After being nearly crushed to death by Grave and Mya hugs, and then forcibly peeling a newly freed, very grateful Vamp off like he was a piece of toilet paper stuck to my shoe, I finished my intentionally brief overview of how I met ‘Management’ and what I had learned about the cube whilst eating some of the few remaining scraps of food they had left.

Vyo had almost pointedly refused to step near me, understandably.

I feel bad for leaving some pretty fucking critical and life changing parts out..But if I start blabbing on about alternate cycle me and hyper advanced type IV civilisations..well like Seren said, who knows how people will react, and quick frankly, I can’t be bothered to waste any more time.

Best to just focus on what’s important, don’t need to sing a bard's tale right now.

They gave me an equally short debriefing of their terrible events as they got ready, probably due to how sensitive and raw it was to relive, not to mention they were emotionally eager to see if my obscure resurrection prophecies would come true.

The summarised version boiled down to events shortly after I left..

They had managed to mostly clear the citadel of corrupted and promptly moved in.

Things had indeed gone very well for a few weeks..that is, until the Colossal started to attack the cube.

It primarily screwed them over by attracting monsters for miles around which completely blockaded anyone getting in and prevented them from getting out, and then after trapping them all inside, it somehow released the colossal descendant inside the cube, which promptly attacked and obliterated everything in its path. They amassed everyone they could and tried to fight it in a huge raid, but..

It was an absolute disaster.

The majority of them were wiped out and it became evident that it was far too strong for them, so the survivors then spent weeks running and hiding, trying to find a solution or a way out, all whilst their numbers were slowly dwindling down to what it was now..but as hard as they fought and ran, there was nothing the could do.

They lost everyone and everything, and, with their escape completely cut off and nobody else left to survive with, they collectively resigned to their final remaining goal of finding some method or exploit to utterly destroy this creature, even if it meant their own deaths.

What a hellish nightmare…

Vyo had remained particularly sceptical after hearing my unrealistic story about resurrection and heaven, but, every now and then out of the corner of my eye, I could sense her secretly staring at me with trembling hope as preparations were completed and we climbed out of the exit ramp of the dirt bunker.

The others had taken my words for gospel and were full of suicidal joy..

And I’m not sure which I prefer…but I would kill for a chip butty right now.

Struggling to get food out of mind, we headed out.

…

..

.

#Vamp# Thank you, again, Godu. Not only do you bring beautiful news of our lost family members, but you also freed me. You have no idea how happy-Well, ha, I suppose you do, since you’ve felt first-hand the experience of sweet relief from this torturous damnation.

#Godu# Don’t mention it. Please.

We were currently traversing through the thick woods and it was crawling with various monsters that naturally, didn’t give up after a few metres of playing kiss chase, and rather inconveniently as a result, we were being forced to routinely stop and pound them into the ground, lest we aggravated too many in one go and found ourselves overwhelmed.

Not that it technically matters I guess..But I’m not interested in testing the theory of resurrection out myself, thank you.

Not to mention if the others died then it would just leave me to fight by my own which didn't seem like a great deal of fun, and would be incredibly stupid for so many obvious reasons.

#Godu# By the way, what the heck was that thing you did back there? You cut those monsters and then made wire out of their blood?

Vamp’s freshly unlocked strength was rather intimidating, I begrudgingly had to admit, and, although he hadn’t turned into a swarm of bats yet, his abilities were both tactically and visually impressive.

#Vamp# Aha! Impressed with that one comrade? That was called [Blood Knots]. Only works on bleeding wounds I inflict, and it Binds blood cells and Majia together. The worst thing you can do is struggle, you’ll only rip your guts out.

He had charged into a group and blurred around, slicing a half dozen of the twig monsters whilst pulling thick, clotted ropes of blood out from each wound he inflicted which he then tied together, rendering the monsters tangled. The unexpected restriction of freedom pissed them off, particularly at each other, yet their increasing agitation bled them out exponentially..

#Godu# Lovely-Oh, three more coming up on your left.

#Vamp# No problem comrade, they’re already dead.

I rolled my physical eyes in response, but mentally widened my eyes in surprise as he indeed dealt with them within a single moment by punching a hole right through the first bear creature and manipulating the explosion of blood and guts spray, weaving them into thin shards on clotted ropes, that continue on their trajectories into the other two bear monsters, harpooning them through and then the whole thing pulled into a tight messy ball of flesh, like a macroscopic single celled organism.

The others didn’t seem to bat an eye as we continued our cautious jogging, although Graves' hulking mass forced him to perform huge leaps in order to keep ahead, but it was clear that he was probably stronger than all of them combined.

Pretty grotesque.

The kid is stupidly strong..Dangerously so. I get the feeling he could have obliterated everything with just brute force and yet, he's using all these flashy moves instead..I wonder if he's just been showing off or just warming up..Hmm, hang on, Seren said he was grandpa age or something didn't she.

#Godu# Vamp. How old are you?

His footing momentarily disrupted, something that a normal person would never have noticed, but he regained his tempo and shot me a guilty smile, and in a way that screamed “I've practised this conversation many times” he brushed a hand through his white hair and chuckled knowingly

#Vamp# You noticed eh?

#Godu# Uhh noticed what-

#Vamp# I knew you would, you’re a smart guy..

#Godu# I’m not sure what you mean but-

#Vamp# Hmm persistent one, aren’t you..

#Godu# What?-No it's fine if you don't want to ans-.

#Vamp# Alright! Alright comrade. If you're going to twist my arm like that, I'll tell you my story.

The fu-Dude! I didn't ask for shit-

He proceeded to give me an unprompted dump of personal information that I really had not asked for, although as he continued, I felt myself feeling less of an animosity. Also, his smug, ‘wise beyond years’ aura makes more sense now..

He was a retired gangster, part of a very old family mafia. He had spent many years serving a life sentence in prison when everything went to shit, a sentence he had received for murdering rival Russian gang members that had been trying to gain a foothold in his family's turf, in 1974. Incidentally, he was indeed 89 years old…

It was just a regular day for Vamp, living out his last days in the hellish prison of L’aquilla, but after the disintegration event, the prison quickly became a next-level horror world of death, torture and violence, even by its standards.

It started with the power going out, but the manual locks stayed locked.

Then nobody came to let them out.

Then the monsters came and ate anyone that had been ‘lucky’ enough to find a way to pick-lock, or break themselves free.

And THEN those that remained faced starvation or some mutated creepy crawly munching on them in their sleep..

Vamp himself had been fortunate enough to be alone in his cell, and he managed to survive the first few days by drinking from the toilet, but when the hunger came, and the bog punch started to run dry, he was forced to be more creative with his life choices..Some of the prisoners had already resorted to raw cannibalism, but the consequences of such acts had been witnessed by Vamp as he watched other inmates go insane and then turn into mutated, charred ghouls; the corrupted, albeit comparatively far weaker ones dues to the lack of EXP available to them at such an early stage, but the lessons were very clear and he took heed, regardless of that fact that he didn’t HAVE another person to hand that he could chomp on. So the only remaining option was the fresh monster meat that stalked the halls, so, on his 5th day, he constructed a noose trap using bed sheets and clothes and then waited for his prey..

He got ‘lucky’ on his very first attempt as an eager leech headed bipedal fell into his trap and, although it too managed to latch onto him as he yanked its greasy thin head through the bars, his feverish hunger drove him to latch on as well and he pulled tightly on his trap whilst eating and drinking away at the live slimy flesh of this thing that was likewise trying to eat him. It was a battle of who could eat and kill the other first.. And he managed to win, collapsing after the exertion.

That night he fundamentally changed, as he was plagued with strange dreams about choosing a shape, but notably, his choice was made by consumption rather than just touch, and the shape was a strange organism that he said reminded him of what a virus or cancer cell looked like. Why on earth would he think to eat that?..W-t-f.

The next day he noticed he felt better, almost stronger, but a hunger and thirst for blood and flesh became his primary instinct, a need that in itself morally didn’t faze him..But this desire would not be satiated with dead, old flesh, no no, it needed to be fresh and warm, full of life, and EXP..So he laid another trap, feeling vastly healthier than before, and he repeated his barbaric actions..

After his seventh day, he was becoming extremely efficient at killing and eating as it became his new norm and was also becoming absurdly stronger and faster after each kill, but his actions had not gone unnoticed, as some of the other surviving inmates had been listening as they clung onto their lives, but, once one of them figured it out, they all started copying him and they too started to chatter about becoming stronger; an anxious development at the time considering Vamps circumstances; in his mind, he felt like a simple weak old man.

On the ninth day a very powerful, troll-like tall monster with long skinny arms wandered into the prison and quickly scraped it clean of smaller monsters. Merely two days after its arrival, it had exhausted all the wandering meat supplies and resorted to stalking the corridors, waiting for inmates to either break out or spend some time breaking into their cell and feasting on the crunchy contents inside.

The troll would guard the exit as it slept, which was very unfortunate as it meant the supply of live food for the inmates was now cut off and so, those that remained, consisting purely of those that were monster eaters like vamp, did the unexpected and verbally banded together, swearing an oath to stay allies, at least until they killed the troll or escaped. They prepared for the escape, utilising bones and monster remains to craft tools, weapons, armour, and, once the troll slumbered, they attempted their breakout..Naturally the first to break out his cell was Vamp, where he proceeded to help break free his fellows and it was here that Vamp came to the revelation that he had indeed started to get younger. They wasted no time and swiftly ambushed the troll in its sleep, killing it with surprising ease. Their combined strength was borderline atrocious, and as they feasted on its remains, this power grew ever greater. Mid-feast they were interrupted by a mother and her two kids running for their lives, seeking shelter and they had stumbled into the prisoners eating the troll corpse and I immediately felt sick thinking about what was coming next. But to my complete surprise, the group dealt with the monsters chasing the family, apparently mostly because it was free food, but also because the woman was extremely beautiful..Tensions dramatically rose but then the woman miraculously defused the situation, and asked for protection and refuge with the inmates both for her and her kids, promising them that if they kept her family safe, she would ‘look after them’ in return. Naturally, being incarcerated males, they all only had one thing on their mind so they eagerly accepted.

He was vague about what exactly happened after that, using the excuse that we were at the citadel to quickly wrap things up, but from what he did say, the woman gave herself freely to them in exchange for protection for her children, something he said that even though he was tempted, his old school blood wouldn’t let him, so he left and just kept going and going until he fought against some absurdly giant thing called an Ogreat, didn’t kill it but ate it's flesh like a mosquito, passed out and had some kind of ‘evolution blizzard’ and then woke up as a mute with a collar around his neck, a lucky new prisoner in the arena.

What. The. Fuck.

#Vamp# Sometimes I miss the world behind bars..heck, even the arena was cosy…And yes, it might sound crazy, but I feel less of a monster now then I did in my previous life..Kate was-is, a good kid, and so are you Godu. You've both done right by me so I owe you a great deal…I won’t forget it.

Please do.

I couldn’t decide whether I should feel more relaxed knowing Vamp had some moral code left, or if I should be extremely wary that one of the strongest individuals I’d met was also an escaped prisoner that was also an ex-mobster.

..Ha. Suppose I’m no saint though. I’ve killed people. Not that they didn’t deserve it of course..

Grave thundered to a stop and put a hand up as we approached the end of the forest. Vamp silently appeared next to me and placed a friendly hand on my shoulder.

#Vamp# And if you can truly bring Kate back..I'll be eternally in your debt. She’s become my..best friend, Godu. I’ve never had one of those, and I lost her far too early.

Hm..

Thinking about the time I first met Kate, I gave him a thoughtful glance before lightly nodding and patting his hand away.

Weird how I nearly killed her and he didn’t stop me..Although he also didn’t take the opportunity to kill any of the guards now that I think about it.

#Godu# Don't be daft..I might not have good memories of this place but you two didn’t stab me in the back-

I wonder if the others know about his past-

#Godu# And we got out alive, so..call it..even.

I stopped dead, my eyes widened in realisation as I fell into a thousand yard stare.

The lovers..Tommy..That Striga! Does this mean they're not dead??!..Don't really give a shit about Gilo and Fedro but..

I scowled.

If they are then that means..the deacon..and that bitch. Need to make sure that Mana doesn't revive those pieces of shit-

“Fuck my shitty fucking life..” Vyo grimaced, cursing coldly as the citadel came into view and my thoughts were rudely cut short.

Oh what now-..oh.

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The place was in chaos, with corrupted and monsters viciously skirmishing it out, beating the ever loving shit out of each other with claws, limbs, wings, tails or whatever else they could use as a weapon.

Hoo-boy. Welcome to party town..

The buildings and short defensive walls were shockingly intact, although I quickly concluded that they must be made from some of the same immortal materials as some parts of the cube

Although what did Mana call it? The ‘pentaract’?..Bit confusing considering the triangular doorway said ‘Bastille’..Or maybe that’s just what the dungeon is called-

“Come now Vyo.” Grave stopped by my side, interrupting my thoughts, and hefted up his absurdly sized axe and let it land on his shoulder, debris and dust lightly plumed off his armour as it clunked down. “We’ve got nothing else left to lose, or fear, right? Especially now that our tactical wizard is back with promises of immortalisation!..Don’t you worry. It won’t be long until your lovely man is sobbing in your arms again.” He clasped a huge hand on my shoulder without turning his helmet in my direction, but I would bet my brand new socks the man was grinning and side eyeing me under that helmet.

Wonder if anyone’s seen his face yet-

“Psssch! Gah, sure, whatever..I think I preferred you when you were ready to die..Optimistic bastard..” Vyolyn folded her arms and looked away as Grave boomed out his usual heavy laugh.

“Bahah! I’ve always been ready to die Vyo, ‘comes with the trade!”

Mya strained a weak smile and Vamp wore a surprisingly not as annoying smirk as he usually did.

Hope he’s not growing on me.

“Right! Let’s get stuck in then.” Impatiently, I stepped forward and regarded them all. Mya, in her tattered leather armour, clutching onto two wicked looking daggers. Grave in his battered metal armour and his mad-sized axe. Vyolyn wielding a silver cross spear, in her oddly pristine ceremonial plated garb which really didn’t look that protective,…And Vamp in his…

His…fucking pirate vampire outfit…

Which in fairness, wasn’t the worst outfit I’d seen.

But still..put on a normal jacket you bloody twat!

“Ugh! Always so eager to jump into the fucking cess pit..Pyscho-sadistic-man.” Vyolyn shook her head at me with a bitter, cynical expression.

Understandably she’s bitter at the world..Maybe she blames me for them ending up here...Oh well.

Responding with a restrained smirk and childishly showed off by leaping forward, deploying my shields in config:prime and activating graven image, integrating just a teeny-tiny bit of null surge cautiously as I wasn’t yet confident on the calibration side, but it was plenty enough to zip me forward several dozen metres like a streak of arc-lightning.

I was genuinely getting excited.

I’m ready.

It was a strange feeling, as I took the opportunity to try and suss out the surge-image movement skill, testing a bit more and a bit less whilst completely, and willingly speeding toward the citadel of blood, death and shit, all with a smile on my face.

A flurry of legacy thoughts and muffled emotions were the only remnants left of the old me.

A me that has truly died off and been replaced with..well, whatever I am now.

I frowned.

Hm. And yet I don’t feel fundamentally different. The same type of sensation you’d get when comparing your adult self to when you were a child. Same mind..same life…just more..experienced.

Hopping over the final few craters and chewed up remains of various monsters that had been bounced out of the slaughter rave, I leapt up the pretty redundant 4 metre wall and rode some graven image lightning into the air, sailing over a disgustingly fat, slug-like monster that was halfway swallowing something whose screams reminded me of a cat fighting..It reminded me of mine and Marri’s cat-

Although it was hardly ours, it just visited us routinely and got free food.

-but the fond emotional memories were enough to trigger a powerful sympathetic, violence-seeking reaction-

(!)SEV II TASK TX(!)

RESCUE THE UNKNOWN ENTITY.

SUCCESS: UNDETERMINED.

FAILURE: UNDETERMINED.

DETAILS: THERE IS AN UNKNOWN ENTITY BEING CONSUMED.

Hmm, I’ve got time. I can spare a few minutes.

So I switched to config:ribbon, twisted and spun in the air, whipping the ribbon outwards and into the slugs flesh, carving a hefty chunk free in an attempt to hook into it. The slug had two saucer sized eyes with a dozen dilated pupils in each one, and they danced wildly in their sockets at my transgression.

Label: Gulper Slug

MAGN: 99.018

HP: 4008/4500

Notes: Fuujaag saalt, tis laa sa pucklick um tah nee choo!!

Yeah I agree.

The slug increased its chugging efforts, desperate to swallow down its squealing victim and before it successfully pulled it all the way in, the victim stretched its head out and cried out for one last breath with pure desperation. Even covered in a brown sludge, its slanted glowing bright blue eyes found mine and it gazed at me, begging for help.

But my failure to hook into the creature meant I had a my own velocity problem

SHIT-

With not as much grace as I’d hoped I could achieve, I sailed over and splatted into the wall of an immortal building like a handful of wet tissue, but it ended up being more of a style points failure rather than a tactical one, since I recovered immediately and kicked down and launched myself with tremendous speed directly over the head, grabbing the top of the top of the slugs sphinctre mouth-

“OPEN UP FUCKFACE!”

-and wrenched it open.

“Spit it out! Drop it! COME ON..AGH FUCKER! RIGHT NOW YOU’VE DONE IT!!” I let go and hissed in annoyance as something sharp cut painfully into my fingers.

The slug ‘REE’d’ in surprise, truly offended, and I saw razor sharp, barbed teeth covered in a disgusting looking green slime, pushing themselves out of the slugs gums as they dug into the silent creates head like a dog refusing to give up its favourite toy. I activated armour of Unruh and the config:ribbon split into several tendrils that whipped into the mouth and pried it open wide enough for me to reach into the cavernous throat and grab the victim creature's gunky dark fur.

“Come on. Out. Ya. COME!!!” I heaved and pulled the creature up enough for a tendril to dive in and wrap around it, but my objective wasn’t to simply yank it out like a stubborn turd in the u-bend, no, I was using the sensors to ensure I could slipfold it out..but the sensory information was so detailed, so integrated into my own nervous system, that it felt like I was plunging my tongue down its throat.

UGGGKK this is fucking gross!!!!!!!

I could feel the fleshy cartilage ridges and hard chitin bone, and I could taste the digestive slime and bacteria riddled saliva.

Oh god this was such a bad-OH THERE IT IS! THANK FUCK!

Glancing to the side, I reached the end of the blue eyed creature and expanded my slipfold to safely prepare to pluck us out, whilst of course, not giving a single shit about the horrible slug. Joyously my plan was successful and we folded away and reappeared away from it.

If I wasn't so hungry I'd throw up right now.

Me and the rescued creature flopped onto the floor as mucus and gross shit gushed into the area, partly because I brought some kind of the revolting, partially severed gland that was spraying crap out, but also because the slug itself was apparently unloading its organs in a fountain of pure ‘joy’.

Sorry for the prejudice sluggy, but kitties are just cuter.

Standing up, I raised a hand and my several tendrils hovered over my shoulders and head, briefly charging up before unleashing three javelin shards that plunged into the gelatinous flesh and then exploded, killing it mercifully.

Mercifully, because what a miserable existence.

“Piss-on-my-pizza what is he fucking do-Oh! Dipsy! There you are! Why did you fling yourself into the wall ya bimbo?!” Vyolyn was ranting to herself as she sailed overhead at speeds, but backtracked and hopped down when she spotted me. “And don’t tell me you intended to do that, ‘cos I know a ‘cockfail’ when I see one. What were you figh-” She spotted the lifeless creature behind me and froze.

“..P….PADERA?! T-that’s not possible!??”

“Vyo?! Did you just say-OH HOLY-! GRAVE COME QUICK! Throw over a flask!” Mya phased through a wall and cried out, making me jump out of my skin. There was a whistling in the air as an object sailed down which Mya effortlessly caught, followed by a hefty thud as Grave landed.

“That’s not possible. No-No-No it can’t be.” Vyolyn’s eyes were wide as she shook her head. “How is she still alive?? We saw her DIE?? HOW?”

With practised precision, Mya uncapped the flask and pried open the creatures mouth, tipping a small amount in and then opening each eye and pouring some more on each one..

Why is she..nevermind, more importantly, what is this creature.

Confused, I scanned the creature but was left stunned when it simply didn't work.

Not even a single shred of info-

“She's going to make it! She's healing! Look Vyo this is proof!” Mya’s shoulders were quivering as she stroked the creature's head. She looked up at me with a wide, tearful smile. “Bello really was telling us the truth.”

Vyo suddenly appeared in front of me and grabbed my shoulders.

“You-you..He's really not gone?..They're REALLY not dead-” she was interrupted by a wave of nearby screeches and roars as residents of the city smelt slug blood with a side order of fresh, human meat.

“Happy dappy days! But it is time to STOW it Vyo! We've got a riot incoming so get into formation! We need to protect the kit-kat until she's healed up. Godu, you're our striker, hope you haven't forgotten what that means.” Grave barked out.

I felt a bit awkward and intimidated as Vyolyn remained gripped onto me, shoving her tanned face inches away from mine, her brow creased in a frown mixed full of a multitude of emotions. Hope. Fear. Confusion of the highest order. I looked over and nodded at Grave and he nodded back, most certainly with a savage grin behind his helmet, as always.

It felt like a lifetime ago but the precious training and knowledge he had passed onto us was definitely one of the reasons I was still alive; critical information like that became ingrained like instincts.

“Of course I remember.”

There was a rush of warm, musty air that smelt of faeces and blood. The sounds of rapidly approaching nightmares exponentially grew louder.

“Good to hear brother! Vamp, guard the back and call out, me and Vyo will handle the front-HUP HUP! GET TO IT VYO! THEY ARE DANGER CLOSE! LET THE BOY GO AND PULL ‘EM NOW!”

Vyo’s blue iris’ swirled with purple and gold lights as she remained glued to me, waiting for my priestly answer, the sound of the approaching monster stampede escalated. I calmly patted her arm, a somewhat awkward gesture as we were both in armour. Clink, clank.

“I..bloody hope so.” Was all I could say as a nasty guttural roar signalled we had been spotted.

A smile flashed across her face as she erupted with a golden aura.

“HOPE?! You....Bastard! FINE! I’ll take your IMPOSSIBLE hope! I’ll believe it! But by the whores unholy breath, I swear if this turns out to be wrong, I’ll…I’ll-” She pointed to my crotch and made a crushing motion.

Gulp.

“VYO!” Grave bellowed out and she growled, crouching and then leaping up into an explosion of light that pulsed out a wave of golden mist, each creature it touched shimmered with the same golden colour before freezing on the spot, stunned for several seconds. The silent moment was confusing and unnerving, and somewhat familiar, but the horde's attention slowly turned towards the archon, Vyolyn..

Oh I remember this-

Then came a haunting synchronised cry of fury.

“Okay brother, clear up at 12 o’clock!” Grave pointed ahead and signalled at the monsters, their frenzied eyes completely fixated on their sole purpose in life, to obliterate her. They elbowed and clawed their way past each other as they flooded towards Vyolyn, so I crouched down and kicked up into the air, another pulse of gold light washed over me as I drip-fed Graven image with a speck of surge and zipped over Grave and Vyolyn in a blinding flash of lightning, cancelling the activation midair and, using the seconds it would take for me to land, I briskly, yet with minimal concern about the upcoming death and violence, reviewed the most ‘obvious choice of choices’ to unleash.

[Armour of Unruh]

An artefact with an extensive arsenal of smart capabilities and intelligent armaments with a base function of providing a deployable set of protective gear.

It has been tailored to integrate with your abilities, specifically.

Thermal Bath - DEW attack. Several modes that increase in power based on total accumulated and current momentum of shields.

Inertial Obliteration - Shields Lightrail repeatedly into a target.

Fractal Vector - Shields entangle with physical attacks, aggressively extending range.

Observe Annihilation - Once the adequate telemetry has been obtained, unleash a series of accelerated lightrail, heavy-attacks, using shields as switch-ports. Leaves behind geometric EM particulates that, upon contact, scorches and inflicts catastrophic damage.

In the absence of existence, keep moving.

Alright then.

I activated Fractal Vector and the effect was immediate. The four smaller shields crackled into position like extremely powerful magnets juiced up by lightning, two on each side. They aligned up with each arm and the larger two snapped down either side of my legs, floating in perfect sync as if they were secured by invisible brackets. The constantly shifting plates on my gauntlets locked into an intricate formation, seemingly appropriate for the absurd fundamental physics in play, and, as I plummeted down towards the front row of monsters rushing down the alleyway, I leant backwards and swiftly kicked out my right leg like I was slide tackling in mid air.

The result was truly devastating.

The large shield linked to that side, light railed down into the front row, smashing into several unfortunate beasts and pushing them back into the ones behind them, and, when it connected with the immortal concrete-esque ground, it ricocheted off with a tremendously aggressive hum. Strangely, either the pressure wave, or some other kinetic force pushed me back up a bit, holding me in the air as the shield flashed back up to my side, and so I executed several ‘air punches’ in their direction to feel out the real life usage of this epic ability; the shared information of the skill gave me a simple understanding but historically I’d come to learn that not all secrets came on paper.

Practical, thorough tests are required to understand such things.

Each attacking motion resulted in a shield bursting forward and belting into a creature, effectively turning my attacks into lightning fast, ranged, kinetic-drone attacks. As I landed with a toothy-thud, I slipfolded past the first group into a small gap and, to my surprise and to reinforce my previous thought about secrets, my shields didn’t fold with me but instead light railed from point A to point B, seemingly intentionally slashing into any fleshy monstrosities along the way.

Holy moly.

I glared back at the sight of dozens of horrific mutations and aberrations, all snarling, roaring and hissing with saliva dripping between fangs and blunt, oversized human molars and incisors. Too many heads, too many eyes, not always enough limbs but always zero compassion or sentience. A sight that would have once made me shat my pants now instead made me feel pure, unfiltered aggression.

After everything I’ve seen..It’s utterly bonkers how much things have changed, and how much more needs to change..I’ve come so far thanks to those that have helped me..And now it’s time to collect my team and bring them back home..Our Home.

Reminded of the precious time ticking away, I roared back at the flood and crouched, shivering slightly; I wanted to fight; I wanted to get stronger.

I want to kill them all.

Azure black mist rippled away from me as I activated Graven image and leapt into them like a rock defying river rapids. Nothing could scratch me as I sliced through the air, attacking with my shields, fists, elbows, knees and legs, decimating some in a single hit, whilst having to double or triple tap some of the more sturdier types. I cleared the first dozen, the majority of them were quadrupedal things that had deceptively thin arms and legs and a headless torso that simply looked like a really saggy foreskin. Grim. There were some smaller creatures that had exposed, wide skulls with four eyed sockets filled with fish eyes, but the most surprising thing was that they had been firing small, reddish majik projectiles that rapidly ate away the flesh of some of the other monsters upon contact, like acid; instinctively I made sure to stomp them into the ground first and for good reason, since, the few projectiles that did hit me, rinsed my reserves. Even now I’m over 100? Annoying little caster fucks..Regardless, I mowed through them in seconds. My plan to load up enough for Thermal Bath was pretty straightforward and, considering I’d possibly melted some distance mountain the first time I over used it, I thought it would be prudent to be more cautious with the second, so I backstepped after reaching what felt like 5%, spread my arms out as per the required activation steps and allowed the shields to lock into place around my head whilst the larger shields snapped to my back and rotated briefly, priming themselves with exotic energy and Majik. It took only a few seconds until I smoothly pulled my arms together in front of me and the large shields flickered into position, releasing a thin deadly beam before ultimately discharging the same torrent of highly pressurised, geometric, azure and black energy. This time around I shifted the beam from left to right, absolutely fucking shredding everything in its path until it shut off, and all that remained was an alley full of bits of dead monsters, smoked and charred.

“Holy, smoking, Mary! That’s the stuff right there! HOO-RAH!” Grave rumbled out. “Alright lad we’re going to move up and pull them away, Vamp, stick with Mya and catch up when the Kitti is better. LET’S GO!”

I gave him a thumbs up acknowledgement and returned to the group, taking note of the huge bundle of fleshy mess that Vamp had made behind them.

Bloody hell, it’s like a giant yarn ball made of arteries, sinew and tendons…

And Vamp himself was licking blood off his lips. Yuck. He noticed my grimace and shrugged apologetically.

We rhythmically carved through the aggroed monsters nearby until the remaining surrounding wildlife no longer wanted to eat us, but instead started to crunch down on all the wasted meat we’d left in our wake.

At least we won’t have to worry about rotting corpses.

…

..

.