Sylas felt a flicker come from his Luck before it happened. Then the warning hit him in one wave after another as though something had initially blocked them but then began to crumble quickly.
Was it some sort of Luck-blocking method? Sylas had no idea, and he also didn't have time to figure out what it was because it was already coming.
A bearman standing three meters tall had appeared before him. Its muscles practically had muscles, and its head and chilling blue eyes made him feel as though the head of an Arctic Emperor Bear had been transplanted onto its shoulders.
—
[Akun (FF)]
[Level: 11]
-
[Physical: 13.11]
[Mental: 17.03]
[Will: 33.11]
—
The stats made Sylas' pupils constrict. If he converted it, wasn't this bearman's Will over 33,000? That was almost double his own.
BANG!
A staff manifested in the hands of the bearman, the orb of blue on the end of it suddenly swirling with blades of ice as though an odd, omnidirectional drill of sharpness.
But worse than that, it was heavy and looming. There was no skill to it, but there didn't need to be any.
'… Interesting…'
Sylas originally thought that the bearman he saw earlier was just a product of the Subsidiary City's spawns, but was he wrong? Could this just be yet another loophole that Aurion was trying to take advantage of?
In that case, how was he doing it?
But more importantly than any of that…
Did it even matter?
No. Not really.
Sylas' Will shattered the bearman's, raising up an arm and sending a pulse of telekinesis out that stopped the swinging mage staff turned club in its tracks the moment it hit his palm.
Seamlessly combining his own individual Strength with his telekinesis made it almost look as though the bearman had carefully placed the staff in Sylas' hand itself.
Even with just the first layer of his Scorpion Warlord Armor activated, Sylas already gained +10. With his telekinesis as a helping hand, the gap in Physical wasn't nearly enough for the bearman to be so candidly arrogant.
Although Sylas' 19 Will and Charisma stat points were already at the limit, and as such, Madness couldn't raise them any higher, what it did do was make his Will far more potent. While his Will was truly at Forging, without any room to improve his stats further, Madness made it manifest as though it was already Quasi Forged instead, raising up his Will by a half step.
There was a pulse of Aether that came from the staff, but unfortunately for the enormous bearman, Sylas' Will, even at half the stat points, had already shattered what was left of his own.
Without the guidance and control of the bearman, whatever skill or activation it had been waiting on attacking with sputtered.
Sylas' grip tightened around the staff and he kicked out.
BANG!
His foot landed solidly on the bearman's solar plexus, a strong hit of telekinesis coming with it that almost made the creature's bone snap. But even though it failed to do that, what it did do was force an irregular heartbeat.
The entire body of the bearman seemed to shut down. It didn't even have a chance to circulate its Aether.
The last sight it saw was a swipe of Sylas' claws as its head was sent flying into the air.
At this point… Sylas' claws were far greater than any one blade to him. Setting aside the fact he couldn't use weapons normally anyway, his Scorned Wraps made the +10 of his Warlord Armor a +20. That sturdiness and added sharpness were applied directly to his claws.
Facing off against something like this, his Strength didn't need to be nearly as high to do real damage. Plus…
The bearman's Constitution might have been near 20, but it wasn't there quite yet. With its Aether concentrated into its staff, and its body half shut down…
Only death was left for it.
Aurion had been more than ready to take advantage of the situation, waiting for an opening.
Never did he imagine that his trump card would die in what was effectively three moves. Was it even that many? He was in too much of a daze to properly count.
Just how… was that even possible?
Sylas caught the bearman's head out of the air, looking at it for a moment. His fingers flexed and his claws shattered the creature's skull, leaving nothing but the Gene Core behind.
'Is this a man or a beast? What exactly is going on?'
Sylas seemed confused by this, but when he sensed Aurion trying to run, he waved the staff that was left in his hand. Of course, he didn't use it as a weapon, or else the Scorned Wraps would activate. Instead, it was just a casual gesture.
A heavy ball of telekinesis fell from above, slamming into the Sylph's back.
There was no chance for resistance at all. Like Sylas had speculated, they had put all their eggs into the City Stele basket. Their current stats were still far too limited to face off against him.
Sylas put the staff and Gene Core away. He felt like there could be a secret lingering here. But he didn't have the time to investigate them for now.
With a wave of his hand, Aurion shot up from the ground, his neck firmly lodged in Sylas' palm.
Like he always did, Sylas stripped Aurion completely naked, taking everything that might have even remotely been a threat off of him. Then, he shattered his bones, going as far as to rip into his Aether Pathways in several places.
Sylas still wasn't sure if this would be enough, but until he could summon Nosphaleen or at least use Semi-Fusion to borrow her abilities to interrogate this Sylph, he couldn't bear to kill him just yet.
At the very least, now wasn't the time. And Aurion seemed smart enough to know that.
An odd silence fell between the two, Aurion holding his jaw firm to prevent himself from displaying the sort of pain he was in.