The Breaking Point
Chapter 12: The Breaking Point
Quinn exhaled sharply, his hands resting on his hips as he surveyed the dust settling around him. The hulking Hallow stood tall, its body stitching itself back together in real-time, muscles weaving back as if Quinn's previous attack had never happened. The snake-like one slithered out of the debris, its golden, slit eyes glowing with eerie amusement, a sinister mist oozing from its body.
Quinn sighed.
"What a pain."
A system notification flickered before his eyes.
[Mana: 112,345/200,000]
He clicked his tongue. "If this keeps up, I'll run out of mana first." His gaze shifted back to the brute. "Guess I'll just have to beat you so bad, you can't regenerate anymore."
The hulking Hallow let out a guttural growl, its massive foot slamming into the ground, sending out a mini-earthquake. The sheer force cracked the pavement, sending chunks of debris flying.
Then, it charged.
BOOOOOM!
The creature moved like a living freight train, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. Quinn barely had a second to react—
SMASH!
A fist the size of a car crashed into his chest, and the world blurred into a streak of destruction. Quinn was sent rocketing through the building's outer wall, soaring like a cannonball across the cityscape.
CRASH!
His body plowed through the glass windows of another building, tearing through cubicles and office desks before he slammed against the far wall. The impact cracked the reinforced concrete behind him.
Quinn groaned, rolling his shoulders as he stood up. "Okay, that actually hurt even with the gravity shield."
A hiss reached his ears.
"You're wide open."
The snake Hallow slithered through the ruined hole in the wall, its jaw unhinging unnaturally, a swirling black mist forming at the back of its throat.
" Venom Cascade."
A torrent of glowing purple poison spewed toward Quinn like a flood, melting everything in its path. The floor sizzled, desks disintegrated, and even the metal framework of the building corroded instantly.
Quinn scowled. "Tch. Annoying bastard."
He twisted his palm—
Gravity Void!
The air in front of him collapsed inward, creating a pocket of space where even the poison mist was sucked into a gravitational singularity. The venom condensed into a tight sphere before Quinn flung it back at the snake Hallow.
BOOM!
The creature barely dodged, but some of the venom splashed onto its tail, causing its own flesh to sizzle and burn. It screeched in fury, but Quinn was already moving.
He vanished.
Gravity Dash!
A flicker—Quinn appeared mid-air, twisting his body as he came down like a meteor, his leg cocked back.
"Stay down!"
CRACK!
His heel smashed into the snake Hallow's skull, sending it cratering through multiple floors before it hit the ground level. The entire building shook, cracks spiderwebbing across the walls.
But Quinn didn't have time to gloat—
BOOOOOOM!
The hulking Hallow tore through the floor like a beast, leaping into the air with its fist raised.
"Oh, hell no."
Quinn twisted his fingers—
Gravity Invert!
The brute's entire body suddenly flipped upside down, in mid-air. Instead of coming down for a devastating punch—
CRASH!
—it was slammed upward, its body crashing through three more floors before bursting onto the rooftop.
Quinn followed up—
Gravity Press!
An invisible force crushed the Hallow's body into the roof, leaving a crater. Quinn landed beside it, cocking his arm back—
BOOM!
His fist shattered the creature's jaw, the shockwave splitting the rooftop in half. He didn't stop—
CRACK!
A follow-up knee strike caved in its ribs.
SLASH!
With a gravity-forged blade, Quinn sliced off its left arm, sending it tumbling into the abyss below.
But before he could admire his handiwork—
SQUELCH.
The Hallow's severed limb grew back instantly, bone and flesh reknitting in a grotesque display.
Quinn clenched his fists. "Would you STOP regenerating?!"
The brute roared and slammed its foot—
BOOOOOM!
The shockwave sent Quinn flying off the rooftop, plummeting toward the streets below—
"Not happening!"
He twisted mid-air—
Gravity Redirect!
His descent reversed instantly, and he shot back toward the Hallow like a missile.
BOOOOM!!!
His fist buried into its gut, sending the brute flying off the roof instead. The massive Hallow collided with a nearby skyscraper, its body breaking through steel and glass, tearing the structure apart like a wrecking ball.
The moment Quinn landed—
HISSSSSSSS!
A dark shadow loomed over him.
The snake Hallow, its entire body now pulsating with an eerie glow, opened its mouth wide enough to swallow a man whole.
"Poison Eruption."
The air exploded with an invisible toxic wave, not mist, but raw, condensed venom, strong enough to melt steel upon contact.
Quinn barely had a second to react—
Gravity Zone!
A force field erupted around him, creating a vacuum that pushed the venom outward. But the sheer potency ate away at his defenses, his mana dropping rapidly.
[Mana: 77,891/200,000]
He scowled. "You're really pushing it now."
Quinn clenched his fingers, and the entire battlefield shifted.
"You like poison? Let's see how well you survive without AIR."
Gravity Suppression!
Suddenly, the air itself collapsed inward, oxygen and all. The battlefield became a gravity-dead zone, where even breathing became impossible.
The snake Hallow twitched, its lungs failing to function, its poison dissipating.
Quinn didn't wait—
BOOM!
A gravity-boosted kick crushed its ribs, sending it crashing into the remains of the ruined street.
He turned—
The hulking Hallow was back, wounds closing once more.
Quinn exhaled, cracking his neck. "Alright, fine. Let's settle this once and for all."
He lifted both arms—
Gravity Collapse: MAXIMUM BURST.
The sky darkened.
Above them, every shattered piece of the ruined battlefield, every steel beam, every slab of concrete, every crushed vehicle, all of it rose into the air.
A storm of destruction hovered above the Hallows, twisting like an unstable black hole, ready to drop with unstoppable force.
Quinn's vision blurred from mana exhaustion, but he smirked.
"Now get crushed."
He brought his hands down—
And the entire city block collapsed on top of them.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The dust settled and from the rumble Quinn could see the Hulk-like Hallow, missing an arm and a leg, massive cuts everywhere all over his body, and was already standing again, muscles swelling as it roared. Dark energy burst from its body, shaking the ground.
"I WILL KILL YOU!"
Quinn's irritation deepened.
"I won't let you heal yourself."
With a flicker of motion, he vanished.
In an instant, he was in front of the Hallow, fist cocked back, gravity compressed around it like a swirling black storm.
BOOM!
The impact blasted through the Hallow's head, shattering its skull like glass. The body staggered, the dark energy fading.
Quinn exhaled, shaking the blood off his hand.
"Let's see you regenerate that."
He turned, scanning for the other one. The snake-like Hallow was crawling, its form flickering as it tried to escape. Its body was nearly dissolved from Quinn's attacks, black blood oozing onto the broken ground.
"No… No! You bastard! I won't die like this!"
Its body twisted unnaturally, coiling around itself as a sickening aura burst forth. A chill ran through the air as the world itself seemed to crack apart.
The sky darkened. The ground turned into shifting, slithering black serpents, writhing like an ocean of flesh.
Domain: Venomous Abyss.
A realm of pure poison and death, where the very air was lethal, the ground alive, the space itself shifting like the inside of a monster's stomach.
Quinn's feet sank into the mass of slithering snakes.
Tsssss!
The moment they touched his skin, a burning pain spread through his legs.
"Tch."
His mana was being drained rapidly. The entire domain was feeding on him.
The snake-like Hallow's voice echoed from all directions.
"DIE HERE WITH ME!"
Quinn clenched his jaw.
If I stay in this, I'll suffocate.
With a sharp breath, he inverted gravity, lifting himself into the air. The snake's ground writhed beneath him, missing its target. But the toxic mist surged up, trying to choke him out.
"Annoying."
His gravity repulsion burst outward, pushing the mist away. But it was clear—he couldn't just stay on defense.
He needed to end this.
Quinn closed his eyes, feeling the space around him.
Gravity Sense.
He could tell—the domain was alive, but the snake Hallow itself was hiding somewhere, controlling it remotely.
Not for long.
He slammed his hands together.
"Collapse."
A Gravity Well exploded in the center of the domain, warping everything toward it. The entire space twisted as the mist, snakes, and poison were sucked inward, spiraling toward the core.
A shadow screeched.
Found you.
Quinn descended at full speed, his fist crackling with compressed gravity.
The snake Hallow's true form was dragged out, its elongated body half-melted, its face contorted in terror.
"N-NO—"
Quinn's fist connected.
A black singularity formed around his knuckles, crushing the Hallow's body from the inside out.
SPLAT.
The domain shattered like broken glass, the real world returning in an instant.
The Hallow's remains twitched before disintegrating, leaving behind only silence.
Quinn landed, exhaling. His head tilted back, staring at the sky.
[8,745/200,000]
He clicked his tongue.
"Gotta conserve my mana next time."
His body ached, and his energy was low, but more than anything—he was just annoyed.
"If enemies like this are showing up now… I need to get stronger. Fast."
"But at least it was over" He said as a system notification popped up
[Quest completed]