Chapter 272: Overwhelming

Words : 1114 Updated : Oct 12th, 2025

Uhh... Alice tilted her head, and in the meantime, Zaria whistled, looking the man up and down. "You're definitely a sight for sore eyes, aren't you?" Zaria remarked with a giggle, approaching him. "Do you want to go on a date?" "Hey..." Alice muttered. "I'm sure you're just stupid, but he looks pretty feral. I think you should back off." His eyes were dilated, and he seemed on edge. Definitely like some sort of beast, Alice thought, narrowing her eyes. It seemed like Zaria wasn't listening and instead approached the man. In the meantime, Alice decided to take a few steps back. After all, she could see the man's hands twitching with each step Zaria took to get close to him. Finally, Zaria arrived in front of him and stood confidently. "Hey there, what's your name?" Zaria asked. "For someone so strong, it's probably some fearsome name, right?" "Neraxis..." the man muttered as he brought his hands behind him. Alice could see him clutching onto something, and that something was likely the scythe. Therefore, before the situation could get out of hand, Alice slowly approached. "Sorry for bothering you. We didn't know another person would be inside the rift," Alice said gently. "But... whatever you're thinking, could you not do it?" That seemed to make Neraxis's brows furrow, but, he listened, and instead of attacking, merely raised his hands into the air and proceeded to walk in the direction of where they came from. Zaria seemed a little pissed because he was ignoring her. However, she didn't say anything. Alice couldn't help but point it out. "Seems like you got rejected." "Shut up..." Zaria sighed, rubbing her temples. "I think I forgot my makeup." You didn't. Alice thought with a smug smile and turned toward Neraxis's back. He's a little strange, but he managed to kill that monster all by himself. That's definitely some feat. With that, all three of them began walking back to the entrance, and of course, Alice kept a fair distance between herself and Neraxis. After all, who knew when or why he would lash out and kill her. But it seemed like Zaria's survival instinct wasn't as good as hers, since after a few minutes of grumbling, she approached Neraxis again. Just this time, the confrontation didn't go as peacefully. "Hey, do you want to—!" Before she could finish her words, Neraxis turned around, swiftly extended his hand, and grabbed Zaria by the neck. He lifted her in the air, and from what Alice could see, he was constantly tightening his grip. Any more than this, and Zaria was likely to die. Or so Alice thought, but in the very next moment, Zaria wrapped her legs around Neraxis's arm, threatening to break it. It worked—he released his grip and threw her aside. His face sported a clear glare. Meanwhile, Zaria seemed to be enjoying this. "Hey now, I don't know if I like playing it rough with a total stranger. Do you maybe want to take me out to dinner first?" Zaria said, pulling out her bow. "Or maybe you want to take this fight to the death? It'd be fun to see which one of us can survive." What a masochist, Alice thought with disgust. But he's definitely much stronger than her. If they were to fight, then I'm sure Zaria would die. But in the end, she didn't know the extent of either of their powers, so Alice could only watch from the sidelines as they got ready to go at each other's throats. However, the moment Zaria fired her arrow, Neraxis caught it in between his fingers. Then, he proceeded to coat the arrow in green flames before sending it back at Zaria. She seemed startled and attempted to dodge, but it was almost like the arrow had some kind of homing properties. Therefore, despite her struggles, the arrow soon shot straight through Zaria's shoulder. The quiver had been caught by the arrow, and it flew off into the distance. Zaria glanced at Neraxis with surprise, but the moment she saw the familiar scythe forming, she froze. "H-Hey now, I was joking about the battle to the death part... truce?" Zaria said, flustered as she proceeded to plug the hole in her shoulder with some cloth. "Yeah, you should probably stop," Alice commented from the side. "Any more and I'm pretty sure we're all going to be in trouble." And the moment her words fell, the bushes not too far away rustled, and soon revealed a particular gray-haired figure—Asher. He spotted them, and then the man, but instead of waiting for confirmation or even asking what was going on, Asher dashed toward Neraxis with his daggers out. Yet the moment he entered Neraxis's range, he was swatted down like a fly. It all happened so fast that Alice didn't even manage to see what Neraxis had hit Asher with. However, one thing was certain. Neither Asher, Zaria, nor even she had a chance to beat him. But of course, there was one more person remaining, and it was the same person who had been observing the entire fight from a distance. Lar began slowly making his way over to them—specifically, toward Neraxis. He didn't show the same hostility as Asher, and he wasn't as persistent as Zaria either. Instead, he stopped right in front of Neraxis and looked at him as though he were an equal. "Neraxis, I heard? Were you the one responsible for clearing the rift?" Neraxis stared at him skeptically for a few moments, and then nodded. "Yep, but I'd suggest you back off. I've got places to be." "Oh, I'm sure you do," Lar said with a smile. "But what do you say to joining our group? We're going to do some big-time rifts, and while I understand you're entering these rifts illegally, don't you think karma is finally going to catch up to you?" Neraxis shrugged and simply began walking away. "Wait a moment," Lar called out, pulling something out from his jacket. It was a weird card, and it had a number on it. Lar went up to Neraxis and put the card in his pocket. "Think about it." Neraxis flashed him an annoyed look. However, he didn't throw the card out right away. Instead, he upped his pace and went out of the portal. In the meantime, Alice's gaze lingered on his back. Neraxis? Huh.

Chapter 272: Overwhelming

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