Chapter 104 – Bloodfallen Strike [Sunday]

Chapter 104 – Bloodfallen Strike [Sunday]

“So, let’s put those points into Intellect and see where that gets me!” John decided. It was morning and they were heading nowhere in particular. By keeping their grinding spots inconsistent, they hoped to buy themselves a little more time. A quick ten taps on the button later his INT reached 75 and he got the expected two pop-ups.





Wearing his full battle regalia, his Stats were looking fairly impressive these days.



He had a good amount of MP now. Even though it wasn’t a core Stat, Strength would be raised next. The idea of being physically threatened by someone twenty levels lower than him rubbed him the wrong way and he finally had enough of being this thin. Endurance had given him more definition, but definition on his scrawny shape had never been the issue.

“More Wave 4 Grinding today?” Rave asked as they headed out of her house. “Yep, we should push to Wave 5 when we get to level 40.” ‘And when Aclysia has her next Special Passive-thingy.’ John added in his thoughts. He had fed the Artificial Guardian all of the items that had dropped yesterday – except the Slab. Without a Dragonscale, it took many a sacrificed drop to keep her up to snuff.



For completion’s sake, John took a peek at Rave as well.



On paper, it looked like Aclysia could whoop Rave’s butt at this point. Then again John had no idea how much her aura would boost his girlfriend’s Stats. Perhaps he should conduct an experime-



‘Finally,’ he thought. Waiting for enemies to strike had been decidedly nerve-wracking. Once more the verdin came in as a useful extension of John’s will. Admittedly, they had gotten the drop on him and Rave, but that was about the only surprise the Bloodfallen could hit them with.

Flying around, the verdin quickly spotted Victoria on the roof along the street. The sniper aimed her rifle at them with calm precision. Precision wasn’t worth that much when an air spirit came whirling her way. Intense winds dragged her barrel off to the side.

The earth elemental responded with a delayed, ‘Yes, John,’ before a cylinder of earth enveloped the enemy elite up to the shoulders. That would stop that hindrance for a moment. John moved his second Possession to the robe of the enemy who was bothering Rave, making him an easy target for his girlfriend even among all the other assailants. All Rave now had to do was take care to not get encircled by the remaining cannon fodder, as she laid into the sword-wielding man.

The difference in technique and power was astounding. Having a high level through blood abuse was evidently not that helpful if one lacked the abilities to take proper advantage of the raw physical power. Rave on the other hand was a trained martial artist with an Innate Ability. Add in Copernicus’ blessing and she made short work of the hindered enemy.

Aclysia had a bit more of a fight. Fewer of the enemies had concentrated on her thanks to Rave’s energetic assault but she still had a level 32 enemy with support to deal with. There was an advantage Aclysia had over them, one so subtle in a society of superhumans it often went unnoticed: exhaustion.

Aclysia had no muscles that could fatigue, all she needed to do was to go into Defence Stance and wait them out with her superior reflexes, the few attacks that did both connect and actually deal damage through Steelskin were quickly healed thanks to her regeneration. All it took was one misstep and the Cleaver of Streets in Aclysia’s hands changed into the much lighter Sword of Glory, allowing for a quick counterattack. One by one the enemies were taken down.

Killed.

The reality of that set in when the sword of his Artificial Guardian glistened red in the light of day. This was a battle and no holds were barred. Through flashing light and glinting steel, they were ending lives. John’s eyes darted over to the mage he had struck with the Mana Ray, then to the other victim of the same attack. Neither were moving.

John found no true remorse in his heart. They were the aggressors, they were the ones who had planned Travolta’s death and they were the ones keeping a girl locked up for sixty years. That didn’t mean he was numb to the fact that he was killing people. Albeit, the faceless, nameless goons of a cult did not move him after having directly brought death to a man he would have wanted to call his friend.

Victoria appeared from the building she had been put into. John estimated the distance. 200 metres? Yeah that seemed roughly right. She had left her sniper rifle behind in order to get to the battlefield quicker. Not that she could make a huge difference at this point. She took another step and the asphalt underneath her crumbled as she fell into a cavity he had Gnome make moments earlier. Everything went according to plan.

Without the elites, the enemy assault started to crumble. They were left with a gathering of enemies that wasn’t fast or strong enough to deal meaningful damage. Much of the pressure was removed, so they took out the remaining enemies through non-lethal means. At the end of the fight John still had 132 Mana. Seven of the attackers were dead, most of whom fell to Aclysia’s blade. The remaining thirteen + Victoria, John locked into the earth. When he was done, only their heads were poking from the street.

“Here we are now,” John kneeled down in front of Victoria. “Did you know your guild leader was the one to addict Travolta to the Blood of Thana?”

“Don’t speak her name, you heinous traitor,” she hissed in response, similar responses were shouted by the others. “You can try to poison the well with your words, but whatever Igor did, he would do with good reason.”

John shook his head. “You guys are really too far gone down the extremist route to talk to.” That was his conclusion. “I will go save Thana now. Should take you a good amount of time to get out of this.”

They could only leave the Illusion Barrier by raising their hands into the air. Which required them to dig themselves out first. That plus the need to take a two hour train ride would give John more than enough time to either succeed in his plan or fail due to other reasons.

After leaving the Bloodfallen behind, John called Herman. “It’s time.”ÚpTodated novels on no(v)el()bin(.)com