Sam almost choked as he read his stats. He had not checked them since he had defeated the Juvenile Cyclops, and his stats were far higher than they should have been. Then he remembered that his stat multipliers applied to the total level up gains, not just individually. He had leveled up four times after that fight, meaning that he had gained far more than he should have had.
Sam slotted his stat points into Strength, bringing it up to 68. He could feel the slight burn from the stat allocation as always, but as he left the human norm far behind him, the changes became less and less noticeable as he became inured to the process of progression. Sam immediately started moving, with no time to waste. He was the only one who could stop the cyclops, and with George here to fend off the weaker aliens, Sam was confident in his plan.
The creature had already reached the wall, but every time that it tried to cross it, its feet were pincushioned by attacks. Salvar tried to force it to cross, but some kernel of self awareness still within the creature made it unable to. Eventually it reared back and kicked at the fortification, causing it to tremble. Sam doubled his pace, but he was still quite far away. The cyclops reached its foot back and kicked again, the boom echoing towards Sam like a bell tolling the end of his city. Sam roared and finally reached the creature just as it was about to strike for a third time, and he whipped his mace around into its hamstring with all of his might. The cyclops groaned in pain, and dropped its foot to the ground, but Sam’s mace had not even broken the skin. This cyclops was a lot more powerful than the last one had been.
“Back for more, Sam Atlas?” Salvar asked, the demonic alien grinning. “If you can't even damage my slave, then you will not be able to face me.” Sam’s Dao began to burn as he gained more energy from his rage, and he struck again, this time imbuing it with power. A slight wave of energy rushed up and down the cyclops’ leg, dissipating soon after. This time, the skin around where his mace had landed was crisped to charcoal. There was a comically delayed moment of silence, and then the cyclops let out a guttural growl, before stomping down towards Sam.
Despite its size, its foot was incredibly quick, and Sam was almost caught by it. He only dodged by the barest of inches, and he was knocked off his feet by the force from it. Dealing with higher rank enemies really was a pain, even if he was quite a bit above the average. Sam was able to contest low F Ranks in power right now because of his titles and Dao, but he suspected that would not remain viable later on, unless he really became something special. Apparently Tantalos was someone who could fight against people of a higher rank, but he was on the very cusp of breaking through, and he had lived for long enough to have picked up a few tricks by now. Most of the time, a rank gap, even of a single level, was impossible to cross. In this case, all that Sam could do was harass this creature until it was too late. The only thing that could really defeat this monster was the superior mana cannon, and Sam had no apparent way to signal for it to be used. As he prepared for another strike into the weakened area of the cyclops’ leg, he was seized by an implacable force and lifted up into the air next to the creature’s head. Salvar glared at him, with his hand held in a fist. It was clear where that force was coming from.
“I will not allow some lower world filth like you to even have a chance of defeating me,” the man said, his eyes narrowing.
“Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you, except with a few choice expletives instead of 'lower world filth’ but it would have been all the same in the end,” Sam replied, buying time for himself. With a single burst of power, he severed the threads of Dao energy binding him, and he broke free. Salvar let out a noise of shock, and Sam carried himself the rest of the way to the cyclops’ head with his enhancement skill. Taking advantage of the moment of distraction that he had created, Sam slammed his mace into Salvar, sending the man stumbling to the side. For lack of a better word, the man was heavy. It was extremely hard to move him against his will, and any damage that was done was far less than it should have been. However, this was not the result of any Dao or special ability. It was simply what happened when a G Ranker decided to fight an F Ranker.
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From that one strike, Sam knew that it would be nearly impossible to defeat this man by himself. Hell, even with the aid of all of his captains, it would have been hard. Sam raised his mace in a preemptive block, which was just as well because an invisible fist of force tossed him backwards, breaking one of his arms even with the mace warding off the main impact. There was no choice for it, Sam had to use the weapon ability. A cone of red light bathed Salvar in exotic energy as the man advanced, and then dissipated, leaving a very reddened man. He smiled mockingly at Sam, and for the first time, Sam began to feel a trace of fear. What exactly did he think he was doing here? Salvar was on a far higher magnitude of power than that cyclops had been before. All that he could do was be a minor irritant.
The rush of power from his mace temporarily dispelled this hopelessness, and Sam charged forwards. His increased speed surprised Salvar, and he was able to get a good hit in on the man before Salvar reacted. The next strike was blocked by his hand, and Sam fell to his knees as the other man twisted his mace around, trying to disarm him. Sam twisted around with the movement of his mace, using his superior mobility from his Dexterity Threshold to stop his bones from breaking. Salvar frowned as he saw this.
“How have you already passed so many thresholds? I have heard of the strength of the newly initialized, but I had not expected for anyone here to trouble me. Just what are you?”
“A man with a bigass cannon pointed your way,” Sam said, grinning as he made his free hand glow with power. Snapping his fingers, he made a large spark of Dao energy shoot up into the air, hoping that this signal would be clear enough. A dull roar of power followed this motion, and a massive ball of pure mana surged out of the cannon in the center of the city, heading straight for the cyclops. Because it was slaved to Salvar’s will, the cyclops was too slow to dodge, and a moment later, the energy impacted it. There was a windstorm of searing energy, flaying the skin off the cyclops’ bones, and then a detonation that caved in the front of its body.
Salvar and Sam were tossed off the cyclops at the initial strike, which was perhaps just as well because they would have likely died if they had stayed on its head. Amazingly, the cyclops was still alive, but it was not that far from death. Sam tore himself out of his stupor with an application of his Mantra, and started scrambling for the monster, who was now sprawled across the wall, with the stone crumbling under its weight. Sam started running up its head back, and reached its head with his mace glowing bright red with power. Behind him Salvar roared in rage, and Sam narrowly avoided a spear of light that flew past him and into the city. Someone screamed as it hit, and Sam gritted his teeth. Behind him, Salvar laughed and stopped running.
“Don’t you see? It’s futile. You will never beat me. Why do you still try?”
Sam turned around, glaring at the other man.
“Because I will never stand for the pillaging of my planet, as long as I am still alive.”
“Well then. Your death can easily be arranged.” Salvar started to glow and then he pushed his hands forwards, coating his fists in energy.
“Jesus. Why are there so many of you goddamn magical pugilists? What’s wrong with a good old weapon?” Sam asked, half joking. Salvar ignored him, and kicked off the ground, speeding towards Sam. Sam got ready, and began to draw on his repertoire of weapon styles. As Salvar flashed in, his fists a blur, Sam closed his eyes and started to extrapolate the trajectories of the man’s hands as he moved. This would have been impossible if not for his extremely high intelligence, as well as the strength and speed to use it effectively.
His hand and mace connected with Salvar’s hands in midair, and he redirected the force towards the side. His wrists creaked as he did so, and he could feel the raw power contained within each of the man’s strikes. Sam punched out as he felt his hands leave Salvar’s, cracking his fist directly into his solar plexus.
Salvar let out a whoosh of air, and stumbled backwards, gasping for air. The man grunted and activated a skill, using his elemental energy, which was a strange oily black substance, to coat himself with his energy. If Sam had to guess, it was probably some sort of element related to darkness, if not that actual element itself. He really needed to find out more about elemental power. Sam was easily on the level of most high G Ranks to even low F Ranks, but he was sure that there were many in the multiverse who were even stronger than him. Despite all of his advantages, he could not compare to people with years of experience, as well as the backing of a major faction. Sam would be damned if he did not get there though. Salvar was only a single step on the long staircase to eternity, and it was a step that Sam would climb.