Unfortunately, though Zarek could keep his expression unmoved and unbothered, his body was betraying him. There was little he could do about the veins or the flushed state of his skin. The darker hue of his skin tone could hide some of that—it was just unfortunate that Priya's eyes were as sharp as a hawk's.
"Zarek, you—!"
"No time, Pri. Everyone move out, now. There won't be much room before we get swarmed. The C Classes are a sort of balance to this place. With them here, the population of Turned doesn't saturate too much because they'll be killed off. With them gone, the deterrence is also gone!"
Priya frowned, knowing that Zarek was trying to change the subject, but also knowing that he was right too.
There was a cap on the density of Turned around here because they would be killed off by the C Classes if the concentration of Godsfall fell beneath a certain level. This was one of the things Zarek had taught them on the way here.
So, if one wanted to move through a city of densely packed Turned, it wasn't necessarily smart to just target the strongest Turned they came across, because they were almost like… safety valves, in a way.
Now that Zarek had killed two of them, not only would there likely be other C Classes that wanted to rush the region and claim dominion, but before that war could be triggered, there'd be other Turned trying to rush in and take advantage.
The number of D Classes was only around a dozen or two right now, most of which had been killed by Priya and the others. But if they waited any longer, that number would balloon… and quickly.
"Let us take the vanguard!" Priya demanded, but Zarek only gave her a thumbs-up, the veins beneath his shirt bulging so much they could be seen pushing against its seams.
Under normal circumstances, Priya would find Zarek's vascularity more than a little hot. But right now… it was very obviously excessive. It looked like his entire body was vying for which location would grow out its tumors first.
The inflammation was insane.
Zarek's body was reacting as though its entire being was injured, when in reality its nervous system was just being tricked by the toxins, forcing him to overwork. He was burning through his stamina and reserves at an alarming rate.
This wasn't just about pain tolerance—not by a long shot.
Even so, he took the helm, smashing through the lines of Turned. His eyes scanned the region like a hawk's.
'I knew it.'
Zarek was taking the vanguard not just because he was stubborn, though that was a huge part of it. It was also because he had felt that there was almost certainly another trap waiting around here somewhere.
He unraveled his new claws from his hand, tossing them back for one of them to catch as he pulled out a dagger. He had picked them back up after tossing them away earlier, but it seemed that he was going to be losing them one way or another.
Zarek unleashed a roar and threw the dagger as hard as he could toward the statue, the stretch in his back and the whipping of his arm making him feel enough pain to want to pass out. Another might have already collapsed on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
But Zarek saw this as a completely different opportunity.
Since his nervous system was going to be overloaded, it was about time he forced his Charisma to progress again.
[Limit Break]
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
[Charisma: D-]
-
[Charisma: D]
—
There was a striking moment of clarity. It only lasted for the briefest of instances, but Zarek, in that instant… felt alive again, as though he was finally in control of his own body before it all came crashing down again.
The moment his Charisma increased, so too did the effects of the toxins. The more acute his mind was, the more in tune he was with his nervous system, and the more obvious the pain became. It felt like a double-edged sword.
He had no ability to use his Charisma to suppress the toxins. But given how effective this method of progress was…
He would take it.
His flying dagger whizzed through the air as though shot out of a cannon, appearing at the base of the statue.
BOOM!
An explosion went off, fireworks and flying bits of small and heavy stone jetting out in waves.
It was a simple trigger mechanism. The easiest method to climb to the Godsfall Tear hovering mid-air like that was to use the statue it hung above. But that meant that it was the prime location to leave a trap as well.
"Don't stop moving!" Zarek called out, his Lurker's Godsfall spreading out from his body as they ran through the rain of fire. "Mitch. Smother it!"
"Got it!"
Mitch sent out a pulsing wave of Godsfall that had no other purpose than to suddenly snuff out all the oxygen in the air. That instantly left them all handicapped, but they also all understood what Zarek meant.
The waves of fire vanished, and suddenly they were left dealing with nothing more than the heavy stone.
The secondary and tertiary effects of Mitch's Pyro Mage Talent matched with Atom Link were, well… quite powerful.
Zarek extended his arms, his Lurker's Godsfall spreading out into lines that latched onto the chests of the four that followed behind him.
With a roar, the lines of black tightened and he whipped them into the air, connecting all four of their lines to himself seamlessly.
In that moment, Zarek felt a strong tug on his body as well as the lines grew taut once more. His feet lifted off the ground and suddenly all five of them were soaring right toward the Godsfall Tear.
In a flash, they all entered before the true chaos descended onto the city square. What came after would just have to be dealt with by them after they came out.