Hades' Apprentice [[ON HOLD]]

3) More powerful than imagined

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MELANIE'S POV
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As the despair in my soul grew stronger, a strange feeling overwhelmed me. It felt like I was being possessed as a powerful wave of my energy exploded from my chest. The orbs immediately sucked in the miasma at a distance of at least five miles, exposing the battlefield.

The eight-foot beasts bore weapons as sharp as a butcher's knife and large as a chainsaw, yet they swung them with such ease as if they weighed nothing more than a pen.

The sight was truly terrifying. If such beings invaded Earth, not a single human could survive.

I stepped off the griffin as the familiar possession lingered, and a purple staircase materialized that descended below. It felt like I was the main character in a fantasy movie that always brings about the end of the world. In this case, the end of the underworld.
But it was thrilling and satisfying.

The soldiers struggled at the front line while Aimon attacked the middle formation to break their defense on the inside, smart.

Screams, growls, swords clanging, grunts, shouts, commands...every kind of battle sound I only heard in the movies was audible. Blood was spilling from the wounded, and from the wounded as well, both the soldiers and the beasts.

Heads were flying, and horns were being slashed as well.

As I stepped off the purple stairs and onto the bare dusty ground that looked dead, a soldier rushed to stand in front of me, his sword ready to cut down any enemy that would approach.
"You should leave! These beasts aren't as merciful as we-"

I raised my hand, and more black orbs formed in the air before they rushed past the soldiers and attached themselves to the minotaurs at the frontline.
Something about this place made me feel so powerful. Like I could do anything I wanted and get away with it. This led me to experiment and push my boundaries to see just how strong I was.

"Implode," I murmured and the orbs dissolved into the beasts. A second later, blinding black light exploded from them before it, along with the beasts' flesh and blood were sucked inwardly as they imploded.

In the blink of an eye, I took out more than thirty beasts, leaving a wide space between the soldiers and the next attack line from the enemies.

Confusion spread through the air as gazes were shot back at me. The soldiers whose bodies were covered in blood from the minotaurs or their wounds looked back at me like stray puppies wondering what to do next.

'I can do it. I'm more powerful than they are,' I said to myself and walked forward, moving past them to face the roaring beasts about to attack.

With more confidence than before, I repeated the same attack and imploded another fifty beasts, further enlarging the gap between the two sides.

The minotaurs hesitated, ceasing their attack but didn't back down. They seemed to be waiting for something.
The soldiers didn't attack as well. They were weak and wounded. If they had had a choice from the beginning, they'd have chosen not to fight, given their sorry state. They were doing it only for their families inside the city.

"Can you speak?" I asked the beasts.

They just growled and barred their large canines at me like big dogs.
"Go back, and I'll spare you. Or you can stay and die like your pathetic comrades."

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of the beasts. She was the size of a normal human, five foot five tall with a human face.
Her presence made the air around her feel chilly and the murderous intent coming from her was terrifying.

"Get out of the way. The city must be brought down today!" She yelled glaring daggers at me.

I shrugged crossing my arms under my chest. "Oh well, not today it seems. Why don't you take your big dogs and leave!"

She scoffed taking a step forward. As if glitching, she appeared ten inches from where I stood with a smirk on her face. "You seem like a worthy opponent. Why don't we fight, and whoever loses leaves."

"It seems that you don't care about your beasts. Are you sending them to their doom so mercilessly? How about this: if I win, the beasts stay, and you can leave?"

The girl cackled and then, all of a sudden, her body lit up in green flames, her long black hair turning green as well. "How dare a nobody take on a challenge from me?" She roared, her voice echoing with anger and pride.

Her body levitated a foot off the ground, and a bow made of the very flames engulfing him showed up in her left hand. "Receive my arrow of eternal dream and sleep forever."

She pulled the string and a flaming arrow appeared.
I could feel its destruction. It would have instilled fear in me, but that was when I was still human. Now, now I had the power of destruction. I felt like I could destroy anything if I put the right amount of energy into it.

I created a shield in front of me and waited for the arrow.

"Go!" She yelled releasing it.

Spinning and slicing the air, the arrow shit straight for my chest.
The soldiers behind me cowered and groaned from what I presumed was the power coming from the attack.

Yet, it didn't matter how powerful the arrow was, it didn't make it past my shield.

It lodged itself on the outside and I could now feel its vicious aura like it had made contact with my body.
I reached through the dome protecting me and grasped the arrow while the girl prepared another attack.

It felt solid, yet wasn't solid. Weird.
But the power flowing through it wasn't yin. It felt similar to the gods in heaven.

"Receive my arrow of eternal pain!" She screamed releasing another one. But this one was aimed at the soldiers behind me.

"Playing dirty, huh?" I scoffed to myself and snapped the arrow unconsciously. It shattered like glass and dissipated like smoke.
I might not have been the bravest human, but I wouldn't do a sneak attack. That was just low and infuriating.

My orbs popped out of thin air and surrounded her, attaching themselves to her body and weapon as well, stopping her assault just in the nick of time.
"Gah! What is this? Release me at once you damned-"

"Kneel!"
As soon as the words left my mouth, she was hurled down to the ground and on her knees. The impact left a dent around her knees as dust rose.

"Attack!" She screamed, unaware that like her, I had every beast present in my control. When she realized, she intensified her glare and cursed me.

The shield vanished as I stepped out of it, still angry at the stunt she had been about to pull. "I'm new here you see. But I still hate scum like you from whichever universe they're in."

I took the bow and arrow that were floating to her right. The flames were fading on both the girl and the weapon, making it easy to deal with her.
Not like they would hurt me anyway.
"I like this bow. So I'm going to keep it."

"Don't you dare!"

I leaned down and lifted her chin. "As a thank you, I'll give you this." I brought the arrow into her vision. But she just laughed brushing it off.

"You think it can hurt me. It's made from me."

"Well that is true, but...not anymore." I smiled as my energy fused with both the arrow and the bow. "Now they're made from me."
Without a shred of mercy, I plunged the arrow into her chest and she instantly let out a painful cry that cut through the air in a power surge.

The soldiers groaned as if they had been wounded.
So sounds could carry one's innate power as well? What an interesting discovery.