Apex Star

Chapter 8: Advancing to Rank 4

In front of Nova, there were about 7 Rank 2 wolves, but they were different from normal wolves. Their size was about 1.5 meters in height, but what really made them special was their black fur and red eyes.

Nova wasn't scared of them or unprepared, but actually, he was excited. He prepared something he learned in the forest after killing a few beasts.

'Space Arrows'. Without a chant or hand movement, two arrows almost invisible for the eye if not for the space around them being slightly distorted were released from thin air and stabbed the closest wolf to Nova.

The other wolves were pretty much shocked by the fast action that happened and stopped in their tracks. The wolf, which was hit by the arrow, fell to the ground without a chance to even growl.

Without a beat, Nova spammed more arrows and hit the other unprepared wolves, leaving only three of them alive.

The wolves left were too scared by the prey they thought to be 'weak' and tried to escape, but when faced with the fast arrows of Nova the worst decision they could make was to turn their back to him.

After drilling through their head, Nova found another seven Rank 2 beast cores.

He absorbed them in a few minutes and continued to the only path he could take, straight ahead. There was only one path going straight to the mountain, and he saw that it would take him in. The entrance looked like ready to swallow everything that entered it.

On the sides of the path, there were only trees, and no matter how far he looked, it was a huge forest on both sides. So the only conclusion he could take was that he should follow the path in the mountain to advance to the second floor.

After a few minutes of walking, he was close to the entrance in the mountain where he spotted another group of wolves, this time there were 14 of them all Rank 2, the same black fur and red eyes like before. The wolves, too, observed him and started running towards him.

Nova was prepared to release his Space Arrows, but before he could do that, a roar shook him slightly, disturbing his mind.

ROAAAR!! Behind the pack of wolves stood a giant black wolf almost three meters in height, this one with blue eyes, not red ones.

In these two seconds that Nova was in shock from the beast roar, the first wolf reached him and opened his mouth to bite him. At that moment, when the wolf mouth opened, time seemed to slow down for Nova as he clenched his fist and, using all his strength, punched the wolf in the head so hard it directly cracked it.

Splurt! The blood fell in all directions, even touching the other wolves closer to Nova and causing them to slow down a gear.

After killing the first wolf, Nova teleported 3 meters, arriving at the front of the hungry pack and killing another 2 wolves before releasing Space Arrows, successfully hitting another 4 wolves causing them to die.

Killing half of the pack, the Black Alpha Wolf was enraged and roared again, after which it started speeding in Nova's direction. Nova sensed that the black wolf was a Rank 3 just like him, and he was excited to see how it would be fighting an enemy of the same rank for the first time.

When the black alpha wolf was close to Nova, his blue eyes started glowing, and his fur got a little longer and sturdier while his speed increased and was close to biting Nova's arm.

Again, time seemed to slow down for Nova, something that wasn't a misconception, but a little trick of his time bloodline he called 'Time slow'. He realized it would be hard for him to really use his bloodline abilities being so low level on enemies, and so he tried thinking of a method of using the abilities on him for a short boost, of course the Apex Bloodline played an important role in this too.

Dodging out the wolf bite, he tried kicking it, but the wolf was fast too and got away without being hit. Nova was so focused that he didn't seem to feel his eyes started to glow, and his gray pupils containing a bit of gold in them affected by his Apex Bloodline.

Nova formed two space arrows from the front, but it was a feint because he formed another one at the back of the wolf without releasing it.

After waiting a second for the wolf to dodge, which he did, he released the arrow with a perfect timing right when the wolf was prepared to dash again for Nova.

~Swish~ Splurt! The alpha wolf was stunned after seeing the arrow stuck on his back, right when he looked to his back, Nova appeared in front of him and punched his head until it deformed. The fact that it didn't break from the first punch was a testament of how sturdy it was compared to the Rank 2 wolves. Finally, after ten more punches, the alpha wolf fell to the ground without a breath.

After killing their leader, Nova easily killed the rest of Rank 2 wolves and gathered their beast cores.

It took him a few minutes to absorb them all. Finally, he looked again at the alpha wolf and took out his beast core. He could feel that the energy in the beast core was a few times higher and purer compared to the other beasts he killed previously.

It may be that the Black Alpha Wolf wasn't a normal Rank 3, too. Nova felt that with the energy in this crystal, he may break through Rank 4, fulfilling his Limitless Ability requirements.

Ten minutes later was exactly as Nova thought, and he broke through Rank 4. He felt a surge of energy inside him. All his aspects increased equally, and his senses almost doubled.

Now, he could sense about one hundred meters ahead of him. He could feel his abilities related to his bloodline are easier to use with a few ideas of how to create new ones coming almost instantly in his mind.