Chapter 879 True Marksman
Sylas' tail swayed once.
BANG!
The lake of blood shook, a violent wave rising into the air beneath the shocking force.
Sylas' Physical didn't just increase by +4000 like he thought it might. After crossing into the Essence Mastery barrier, he shot up to a full +6000, a doubling of the last increase to his Physical stats.
Standing there now, his own stats also approached and crossed 10 000.
He was no longer so small.
The pain seemed to fuel him, his blood becoming wisps of black that fused into his armor, subtly increasing his stat output all the more.
As though feeding on his injuries, the armor became redder, darker, stronger.
Without even meaning to, Sylas tapped into a power that should have only been available at the Mastery of the third layer.
And then he roared.
It didn't sound like a human at all. His voice layered, fierce winds billowing out of him.
Lightning pulsed, crackling and dancing across the surface of the lake. As though a helicopter was descending from above, the waters blew apart, rippling outward with a raging momentum.
BANG!
"Kill him." Aki said slowly.
Sylas had already crossed the 50‑meter distance, landing on the shore like a meteor falling from the skies. His knees bent, his body bowing akin to a steel spring.
The words had barely echoed when he made contact with the first Dogon.
Bone cracked and shattered, the Dogon shaking for a brief moment before he became nothing more than a bloody mist.
Aki was shaken for more reasons than one. There was no one more familiar with the Warlord Armors than himself. So he really couldn't understand… just how Sylas' armor was stronger than his own.
'It's not time yet.' Aki thought, his jaw clenching.
But Sylas didn't seem keen on giving him that time in the slightest.
"Vaekra. It will be up to you." Aki spoke once more, the sultriness of his voice fading just the slightest hint toward a colder darkness.
Vaekra was already moving, her bone earrings rattling. She raised her bow.
Sylas felt the danger before it came. The difference between a real archer and someone who was a casual marksman was palpable. It was akin to the difference between a cornered animal and a true predator. The instinct to kill lingered in the air, taking tangible form and wrapping around him, practically steering him right into the path of the attack.
Vaekra's breath and her arrow were like one, drawing across the air and releasing in a single fluid motion.
In an instant, it was already before Sylas.
And yet Sylas just snatched it out of the air.
The illusion of the powerful arrow crumbled in an instant, its power so weak and pitiful before him that it shattered to pieces. It couldn't even continue to rotate in his palm, coming to such an abrupt stop that there was no delay in the activation of the Scorned Wraps.
Enemies converged on Sylas from all sides, but at that moment, his Madness Key swayed.
Half a dozen droplets of golden Blood Essence appeared in the air. The Dogons felt a sense of familiarity take root in their hearts, but they were only able to bask in it for the briefest moment before this familiar, warm feeling became a rain of death.
Glass blades took form, golden Runes dancing in their midst. If before they only had a thousand or so stat points, they exploded forth to over five times that in a blink of an eye.
They blinked and vanished like bolts of lightning in the skies.
Six Dogons experienced a death that could only be described in books of fantasy. Sylas' control over Glassvolt Aether reached a new level, Glass shifting to amorphous lightning and then back again seamlessly. In one moment, they were shooting across the air like peels of lightning across cumulonimbus clouds, and in the next they had become execution guillotines, splitting them right down the middle.
They fell into a dozen halves, collapsing onto the ground in heaps of blood.
Vaekra took a breath. It had only been a brief instant, but Sylas had already killed a tenth of them.
She knew that she wouldn't be able to remain so passive any longer. Her body shook and bones bloomed from her back like flowers.
SHU.
Two arcs of wings took shape before a bone armor covered her from head to toe, swallowing up every inch of her body except her hair and eyes themselves. Even her mouth and nose were covered in a stony white visor.
A black aura seeped out of her, and when she drew her bow again, a bone lance taking shape out of her body, the very air around her trembled.
Sylas flickered and vanished.
Vaekra's expression didn't so much as change when he appeared before her, releasing her arrow with the calmness of a predator hunting her prey.
BANG!
The lance-arrow collided with Sylas. He slammed his palm together to catch it, but he was sent flying into the distance.
His feet skidded across the lake of blood, and then spikes suddenly grew out of it.
CHICHICHICHICHI.
Sparks flew and Sylas' Scorpion Warlord Armor began to be battered and beaten, taking continuous damage. Even with his Constitution currently being at nearly 20 000, it felt that if this continued, it would inevitably collapse.
Vaekra didn't hesitate in the slightest, drawing her bow again.
PENG! PENG! PENG! PENG!
Every release shattered the sound barrier, making bullets feel like children's toys. They curled through the skies, cyclones of wind forming around them as they extended around Sylas, collapsing in on him from all sides.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Vaekra drew her bow again, taking a light, almost delicate step forward. In a flash, she appeared on the bloody lake, her dexterity so high she practically formed three different images at once as her agility hit a new height.
She released arrow after arrow, suffocating Sylas to the point that he could not retaliate.
CRACK.
The first signs of Sylas' Scorpion Warlord Armor giving way appeared.