41 Closing the Gap (1/2)
The first step to killing him would be getting a few things out of the way. First off, I needed very little mana before my next evolution of my armor. Second off, I needed more levels for the new leveling perks I had. That meant one thing.
I had to beg these two to protect me when I went under.
I walked up towards Kessiah and Althea before I glanced around while leaning forward, ”Guys, er, gals, there's something I need to tell you.”
They leaned forward as I whispered, ”My armor's about to evolve. I get fucked up when that happens. Mind protecting me during the process?”
Althea nodded before Kessiah busted out laughing. After she finished chuckling, Kessiah put her hands on her hips, ”The little baby needs help during his nap.”
I waved her off, ”Oh, sorry. I forgot you've never had an evolution that evolves your current strength. You wouldn't understand. No biggie.”
Kessiah narrowed her eyes, ”Alright, alright. I get the idea.”
I shrugged with an impish grin, ”Sorry about the jab. Anyways, It shouldn't even take ten more zombies before the evolution takes place. Be ready for me to drop onto the ground, hopefully not screaming at the top of my lungs.”
They nodded before we entered our next set of houses. By the time we reached the last block, a message appeared,
Evolution gained. IV Harbinger of Cataclysm unlocked. Evolve Y/N?
My armor reached out to press the yes button, but I smashed the greedy little fuck with my will. It slid backwards like a hand touching fire. I reached out and pressed yes myself.
The pain came again, but this time I was ready. My pain resistance had reached 96, meaning I was damn near numb. My willpower was nearly 200. I wouldn't be shaken I told myself. Even if the pain was like an ocean, then I would be the planet that ocean rests on.
And the pain came like an ocean. Like I was in a rain of sulfur, the armor cut and sliced into my body. I couldn't even imagine the full extent of the pain without my high resistance. It wasn't something I could understand. Just the act of comprehending an agony like that might break someone's mind. Still, I doubt it would break mine. My willpower made it tough stuff.
It needed to be. Blood squirted from between the joints in my armor. It was like tiny blades were stabbing deep into my bones. The armor splintered my skeleton, filling hollow parts of my bones like the filling of a tooth. Just imagine a root canal in every bone in your body. That's what it was like. Even the tiny bit I actually felt was difficult to stand.
I could take it though. I stepped forward, grunting as I struggled. Althea frowned as she shouted,
”You alright Daniel?”
”Obviously fucking not.”
I took another step forward.
”Uh, ok then. Can you keep fighting?”
I took another shaking step, my armor creaking as I moved. I snarled, ”No, not right now...I'm just trying to not let this shit leave me stuck in my tracks like last time. I'm going to have to do this again. I can't be crippled by it every time.”
”Hmm...Okay.”
She fired a harpoon towards a nearby zombie coming towards me. With another quick reload, she pinned both its feet into the ground. With monstrously over sized arm, she slung a green bag at the zombie.
The explosion covered it in acid. As it melted, the jaw slid off and its teeth clattered against the pavement. It amazed me how numb I was to all this gross shit by now. You really could get used to anything I suppose.
Anyways, a few minutes passed before my armor finally stopped evolving.
IV Harbinger of Cataclysm(Skin, Legendary Unique) - Skin that can absorb rift energy(Ambient Mana) for evolutions. These evolutions may add other special effects. Cannot be removed, only altered. This skin is regenerated with health. 0/256,000,000 Mana left till next evolution.
A Harbinger's Might - Increases Damage reduction cap by 2.5% | Current Max: 97.5%
Bones of Eldritch and the Unknown - Additional 20% increase to total health | Current Total Health: 120%
The Rushing Calamity - Gives unique ability IV Oppression | Current Damage: (10,000 + 30% of health/min) within a maximum of a 175ft/53~m radius. Affected by physical damage reduction.
An Eternal Force - 3% of health added towards health regen per minute | Current regen added before multipliers: 3% of 13627 = 408.8 Unyielding bonus = 817.6 Determinator Tree bonus = 1635 hp/minute bonus.
Forger of Souls - Soulforged Runes reduce total mana cost of spells by 10% | Current mana cost: 90%
Loathed, Abhorred, and Hated - Decreases Charisma by 25% | Current Total Charisma: 75%
- You will learn to embrace your hunger, given time.
It was excellent set of bonuses now, each of them impactful in their own way. They all came together to make me unbelievably durable. The only problem was the debuff towards charisma and the the last line of the screen. It looked like my armor wasn't too happy about my change in attitude. Too bad I wasn't about to let it have its way. This was my mind and my body, not his.
Closing the screen, I shook myself a few times before charging my runes again. Much more energy rushed in than just a few seconds prior. The last bonus of the armor became clear. If I used less and less mana during my runic conversions, then I could put more and more mana into them. That meant more strength and agility from the bonuses.
That became clear after just a few steps. I mean, rushes of power were rare by now. When your level one, that first point in strength or whatever is a rush. When your over level 200, a point in strength is a drop in the bucket. This shift though, I could still call it enough of a difference that it was a rush.
And boy did it feel good. I clamped my fists, missing the surges in strength of my earlier days. It's crazy what you'll take for granted, constant increases in strength being one of them. I guess I had gotten quite a bit more tanky, but that's hard to feel.
Being tough isn't like being strong. When you're strong, you can do things you couldn't do before, like bend steel. Being tough was more about shit you didn't notice, like not taking damage. Althea's harpoons had been the only thing that could hurt me before. Now, maybe that arcane guy from forever ago could mess me up, but who knows.
A gurgling sound ebbed beside me, snapping me out of my stats induced trance. A deformed zombie smashed its arm against my face, breaking its arm. It hit me again with its other arm, the bone snapping like a stick. I grinned, my armor moving like water at my command. I stepped towards the zombie as it bit at my arm.
The monster's teeth broke against my armor. I pushed it off before charging the runes on my shin. With a stomp, the heathen's head caved in, along with the ground beneath it. I picked up the corpse before my armor injected dozens of needles into the corpse, absorbing it in seconds. It left a hollowed husk behind in my hand.
I tossed it aside before cracking my neck. I rolled my shoulders before running back in front of the Althea and Kessiah. Althea sighed,
”Why did you let the zombie bite you?”
Not wanting to say I was distracted, I fumbled my words, ”Uh...To test how tough I am now. The zombies can't really hurt me anymore. Maybe a horde could, but not just one. Had to check.”
Surprised, Althea's eyes darted back and forth, ”Oh...Sorry for asking.”
I shrugged, ”Can't blame you. Now let's fuck some zombies up.”
We went through more and more of the blocks, turning a once arduous task into a smooth process. I would charge ahead, my aura making the zombies run towards me. As they ran, Althea would snipe a few before I crushed the rest. Kessiah kept a lookout for anything we couldn't handle. Considering how ridiculous Althea and I were for our level, that meant nothing for now.
We didn't chat anymore after a few hours. The slaughter smoothed out like clockwork. Smash, crush, crumble, we tore entire towns apart looking for those zombies. By the time we reached our tenth set of ten blocks, we were finishing each zone within an hour instead of three.
Althea and I both became so much stronger during the process as well. I kept investing into endurance, giving me more health and regen. That let me feed my runes more and more. Althea ended up showing off a bit of her ridiculous strength when a cluster of the zombies swelled up from the ground beneath her and Kessiah.
She reformed her arms into elongated blades, shearing the mass of bodies beneath her. By the time she finished slaughtering them, they weren't even whole. It was like a chunky, meat smoothie. In other words, fucking gross.