Chapter 247 Armor
[Christina Sage (F+)] [Level: 7] [Sean O'Connor (FF-)] [Level: 7] [Brian Furlan (F+)] [Level: 8] [Lucas Shean (FF-)] [Level: 9] Looking at their Levels, Sylas was partially stunned. When he saw their stats, his expression became even weirder. Had he become too used to fighting it out with behemoths? He shook his head. Not everyone could be a Level 15 monster capable of taking his life with a thought if he lagged for but a moment. Even so, that didn't mean he planned on letting his guard down. Just as the four moved with a plan to swing, his gaze flashed. <Astral Bind>. In that moment, he cast it four times over, using quite a large amount of his Aether for just these four. However, he felt that it was worth it. Of the group, only Lucas managed to break free of it, but Sylas was already prepared for that as one of his kunai was already falling, while Lucas wasn't even aware of where the enemy was just yet. BANG!
The battering ram relied on its momentum to slam into the foundation of the home. Sylas felt his feet slip out from under him, but he was already ready for this. A fall from a few meters wasn't enough to do anything to him with his current stats. Because the battering ram's trajectory was thrown off by their freeze, they couldn't control it properly and the entire weight fell into Lucas to bear. By the time he realized it was best if he let go and cut his losses, Sylas was already right above his head. He didn't even end up needing to use his kunai, his fist colliding with Lucas' face. Teeth flew and blood spurted. Sylas held back just enough to not kill Lucas in a single blow just in case, but that didn't stop him from driving a foot into Lucas' hip and shattering it much like he had done with a certain shieldman in the past. He landed on the ground nimbly as the house collapsed around him. His visualization immediately picked up several bits of debris that could fall toward him. He flicked aside those light enough to be targeted by his visualization, but he quickly realized that this was too troublesome. He realized now why it was he wasn't able to casually take in everything within the range of his visualization. While his range was 30 meters, there was only so much his Wisdom could allow him to focus on at most. If he wanted to gaze at the entire region, it would likely be impossible unless he had a Wisdom in the several thousands. Maybe even that was being too conservative. He changed his approach and acted quickly. With a touch, the battering ram burst into a rain of ash. Then, he slapped out with two palms, pushing two more away from the falling debris before turning a fist toward the skies. BANG!
A flying piece of wood was sent tumbling away by him. Then, in a swift motion, he picked Lucius up by his ankle and abandoned the last of the four, diving out of the way. Sylas rolled as Lucas screamed out in pain. His body was in terrible condition already after Sylas' actions. Now, his situation was even worse. However, Sylas didn't have the time to mind him. He stripped all of them naked. Before, he had no choice but to destroy the battering ram because the group was frozen, including their muscles. As such, they were still holding onto the treasure. If he didn't find a way to force them to let go, then he would have to move their weight along with it, and that was beyond him right now. As for why he was stripping them naked, it was because he had no way of knowing if they had any other trump cards on their person. After he killed Azrael, he had come to understand that raw power and stats weren't everything in this world. He should know considering how many times he had almost died not because of stupidity, but due to being entirely unable to account for every single variable there was. There were too many Skills, too many treasures, too many potential trump cards and changes that could happen in battle. Christina's pupils constricted in fear when she saw Sylas stripping them down. There seemed to only be one reason a man would do this to a woman, but Sylas didn't even seem to notice her gender at all. Compared to her emotions, Lucas was in the worst situation. Having your pants forcefully taken off with a shattered hip was something he never wanted to experience again. In fact, he directly passed out from the pain. Once he had all of their clothes and their items, Sylas looked around. Somehow, these four were able to force houses to collapse and never suffered a beast attack for it. One would have thought that at least once by now, the noise alone would bring over curious animals, which would inevitably lead to battles. But Sylas found out quite quickly why that was. [Basic Beast Ward (F) (Treasure)] [Level: 10] [Become a part of nature, a passing breeze, or a fluttering leaf. Beasts with Wisdom beneath 100 cannot sense you outside of 10 meters]. 'It can mess with the senses to that extent?'
With the snail being an exception, from what he had seen, beasts tended to have pretty low Wisdom even if their Intelligence was high. Even the Basilisk King's Wisdom wasn't even 20. 'This is very, very useful.'
Sylas immediately put one around his neck, only for it to shatter. His lip twitched. Out of habit, he always picked up treasures with his telekinesis just in case. He couldn't trust his Scorned Wrap to keep anything intact if it could get away with destroying it. What he didn't expect was that even this auxiliary item would count as one that he wasn't allowed to have. It seemed that it counted as armor…