A series of shockwaves rocked the world as his attacks landed, blasting apart thousands of the undead. For a brief moment, everything was still. Then Sam legged it. For all the damage that his attacks had done, there were still an untold number of enhanced undead behind him. More importantly, the Corpse Titan was nearing them.
As the god-like monster approached, its aura became almost oppressive, feeling like the weight of an entire planet’s worth of bones pressing down on Sam’s back. However, he had been forged in a hotter crucible than this. Both of his Daos roared to life, combatting the aura. He was too weak to shrug it off fully, but he managed to beat it back enough to run unimpeded. It was time to allocate some stat points. This was what he had been waiting for. Doing a quick bit of mental math, he realized that allocating his points four at a time was better than doing it three at a time. Because his multiplier was a bit under 1.5, the rounding was his enemy if he placed three points.
With a quick mental flex, he allocated all of his free points. Sixty went into Strength, increasing the stat by ninety points. 28 went into Resilience and Dexterity, increasing the stats by 42 points each. Finally, the last four went into Constitution, bringing it up by a comparatively small 6 points. A moment later, a sledgehammer of power rocketed into his body. Energy surged through his limbs, making him let out an involuntary groan as new strength filled his body. His muscles tightened and expanded in equal measure, and he felt as if he could break a mountain with a single punch. His speed increased dramatically, and his natural toughness shot upwards. He pulsed his various enhancements next, and he almost fell over.
He quickly raced ahead, but then remembered Jeffrey. The other man was far behind him, flagging because of his lower stats. Sam doubled back and picked Jeffrey up, carrying him on his back. With a narrowing of his eyes, he used his new stats to their fullest. A crack rang out as he broke the sound barrier with his sheer speed, enhanced by his various Dao abilities. He caught up with the other soldiers in the blink of an eye, remaining behind them as a shield against the encroaching monsters.
Jeffrey fired bolts of energy backwards as Sam flashed across the forest floor, hitting his targets unerringly. Only the fact that the undead were naturally slow allowed the army to escape. If Sam had not been here, this would have quickly turned into a disaster. However, the Corpse Titan would test his city to its limits. Its worldshaking strides could be heard even now, sending tremors through his body and mind.
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Soon the soldiers began to flag, and Sam pulsed his Dao into his aura, bolstering them with his two Daos. However, this was still not enough. Many began to fall back, being overrun by the beasts behind. Sam gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw bulged outwards, but there was little he could do. He needed to prioritize saving as many as he could. As the undead neared, Sam turned around, relying on his Dexterity to keep his course straight. His hammer carved a path of ruin through the monsters, but it was still too little. What good was his strength if he was unable to protect his followers?
Rage began to fill his mind, and he felt every death like a physical blow. Insights began to swirl around his mind as he began to embody just what Righteous Anger meant. He was not an isolated being, the only source of justice and outrage in this world. Most of his beliefs stemmed from his desire to protect his allies. Now that he really considered it, his Dao gained power from his actions that sought to punish those who stood against him and his faction. He was the bloody avenger of his people, who took on the burdens that they could not.
As he pondered this, his Dao started to expand, occupying more space in his mind and core. A few moments later, he was whisked away into a Dao vision. He was standing at the head of a massive army. Before him was a seemingly endless rift of dark energy and corruption that spat out a steady stream of demonic abominations. Every few seconds, another one would hit the front lines.
Sam fought with his hammer, devastating every monster that he came across. However, his force fought against an endless tide of beasts, and there was a clear limit to the number of his allies. Slowly but surely, they died. Every time they died, the face of one of Sam’s allies flashed in front of him. Jeffrey. Lao, Eduardo, all the others. The death rate sped up, creating a rotating slideshow of failure that seemed to worm its way into his very core. With a roar of anguish, Sam almost lost his way, trying to flee. However, as the very last of his allies died, a spark of pure rage ignited within him, creating a blazing pillar of strength that he leaned upon. For the briefest of moments, he touched upon something that felt like an imposition of his will upon the universe around him.
A dome of scarlet light exploded outwards for dozens of miles, and millions of specters of pure rage were summoned into being, each of them tearing into the enemy monsters with wild abandon. With eyes burning in pure anger, Sam strode forwards among his ghostly army, ready to reap the souls of those who had killed his friends. A moment later, the vision ended, but the insights did not.