Kessiah met my eye, and I continued healing. Her emotions shifted over her face like an optical illusion, each moment exposing something different until I couldn’t parse anything. I turned away, and adjusted a few broken bones so that they didn't heal back wrong. As I did, Kessiah let out a huff. She walked over, a smile planted on her face.
"I have to admit that was, in fact, a good fight. I can see that what you told me in our car-versation wasn't all show."
I kept my eyes on the mush pile, worried it would come back to life.
"I felt outmatched. If Althea hadn't chipped that thing's defenses down, I wouldn't have been able to dent it."
Kessiah tsked.
"Obviously. You two are very, very strong for your level, and you happened to each match up well against one-half of this monster's skill set. Otherwise, you'd have both been squashed by how high its level was. The fight being split up over several forms also helped you out...Honestly, it's kind of absurd you managed to kill it at all."
I gulped, remembering how close to death I was during a good half of the fight.
"I put everything on the line, and I think...I think I got in its head."
Kessiah walked over and flicked a bit of bone off my shoulder.
"Oh, definitely. That angel looked like he was about to fall apart at the sight of this little old Harbinger we have here."
I frowned.
"I can intimidate. Sometimes."
She ruffled my hair.
"Uh yeah, not me though."
I pushed her hand off, but I couldn't help but smile a bit. Kessiah walked over and picked up Althea who was passed out on the ground. Kessiah glanced my way. She shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess that's all for today. You can do whatever for now, and I'll be carrying Althea back to the camp."
I stood straighter, my health regenerating at a rapid pace.
"Before you go, I have a few questions.”
Kessiah put a hand on her hip.
“Then shoot.”
“In our old world, we had angels, demons, and dragons as part of some greater mythos. This thing, Gabriel, had been known as some archangel sent by god. Seeing it as a monster, one covered in marble. It's more than a little weird."
Kessiah kicked a rock on the ground.
"Most planets have some rumors surrounding them that revolve around the eldritch. See, they were a thing whether Schema had arrived or not. All the AI does is formalize the transition and make it orderly. Worlds will fall apart whether Schema's there or not."
I gawked at her.
"How large is Schema?"
"At least most of the Milky Way, though most hypothesize the AI covers far more distance. We honestly have no clue. One frustrating aspect about the AI is that it tends to hide locations for tons of reasons. As for the angels, they're a variant of eldritch that have a strong psionic presence. It makes sense that they'd have an influence on humanity before Schema arrived."
I raised a brow.
"In our stories, angels were considered holy. This Gabriel was nothing like that."
Kessiah sighed.
"And the truth is oftentimes more disappointing than one would expect. Eh, you learn to live with the disappointment, even if it happens to sting from time to time."
I let a bit of ascendant mana flow into my runes.
"Sure, but it isn't like every eldritch is some evil monster. They can talk, so there's got to be a few that might help us out. Maybe one of the nicer ones found our world while passing by?"
Disgust sprouted on Kessiah's face as if she smelled a dumpster.
"Ugh. You have so much to learn and so little time to do it. I'll just let you sit on that as you carve your way up and down this planet, killing monsters by the million. By the end of that bloodbath, your tune will probably change."
"Speaking of dungeons and monsters-" I pointed in front of me where a dungeon core hummed with power. It was an inky blot surrounded by a swirling, crimson outline. The more I stared at it, the deeper the void seemed, and it radiated power.
"So uh, what's wrong with this dungeon core?"
Kessiah turned to me and facepalmed.
"That’s right. You don't know anything. I'm guessing Torix hasn't even taken the time to explain dungeon cores to you?"
I shook my head, so Kessiah walked over. She reached me, and sat down with her legs crossed. She set Althea down beside her, Kessiah being surprisingly gentle. She reached out an open hand, so I set the dungeon core in it. Kessiah tilted the core, holding it in two fingers.
"There are five predicted tiers for dungeon cores. This is tier two, or an advanced dungeon core. It levels up any skill you have by ten points, and gives you ten attribute points."
My jaw dropped. I stammered.
"Are you serious? Ten skill and attribute points? Damn, that's great."
Kessiah shrugged.
"It's not as good as you think it is. Take whatever level you are. Now divide that by four. That's how many attribute and skill points you can gain from dungeon cores."
I counted on my fingers like some Neanderthal as I spoke.
"So, if I'm level 400, I can only get 100 skill points and attribute points from dungeon cores?"
She nodded.
"Yeah, exactly. Torix and I already maxed out our dungeon core limits a long time ago. In fact, I'm sure I could find a few extra just lying around if you wanted them."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Of course I do, and you’re telling me you’ve had them all this time?”
She crossed her arms behind her head.
“Yeah. They’re in my storage.”
Ascendant mana filled my runes.
“Why in the hell have you been holding out on us?"
She raised her brow.
"Listen up, not-quite-so-little man, I had to earn those cores. I figured you should at least see how much trouble it is to get one first before getting as many as you could shove down your throat."
I shook my head.
"That's just...So dumb."
Kessiah pursed her lips.
"And why is that?"
I shook my hands in frustration.
"Because we've almost died to Yawm’s followers twice. Why would you leave us in a weakened state for so long when we have so much on the line? What if I had died to Dakhma's strike that one time because you didn't give me the dungeon cores? What if you died because of it?"
I grabbed the dungeon core from her hand. My armor absorbed it. I frowned at her.
"Do you have them with you, or are they somewhere else?"
Kessiah narrowed her eyes before pointing a finger at me.
"I've nearly died plenty of times, but I never asked someone to hand me over a fortune in dungeon cores for nothing. Each one of them is about forty to sixty thousand credits at any exchange center run by Schema. If I gave you twenty five, then that’s over a million credits, the equivalent of a decade of hard labor for a talented warrior."
The fire in my chest dimmed.
"Really? A whole decade?"
She nodded.
"And for your information, I earned every penny I have. That's why you need to understand just how much you're asking for."
I winced at memories of Elijah and Ajax.
"I get that, but...I just want to have every advantage we can. You know, turn the tides. Besides, we can't grow if we're dead, regardless of how much perspective we have."
Kessiah gave me a knowing look. She sighed before putting a hand on my shoulder.
"You're doing a great job. The thing is, brutal fights like this are a part of the system. They are where your best growth comes from. Before you went and invested all your points, you needed a few fights like this to see if your chosen path could even work. Now that you’ve had a few fights, you can determine if this is how you want to fight and progress moving forward.”
She let her hand fall.
“And if I’m honest with you, some of what you told me about your build seemed like nonsense. Whether I like it or not, I can see what you’re going for coming together in that fight just now."
She stood up smoothly as if unaffected by gravity.
"Torix and I wanted to have an in-depth discussion about the ins and outs of your builds before giving you the cores. We figured some real-world experience in fighting would give you guys an idea of what stats are important. Once you guys had some more perspective, we were going to give you the cores and advise you on what to put points into. Same thing with skills."
Kessiah frowned.
"That, and neither of us thought that all of us would almost die both times we went out purging this corrupted city."
I massaged my temples before spreading my hands.
"Alright, sure. I'm, ah, just a little on edge, is all. Personally, I think Althea and I have a good understanding of what and how to build around our stats. Do you mind giving us the cores now before we meet Ajax, Elijah, or the spawn of Satan again?"
Kessiah stared up at the ceiling before rustling through a knapsack on her left side. She pulled out a ring. She frowned.
"This little knapsack is covered in a nanofiber mesh to make it tough. This-" She raised up the ring. "-is a temporal field generator. In other words, a stasis. It holds all kinds of goodies. Most of them aren't actually that useful for you."
She put on the ring. A second later, I could hear the sound of her skin being split. It sounded like shearing iron, oddly enough. It still blew my mind how dense her body was, and a little portal opened in front of her. It was a glowing band of white surrounding by a starry sky. It held dots of white, nebulas, and spinning galaxies.
She smiled.
"It costs health to move objects or put them inside one of these spaces."
I gazed at the hidden majesty.
"The space background...Does it remind you of home?"
A tiny piece of pain traced her expression, but only for a moment. She smiled deeper, yet it carried less joy.
" It's my favorite screensaver, and it does. It...It reminds me of a few people I miss."
Even considering my lacking social ability, I could see a landmine waiting to blow my legs apart, metaphorically speaking. Not letting me make that mistake, Kessiah reached her right hand inside the portal before pulling out four red dungeon cores. She piled them onto her arm like the cores were a baby in her left arm. She raised an eyebrow at me.
"Eight should be enough for now? I don't have any more on me."
Seeing the cores and their power, I did have far more perspective on how much she was giving me. It left me shocked by her generosity, so I bowed.
"Thank you so much."
She nodded before reaching out with a core in hand.
"I'll feed them to your armor. It'll give you a few extra points for when you gain levels later down the line. Let me know if you need any more later, ok?"
I nodded my head. Suddenly, Kessiah was like a mom, and it left me embarrassed for some reason. However, as the power sank in, I stumbled to my side. I fell down and she scoffed.
"It's a lot of power to take in, isn't it?"
I nodded while eating a piece of humble pie.
"And here I thought I would just eat them all at once."
"A mistake I didn't let you make. Look at me, all kind and shit. Anyways-"
She reached out a hand and pressed the core onto my armor. The core sank in. Eight cores later, and I was fully stacked out. After several minutes, my armor spit the cores out, their energy far less vibrant. Having finished her task, Kessiah took Althea from her side. The remnant peered down at me.
"I'm heading out. Don't stay here too long in the meantime."
I gave her a casual, two finger salute.
"Aye, aye, captain. And thanks again."
She peered through me.
"Just make sure you don't waste them, capeesh?"
There was an edge to her voice. I gulped again.
"Of course."
Kessiah turned and ran out of the room at a blistering pace. Once she was gone, I walked over and absorbed the corpse of Gabriel. I walked around the room, taking in the bits of his armored skin as well then even the chains. All the while, my armor feasted like some ravenous scavenger, and it was able to handle materials I'd never imagined if not seeing it firsthand.
My armor sent wire strands into cracks of the material. It siphoned mana away first, making the metal brittle. After burrowing deeper like insidious roots, it cracked the pieces apart. Repeating the process, it drained the material until it faded to ash. The tendrils that indulged in the actual monster bodies were more like steel straws, though they never made any sound as they absorbed the leftover energy.
It left me a little queasy after finishing the supposed feast, and I opened my status screen.
Experience from the Gorged SoulSwallower will be added to Gabriel, the Ascended Angel's exp total.
I whistled at my status. I gained so many levels from the fight that it left me floored. Since defeating Corsack, I earned 152 levels. I glanced at the history of my experience gain for a second, and 126 of those levels were from Gabriel and the soulswallower. Still, this was simply too much experience to gain from a single fight.
While pondering, a sudden realization snapped in my head - this dungeon was in the quarantine zone. That quarantine doubled the experience gained from Schema, the big boss man himself. That's why I gained so many levels. Furthermore, my Obliterator perk doubled my experience from unique bosses, and Gabriel happened to be one. That quadrupled my experience gain.
It turned out that Althea firing at the shackles had been a good thing all along. I planned on thanking her, and after that eureka moment passed by, I furiously allocated my points into constitution. After many, many clicks, the perk menu finally opened up. I'd gained the perk for dexterity without investing points into it directly.
[Prodigy | Dexterity of 100 or higher. You have 1 remaining level 100 perk left for selection. Choose wisely. | - What takes others years, you do in seconds. Your impeccable balance allows you to use the body of a titan like a dancer, one that darts across battlefields, leaving blood in their wake. More than a master of movement, your reaction times are imperceptible, giving you the ability to keep pace as the speed of conflicts heighten. As others blur, your mind sees through their speed.
And in your body, you are at home as few are.
For you are a prodigy.
Doubles the extra balance, flexibility, and reaction time gained dexterity and dexterity leveling perks. Adds another 5 points of health per point in dexterity. | 10 health in total | Adds another 1/10th of dexterity to perception. |30% in total | Doubles reaction time, balance, and flexibility bonuses from points in dexterity. Increases mythical skill cap by 1. | 4 Total, 3 remaining |
I selected the perk. After checking out my status screen, I still had four points left. I didn't really know what to invest in from here, so I finalized my choices without allocating the points. Immediately, my armor tightened around me again, but I balled myself into a knot of muscle, making the armor snap. Even if I hadn't, the armor wouldn't have held for even a second.
The size I gained was simply too much. The sudden surge of strength didn't hurt the situation either, and that wasn't the only difference. My angle of sight changed. Not by much, but enough to notice. My heels dug into the floor, not by inches but I perceived the difference. Everything was lower to the ground, but after all the points I put into constitution, I thought I would have gained more height.
My guess was that constitution added a certain amount of weight per point in the stat. As I gained that weight, I gained enough height so that I didn't end up becoming too brawny and bulked out. That explained why the stat gave height in general. That also explained the drop off in height gained over time.
After all, each inch of height added more and more to someone's weight than the last. A child growing from three to four feet would get about twenty more pounds of mass. Going from five feet to six would probably require more like a hundred pounds. Growing from six to seven feet? Shaq was about, I don't know, 350 pounds while playing basketball? My point was, it was a far greater increase in mass than four feet to five.
There had to be a rule for this, but if so, I didn’t know the name of it. Either way, I didn't have to double in height to double in weight. At the same time, constitution also condensed my frame, further slowing down the outward changes to my body. That was good since I lost some control of myself each time I dumped a lot of points into constitution.
It was a reality of more size - I required more connection and control to wield my body well. If I hadn’t invested into dexterity by now, I’d be some lumbering mass instead of an effective warrior. From Torix’s library, I had read up on the issue in my spare time. Usually, as fights became faster and faster, reaction times became a limiting factor for technique.
A person would desperately struggle to know where their body was in the middle of a fight. This created a tempo where higher leveled fighters paused between rounds of high-octane action. It also meant few fighters could react to a person’s move. Instead, they ran in while choosing a series of moves to use beforehand. Like a round of chess, whoever predicted the other warrior’s move would win.
I didn’t need to do that since I invested into the level 30 and 100 perks for dexterity, strength, and constitution. I would be a nimble, durable, and strong fighter because of my trees. Taking a moment, I gazed up and thanked Schema for the opportunity. After basking in a moment of gratitude, I took a step forward.
I naturally adjusted the weight of my foot. Taking more steps, I adjusted to different surfaces. Each pace was effortless, my feet light as air to me despite being heavy as stone. I leaned against a table, pressing my weight against it. The table let out groans of protest before I pushed myself up into a handstand on the table.
The table cracked, slumping down. I kept balanced as the table tilted to one side. A second later, the table caved inwards, and I adjusted my hands, keeping my upright posture without too much difficulty. Even with the sudden change in size and weight, this body was my home now. Nothing about it was foreign. Even better, my coordination wasn't surprising. In my mind, I could sense where my limits lie.
I let my feet fall forward before flipping forward, and I dashed into a sprint. I front flipped before landing in a perfect split. I glanced down, awe struck at the ridiculousness of it all. I’d tried doing the splits before and always failed. Even after the system initialized, I kept flexible using a set of stretches from my boxing days, but this was absurd. In a burst of joy, I laughed aloud at myself.
A few points into an attribute, and suddenly I was a gymnast. Who’d have guessed?
A fly flew past, and I waited until it was behind me. I pulled my legs together, standing me upright again. Stepping back and using the sound of the fly, I jerked my hand, grabbing it out of the air. As I did so, I tried not to crush it.
When I pulled the fly in front of me, I hadn't even torn a wing off it. I had, however, crushed it into a paste. I'll admit that hadn’t surprised me. I flicked the fly off my finger before cracking my neck. Despite my inability to keep the insect safe, the difference from before my level ups was starker than I thought it would be.
With that in mind, I checked out the oh-so beautiful numbers.
Level 508 | Attribute Menu
Strength - 253.6 | Constitution - 565.4 | Endurance - 567 | Dexterity - 100.1 | Willpower - 270.8 | Intelligence - 105.2 | Charisma - 40.4 | Luck - 55.5 Perception - 54
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm
Health - 34,260/34,260 | Health Regen - 6,572/min | Stamina - 13,698/13,698 | Stamina Regeneration - 224.6/sec | Damage Resistance - 97.5% | Mental Resistance - 97.5% | Physical Power - (+)3,339% | Damage Increase - 5% | Evolution: 219.8 Million/256.0 Million
Aura - Oppression | Current Damage: (10,000 + 30% of your health)/minute within a 175 ft radius.
My constitution tripled, but I also invested an enormous amount of my level ups into that attribute. I expected as much, and those points piled over nicely into strength, keeping me tactile and explosive despite my one-sided investments. That in turn fed into my dexterity, letting me get the level 100 perk.
All in all, I was a much more balanced fighter in an instant. Even with all the expected gains, my health and health regen marched upward. Peering at all my bonuses, one from my armor stuck out to me.
An Undying Force - 3% of health added towards health regen per minute | Current regen added: 4,111/min
I gawked at it. This single augment from my armor gave me around 60% of my total health regen. It combined with the added health from the leveling perks, granting me more mana to use in fights. Without it, I’d be far more linear and less diverse, and it elevated my entire build by itself. It made the levels I gained pure and palpable.
And I had gained so many so rapidly. All that was because we fought a boss so many levels above us. As always, Schema rewarded ambition, but I still struggled to wrap my head around the sheer volume of levels. To be fair, that fight would’ve been damn near deadly if Kessiah hadn’t watched over us. Having her there made all the difference.
After all, I never truly worried about death, and that had allowed me to focus while Gabriel crumbled under the pressure of his situation. Considering how close the fight ended up being, I figured Althea and I would've died without Kessiah's protection.
That being said, I might be able to solo that boss now. I could control the soulswallower with my sheer heft, and the dexterity would let me defend myself versus Gabriel's armored form more easily. Of course, it still would've been a desperate struggle, but I was trying to believe in myself. At that moment, I chose to.
I could take him now.
I clasped my fists, noticing how my armor already adjusted to my new form. The only reason it snapped each time I gained a bunch of constitution was because of how snug it always was. Without really thinking, I took a step like I was giant. I let my feet slap against the tile floor, and the ground shook a bit. Not much, but I still took a moment to walk around like godzilla.
I let out a few imaginary roars before laughing at how ridiculous I must look. The giddiness of gaining levels passed as I walked out of the lunchroom. I opened my status screen, finding my 2-D map of Springfield. Several other dungeons were available, some not even a mile away. After how fruitful this dungeoneering had been, the prospect of clearing them was tempting.
With that in mind, I sent Torix a message,
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm | Level 508 - Yo Torix. Would you mind guiding me to a few more dungeons? I want to clear them while they still give double experience.
Three minutes passed. I knew that from a time metric on my system bar.
4/13/00
It wasn’t the correct year or month, though the date lined up. Before I could ponder further, Torix’s message came in.
Torix Worm, of Darkhill | Level 1,309 - Open your obelisk. We'll speak over voice intercom.
I followed his advice before my armor produced my obelisk from my palm. I had no idea how in the hell it stored stuff, but it was convenient at times. With that in mind, my home screen opened from the disk.
The calm creek and soothing sound of pouring water enveloped me like a warm memory. Birds chirped alongside the thronging hum of cicadas. The smell of earth flooded in, a welcome reprieve from the thick iron of blood.
It was peaceful until Torix spoke aloud.
"Ahem, disciple. Are you there?"
I nodded,
"Yeah."
"Excellent. Now, think of a visual call with me."
I did so, and a patch of the creek blurred into a dried-out lich. Torix leaned over a table made of mana, glancing at the tracking chalkboard every few seconds. He turned to me, before raising an eyebrow.
"You've gained quite a few levels...I can honestly say your progress is no less than astonishing."
I stood straighter.
"Hah. Thanks. Althea and I have been putting the time in. The thing is, I don't think fighting Yawm's minions is the best way to gain levels."
Torix frowned.
"They are a plentiful source of experience, mana for your armor, and are easily killed with relatively little effort. They are the perfect experience sponges."
I shook my head.
"No, they're not."
A small smile spread over the lich.
"Ah, a bit of intellectual jousting. I welcome the chance. Please, do explain your thoughts."
I raised a hand and counted on my fingers.
"First off, the monsters take forever for us to level with. We might not even gain a level a day clearing out his jungle from here on out. Hell, while Yawm is stuck in his world tree or whatever, he might be gaining more levels than we are. That means we're losing more ground than we're gaining."
"That could be true, if perhaps unlikely."
I counted another finger.
"Second off, the level disparity between us and the spawns is drastic. We need more challenging enemies if Althea and I are going to develop our skills. After all, we’re not learning how to fight a single, powerful foe. We’re learning how to mow down weaklings while hiding."
"That’s a point I hadn’t considered. What are your other concerns?"
I counted a third finger.
"And finally, clearing out the dungeons will draw less attention to us. The followers don't seem to care about the dungeons at all. If my assumptions are right, they're letting the eldritch proliferate so that they have material for experimentation or to level up their army. That might be one of the primary reasons that Yawm does this whole world tree thing."
I raised the hand I counted fingers on.
"I think he’s trying to kill off most of the present species so that he can create another fringe world. He'll use the eldritch as raw materials for his experiments while gaining more strength. That means clearing out the dungeons slows him down if we can’t kill him in Springfield."
Torix rested his chin on a bony fist, "Hmm., those are rather bold but also likely correct assumptions. Tell me, did you think of that yourself?"
I scratched my cheek.
"Hah. Yeah, for the most part. The ideas kind of clicked together in my head when I started talking about it."
His eyes flared brighter.
"Then they are well founded ideas, considering they popped up out of nowhere."
He turned towards the chalkboard, taking a few seconds for thought. He turned back to me.
"Your plan sounds excellent in all honesty. I never even considered it. Good work, Daniel."
I smiled.
"No problem, no problem. Glad I can help."
Torix wrote several words and numbers down as he spoke.
"I'll speak of this with the others as well. I believe they'll agree with your judgment in this case, and I'll make a route towards a nearby dungeon. There's no reason for you to stop while the others rest, assuming you are still ready for combat.”
He met my gaze.
“Of all people, I understand how tedious it is to wait on others to wake up."
I propped my weight onto one leg.
"Yeah, being a lich has its pros and cons...Oh yeah, I was wondering how the time system worked over messages. It's accurate, but I don't understand it."
"Ah yes, a fundamental quirk of the system. You see, when Schema assimilates a planet, he discards arbitrary metrics for timing. He resets the world's clock, and replaces it with the time since the system initialized. Earth hasn't even cycled the sun since Schema has taken over, so it is currently year zero. It can also use standardized galactic time, but really, you’ll only need to know Earth’s initialization date for a long time. Now, is that all?"
I nodded. Torix raised a finger and shook it.
"I'm updating the data feed to your obelisk as we speak, and may your battles be fruitful."
I raised a fist.
"Cya."
Torix closed out the intercom before I shut down my obelisk. As I waited on my minimap to update, I practiced using my ascendant mana. Learning a bit defter control wouldn't hurt anything after all. In the middle of trying to juggle three rocks with telekinesis, emphasis on trying, my minimap shifted. A new red line appeared, so I rolled my shoulders and set off.
I sprinted through the school before meeting another soulkeeper. With the same scythe and ominous eyes in his palms, it gazed at me with hunger in its smile. He stood at the opposite end of a hallway. I charged him. When he swiped his scythe, I channeled my mana and tweaked his swing with some telekinesis. The slight change in the angle made parrying far easier.
Two swings later, and I couldn’t help but grin. This kind of control required magic and movement, yet I managed the complexity better than I thought possible. Twelve attacks later, and the soulkeeper’s frustration bloomed like carmine red from a wound. Rage fueling the beast, it swung its scythe in a feral arc. I watched it before testing my new weight.
I grabbed the handle before the blade sliced into me. Like meeting a wall of stone, the weapon’s handle cracked against my palm and my feet dug into the ground. The monster gawked before I pulled it closer. It fell forward, and I gripped my fingers, crushing the scythe handle.
Using an explosive burst of mana, I burned through a portion of my health for power. My fist clapped the monster’s jaw, dislocating it. I reached out my other hand, gripping its hand and digging my fingers into its skin. My ascendant mana surged, filling me with yet more strength.
It was an addictive, almost enticing sensation.
I pulled the soulkeeper to me before slamming the monster into a wall. I kept myself balanced despite the absurd levels of physical force involved, and that strengthened my swing and toss. The cinderblocks crumbled as the soulkeeper blasted through stone and tumbled on the ground. I leaped through the hole, charging at it once more.
The monster tumbled along, streaks of blood following it. I dashed forward, knocking school desks aside before tackling the monster. The wall behind the monster detonated as I crushed through it using our momentum. As we passed through the rock, I slammed into the monster with all my weight.
The thing popped underneath me like a stockbroker's ego during a market crash. My armor absorbed the blood and bile slathered on me as I picked up the scythe of the thing. Sucking out the energy in the weapon, I noticed I broke through the wall into another classroom. To my right, a soulkeeper glanced at me in confusion. Behind me, the other soulkeeper already reared back its scythe.
I ducked down under the sweeping slice of the blade. As I stood upwards, I turned around with a sweeping left uppercut towards the soulkeeper behind me. Mana flooded my runes, and I burned my blood for fury. My fist hit the stomach of the monster, catapulting it upward. Before it flew out of reach, I grabbed its legs with my other hand.
Turning back around, I dragged the soulkeeper in my right hand like a ragdoll. The other soulkeeper dashed my way, swinging its scythe as the others had. Before it touched me, I hurled its kin into the incoming blade. Blood gushed. Skin split. Monsters roared.
The collision tore the swung monster in half, sanguine red spraying in every direction. My hand kept moving forward. The blade of the scythe pierced through my hand until my palm hit the hilt of the weapon. I gripped it, and the only soulkeeper left tried dragging the blade from my hand. As bloodlust from the mana dripped from me, I smiled.
It couldn't even make me budge.
I pulled the blade using my pierced hand, and the soulkeeper dragged with the scythe. I palmed the monster's face with my left hand, gripping my fingers around the skull of it. I shoved the monster's head downwards while pushing upwards with my right knee. Like an exploding watermelon, the skull ruptured in between my knee and palm.
Even after squashing the skull, my hand clanged against the metal joint of my leg. It was overkill, and I breathed in the ascendant mana, my grin reflected in my armor. It coursed over me like a raging river. The ecstasy of battle flooded my veins, and my armor absorbed the corpses in a few seconds with long spikes.
I picked up the scythes before checking my health. I burned through half of my health while fighting, my runes consuming my flesh and blood at a rapid pace. However, it gave me an explosivity I wouldn’t otherwise have. I relished in it, continuing down the red route on my minimap. I would make sure that red route lived up to its coloration, any blood my armor happened to miss painting my surroundings.
It was time to move forward. On to the next dungeon. On to the next body.