Chapter 616: Focus [Bonus]
Sylas gave Alex a look, and they both shot forward at the same time. Somewhat to his surprise, Cole followed right after them. He could sense a great deal of resonance between him and his wife before his physical stats took a large leap upward.
Together, the three formed an aerodynamic line rushing for the Eastern Gate.
...
The gate was swarmed. Trolls and Golems as tall as the city walls formed the helm at the breach, while Rotten Wolves and Liches formed the bulk of the force.
The scent of death hung heavily in the air, and every time a Troll swung its club or a Golem unhooked their jaw, unleashing a beam that assaulted the city walls, it was as though they were witnessing the end of the world.
This world was such an otherwise beautiful place. The skies were blue, and the grass was green. However, what should have been a gorgeous scenery was marred by the battle.
The once green grass was torn up and twisted by the marching army, the forest that had once been in the distance was cut down for lumber and material in an attempt to build more siege weapons for both sides, and even the blue skies were being quickly darkened by a fog of death and the scent of blood.
[Common Liche]
[Level: 32]
[Common Liche]
[Level: 32]
[Rotten Wolf]
[Level: 37]
[Rotten Wolf]
[Level: 36]
[Fortress Troll]
[Level: 30]
[Fortress Troll]
[Level: 32]
[Berserk Golem]
[Level: 33]
[Berserk Golem]
[Level: 33]
These warriors littered the battlefield. Sylas scanned as many as he could as he joined the fray, but he immediately noticed a problem.
He couldn't see their stats, nor their Grades. He had no way of knowing if they were F- weaklings or King creatures of the Bronze or above rank.
However, he didn't panic. That was because...
He could feel their strength.
When he pushed his Will against theirs, it was like their entire beings opened up to him. He had already begun to develop a vague ability to use his Will to analyze the stats and abilities of others. And now...
It seemed that this would have to be what he relied on the most.
BANG!
Sylas stomped a foot onto the ground and suddenly accelerated in a blaze of green light.
His body's weight was cut down to almost nothing, and a single leap from him bounded across over ten meters.
He landed on the head of a Rotten Wolf, his fist drilling down with a mass of poisonous Will that ripped through its skull.
With a leap, he dodged out of the way of a black arrow coming from a Common Liche. He grabbed it out of the air with a flare of his telekinesis and sent it flying forward so fast that it pierced the open maw of a Berserk Golem just as it snapped its jaw down to unleash another
barrage.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The head of the Golem imploded beneath its own power, a rain of stone, ash, and fire falling from the skies above.
Sylas leapt upward, planting a foot on one of the stones and leaping into the rain of fire. The stone spiraled downward with an aura of green surrounding it. It suddenly accelerated, its descent tripling in speed and hitting terminal velocity in the blink of an eye.
It fell in the wake of three Liches, crushing them before they could even properly react.
Sylas could feel a peculiar force surrounding the air with every kill and then surging toward him. It was one part of that manic red energy that the Greed Seed wanted to feed on, but it was in another part a mature Aether that had the sole purpose of doing one thing...
Leveling him up.
Sylas didn't slow when he realized this. That was because he felt that he also had far more freedom here than he had ever had in the modern system.
His aura flared up, and roads of ice appeared all around him. He used his skill to communicate with the mature Aether surging toward him, and suddenly Sylas felt like he was standing on
top of the world.
Skills triggered by rotating Aether in your body in a specific pattern allow it to communicate with the Aether in the outside world to trigger a strong effect.
Sylas' Aether had always been immature because he was still Level o. As such, he didn't maximize his skills the way he should be able to, and he could only trigger weaker Aether to act on his behalf.
That only changed after he gained Rune Mastery and began to take control of Skills after the
fact personally.
When he did that, his skills finally began to display a might worthy of them. But in the end, his Runes still lacked the powerful Aether they would need to make their presences known.
But in this world, as the Mature Aether of existences dozens of Levels above him surged toward him, granted to him by a mysterious power...
This Aether finally listened.
Sylas immediately took advantage, his Will pouring into this surrounding Mature Aether and
taking it for himself.
<Surfing Frost> surged, and Sylas' body seemed to blink across its slippery surface. In what
felt like a single instant, he had already crossed over 20 meters, appearing before a Troll raising its club high into the air.
Sylas' gaze flashed.
Aetherflow.
<Focus Punch>.
BANG!
The air exploded, and a ring of broken Aether and wind spiraled in all directions as a fist ten
times as large as Sylas' own erupted from his punch.
A hole was blasted right through the body of the Troll, and a rain of gore poured down,
drenching the battlefield.
In that instant, Sylas had already used up all of his Mature Aether, but in the very same split moment, another, even larger wave surged toward him.
Sylas spread out his arms, his hair whipping in the air as he stood on a platform of ice high in
the skies.
Dozens of Ice Bolts took shape, fueled by 70 Foundation Runes, with Mature Aether shaking
the skies.