For the rest of the trip, he followed each of his Dao tendrils back to their source, watching as they twisted and turned within his body. His main Dao core was just as large as ever, with the new material having come out of nowhere. Each of the tendrils was like miniature Dao, exuding the power of his main Dao, although at an order of magnitude weaker. They allowed him to channel his Dao almost effortlessly through himself, and he practiced extending his will into his limbs, having his Dao follow along behind him. Rather than having to push the Dao energy like before, it flowed smoothly at the speed of thought. This would be a great asset in battle, if he was ever facing someone quicker than himself. The actual Dao itself had not become more powerful, and it was still at the same stage as before, but his control had improved by leaps and bounds. All Sam had been expecting from a rank up was a small boost to power, not something like this.
The hours passed like minutes, and the minutes like seconds as he explored his new body, and a jolt tore him out of his meditation. They had landed. Sam immediately realized that something was wrong. Everyone else was unconscious, flopping around in their seats. The ship was silent, and the creature that lived within it was also unconscious. Sam could hear the tread of booted feet walk up the ramp into the ship, and he tore himself free of his seatbelt. He noticed a pool of mist at the bottom of the ship, which had presumably knocked everyone except for himself out. Sam scuttled behind a storage cabinet, and watched as a unit of five figures entered the ship. Each of them looked normal, but as Sam looked at them more intently, he shuddered in disgust. They were all intrinsically bound to each other with Dao tendrils, similar to his own. However, these ones were warped and corrupted, leading off to some far off place. They did not speak a single word, but Sam felt pulses being exchanged along their Dao tendrils, which must have been how they communicated.
As they entered the light of the main ceiling lamp, Sam saw that they were all clad in identical military uniforms, albeit ones that were stained with blood. He suddenly knew who these were. This was the first time that he had seen members of the Legion in the flesh. As they approached the unconscious figures sitting in their seats, one of them pulled out a strange weapon from their belt. It looked like a hideous fusion of a gun and a clot of biomass, and the creature leveled it at Jeffrey. It was time for Sam to act.
With a sudden roar, he flew out of the darkness of his hiding place like a bullet, and tore the heads off of three of the monsters before they had even noticed he was there. The other two swiveled around, and fired their weapons, but Sam batted the projectiles away with Mjolnir. Upon seeing the hammer, the Legion members froze briefly, and Sam used that time to crush them into the ground. Essence entered him, but it was nowhere near enough to push him to the next level, and he could feel it pooling somewhere near his core, waiting for the opportunity to be used.
The ship shook as something struck it, and Sam rushed down the ramp and outside. There were hundreds of people out there, and what looked to be a unit of tanks. The bottom of the ship had been snared by a harpoon, and that harpoon was connected to the hand of a titanic monstrosity made up of hundreds of corpses. It braced itself against the ground, grunting heavily through its disgusting lips, and was obviously trying to keep the ship from taking off again. Sam analyzed it quickly, and gritted his teeth.
Legion Brute
Level 72
It was in the F Rank, just like him, and Sam did not fancy his chances against that beast while having to fight off the rest of the army as well. The soldiers were all peak G Rank, and they would actually pose a problem in such large numbers. As he exited the ship, they all fired in unison, and he threw himself to the ground as a storm of shots pattered off the ship behind him. Sam ran down the ramp a moment later as they were reloading, and started to supercharge his body to the utmost. It was easy enough to trigger Fiery Justice, after all these things had tried to harm his friends and him, and the other abilities followed suit. His Dao traveled through his body so smoothly that it felt like breathing to him, and when he hit the front line, all of that was released.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Sam weaved around the attacks of dozens of soldiers, and shattered bones with each swing of Mjolnir. The weapon started to crackle with lighting as he killed, and soon it was blindingly white. Sam released the power in one burst, vaporizing a dozen soldiers in one strike, leaving a deep crater in the ground. With the road to the Legion Brute somewhat clear, Sam raced towards it. He looked behind himself to make sure that none of the Legion soldiers were trying to enter the ship in his absence. All of them were following him instead. They moved in unison, and Sam knew that the System had been telling the truth about them. They were part of some hive mind, and their leader was controlling them from afar. As to how they had tracked Sam and his party down, especially considering that they were in a ship, Sam did not know.
Sam leaped over their heads, and rode one of them to the ground as he fell, with his eyes set on the brute. One of the tanks fired on him, and the shell whistled through the air at him. It was moving too fast for him to see clearly, but he caught a glimpse of a writhing tentacle. Sam ducked, and it slammed into a knot of soldiers racing towards him, obscuring them from view with a plume of dust.
Sam was halfway to the brute by now, and it was slowly turning to face him. A line of pain ran down Sam’s leg as one of the soldiers fired off a heat beam at him, managing to get through his armor, but he ignored it. It was not enough to impede his movements, and it would soon repair itself. Sam soon reached the brute, and he clambered up its side, his face screwed up in disgust as he used its fleshy growths as handholds. He reached the top a few seconds later, and as the soldiers below fired at him, Sam brought his mace down, imbuing it with as much power as he could pack into Mjolnir. The weapon had a much larger capacity for Dao energy, and he was even able to pack a little bit of elemental energy into it as well.
When the attack came down, the brute staggered, and another one sent it to its knees. Still it lived however, and it was already regenerating. It had let go of the chain however, and Sam leaped off its head, and towards the chain. Running along its length, he made his way back to the ship.
He made it just in time, and he closed the doors behind him with a lever. Everyone was still unconscious, and the ship controller was out of commission. There was a banging noise at the door, and the metal started to dent as something impacted it at high speeds. Sam sprinted over to the control station under the floating body of the alien creature, and started slapping at the levers and buttons there. Eventually he struck something correctly, and the ship leapt up into the air. Something clanged off the bottom of the ship, and Sam let out a sigh of relief as he realized that the harpoon had glanced off. The only issue now was that he had no idea how to fly this thing. The ship started to shake as he tried to control it, and it flipped over as he wrestled with the controls. He almost fell down, but he held on with one hand as the ship shook. Finally, the alien in the tank of liquid awoke with a scream, and its eyes flashed around in confusion.
“What? Where are we?”
“There’s no time! Some enemies are pursuing us, and we need to get away! I can’t pilot this thing, so you need to get us the hell out of here!” Sam shouted, flustered. The ship righted itself immediately, and he scrambled for his seat, strapping himself in just in time as the entire ship shook. A huge projectile had just struck it, and as the glass window on the bottom of the ship came into view, Sam saw what it was. The Legion Brute had grabbed onto the bottom of the ship, and was trying to bring it to the ground. Sam had barely gained any height during his failure of a piloting session, and the ship had still been in range of the monster. At this point, the others were waking up, but upon seeing the situation, they remained silent.