Chapter 210

-You have completed your Tier-2 Evolution.-

“About time, let’s kick shit into high gear, Tobs, play Heart of Sword! I need something good and retro to get my blood pumping. FULL POWER TIME RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Feeling as if all the gears in his body after ages had clicked into place and began turning, Cynrik gleefully demanded some background music and unleashed his total 5G of Killing Intent. Next, he manifested BlackFlames that surged around his body hungrily.

-Now playing “Heart of Sword” By T.M.Revolution.-

‘Tobs, filter all notifications and only give me the need to know ones; I don’t have time to go through them all.’ So Cynrik thought while feeling his body eat up the ambient Mana like a hungry black hole.

-For starters, your Húðflúr has been upgraded, allowing you to activate it at will.-

-It will now act as a secondary filter, further enhancing the quality of your Mana contained within your Codex so long as it is active.-

-Upon activation, the markings will spread up to your elbow, and while active, it will allow you to control Mana as if you had a Stage higher Codex.-

-By completing your Tier-2 Evolution and achieving your Prestige Cap, you have significantly increased your Stat cap due to the combination of the two. The current Tier-2 Stat cap is set to 1750.-

-Like Host Brance Jetlensr, your Circuits have fully integrated with your body, allowing Mana use to be no different from breathing. This has decreased the time it takes to replenish MP and enables you to store more significant amounts.-

-You already know the physical changes to your body, such as leaner muscle, more high twitch muscle fibers, and your eyes and hair now fully reflect your Affinities.-

-Your stored Mana will no longer be in the particle form and will now be automatically condensed into a Gaseous state.-

-By using both your Húðflúr and your body instead of your Circuits, you will also be able to enter a temporary “overdraft” state, called the Æsir Mode. In this state, your body will fuse with all the Mana stored in the form of MP in your body, allowing you to burn stored Mana faster, increasing the power of all skills by a factor of two.-

Cynrik’s eyebrows raised in surprise, hearing all the new changes brought about by his advancement, making him get pumped up further.

‘Do I still have to use snapping my fingers or waving my hand in a specific way as a catalyst to manifest my Affinities? Or does my Húðflúr allow me to bypass that?’ Cynrik asked as he picked up the pace of his attacks on Jörmungandr. Still, instead of having nothing behind them, he steadily infused Dark Mana into both his hands and his kodachi, increasing their penetration power and dealing increased damage.

-This…in theory, your Húðflúr will substitute your envisioning process for manifestation. However, it will increase strain on both your markings and your body. Therefore, I still advise you to use your previous methods to bring forth your Elemental attacks as it is still the most efficient way.-

Tobs’ answer shut down Cynrik’s hopes of freely wielding magic attacks as he dreamed from a young age. From the first time he brought forth a Fireball, Cynrik had been using finger snaps as a way to focus and channel his Affinities. This was due to his mother’s teachings, who had explained long ago that nothing comes from nowhere.

Much like Wizards or Magicians in pop culture back on Earth, Affinities needed a trigger of some sort, be it an incantation, spell array, or even something as simple as a finger snap. For manifesting his Fire Affinity, Cynrik had chosen to snap his thumb and middle finger as the connection point between the outside world and his Codex.

This created a pathway that would allow for control over his Affinity. For example, for Dark Mana, Cynrik used forming his hand into a claw, and to use Wind Affinity, Cynrik generally relied on forming his hand into a knife and slashing. In this way, he could have three distinct methods of channeling his Affinities.

Brance, on the other hand, would stomp the ground and pivot his foot for Earth, slash out with a knife-hand like Cynrik for Wind, and lastly, Brance would mold his hands into claws and point them at each other, focusing on the space in between the two to use his Light Affinity.

He had hoped that by raising the level of his Húðflúr and advancing to Tier-2, these methods would become obsolete, but Tobs destroyed his hopes with a simple sentence.

Not needing any more information, Cynrik planted his left foot on the ground and sheathed the longer kodachi on his hip, forming a claw with his sore left hand.

“[Shadow Sewing].” He chanted as he tore at the air with the claw, bringing ten shadow tendrils with the movement, which stabbed into both Jörmungandr’s legs and pinned his lower body in place.

Following up, Cynrik quickly snaped and manifested over a dozen [BlackFire Balls] surrounding the momentarily paralyzed Serpent.

However, the being wasn’t one to be locked in place for long, as with one hand, Jörmungandr manifested an equal number of poisonous gas balls, using them to deal with the fire, and tore at the shadow tendrils with his free hand.

When Cynrik clenched his left hand again to manifest more shadows, his arm spasmed in pain as the bones crumbled further, stopping his plans and forcing him to jump backward, separating himself from Jörmungandr.

‘Fuck,’ Cynrik cursed as he watched the Serpent free himself from the [Shadow Sewing], and with that single move, Jörmungandr changed the tide of the battle back into his favor, lashing out at Cynrik and putting the boy on defense for the first time in the fight.

“What’s wrong, mortal? Are you feeling the pain of that idiotic and self-destructive attack? Pity for you, my Omnipoison can be used to heal my own wounds, so I am nearly back to full strength.” Jörmungandr taunted and threw a devastating haymaker that connected with Cynrik’s temple and dropped him to the ground with an exasperated grunt of pain.

“Tsk, it’s nothing, don’t mind, don’t mind,” Cynrik countered as he spun on his back and kicked out at Jörmungandr’s shins bringing the fight to the ground in one move.

For a time, the two dished out countless attacks, all the while rolling around on the ground. Finally, with Jörmungandr back in the fight and Cynrik slowly losing wind, he was forced into an unfavorable position where the Serpent would land two to three blows for every one of Cynrik’s single attacks.

Left with no better options, Cynrik sunk into the ground with [Shadow Leap] and put several meters distance between himself and Jörmungandr, allowing him to catch his breath and re-evaluate his combat strategy.

‘Fuck, FUCK, this isn’t god damn working? Tss, this fucking poison is also slowly chipping away at my movement and HP.’ So Cynrik thought to himself as he examined his exposed arms and shins and his HP bar.

‘Think, think, my attacks are clearly working now that I can use Dark Mana for piercing power, only it’s at the cost of getting close enough to deal the appropriate damage.’ Then, using the respite from battle, he pulled up his full status and checked how bad the poisoning was.

-Warning: Your HP has fallen to 20%.-

-Cynrik, you need to get this poison under control, or it will chip away at your soul, leaving nothing behind. Also, Brance has arrived in the training room and is constantly healing you with his [Minor Healing].-

Appearing beside Cynrik, Tobs generated a small monitor allowing Cynrik to see the inside of the training room. His newly aged body was still sitting in the lotus position with a worried Brance continuously hurling balls of light at his chest.

“Did you fill him in on what is happening, or is he in the dark?”

-I have already informed him about your Turning Point Quest, and his response was to put a hole in the living room wall before running to your side and force-feeding you all kinds of supplements.-

“Hehe, he’s got a good head on his shoulders instead of panicking like those dorks behind him,” Cynrik stated, observing the worried expressions of Gabby, Benny, and Selene. The girls were both in tears, and Benny was pacing up and down the room in thought.

“I can’t bring Brance into the fight, can I?” The idea popped into his head but was quickly quenched by Tobs, who reinforced the rule that Turning Points were Solo Quests.

“Tsk, alright, no point in bitching further,” Exhaling slowly and activating his Húðflúr, Cynrik felt the stinging pain from newly forged markings appearing all the way from his wrists to his elbow. Surprisingly, the Húðflúr had a secondary effect Cynrik hadn’t expected.

The instant the markings came to life, the feeling returned to Cynrik’s fingers as it cleansed the numbing poison from both his arms.

“Well…all-knowing Tobs, it appears you’ve missed a crucial tidbit,” Cynrik said cockily at his Ai’s expense.

-Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know that would happen?-

“Not even for a second. Anywho, time for round three, I guess.” Standing up and rapidly flexing all the muscles in his upper body, Cynrik began sucking all the ambient Mana within the Shadow Realm into his Codex at an alarming rate.

“Let’s try out this Overdraft skill.” Tossing a smile at Tobs, who looked at him expressionlessly, Cynrik bounced on the balls of his feet twice, mentally chanted Æsir Mode, and was nearly blinded by a flash of multi-color light. When his vision returned, he noticed his whole body was covered in a thin layer of quad-colored Mana, his three Affinities, and the mysterious power of the Æsir.

The feeling he got from the Æsir Mode was one of being jacked up on a bunch of energy drinks and adrenaline. He knew if allowed, he would become addicted to the feeling, so not wanting to stay in the form any longer than necessary, Cynrik kicked the ground hard and shot up back into his SOC, which had taken the place of Reality in the sky of the Shadow Realm.

Shattering through the ground like glass, Cynrik delivered a devastating uppercut to the unsuspecting Jörmungandr, rocketing him into the air alongside the shadowy Cynrik, who quickly activated the full extent of his Húðflúr.

‘TOBS, ADAMAS ON LOOP!’ Cynrik winced silently as the impact of his left fist meeting the Serpent’s jaw further cracked the bones in his hand and wrist.

-Now playing “Adamas” By LiSA.-

Rolling in the air, Cynrik felt the song’s bass and guitars blaring in his head and smirked. His eyes locked onto the exposed throat of Jörmungandr, who was rising into the air beside him, and he stabbed out with his right hidden blade. Unfortunately, all it did was leave a white mark on the exposed scales, but Cynrik wasn’t deterred and whipped his right leg into Jörmungandr’s ribcage, changing the being’s airborne trajectory.

Stunned by the sudden attack, Jörmungandr attempted to recover mid-air, but just as he did, Cynrik flashed over, propelling himself with [Continuous Flames], firing out the soles of his boots. The Serpent watched in horror as Cynrik flashed all around his body, lashing out with powerful Mana-filled combinations. Slashes, stabs, uppercuts, kicks, elbows, every variety he could come up with on the fly, Cynrik perfectly executed.

At one point, he even tossed his sword ahead of him and whipped out another Futae No Kiwami, but this time with his right fist, leaving him gritting his teeth in pain, but delivering a devastating blow to the Serpent’s chest, cracking his sternum.

Just when the Serpent believed it was all over, Cynrik drop kicked him with both feet, propelling him higher, crossing both kodachi over his chest, and forming a fireball in the center.

“GAME ON SNAKE BITCH, MODIFIED DARK-BLóðRAUðR BANAMAðR: FYRSTR FORM – MIDNIGHT SUN CYCLONE!!!” Cynrik howled at the top of his lungs and slashed out, generating his strongest Sun Cyclone yet, one holding a full 3000 MP being it, and thanks to Overdrafting his Mana, its power was equivalent to one with 6k MP.

“F..uck!” That was all Jörmungandr could say as he was swallowed whole by the intimidating and massive wall of BlackFlames

“It’s time, It’s time, ADAMAS!” Cynrik chanted the ending lyrics to the song with blood leaking from both his eyes and ears.

BBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM