Ch 3
I had grown lax. For the first time in decades, I had been without a fight. Back on earth, I had trained my body and skills for months, but there were no real threats to my life. As I was staring down at the man’s corpse, I heard rapid scrambling talons scraping on hard concrete, trying to find purchase on the sloped surface of the crumbling building.
Quickly, I swung my body around to look at the incoming chimera; it was large but nowhere near the size of the magdie from the first day. Baseline chimeric creatures found on this layer had a few forms that were worth the same point values of approximately 10 points; this one was one of the lizard variants. Much longer than it was tall, with the front half of a Komodo dragon and a big cat’s leaping hind legs, it stood 6 feet tall at the shoulder. As it entirely made itself around the corner, it coiled its powerful hind legs and pounced forward at great speed, hoping to catch me in its large mouth. The venom in their mouths caused intense pain and vastly reduced the effectiveness of blood clotting. The pain would cause most people to make more significant errors if caught, and if they ever were released from its maw, they would have difficulty staunching the bleeding unless the person had developed a high constitution.
As the chimera leaped forward, I cycled my lightning quick and jumped out of the way of its bite while testing my sigil deflective power by summoning one in front of its face at an angle, hoping to push the monster in the opposite way as I went. The sigil was mildly effective, its forcefield-like quality torquing the monster’s head to the side briefly before disappearing.
‘I will have to see if I can find a way for my abilities to reinforce each other, make Qi interact with the sigil in some way to keep these deflective abilities working as I face stronger and stronger enemies. More powerful enemies, even on this level, would barely be affected by it as it is. On higher levels, enemies wouldn’t be held back more than someone walking into a slow breeze if it stays the same.’
As the monster’s mouth was facing away, I cycled Qi, reinforcing my hand curled into a fist, and launched myself forward, trying to take advantage of the distraction. The effect of my fist was much more profound than expected, caving the monster’s skull while having the negative effect of coating my body in as much silvery crimson gore. Powered as intensely as my body was, it felt like it took all the strain of crushing an orange.
‘What in the Hell. That is disgusting. I suppose that’s the effect of my stats being magnitudes higher than a baseline human and then reinforcing it with explosive lightning Qi.’
Exiting combat, I got a notification in the same way I was able to see my status screen in my mind.
-points gained: 10
‘The first points have come in; now let’s pump those numbers up.’
No more than 30 minutes after ending my training for the day and leaving the crumbling skyscraper, I started to get occasional flits of the sound of fighting with occasional yells of exertion and screams in the far-off distance. I cycled Qi into my senses, determining the direction to investigate.
Pushing my body while using sigils and cycling, I ran into the air to understand the situation I was going into. In the distance, I saw three people fighting a much larger array of chimeras, which was unusual because these chimeras were formed from different types, mainly Komodo Dragon chimeras and the larger saber-toothed elk chimeras. Luckily, all of the chimeras looked to be basic low-point enemies. The group was just getting overwhelmed by numbers. It was weird that there were so many chimeras of different groups. Usually, that didn’t occur unless you were in more concentrated areas like the central tri-city regions. It was likely that this group was man-made in the form that they were corralled together in order to kill another group. I had seen this in the past when somebody needed someone gone but couldn’t afford to take the blame for the murder and wasn’t confident in getting away with it or perhaps strong enough.
Piles of dead chimera bodies were forming. It was apparently a party of four was getting worn down since they had been fighting cents, at least as long as it took me to get there. It kept looking like the party wasn’t going to make it, but the party would pull out yet another trick. Whether it was their mage, a relatively tall middle-aged human in dark robes wielding a staff in one hand would start tossing new spells with explosive effects. The archer, a woman with light leather armor over her torso but leaving her arms free, had dark green hair braided and pulled over her shoulder. She looked like a human, but elven bloodline modifications were evident because of the slight tips to her ears. She took up a place standing back on a small boulder, shooting arrow after arrow and occasionally shooting arrows that would split apart and hit the faces or bodies of her targets. It seemed like the surroundings wanted to keep her hidden, even though she was constantly moving. That ability would come into its own when they got into a layer with a forest biome, which would almost be able to completely conceal those with elf bloodlines if they tried to hide themselves.
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Fighting to her side was a girl who had taken a Kitsune bloodline; she had foxlike ears that started as brown at the base and ended with red tips poking out through her brown hair that was braided to keep out of her face. Even with her pink lips turned into a thin line of determination, the corners of her mouth had a slight upturn. She had a long, very fluffy tail that had the same color pattern as her ears. She was wearing form-fitting leather armor that was dark brown in color and hugged her stomach almost like a corset that went over her chest and up to her neck. Her shoulders and arms were also protected with layered leather pauldrons and laced leather bracers to complete her upper body. She was wearing a skirt made out of two layers of brown leather strips overlapping the other. The strips were about an inch and a half wide and ended in a wide triangular shape that stopped about an inch above her knees. Which gave an occasional glimpse of a couple inches of pale thigh when she moved just right. To protect her shins, she wore leather greaves that were layered like her pauldrons. She had some elemental ability similar to my lightning cultivation but more externalized. She would occasionally shoot lightning with her left hand while moving her fingers in complicated gestures. In the other, she wielded a single-sided straight edge short sword that resembled a Japanese ninjato. Frequently using her less powerful elemental attack to stun an enemy and dance forward gracefully to perform her coup de grâce.
‘This must be an elite group. Bloodline modifications, like those, are not cheap, and at least half of them have them or are loaded out with equipment.’
In front of them was a large man in a full suit of armor, much less elegant than the elven woman’s, wielding a gigantic tower shield and a flanged mace. He would occasionally yell something while slamming his shield to the ground. It was apparent attracting the enemies to him to leave them open for attack from the others. But as you watched him, he began to slow down drastically. He took more and more hits from the chimeras to his body instead of the tower shield.
If I don’t do anything, things will turn drastically once the mace-wielding tank goes down. These guys have armor and training, but they are getting overwhelmed by attacks and sheer numbers.
“Velen! Hit it Now! The elven woman said, seemingly directed at the kitsune. I saw what they were talking about. It was a larger chimera that was currently facing off against the mace and shield-wielding tank-style fighter. It was one with a highly durable hide, one known to be able to take numerous hits from those in the upper 1st realm of cultivation. With the body of a lion but the skin reminiscent of a rhinoceros, it was clearly a formidable foe. The chimera was one that was not an aberration like the magdies and would only be worth about three times what a typical baseline chimera would be; this one is probably worth 35 points. In my first life, it took me over a year of training and fighting with my initial squad to be able to take down a beast like that, and they had to face thirty other chimeras along with it.
As Velen unleashed what was the most potent lightning attack I had seen her do yet, the rhilon chimera was launched back, its bulk smashing into several other chimeras, knocking them away. The rhilon being knocked away gave the party a second of respite, then the other monsters quickly attacked as the rhilon staggered up from the back of the group. By then, I had almost made it there, and it only took another couple of seconds until I smashed my Qi fist into the damaged rhilon where Velen’s previous attack had landed. Causing the skin and bone of the monster to cave in heavily to the point where the beast would not be able to stand again. As the others faced off the remaining twenty-five or so chimeras from the front, I flanked them from the rear, causing massive damage and confusion among their ranks. Despite that, the tank had been too worn down at that point and took a monstrous swipe to the side, sending him tumbling ten yards as he plowed into the ground repeatedly. I heard an involuntary scream from his mouth as several ribs cracked under the force of the blow.
“No. Zeke!” The elven woman screamed. While the others looked on with horror as another chimera leaped in his direction. While defending themselves, all they could do was watch on. From in front of Zeke, a semi-translucent octagon appeared at the last second, slightly deflecting the blow meant for his head, so it plowed into the ground, throwing up sand in every direction. Then the man they had just barely registered in their peripheral vision as the one that had taken out the rhilon was to the side of the Komodo dragon chimera, zooming above the battlefield from one side to the other before the chimera could even register its miss. With a powerful blow, the man’s fist penetrated its chest while knocking it back a distance.
“No!” the woman screamed again. Not yet registering, the first hit had even been deflected away from her companion.
Barely registering what had happened, the group stared in shock.
“What just happened?” one asked.
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Pay attention; there is more to handle!” I shouted at everyone.
With my help, the remaining chimeras were quickly dispatched. The moment combat was over, I received a familiar but pleasant message.
-Points gained: 118
With the rhilon plus an additional eight basic chimeras, that was ten chimeras and 128 points already earned on the first full day.
Looking towards the corpse-strewn battlefield, the group tending to the already healing tank, I said. “I’m sorry about stealing any kills and your points, but I made a judgment call and decided any potential lives I could save would be worth any enmity gained.”
“I-its fine. You saved Zeke from having his head taken off, and his troll blood would never heal that.”