Reborn: Apocalypse (Volume 3): (A LitRPG/Wuxia Story)

by L. M. Kerr

  Chapter 46

  Micheal’s hands moved with almost mechanical grace, striking forward with uncanny accuracy.

  The red hue of Advanced Tier Sword Energy enveloped his hands, from his fingertips to his palm. The Silk Strider Gloves he wore on each hand were durable Artifacts, easily able to bear the destructive edge of his controlled Sword Energy for a short period.

  At the same time that he shifted his hands, Micheal took a single step to the right.

  This movement seemed insignificant in the grand scheme of things. He was still surrounded on all sides and facing a multi-pronged attack carrying a monumental amount of force.

  However, this quiet, simple step proved the impetus for a seemingly inexplicable series of events.

  The three Great Ape users simultaneously attacked in a way that cut off all avenues of escape. Micheal’s movement had brought him slightly closer to one of the three, meaning this warrior’s attacks would reach Micheal first.

  One massive stone war hammer was aimed at Micheal’s head, while the other rushed just off of his right shoulder. If he took another step to the right, he would find himself obliterated by the second war hammer, while if he stood still, the first would shatter his skull.

  The air was tense with energy, the aftermath of the explosion Micheal had set off giving the area the feel of a warzone. Micheal’s view of the world abruptly morphed, ever so slightly, as he created a Time Bubble centered on his person.

  Reality began to slow down.

  As the first stone war hammer rushed down, Micheal’s left hand snaked through the air and, as if the attack weren’t even the slightest bit dangerous…

  He intercepted it.

  He didn’t face the attack head-on, well aware that it would simply shatter his wrist and plow through him. Instead, his left hand tapped heavily on the side of the huge war hammer.

  This was an incredibly delicate maneuver. Not only was the attack moving blurringly fast, the sheer destructive force behind the blow was not something a human could touch and come away from unharmed.

  Micheal relied upon his Advanced Tier Sword Energy to cut through the layer of Hammer Energy imbued on the war hammer. In order for this to work, he had to correctly account for the force behind the blow, the shifting speed of the attack, and the angle at which it was flying in.

  Being off by even a small amount could cause his hand to run into some resistance and force him to slow down. While a tenth of a second’s delay might not seem significant, in this case, it was literally the difference between life and death.

  Micheal made it look easy as he sliced through the Hammer Energy and directly made contact with the war hammer.

  Part of that ease came from his wealth of knowledge and experience. He knew exactly how to do something like this; it was a technique he’d used to deflect powerful attacks time and time again.

  The other part, though, had to do with the fact that he had slowed down time.

  This made everything significantly more straightforward, giving him a notably larger window of time to react and focus, such that it almost felt like cheating.

  As soon as his hand knocked into the war hammer, Micheal stabbed his fingers directly into the head of the weapon, at a sharp angle.

  Not only did he use his Sword Energy to knock into the hammer, he also relied upon the physical strength of his body.

  With a Strength stat that nearly exceeded 270, while he might not be able to overwhelm these Great Ape users in raw power, his physical prowess was no longer something that could be ignored.

  The combination of strength and energy let Micheal shift the angle of attack for the war hammer, just enough to adjust its aim.

  In the same moment that Micheal did this for the first war hammer on his left, he did the same exact thing for the second war hammer on his right.

  Both of his hands worked independently of each other as he split his concentration on each attack, relying upon his keen senses and powerful instincts to apply just the right amount of force. His Time Bubble once more came in handy, easing the burden such focus took on his mind.

  As a result, both stone war hammers missed Micheal by a finger’s width.

  However… there were not just two war hammers zeroing in on Micheal…

  There were six.

  In the moment where Micheal deflected the first two war hammers, the other four weapons came smashing down towards him.

  And it was here that an incredibly odd turn of events came about.

  The two war hammers that Micheal deflected each sailed past him and then collided with two other war hammers.

  All three of these Great Ape users were skilled elites in their own right. While they put their full strength behind each blow and held nothing back, knowing full well that even if only one of their attacks landed, Micheal would almost assuredly perish, they were also very careful in how they aimed. None of their attacks should’ve stood a chance of intercepting each other, allowing them to focus purely on attack power.

  If they hit Micheal, he would definitely die… but what if the attacks hit each other? If they collided at an awkward angle in a completely unexpected, implausible blow?

  A millisecond later and everyone present found out.

  Two simultaneous explosions of energy rang out right next to Micheal as he twirled his body in a full spin, gracefully shrugging off as much of this as he could. While neither attack actually landed on him, the abject collision of such heavily energized blows right next to him was deadly on its own.

  The warrior that Micheal had stepped close to was blasted backwards as he took the brunt of the impact, both of his arms breaking in multiple spots, his sturdy Great Ape type notwithstanding. He was thrown more than 10 meters away by the two blows, his body flipping over several times in the air before landing on the ground in a silent, unmoving heap.

  The two warriors behind Micheal fared better, but were in no ways left unscathed.

  Each of them had one of their arms broken, the backlash of such a heavy collision shattering the bones in their hand, wrist, and arm as their bodies failed to hold up against the sheer destructive force of their own ally’s attacks.

  As for the last two war hammer strikes that flew forward unobstructed…

  Because of the small, simple step Micheal had taken at the very beginning, both strikes were aimed just out of range and missed Micheal by a hair’s breadth. They ‘swished’ through the air ineffectually, not even managing to hit the ground before the backlash from the accidental collisions broke the attacks up.

  Blood dripped down from Micheal’s ears as the world around him went silent, his eardrums ruptured from the close-range energy-explosion. He felt lightheaded and slightly dizzy, but didn’t let that slow him down as he tried to shrug off the attack and snap his focus back to the two still-standing Great Ape users.

  Micheal couldn’t see their faces, but he could sense their shock. What had happened should’ve been, from their perspective, impossible. It took both fighters completely by surprise, regardless of whether they were skilled experts or not.

  In the end, they were still human.

  Before he did anything else, Micheal abruptly ducked his head.

  A half-second later, a bolt of green energy flew right through where his head had been, whizzing by inaudibly to Micheal. This energy bolt landed on the ground not far from Micheal, blasting a tiny hole in the now badly cracked earth.

  Up atop the roof of the warehouse, one of the White Tailed Spring Monkey users was rather unsteadily aiming an Energon Assault Rifle, a powerful Artifact that cost 215,670 Points. Despite its high price tag, its effectiveness as a weapon was middling at best, especially later on.

  Still, here on the Second Layer, it was powerful enough to kill or seriously injure many warriors, especially those without long-ranged Defensive Artifacts.

  Behind this warrior, Micheal spotted a few of the other Beasts warriors, one and all preparing to strike. The pair of unexpected explosions, from both Mi
cheal’s bombs and the collision of Hammer Energy-boosted war hammers, had bought Micheal just enough time to stall these warriors from interfering, only now allowing them to fight back.

  And, while he might not be able to hear anything now, his powerful Soul still let him keenly feel the presence of his enemies. Their killing intent was so targeted at him it was palpable, making it somewhat easy to predict when he was going to be shot at.

  Instead of waiting to be attacked again, Micheal pushed through his disorientation as he jumped forward, spreading his hands out wide. He leapt right past the two stunned Great Ape warriors, activating his Silk Strider Gloves with a simple thought.

  Ten long, metal threads flew out from his gloves as he flew forward. With a tiny flick of each wrist, these titanium strings wrapped around the necks of both warriors at lightning speed.

  The red glow of Advanced Tier Sword Energy smoothly buzzed into existence.

  A small moment later, as Micheal landed on the ground and leaned forward…

  He closed his fists.

  “…”

  Two thuds echoed out, shaking the air ever so slightly.

  .

  —-Points Notification—-

  Points Obtained: 33,273

  .

  —-Points Notification—-

  Points Obtained: 35,808

  .

  The headless corpses of two Great Ape users collapsed to the ground behind Micheal, blood pooling in the rain as they fell over. Their bodies rapidly began to transform back to their human forms, though they continued to remain decidedly dead.

  ‘Three down.’ Micheal thought, his eyes shifting to glance at the third warrior of the trio, still laying down where Micheal had thrown him, before back up towards the roof of the warehouse.

  ‘Eight to go.’

  .. .. .. .. .. ..

  Inside the warehouse the Ape Division had blocked off was a large, mostly decrepit room. Several large lab aisles, old, broken glassware, clumps of dirt and mud that had been blown in over time. There were even several large puddles of water, rain leaking in from holes in the roof.

  At the center of this warehouse, however, was something that looked rather out of place.

  A large, metal doorway that had been installed into the ground, facing upward. Faint red markings covered the length of this doorway, small bits of red light fluttering off of them every couple of seconds. Next to the doorway were several large sheets of aged wood, perfectly sized to cover the doorway up and block it from sight.

  Instead of having a set of doors that rested in a closed position, however, this doorway was currently gaping wide open.

  The two metal doors that completed the doorway lay on the ground a dozen or so meters away from it. These doors would’ve given even Micheal pause, massive metal behemoths that stood a third of a meter thick, roughly as wide as a set of large bank vault doors back on Earth.

  Despite their huge size, these clearly enchanted and enhanced metal doors had been beaten and smashed apart, crumpled up and caved in, by a series of powerful blows all dealt in quick succession.

  While the chaotic sounds of combat echoed outside once more as Micheal engaged the elite warriors of the Beasts of Providence, only quiet, ominous silence rose up from the hidden entrance to the Farians’ secret research center…

  .

  Chapter 47

  Moving in a silent world was not exactly a common experience for Micheal.

  In his first life, he had fought against both humans and members of other races that possessed the power to ‘silence’ an area or region. Some races even had the ability to curse someone, blocking their sense of hearing, while others had spells that could manipulate what exactly a being heard, affecting one’s mind directly.

  He had been hit with examples of this before, but it was extraordinarily rare. The number of times he’d had to handle it in-battle could be counted on a single hand.

  With that in mind, right after he killed the two Great Ape users and downed the third, Micheal immediately made a beeline for the side of the warehouse.

  Despite the explosions damaging the ground and shaking the area up, the wall of the warehouse was just fine. Belying its decrepit outside, this warehouse was surprisingly tough and secure as compared to the others, likely one of the things that helped the Beasts of Providence find it.

  On the ground, leaning up against the wall, was one of the signal-blocking Artifacts. It, likewise, was undamaged from the explosions, a resilient tool that continued to work in sync with its three other copies.

  Micheal’s sprint took him directly towards this Artifact, making his intent glaringly obvious. The mere threat of him destroying one of the Artifacts, something that could destabilize the signal-blocking barrier and potentially ruin the attack on the Farian secret base, was enough to force a response.

  And, as he had expected, a short moment after he began rushing towards the Artifact, his enemies reacted. Their answer to his maneuver was a rather predictable one, easing the burden Micheal's lack of hearing presented.

  One of the Blue Tailed Monkey users appeared in front of Micheal, blurring into existence. His arrival looked incredibly unnatural, his body distorting backwards, as if he was twisting through space. Micheal recognized him as the one that had fled to the rooftop, his first, original target.

  The two other Blue Tailed Monkey users joined him just a half-second later, distorting through space as well, all three blocking Micheal’s path as they brandished broadswords. The trio looked almost identical, lean, powerful warriors creating a steady formation to stop Micheal.

  ‘They all have Fast Retreat.’ The observation was a rather easy one to make. The team of warriors all had the same, annoying power to dip and dive around the field of combat.

  Up above, Micheal could vaguely sense that the three White Tailed Spring Monkey users were all taking aim. Behind him, he could also feel that the two speed-boosted warriors that he’d bombed were getting back to their feet, apparently not harmed enough.

  Taking this all in, that meant he had, at most, 3 seconds of time to attack the trio in front of him before being hit from above, and 5 seconds before being hit with a pincer attack from behind.

  Micheal made those seconds count.

  The first thing he did was splay his hands out in front of him, almost identical to how he had attacked before. The titanium threads from his gloves flew ahead, layered with Advanced Tier Sword Energy.

  This time, however, instead of letting the threads fly forward freely…

  Micheal jerked his hands completely down.

  As a result, all ten of the titanium threads turned and drilled straight into the earth.

  The three Blue Tailed Monkey warriors had adopted a triangular formation, guarding the signal-blocking Artifact. Their particular Squad was most adept at ambushes and skirmishes, not direct combat. They never intended to confront Micheal directly and were fine with passively defending, buying time to allow their allies to enter the fray.

  If Micheal attacked like he had previously, the warriors would be able to temporarily block his threads. They wouldn’t be able to hold that position for long, but they would last long enough that it would no longer matter.

  Micheal was able to surmise this intent and plan, based on not only their actions, but also their Ability choice.

  The Fast Retreat Ability was a great Ability for mobility… but it was a very specialized choice. At high levels, in the realm of powerful elites, it was an Ability that would never be picked over an Ability that could directly boost one’s combat power. The notable drain on one’s Soul limited its use to that of assassins, scouts, and other experts that needed a way to get in fast and get out fast.

  Knowing all of that, Micheal opted to make the best possible choice that existed.

  He didn’t try to attack these three at all.

  Instead, he struck at the three White Tailed Spring Monkey users up on the rooftop.

  Micheal’s titanium threads burrowed th
rough the earth in a single second, moving forth and breaking free not outside the warehouse, where the battle was taking place…

  But inside of it, out of sight from everyone, led by his Sword Energy.

  They then shot through the air and plowed straight into the sturdy roof, slicing through it like it didn’t even exist. While Micheal wasn’t able to aim with perfect precision, unable to see the threads he was controlling, he was able to guide them to strike through the rough positions of each of the White Tailed Spring Monkey warriors by relying on his connection to his Sword Energy.

  Due to the intense focus required for this, in those three seconds, Micheal was left completely undefended.

  He stood there staring at the three elite Blue Tailed Monkey users, without a weapon in hand and entirely open. If these warriors wanted, they could have taken a few steps forward and cut Micheal down with certainty. Micheal was well aware that he would be hard-pressed to mount even a basic defense if he wanted to continue his attack.

  Defying that logic, however, the triangle of warriors instead huddled even closer together, the simple threat of Micheal’s presence enough to force them to stand still. The image Micheal had made of himself was a psychological attack in its own right, a deterrence that made them briefly pause.

  And it was because of that pause that Micheal’s attack had just enough time to land, fully unimpeded.

  The warehouse’s rooftop exploded, shards of stone cascading in the air as Micheal’s threads ripped the front of it apart from the inside out. He had split his threads up into three clumps of three, with a single free thread that solely focused on destroying the roof and ruining the footing of those on it.

  The attack came as a complete surprise to the warriors on the rooftop.

  All three of them had been in the midst of preparing to attack Micheal. They were focused in on him and his every action, but to a degree where they let that focus become blinded by their expectations.

  The female warrior with the energy rifle was positioning it to take aim at Micheal. Another female warrior had just made it to the edge and was gauging the distance between her and Micheal as she prepared to unleash a flurry of throwing stars. The last warrior, a male, was readying a large javelin to launch forward.