Part Seventy-Five

It took a while for the confusion to disappear. Edulá’s sudden disappearance shocked him, but should’ve been obvious. The man was clearly eccentric, expecting him to politely explain everything was asking for too much. It was just a godsend that he hadn’t been enslaved or something.

Still, he did decide to do one thing the man had said. His Status was sure to have changed.

Status

Race: Revenant (True Undead)

Alignment: Dark

Age: 29

State: Dead (Which is a good thing)

Titles: Razor’s Edge, Undeath,

Rank: C

Skills

Normal Skills: Analyze, Survival Instinct,

Racial Skills: Dark Vision, Feast of the Dead, Re-Growth,

Unique Skill: Star Light, Star Bright

Equipment: None,

His Status was, well, completely different. A few hours, or maybe days, ago, he’d been F-Rank, and he hadn’t had any Skills to speak of. Heck, he’d just been connected even. But now, now he was comparable to some of the strongest fighters in the world. It was a lot to take in.

Aside from Razor’s Edge and Survival Instinct, which he got in the battles leading up to his death, he knew nothing about anything else in his Status. Alignments and Racial Skills hadn’t even been discovered yet. He quickly got to work processing everything. He had to know what he was working with.

Dark Alignment – A creature or being associated with Darkness. While not exactly evil, those associated with Darkness are nonetheless reviled for their powers. In general, Dark-Aligned beings have a natural disposition for Dark Magic, and cannot use magic from other branches.

Undeath – A Title given to those who become Undead. Grants complete immunity to Poisons, Fear-based attacks, and Miasma. Lowers Resistance to Life Magic, Soul-based attacks, and Divine Energy.

Dark Vision – Allows you to see even in complete darkness. Given to all Dark-Aligned beings.

Feast of the Dead – Consuming the flesh of the formerly living will allow you to absorb a fraction of the Grudge leftover in their remains. Additionally, you may also sometimes acquire the memories of what you eat. Does not work on Undead.

Re-Growth – Regenerates your body by consuming flesh. If excess meat is digested, then it will be saved for later usage.

Star Light, Star Bright – Your Undead nature has combined with your fascination with the stars, granting you their protection. Day or Night, while the light of the Stars shines upon you, all of your abilities are greatly increased, and you will appear as if you were still alive. However, if you are out from under their light, the effects will end, and all your abilities will be reduced by half.

It was, it was a lot of information to take in. His Unique Skill especially so. He’d wondered why his skin looked no different, but this was probably the reason. Though the ability cut did worry him, he had a bigger worry. The hunger he’d put off sating had returned with a vengeance. If he didn’t eat now, then he’d go insane. Luckily, there was plenty of flesh nearby.

***

I was not a good sleeper, nor was I a morning person, which is what led to me lazing around in bed this morning. Since I was in a Dungeon, I usually made sure to force myself up regardless of the cost. But so much had happened the last two or three days, that I just couldn’t bring myself to do so.

So it was only obvious that this blasted Dungeon would do it for me.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT CAKES! WHAT WAS THAT!?”

An explosion rocked my room, and woke me up for no good reason. The impact had sounded real close, like next door close. Whatever it was had just earned my ire. I hated being woke up.

I grabbed my swords, and pulled on my equipment as quickly as I could and set out the door. And almost ran straight into a Kovis. Granted, the lizard seemed just as surprised as I did, but I recovered quicker than it, and its head was soon rolling on the ground. But before its body hit the ground, one of the nearby doors blew open as a Golem War-Machine emerged from the room.

The automaton immediately focused on me, and fired one of those pesky rockets. This wasn’t exactly ideal conditions for me, being in a cramped hallway as we were. The rockets it fired were quick, though it itself was not. So long as I watched it, I was able to see the telltale signs of it preparing the attack, and could subsequently dodge it.

Doesn’t mean I like this shit! I thought as another rocket whizzed by my head. I was slowly luring it down the hallway, but I had to go slow or it would inevitably hit me with a projectile. Even the heat coming from them was enough to slightly scorch my flesh. I didn’t want to see what a direct hit would do.

Finally, after several minutes of the slowest game of chicken ever played, I managed to get around a bend in the hallway, and I was out of there. Sure, leaving the rampaging War-Machine behind like that probably wasn’t a good idea, but there wasn’t anyone else in the barracks at the moment, and all my shit was with me, so I didn’t care what it did. I’d leave that mess for someone else to clean up.

I was also pretty worried. The Golem War-Machine’s appearance could be explained as just a repeat of the incident two days ago, but a Kovis in the fort was harder. And I had a sneaking suspicion.

So, I can assume this is the monster’s counterattack we were warned about. Haah, and it’s only 9 o’clock too. There’s at least another two hours of quality sleep time left. Fucking monsters. Guess I’ll find the others while killing shit.

***

[Alicia’s POV]

The Orc in front of her screamed as an arrow sprouted from its throat, and it fell backwards clutching it. The other two with it were undeterred though, and kept following her as she ran down a random alley.

She spun around, firing the two arrows she’d nocked, and earning two squeals of pain as they found purchase in the Orcs' torsos. The layers of fat and muscle they had meant that the arrows didn’t penetrate too far, but that hadn’t been the point. She’d only been trying to momentarily stop them. A pair of shadows snuck up on the Orcs, and their throats were slit before they even knew what happened.

“Phew, thanks for the assist. Those Orcs were persistent.”

“Ah, think nothing of it Alicia. You’ve helped us so much, it’s only fair we repay the favor.”

She’d run into Brad and his friends shortly after the mayhem started, and they’d decided to team up. Though they were treating her as the leader for some reason.

“Alright, let’s go. If we don’t find Michael soon, who knows what he’ll get up to.”

***

*Crunch!*

“Hahahah! Come at me! I’m not done here yet!”

Sampson fought like a raging beast, crushing monster after monster as he went. He was clearing a path all by himself, and a few monsters were even starting to run from him. Laughing to himself, he came around the corner, and stumbled upon an odd sight.

“Haha! Eat, this!”

A lone man was fighting against a group of Kovis bare-handed, and winning. Each of his punches caused the lizards to stumble away, as if drunk, and he expertly dodged each of their attacks. It didn’t even take five minutes until the monsters were dead on the ground.

“Hmph, you’re a weird one, aren’t ya?”

“Hm, I would say that I am an enthusiast of the martial arts! What is the point of fighting if one does not enjoy it? None, I say!”

“Yep, definitely a odd one. Hahaha, but I don’t dislike that.”

But before their conversation could go any further, a group of Kovis came around a corner, all of them fully intent on killing the two.

“Haha! Now we shall fight together! Come, let us dance!”

“Hahahahaha, I’ll crush them all!”

***

“Oh fucking hell, what is that?”

On what used to be the special Anti-movement Array the Archmage made, was an enormous earthen box that was producing monsters. Or transporting them. Every ten seconds, about a dozen monsters emerged from the box, and darted off somewhere. Considering the number of their corpses I saw on the way here, they weren’t doing too well, but this clearly had to be stopped as soon as possible. But that was a herculean task.

“REEHHHHHHH!!!”

So that’s the ugly fucker that carpet-bombed me. I’d expected something like this, but holy cow is it ugly. The monster on top of the box was hideous, its body an amalgamation of reptilian and mammalian features. Shape-wise, it looked like a bat, but its face was closer to that of a snake's. Scales and fur formed an odd patchwork across its entire body, and the two wings on either side of it were leathery. Add in the foot-long claws it used to grip the box, and you had one ugly beast.

Wyvern

Rank: C

Description: One of the rare Dragon Sub-Species, Wyverns are highly territorial monsters with a penchant for violence. While they lack the Breath Attacks of their Draconic ancestors, Wyverns have an incredible control of Fire Magic, granting them superb firepower. Care should be taken when fighting one, as their preferred tactic is to launch magic attacks from unreachable heights. Currently serving as the leader of the Aerial division of the Monster Army besieging Fort Aries.

I’m gonna need backup. I can’t deal with all of these monsters on my own. The Wyvern's bad enough, but all those Young Mountain Rocs are just adding insult to injury. Each one is big enough to carry me off on its own, and there at least thirty of them here. They must be how they got the box here in the first place.

And then there’s the Mivian directing the Demi-Humans guarding the box. It’s too far away for me to Analyze it, but I can tell it’s probably a high D-Rank. But what’s with all the jewelry it’s wearing? I’ve never seen a monster wearing accessories like that before.

There’s also all the blood on the ground. I think any mages here were probably crushed by the box, no, portal, and any other NPCs here were killed as well. I’m at an extreme disadvantage here since I don’t know how extensive the invasion already is.

This is gonna be tough. I need to get out of here before they sp-.

“REEEEEEEEHHHHHH"

“Ah shit!”

I had to dive into a nearby alley to avoid the fireball that flew at me, one which was fired by the Wyvern. Even as the alleyway went up in flames, I was busy escaping from the plaza, for the waiting monsters were zeroing in on me. Several Young Mountain Rocs took off, flying over the buildings in pursuit of me. The alley was too narrow for them to attack me directly, but they were there to guide the other monsters pursuing me.

“AWWWW! AWWWW!”

“MRAAAAGH!”

“CRAAAAAAP!”

***

“What’s that sound?”

“It sounds like someone’s screaming. Where’s it coming from?”

“Over there! It’s Michael!”

A single figure burst out of a nearby alleyway, and a group of monsters were in hot pursuit. Considering the way he fought and his equipment, it was definitely Michael. He whipped around, launching several of the odd black spheres he used at the monsters behind him, killing three of them as they emerged from the alley.

Three large birds swooped in from above, talons extended. Michael slipped past the first bird, cutting off a wing as he went, then blocked the talons of the other two as they approached. While he was able to keep them from grabbing him, the impact still threw him backwards against a wall. It was at that point that they decided to intervene.

“[Bless]!”

The cone of magic erupted outwards, boosting the abilities of every person in the vicinity. Including Michael.

With a sudden burst of motion, Michael kicked off of the wall he’d been leaning against, lashing out at the closest monsters. His swords cut through the monster’s vital points and tendons, either killing or disabling them. Even the two birds weren’t able to escape the violence. Black spheres caught both of them in the wings, forcing them to the ground, where their heads were soon removed from their bodies.

Every single monster was massacred before they could help. Michael hadn’t needed their help.

***

Phew, boy do I love combos. Beast of the Nightmare is already strong, but it becomes something amazing when combined with Kalia’s magic. Synergy between Skills seems exceedingly useful. I should look for more ways to synergize Skills. It’ll help against the stronger monsters. Now, I need to talk to them. Let’s see what we can do about those monsters.