207. Augmentation - 47

207. Augmentation - 47

As I approached the castle once more, I understood what drove the snake mad enough to attack. I got hit by the same effect. A thick sense of bloodlust, one that blanketed my mind.

It was similar to Charisma, yet not exactly the same. If it had been Charisma, it would have been easy to deflect. Instead, I found my heartbeat quicken as an animalistic desire to shed blood filled me. Worse, it was only the amount that had been spilling over the protection of my Resilience.

My first awakened stat was once again paying off.

Earth started shaking as, at a distance, the snake and the bear started fighting. I knew that they were strong, but I wasn't expecting a localized earthquake as a result. Just another reminder that what I was dealing with was closer to forces of nature than mere man-made threats.

Or, in the case of the bear, forces of nature perverted further by a mad divine.

I approached closer, picked a location, and started to watch. As I waited, every instinct I had developed over a life soaked in blood was shouting at me to either leave or attack before the castle could prepare against my presence.

The earlier ambush had revealed my presence, and even if I hid again, it was clear the occupants of the castle did not take to my interference kindly. Already, a few mages were adding new wards to the other side of the castle an addition that came at the cost of the number of beasts the castle was producing decreasing while a number of high-leveled scouts moved to the walls. Waiting had made the eventual invasion even harder.

Unfortunately, the battle between the bear and snake had just started, and I didn't dare to intervene. Both had wounds on their bodies, but with their endless Vitality, I had no way to know which one was closer to defeat. And, ironically, a victory of the cultists worked better than an easy victory for the snake.

The mobility of the bear was limited by the portal, but I had no idea about what the snake would do if it won. Maybe it would retreat into the mountains, or maybe it would decide to attack the city.

Not a challenge we wanted to deal with, well, ever, but particularly at this current juncture, with enemies prowling for our weaknesses.

I waited, the only time I paused my observation was to hunt down the cultists whenever they left the castle, and with more ease now that I didn't need to hide my presence my initial aim to keep my existence hidden died painfully under the presence of the two great beasts.

The cultists made five separate attempts to leave the castle. Two flying carts, two dedicated teams of summoned beasts trying to hunt me, and a wannabe assassin likely a Thief variant based on its limited Concealment.

I avoided the summoned beast teams easily and killed the rest, which forced the cultists to slow down their attacks. And, while revealing the range of my abilities was not ideal, I had to admit, I enjoyed the reversal. Up until now, cultists always held the initiative, attacking and disappearing as they wished.

I drew a perverse pleasure from finally giving them a taste of their own medicine. They were locked in, under siege, as I was toying with them.

Another thing that made me happy was accumulation. Particularly, my Authority, climbing far higher than I had expected, each increase bringing the required Experience lower and lower.

[Authority: 999,621]

As much as I enjoyed watching my Authority increase, once I saw the current number, I decided to pull back, just in case the System had another surprise for me once it reached the next increment. With my mobility, pulling back a few miles had been easy enough.

Then, I watched as Authority and Experience continued to tick as the others fought. Watching it, I could understand the greed of the gods better.

[+1 Authority]

[+5,420 Experience]

[+1 Authority]

[+7,330 Experience]

[+1 Authority]

[+1 Authority]

[+2,212,772 Experience]

"Interesting," I muttered. It confirmed that I still received Authority rewards from larger summoned variants, albeit in a much more reduced rate, a mere one point rather than twelve to fifteen they usually granted based on the Experience reward.

However, it only went up in the Aspirant screen, and not the Hero screen.

I looked at the huge bear, unable to help but question just how much reward it would grant. An idle curiosity, of course, as I hardly planned on moving forward in the hopes of delivering the last hit, no matter how tempting the idea of the reward was.

That kind of greed was deadly.

I continued to watch, hanging on the edge. The snake was slowly losing ground against the bear. Their physical abilities weren't too far apart, but the bear had one important advantage: It was using mana. Only the destruction variant, but that didn't make the impact any less devastating.

The snake thrashed in pain whenever the bear spewed its cursed flames. It tried to escape the mana attack multiple times, showing it was capable of throwing off the taunt effect the cultists used. Unfortunately for the beast, it was already too late. The bear had hooked its claws to it, not allowing the snake to retreat.

The snake recovered from every wound, showing the depths of its incredible vitality. Against any other enemy, it would have been a devastating advantage, either allowing it to slowly wear the opposition down, or retreat safely.

However, the bear was the worst possible opponent once tangled up against it. The same high vitality to negate the advantage, power and grip to prevent it from retreating, and a higher damage output with the help of destruction mana.

A truly devastating combination.

I continued to watch the show, each moment costing the snake more. Too bad it lasted long enough for the cultists to add enough trapping wards to make a potential attack too much of a challenge. It looked like I had to abandon my idea of using the battle to deal with both parties at the same time.

At least, their plan was ruined. Takis confirmed that they were in the process of sealing another tunnel, and the influx of undead had already stopped. Also, the beast wave had lost its surprise factor, allowing the city to add some new defensive layers to stem. Once they dealt with the undead, Takis would join the defense effort against the beasts as well.

Combined, the threat granted by the monster wave was negated unless they were able to send a far stronger wave, or allow the bear to move unimpeded. I found the former unlikely and if the latter was the case, we had far bigger problems.

However, I stayed for one reason. I noticed that they were gathering a huge team at the other side of the castle, closer to the battle. They weren't strong combatants, but a combination of Speed users and mages. I had an idea about their aim. They wanted the Ability stone from the snake.

They even expanded their wards to prevent me from sneaking from the side of their castle. A good strategy considering it blocked the mountain pass.

Too bad they had no idea just how fast I could move. I took a wide, indirect route as I went up the mountains before I came from the other side, and waited until the battle ended. The moment the snake had fallen, the portal stopped losing its glow.

The bear roared in anger, but as the portal shrunk, it rushed back and threw itself in, while the fast scouts moved toward the snake's corpse, and started to cut through its corrupted flesh, searching for the ability stone.

I waited until one of them had raised his hands in victory before I joined the fray. I charged at him before he could react, took the stone, and ran back to the mountains. At the same time, I asked Zolast to pull back to the city so we could regroup.

While attacking the cultist castle was tempting, our armies had been exhausted in the battle against the zombies, and the state of my Heroic Party wasn't any better.

And, then, there was my new status as a Divine Aspirant

No matter how much it galled me to leave a weakened cultist castle intact, retreating was the correct move. We could always destroy it later.

As I retreated, I examined the latest notification I had received.

[Advanced Ability Stone detected

Absorb?]