19 Althea

I dart sideways, running towards her from under some trees. If her harpoon lands through my skull, I'm dead. After a second passes, another destructive detonation of sound booms in the distance. A tree beside me splinters as another harpoon disappears into the soil.

I sprint, the branches bouncing off my face as I pass through them. I tear through vines and briars and underbrush as I pound my heels into the forest floor. Whenever I appear from the forest, Althea's cannon reforms into a rifle of sorts without a scope.

She fires the laser sighted rifle, the momentum sink in the back exploding backwards. It was a giant slug of metal that bounced backwards as she fired, eliminating most of the recoil of each shot. Each shot dug straght into my chest, exploding like a honet's nest. I weave back and forth, but she keeps calm as she fires burst after burst.

Running towards a gunman is nothing like in the movies. In this instance, it was even worse. She no doubt had skills for gunfighting, aiming, and whatever else she needed to tear me apart. Combine that with her power armor and whatever stimulant it pumped through her, I was running straight into her firing range.

So I pulled myself closer, sliding back and forth with sharp movements. Her accuracy lowered tremendously. It was as I predicted. She doesn’t actually know how to fire a gun. She only has the skills Schema gave her for assistance.

At times, Schema was an easy way of getting powerful. You could rapidly gain proficiency in a skill with little effort. If you didn't monitor this carefully though, then Schema's system became a crutch.

This gunner was a prime example. She relied on the system to auto aim for her. If I moved specifically against something that auto aimed, then I was no longer facing a gunman who couldn't miss. I was facing an amateur with auto aim.

So I slid back and forth, taking my time with my approach. After a few minutes, I was within a hundred feet of her. Her hands shook, nerves getting the best of her. Oppression would eliminate any precision she had left, but I couldn't use it.

My hp dwindled at half, but once I reached Althea, I was confident that I could beat her in close combat. I leaned below a burst of fire before pushing off my heels, sprinting towards her. Her knees wobbled as she unloaded a full clip into my incoming chest. It did not stop me.

Grabbing the end of the rifle, I jerked the weapon from her. She tried hitting me, I ducked under the blow before smashing her in the side. She keeled over, and with another dense hook, I smashed the side of her helmet. Glass cracked as she stumbled to her side.

She pulled out a knife of red energy, but I weaved between her slashes. She held the blade backwards in her hand, and the slashes were well aimed but predictable. Just like everything else about her fighting. She was like a living textbook, not someone who loved battle.

I laughed as crystal fragments from bullets pushed out of my chest as I regenerated. My hp bar filled from my regen as she struggled to hit me with the dagger. I pressured her back, her strikes turning desperate and wild. When she stumbled back, I charged towards her.

That's when my front foot fell into something like a bear trap. The edges closed onto my foot like a viper's fangs. I howled out as she bounced off the back of her heels, bolting towards me. Her knife came with a changed proficiency. Her movements turned agile. Her hands firm with intent.

I grit my teeth as the knife neared my throat. Goddammit. She played me. She lured me near for the trap, pretending like she had no backup plan. I'd ran right into it.

Right before her knife sliced into my throat, a thought sprung into my head. I lunged out, biting towards her hand. Like a monster from hell, my helmet split open and chomped onto her exposed forearm.

A torrent of blood flowed into my helmet as her armor crumpled under the might of my armor. I pulled her down like a lion pulling down its prey. She lost her balance, falling onto the ground. The red knife of energy fell from her hand as a high-pitched voice screamed through her voice intercom.

She writhed in my grasp, but my flesh was stone to her. She hit my helmet with her free hand, but my jaws clamped onto her arm like a crocodile’s jaws. I pulled open the trap, my arms shaking as my legs crumbled with the trap's might. I ignored the discomfort, jerking the trap off my leg.

The trap tore out chunks of flesh, but I removed it. In a surge of anger, I jerked my neck with all my strength. The bones in her arm cracked. I released her arm from my helm’s mouth before pulling myself over her. My legs pinned her down before I lifted a fist high into the air. She raised her hands and said,

“Stop! You don’t want to do this.”

I smashed my fist downward, shattering the glass over her helmet. A pair of deep, purple irises looked at me, fear stricken and panicked. “Like fucking hell I don’t.” With another crushing blow, I bent her helm, “You piece of shit. You try killing me, and now you want mercy? Now that you're fucked?”

With another vicious strike, I struck her helmet, “It’s too goddamn late.”

Like a downpour of lead rain, I pummeled until her head flung back and forth, limp and broken. The glass tubes pumping her with red liquid shattered behind her. The gunk spread a vibrant red, mixing with the crimson shade of our blood on the ground.

I kept smashing, her face falling apart under my fists. Still, I gained no notification. When I lifted another fist, a black tentacle shot out of her face mask and grabbed my arm. Like a tendril of steel, the tentacle lifted me upwards. As I rose off her, the power armor bulged outwards, the metal squealing as it bended.

With a sharp pop, the metal ripped open, revealing the growing limbs. Eyes opened in sporadic places, glancing around in a frenzy. Her stomach opened, intestines writhing outwards. Her flesh reformed into arms and feet and teeth. As if hell was let loose, this abomination kept growing from the power armor.

I bit through the tentacle holding me with my helmet. As I landed, I rolled away before standing. The mound kept expanding.

"What in the fuck?”

A ball of shadow radiated outwards before Torix walked from it. He turned and said,

“What the fuck indeed.”

He reached out a hand, freezing the creature in place. His hand shook as he slowly closed his hand into a fist. As he did so, the mound of meat retracted back into the torn armor. It stabilized until a surprisingly attractive girl was sprawled out on the ground.

The transformation destroyed her clothes, leaving her naked. You’d think I’d be drooling over the sight, but if anything, I was stunned. She was beautiful, like an amethyst in a silver ring. Her eyes and hair shared the same shade of deep purple. Her skin was almost silver in shade, though it wasn’t shiny. She obviously wasn’t of this world, in every sense of the word.

As I gawked, Torix said, “Have you never seen a woman’s form?”

“Of course I have. I’ve fucked before too, but you gotta admit-“ I pointed at her, “Having that come out of that disgusting monster…I mean, I just didn’t see that shit coming.”

Torix created a portal rimmed with purple before pulling her into it. “Well, I can give you that much. She’s the first of her kind, I believe.”

I frowned, “First of what?”

He turned and faced me as he said, “A half breed. One of those halves is eldritch. The other, I can’t tell, likely due to the eldritch.”

My eyebrows raised, “How in the fuck are you supposed to get a half-eldritch from anything?”

Torix cupped his chin with his hand, contemplating the question. He said, “I wouldn’t know. This is dark, twisted magic mixed with a few trinkets of science. It’s beyond my knowledge, for now.”

I frowned, “Wait a second, why are you here?”

“I followed you on your way out. You think I’ll trust you so easily after accepting you as my apostle? That, and I thought something like this might happen if you wandered off.”

I rolled my eyes, “Oh come on. You found me from the other side of the galaxy. How am I supposed to hide from you?”

He grinned as he said, “There are ways, though they are rather…unpleasant.”

Just the tone of his voice made my skin crawl. “What about her? What’s the plan?”

“I’m going to see what she knows. Perhaps even some experimenting if she proves that she isn’t useful in other ways.”

I waved a hand, “Try not to torture her too bad. I’m off to take the dungeon core. See you at BloodHollow in a bit.”

Torix stared at me, his jaw slack. He said, “That’s it? No more questions?”

“You don’t have any answers, not yet at least.”

Torix chuckled before saying, “Then do be back before morning. I may need your help with discovering Althea’s secrets.”

“Sure thing.”

With that settled, I slid down towards the bottom of the ravine again. I met a few more komodo tigers, but they offered little in the way of anything useful. They only gave me ambient mana, and by no means an enormous amount.

The jungle itself was a wonder to behold. I even picked a few of the stranger looking flowers and plants, hoping for maybe an alchemy or harvesting skill. Who knows, something useful. Regardless, it wasn’t until I saw the boss that anything eventful happened.

There it was, a giant red eagle with wings of fire. I can’t deny it was pretty damn majestic, but at the same time, it was easy to kill. At only level 80, I threw a rock at it, breaking one of its wings. It was easy to break further after that. At least it was something to look at.

With the dungeon core ready, it was time to get some business done.

[Flexible(Dexterity of 10 or more) - Your dexterity is good. Doubles flexibility bonus.]

[Perceptive(Perception of 10 or more) - Your perception is good. Doubles sensory bonuses.]

[Discerning(Perception of 15 or more) - Your perception is excellent. Double's comprehensive bonuses.]

After selecting discerning, I finalize my choice. For the moment, little changed for me. Just like with understanding the language of the Skeptiles, the change would no doubt show itself with time. Who knows, I may even have to bring back up the beginner perk at this rate. I just didn’t have many perks to choose from.

It made me think about my quests. I didn’t have to complete all three at once, so why not just cash in on the two I completed?

With that in mind, I ran back towards my base. While running back, I checked out my tree menu. I’d stockpiled 233 points, so I put them into the obliterator tree. Amazingly, I got nothing from it. I had 246 points in it, yet I hadn’t gotten a damn thing. What a shit show of a tree.

Still, it may give me something massive at 250, so I trained my throwing while I ran. I’d rip off branches and toss them at pinecones. I’d miss more often than not, but it still leveled throwing. By the time I reached BloodHollow, I gained three points in throwing and one point in physical fitness. Just enough for 250.

While sitting outside the dungeon’s door, I put the points into obliterator. The satisfying ding of a notification appeared,

You are an obliterator. You cannot create, only destroy. From this point onwards, +1 attribute point per 5 levels. Effect is retroactive for all levels before 100.

I shouted, “Fucking hell yeah bitch. That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.”

I gained a massive, colossal bonus off this. With all the extra bonuses, I would become a monster by level 500. With that handled, the attribute screen popped up. I cracked my fingers, relishing in the sudden spur of power. I spread my arms and laughed aloud in an evil fashion. This was what made me different from other players. Not levels or attributes, but the unique trees I unlocked.

Still, after rereading the perk, I needed to grind the other 750 skill points before gaining anymore levels. Otherwise I’m flushing attribute points down the drain. I wondered why, but then I rechecked the requirement for Obliterator. It was to kill a boss over 50 levels above me while below level 100 and while alone.

The reward of the tree tied closely with the requirements for any skill tree. In this case, being below level 100 was essential, so it made sense that the rewards of the perk were as well.

With that in mind, my attribute screen appeared with 20 attribute points waiting for me. I put a whopping 17 into intelligence, and 3 into perception. That left me with 30 intelligence and 22 perception, enough for some delicious perks. Unfortunately, it didn't give me any perk points. There was an easy way of working around that limitation - more dungeon cores.

With that in mind, I walked back into BloodHollow. Me and the sentinel exchanged some snappy banter before I sprinted back towards the colosseum as I called it. Once I reached it a while later, Torix had the girl on a table of steel, much like a surgeon’s. Innumerable devices of metal laid at his side as he carved into her.

"I mean, I get that you’re an evil necromancer, but is torturing her really necessary?"

He turned around as he said, "I'm not torturing her. I'm carving a stabilizing rune into her skin. Do you remember the armor she wore?"

I nodded before saying, "From what happened, I'm guessing she wasn't actually being pumped with a stimulant. It must have been something keeping her down. That's probably what let her stay normal."

Torix's eyes narowed as he said, "Wait...How did you guess all that?"

"When the glass tubes busted behind her while I punched, she started transforming rapidly. I tied the two things together. It just made sense, yah know?"

Torix frowned as he said, "Hmmm...I'm surprised that you deduced that."

I shrugged, "I got a huge boost to intelligence from one of my trees."

He went back to carving once more as he said, "Ah...yes...I'm sure. How much might I ask?"

"17."

Torix 's hands stopped for a moment, but then he continued his work unimpeded. He said, "Anything else?"

"3 Perception. With those bonuses, I'll be able to get the perks I need for the rest of the tree."

"Ah, of course, the rest. Might I ask how much is left?"

"750 more points"

Torix dropped the instruments before rubbing his hands. He said, almost hungry, "How did you unlock this tree you speak of?"

"I killed a boss over 50 levels above me before hitting level 100."

Torix leaned onto the table as he said, "Bah. Here I was hoping for a burst in power for myself." He went back to work while grumbling, "Useless apostle."

I shrugged, “There's probably a perk for killing a boss 500 levels above you before level 1000. Maybe even for 10,000. Who knows."

Torix nodded before saying, "Those points into intelligence are doing you some good."

I put my hands on my hips as I came over, inspecting his work. Tiny glyphs were carved out into her skin. Pools of various liquids sat beside Torix, each a different color and consistency. I recognized the shining blue one as mana. The other ones weren't as familiar.

These liquids covered a variety of needles and other warped pieces of a silver metal. With all these colored pigments, he'd created the lines for a tattoo of runes. Torix reached out a hand and said, "Give me your hand. I need your blood."

I reached it out before an aura of orange covered a needle in his other hand. He brought my palm over the shining blue bowl and stabbed through my palm. I winced, more out of habit then actual pain. Drops of my blood poured out, changing the color of the mana to purple...Just like her hair and irises, just quite a bit brighter.

Torix nodded before saying, "It's as I thought. A scientist found someone with arcane blood then mixed them with eldritch using a ritual similar to this." He stayed leaning over as he waved in every direction. He continued,

"They used the eldritch mana, but too much must have poured over and corrupted her biology. This led her to being this thing you see before us." Torix tapped his chin as he said, "I need a conduit for stabilizing her."

He turned towards me as he said with a dark smile, "Do we have any volunteers?"