Terrible shrieks assaulted the land as the chimeric abomination charged, and the fist of an amazon obliterated half of it to nothing. A second charged from the side and Donny cleaved it in half. Rage filled in his face and the aura that swelled around him but his eyes were focused, methodical as he found another inquisitor and charged without a second thought.
Mujin weathered the attacks of his own opponent, what strikes and blows he couldn’t react fast enough to parry fell on the Dragonplate armoring his body. An opening appeared as he led the inquisitor to overreach and his spear bored straight through the creature’s torso like the fang of a dragon. Two more followed as the inquisitor wreathed and its soul crumbled away.
An inquisitor lunged for Jean and blood splattered as its sword pierce one of its own kind in the puppeteer’s place. Vines and roots clasped them in and instant and dug into their bodies, ravaging their organs into they perished without even the slightest glance from Kamala.
An arrow shattered a chimera’s skull from the strider’s bow, shrouded in the colors of his background. Several turned their sights to him and he darted just out of their sights, fading back into obscurity with the effect of Unnoticeable. Like a dreaded hunter in the dark, they knew he was there but could do nothing as Basem tested the limits of Stalk, fused from Greater Sneak and Greater Premediation.
“Get the ones that escape!” Yen yelled as she maximized Greater Vortex above a group in the distance.
The sheer power ripped them off the ground and into the swirling orbit of the skill. Some flew against it and others blinked away who were dealt death. Yen channelled her concentration and brought a skill to its zenith in her mind with a smile of success.
“Wait-”
Realization found Kamala’s eyes too late as Explosion detonated on the center of the vortex and a second explosion within consumed the first along with all inquisitors within. A thunderous boom deafened their ears as trees flatten over and the surface of the ground ripped out by the spherical wave of impact, rattling the ward that Shin put around them. Success that Yen gleefully smiled in.
“A nuke…” Jean mused at the mage.
“Is radiation poison?” Donny asked as he exited Perfect Rage by his own will. “Should we be here?”
“Hydrogen bomb. No fuel, just magic. If I can find a way to filter the air and get the heat even higher, I can wipe cities off the map.” Yen smiled in victory. “But I can add fuel, just need to fuse something.”
Since their encounter with the powerhouses of Nostravania, Chariot had dedicated their time to training, more so than ever before. Nearly all of them had some form of mythic tier attack and thus some way to combat the enemies they found, of whom were growing in strength. The abundant inquisitors had become their training partners to this end, progress their priority over elimination, but they achieved both regularly.
“Back soon.” Shin glanced around then sped off by himself. Searching for fusion material was faster on his own and the party no longer needed to rely on him constantly to survive. Plus a certain kitsune warrior that appeared by his side had grown increasingly impatient for a return to their paired hunts.
Through the forest they carved and harvested, following little more than Shin’s eyes and Inari’s whims. In their casual fun under the moonlit night, shadows skewered them from the ground without warning. With blades of darkness piercing his body, Shin invoked Inari in an instant, before her soul broke down to a root. A glowing red eyed black wolf larger than a worg rose from the shadows in wisping darkness, malice and glee dripping from its face.
[Shadow Vargr (epic elite) - Greater Monarch]
The Vargr lunged and Shin severed it in half with purpled blade. As the severed parts ignited in foxfire and the howling spirit’s body melded down into the shadows, Shin turned his attention to the flesh torn out in his side very slowly blackening with no sign of healing.
The vargr remerged some distance away, fur still alight but only for a moment before it was smothered by darkness wrapping around it. The beast stared down Shin, its glee absent now, and retreated back into the shadows. It rose far away and sprinted down the forest in sour contemplation, and Shin beheaded it clean.
Its melted into shadows once more and leaped away through the esoteric portals, faster and more urgently than before, and Shin appeared above again. Black and white coated his blade as he slashed the vargr in half. The creature dissipated into the air and Shin pulled its soul into the palm of his hand.
[Shadow Vargr (epic elite) - Greater Monarch]
Strength - 1635
Agility - 3102
Constitution - 1001
Vitality - 1248
Dexterity - 1927
Perception - 1950
Force - 1899
Spirit - 2015
Control - 1500
Willpower - 1723
Skills:
Darkness Lordship lvl. 4, Bane lvl. 3, Shadowmeld lv. 5, Haste lvl. 3, Fear lvl. 2, Sneak lvl. 5, Invisibility lvl. 3, Premeditation lvl. 6, Agile lvl. 7, Rapid lvl. 8,
Traits:
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Malevolent (mythic), Malefic (mythic), Darkness Overwhelming (mythic), Loved by Darkness (mythic), Darkvision (mythic), Martial Eye (mythic), Curse Immunity (mythic), Greater Poison Resistance (legendary), Greater Disease Resistance (legendary),
A strange spirit. Far too strange, obvious even at a glance but Shin could see deeper. Many of its skills that surpassed its station vestiged to its soul. Two among them caught his attention the most. Darkness Lordship gave it complete and all encompassing control over the element of shadows, a blend of most every attack and direct magic skill imaginable. And Bane, which gave one’s physical attacks the potential to kill anything.
“Strange human…” Shin turned to the deep words of another wolf, this one’s fur white and shining, accompanied by emerging worgs of similar appearance. “Why have you come to the forest?”
[Light Vargr (epic elite) - Greater Monarch]
[Light Worg (rare elite) - Greater Monarch]
“Harvesting spirits.” Shin answered honestly as the form of a fox faded away.
“For what reason.”
“Make mine stronger.”
“I see…” The ire of the pack fell upon Shin but the vargr made no move but to calmly turn and walk deeper in. “Follow me.”
Shin hopped near the monster and walked beside with the utmost casualness. The worg pack followed behind as they calmly drew further into the forest, its dark branches illuminated softly by the spirits of light.
“You take life too lightly, boy.” The vargr spoke after some time. “That is a path not easily returned from once ventured down.”
“Shin.”
“I have no name to give.” The vargr looked at Shin and settled back ahead as he found his words did not truly stick.
“Skoldr.”
“Call me as you wish.” An air of time seemed to come about the wolf. “Such troubled times. Much of this world has changed. And much has not. Regardless of power or the passage of stars, humans seek madness. They call it many things. Proclaim their reasons, but madness is what they find. And madness they produce.”
“Did you get fused?” Shin asked. “Is that why you’re strong?”
“Yes… Long ago.” Skoldr lingered in distant memories. “That shadow vargr is the same, though after the change. He… is lost to madness. Had you not slain him, we would have. For the safety of the pack.”
The light vargr turned its head again to Shin. “You possess the same power as that madman. A most evil and unforgivable being. I advise you, do not use it.”
“I need to make them stronger.” Shin refused pleasantly.
“Do you feel no sympathy for the creatures destroyed to achieve that.” Skoldr looked true into his eyes and saw that the question did not even fully register in Shin’s mind.
“I see…” The vargr picked its pace up, just slightly as it walked ahead of Shin. “You are different from that man. But lost all the same.”
Skoldr turned, and dozens upon dozens of light worgs surrounded Shin, deep in the forest. Shin himself stopped, the look in his eyes unchanged as he waited. “I will slay madness.”
Light of indescribable brightness blinded Shin in an instant, and the worgs leapt. Shin opened his eyes again, glowing prismatic, and slaughtered the worgs in a world of colors. A beam of burning light seer his skin and Shin blinked over Skoldr. But his slash found only air as the light vargr slid around his side as fast as though he teleported.
Kong appeared and slaughtered the worgs in Shin’s place as Mara enclosed them all in a ward. A flash of light seared them both in an instant, but the veil of mystic protection kept them alive, and Shin gathered vibration around. Skoldr rebounded off him in the blink of an eye and Shin acted.
Kong and Mara vanished and violent ripples pulsed over the land. The worgs fell in droves and even the vargr strained under the might of the attack. He lunged towards the ward that remained and blasted pure light towards the cage but the ruthless attack felled the valiant beast before it could escape, and Shin harvested it like all the rest.
Its status less impressive than the shadow vargr, but one thing stood out among the rest. Light Shift, the same movement skill Donny and Mujin possessed but once that did so at the speed of light. Attack at the same time was impossible as one also turned to light, and the range was limited, but it was instantaneous movement all the same.
He vestiged it and drew the shadow vargr’s soul. The lure of Bane did not tempt him for a second as he chose Darkness Lordship that called him more than any other and pushed the two together. A battle of light and dark raged, each as strong as the other. But one lasted longer, burned brighter, fueled by something stronger.
A massive wolf came into being, as large as the giant direwolf. Its fur a ghostly dark, spectral black chains like the embodiment of curses shackled it legs and neck, and its piercing red eyes focused on Shin, glee returning to join its malice.
[Dusk Garm (legendary elite) - Greater Monarch]
“Fool.”
Shin’s body crashed away, the moment the wolf sneered. A blur caught his sights only after the garm reached him and a paw swatted him away once more, as shadows stabbed from below. The dark stakes strained and failed to pass the armor but then they spread over like cloth, binding him in place as a ghostly palm passed through pulse and protection to tear out his flesh and inflict new curses.
In a blur, Shin was battered around the forest. Dozens of strikes in a moment powerless to combat the sheer speed as the Garm gleefully dove through shadows and glided as light. The curses mounted, spreading through his body as a most vile corruption, but Shin showed no concern.
A pulse of black and white channelled in his palm as death slowly crept in and as the beast lunged, Shin grasped its throat, having read the intentions in the garm’s movements. The wolf sneered as Shin’s hand passed through its body but half its body ruptured from within.
In a panic, the wolf fled but a cage of ward repelled it back. Shadows rose to carve the walls away and in that time, Shin blinked by its side and struck with prismatic fist. The garm howled as the iridescent cracks spread through its soul and fled through the shadows. And just as the first time, Shin followed wherever he emerged, until the damage to its soul brought it down and it could must its skills no more.
[Spirit Communion as upgraded to Greater Spirit Communion.]
Shin willed the skill higher and made his offer, and the garm refused. She offered again and again incessantly but was rejected each time. Disdain and hatred poisoned the air around the garm who refused with all its being to fall under his service.
Shin tilted his head. “Are you okay with dying here?”
The words it least wanted to hear fell on the garm’s ears. Rage and resentment swelled within it until the beast begrudgingly accepted. “You will regret this…” It vowed as Shin withdrew him into his soul to heal.
[Dusk Garm (legendary elite) - Greater Lord]
Strength - 1635
Agility - 3102
Constitution - 1001
Vitality - 1248
Dexterity - 1927
Perception - 1950
Force - 1899
Spirit - 2015
Control - 1500
Willpower - 1723
Skills:
Darkness Lordship lvl. 4, Shadowmeld lv. 5, Light Blitz lvl. 1, Haste lvl. 3, Fear lvl. 2, Greater Sneak lvl. 5, Greater Invisibility lvl. 3, Greater Premeditation lvl. 6, Greater Agile lvl. 7, Greater Rapid lvl. 8, Greater Ghost Claw lvl. 1, Greater Phase lvl. 1,
Traits:
Malevolent (mythic), Malefic (mythic), Darkness Overwhelming (mythic), Loved by Darkness (mythic), Darkvision (mythic), Martial Eye (mythic), Curse Immunity (mythic), Greater Poison Resistance (legendary), Greater Disease Resistance (legendary), Greater Necrotic Resistance (legendary),
“Name?”
“...Vicious…”
“Shin.”
Shin inspected the state of his body. The curses were an issue, but his curse immunity and greater hallowed would stave off the worst for a time, at least until Kamala could slowly remove it all. Just as quickly as he started, he left the forest the same as he entered and soon returned to the party.
“Did you actually have a hard fight.” Yen glanced at the state of him. “What happened?”
Shin smiled back. “I got a new spirit.”