Jason’s feet slammed into the asphalt as he raced toward the hulking metal beast. His conscious thoughts faded as he suddenly became aware of every step. At the same time, his eyes roamed the creature, automatically cataloging its weaknesses and observing every minute change from its smaller, lower-level counterparts.
A wave of missiles rocketed by, almost causing him to stagger. The combined might of nearly one hundred of Ashland’s finest shook the air as they passed overhead. Dozens of bolts, spears, darts, missiles, explosions, and many more slammed into the the Elite Shocktrooper.
Its legs lifted and fell in a clockwise pattern around itself. Ports and panels opened up all across the armored legs, just as the ACPD's salvo crashed into it. Then the beast was engulfed and Jason was forced to cower or risk being knocked off his feet.
Several long seconds later, the shaking seized, and Jason glanced up to behold the damage.
Instead of a shattered and broken creature, the Elite stood tall and undamaged as a deep, muted hum pervaded the air. Blue lines of glowing energy pulsed from large humming ports in its legs. They cascaded down thin blue channels that guided the energy toward flower-like emitters staged at the tip of the first joint of each leg. The emitters spun, rippling with blue energy and filling the air in front of them with a glimmering, faceted shield extending nearly ten feet into the air around the creature.
Cracks and holes dotted the shield, but even as he watched, the flickering membrane repaired itself with a fresh flood of blue energy.
“Fire at will!”
Jason dimly heard Chief Ricci shout from behind as more projectiles flew overhead. Each one slammed into the shield and detonated against the energy barrier.
Just then, a large, eight-sided panel at the very top of the creature’s back opened up. A platform rose from within, sporting two heavy artillery cannons on automatic swiveling mounts. The turrets turned toward the two nearest opponents and opened fire.
Jason yelped as a hail of gunfire slammed into him. The first salvo impacted his reinforced shirt, dimpling the leather and knocking the breath from his lungs but failing to penetrate. The second tore through and was only stopped as [Callous Hide] activated to absorb the impact. Jason had never been shot before by armor-piercing rounds, but the bullets coming out of the Elite felt...weak. Not as strong as lumps of metal traveling that fast should have been.
They still stung like a hot damn when they impacted.
[Flesh Reconstruction] hummed to life. It spat out dozens of tiny shells that had managed to break through his armor and [Iron Resistance]. His health dipped, but none of the bullets managed to tear into him hard enough to induce gray health.
Jason ducked down, presenting a smaller target, as all 75 points of his constitution worked to keep him alive. He scanned the environment and lunged toward a street lamp reinforced by a large iron girder.
The hail of bullets tinged incessantly off the metal obstruction before suddenly stopping. A second later, it resumed, followed closely by a scream from the backline.
Jason frowned and instantly hopped back out. He didn’t need to know who was injured to understand that the boss was smart enough to change tactics. Luckily, his blind rush toward the creature drew its attention, and one of the hyperactive turrets turned back to him.
‘ding!’ ‘You have been empowered by [Piercing Recuperation]’
‘ding!’ ‘You have been empowered by [Barrier]’
...
‘ding!’ ‘You have been empowered by [Fleet Footwork]’
A sapphire shield appeared and then instantly shattered as the wave of buffs washed over him. Particles of every color of the rainbow glittered off of him as a slew of buffs empowered his movements. He gasped, nearly missing a step, as the hail of bullets returned. He barely felt the impacts as his nerves tingled. He ducked, dodged and wove in front of the creature, drawing aggro from even the second gun as more and more projectiles flew overhead.
Euphoria burned in Jason’s mind.
He was unstoppable.
‘ding!’ ‘[Callous Hide] has reached level 10’
‘ding!’ ‘[Callous Hide] has reached the limit of the first Saf. Choose another skill to guide its evolution’
Minutes passed in a fugue. Time barely seemed to exist. Shields and healing spells topped up his health pool whenever his own skills started to struggle.
“SWITCH!”
His stamina dipped, and he barely registered Sloan’s roar of command. He only retreated back to safety when a lumbering pair of armored men shouldered past him.
“Status!”
A healer rushed up to Jason. Jason gratefully accepted a bottle of water and reassured the man that he was fine. The healer nodded and rushed off somewhere as Jason tried to recenter himself from the nearly godlike feeling of having a dozen people empower him at a time.
“Another wave is coming down Madison Shore Road.”
“Divert squads five and eight to the blockade. Bring in squad two. We need more damage to break through its shields.” Chief Ricci replied to the officer.
“Understood!”
Jason sidled closer to the frantic hubbub of controlled chaos around Chief Ricci. The man stood tall and proud in the center of a flurry of activity as he organized the attack.
“Team two won’t be able to break past those shields. We need a different strategy,” Sloan said at the Chief's side.
“We will coordinate a strike on the batteries to disable one section,” the Chief responded, his words nearly lost as Howard launched a ripped-up lampost at eye-searing speeds toward the lumbering boss.
“Uh, excuse me?” Jason sidled even closer. It felt strange, as if he was intruding on a private conversation.
“Jason, good.” Detective Sloan slapped a hand on his shoulder. “That was excellent. How soon can you go back in?”
“I, uh.” Jason eyed his still diminished stamina bar. “Think I need at least two more minutes. Though, I have an idea on how to break the shields.”
“Oh?”
----------------------------------------
“No,” Chief Ricci frowned. “You will not sacrifice yourself just for a small chance of success. We will find another way.”
“Look at it!” Jason retorted. “There isn’t another way, and I’m the most likely to survive the fall.”
“Listen to him, Tony,” Detective Sloan interjected. “He’s our highest-level combatant.”
“He is also a civilian,” came the chief’s curt response.
“There are no civilians anymore. Just levels. He knows his limits. If he says he can do it, then he can.”
“...Fine,” Chief Ricci said after a second. “We will support you from the ground to the best of our abilities. Howard? If you will.”
Jason could barely suppress his grin as he turned to Howard. The stately businessman took a sedate sip of water as he eyed him.
“Are you sure?”
“As hard as you can,” Jason replied, almost eagerly.
“Alright...”
The invisible pressure of Howard’s power settled over him as a wave of buffs washed over him from the mages. Before he could blink, he felt himself flying. Unlike last time, his eyes watered with the acceleration as he was launched two dozen feet into the air. He flew above the scintillating blue shields, and fell toward the mess of smoking machinery of the Elite monster.
He landed with the crack of overstressed bones and the fizzle of shattering spells.
Jason caught himself on a metal girder as his legs fell out from under him. His ankles were twisted from landing on solid steel, but the pain was muted. Instead, it felt cold and white as [Flesh Reconstruction] realigned the damaged tissues.
The Elite Shocktrooper took a step, bouncing Jason like a ragdoll. He held on tight, using the moment to locate himself on the great creature. The main body loomed overhead, spewing black smoke and hiding the ceaseless staccato of the gun turrets. He was latched on to the base of one of the twelve legs. Its blue energy battery pulsed several feet to his side.
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Although destroying the battery was possible, the blue energy channels very clearly connected the legs to each other. Even if he broke the battery, the shields would likely not fail; they would simply weaken. Ideally, he needed to create an opening in one of the legs that the ACPD could exploit.
Which meant breaking the shield projector at the top of the leg.
Jason set his foot down and only felt a twinge of pain. He grinned and started the precarious journey up the side of the metal leg. Each time the great beast moved, he was forced to grab onto a nearby girder to keep himself from getting dislodged.
Halfway up the leg, he became visible to the gun turrets and was forced to crawl as the hail of bullets shredded his beloved Saphleer leather overcoat. His skills burned bright in his mind. The first saf of Flesh Reconstruction began ticking up under the constant assault, and while his health started to dip slowly, it was nowhere near fast enough to stop him.
Jason reached the top of the leg, and beheld the fragile spinning metal of the shield projector. The air hummed with electrical power. He hungered to wait a second and study the strange phenomenon. What was this energy? Was it different from electromagnetism? Or was it what electromagnetic force fields looked like when controlled by a system skill?
He regretfully tabled the questions and thrust his boot into the path of the spinning projector.
A terrible screech of tortured metal resounded as the thin metal bent around his intervening leg. Short-lived agony coursed up his leg for a fraction of a second before his skills spat out the metal impaling his shin, and he was whole once more.
The Elite Shocktrooper raised its legs. Blue energy crackled in the energy channels as the glimmering faceted shield before Jason faded into mist. A second later, a high-pitched whizzing whistle buzzed over Jason’s head, and a massive detonation rocked the massive creature.
The Elite’s response was immediate. It rotated around, turning its damaged section away from the main bulk of the ACPD. Chief Ricci responded by directing unified squads to encircle the weakened beast.
Jason grinned, holding on for dear life as more detonations sneaked through the hole in the energy barrier. He eyed the battle, momentarily given space as the gun turrets shifted their attention away from him and toward the ACPD.
Even after only a moment of observation, it was clear that the ACPD was struggling to deal with the turrets. With more than half their forces diverted to protect their flanks from the swarming level 15 Shocktroopers, there weren’t enough tanks to draw aggro and nullify the effects of the turrets.
Stray bullets hit mages, warriors, and healers as they ducked out of cover to perform their orders. Unlike Jason, they didn’t have maxed-out defensive skills or invested all their points in constitution. Where each bullet tickled Jason, it dropped the fragile low-level healers like flies.
He needed to do something.
Jason turned his attention to the gun turrets. If he could get up there and draw the attention of one or both of them, then this battle would be over. He just had to get there.
Jason leaped toward the main body, timing his jump with the moment the Elite Shocktrooper raised its leg. He was launched through the air, flying across the gap and crashing face-first into the burning hot, smoke-spewing furnace.
‘ding!’ ‘Congratulations! You have learned the skill [Fire Resistance]: You have touched metal heated to over 500 degrees. This skill will help you resist extreme temperatures in the future.’
‘ding!’ ‘[Fire Resistance] has reached level 1’
Jason ignored the message as he peeled his cheek off the burning metal, noting idly that some of his flesh had remained stuck to it. The scent of burned skin and hair filled his nostrils as he forced himself to climb the metal girders. An explosion rocked the monster, nearly dislodging Jason, but the combination of his low body weight and extreme determination kept him from falling.
He ascended the beast, finally cresting the final platform to behold both gun turrets firing nonstop at the ACPD below. They instantly turned on him and opened fire.
Jason staggered, nearly falling off the creature with the force of the knockback. [Iron Resistance] burned like a brand in his mind as he felt it tighten his skin with every impact. Still, at only level 10 and without the bolstering help of the ACPD's mages, it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the continuous assault.
He lunged off the side of the platform, grabbed the ledge, and gained a reprieve as the turrets instantly refocused on the distant ACPD.
He needed a different solution. Some method that would allow him to tank the turrets for a few minutes at the very least. Running around wasn’t working, and there was no way his dingy knife would do anything to the wrought iron supports.
The sound of gunfire deafened his ears, and the stark realization that every one of those bullets was targeted at someone who was far less capable of handling it than him.
Upgrading a skill was a non-option. Resetting his Iron Resistance or Callous Hide right now would be a death sentence. Even the most powerful upgrade wouldn’t be worth losing 10 whole levels of resistance. The key was in his existing skills and how he used them.
[Callous Hide] was his only active skill and was technically perfect against this current problem. It massively increased his resiliency against chip damage, like the Elite’s bullets. So far, he’d been intentionally limiting its duration to preserve as much stamina as possible. That strategy had worked beautifully against more standard opponents whose attacks were powerful but spaced out. However, against constant damage like the stream of gunfire, that strategy wasn’t even applicable.
But maybe he could take advantage of the skill in a different way. If he increased its duration instead of reducing it, would he be able to completely tank the turrets? There would be a massive stamina cost, but he only needed to hold the turret’s attention for a few minutes. His large stamina pool was more than large enough for a short engagement like that.
It was worth a shot.
Jason grinned as he vaulted back onto the platform. The turrets instantly turned to him, and he responded by hunkering down. [Callous Hide] flared in his mind as he forced it to extend beyond its standard duration.
Bullets pinged off his reinforced skin. He covered his head but grunted as a bullet shattered his middle finger. [Flesh Reconstruction] flared, reconstructing the damaged bones and ligaments, only to get overwhelmed a second later as a second metacarpal was obliterated. Bullets slammed into his shoulders, arms, chest, legs, knees.
Pain crept up, and Jason could only wheeze as his skills were slowly overwhelmed. The painful tightness in his core flared as gray health started seeping into his lifepool.
[Callous Hide] at the peak of the first Saf wasn’t enough to handle the combined assault of a level 30 creature. But...what about multiple instances of the skill? Could he even do that? Would they stack on top of each other, or would only the strongest instance have any effect? He had no idea, but there was no time like the present to find out.
Jason reached deep into his mind and focused on [Callous Hide]. He felt it work to protect him. Felt its effect on his skin and bone. He let it work, focusing on a new instance of the skill. A separate invocation.
It fought him, retreating like an oiled fish in his thoughts. He growled, pushing the pain of bullets to the background as he gripped the skill with steely will. It wriggled, but he squeezed, using the same mental muscles he’d been practicing incessantly ever since discovering the stamina-saving trick.
Jason forced the skill to obey.
A wash of molten stamina flooded out of his core and suffused into his skin. Instantly, his skin hardened. Bullets cracked against him, shattering and causing hairline fissures to disperse over his skin. His regeneration kicked into high gear, repairing the damage far more easily than ever before.
Stamina : 84% |████████████████████▓▒▒▒▒| 148/166
Jason looked up with a feral grin. Bullets cascaded over him, chewing into his health bar and still damaging him faster than his regeneration could keep up with. If only his poison idea had worked, but this was good, too. Plus, this had the added bonus of being interesting.
He reached into his heart and wrenched another extended instance of [Callous Hide]
Stamina : 67% |████████████████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒| 118/146
Burning heat washed out of his core and seeped like lava into his skin. It compressed and cooled into an impregnable barrier of tempered armor. When the bullets hit, his skin no longer bled or cracked; they simply bounced off. Ringing pings resonated across his body as his skin became glossy and hard as ceramic.
“Well, isn’t that interesting,” Jason mused. His attention was focused solely on his interface. His stamina had dipped. That was expected. What was less expected was that his maximum stamina had inexplicably reduced. Even more confusing, the system read that he had 67% of his stamina remaining, but 118 divided by 146 was closer to 80% than it was 67%.
It would probably be prudent to wait for a more controlled situation before testing this new system observation.
...but.
What was the fun of that?
Jason grinned wide as a fresh wave of molten stamina seeped into his skin.
Stamina : 50% |█████████████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒| 88/90
A bullet slammed into his eye, and he blinked away tears as it ricocheted. He stood from his crouch and faced the two turrets head-on. They pelted him ineffectually. He grabbed the barrel of the first turret and jammed his thumb into it. Dimly, he felt an impact against his finger, and then a huge whumpf of detonating air expelled from the back of the turret.
Fragments of cracked metal broke off the turret, and it sagged like a robot whose battery had died. The second turret doubled down, but another thumb jammed into its barrel destroyed it all the same.
Stamina : 49% |████████████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓| 87/76
The first instance of [Callous Hide] ended, and he felt another chunk of his maximum stamina drain away.
“Huh,” Jason looked down at his hands as his maximum stamina continued to dip. It was now thoroughly below his current stamina. Ethereal blue and green wisps of light wafted off his skin. They pulsed with his every heartbeat, releasing the burning warmth he recognized as liquid stamina into the air around him.
The second instance of [Callous Hide] faded. Jason blinked, noticing he was staring up at the sky. He had no memory of falling.
‘ding!’ ‘You have slain a lvl 30 Elite Ironforged Shocktrooper. Experience awarded’
‘ding!’ ‘[Flesh Reconstruction] has reached level 38’
‘ding!’ ‘Congratulations! Your level has increased to 19. 5 stat points awarded’
‘ding!’ ‘Congratulations! Your level has increased to 20. 5 stat points awarded’
‘ding!’ ‘Congratulations! Your level has increased to 21. 5 stat points awarded’
Stamina : 40% |██████████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓| 70/56
Jason groaned. Vaguely, he felt himself falling. Something heavy crashed into him, but it just bounced off. His health barely budged as he found himself with his face buried in darkness. No. Not darkness. There were spots in his vision. His hearing wasn’t working right, either. Different sounds were coming from both ears. It was nauseating.
He blinked again, trying to banish the dark spots as he desperately tried to catalog every single possible observation for future analysis. Without even registering what he was doing, Jason pulled up his interface and dumped all his available points into Constitution.
‘ding!’ ‘You have invested 15 points into Constitution’
Stamina : 33% |████████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓| 67/67
The last instance of [Callous Hide] faded, and he felt the turmoil deep within his chest settle.
“Totally worth it,” Jason chuckled weakly.
Everything went black.