The Laughing Swordsman

A dark sky was before Apollo, to his surprise. However, it was not because the sun was down. In fact, it was in the middle of the day. What made the sky dark was some large black spot. It was as though all the clouds in the toxic wasteland combined together here to create this.

From that black spot, was a constant downpour. Though there wasn't too much light, it was still easy to see the discoloration within the individual raindrops. It definitely wasn't the most welcoming thing out there.

Layla continued running forward, prompting Apollo to follow as to not be left behind. He put the black flame match back into his hand. Currently, half of the match had burned away while roughly thirty minutes had passed.

From this, Apollo determined that the match lasted roughly an hour total. He continued to run forth with Layla while holding the match.

As they got closer, the ground became damper while the occasional raindrop would fall down. Layla didn't seem to mind it. Apollo definitely preferred not experiencing dirty rain falling on him, but he continued through it without a change in expression.

Minutes after the two of them walked through the dirty rain, a series of deep thumping sounds resounded, rapidly approaching them.

Apollo couldn't see what it was because the black flame match was still active, restricting his vision. However, it wasn't too hard to tell that it was something big.

Layla looked up and gasped.

"Wah! A friend is coming over!"

Apollo slowed down a little, after which Layla quickly left his vision. Although it was inconvenient having his own vision suppressed, he wanted to see if concealing himself had any effect.

Apollo heard a rather loud roar from above which he guessed was the king-level toxic creature. Along with that, there was a quieter roar that came from Layla.

"Rah!"

A few loud bangs rang out one after another. The ground under cracked a little and shook. It was at this point Apollo realized that the mission might not count if he wasn't the one that killed it.

There were a few requests that were completed where he wasn't the sole person that completed it, such as killing Kylan Noia. However, Apollo didn't want to risk it.

He rushed forward with a bokken in one hand and the match in the other. Soon, Apollo saw the foot of the king-level toxic creature. It was lying on the ground. The skin of the creature was black, but had a slight green tint to it.

Once he continued further, he saw that Layla was standing on the stomach of the creature with her hands on her hips with her elbows stuck out. She stuck her chin up confidently, clearly proud of the results of her action.

"Hehe, I win again!"

Even from this position, Apollo couldn't see the creature's head. He guessed that it must've been at least thirty meters tall. There was a fairly large wound on the creature where Layla was standing, but it didn't look that bad.

Without warning, the creature's claw shot towards Layla. It was a swift and decisive strike, but it wasn't enough to catch Layla off guard. She responded in kind with her own claw, slamming the creature's arm back down onto the ground. A bit of brown blood splurt out, but the injury was relatively light

After letting out another roar, a maw filled with sharp teeth formed on the creature's chest. It opened and tried to swallow Layla, but she hopped back before it could.

The creature stood back up, staring vigilantly at Layla. It did not notice Apollo at all. Trying to take advantage of this, Apollo flew up into the sky and behind the creature's head. 

Despite having a head, there were no facial features anywhere on it. There weren't even ears or some kind of hair. There was only one thing where three misshapen horns that were all different sizes.

Apollo raised his bokken high into the air and began to gather lightning. In all honesty, he found the experience of not being seen by his opponent a little strange. The only thing he had gone through was head on fights for quite a while.

The creature was backing up slowly, unaware that Apollo was right behind. It was as though the creature was willingly walking towards him.

Apollo began to smile, enjoying this strange feeling.

He clenched the hilt of his bokken as hard as he could, causing his knuckles to whiten. His muscles tightened to their limits. Arcs of lightning completely covered his bokken. Even the majority of his hand was covered by them while a few overflowed onto his arm. It made his body look like they were glowing blue.

Apollo would've used both hands if he didn't need to use one to hold the match.

But that didn't mean his strike would be weak.

The king-level toxic creature continued to back up slowly, getting closer and closer. Apollo waited patiently and when it was right next to him...

He swung.

A blaring crackle reverberated throughout the wasteland.

Brown blood and pieces of black flesh filled the air, adding to the amount of things in the filthy rain. As for the creature, its head disappeared entirely. There was a large wound in his torso that appeared like a miniature crater. A few traces of lightning zapped around in its wound.

The creature stumbled forward, disoriented from the strike, but still alive.

Confused, it began to flail all of its arms around wildly, but Apollo easily flew out of its range before it could hit him.

A few remnant arcs of lightning danced across his body.

He laughed freely, a little surprised by how easy it was for him to attack at full power. The feeling was a bit addicting.

Layla raised both hands in the air.

"Again, again!"

Apollo smirked and raised his bokken once more.

The creature continued to flail its limbs around as though it was drowning, but gradually slowed when it didn't achieve any results.

And so, Apollo could approach easily.