HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-198

"Alright, now you've successfully angered me." with Sylthia having escaped, Karlock was furious. It was as if the delicious meal he had been cooking for a while was suddenly taken away from right under his nose.

Kyrin laughed. "So what? Gonna cry, you bulbous piece of metal junk." She taunted Karlock as

she attacked him with her darkness. But the barrier around the guy was too strong, making her attacks useless.

The red light in Karlock's artificial eye intensified. "After I capture you, I'm going to take extra time in your transformation process."

"Just try, small fry."

The army of biomatons got in a formation and began a synchronized attack on her and Willis. Various types of blasters sprouted out from some of the Biomatons, being extremely high powered or extremely concentrated, while many of the biomatons rushed to engage in Melee combat.

Willis protected her from the various attacks while Kyrin drew her sword. Her darkness instantly attacked the long ranged ones while she sent out slashing to the melee units.

But…

"What the heck?"

None of her attacks actually managed to do much damage. There was another unit mixed in among the army. These biomatons were either extremely bulky, or had almost all of their energy focused on creating barriers.

Most of the Biomatons shifted their positions, blocking Kyrin's attack while the rest were protected by these 'meat shield' units.

Karlock laughed. "How it is? I am not the same person I used to be, Kyrin of the darkness. My army is a complete unit that can amplify its capabilities through supplementation. And with the enhanced processing power of my brain, I can control each of them at the same time."

"Fucking madman."

Kyrin cursed under her breath. So, that's what's up. This bastard has even converted his brain into something like a computer processor. He can pay individual attention to the movement of each unit at the same time, which opens myriads of attacks and defense strategies.

That's why, he has customized his army accordingly, distributing powers and specialties in a way that their combined might be will (3*3 = 90 rather than (3+3 = 6).

Kyrin cursed under her breath.

Why is everything just getting worse? They are in this dangerous and accursed place where conserving energy is a must for dangerous situations. But now, she's having to spend her energy on trash like this guy.

…..

Large shockwaves rippled through the ground as Kyrin fought against Butcher, the number six of the Kraken.

In the distance, panic and confusion was apparent on Sylthia's face as she looked at Axel who was casually spectating Kyrin's fight while sipping some beverage.

"How many years has it been outside since I came here?" Asked Sylthia seriously.

This place is so deep into the Kraken territory that only the best of the best get the honor of venturing here. Sylthia has had to train since she was a kid in order to reach here. And here is this guy, looking like he is on a field trip when he just entered Atlantis.

"Two to three days. Might have increased after we got here," Replied Estris in all seriousness as she checked Sylthia's condition. Time flow was different in the trench. Sometimes it is fast and sometimes it is slow. So, for all they know, a few days might have already passed in the outside world in the few minutes they have been here.

That's also why Sylthia thought a long time must have passed in the outside world. But Estris's answer was simply out of Sylthia's expectations.

"What?! Three days?!" Sylthia thought that she might be hallucinating due to the poison and injuries. "How can you bring him here in just three days?! Cough COugh—" Sylthia coughed up blood. Literally. The poison was really killing her.

"Can we focus on recovery first? Your condition is serious." said Estris, taking out a diagnosis scanner to run the tests. Her brows furrowed. "This is bad… the poison has spread throughout your body."

Estris quickly gave her the antipoison elixir, but it didn't seem to work. If anything, Sylthia's coughing instead intensified, even giving her seizures.

"What's happening to her?" Asked Axel with her annoyance, not wanting to be distracted from the fight.

"This poison… Karlock has managed to synthesize one that can't be cured through our elixirs," she answered, busy running tests.

An elixir is something that can be considered even better than phoenix tears. But being a maniacal genius having a Biotech relic, Karlock was actually able to synthesize a poison that was impervious to them.

Estris turned her attention back to Sylthia. "Sylthia, brace yourself. I'm using my powers."

Sylthia shook her head. "No! caught— Reversing is... cough— too taxing!"

"There's no other choice now." Said Sylthia, raising her hands.

"What is she talking about?" Asked Axel.

"Well, my powers... let's just say they can only be used in very limited amounts," said Estris, even as gray energy began revolving around her. "Hold her down for me," she said, gesturing at Sylthia who wouldn't let her use her powers.

"Wait," said Axel, stopping her. "Let me get this straight. All you need is her poison cured?"

"Of course." For the first time, Axel saw the barest hint of annoyance and impatience on Estris's emotioness face. "Now, can we do it? I don't have much time."

Axel's brows furrowed. This could be an opportunity. He handed Akiko the bottle of protein shake he was holding. "Move aside. I'll do it."

???

"It's just poison, right? Just let me handle it," he said.

"??? No you can't." Refused Estris, looking at Axel with her 'Are-you-an-idiot?' eyes. "This poison is completely out of your league."

"Just trust him," said Akiko, whose concentration was completely on Kyrin's fight. "You have no idea about his league."

"That..." That might actually be true. Estris had only known Axel for a short time. But someone who can go toe to toe with Kyrin at 13? Nothing can be said about the limits of such a person.

Estris just watched as Axel got to work. Taking out his knife and a glass vial, he made a cut on Sylthia's neck artery, which had already turned purplish due to the poison and collected it in a vial. And then,

"What are you d—"

Before Estris could even understand what was going on, Axel had already drunk the purplish blood, smacking his lips as if determining its taste.

"What… have you done?" Estris could only look at Axel in stupefaction. Now she'll have to use her powers on not one, but two individuals.

"Trust him." repeated Akiko, still watching Kyrin's fight worried.

"Relax, Poisons are useless against me," said Axel, analyzing the poison.

He had the special skills [Poison Arts] and [Poison Immunity].

Poison Arts involved synthesizing potions, along with their antidotes (Because come on, what would you do if you poisoned the wrong person by mistake.)

And poison immunity? It involved increasing your poison immunity through various means, which also included ingesting poison. Poison had always been something Axel was helpless against.

So, ever since he got this skill, he has been ingesting any poison he encounters or makes through [poison synthesis] in order to increase his immunity.

As soon as he ingested the poison, his natural immunity began to neutralize the little amount of poison that was in the blood. His skill proficiency increased rapidly, as new information was unlocked.

'Success!' This was Axel's main aim for stepping up. [poison arts] and [poison immunity] are special skills, meaning they are extremely difficult to level up. He had already done as much as he could through normal poisons, so he needed something more dangerous for getting further.

"Hm… give me a minute," he said, taking out the potion equipment and a few ingredients from his storage space and began concocting an antidote.

With Axel's dexterity, he had the vial filled with the antidote in no time. "Here, this should do it."

Estris had watched the whole process with scrutiny. Even though Axel did seem to have some skills and knowledge, but she didn't really think he could synthesize an antidote that could detoxify a poison that even Elixirs couldn't heal.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Come on. If it doesn't help then you can always use your powers, whatever they are."

Sylthia was fed the potion, and very soon, her coughing eased up, making it easier for her to breathe.

Still in disbelief, Estris ran the tests again.

"It... it actually worked," murmured Estris.

....

On the other hand, Kyrin had changed her battle tactics, getting a little bit more serious. Darkness began to converge on her, forming a protective suit that hugged her body. She drew her obsidian blade and charged into the fray of biomatons.

Whatever attacks came at her, would pass right through her as she went around individually cutting down her enemies.

Willis just stood back, buffing her powers and sometimes hintering the biomatons.

Karlock laughed triumphantly.

"How long can you keep this up? You'll get overwhelmed soon. Individually, I accept I might be a 'small fry'. But combined with the army that I have customized for myself over the years, I can even take down existences like you."

"You know what?" muttered Kyrin as she just focused on clearing the horde. But what Karlock did not notice was the increase in the chilling darkness energy with each Biomaton she killed.

"You talk too much, fatbrain." With that, Kyrin disappeared into the darkness, emerging from right under Karlock.

[Death Blade]

??!!!

The blade charged with death energy that Kyrin had been gathering easily cut through the barriers that had successfully blocked all of Kyrin's previous attacks. Before Karlock had the chance to get in another word, Kyrin's flashed, and flashed again several times more, for good measure, cutting the grotesque man into pieces.

The entire army suddenly came to a stand still as their controller was suddenly hacked into pieces.

"So what if you can control an army? I just have to off you, right?" Said Kyrin, wiping her blade off the remains.

But in the next moment, those remains suddenly moved, quickly moving to grab onto Kyrin's body.

"What the—?"

Before Kyrin could do anything, Karlock's body exploded. At the same time, the rest of the army also attacked, dealing a lot of damage to Kyrin.

Kyrin appeared beside Willis, but she was injured.

"Are you alright?"

"Damn it, I got injured. And poisoned," she muttered, drinking an Elixir.

"I'm sorry, Mistress. I couldn't cast the shield in time."

"It's my fault. I let my guard down."

Estris's long ranged backup would have helped out a lot right now.

At this moment, Karlock's laugh sounded from one of the Biomaton. "I got you."

Kyrin looked over at the automaton in surprise. "What the fuck? How is this cockroach not dead?"

"Hehe, your power was indeed too frightening. But did you really think someone as important as me would take the risk of personally venturing into this dangerous place?"

Kyrin's brows furrowed in realization. "It was fake," she murmured. That made all the work done completely useless. She has wasted so much precious energy and they can't even kill this monster.

Karlock laughed. "Yes, that body was just a fake. My real body is still safe within the confines of lab. I can now remotely control my biomatons with the same efficiency. The body you destroyed was a clone. A biomaton I made to look exactly like my original body. It was quite a masterpiece too, loaded with high level attacking and defensive abilities. Too bad you destroyed it in one go."

"But that's it. It's over for you, Kyrin Tenebrous. You've been inflicted with my new creation. It can't be detoxified by the standard Elixirs. The same as that Eryndor girl. She's probably already dead as we speak."

"And if you haven't noticed, the rest of your team will also quickly follow suit." It was only then that Kyrin noticed that the flying creatures were already flying towards the darkness shroud at full speed.

Kyrin and Willis weren't even given the chance to stop them as they were once again attacked with the same intensity. While fighting, Kyrin staggered, and the darkness around her started decreasing as the poison spread through her body.

"Haha, struggle as much as you want. But the poison—"

Before the words could be finished, a knife got buried to the hilt right into the head of the automaton that had the loudspeaker.

"Did anyone ever tell you? You talk too much," said Axel, walking over.

The flying creatures that were heading for the Darkness shroud were all swept up by a windstorm, courtesy of a recovered and extremely pissed Sylthia. The rest were shot down by Estris. Akiko had her sword out as well as she attacked the ground units.

"How…?"

Karlock was still unable to understand how the hell Sylthia wasn't dead yet.

"Why the hell did you come out?" Yelled Kyrin, looking at Axel. Once Axel's glasses are rendered useless, he will be useless as well.

"Don't worry." said Axel, taking off his glasses. "My mind arts just fine."

When Karlock looked at the person who had dared to insult him, he found himself looking at a young kid of around 16. Furthermore, he was wearing a sub-relic that only Karlock knew how to make in the whole Atlantis.

"Wait…" The whole army suddenly paused as they all focused on Axel at once.

"How the hell… do you have HIS glasses?"

The registered user for those glasses was someone he knew very well.