The power was off the charts. Grey felt like he hadn’t faced something like this since he had faced off against the cabin in the forest, at least not directly. Esmeralda and the vampire pimp had been stronger than this, surely. The problem was that they were so high up that it was hard to get any sort of gauge of where their limits lay.
But even the cabin felt muted compared to this. The worst part was that this place was even more limiting in movement than the Wicked Forest Witch ruin had been.
There were no forcefields holding him back here, but the tunnels of the catacombs were only four or five meters across, and even if he did run, many of the tunnels were so long that there was no place to hide or maneuver for what was often hundreds of meters at a time. And...
He didn’t want to run.
Joaquin had been pissing him off for so long. And since he was taking the chance to piss the Bishop off as well, he wasn’t about to leave here empty handed. At that point, he might as well just kill himself.
—
Energy Reserve: 18.7/20.1
—
’I used up 1.4 units to bite through that previous magic bullet, but that calculation is useless against these ones. If I tried, I’d get my head blown off first.’
Grey made a quick decision. His hand moved over his face and his mechanical jaw vanished.
He pulled on his Vampire Lord Frame, pouring everything he had into it. Waves of might rippled off of him in solar flares of crimson.
—
Name: Mask of the Skrill
Rarity: Uncommon
...
Description: An auxiliary item designed to make your movements harder to track and difficult to predict...
Abilities: +10% DEX
—
Joaquin’s hands froze mid-forming a new head-sized magic bullet. As expected, the Skrill Mask was especially effective against those at the Proving Class. No matter how powerful Joaquin had suddenly gotten, it was mostly something reflected in his stats, not his general Abilities.
He didn’t have the senses or Abilities to dismiss the confusion of the Mask of the Skrill. Grey had been worried that maybe Joaquin’s new PER stats would make the item useless, but it seemed he was in luck.
’There’s a chance.’
Grey stomped a foot to the ground and suddenly accelerated to his peak speed as though his own internal engines had revved to an extreme.
His figure split in Joaquin’s eyes, the latter’s eyes darting back and forth as though he couldn’t pick out which Grey to attack.
He screeched, but it came out in a low roar as though everything coming from his throat was filtered several octaves lower. The sound alone made Grey feel like his ears were being shredded to pieces.
A magic bullet of gold shot through the air, ripping and rotating through it.
It passed right over Grey’s shoulder as he leapt onto the wall to the side, taking two quick steps before he landed across from Joaquin in a sharp skid.
A glow of gold rippled out from Joaquin, rushing forward in an illusory shield that crushed everything in its path, but Grey had already leapt up and to the other side.
Slamming yet another foot against the opposing wall, Grey arched through the air, flipping until he was upside down above Joaquin.
From Joaquin’s perspective, it felt like Grey was everywhere and yet nowhere at once. No matter where he attacked, he just kept hitting air.
Agitation made him send out one spell after another.
But it was far too late.
Grey only had eyes for the fleshy fat that now made up Joaquin’s neck.
Iron Veil coated his hand and up his wrist, locking it in place. Time slowed around him as Crimson Cognition bloomed, his Metal and Magnetic affinities layering atop one another to accelerate the blade even faster than his own muscles could manage on their own.
He didn’t even roar, he simply focused. Every fiber of his being aiming toward a single spot with everything he had.
Chi.
Sparks of electricity flashed in his crimson eyes, making it look as though an entire network of circuits were flooding in and connecting his mind behind their depths.
His blade descended, his blood pouring into the fanged dagger.
The blood blade cut right into Joaquin’s neck and the latter cried out in pain.
However, Grey’s eyes widened in shock as the blade suddenly came to a stop. The fleshy fat wiggled and compressed in on the blade, squeezing over it until...
Chi.
The blade shattered to pieces.
Grey’s fang dagger swung down right after, following the momentum. But after feeling where he was attacked from, Joaquin suddenly spun, clasping his hands in a hammering motion and slamming them out together against Grey’s body.
BOOM.
Grey’s body bent away from Joaquin’s blow, his ribs cracking. He had barely manifested Iron Veil at the last moment, but it crumbled just as fast as it manifested.
Like a ragdoll, he slammed against an opposing wall, his neck cracking at an awkward angle.
He gasped for breath, his body sliding down the wall in a snail’s trail of blood.
The world spun around Grey. He could faintly feel Joaquin lumbering over toward him. Then, realizing his speed wasn’t nearly enough, Joaquin quickly gave up, raising up his hands to form yet another powerful magic bullet.
The whir of energy shook at Grey’s psyche.
Abyssal Anchor activated, shaking his mind awake and shedding off what should have been a clear and obvious concussion.
—
Lv.5 Abyssal Anchor > Lv.6 Abyssal Anchor
—
Grey gritted his teeth. He absolutely refused to die even a single time to this fucking bastard.
’Not even one time. Not once.’
A spike of blood formed out of Grey’s back, sending him flying forward and out of the path of Joaquin’s attack.
He rolled to a stop, stumbling up to his feet. His eyes burned with a murderous crimson, but the fire that they couldn’t see, the one raging in his belly, was just as vibrant.
BOOM.