeeper

Lex was standing in the middle of nowhere, far away from the Midnight Inn. But, oddly enough, the sense of control he had in the Inn did not disappear. This was the first time he was stepping outside the Inns territory since raising his level, so he was only now noticing the change.

Within the Inn, it was the system that empowered him and gave him absolute control over his environment. But right now, while he did not have absolute control, he felt like it wouldn’t be so hard to manipulate the world.

When he looked at the field of endless bodies, he could sense a strange pattern once again. It was as if the random layout of the bodies of the deceased was not so random, and followed some kind of underlying rule or law. But once again, the pattern was too vague and abstract for him to completely comprehend.

But he could read bits of the pattern. It was almost as if events were playing back in reverse in front of his eyes. He could see countless conspiracies behind the war, countless false promises and unclear motivations. He could see a hate, distorted and empowered beyond their means to control. He could see a weapon unleashed to slaughter the enemy, but it grew too powerful.

He only saw bits and pieces, but he could gather the overarching story of what happened. More importantly, since he understood the land in front of him with greater depth than a simple visit would normally give, he also knew how he could manipulate it in the easiest way possible.

There were many affinities that Lex had that he didn’t practice. But right now, he felt like if he had even the slightest control over his affinity for Wood, or for Nature, he could use all the bodies here and turn this from a barren land into a lush forest.

But even without them, he sensed that this land had been severely harmed, and he could actually use his affinity for Regeneration to heal the land.

Similarly, when he looked at the massive creature, he could sense that both its body and its soul were incredibly strong. But its mind, comparatively, was fragile. How convenient, then, it was that Lex could turn any of his attacks into physical, spiritual or soul oriented.

The creature froze, and suddenly looked up, as if it sensed Lex’s hostility, and immediately let out a shrill scream. It rose its body high in the sky, before lunging forward, swiping its claws to rip Lex to shreds.

Lex could feel the immense strength packed in its every move, and could also see its many weaknesses. But, since he had been guided to focus on his sword techniques, he decided to stick to it.

He jumped forward, and sped up mid air as he approached the creature and used Inferno Blade: Judgment. His blade immediately turned red from the heat, and carried a lethality that seemed to radiate off it like heat from a fire.

The creature, sensing the danger, crossed its claws. Lex, even without the need to use his left eye, ‘saw’ something change. A tiny black ball of energy appeared in front of the creature’s crossed claws, and a repulsive force forcibly ended Lex’s momentum and pushed him away, despite his ability to fly.

“Interesting,” Lex muttered, before switching his attack. Instead of coming close, he used Inferno Blade: Shooting star, the long range attack from the Inferno Blade sword technique. A great, flaming sword, coated in his sword intent, shot through the air towards the creature. Since this attack was made of energy and intent, and had no real mass, the repulsive force did not work.

But the creature was nimble, and immediately dodged the attack by moving away, letting out another angry scream as it did. It seemed offended that Lex was putting up a fight.

Its lower body began moving independent of its upper body, circling behind Lex while its upper body launched another attack. As if inspired by Lex’s previous attack, it began waving its claws in the air, launching little black slashes towards him.

While normally Lex was a fan of tanking attacks head on, he sensed that these attacks were dangerous, and hid their true devastating quality within the darkness, so he dodged as well. While Lex wanted to test out his new abilities, he didn’t want to prolong the battle unnecessarily. He came here because he sensed danger from this creature, so he stopped holding back.

He Blinked right behind the creature, and used Space Warp on the creature’s back. In a ten feet (3 meter) region around his hand, space began to bend, causing light and gravity to behave oddly. The sudden spike in gravity caused the creature’s backbone to snap, causing it to fall limp on the ground, though it was far from a lethal injury.

The creature screamed again, and traces of black energy began accumulating around its claws, but Lex gave it no time to retaliate. He used Inferno Blade: Judgment and buried his sword in the creature’s back, channeling the flaming sword intent into its body.

Simultaneously, he converted some of his attacks into spirit attacks, assaulting its mind and causing it to immediately fracture.

But even as a massive hole burnt through its torso, and it’s mind was broken, the creature did not die. Its resilience was astounding.

Before Lex could continue to attack, an overwhelming repulsive force blasted him into the air with such might that it actually caused him to become a little breathless. But even though Lex had been pushed back, his attack was not so easily dismissed, and flames continued to eat at the creature’s upper body.

Its lower, centipedal body writhed for half a second, before it disconnected from the torso, and then split once more into a hundred smaller sections, each with two bony legs. Each section began doing different things, with many of them immediately feasting on the corpses while a few began burrowing into the ground to escape. Others began to fly away, while others still lurched towards Lex, wrapped in black energy.