Sam watched as his friends and captains streaked towards the reeling Flood Titan. Its aura slammed down, powered by its Dao Seed, but they managed to combine their efforts to resist, pooling their own resources. By the time they reached the monster, it was almost fully recovered, but it was noticeably weakened by Sam’s strike. A large portion of its body was constantly boiling away as his Revenge related conceptual energy manifested itself. Because it was also a Dao Seed’s effect, the Dao manipulation abilities of the Titan were tied up by resisting it. If left unchecked, Sam’s lingering power would have boiled it to nothingness within a few minutes. Dao Seeds were powerful, and even more powerful when used in their proper form.
Lao empowered the others with a mantle of blue energy that allowed them to draw extra power from their own movements, hijacking the concept of equal reaction to double the strength of their own actions. It was an interesting skill, and one that instantly proved its worth as Talnor struck out with his sword, doubling the size of the lightning bolt that emerged. The System intersected with physics in a very loose manner, and almost anything was possible if enough mana was put behind it. When Daos were involved, this only became more extreme.
As the captains engaged the Titan, the city continued to bombard the monster with their artillery, to little effect. So far, only the Superior Mana Cannon and Sam’s strike had done anything lasting to the monster, cutting down its size. Even then, it was still incredibly powerful. The worst part about this monster was that to actually reach its core, a sky blue gem suspended in the center of its body, one would have to cut away all of the water to be able to strike it. A density increasing effect, similar to the deep ocean, was in effect the closer that an attack got to the core. Because this was magically enhanced water, it acted like armor against all but the strongest of attacks.
By the time that Sam’s energy reserves had fully recovered, many of his captains were injured, and the city walls were beginning to take damage from the backlash. Lao was missing a large chunk of flesh on his right arm, which had been paid for by a massive scar across the body of the Flood Titan that refused to heal, even now. For a man with little investment into physical stats, at least for his level, he was certainly feeling the damage a lot more than his opponent.
The others were covered in smaller wounds from razor sharp blades of water that slashed across their bodies, but they were doing a good job, mainly because the Flood Titan’s main focus was on the city behind them. It assumed, rightfully so, that destroying it would weaken their morale to the point that victory would be simple. Sam could tell that its ego had been shaken by the resistance that it was facing from a faction that lacked any E Rank members, as it didn’t know that it was engineered to be a manageable threat to a sufficiently powerful force. The Titans believed that they were the heirs to the planet, and not simply advanced monsters that were the result of a System quest.
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Unfortunately, as Sam joined the fray once more, the Titan had a second wind. Power blazed within its core, and the ground around it began to turn gray. All of the water that had been spilled was sucked back into its body, causing it to swell in size. The desiccation continued outwards for a few miles, leeching away all of the groundwater into its body. The monster laughed and summoned a massive hammer of compressed liquid, bringing it down like the judgment of a god. The water hit like a nuke, blasting apart the ground and sending everyone flying. If this had been a video game, the Titan had just entered its second phase.
However, it had cut itself off from all future hope of healing, given that all of the water in the region was simply gone. The ground had been transformed into a desert, completely devoid of water and life. The Titan obviously didn’t see this as a problem though, trusting in its own power to carry it through the battle. As it continued to ooze forwards, water gathered above its head, forming small balls of compressed liquid that rotated as they gained power. Laser like beams of water shot out, carving through the ground with wild abandon. Each of them was akin to the force of a tactical nuclear missile, and they left canyons wherever they hit. The Titan was able to keep this rate of fire up with the moisture in the air, which, while too little to make much difference on the massive scale of its body, was more than enough to attack with.
Sam himself was blasted backwards by one of the strikes, knocked off his feet and into the air by the mighty blow. His armor actually dented under the force of the attack, breaking his ribs. Although his suit was made to bend outwards when struck, it was still unable to mitigate the entirety of the damage, sending shockwaves through his body. Coughing up blood, Sam cursed. Why did the System have to pit such foes against him?
As he landed, he constantly channeled his Dao, working it into his hammer. He had a few different options here. One was trying to create a new skill, possibly another Ancient one from his Dao. The other was adding his new Dao energy to Sky Splitting Vengeance, potentially creating a godslaying attack. The only problem with the latter was that it would probably kill him in the process. He was already pushing it by having a Dao Seed and two Ancient ranked skills at F Rank, and combining them would be a step too far, at least for now.
Instead, he imbued his body with his power, replacing his initial Fiery Justice skill with one powered by his nascent Dao Seed. The change was immediate, less dependent on the concept of justice, and far more powerful.Sam read the skill notification in the blink of an eye, ready to fight.
You have upgraded a skill!
Fiery Justice: Legendary -> Avenger’s Mantle: Mythical
Nothing will stand between you and your revenge. At least, nothing remotely close to your own level of power. By wreathing your body in pure Dao energy, you may channel the concept of the Avenger into yourself, becoming the aspect of your Dao. Channeling a Dao Seed with a lack of power in other places might prove dangerous.
The warning at the end was welcome, but probably unnecessary. With the massive stat bonuses that Sam had been treated to, he was functionally a peak F Rank fighter already, at least in terms of stats. He would be fine.