CHAPTER 119: Seeking Power
“So, you are the aberration? I must say I’m not impressed by your showing so far,” said the “Base Overseer [32]” as he faced Adam while holding oddly shaped short swords in each hand. Adam wasn’t sure where they had been taken out from, but it might be Rift Menu magic.
“It was enough to take out your guards,” retorted Adam.
“I’ve heard you were Tier 3 strength. A Tier 3 berserker should have been able to run through those warriors, not have to stop and engage them. Yet, it is still odd. How did you use a Tier 4 ability like [Gladiator’s Approach]?”
Adam just shrugged at him, staying in battle stance while watching Lamar carry off Nick in the corner of his eye.
“I guess it matters not. You are an aberration after all. They will find the answers from your corpse or not. Something like you hasn’t happened since the arrival of the [System] and is unlikely to happen for thousands of years to come,” stated the overseer dismissively.
“Is there a reason for all your yapping?” asked Adam, struggling to be patient with an invader right in front of him. Inside, the river was roaring, and the voice was screaming for him to conquer this enemy and to take what is his.
“So uncouth,” said the overseer with his snout turned up, sneering. “I guess I shouldn’t expect intelligence from barbarians. After all, it is up to the masters to discipline their property.”
The overseer then attacked. He stepped forward and it was clear that he had the ability and stats capable of fighting.
“[Master of the Domain],” the overseer announced as he flashed with the skill usage. Adam could feel the Scyrric’s stat’s rising mid step as he arrived in an instant. The speed wasn’t enough to overwhelm Adam though, as he caught the overseer’s blade with his own. A swing of the overseer’s offhand knife came close, but Adam was able to turn his body to avoid it.
“That was adequate, if not at all impressive,” said the lizard. “Let me give you a bit of information. The class Base Overseer is an epic rarity class. This means that we are stronger than most, excelling further within a base that we are in charge of. We have many self-buff skills that bring us to greater heights when defending. What I just used increases my stats by 50% while I am defending the base. I can also use [Strength of my Enemy] to take an additional 25% of the stats of the highest-level enemy within the base.”
With a malevolent smirk, the overseer flashed with the use of that skill. However, afterwards he stepped back, making some space between them. Adam noticed his eyes flickered to where Lamar was carrying Nick.
“It seems you aren’t the highest level here. That pest who killed my watcher has you beaten. Oh well. More stats are more stats. Especially once I use [Strength of my Follower]. I can temporarily borrow half of one of their stats and the use of a single skill. I’ll take [Devastating Counter] and Strength from one of the living Riot Enforcers,” explained the overseer.
“You sound like an anime where the MC needs to explain every card he plays in an inconsequential game so the audience thinks he’s more impressive than he is,” muttered Adam.
“I was doing you a courtesy to inform you of how you would be defeated, but if you don’t care, that saves me the trouble,” snarled the overseer.
Three more flashes came from parts of the overseer. His hands, chest, and tail. Then he once more attacked.
The stat increasing skills made a huge difference. Adam was immediately on the defensive. The rapid swipes from his swords resulted in a cut to Adam’s upper arm, with his forearms avoiding it only thanks to the feral behemoth skin that made up his long gloves. The testudinate alloy bracers didn’t do a thing as the overseer’s knives were able to cut right through it, with only token resistance.
“That material is frustrating. I’m not sure what it is or where you got it from, but it will only buy you a short amount of time.”
During the next few engagements their weapons swung furiously. Adam blocked and parried as best he could, having to primarily defend his neck and upper arms, the areas where his armor didn’t protect. The overseer did slash his chest piece to test but realized more of the behemoth leather was below.
Adam was now becoming overwhelmed. He reached for his own skill [Soul and Body Shaping] to draw more power from the river. It required the limits of what his body could take just to begin blocking or dodging every strike, while his skin and insides began to overheat and redden.
Once more the overseer stepped back.
“There it is. The berserker’s own ability to increase their stats based on the force used against them. So much power in that class even if it is only a rare one, and this time I did see your skill activate,” nodded the overseer before attacking again.
For the next several minutes Adam moved as fast as he ever had, blocking, counter swinging, evading. The fight was the first where he was able to observe fighting technique as his opponent seemed very practiced with his weapons.
The style probably wouldn’t have worked for a human as Adam noticed the knives were held differently due to the large talons, while the tail added an odd balance and momentum to the swings. The overseer could be lunging, but a swing of the tail would then change the angle of the attack or might suddenly pull the overseer back so he could dodge one of Adam’s thrusts.
Adam waited, resisting the fury coming from inside, the desire to just run forward to crush what was in front of him. In his head, Adam knew that wouldn’t work. Then, after hundreds of exchanges, Adam saw an opening and thrust into it.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“[Devastating Counter!]” The overseer’s weapon flashed then thrust forward.
Adam could barely follow the skill-based attack. He thought his own attack should have landed, but too late he realized the opening had been intentional. The impact that Adam had on the overseer didn’t leave a mark, instead channeling the power into his own strike. The blade flashed towards Adam’s core. With the slightest twist, Adam took the knife in his oblique, where it sank through his armor and body, poking out the other side.
The overseer let go of the weapon, instead trying to strike forward with his claws. Adam was already thrown backwards from the force, bringing him half off the ground and ruining his balance. The lizard’s tail hooked Adam’s ankle using some kind of shaped metal accessory that Adam had thought was purely decorative.
Tumbling back, Adam was forced to block the Scyrric’s downward strike with his sword, catching the knife on his cross-guard. A claw strike came next, while he was still pushing his sword away from him. Parrying with his own knife resulted in it being knocked out of his hand. Very quickly Adam grabbed the overseer’s wrist, trying to keep the talons from coming at him again.
There Adam lay. The overseer’s claw held back by his hand, his own leg held down by the tail to prevent him from kicking or performing a judo throw, and both of the remaining weapons locked. Their strength was close to even, with Adam having a little to spare to push upwards, until the overseer once more curled his lips at Adam.
“[Defender of my People],” hissed the overseer as his whole body flashed from the skill.
The pressure on Adam became more than he could take. Both the locked knife and the claws came slowly, quivering towards him. The knife in his side further prevented Adam from getting leverage.
It took a greater increase of power from [Soul and Body Shaping] to once more hold the overseer at bay, though the creature didn’t seem in a rush to finish this. Regardless of the invader’s words, Adam could feel the exuberance and pride from the Scyrric at having his enemy on the ropes.
Adam couldn’t sustain this. His eyes darted around but there was no one nearby that could help. There was no one in this base strong enough to affect this enemy. Pain was coming down his arms not from the overseer’s attack or the strain on his muscles, but from the burning that was eating away at his skin from using too much of his own power. Inside, the river was boiling and overflowing, trying to sweep Adam’s mind away.
He had known this would happen sooner or later, that his unexplainable strength would get power crept by his enemies, by those with higher levels. Adam wasn’t sure if this was sooner or later than he expected. Once he fell, that would be it for the humans. The end of Jackson, his family and friends. Adam tried using those thoughts as motivation to summon an inner strength and determination, but no matter what he wanted, there was no shift in his strength.
His stats were high enough, but he was fighting without tools. Everyone had skills. Adam only had those pseudo-skills, the memories of skills and weaker versions at that. As far as he knew, he had four pseudo-skills from a berserker class, and some from a soul manipulation class.
While still resisting the pressure from the overseer, Adam tried using a soul strike. He felt it go out but then hit an incorporeal wall. More subtly, Adam tried forming a connection and feeling for the overseer’s soul space, but again that wall blocked him. When he looked at his soul map, he couldn’t even see the overseer on it. Either Adam’s abilities weren’t strong enough against someone of the overseer’s level or the invader had skills or equipment to block it.
What Adam needed were more tools. More skills. He didn’t know how he had created [Body and Soul Shaping], but he did know where the pseudo skills came from…his memories. He also had been given a hint by the overseer, that berserkers could increase their stats from force sent against them.
He could feel his strength decreasing. If it waned much further, he would be done, with the overseer pushing downwards as he smiled above him.
Adam reached inside. He fell into his own soul, still aware and experiencing what was happening with his body. As quickly as he could, he entered the space where his memories were. The usual calm crystals that signified important memories seem agitated. They were less stable. Instead of slowly drifting into place, they quivered.
Several times before, Adam had traveled to those blood splotches that represented memories from the other person, from someone with a real berserker class. Usually, it took longer to reach them, but it seemed the space responded to Adam’s intent as he very quickly found himself flowing through the golden fog of the area and into the edge of it.
He zipped to the different areas where blood memories had stuck to the border of his own memories. The pseudo-skills had lines reaching further into his memory space where Adam knew they connected to crystal memories of his own.
In a rush, still feeling the claws and knife inching closer to him, Adam moved around the borders of the soul area. He could see more blood splotches, both close and far, but none that touched his memory space. Numerous experiments had shown Adam that he couldn’t affect the ones outside of his space. Only the ones connected to his border were linked to memories.
Growing desperate, Adam raced around searching. He could feel the claws almost at his chest, his own sword beginning to touch his neck. Adam wasn’t sure if he was able to feel panic while the river raged, but he knew even pre-[System] Adam would have felt it by now. What he was looking for could be in any direction, any distance from his border. He couldn’t even be sure that what he wanted was within reach.
Adam closed his eyes. Both those with his body and whatever senses he used within his own soul.
“Accepting your death, aberration? Maybe you have a modicum of honor,” gloated the overseer, his voice a far distance from Adam’s mind.
With all his senses muted, Adam reached out. He didn’t reach with desperation or a sense of need. Instead, he just thought about exerting force through a skill, of meeting force with force. A metaphysical hand reached out from him and then stopped.
Adam opened his senses. He was at the edge of his memory space and right on the other side was a blood splotch. There was no line connecting it to anything. It simply sat there, lightly touching the border, still more blood splotch memories floating further back. Now Adam had to form that connection.
This time he kept his senses open as he touched the place where the blood memory sat.
Adam breathed in the humid jungle air. There was an accompanying smell of smoke and death. Behind him everything was broken and burned. There were tens of thousands of corpses. Beasts, monsters, aliens, invaders, chimeras, all manners of enemies. In front of him were tens of thousands of creatures that he would add to the piles of corpses.
He had been fighting for hours. He would continue fighting for hours more. As long as he needed to go, this would continue until they were all dead at his feet, or they burned away every part of his body.
Once more Adam activated his skill. Strength fed into him. Energy, power, and death for his enemies.
[Power Through +5]
Increases user’s Strength and Agility based on the level difference between himself and an aggregation of the nearby enemies at the cost of Intelligence and Wisdom.
+1: Increases range of enemy aggregation.
+2: Increases range of enemy aggregation.
+3: Increases Strength accumulated.
+4: Increases Strength multiplier.
+5: Increases Agility multiplier.
The eyes of Adam’s physical body opened, staring into the overseer’s eyes with an intensity the Scyrric hadn’t seen before. Rare for Adam when he was fighting, his mouth became a wide grin.