What happened? Where am I?
All he could see was a deep blue sky, some sparse clouds, and what seemed like concrete buildings at the edge of his vision. He was completely unable to move his head.
He remembered fighting Axis, but then Axis had conjured that giant sun, and… nothing. He couldn’t recall what happened after Axis started his chanting—only the feeling of powerlessness remained. Did I give up at the last second? No, he had decided to wait, and then… the heat, the horrible heat, and everything went black. But even in the darkness, he could still hear—that bellow at the end...
Clearly, Axis had increased the power of his fireball at that moment, even Lucas’s feeble mind could grasp that much on some level.
But I’m not dead. I should be dead, right? He had been doomed the moment he chose not to quit and then lost the ability to do so. Axis’s last scream should have been the final nail in his coffin, yet somehow, he was still alive.
The life aura! Lucas remembered triumphantly. At the end, when he had already lost his sight and most of his coherent thought, his overheated brain had clung to the last thing that could save him, and he had instinctively activated his life aura throughout his entire body.
Did it work? Did my life aura prevent me from turning into ash?
Lucas tried as hard as he could to move his body, but he couldn’t. In fact, he couldn’t even feel it, which caused a small panic to rise in his heart. He forced himself to stay calm.
He couldn’t be dead—this godforsaken landscape couldn’t be the afterlife. It was nothing like what his mother had described. Unless, of course, I’m in hell…
No, I’m not in hell! This is the same place I was when Axis chanted for his fireball. I’m just at a different angle, that’s all. Reassuring himself, Lucas tried to peer at his surroundings from the corner of his eye and confirmed it was indeed the same place. Relief washed over him. He could still be a ghost, but at least this wasn’t hell.
What then? He wondered for a few more minutes before realizing he could now move his head.
“That’s definitely the same place,” he muttered with a raspy voice, noting the only difference: Axis was nowhere to be seen. “My body must’ve taken a pretty big hit from his last attack. That’s why I can’t move.” He concluded after some thought.
The truth was more reassuring than the possibility of being dead, but it still left him concerned. Why didn’t he kill me? Lucas’s miraculous healing abilities explained how he was still alive, but it begged the question of why the prince hadn’t finished him off after seeing how defenseless he was.
Could he have died? Axis had looked pretty beat up after performing his last skill, but if he had died, why hadn’t the Showdown ended? Could Flavya still be alive?
The thought that Flavya might still be alive didn’t exactly cheer Lucas up, as it would have a few minutes ago when Axis was roasting him alive. Now, it only meant his life was in great danger despite surviving that terrifying fireball, especially since he was like a sitting duck lying on the ground.
After ten more minutes of urging his healing ability, Lucas finally managed to raise his torso with his hands. That’s when he saw the reason for his earlier incapacitation: from his torso down, there was only a bluish, transparent skeleton—no flesh in sight.
“He thought I was dead, that’s why he didn’t kill me,” Lucas muttered in realization.
Of course, there would have been a notification after every kill, but after slaughtering so many people, you eventually learn to ignore them. It was entirely possible that Axis genuinely believed Lucas was dead.
Remembering he hadn’t checked his own notifications since waking up, Lucas quickly pulled them up and was shocked by what he found:
+2 Toughness
+1 Toughness
+1 Toughness
+1 Toughness
Apparently, the process of being burned nearly to death without actually dying had been enough reason for the system to reward him with a bunch of Toughness upgrades. Lucas had long wondered how he could increase his Toughness stat without using his spare points, but he never could have guessed that the method would be so extreme.
Five points in total. That would have been fifteen for the average person. But then again, the average person wouldn’t be alive to enjoy the benefits. In the end, he couldn’t complain. After seeing those lovely points being added to his overall, he even considered burning to ashes on a regular basis.
However, the Toughness increase wasn’t what truly caught his attention. It was the next notification.
Skill Upgrade
Life Aura Manipulation (Common)
The basics of the life aura no longer elude you; you now have a general understanding of how that vital part of your being works and can heal without having to consciously think about it. You can also use your life aura to help heal others, but be careful: external healing will use up even more stamina.
Warning: This skill has a moderate to high consumption rate.
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His life aura skill had upgraded! He couldn’t believe his eyes. It had been so hard to acquire, and now it had upgraded in a matter of days—he just had to nearly die to get it. Not only that, but he also believed that upgrading it at the last possible moment was the sole reason he was still alive, especially with that part mentioning the healing ability working even if he wasn’t consciously thinking about it.
Seeing his leg bones bizarrely hanging from his torso, as hard as it was to believe at first, he couldn’t deny the possibility that before he managed to open his eyes, his entire body had been like that: depleted of all flesh, leaving only bones, or perhaps not even that.
Somehow, despite being devoid of his own brain, he had managed to heal back to his current form. If his conjectures were true, they could only be explained by his recent upgrade to his most precious skill, which allowed him to heal as long as there was enough stamina.
Checking his stamina, Lucas confirmed—though not very surprised—that only a couple hundred remained. Quickly thinking of a plan, Lucas directed the rest of his life aura, which had been working on auto-pilot, to focus its efforts on his right leg.
He still couldn’t take a stamina potion, having taken one just before being roasted to a crisp, which also indicated that Axis shouldn’t have been able to take the health potion he so desperately needed the last time Lucas saw him.
Since he wouldn’t be able to heal both legs with the stamina he had left and still be able to move afterward, he figured it would be better to have one complete leg than half of both. At least with one leg, he could hop. And he would very much need to.
If Axis managed to take a health potion before Lucas got to him, it would be game over, and he was fully aware of that. After having gone through hell on this floor, he wasn’t about to throw it all away.
If he needed to hop, he would hop. And that’s exactly what he did after a couple of minutes spent channeling his life aura to regenerate one leg and getting rid of the feeble bones of the other.
It must be said that the efficiency of his aura was on another level entirely. Of course, regrowing the flesh and bones of a leg wasn’t cheap, and after the deed was done, Lucas had just enough stamina left for his purpose of pursuing that wretched prince.
Finally able to stand on his feet again, Lucas felt as if he had risen from the dead, but he had no time to appreciate the feeling of being alive or to consider the implications of his skill upgrade. He needed to keep moving.
With a couple of powerful hops, Lucas reached the spot where he had last seen Axis. The place was empty, but traces of blood formed a clear path for Lucas to follow.
Probably thinking there was no one left to follow him, Axis hadn’t been particularly careful in hiding his tracks, which Lucas was thankful for, considering he was on the clock.
Suddenly thinking he could use a walking stick to avoid drawing attention when he got near his target, Lucas reached for his ring—only to find it wasn’t there. Not only was his ring missing, but he had no rings at all. In fact, he was completely naked. Of course, the clothes wouldn’t have survived the incineration, but his ring...
They’ll give it back to me once I’m out, Lucas reassured himself before panic could set in.
He was sure the system wouldn’t rob him of his ring and everything in it, because the previous times his clothes had been torn to shreds, they had magically reappeared in their original state once he got out.
Still, despite being fully aware of that, he couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous about it all. His entire life was in that ring. Ignoring his anxiety, Lucas picked up a piece of rebar from the floor that was still somewhat hot and used it as his walking stick.
Unfortunately, he didn’t find any clothes lying around, which meant his last battle would have to be fought in the nude. Shaking his head, Lucas began to hop again.
…
The pursuit lasted only a few minutes. Turning a corner, Lucas saw the figure he had been searching for.
He’s even worse than I imagined, Lucas thought, regarding the sorry figure in front of him. Axis was leaning against a nearby wall, breathing heavily, clearly in great pain and bleeding from multiple wounds.
Despite being down to one leg, Lucas’s aura had allowed him to heal completely, so all things considered, his current situation was far better than the prince’s. However, he knew that wouldn’t last. Axis’s cooldown period for taking another health potion should be almost over, and then Lucas would be in grave danger, nearly out of stamina as he was.
Lucas did his best to approach the man without making any noise, his stealth skill playing a huge role in this, despite him being somewhat clumsy with his new walking stick.
More by luck than anything else, Axis didn’t seem to notice his approach, never turning back even once, which Lucas was grateful for. The man seemed deep in thought, as if he were waiting for something...
Just as Lucas’s conjectures about the man’s posture reached a worrying point, he saw him produce a health potion from his ring. The next thing he knew, he was jumping forward.
All caution was thrown to the wind at that last moment; it didn’t matter if Axis saw him—if he drank that potion, Lucas was dead.
Hearing the noise behind him, Axis turned, surprised, potion in hand, and his eyes widened when he saw the man he had just burned down to his bare bones flying toward him. Shocked by the sight, Axis raised an arm to protect himself, momentarily forgetting who he was dealing with.
In the next instant, the arm, with the potion still clutched in its hand, went flying, spraying blood on the nearby wall.
Lucas raised his head from where he had fallen on the ground, exultant, to see a terrified prince staring at his newly severed arm and then at the potion shattered on the floor. Axis visibly gulped, regarding Lucas, frozen in place. This time, his paralysis wasn’t due to some magical arrow or poison, but sheer fear of what was to come. He knew perfectly well that he had lost.
“H-how?” Axis asked again, having now witnessed Lucas’s miraculous regeneration twice—this second time even more shocking than the first. He had seen the man’s bones lying on the floor!
“You don’t need to know any of that,” Lucas replied angrily. Now that he was assured his life wasn’t in danger anymore, he couldn’t help but think about all the prince had made him suffer.
“AHHH!” the prince yelled as Lucas maimed his right leg, causing him to fall to the side.
Hearing the prince’s screams on the floor, Lucas felt no compassion whatsoever. That man had put him through hell, forcing him to fight for his life with everything he had, so the satisfaction he felt at that moment, with Axis at his feet screaming in pain, couldn’t really be put into words.
Lucas savored his sweet revenge until the very end, but just when the prince was about to draw his last breath, Lucas regarded the pathetic figure below him with new eyes and put an end to his torture, patiently waiting for the prince’s inevitable demise.
He didn’t regret his actions. He was human, after all, and there’s only so much one can take without exploding. However, he acknowledged that there was no point to any of it.
Axis would soon die, and he wouldn’t. The battle was over, and he had won.
Fourth floor completed. 20,000 points earned
Bonus objective completed: Kill the others 14/29: 14,000 points earned
Bonus objective completed: Kill the geniuses 2/2: 20,000 points earned
Object acquired: Eye-necklace. - 10,000 points
Requirements for highest achievement fulfilled.
Current points: 84,500
Achievement Unlocked: Top talent
You have proven yourself to be at the very top of your generation. Be it through wits or sheer power, you have overcome insurmountable odds to surpass your peers and stand tall above them.
+25 all stats. 1+ Skill Selection. 1+ Skill Upgrade.
And just like that, life seemed to be great again.