69 Chaos (2/2)
The ribs on the other side of it exploded. My fist recoiled backwards, slicing it apart. Stepping backwards, I used the momentum of my left arm to elbow a tribal leaping towards me. Pulling with all my might, I slammed the bony joint into the mask of the tribal. As my elbow contacted its face, the same telekinetic augment formed.
The wooden mask snapped before crushing the skull open. The body kept charging forward, but I sidestepped to my right. The tattoo covered man shot past my left side before I stepped forward and launched a kick with my right leg towards its stomach. Fissures formed under my left foot as my right leg slammed into the person’s stomach.
Once more, telekinetic augments formed before impact. My foot bounced off the telekinetic pad, causing the tribal’s spine to snap. The person’s back split open, drenching me in organs and blood. Another Enigmatta reached me. The suit no longer covered the glowing eye. It glanced at me, the glowing eye turning into a blinding sun.
Everything went dark, my eyes failing me. Using my sense of hearing, I raised my left shoulder, deflecting a horned arm above me. I twisted on my hips as I did so, drilling force up my feet and through my core. As my fist flew, I pulled my arms close, keeping the hook compact.
It landed, the wet squelch mixed with cracking bones. I stepped forward, slamming another hook into the source of the sound. My fist met a bony skull before I shot out another compact hook with my right hand. It missed before I lunged forward with another left hook.
The blow sunk into something soft on the monster. The wet squelch and slicing wires sang out like music to my ears. That is, before a set of teeth crunched into the side of my helmet. Another set of teeth burrowed into my left leg. Another into my chest.
I bent down, two more bodies jumping onto me. With an explosion of ascendant mana, spikes discharged from my armor. A hundred spines, more than I’ve ever made, butchered the nearby enemies. After that, I ran forward into the darkness, trying to buy time for my eyes to heal.
They wouldn’t let me. A hand latched onto my leg. I dragged it with me before another snatched my leg. I fell forward, crushing into the ground. The pounding thump of footsteps ebbed into my eardrum. Hungry howls and drooling mouths clamped around me. They were upon me.
Before the others caught me, my mind frenzied and my arms stabbed into the ground. From my arms, I grew spines into the ground. They moved sideways, upturning the earth at a rapid pace, digging me down. As the spines drug me forward, I condensed oppression right below me legs. Despite that difficulty, desperation drove me. It gave me the strength to snap my limits.
The searing aura compressed until it melted the fleshy hands holding onto me. As it did, I burrowed into the ground. Once dirt surrounded me at all sides, I shifted myself downwards with my armored spines pulling me along. The sound of clawing hands scrapped above me. I let my ascendant mana wane, my health flying upwards. It was strange that I could see my status even when blind, but it sure as hell was useful.
After that, I condensed oppression into a sphere above me, where the zombie dug. I drilled down, sweat pouring down my face, the only part of me not coated in armor. Claws of the monsters nipped my heels, but I gritted my teeth till they cracked. My burrowing intensified, and none of the Enigmatta or tribals got a good grip. A minute later, and the digging above me stopped. Oppression did them in.
It hadn’t slain them all. A cataclysmic explosion radiated above me. Another followed. After the third one, dirt no longer smothered my legs. A giant’s hand grabbed me before throwing me from the ground. Despite soaring through the sky, I was almost happy to see the clouds above me spinning in my vision. At least I could fucking see again.
I flipped through the air, adjusting with a few telekinetic pads. Landing on my feet and a single arm, I slid the length of car, my feet digging trenches through the ground. Glancing up, the damn plasma knife wielding chick was sprinting towards me. Her level increased by two hundred by the mask. It wouldn’t be enough.
With a surge of anger, I bolted towards her. We clashed with her slamming her hands against my own. I dragged her backwards before pushing her to her knees. From behind the wooden mask, a warped voice of frustration echoed out,
“Just…blurgh…die already.”
My helm split, opening a set of jagged teeth leading into a crimson void. The teeth disappeared into the meat of her face, above and below the wooden mask. I snapped her arms, breaking the bones and mushing them to her shoulders. I pushed her away, my teeth riving her mask from her face.
A terrified set of eyes met my own. Tears poured from them as she wept,
“Please…I didn’t mean too. I was forc-“
I bit into her face, the teeth of my armor sliding into the bone and flesh. They dug deeper as she screamed in agony. I kept pressing her shoulders together, my ascendant mana flowing like a raging hurricane. She gurgled on her own blood before I crushed her in my hands. Glancing upwards from the carnage, I met the eyes of Bloodbull, a bus’s length away.
The mask on his face grinned at me, the legs of the supposed mask digging into the sides of his skull. Hearing like it was right beside my ear, it whispered,
“You are a grand warrior. I can grant you great power.”
Buying time, I humored the little shit, “I saw what you did to her. What makes me so different.”
It whispered with power in its voice and weight in its words, “She was weak minded, unable to compose herself under the rush of the gift. You will rise above.”
My health and stamina regenerated as I spoke, “How will you do it?”
The mask grinned from ear to ear, “I will wipe you with the blood distilled from my shell. It will grant you the frenzy of battle and the might of many.”
My stamina capped out, my health not far behind. I stepped onto the corpse of the woman, my armor mopping it up. I glanced up and cupped my chin. Once my health capped out, I glanced down at the raging monster,
“Eh, I’ll do it after you go fuck yourself.”
The mask frowned, “Then so be it. Resist temptation, and swallow the grim reaper’s scythe, little lamb.”
I opened my status screen, putting all my points into willpower. I still needed that perk. A surge of mental acuity passed through me, the arcane bonds in my flesh strengthening too. As I finished, Bloodbull charged towards me, his steps quaking the ground. Chunks of earth splintered upward with each step. He smiled at the sight of me.
My ascendant mana blazed like carmine fire radiating under my armor. The drool leaking from his jaw and the hunger in his eyes, he expected an easy meal. I grinned with my armor.
So did I.