Same Darkness

Reynolds was scrutinizing the dust cloud that had formed in front of him. Turbulent mana waves were oozing out from it. The atmosphere was heavy enough to take one's breath away. Reynolds' senses were on full throttle, trying to catch even the smallest of movements in the haze.

Right then, the dust cloud was split apart and the gorilla emerged out of it, running towards Reynolds with full forces.

Without wasting a single moment, Reynolds hurled a water bomb towards the beast. Seeing the incoming attack, the beast tried to block it but he hadn't anticipated the force behind the attack to be so strong.

He was blasted off by the impact, sliding back a few meters before coming to a stop. The force was strong enough to disorient him a little. Reynolds capitalized on the opportunity and plunged forward with surprising speed.

{Flowing Arts: Tidal Assault}

Five water whips came thrashing out of his five fingers on his right hand and a spear-scythe hybrid made of ice emerged in his left hand.

But the ape regained his bearings back quicker than expected and upon seeing the human charging towards him, he broke out in a sprint towards the human too.

All four of his arms stretched to their limits, the beast started to gain a frightening amount of momentum. Soon, both of them met each other at the centre into a full-on confrontation... and Reynolds came out on top.

He knew that he couldn't match up to the gorilla in term of raw strength so he decided to use its own momentum against itself.

His five water whips latched onto different parts of the beast, effectively diverting its force away from himself. By doing that an opening showed in the beast's defence and he didn't fail to take it.

*swinnnnnggg!*

One of the beast's arms when flying, detached from its body.

Having done some damage, Reynolds kept at it. Once in a while, Reynolds did some shallow damage to the beast while diverting its momentum all over the place, making it unstable. He wielded the spear-scythe like a grim reaper waiting to harvest souls and his mastery over the water whips proved that he could use them as an extension of his arms.

"Heh! this is going to be easy"

Right now, the beast was flailing around its, now three arms with a lunatic expression. Its moves became linear and the pattern predictable. It was like a beast on its last leg, fighting desperately to survive.

But that's what made it even the more savage. Reynolds knew that a cornered rat was dangerous to play with, so he wanted to finish the job quickly.

Confirming the plan in his mind, he went forward to cleave the beast in two.

But, something unexpected happened. The entire skin of the beast started getting coated with rock. This made its body even more sturdy. The scythe did cut the skin, but it wasn't deep enough to kill the gorilla immediately and to add to the problem, it got stuck.

Unable to reclaim the scythe back, he let it go and retreated but it was already too late.

The beast was already taking a swing at his right side.

Feeling the impending danger, he used his whips to break the beast's momentum but now with the additional inertia, he couldn't do much.

The punch was a mere centimetre away from his body and with so little time, he couldn't cast a spell. So, all he could do was brace for impact.

And when it arrived, it was unimaginably painful. He was flung in the air like a ragdoll and crashed several meters away after some unusual flips in the air.

His humerus was in tatters, his shoulders ripped apart with a bone sticking out of it. Anybody unfortunate enough to witness such a scene would feel the immediate urge to throw up with how gruesome it looked.

But, Reynolds didn't have such a privilege. The gorilla was still alive and wanted him dead.

[Reynolds' POV]

' Shit! I can feel the gorilla coming this way and on top of that I can't feel my left arm '

I look toward my battered arm. My upper arm didn't have anything to support itself. My forearm was just hanging there and I could see my shoulder bone sticking out through the flesh.

' Damn! he really got me good '

I tried standing up but failed.

' Seems like my legs took some damage falling from such heights. I can't stand up '

I could now see the silhouette of the giant beast coming towards me through the shrubbery.

' Did I overestimate myself? '

I started doubting myself, feeling maybe the choice I made was wrong.

' No! that's not the case, it's certainly defeatable. In fact, I can beat it easily. The miscalculation was the experience. I lack experience otherwise I should have been able to see that coming.

Doesn't matter. This time I will kill it for sure '

Saying that, I stood up. My legs were screaming in pain but I ignored it. I laid my focus in front of me, on the gorilla whose silhouette now started clearing up.

As I was getting ready to dash forward, something popped up in my mind.

' Huh?...... why the hell am I this calm in a situation like this?

This is the first time I find myself in this kind of predicament. I am staring at death's eyes, I should be panicking. So why am I so calm?'

Thinking up to that, I felt something flicker in my consciousness. It felt familiar and I closed my eyes as if I knew what to do.

Only after closing my eyes, I realized why it felt so familiar. It was the darkness. The same darkness that I saw during my last moments in my past life.

When I opened my eyes, it was still there. I saw myself shrouded in a black miasma. It was oozing out towards the surroundings, reacting strangely with different things. It was corroding something while contaminating the others.

But, being inside of the miasma, I have never felt more comfortable than I feel right now.

It has a certain coldness. It is the kind of coldness that no ice or snow could provide. And it strangely makes me more focused and calm. It feels comfortable.

When I was thinking like that, the gorilla was finally clear. It still had the scythe sticking out of it which was yanked out just now.

At first, it was quite puzzled seeing all the miasma around me. But it paid it no mind and charged at me.

at this point, I didn't know what to do. So, I took a gamble and willed the darkness to devour him.

To my surprise, the miasma moved the way I wanted and enveloped the gorilla. Before it could even let out a shout, the miasma reduced it to just a puddle of mush and goo.

And I watched it all, to my horror. It was a scene straight out of hell.

' Note to self, do NOT use that one allies '

I couldn't help but grow a little fearful of the darkness, seeing how anticlimactically it ended the beast.

'I have to master this power to its fullest. It will be of great help in the future'

After all was done, I redirected my attention to my now non-functional arm.

'maybe...'

Thinking that trying wouldn't hurt, I willed the miasma to envelop my arm and heal it and oh boy was I wrong. I saw something that would haunt me for a good few nights and with it, accompanied an otherworldly pain.

I fell down, curling up in myself. My arm bloated up, twisting like a demonic slug and grew out grotesque bulges before turning back into a normal hand. At the end of it all, it was like nothing ever happened to it.

Coming out of the shock after some time, I got up and looked around.

The grasses and weeds had completely withered away. All over, the area looked dead.

"I don't want to stay here anymore. I am tired and aching all over. Let's go home now."