“What the fuck happened?”

Eric’s thoughts raced in panic when he noted the glaring number that was his Qi Pool.

There was no mistake, no System-wide transcription errors.

Nonetheless, he rubbed his eyes and choked back a whimper, no matter that his internal interface required no actual vision at all.

And it made no difference.

The numbers were exactly the same.

What had once been an absolutely glorious 6100 or so points was now just a hair over 3800.

He rubbed his skull and groaned, which was quite silly, since he had no headache whatsoever.

In point of fact, he had never felt so healthy or resilient or bubbling with energy as he did right then.

He shook his head and groaned before gazing down at a body that looked so VIBRANT!

A body that Unified Perception made clear was absolutely glowing with Spiritual Energy.

Spiritual Energy that had somehow been pulled from the depths of transcendent potential to a very physical manifestation that any Cultivator worth his salt would be able to detect, should they use the equivalent of Qi Perception upon him.

Because each and every cell of his body hadn’t just been caressed by spiritual energy, they had been utterly infused with Qi.

He groaned and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. “I thought I had found a back door hack. That it was just my Qi Pool that would be tapped. But no… no easy Gary Stu power play here. It’s my raw points that are magnified by my meridians. And somehow I traded over a third of a cultivator’s ability to project his will upon the world… into infusing my body with the power to resist the projections of others. Especially in the form of sharp teeth or furious fists.”

The air and sand shook with the low thrumming susurrations of a giant World Eater sympathizing with its ultimate commander.

Eric sighed and nodded. “I agree. I’m not saying it was the worst choice in the world.” He took a deep breath, forcing a smile to his strained features. “Hell, I should be happy, right? It’s Soul Reserves that were the rate-limiting step. My Mana and Spiritual energy only occasionally were the limiting factors. Though now… if I have to flip gravity or pull another large scale manifestation out of my pocket… yeah. I’d better be practicing for efficiency or boosting that pool again.” He forced a chuckle, then sighed. “And I’m compressing my core again, so I’d better learn to deal.”

The ground trembled so violently that the sands covering the basalt slabs shook and trembled into a series of ancient Sanskrit depictions.

Eric frowned. “Physical Resistance is at 260.” He barked with laughter. “That number is fucking ABSURD! Don’t you think? Now do I think that I could actually survive getting shelled by modern artillery Circa 2020? No fucking idea. I’d rather avoid, if it’s all the same.” He quirked a smile. “But 24-pound cannonballs? Especially with Battletime relativistically cutting down the effective speed of those shells at impact? Well, let me put it this way. I think there will be a lot of surprised orcs around if that shit ever goes down. And they’ll have at least a few seconds to appreciate life’s unpredictability right before I rip off their heads and see just how far I can toss them. Now as far as velociraptor bites go… I suppose that is the question, isn’t it?”

Eric clenched his jaw as his titan wyrm slowly uncoiled, bright morning light spearing him from above. “Just how fucking long did I sleep?”

ES – Eric! Where are you? What’s going on? You entered the surge-zone and we can’t follow your signal and I have no idea what’s going on and you haven’t responded. Are you okay? - We’re doing fine for now. There was another monster surge and a few buildings suffered heavy casualties :( but your Underlord and minions helped a fuck-ton. And those metal golems stopped the swarms from entering Blue Palace entirely! Ha! The living dinosaurs didn’t even like fighting them, since there was no meat inside, just wires and metal! Though you did lose a couple. Sorry, bro. :( - Anyway, please answer! Let me know you’re still with us? When it’s safe for you to do so!

ES – Hey, better half! ‘Tis I! The awesome, irrepressible, Ernest Edgelord Slaughter at your service! Just woke up :( I pushed myself hard, harder than I thought, and I might have fucked up a Legendary-tier skill enhancement. But it’s hard to make the right choices as if I were a well-wrested armchair historian with forever and a day to consider all my options. Time will tell, however, and… fuck, Elonia. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stop whatever surge got through. But you’d better believe I’ll be pacing myself now and fighting smart and clearing as much of this territory as I can. If nothing else, maybe the population dent I make will keep their focus ‘in-house’ and on me, and not into bothering people out there.

ES - Eric! You’re alive! Thank goodness. Okay, this is important. IMPORTANT! A couple acquaintances… friends of yours I’m guessing? Reported an oddly charming guy asking them questions. Totally reasonable questions and they were eager to help. It’s just… well let’s just say a certain elf mercenary felt a real bad taste in her mouth because even if the guy seemed totally legit… why the hell’s she revealing secrets about someone she (obviously) cares about? (She’s totally your lover. Isn’t she? I can smell the pheromones) and it’s so WIERD to sense Sylvan pair-bonding and mating habits and know what it all means while at the same time being a 21st century and very human girl and we should be freshmen in college (or juniors in highschool? It all feels so fucking weird) and we shouldn’t be dealing with any of this shit but we are. Anyway, your elven girlfriend? Mate? And when were you going to let me know?!? - Elly wanted me to let you know that someone with way too much Charisma/class skills? Was asking about you. I don’t know if it’s a salesman, some high-tier bounty hunter, or just some scumbag who wants to give you an intergalactic summons for being too badass and stepping on too many toes. Fuck if I know. But on the off chance it’s a cold-blooded killer… be careful. Okay?

Eric stiffened at those words. Clenching his jaw he did a quick 360, eagle eyes glaring out at the world… detecting nothing but howling desert sands, screaming souls, and endless basalt flats populated by countless pacts of terror birds, slithering abominations, and worse, all electing to avoid the brooding World Eater that had clearly claimed this particular spot of land as its own.

And no sign of any human, Contender, or intergalactic bounty hunter at all. At least so far as he could tell.

But then again, if he could sense them… how good an intergalactic hunter would they even be?

He chuckled softly before taking a quick look at his territory map, brow furrowing when he realized there was no way in hell he could cherry pick an individual dot among hundreds.

Thousands.

Over 10,000 or so square miles.

And had the territory grown even more during the hours he had been out like a fucking light?

He was pretty sure it had.

Fuck.

“Alright boys,” he called aloud, cracking his neck, stretching his shoulders and wrists, then checking his draw on the blade that he hoped, by synergizing with Fire Fist’s potential, would unlock his greatest power yet.

“It’s time to get to work!”

Eric pushed all thoughts of monster swarms, assassination plots, and the existential ramifications of a world in crisis behind him.

All that existed was that singular pristine moment of racing across the howling desert, perks and attributes allowing him to tear right through the swirling desert sands as if they were gentle mist, no different that the crimson geysers erupting their bounties as his mithril blade caressed wing, talon, and throat. His fist kissed Bronze-tier ribs and teeth that could chew through polymerized armor like tin foil.

Shattering before him as fiery blossoms flared across the desert and Eric did not stop, not once, as he weaved and darted across countless miles of terrain.

Packs of velociraptors hissed and turned to strike out at the creature that dared rip across the sands as if he were its master. Yet no matter how tightly their pack flowed, nor how aggressive their members, one by one they were wittled down into a handful of raptors now compelled with nothing but fear and the memory of streaks of crimson flame their final flickering thoughts before a bright flash of blinding pain tore through them and their souls too faced the doom of the howling maelstrom of soul-bound torment above… until eldritch words of dreadful power brought them to renewed life and purpose once more.

And now they were racing across the desert sands as if they had never died at all, stronger, more resilient, and more focused than they had ever been before, EAGER to hunt in their new master’s name, fear of pain, death, and hunger now things of the past. There was only the thrill of the hunt, the sweet hot joy of the kill… and in that arena, their master was beyond generous, allowing his revenants to feast as never before.

The air rang with manic laughter near the equal of the craws and screeches of the growing pack of predators that knew neither hesitation nor fear.

Slowly but surely, 670+ Vitality and the ability to race across the desert plains far faster than any high-speed rail meant that Eric was able to clear regions and cover ground far faster than should be humanly possible for an entire army in his place. All the more so when his Contender status allowed every significant cluster of reds that must be taken out before he could claim this vast tract of land to show up as lights blinking brighter than any Christmas tree.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

And not being a fool, even while riding high on endorphins and the sheer exultation of righteous SLAUGHTER!—Savoring the sheer bliss that was an absolutely monstrous physique as he weaved and struck with crimson FIRE!—He still controlled the flow of battle. Picking off his kills pact by pact, raptor by raptor.

He stopped only to roar his chants to the heavens and grow his pack, now a good half-mile behind him as he took the lead to STRIKE with furious, killing intent, darting forward and lashing out before his prey even know what had happened. And by the time they had focused on the monstrous Speed Racer tearing through them… before his enemies could organize any sort of counteroffensive… his growing pack of now over 400 Velociraptors tore through the remainder like barracuda chomping through minnows as Eric raced ahead.

“Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

The words filled him with a sweet glorious rush like no other. All but TASTING just how close Blood could have been to unlocking as a fifth essence…

Yet such would now never be the case.

For the Golden Phoenix was now forever ascendant, and would brook no lesser formation.

And that was fine, he thought.

It was enough to finally understand his heritage. The mixed-blood mutt who had once been a Seraphim for a precious handful of seconds… and was now a shark swimming and FEASTING upon the filth below once more.

Reveling in his darkness that transcended the ideals he stitched like a framework around his soul… SAVORING the sweet crimson rush of one foe after another falling to his blade… before rising once more, to serve him forever after.

Now the flow of battle was effortless, countless battlefield insights now shivering through his soul. Yet there was peril in the pursuit of perfection, as Eric saw all too clearly in the smoking ruins of a once fortified town that had, by some miracle, actually survived out here. At least for a time. Smoke came from ruined buildings surrounded by basalt walls upon a hilly rise that even now radiated surprisingly strong protective magics.

Then he was knocked out of his glorious haze by the most unexpected of occurrences.

The unexpected sounds of screams nearby.

Even worse, they were familiar.

Voices he recognized.

“Kelly?”

But it was impossible… how?

His gaze snapped to what looked like distant streams of smoke.

Before taking off so fast, leaving his velocis in the dust to finish off the remnants of the final pack he had pinged in this tiny corner of the territory. Which meant that there was nothing between him and the rapidly approaching remnants of… yes… an actual fortified town, complete with walls that his Dominion Interface made painfujloly clear still radiated the flickering remnants of Class and Leadership perks that had, somehow, by some miracle, had allowed this town to survive and thrive, at least for a time.

Back when this had been a highly fertile Orange-tier region.

Before ascending to a Red-tier desert… where wild mana sands corroded simpler fragiler greenery until only the most hardy shrubs hunkered in brooding swamps that were home to abominations and worse managed to survive. Even if, conversely, the wild mana in the air was all that was needed for the fauna to explode in numbers, duplicating more than replicating and now the village was just a dying husk and there were screams from within and he just couldn’t slow down even as he raced inside what he KNEW was a trap because why the hell else would Kelly, Megan, and her parents be strung up on crosses right where he could SEE them?

Right where he could FIND them.

Wild, terrified eyes met his own, and as much as he felt horrified disbelief, he couldn’t help but wonder… where was their baby?

He could sense it, then. The sheer animal terror in the eyes of a family already suffering mana burns from exposure, even as Professionals, which meant they had been suffering out here for hours... and he could see it.

He could feel the pressure of imminent death.

He didn’t need Mad Bomber, Danger Sense, and Nose for a Bad Deal to tell him that a sobbing Kelly gazing at him with such desperate eyes and her dying sister, covered in such ugly blisters, or her parents, screaming, tongues torn free of their mouths, spitting out blood that could so easily choke them… were wired with enough explosives to tear open a city block.

“Mana pulse trigger. It has to be! They’re NOT using orc shaman gunpowder tainted by wild spirits in a black zone!” He thought to himself.

He could TASTE the highly unstable electromana explosion about to rip through them all, just a single trigger pull away.

And he knew he could run. In that split second of battle-time, gazing at haunted, bloodshot eyes, across a rubble-strewn, blood-flecked courtyard, he knew he could run.

Instead he roared a single word.

“Repudio!”

The air seemed to warp and crack even as he was thrown off his feet, sent cartwheeling through the air, gazing down stupidly at the ugly bruise erupting from his stomach, as if someone had punched him from the inside.

“Is that a bullet? That can’t quite punch through my abdominal muscles? What the fuck!” Pointless thoughts roared through his mind as his ringing skull made it clear that that hadn’t been the only injury he had suffered, feeling a bloody mass where his right ear had been, just a split second ago.

You have been struck by Triple Piercing Shots!

Multiple Modifiers are in effect.

You have SAVED versus Sudden Death!

Head Shot FAILS to penetrate!

Your right ear has suffered a Savage Wound.

Enhanced Ribs have deflected Heart Shot.

Ricochet has failed to puncture abdominal wall. You are suffering mild internal & external bruising!

You have suffered 1 Medium Wound.

You are at Mild Skill Check penalty until shrapnel has been removed!

Filled with terror the equal of his fury, he shook off his daze and forced himself to MOVE!

Not straight toward where his Danger Sense was screaming peril was originating from.

Hell no.

He ran transversely to them, at right angles to Kellys family, so any desperate shooters would NOT be firing at their bait, since it clearly hadn’t worked, and they had to deal with him now.

Roaring like the bloodthirsty berserker he ultimately was Eric weaved and juked like a mosquito forever avoiding the hand of its prey, humiliation and regret for innocence lost compelling him every bit as much as that he had STUPIDLY left people he cared about vulnerable to the wiles and manipulation of cutthroat BASTARDS who would stop at nothing and no one in their efforts to destroy or outright kill him.

Even in the middle of a monster surge for some FUCKED UP reason, because clearly an entire region sinking to hell was far less of an issue, perhaps it was even a favored outcome, for whatever brand of psychopaths so clearly wanted him dead.

By some miracle, or simply because it could find no purchase on mithril helm or coif, Eric sensed no blood spraying upon the ground. All there was was the sand before him, and a sense of blurring sand and shadow, as if light itself was bending away from him, and reality stopped just a short distance ahead.

And his prey was gone.

“Bullshit!”

He spun around, knowing that stillness was DEATH! But he had to pierce the veil. He was so CLOSE to doing so! And he had just the tool to help him.

“Wormy! Circle around, a mile north of where I am!”

A silent command as Eric refused to accept that he had lost already, that during the most perilous quest of his life he additionally had to worry about a cloaked assassin able to set a family he had fought so hard to save with almost certain death… Able take potshots at him with utter—

You have been hit by Enhanced M107 rounds!

MULTIPLE Critical Strike Perks are in play!

But what really struck Eric with surprise were the messages that followed.

Enhanced 0.50 caliber bullet FAILS to pierce your skull.

Enhanced 0.50 caliber bullet bypasses mithril mail links.

Enhanced 0.50 caliber bullet FAILS to shatter ribs.

Internal ricochet has lodged in abdominal wall.

No vital organs pierced.

Eric’s mind was racing even as he screamed at himself to get up and MOVE!

He was racing, juking, and diving, awe nearly the equal of his terror.

Because despite his fucking insane Quickness and Perception, he had already been hit FOUR times, and the fucking sniper tier bullets were slipping right through his mithril links. And he damn well KNEW the mithril mesh should be catching it!

Potency Surge enhanced Unified Restoration has healed Savaged Ear!

Blood Mastery instantly seals all bullet wounds!

Note! Unable to fully heal bullet wounds until Kill Shots have been removed!

Now he had two jagged bullets pressing against his abdominal lining, causing him stacking impairments that his node was, for some reason, unable to push out and remove, even if he could regenerate an actual missing limb with just a little bit of time.

Clearly, bullshit perks were in play.

But just as clearly…

His dazed impulse to maximize his physical resistance no matter the massive hit to his Qi Pool of 2000+ points had been the best damned crazy move he had made in quite some time.

Even if he knew that a shot to the throat, and most especially the eye, would spell his end right damned quick. And FUCK if he wasn’t going to charge RIGHT FOR that MOTHERFUCKER that had just revealed itself with those shots.

It was then that his Rank II Danger Sense flared warning and he suddenly got it, dodging and darting for all he was worth as the sand exploded by his feet.

He wasn’t going against a lone elite killer that had been crazy enough to somehow track and ambush him, in the MIDDLE of a Black tier hot zone suffering a monster surge...

He was taking on an entire squad ruthless enough to use innocent people he had met by chance as kill bait.

So Eric would HAPPILY return the favor.

No bait necessary.