Anton used Analyze on the Giant Humanoid.
Race: Nagian
Class Fighter
Level: Unknown
Level Analyze to learn more information
Anton was about 500 feet away when the Nagian Fighter burst toward him. Anton was sure that he’d activated a skill or perk as he shot forward and crossed the almost 500 feet between them in a second as he brought his two-handed great sword down toward Anton’s head.
Anton was neither surprised nor worried. Even with the sudden burst of speed, the Nagian was moving in slow motion to Anton. As the fighter rushed forward, Anton pulled one of the monofilament swords from his Inventory, positioned himself to the side of the downward swing, and placed the sword so that it would block the swing. He wanted to see if his strength could stand up to the giant or if that was going to be an issue.
Still, it seemed to take forever for the strike to come down. The good news was that his arm didn’t move at all. He was able to keep the sword in its cross position and hold it steady as the Greatsword bore down on his longsword. The bad news was the great sword was the equivalent of a crossbeam of metal being brought down on a twig. The Nagian’s strength ensured that it sheered through his longsword and neatly separated it into two pieces like he was slicing butter.
Once again, Anton was left without a weapon as his sword fell into two pieces. The Nagian continued his strike by redirecting the momentum of the swing. He redirected his swing and spun to bring the Greatsword to bear on Anton horizontally. It looked like he would try to cleave Anton in half horizontally at shoulder level. Again, to Anton, the Nagian was moving in slow motion, which gave Anton plenty of time to consider how to handle this. He wasn’t sure if he could straight-up block the blade with his hand. There was a lot of momentum behind it, and it was sharp. His Physical Damage Resistance was six now, which he was sure was less damage than the sword would inflict.
However, he did have something that he hadn’t tried before. His Anti-Mage ability allowed him to destroy physical matter in a small area around him. Could he focus that effect on the palm of his hand and destroy the sword as it was swung it at him? That should effectively break the sword in two. Also, if he could do that, such an attack would be devastating against armored opponents if he could make that part of an attack.
Anton planted his left foot behind his right and assumed a modified bow stance as he brought his right hand up and focused the nullification field of his ability directly in front of his palm. The Nagian, who must be thinking that Anton was crazy, didn’t even pause his spin and swing as he adjusted his aim so the Greatsword would pass through Anton’s hand, under his outstretched arm, and cleave him in two at chest level.
That never happened.
Instead, a portion of the Greatsword’s blade directly above Anton’s palm disintegrated as it tried to cut his hand in half. The section was only about a foot wide, but it caused the sword to be split into the upper blade, which, due to centrifugal force, was flying off to Anton’s right as The hilt of the Greatsword the Nagian held passed by Anton’s left shoulder.
Notifications appeared in Anton’s vision but were immediately suppressed because he was in combat. Anton ignored them as he stepped up and utilized the same technique to put the nullification field in front of his fist. He punched the giant's left leg as he continued his spin. Anton knew the attack was going to be devastating, but what happened next surprised him.
As Anton’s fist came into contact with the armored leg, he didn’t feel his attack connect with anything. Instead, it was as if he was using an eraser in the Microsoft Paint app when he was trying to clean up an image. As his hand came close to Nagian’s leg, the armor evaporated, followed by the flesh and bone of the giant's left leg just below the left kneecap. Even the blood that tried to spray down on his hand evaporated before it touched him.
The giant, unable to cope with the sudden loss of balance in the middle of his swing, spun as he crashed to the ground. Before he could react, Anton deactivated the nullification field as he moved up beside the giant's head, which was now near the ground. Just before he struck, he called out, “Now you die!” Just before he struck, a thought crossed his mind that he might be taking the villain part a little too seriously. Then again, it was a giant human asshole that needed to be taught a bit of humility. Maybe the lesson would go with him into his next life. Anton punched him as hard as he could through the top of his head.
Note to self: next time, leave the Nullification Field on. Anton shattered the metal helmet, the skull beneath it, and his hand. His goal to kill the Nagian succeeded. A quick check of his combat log indicated that he’d inflicted a Critical Strike on the Nagian which had done 687 points of damage. Unfortunately, he’d also inflicted 229 points of damage to his hand as his strength destroyed the bones in his hand, wrist, and forearm with that strike.
The third Nagian stepped over the dead Nagian with a giant arrow sticking through his head and ran toward Anton. A fourth and fifth Nagian came through the portal behind him. As a sixth Nagian was about to come through the portal, there was a ripple in the surface, followed by chunks of metal and flesh being thrown into the backs of the two that had just stepped through. The ground also trembled a bit.
Anton considered his options. He needed to close the gate. First, though, he needed to make sure Caitlyn was okay. In quick succession, he released four Mind Bolts. Before the first Nagian had tumbled to the ground, he’d released the four attacks. Remarkably, the attacks did not kill any of the Giant Humanoids. The one closest to him had bloodshot eyes as well as blood leaking from his nose and ears, but he was already trying to get back to his feet.
Anton hit all four with one more Mind Bolt each. This time, he received the notification that they had died. He saw another Nagian beginning to step through the portal and beelined for the building Caitlyn had landed behind. As he came around the corner, he realized he needed not worry. Caitlyn had pulled the broken spear out of herself and was finishing what had to be a health potion. When she was finished, the bottle went into her inventory, and the wound in her shoulder began to heal as he watched visibly. She looked over at him and said, “I’m fine; what do you need?”
“Get back to the hanger. Stay low as you go. Also, they have about 600 hit points, so concentrated shooting should take them down. Of course, I don’t know if that armor is going to stop the bullets or not. I’m going to pull the other Elemental Nodes and try to deactivate the Gate. I don’t think we need Giants invading our world, do you?
Caitlyn paused for a second as she digested everything he’d said and then nodded, “Be careful. I’ll get everyone at the hangar ready. See you in a few.” With that, Caitlyn turned and began running toward the Hanger. It should only take her a minute or two to get to it. If she stayed on the ground, the giants shouldn’t see where she’d gone off to. As for him, he activated Specter and flew toward the Fire Node.
Anton landed above the chamber the Fire Node was in, deactivated Specter, and walked down the ramp to the pedestal. A ribbon of red energy extended out of it, holding a baseball-sized Ruby floating in it. The energy flared around him as he passed through the defensive barrier, which he ignored.
Like before, the ribbon of magical energy parted around his hand, and he was able to grab and withdraw the gem, which he immediately placed into his Personal Storage.
WARNING!
Fire Node has been deactivated.
Universal Gate stability reduced by 50%.
Anton heard the ground rumble as he activated Specter and shot off to the Northeast to grab the Air Node Gem. Unlike the last two, there were still creatures in the area, but most were above and outside the cave. Anton decided to move into the chamber and bypass the barrier before he deactivated Specter so the pigeon-like creatures wouldn’t see him. He deactivated Specter without issue and withdrew the baseball-sized diamond that served as the Air Node Gem.
WARNING!
Air Node has been deactivated.
Universal Gate stability reduced by 75%.
As he placed the Air Node Gem in his Personal Storage and activated Specter, his surroundings began to tremble. Anton ignored the trembling all around him and sped off to the Southeast to retrieve the last gem.
Anton arrived at the last Leyline node. He noticed that in addition to the trembling in the ground and air all around him, the whole area was devoid of any monsters or life. They’d all left the area. As he was pulling the baseball-sized sapphire from the pedestal, Anton mused that he was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be this easy to retrieve four artifacts, but he would take the win if the SYSTEM were going to allow it. As the fourth gem was removed and the energy ribbon receded into the pedestal, the trembling stopped, and a loud snap was heard coming from the west.
WARNING!
Water Node has been deactivated.
Universal Gate stability reduced by 100%.
Universal Gate has been deactivated.
Anton activated Specter and headed southwest toward the hanger. As he came up through the ground, he saw six figures off to his west that were moving south through the field. He immediately recognized them as Nagian because they stood above most of the trees and sheds in the area. Luckily, he saw no more Nagian following the six he could see. In fact, he couldn’t see the portal anymore. Had it shrunk back down to its original size? First things first, he needed to make sure those giants never made it to the hangar. Anton altered course and noticed that four of the giants wore the plate armor he’d seen before, but one of them had a bow, and the other wore black robes. All six had the sigil of Tartarus floating above their heads.
It had only been about a minute since they’d separated. Caitlyn was still over half a mile away from the hangar. Anton floated up behind Caitlyn, deactivating Specter. The mage and the archer type stopped and stepped to the side as the four continued to rush toward him. The Archer notched an arrow and aimed past Anton at Caitlyn while the mage appeared to be looking directly at him.
“Caitlyn, Dodge!” Anton called out at the exact moment her left wing materialized and flapped powerfully once. The thrust from her wing caused her to cartwheel off to the right. She landed easily as an arrow flew through where she’d been a moment ago. She hadn’t looked, and Anton was pretty sure she’d dodged when he called out, before she could have heard him. He’d have to ask her about that later.
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The mage finished casting his spell, and a seething black ball of energy the size of a bowling ball shot past the four soldiers in plate armor and vanished just before it reached Anton. Anton thought about ending the mage with a Mind Bolt but decided that it would be much more fun to let him cast a couple more spells. It was a bit cocky, sure, but this would be fun.
Anton caught sight of the Archer training his second shot on him and waited. As the archer let loose, Anton focused the nullification field in front of his palm and allowed the giant arrow to erase itself from existence. He moved his hand in front of the arrow before it could hit him.
Within moments, the four giant soldiers that had been rushing toward him were on him with their versions of long and short swords used in a choreographed two-weapon style. Instead of attacking at once, they went into an orchestrated pattern that was meant to create opens that another soldier would take advantage of so they could dispatch a foe quickly. Unfortunately for them, Anton’s agility and endurance allowed him to make up to 19 attacks and dodge every combat turn. During the first turn of combat, Anton went full defensive to get a feel for their pattern.
It was apparent, as all four burned some of their stamina reserves, that they were struggling to make four attacks every combat turn. That was a total of 16 attacks, which Anton easily deflected or dodged with his 19 possible actions during the combat Turn. Anton could keep up this pace indefinitely. The four giants, however, couldn’t.
As Anton analyzed their pattern of attack, he realized It wasn’t a fair fight by any means. From his perspective, the attacks were forecasted and easily avoided. Each second, he could move up to 432 feet and take two actions, be they to attack, block, or dodge.
Each attack was deflected with a well-placed slap from his hand or dodged during that first Turn. The second turn was a little different. Anton focused the nullification field onto his hands and caused the blade of each sword to fall off, leaving the hilt of each sword in their hands. At the end of the second turn, Anton noticed that Caitlyn had slowed down and was watching him while she continued to dodge the archer. Anton also saw one of the snipers they had on their roof and signed, “Leave the Mage for me,” in ALS toward him. The fact that he mentioned the mage was not without irony, as ten bolts of energy tracked and tried to strike Anton. They vanished just before they hit, but the irony wasn’t lost on Anton that the mage had just tried to attack him again.
In the third combat turn, he ended them by focusing the nullification field above his hands. He forced each soldier down to the ground by removing one of their legs just below the knee and then moving over and erasing their neck out of existence with a palm thrust through their neck. He was five times as fast as each of the soldiers, and it showed as he’d force one into a precarious position where they had all their weight on one leg that suddenly couldn’t hold their weight anymore. Then, as they tried to lift themselves to recover, the connection between their brain and their body was severed permanently as their necks vanished. It wasn’t very sportsman-like, or fair, but it was a brutally efficient way to take out 30-foot-tall men. He would have felt bad if their waist wasn’t 15 feet off the ground, which made it incredibly hard for him to pull off a one-shot kill; damn giants!.
As he was finishing up with the last soldier near him, a gunshot rang out from the roof of the Hanger. Anton looked over to see the Giant Archer bow being held together by its string. Anton was pretty sure the sniper had put one of their 50-caliber rounds through the bow, which had caused it to snap. Anton smiled; that was a hell of a shot. As he had that thought, some motions a little way off to the archer's right, caught his attention
Anton focused on the motion and noticed the mage waving his arms and making gestures toward himself. A moment later, a small marble-sized ball of fire left the man's right hand and raced toward Anton. As the orb of fire flew toward Anton, it grew in size until it was approximately the size of a basketball. Anton stepped forward and held his hand out. As the ball raced toward Anton, he noticed that the mage had a huge grin on his face. The kind of grin that conveyed that someone didn’t know what was about to hit him. Anton smiled back, well that thought was partially correct; the mage just misjudged what was about to happen.
Anton held out his right hand as the orb raced toward him until it vanished against the nullification field in front of his hand. The Archer dropped the remains of his bow, drew two swords from his belt, and rushed toward Anton while the smile on the mage’s face turned to a look of shock.
While the Archer was rushing toward Anton, he looked at the Mage, held his right hand up to his right ear, and made a motion like he couldn’t hear something that had been said. Simultaneously, he summoned a dagger from his Personal Storage into his left hand. He quickly flipped it so he could hold the dagger by its tip.
As the mage’s expression turned angry, and he started to cast another spell, Anton waited while the archer closed the distance between the two of them. When the archer was 100 feet from Anton, he threw the dagger. It was his off-hand, so he didn’t try for a called shot or anything too complicated; he just aimed center mass and let the dagger fly.
He didn’t expect the dagger to kill the giant; he just wanted to see if he could hit something with his offhand, and if he did hit, what would happen?
He hit the Nagian directly where he’d aimed, the center of his chest.
While he didn’t expect to kill the giant, he wasn’t expecting what happened next. The dagger struck the giant in the center of his chest with such force that the dagger and armor beneath the strike disintegrated as the force was transferred to the giant humanoid. The Giant was lifted off his feet and landed flat on his back.
Unfortunately for the giant archer, his legs were spread, which allowed Anton to see up under the Tasse, the series of overlapping metal plates that formed the skirt over the lower body. The archer's armor on his arms and legs was leather of some sort. He was wearing a metal chest piece and tasse, but each of them had been treated to look like the armor he wore over his arms and legs.
At that moment, Anton knew what he needed to do. He was pretty sure his point, or points would be made, pun intended. In the space of five seconds, he summoned five daggers and sent them in between the legs of the fallen Nagian. A tasse was great for deflecting blows from the front, sides, and back. From underneath, though, it did nothing.
One dagger after another punctured the archer and pierced into his torso. The first and second daggers didn’t kill the Nagian. The third dagger, however, must have hit his heart because his effort to sit up stopped, and he fell back onto the ground. Even so, Anton put two more daggers into the giant before another spell tried to affect him. This time, it was a lightning bolt that vanished just as it was about to touch him.
Anton looked over to the mage as he called out an invocation, which put up a sparking shimmer all around himself. It looked like he’d placed a shield bubble of some sort around him. Obviously, intelligence wasn’t one of the mage's primary attributes. Anton ignored the mage as he walked up to the dead Archer. He really wanted those daggers back. No, he needed those daggers back. Okay, maybe he didn’t need them, but damn it, he wasn’t going to cut that giant apart just so he could fish out his daggers. Those thoughts gave him an idea. Could he pick and choose what he affected his nullification field?
Anton placed his hand on the giant flesh where his daggers had cut away the leathers he was wearing and willed his nullification field to expand and destroy only the flesh and blood of his target. Anton felt something click within his mind as a new functionality made itself available. As he extended his nullification field, he set it only to encompass the body in front of him and only to affect the flesh and blood. The suit of armor and the clothing deflated as the body within vanished.
In the space of a second, the archer's armor, weapons, equipment, and especially Anton’s daggers, were left on the ground. There was no hint of blood or other bodily fluids on any of the items or even the ground. The giant was gone.
Anton quickly transferred everything the archer left behind into his Personal Storage and looked to the Mage, who made another flourishing gesture that resulted in a skull wreathed in dark flames with red glowing eyes rushing toward Anton. Anton ignored the skull and began walking toward the mage. Anton checked his Psychic Energy and noticed that he was down to 470 of 2,143. He’d spent 1,200 Psychic Energy to destroy Archer. What was that, one point of psychic energy per pound? He’d never had to worry about spending psychic energy to control his nullification field before. Then again, he’d never tried to control his nullification field before, either. Anton smiled. It was time to try to get some of that energy back.
Later, Anton learned from Caitlyn that what he did next baffled the snipers on top of the Hangar and Caitlyn. Anton casually walked up to the mage while he cast spell after spell at him, which he ignored. Then he grabbed him by the leg and held on as he activated Syphon and began draining him. The first attack only removed 8 points of energy from the Nagian’s unused Psychic Energy pool. The mage tried to swipe Anton away, but no matter what he did, Anton either blocked, countered, or dodged around his legs while always making sure to remain in physical contact with him.
In the first minute, Anton drained 28 points of Psychic Energy and began converting the mages' Mana into Psychic Energy. While Anton Syphoned off, the mage continuously tried to smack or swat him. He also cast a few spells, including more warding spells, which did nothing. Anton was a bit impressed by the mage’s diversity, though. The mage had cast Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Death, and even a darkness-based spell. None of these affected him, but still, there were a lot of different types of spells. Once he finished siphoning off the mage's psychic energy and started taking his mana, the mage’s eyes went wide.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Refilling my energy, what did you think I was doing,” Anton taunted.
“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” The mage cried as he tried in vain to hit Anton.
At Skill level 8, converting this mage’s mana into psychic energy was going to take a while, especially since he was doing so while the asshole was awake. Anton decided to speed things up a bit. He increased Syphon’s skill level. Anton designated 173 Psychic Skill points to the Syphon, which increased his skill level to 20. The rate at which he fed on the mage's energy almost tripled, and his psychic energy started to refill faster.
Ten minutes later, the mage's mana was depleted. He knew this because the mage slumped to the ground unconscious. Right before he passed out, he’d become frantic as he tried to stop Anton. He screamed and raged. Anton ignored him, which made the mage even angrier. When he was done, he checked his gains. The conversion rate hadn’t been great to begin with. For every two mana he absorbed, he received one Psychic Energy. In total, he’d only gained 562 Psychic Energy from the mage’s mana.
When he started absorbing the mage’s stamina, that conversion became even worse at five stamina for one psychic energy. Eight minutes later, the mage's stamina was gone, and he’d recovered another 173 psychic energy for the mage's stamina. At this point, he started absorbing the mage’s hit points, which had the worst conversion rate at ten hit points for one psychic energy. It only took him four and a half minutes to reduce the mage's hit points to zero and recover 54 points of Psychic Energy. As he finished absorbing the last of the mage’s hit points, the mage’s body turned to smoke as Anton drew it into himself.
Anton looked at the robes and staff of the vanquished mage and wondered if there was a way to combine his nullification field with Syphon so that he could do this all at once. Granted, Syphon would work better on a living target, and there wouldn’t be any hit points to convert from a corpse, but there was flesh and blood, and whatever psychic energy, mana, and stamina was still within the cells of the body after it was killed. As he finished that thought, a new notification appeared in his vision.
Would you like to Combine the Psychic Skills Syphon, Material Breakdown, and Organic Breakdown, Yes or No?
Material Breakdown?
Organic Breakdown?
When had he…Anton pulled up his previous Notifications. It looked like both skills had been unlocked when he broke down the archer, he’d just ignored the notification. Anton closed his notification and went back to the last Notification. Combine, huh? He needed more information. Anton thought, Define Combine.
Combine – Powers (Defined as Skills, Spells, Titles, and Perks) may be combined.
NOTE: Abilities are not considered Powers in this context.
Restrictions:
* Only like Powers may be combined with like. A skill with another skill, A title with another title, etc…
* Previously Combined Powers may be combined again, though doing so has a very strong probability of weakening the overall combined Power.
Cost:
100,000 Credits for each Power combined.
Results:
* The Powers chosen for Combining are lost.
* Original Skills are returned to Skill Level 0. Skills may be relearned.
* Original Titles are lost. Unique Titles may only ever be learned once, though all other Titles may be relearned. Note that all attribute bonuses are lost as well.
* Original Perks are lost. Class-specific perks may not be regained, though similar perks from other classes may be acquired. Note that all attribute bonuses are lost as well.
* One half, rounded down, of all invested Skill or Spell Points are returned to the SYSTEM User’s Skill or Spell Point Pool, respectively.
* The rarity and effects of new Power are dependent on the Powers combined. Synergistic powers can create new and unique powers that may be of higher rarity and, therefore, more powerful than the powers sacrificed.
* The level of the Power to be combined may affect the outcome of the combination.
* When combining skills or spells, 1 skill or spell point must be spent. Titles and Perks are exempt from this requirement.
Anton finished reading the definition of Combine and smiled. He then pulled up his inventory and double-checked his credits. He had 14 million credits in the SYSTEM and another 1.9 million credits in the SYSTEM Bank, if it still existed. How much trouble could he get himself into? Sure, there were a few skills that he wouldn’t touch, Specter being one of them. But, with skills like Syphon, Material Breakdown, and Organic Breakdown, he could see the benefit of combining them.
Anton was drawn out of his thoughts when Caitlyn stepped up and asked, “Anton, what are you doing?”
Anton smiled as he answered her question, “Caitlyn, did you know that you can combine our Powers?”
“What are powers?” Caitlyn asked.
“Everything except for Abilities. You know, Skills, Spells, Perks, and Titles,” Anton explained.
“Are you sure?” Caitlyn asked.
“Yep, I just received a Notification that defines what it is and what it does,” Anton said as he made the Notification visible to her.
Caitlyn leaned over, read the information provided by the SYSTEM, and then turned to look at Anton. After a moment, a huge smile filled her face as she said, “Hot Damn, that could be useful!”