If that was a scream of anger or desperation, it wouldn’t have made any difference; it declared the end of the talks and the start of the taunts.

2048 per roughly the Boss level, which hovered around ten, and given her probably close Attributes, made the Boss stats hover around twenty thousand points each. He did not need Analyze to tell him that.

Right. I’m outta here.

Gabriel used his free pass right away.

***

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have received a free Skill Token.

Warning. The horde is coming your way; you will be the only subject of its wrath.

If you manage to kill the horde, you will be bestowed with the Hidden Reward.

The sizzling letters in the sky were the only things waiting for Gabriel and Liz when he reappeared by the Challenge Stone.

Where the hell is everyone!?

He looked left and right, but there was no one there. Only the dimming glow of the runes was lighting the tunnel from his back.

There was no messaging for members of the Party; only the Party Leader could do such a thing.

So we’re gonna taste the horde, are we?

Gabriel was about to face an incoming horde of creatures out for his blood.

He could do only two things now. Face them or escape. He could hope of facing a Champion monster but even thinking about taking on a Paragon alone was out of the question. Paragons were 128 times stronger than regular monsters. Which even at level ten put them at around one thousand marks in terms of Attribute points.

Would he be able to face such things? The main difference between sentient and monsters was that sentient had the advantage in terms of Skills. It was easy for them to have Skills that could momentarily empower them. On the other hand, monsters had a vast Attribute advantage but relatively straightforward Skills. Rarely they had a Skill that empowered them even further. Their Skills were just an addendum to their powers. They brought them some distinguishing traits, but their baseline was simple.

Gabriel didn’t know why that was so, but he was starting to suspect it. If monsters were manifestations of an untethered Spirit like he suspected, that meant that the body tied down the Spirit’s potential while at the same time the mind of the sentients could enforce and focus their abilities, or in this case, Skills.

There were indeed exceptions to the rule, but he was no expert. It was what he had come to understand during his investigation in The Memory and the random questions he threw here and there.

I guess the Skill Token came right when I needed it. The problem is, we need to hurry.

Gabriel took a deep breath.

Anchor, show me all the strongest Alacrity Skills of the highest Rank and give me the rarity at which I can achieve them.

Skills

Skill

One with Lightning ( Common ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? ? ? ? ?

Element

Higher - Lightning

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Skills

Skill

Run with the Ocean ( Uncommon ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? Run with the Ocean Sub-Skills 1/3 (Uncommon) Current Shift ? ? ?

Element

Water

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Skills

Skill

Shadow Step ( Common ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? ? ? ? ?

Element

Higher - Shadow

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Skills

Skill

Speed Enhancement ( Common ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? ? ? ? ?

Element

Higher - Arcane

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Skills

Skill

Sylph’s Kiss ( Common ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? ? ? ? ?

Element

Wind

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Skills

Skill

True Observance ( Common ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? ? ? ? ?

Element

Higher - Time

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Skills

Skill

Warp Speed ( Uncommon ) (Legendary)

Description

? ? Warp Speed Sub-Skills 1/3 (Uncommon) Teleport ? ? ?

Element

Higher - Space

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Damn… I wish I had more time.

The first thing Gabriel knew he had to do was rule out the ones that were offered with the lowest rarity. It left him with two Skills from which to choose, Run with the Ocean and Warp Speed. He checked the only other thing visible, the Sub-Skills.

These Skills must be visible because, in one way or another, I’ve come across them.

Skills

Sub-Skill

Current Shift

Description

While submerged in water, it creates a current or shifts one to adapt to your desires. Strength and dimension depend on Alacrity and Affinity. Duration: until you cut it off or Mana runs out. Cost: 3 Mana and 1 Energy per Second.

Skills

Sub-Skill

Teleport

Description

Instantly teleports everything enveloped by your Aura and adjacent to your body from a place to another. (Must be in sight). Distance depends on Alacrity. Delay: depends on Alacrity. Cost: 50 Mana.

Gabriel couldn’t help but be attracted by Warp Speed.

Fifty Mana for the Sub-Skill is prohibitive… but I guess it is a really solid escape tool.

The sound of the incoming horde was getting clearer by the second. There was not much time.

Gabriel took a deep breath.

I choose Warp Speed.

Skills

Skill

Warp Speed ( Uncommon )

Description

While running, Space folds between you and your target or goal. Your speed further increases by 1% per point of Alacrity. Warp Speed Sub-Skills 1/3 (Uncommon) Teleport Permanently doubles Alacrity.

Element

Higher - Space

Slot

Alacrity

Type

Alacrity Skill

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Your Class has evolved to that of Dark Space Battle-Mage.

"This is massive, but we don't have time to acclimate to it," sayings, so Gabriel started running back to where he had come from.

Right away, he started noticing the peculiar feeling of space folding. It felt as if he was being pulled toward his objective. The event incremented his momentum the faster he decided to run. At some point, when he was running so quickly he didn't think he could go faster, he started to experience a phenomenon similar to tunnel vision. However, his clarity remained the same.

The Skill itself looked to be another Skill which would become stronger the more he grew. The 1% Alacrity boost seemed ridiculous with his current 36 point in Alacrity, but they would undoubtedly grow. Not only that, his Alacrity was constantly buffed by his Flowing Disciplines, and to had to that, the new Skill increased speed, which meant the confluence of Alacrity and Power. Although it wasn’t a direct boost to his Alacrity like Dash, it could be used constantly.

It became pretty clear that it was already something incomparable to the Basic Skills, just as Epiphany and Burst Attack had been. It was pretty clear that raising Alacrity would just increase his automatic ability to fold space even more.

He knew he was not going faster than using Dash alone allowed him to go, but the new Skill effectively increased his explosive strength by more than Dash did. The combat implications would already be felt. And the effect would be even greater if he allowed his Meridians' resources to flow into his muscles.

Yet all that would have to wait. The first monster, a giant Big-bellied ant, which Analyze told him was a Champion, was already rushing toward him.

At that moment Gabriel knew, he could take it on. But defeating a Champion ant was something, or maybe a Goblin was something, but a Paragon had stats much, much higher than those it was something he could not hope to compete against, not alone. But this time, this time alone, he had to try.

Gabriel invoked the power of his Meridians to flow through his body, effectively doubling his Power and Resilience. Fully doubling them took a lot out of Meridians, but he had to try his new and improved strength.

He made Meridians stored Energy to enhance the muscles of his legs, thus his explosive strength. He shifted his mind form to the one required by Kata of the Surge, then casting Toughen, he crashed on the monster with the Sk'rayr spear held toward it in a cavalier charge.

As his collision to the monster saw him, and his spear utterly tore through the car-sized Big-Bellied Ant, a torrent of water momentarily surged forth, splashing against the tunnel and washing over its walls, killing dozens of ants and other creatures that had the bad luck to belong to the horde put against Gabriel or that naturally dwelled in the tunnels.

Gabriel rolled up after the impact sent him tumbling down. He was not expecting such a devastating effect.

Can I do this? He asked himself, looking at a tunnel from which a good amount of the sound was coming from. I was the exit toward the third floor. It meant that monsters from the upper floors were converging toward him. Turning his left to the right, the massive pillars couldn't hide the horde coming from the fourth floor where he still stood at that moment.

Liz shot out of him at that moment and looked at him right in the eyes. She nodded.

"Right," Gabriel said, closing his eyes. "When you are by my side, I can do anything." His grip on the spear tightened.

"Let's go then."

In front of them, rushing ahead of the horde, a Paragon Ant-Goblin Princess was leading a number of Ants that he would not have enough time in the day to count.

The thrill of the battle thundering in their veins, Gabriel and Liz rushed forth.

***

"Did you hear that sound?" Asked Harper as she stopped.

Varcivald had indeed heard it. "This is a wild guess, but he might be out."

"Master Elf, go get your Space Magic savant. I'll go check what is going on," she said.

"No. I'm sure that's Gabriel. He's out. Let's all go; together we might just be enough to face this horde of monsters."

Harper studied him a few seconds, then she nodded, and this time, leaving them behind, she rushed forth ahead of everybody.

If that's not a decisive woman, I don't know what is.

***

The lightning burst forth from Gabriel's circular swipe, exploding in the atmosphere of the huge cave with a thunderous boom.

The environment already damps by itself, but wet from the surge strikes fueled its expansion. It crackled over the gore of the uncountable destroyed bodies, hurting Gabriel using it almost as much as it hurt the ants that were still alive to receive its effect. It was because of his deficiency in the discipline of flowing air. Every time he hurt was because of some weakness in his knowledge.

By all means, it did not take away from its efficiency, and thankfully, Toughen helped in lessening the effects. His Recovery permanently boosted by Helping Hand helped in healing his abused nerves and fight off the torpor the lightning caused him. All in all, it was a fair trade. The damages were massive, and as it seemed, neither of the four Paragon monsters had an efficient way of fighting it.

The battle had been all in favor of Gabriel since the start. Evolving Burst Attack had been the best road he could have possibly taken. It made his battle durability sky-rocket. He only needed his stamina to replenish Meridians for the moment. But as the second Paragon appeared, the story changed.

The first one had been the ant-goblin princess, she or it, not that he cared given the clear lack of intelligence in the creature, was slow; he was much faster although the creature was indeed dangerous. Its dark mist could outright melt the bodies, and it spread much further than the one he had experienced back in the first days when he met a couple of the creatures with Varcivald. He could dance around the creature murdering ant up to the Champion level in mass; however, when the second and soon later third Paragon monsters, leading the horde of monsters from what was probably the third and second floor, reached his location, the story changed entirely. The battle pinned in their favor.

Gabriel knew there was only one way to tick the scale back, and it was to use the Kata of the Tempest.

Right away, he noticed the heavy backlash and cast Helping Hand and Toughen to prevent the effect of the electricity from making his nerves seize, cure burns, and protect him from the worst of the damage. Doing so, he could counter them and received a massive boost in damage.

When the two Paragons joined, a Goblin dressed from head to toe in heavy armor with a banner he didn't know and bright red demonic eyes, and what looked like a massive beetle, he knew he would have to use his ace in the hole, but first, he needed to cull the worst of the massive number of creatures they had brought with them.

At this point, it was clear that there was only one Paragon monster for each floor, so he wondered where the one from the first basement floor had gone to. Was it so distant that he had yet to make it down to the fourth floor? He doubted. Gabriel was waiting for it, simply because he wanted to unleash the worst of his Powers on all of them together, but he couldn't wait anymore. The creatures were starting to take him over, and he had to do something sooner rather than later.

Using his new Alacrity Skill was still confusing, but he was receiving a crash curse in it. The tunnel vision effect was not exactly something he could fight off. It was part of the Skill, so he had to get used to it. However, it was only a feeling. If he focused, he could still perfectly perceive the world around him, no matter how blurry it went as his speed increased.

Although his only trouble was the monsters in front of him, there were still many creatures remaining; he could easily be overthrown by their sheer number if he wasn't careful. But with the next move, he could put a huge dent in their number and just as well eliminate a Paragon. Although their stats were massive, the only creature that spotted a Skill related to Resilience was the heavy-armored Goblin. He was, in fact, barely showing any hint of the attacks Gabriel dished out. It was now time to test what he was really capable of.

When the three Paragons moved together, something they had never done before, a restless Gabriel knew that it was high time he acted.

Burst of Fury!

The very next second, he pumped his legs full with the last amount of remaining Energy stored into Meridians and burst forth.

It was chaos.

Gabriel arrived in the middle of the Paragons' formations in a moment; then, he started unleashing swipe after swipe against them. It was clear that he was not fighting off the after-effects of his empower Power. It was way too much for him to sustain. His Life zeroed right away, if it wasn't for Liz joining inside of him at the last second, and Spirit Assimilation's Perk effect shielding him from part of his powers, he would already have seized, with Liz's presence, he was barely holding on. But as it had its cost, it had its effects on the monsters as well.

The lightning expanded, almost thrice as powerful as before. The electrical discharges exploded forth from each of Gabriel's attacks, releasing from the tips of his spear, from the power center of his body, bursting forth every time his posture switched and with it his center of gravity moving about, the direction of the lightning switched. At the speed Gabriel was moving, he looked like a hurricane made of pure lightning.

The booming sound each of his movements made was deafening by itself, enough to injure the low-level monsters, then the lightning bolts charred them to a crisp and filled his nose and the massive cave with the smell of burned flesh, while the empowered Power of the blows, although not dealing massive damage to the Paragons whose stats would even top the thousands, were consistent.

The consecutive powerful attack seemed to be enough to bring down the half-goblin, half-ant monster. However, by the time Burst of Fury's effect ended, Gabriel was forced to retire. The two other monsters were still alive and kicking. Although the massive Beetle looked charred and damaged, the heavy-armored Goblin smiled knowingly.

Gabriel had used his ace in the hole and was now left without as much as a second chance.

It seems I've got to run now.

At that moment, he heard an explosion from the tunnel leading to the third floor, and four figures made their entrance.

Varcivald was the first bursting through. He was flying on his barrier together with Greta, Harper Reevers…

What the hell is she doing here?

...shoot out of the tunnel at a speed that put him to shame. A massive tiger followed, then it got up and took the shape of a half-man, half-tiger being. It was Fang.

"Howdy," shouted Varcivald. "I guess you might need a hand in here."

"Two would be better. No, make it eight," Gabriel shouted back.

Them coming back was by far the best outcome he could hope for. They would quell the horde now, he knew.