Riseth warped the space above them as the cracks above them widened. She wiped the blood off her nose, and they jumped out of the collapsed building and into the streets. Dust still hung in the air and reduced visibility, but they could hear metal clattering nearby, and they both teleported away just before more explosions rang out. Alistair spotted multiple drones in the area, and the person directing them from a nearby roof, due to his conceptual awareness skill, highlighting them through the dust. He teleported next to his assailant, an Elf wearing goggles, seeming capable of tracking him even in the dust. The elf wore a shocked expression, and Alistair, for a moment, thought it was Adamar due to the similar attire. However, he noticed the differences from up close as the elf had shorter ears, a hooked nose, and a slightly different hair color.
Alistair could sense more opponents approach him and was not willing to mess around as he made a charged overhead swing with his poleaxe using Razor Slash, putting in the kinetic energy of two of the three spheres crashing through the elf's barrier and armor, splitting him in two. As the elf died, the drones lost their connection, and they fell out of the sky. Alistair was kicked in his side before the drones could even clatter to the ground. Alistair was surprised as his threat detection had not registered the incoming attack. He, however, managed to absorb enough energy from the attack to fill one of the spheres back up, but he was also bruised and sent flying into another building. Alistair absorbed the kinetic impact from crashing into the wall as two figures rushed towards him. One of which he only registered because he was looking straight at the person.
It was a strange Alien with two sets of arms, retrograde legs, and hoof-like feet, which it had used to kick him. It had large, round, and completely black eyes. It had a weird slit on its forehead, parting the veiny greyish skin. It wore a set of power armor and wielded a large hammer with two of its arms. Identify revealed the attacker to be [Zutriniz - lvl ?]. He had no idea what this race or even gender it was, but he would need to keep his eye on it as it radiated no mana or any other energy signature, as if it were a blank of sorts. The other attacker was a Human [Salrias - level 46] wearing silvery fantasy armor and wielding a two-handed sword. The man had black hair and a full beard. However, Alistair felt little threat from him compared to the undetectable Zutriniz.
Riseth had turned invisible and could hear multiple opponents coordinating with each other. Recovering had come at a price as a few of the left over groups had formed a temporary alliance to put them down. She had sensed how Alistair had immediately killed one of their supporters as one of the drones following her crashed into the ground.
"There! The dust is moving. Blow her up!" One of them called out as an explosive spell hurled her way.
Riseth managed to jump around a corner and teleport out of range as an explosion went off where she had just been. She flew to one of the buildings to get a better overview herself but heard more shouts coming her way.
"I hear her wings flap. She is over there!" Another more croaky voice called out.
Riseth cursed internally as she landed on one of the roofs and saw four people rush in her general direction. They were clearly planning to take her out first as they had marked her as the supporter. Facing four of them at once would be too risky, even if they were nothing special individually. She needed to ambush them and, preferably, take them out one after the other by skirmishing until Alistair finished the people sent to impede him. She hid behind the parapets of the roof, blades at the ready, as one of the incoming opponents was heading toward her building.
Alistair grimaced as Zutriniz teleported, disappearing from his sight. Dealing with an opponent who didn't emit any magical signals or trigger threat detection was incredibly vexing, especially considering Zutriniz's ability to penetrate his Kinetic Skinguard with physical attacks. Alistair spotted the Alien attacking from the corner of his eyes. The hammer shattered through the hastily erected barrier, and Alistair managed to intercept the attack with his sepaskarite shield extending out of his armor. Alistair attempted to redirect the impact back through the hammer but had little effect as the weapon rejected the kinetic energy entering it and dispersing into the air with a whip-cracking sound.
Alistair wanted to contemplate what the hell was going on. Was it a skill or a racial thing? However, he had little focus to spare as an undetectable Alien and a human swordsman assailed him. Luckily, Salrias had a much harder time getting through his Kinetic Skinguard as his armor easily deflected the rest. He decided not to dispatch the Human and use him for kinetic energy generation unless he showed more troublesome capabilities than kinetic-based sword beams and boosting and utility skills. Alistair did, however, transfer some of the energies back to Salrias to give the impression of warding the attacker off.
Much more troublesome was Zutriniz, who managed actually to push him around whenever he spotted the Alien too late. Grappling him had the same effect as channeling the Kinetic energy through his weapon, and the Alien's skin rejected the energies transferred through his body. This meant Alistair had a much harder time holding on than usual, as his time magic was ineffective as well. Just as the Zutriniz managed to pull himself free, Alistair managed to slash him with his poleaxe, which left a nasty gash as grey blood gushed out. He had seemingly hit an artery of sorts.
"So he can be hurt by non-magical means," Alistair realized he would use the stored kinetic energy to empower his swings. Killing Zutriniz had priority because if he hid, finding him would be a massive pain in the ass, if not near impossible. Annoyingly, the Alien, seemingly immune to magic, could use it himself just fine and had a higher power stat than Alistair. Alistair had initially tried to detect the Alien by looking for the lack of or displaced magic, but the Zutriniz seemed to blend into his environment as if he weren't there. Alistair had considered Illusion magic and had unleashed a powerful dispelling aura to no avail. Alistair just could not seem to get a grasp on Zutriniz's skills. They stopped for a moment as a massive explosion rang out in the distance.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"Salrias, go help the others hunt Riseth. You are only in the way here." Zutriniz commanded in a low, eerie tone, his voice carrying an otherworldly quality that sent shivers down Alistair's spine. However, more worryingly, he seemed to have caught on to Alistair's ploys.
"What?! No way! You just want to ensure you get the Kill!" Salrias barked, refusing to follow the command.
Riseth swiftly handled her first attacker, a parrot-like birdkin that had flown over her hiding spot. Teleporting above him, she brought him to the ground by severing one of his wings in the initial attack, then swiftly dispatched him by plunging her blade into one of the bird's eye sockets. Yet, as she landed on him, she couldn't shake the feeling of the crushed brittle bones beneath her, a reminder of her own strength. The other three pursuers immediately turned their attention toward her upon hearing the pitiful squawk.
One of the persuers could best be described as a humanoid purple toadkin with bunny ears and a cat-like tail. The croaking voice belonged to him, and he was the one who caught on the fastest, as he had sharp senses. He wielded a strange nunchuk-like weapon and cast blasts similar to Alistair's. Identify told her his name was [Nizguc- lvl 44]. The next pursuer was a rhino-like alien, though it lacked a horn. Its skin, a pallid gray, wrapped around bulging muscles, while its sci-fi-like attire blended elements of metal plates, synthetic fabrics, and leather, featuring a palette of brown and pastel colors. In its arms, it carried a minigun with too many wires and crystals attached to its chassis. The Rhino-like alien [Trukand - lvl 45] could fly using magic, though seeing a stocky individual like him fly elegantly through the sky was weird. It felt wrong to Riseth, though she had little time to dwell on it as both Trukand and Nizguc opened fire on her, forcing her to jump off the roof.
The last person was a human woman [Dagger - level 41] with black hair and skin. Her body was covered in tribal-like tattoos, and her hair was a mess as parts of her head were shaved while others were not. From what Alistair had told her about Earth, it was unlikely that this woman was from Earth like him. She had wielded a dagger, and Riseth had spotted a whip on her belt. Most notably, much like that frog creature, she could not fly and jumped from building to building instead.
A quick glance at the scoreboard told Riseth they were probably dealing with the last few contenders who had banded together to put them down. After killing the birdman, their score stood at 15 kills. Riseth ran and teleported through the alleyways. Hounded by her pursuers, she managed to dive into a large storage facility attached to a market square nearby. Within, she found boxes stacked to the ceiling but had no time to check them as she ran into the labyrinth-like environment. Close to the center, she placed one of her space mines, now optimized to work within the atmosphere, after the suboptimal result when she faced the Nyuvwira. She turned invisible and waited next to one of the exits for her pursuers to get closer to the center. The Rhino had stayed outside, providing overwatch as Dagger and Nizguc entered the maze of crates.
"Get out here, you cowardly demon bitch!" Dagger yelled her words, echoing off the large structure and eliciting a keckling sound from Nizguc.
Riseth had a toothy grin painted across her face and rushed out of the storage facility as she heard Dagger's next words.
"Hey Toad-Dude, check it out. Do you know what the fuck this weird metal sphere is?"
The last she heard before teleporting away from the massive explosion was Nizguc Croaking, "OH FUCK!" in his croaky voice.
Dagger was immediately erased from the leaderboard as she stood right next to the bomb. Nizguc had some kind of emergency shielding preventing him from dying immediately but had lost his frog legs, tail, and arm. And found himself buried under the rubble. Trukand, who had been providing overwatch above the structure, had managed to block most of the shrapnel and flying debris with his barrier, though he had lost a good chunk of mana in the process.
Trukand suppressed Riseth with his plasma minigun, scorching and cracking the buildings she used for cover, preventing her from finishing Nizguc. Riseth charged her Vortex Bolt in preparation for facing the Rhino-like alien hosing down her position. James had not yet managed to finish the weapons she had requested from him. Alistair had found a miniaturized arcane railgun on a sniper robot, and she had wanted one really badly. However, it would not help much against the Trukand anyway, as he could somehow see through her invisibility.
Riseth took a deep breath before teleporting behind Trukand. She lashed out with her space-warped blades, cutting a gash into Trukand's back, eliciting a rumbling roar from him. His armor and thick skin blocked most of the damage. He spun around surprisingly slowly, and it was easy for her to keep behind him even while flying. Her leathery bat-like wings had been a great boon early on, but she found she would need to develop a skill to improve their fidelity speed and allow her to fly silently. Luckily, body cultivation opened up a lot of doors in that regard, and it was just one more body part she could mold to her liking. Her tail lashed out and wrapped around the Rhino's midsection, slowing him further as the blades started to rip into his armor and body.
It turned out Trukand had a weakness, and it was his limited reflexes as his stocky and cumbersome body struggled. This allowed her to slice and stab at the rhino as he flailed to hit her. He was extremely vulnerable without a supporter covering his back or appropriate skill keeping people off his back. She felt like her finisher would almost be wasted on him, but she needed to finish this fast. She unleashed the bolt at him as he spun around, teleporting to safety. The attack scorched his body and armor before he was slowly ripped to shreds by the miniature rift, killing him.
Riseth did not have to search long before finding Nizguc in the rubble and putting him out of his misery. He had been blown to bits, crushed by the structure, and had a large chunk of shrapnel stuck in his flank. She turned to where she sensed Alistair still fighting; his emotions were as excited as usual. However, there was curiosity and some frustration mixed in. She would see what this was about soon enough as she headed his way.