by L. M. Kerr
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As soon as Micheal killed the warrior, he cupped both of his hands and rolled his fingers. He then pulled his hands up over his head, using his Cloud Stepping Shoes to help maintain flight as his Life Orbs lost the support of the now-collapsed roof.
His metal threads responded to his movements, transforming into a large, net-like structure that scooped up the remnants of the male warrior’s body. The net then flew towards Micheal, the metal threads retracting back into his Silk Strider Glove.
With a quick waving motion, Micheal stored the battered corpse of the warrior in his Spatial Ring, trapping the Seed before it could disappear.
Below him, the roof continued to collapse in, only a couple of frantic seconds having passed. The female warrior that had jumped off the roof was still falling in mid-air, just about to reach the ground, while the other fighter was dodging rubble down below.
Micheal used his Cloud Stepping Shoes to launch himself forward, charging towards the one that was avoiding falling debris.
His large-scale attack here was bound to draw a large amount of attention. Thankfully, this clearing was decently large and the Beasts warriors would be on guard, meaning he should have at least a minute or two of free time.
He intended to take full advantage of that as he spread his hands out and motioned forward, sending his titanium threads whistling through the air before him.
To her credit, the female warrior below noticed his presence and reacted to it.
As she ducked past a particularly large chunk of rock, several metal throwing stars appeared in her hands. These stars began to glow with very faint red light as she pulled them in and then unleashed them, throwing six different weapons at Micheal.
The twirling edged weapons cut through the air, leaving behind a rapidly fading red trail.
Just before they were about to slam into Micheal, spread out in a wide formation that came from multiple directions…
A collection of loud ‘tings’ rang out as the throwing stars collided with several near-invisible titanium threads.
As soon as he saw her begin to attack, he’d used the threads from his right hand to spread across the air in front of him, anchoring them with the ground a few meters beneath him and the half a dozen meters to his right.
Red light from his Sword Energy clashed with the faint red light from the female warrior’s throwing stars. Micheal could feel a heavy impact as the two energies collided, instantly surmising that this particular energy was an example of ‘Hammer Energy,’ a rather odd energy to attach to a throwing star.
Sword Energy was a type of Weapon Energy geared towards raw, cutting ferocity. Hammer Energy, conversely, was a type of non-sharp energy that had its focus centered on smashing impacts. From the force of the blow and the color of her energy, her understanding was still within the Intermediate Tier, but just barely touching upon the Advanced.
Nevertheless, Micheal’s Sword Energy blocked the attack and sliced most of the metal throwing stars to shreds, causing the first five to fall to the floor ineffectually.
One of the stars managed to deflect its way through, but lost most of its force. Micheal caught this star with his hand and forcefully hurled it back at the warrior.
“You’ll need a bit more than that to hit me, dearie.” He quipped, his eyes tracing the throwing star as it flew through the air.
Micheal couldn’t sense even the slightest change of emotions from the Beasts warrior as she gracefully caught the throwing star, glanced at it, and then pulled out five more. He noted the keen agility she showed when she grabbed it mid-flight, a high level of physical coordination.
Instead of waiting for her to attack him again, Micheal landed on the ground and rushed forward as he unhooked his titanium threads from the wall with a casual wave of his hand. He then flung them forward in a grand sweeping motion, sending the glowing threads at the woman.
The debris had finished settling down by this point, though a few of the still-standing walls, and what was left of the roof, swayed rather unsteadily.
The female warrior threw her six throwing stars once more, red Hammer Energy surrounding them. This time, she threw them out far, causing several of them to begin to circle around to hit Micheal from the back.
Just like Micheal, she could use her Weapon Energy variant to help manipulate her weapons, though to a lesser degree.
Micheal’s Sword Energy made guiding the metal threads vastly easier. Her Hammer Energy let her guide the path of her throwing stars which, combined with her hand-eye coordination and raw skill, made her deadly accurate.
At the same time that she threw them, she leapt up into the air and backwards. White Tailed Spring Monkey Types were talented at jumping, apart from the other aspects of the Type. Her single leap here would be enough to send her flying 10 meters high, at the minimum.
This left Micheal in a seemingly awkward position.
If he continued his attack, several powerful throwing stars that would each hit like a truck would slam into his body. If he didn’t continue his attack, she would be able to put distance between the two of them again, giving herself an advantage as she launched more long-range attacks.
With the existence of the Shop and Spatial Rings, she could have a seemingly endless supply of throwing stars and long-range weaponry stored up, not to mention her allies who would be rushing here any minute.
As all of this ran through Micheal’s head, he merely sighed.
“Idiot.”
Micheal jerked back his metal threads, pulling them around to guard himself defensively. Glowing red energy covered him as the threads spun about, implanting in the ground and wall.
The throwing stars the woman had thrown slammed into those metal threads, once more ringing out as they bounced off them or were cut to shreds, depending on the angle of each attack.
At the same time that he did this, however…
Micheal pulled a handgun out and shot the jumping warrior four times in the mask.
The gun, a modified handgun from the Shop that had a silencer attached, was more or less equivalent to some of the heaviest-duty pistols on Earth. Even one bullet at center mass would be enough to kill someone with twenty times the strength of a human, let alone four to the face.
The female warrior was still mid-jump. She barely had time to react as Micheal immediately shot the gun, and certainly had no way to dodge. She tried to twist her body to the side and began to jerk her hands up, but even with her boosted reaction speed, it wasn’t enough.
The four bullets slammed into her mask and instantly killed her, turning her jump into a dismal fall as her corpse fell to the floor.
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—-Points Obtained—-
Points: 25,972
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Micheal shook his head as he stored the handgun and walked up to the dead body, storing it as well.
The metal armor these fighters wore was pretty durable; Micheal had noticed that when his titanium threads collided with the shield-bearing warrior’s body. Bullets wouldn’t penetrate it.
The painted masks, however, were notably weaker. He had easily split apart the man’s mask when he killed the fighter. He didn’t see any particular reason to believe the others’ masks would be different, especially not for those in the same squad.
Thus, the only thing stopping him from shooting the female warrior in the face was her capacity to react to any direct attack and the fact that she might have an automatic long-range Defensive Artifact.
Her casual catch of the throwing star he’d thrown had proven she lacked such an Artifact. He’d thrown it with enough force and intent that, even if she wanted to catch it, the Artifact should’ve picked up on it. Not all of the magical Artifacts worked in the same way, but the vast majority would’ve stopped that attack from hitting her.
The only thing left to do was to goad her into jumping or put her in a position where she wouldn’t be able to easily dodge. Everything that happened next was history.
He had
n’t even needed to use his Temporal Bubble Ability.
This might be a world of Martial Arts, but that didn’t mean guns stopped existing.
He’d always found it odd how so many humans gave up entirely on guns once they got powerful bodies or special Types, especially here on the Second Layer. On the later Layers, where humans got so powerful that most guns became useless, he could understand. But here on the Second? He shook his head again.
Just as he finished that thought, he raised his left hand up, flicking his wrist to bring the metal threads out in front of him. His right hand also pushed out and away, cascading the metal threads forward until they buried themselves in the base of the opposing wall.
Several quiet bangs echoed out as three bullets slammed into the threads from his left hand, veering off to the side as each shot was deflected. The bullets slammed into the unsteady walls of the building behind Micheal, sinking deep within them with loud thuds.
Micheal stared up at the attacker, his keen senses long since detecting the sole remaining warrior of the squad of three, standing atop the remnants of the roof before him.
He could vaguely sense that the warrior was outraged from her posture. She stood leaning forward, her handgun in her right hand and a battle-ax in the left. After she saw Micheal block her attack, she paused, as if to see what he would do next.
Micheal had figured she’d stay until at least this point. These warriors were fanatics that fought in squads; the woman wouldn’t flee right away, not until she tried to take him out.
Now that she’d seen the full extent of his power, or at least part of it, she would switch to simply delaying him and waiting for reinforcements.
Well, she would try to do that, anyway.
Micheal flicked his right wrist, sending the metal threads he’d buried in the base of the opposing wall wild as they tore the stone apart. In just a single second, the entire structure began to collapse, rock exploding to dust as his Advanced Sword Energy annihilated everything in its path.
Micheal couldn’t see her face, but he could sense the abject surprise he took the warrior by. In the time it took for her to realize what had happened, she was already falling alongside the debris. Building up an intuitive sense of battle awareness meant nothing if you didn't also constantly pay attention to both your surroundings and everything your enemy did.
As the wall collapsed, Micheal activated his Temporal Bubble Ability, spawning Time Bubbles that centered on his person as he began to rush forward and dodge through the debris, moving unnaturally quick. He physically climbed through still-falling stone as he zeroed in on the last warrior, his eyes deathly calm.
The last thing the warrior saw before darkness embraced her was Micheal’s cloaked figure rising up like a dark angel of death.
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Chapter 43
Silverback frowned as he hunched down, dragging his rough fingertips along a perfectly flat chunk of stone. There were a few cracks in this piece of stone, as if it had fallen from a great height, but that was the only uneven thing about it.
“There are no signs of the Fourth Squad or any Farian activity?” His voice rumbled out, dangerously calm as he stood up. His big, muscular body ripped beneath his armor, somehow looking both casual and extremely on guard at the same time.
The Fifth Squad had vanished, likely killed, and now the Fourth Squad had seemingly vanished as well. He could see clear signs of a battle here, but the sheer scope of destruction lying around, and the decrepit state of the warehouse, made tracking difficult.
Around him, the rubble of the rooftop spread out within the collapsed warehouse. The pitter-patter of rain covered up most sounds as the downpour continued, drowning out what little evidence had been left behind.
“Nothing, sir.” One of Silverback’s squad members, both elite soldiers that served as his aides, replied back quietly. This particular warrior had a large ape's face painted on his mask and a long spear on his back. The other squad member, wearing an identical mask and spear, was currently keeping watch, ensuring that no enemies snuck up on them.
After a moment, the leader of the Ape Division turned to his subordinate and asked a rather odd question.
“Have you felt anything?” Silverback’s eyes gazed into his ally, giving away nothing.
“No, sir. The Voice is silent.” The spear-wielding warrior shook his head.
Silverback sighed and then, of all things, sat down on the floor.
“Cover me.” As he spoke aloud, the powerful warrior brought out a small red orb from his Spatial Ring. He tapped on this orb, causing a shield of dim red light to surround him.
“Yes, sir!” The squad member moved to stand off to the side, keeping watch opposite of the other member of their team.
After the shield of light surrounded Silverback, he closed his eyes and began to meditate.
Seconds began to slip away as the Division Leader sat there, remaining absolutely still. Rain splashed down on his red energy shield, deflecting ineffectually off of it.
Finally, after roughly 20 seconds, Silverback opened his eyes.
“Damn. Nothing.”
The Beasts of Providence were famed for many things. One of those things was their unnaturally fast reaction speed to unexpected circumstances, and almost miraculous coordination.
Their units could work with almost perfect cohesion, even when separated or put in positions where communication should’ve been impossible.
Farian researchers had determined this by studying their method of attack, past incidents, and reported records of battle, led by the genius that was Myla Hannis.
They didn’t know how they did it… but they knew that the Beasts could do it.
And it all came down to what the members of the Beasts of Providence called ‘The Voice.’
It was what set them apart from regular beings, what tied them all together and kept their faith strong and steady. Sometimes it came to them as a subtle feeling; other times it came as a directed thought or clear words.
It was an impulse that seemed to come upon them by divine intervention, as if by the word of God itself.
It was this feeling, this bud of knowledge, that allowed them to coordinate so effortlessly.
Intelligence that only a single squad should have witnessed, knowledge that was picked up from those that should be dead, critical information that led to adapted plans or even complete abandonment of certain missions in just seconds…
Through this, their efficiency was nigh perfect and their effectiveness reached incredible levels.
Now, however…
For the first time in a very long time, a seed of nervousness wormed its way into Silverback’s heart.
The Voice was silent, offering nothing at all, despite the troubles they were experiencing.
He waited for any type of direction, for any tidbit of knowledge or guidance, something he had long since grown used to taking advantage of.
And he was met with nothing. Not a word, not a feeling, not even an impulse.
Silence.
“Retreat to the rendezvous point.” The Division Leader made up his mind as he passed out his orders, gathering up his squad as they retreated from the scene of battle.
A short while later, he and his team arrived at one of the warehouses that had been cleared first, within the outer edge of the clearing. It was one of the smaller buildings, with a bunch of odd-looking metal antennas attached to its roof.
As he walked in, he was met with several quiet nods from a gathering of warriors that were sitting there waiting.
Various armored men and women were resting in spots around the warehouse, several of them holding guard near windows or doorways. The group was outfitted with a collection of weaponry, the most common being heavy-hitting weapons like axes, maces, or hammers.
“Squad Leaders, status report.” Silverback took command immediately.
“Second Squad, all clear, objective to report.” A man resting with his hands on the hilts of his two mace
s spoke first.
“Sixth Squad, all clear.” A second man that was resting on the remnants of a leather couch quickly followed up. A large battle-ax could be seen on him, strapped to his back.
“Seventh Squad, all clear.” The last Squad Leader to report, the woman named White 1 that Silverback had ordered to join with the Sixth Squad, replied last. She was currently sitting in the center of the room, a large assault rifle perched in her lap.
“Where’s the Third Squad?” Silverback cut to the chase before allowing the Second Squad Leader to continue his report.
Squad Leaders exchanged glances and then shook their heads. Silverback had been leading them long enough to understand what this meant.
It had been only minutes since the disappearance of the Fourth Squad had happened, yet it now appeared that the Third Squad had vanished too.
The seed of nervousness in Silverback’s heart grew a little larger. At the same time, the air around him began to tremble as an angry red aura of light encompassed his two hammers, Advanced Tier Hammer Energy pulsating from his weapons.
An instant later and all emotion seemed to vanish from his figure as he gained control of himself.
“Everyone, act under the assumption that the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Squads are now dead, killed by an unknown third party, possibly elites from the Silent Sword Sect led by one or more of their Inner Elders. We appear to be undetected by the Farians still, we will continue the mission.” His voice was dispassionate as he replied.
There was no other reasonable explanation that he could think of. Even then, it was still incredibly implausible. The Silent Sword Sect had tossed the Farians to the side like they were trash for the most part. For them to have dispatched an Inner Elder to aid them, to waste time on secret guard duty at a hidden research site…
Nothing made sense here, but given the situation, he would adapt regardless. The mission came before everything and it still appeared completable.
“Blue 1.” Silverback began, motioning at the Second Squad Leader,
“Continue your report.”
“Yes, sir!” The warrior quickly replied and continued,
