Avery, Blair, Mercer, Roman, Jude, Jude’s group, Kala, and Kala’s group watched the hooded figures stand there. While the hoods covered most of their faces, they were still able to see small things like lips, color of their skin, whether they had fur, scales, or smooth skin, etc. They didn’t interrupt the old man and young as they bantered off. Instead, their minds tried to work out a plan to escape.

Kala and her group were kind of skeptical when they heard Liam had something to help distract the group and possibly create an opening to help them escape. They didn’t know Liam, nor did they really trust him. Kala had thought Jude was crazy for wanting to put their lives in the hands of this stranger. Even if he was another Champion like herself, his Matron was Chaos. What could Chaos do in this situation?

Kala cautiously glanced at one of her members. They looked like they were getting ready to do something. However, Arla, the only beast-kin in their group, swiftly placed a hand on Falin’s back causing the man to tense and stop whatever he was about to do. Arla then looked at Kala and mouthed the words, Get ready.

Kala was really confused by what she meant and was about to mouth something back to her, but stopped as she heard Liam quickly say, “Get lost in the symphony, Discordant Bells of Cacophony.”

Each member of the hooded group, and a few skeletons suddenly fell to the ground. The old man and the young woman were still talking in a calm manner, almost as if they were unaware they had fallen to the ground. They watched as the woman pointed in their direction, demanding that they answer them.

Everyone not affected by the spell was confused on what happened and didn’t know how to proceed. Kala’s group looked at Kala while Jude’s group looked at Jude. Kala and Jude went to look at Liam, but noticed he wasn’t there. However, they did see Avery, Blair, Mercer, and Roman who looked just as confused as them.

Jude was about to ask when Liam had went, but before he could open his mouth, loud screams filled the air causing everyone to jump and turn their focus on the people on the ground. They watched as limp around flailed, trying to reach their heads and failed. A couple of the hooded figures squirmed in a fashion that looked like they were in complete and utter pain. A pain so horrible tears streamed down their cheeks and spit flew out of their mouths.

Arla suddenly brought her hands to her head suddenly as Mica, Blair and Roman placed one on theirs as well. Kala reached out for her member and asked in a panic, “What’s going on?”

Arla threw a hand out stopping Kala from approaching her as she breathed heavily. She slowly regained her senses as she said, “I’m fine. I’m fine. The sounds gone now.”

“Sound?” Falin and Ciara questioned. “What sound?”

“Bells,” Mica said as she placed a hand over her heart. “So many bells.”

“Bells?” Jude questioned as he looked at Mica.

“You were able to hear them?” Liam asked as he suddenly appeared next to Blair and Roman. He looked concerned and worried as they shook their heads.

Kala whirled to look at him and questioned, “What did you do?”

“I used one of my spells. Discordant Bells of Cacophony,” Liam replied. “It’s a spell that causes an opponents mind to become a bit chaotic as bells ring over and over.”

“Why did it affect one of my teammates?” Kala demanded as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“I honestly don’t know. It’s the first time I had ever used it around those I didn’t target,” Liam said. He then felt the hostility in Kala’s and her teammate’s as they stared him down. Liam glared at them as he understood what they were thinking. “Look it also affected a couple of my teammates as well. So don’t get it in your heads that I was trying to attack you as well.”

Kala was about to argue, but was cut off as Mercer said, “Look you can yell at him all you want later. For now, I suggest we get the hell out of here before they come back to their senses.”

“I agree,” Jude said as he and his team turned around to see a handle full of skeletons that hadn’t fallen over, make their way towards them.

“You guys head out. I have a few more spells I need to use before I leave,” Liam stated as he looked at Mercer. “I’ll catch up to you quickly.”

Mercer eyed Liam. He didn’t want to leave him behind, but understood it was probably something he didn’t want the others to see. The others being Jude, Kala, and their groups. “Fine,” Mercer finally relented. “But you better make it quick. We need to catch up with the others and leave as soon as possible.”

Liam waved a hand and watched for a moment as everyone dodged the skeletons that were still able to move. Even though these ones didn’t fall like the others, their movements seemed to have slowed down. They looked sluggish. Like they were moving through mud. After the last had made it past them, the group of skeletal armored beings slowly turned around and tried chasing after them.

[Liam, what are you doing? – Eri.]

I’m going to cast some spells to try and hinder them as much as I can while they are like this. Liam thought back as he activated his Veil of Shadows. After he felt the familiar embrace of shadows cover his body, he activated Spirit Weave. He felt the familiar transformation cover his upper body as he watched the bodies before him continue to writhe in pain.

Not wanting to waste any time he pointed his dagger at the furthest person and chanted, “Hidden beneath and lying in wait, the unseen’s poison is never delivered late. Bellow out in a puff of smoke and slip into the stream. Corrupt the body, Corrupt the mind. Deliver the fear you wish to create. Shade’s Corruption.”

He watched as a puff of black smoke exploded from beneath the person and covered them. He waited to see if the spell failed. After a few seconds passed and no notification appeared, he chanting his spell onto the next target. He did this to the rest. After he finished and saw the smoke that covered the first person he had used the spell disappear, he readied his next spell and chanted, “Radiant and majestic, we admire you in the night. Deadly and poisonous, many don’t know your terrible might. Caress my target with your light like a gentle kiss. Remind them why you’re as dangerous as the abyss. Epidermis Luminescence.”

He continued to do this with the rest of the group as well. He was almost finished and was getting ready to chant the Epidermis Luminescence on the last person, the young woman who was arguing with the old man, but right as he finished the chant, she pushed her body up to her feet and reached out to grab Liam by the throat.

Liam felt his Veil of Shadows lift. He was shocked that she was able to move as fast as she did. His Danger Sense didn’t react quickly enough to warn him. Panic started to fill him as he tried to struggle free from her grip and failed. His daggers were no longer in his hands. He felt the strength of the woman as she tightened her hold on his neck. She was powerful.

“You were the cause for that…fucking spell. Weren’t you,” the woman scowled. Liam saw a pale white light flashed on her wrist indicating Liam’s spell had landed. The scowl and grit in her teeth as the light flashed and a puff of black smoke escaped her mouth told Liam she was feeling the pain his two affliction spells were creating within her body.

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The woman let out a painful wheeze as she coughed black smoke out once more before glowering, “What was that fucking spell?! Huh?!”

Liam let out a cough as he felt her grip tighten a bit more. The panic that had started to fill him was now starting to drown him as he tried desperately to pry himself away from her hand. He tried to kick her but failed as she swatted his foot away with her free hand.

“I don’t think so,” the woman coughed while gritting her teeth. “I’m not letting you go after what you just did. I am going to have you compensate for helping our target escape.”

Liam placed both hands on her wrist as he struggled to break free. He could feel his chances of breaking free starting to fade away as the corner of his eyes started to darken. He couldn’t breath thanks to her grip around his throat. He was surprised she hadn’t crushed his throat with how strong her grip was. However, no matter how surprised he was that his throat wasn’t being crushed, she was still applying enough strength to cause him to go unconscious due to lack of oxygen.

That was enough to cause his body to start clawing with all he had. He could feel his body start to slow down after a few seconds as his vision darkened even more. His arms started to feel heavy as he kept trying to claw at her. His legs dangled there right above the ground. With one final attempt he placed his right hand on to her wrist and tried to squeeze as hard as he could.

He could feel his strength disappearing as his vision filled with darkness while all sound around him became a dull ringing. His right hand was about to drop from her wrist, and he was about to fall unconscious until a strange voice whispered in his mind, Pathetic.

Liam felt something entering his body right before it drop to the ground, bringing his vision back with the sudden drop. He coughed loudly and painfully as he drank in as much air as he could. He blinked rapidly, clearing the blurriness that clouded his vision. After his vision returned his hearing slowly came back with it as well.

The woman was down on her knees screaming at Liam. At first Liam couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying. As his hearing started to return he was able to hear her howling and demanding, “What the fuck did you just do!?”

“Huh?” Liam muttered as he felt his limbs slowly return to normal.

“My levels…how…where the fuck did they go?” the woman shrieked as she remained on her knees sounding distraught.

Liam, who was slowly regaining his consciousness and his feeling in his body back stared at her with confusion. He wasn’t sure what was going on. He remembered that he was about to black then…then all of a sudden he was free of her grip and sucking in as much air as he could. He was going to try and contemplate more on what was going on but stopped as a notification appeared in front of him.

[Congratulations! Avaricious Potency Absorption has successfully taken 4 levels away from Catherine’s Reflex Sub-stat. You have successfully, temporarily increased your Reflex Sub-stat by 4 levels, reaching level 30, for five minutes. Please note, any bonus effects for reaching certain levels in a sub-stat will not apply due to level being temporary.]

When the hell did I use that ability? Liam thought, confusion etched on his face. He was about to think more on the topic but stopped as his ears twitched from a sound getting closer to him. He felt his Danger Sense flare up along his back and swiftly rolled his body to the left, dodging a sword coming down on him. After rolling away, Liam used the momentum to bring himself back to his feet and look at what tried to attack him. What he found was one of the skeletal soldiers staring back at him while the tip of its sword touched the ground.

Liam stared at the creature, unsure what to do. He knew he needed to get away as fast as he could, but for some reason, his heightened senses spiked, and he felt confused. He was confused on which way he needed to go due to the smells filling the air, his sight focused in and out almost like a lens that couldn’t remain still, the sounds of bones rattling against armor and the screams from the people still under the affects of his spells…even his skin felt weird. For some reason it felt slightly sensitive almost like he had goosebumps forming from some sort of weird cold chill and like his hair was wanting to stand up due a static shock about to strike his body.

His Danger Sense activated on his left side causing his body to react instantly due to how sensitive he was feeling. He quickly jumped to his right, dodging a mace that was coming down on to him. As soon as he landed his ears perked up causing him to jump backwards, right into the body of an armored skeletal minion. Due to how heightened his hearing was, he made a bad calculation on where all the enemies were. While he was able to dodge the creature that had tried to hurt him, he had put himself right into harms way of another as the skeletal minion tried to attack him a second after bumping into it.

Liam was confused. He didn’t know what was going on and why his senses had heightened so much. He had heightened senses before and thought they were good, but what he was feeling right now was completely different than what he was normally used to. As he tried to dodge another attack he thought to himself, The only thing I can think of that caused this was my Reflex Sub-stat reaching thirty. Does my Reflex sub-stat also affect my senses? Am I having trouble grounding myself due to the sudden spike in levels? It shouldn’t have this much of an effect. I mean I don’t feel like this when I use…

Liam was cut off from his thoughts as a mace suddenly crashed into his side making him roll away from the swarm of skeletal monsters. After rolling a few times and coming to a stop, Liam coughed a few times and tried to push himself up. He looked to his right to see the swarm of monsters making their way towards him. As he made his way to his feet he noticed both of his daggers, his hammer, hatchet, and meat cleaver resting on the ground not too far away from him. He hadn’t noticed his Earth, Gravity, and Lightning Hand had disappeared some time ago and forgotten about his tool weapons.

He needed to get away from here, but he also couldn’t leave his gear behind. He cursed internally as he resolved himself to try and get his newly heightened sense under control. He thought about ways he could do that, but shook his head as he realized majority of them would take way too long. He was about to give up when his mind came back to a solution he always went to when his mind went on overdrive. The solution to his problem was simple. When everything going on with him was raging like a storm, all he needed to do was calm it.

Liam looked at the creatures and tried to judge how much time he had before they got to him. He had a small amount of distance from them to him. The woman was still on her knees and her companions were still writhing in pain. He had some time. If he couldn’t get it before the swarm got to him then he could move away and try again. He nodded to himself approving the strategy.

He closed his eyes and thought to himself, Calm the Storm. Nothing happened. He tried again. Calm the Storm. His skin pricked as the sounds of bones and other noises reverberated throughout his body. Calm the Storm. The noise suddenly dampened. No…not dampened, but rather disappeared. No…it was still there. He could hear the rattling and screams, but instead of them echoing or deafening it seemed like they were starting to separate or be categorized. The sounds of the screaming of the hooded individuals and the woman demanding to know what was going on lowered as the sound of the skeletal minions were more focused. It felt like his hearing prioritized what was the bigger threat.

That realization lasted for a brief moment as he lost his grasp on it. He tried again. Calm the Storm. It was back once more. He focused hard on what he was feeling, trying to make sense of it. He lost it once again as his Danger Sense lit up. He jumped backwards a few times to create some distance and tried to get back into what he was trying to do.

Calm the Storm. Liam felt something within him start to form as his skin became less sensitive and his smell came under control. Like his hearing, his sense of smell focused on the bigger threat. He could smell the skeletal minions, and he really hated himself for that.

Calm the Storm. That feeling he had gotten grew within him as a new theory of how his senses worked was starting to form. As this theory started to form, he grew slightly confused. Whenever he used Calm the Storm it helped him calm his mind and clear it of anything and everything. This time however, it helped him calm and think more about his heightened senses and how they worked in the moment. The more he thought about it and focused on it the more it brought that familiar feeling he had gotten when he faced the Wave Rider Crab.

Calm the Storm. This last thought on Calm the Storm was what he needed as he felt his body relax and go into autopilot. He opened his eyes and saw a faint glow emanate from them off of the skeletal creature that was right in front of him with a mace raised up. Before it could strike down, Liam was already gone. As Liam reappeared behind the group of skeletal minions and right next to his equipment he tried to contain his excitement as he realized he had done it again. He had activated his Battle Zen.