Zarek stood in silence, his machetes slightly aimed down toward the ground, blood dripping from their tips. His chest heaved, corpses littered all around him. He had killed so much by this point that the seas of Turned were having trouble even making their way forward, finding themselves walking through a mesh of squishing flesh, blood, and bone.
How many had he killed? Zarek had long stopped counting. The total itself didn't matter in the slightest, but there was a hint of clarity returning to his eyes.
It seemed that this level of darkness wasn't enough to progress his Charisma much further than this.
He looked up to the skies, the rain pelting down so heavily that it even sank into his eyes, making it look as though he was crying tears of blood.
There were two ways people became Turned. The first was corruption of the mind, the second was corruption of the body. The first… Zarek had never been worried about. There was nothing this Godsfall could do to his mind that he hadn't already experienced.
If for no other reason, he wouldn't allow himself to fall before he got the answers he wanted, and so long as she was still here, even if he got those answers, he would continue standing.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: E+] <A>
>[Dexterity: E+] <B>
>[Intelligence: E] <C>
>[Endurance: E+] <B+>
>[Charisma: EE] <B->
Talents:
…
—
For the first three hours of the night, his progress was acceptable, but only that. His Intelligence was lagging behind a great deal, but that much he had already expected. It was the weakest of his Growth Potentials.
If he wanted to help it break through, he would need more. But luckily… the night was young and he had finally touched that threshold again.
He had felt it a bit back in the Temp Duplicate Tear, but he had known back then that he was much too far away.
The synergy between Core Stats wasn't just an amorphous concept. In the future, it would separate the true elites from the weak. It could be said that in this cruel world, the only way for those with weak Talent and talents to catch up with those with monstrous Growth Potential was to take this path.
The path of Core Harmony.
Core Harmony wouldn't appear in the system, at least not yet—or maybe ever, depending on some circumstances. Instead, it was something that you felt, a synergy between your stats that always existed, but could be pulled to a new level by sinking into it.
After his Charisma Limit Break, Zarek felt that he had reached it. The first stage of Core Harmony: Focus.
In this state, distracting thoughts were shed away, and you were able to well and truly hone in on what your sharpest instincts wanted to grasp.
It wasn't that the Turned had truly just turned into Godsfall Droplets in Zarek's mind, but instead that the distracting parts of them had been subconsciously erased by him, making his attacks sharper and more pointed.
Reaching Focus was about as good as making each one of your stats at least 10% stronger. For someone as experienced with Core Harmony as Zarek—and also as someone who had already gone through one Core Breakthrough—the weight of Focus was almost double for Zarek.
The problem with Core Harmony, though, was that it was a synergy of all stats, including those of the mind. That meant that if there was too much of an imbalance between them, it would weaken, be more difficult to slip into, and take more stamina to keep active.
But…
This was also precisely what Zarek wanted. If he wanted to pull his poor Growth Stats up, forcing them to keep up with his stronger Growth Potential Core Stats, Core Harmony would be his secret weapon.
And the more exhausted he was…
The more effective [Limit Break] would be.
"Not enough." Zarek spoke, his voice feeling as though it had become three octaves lower, his throat seemingly having been scratched hoarse by the pulsing of his muscles and Godsfall.
He stretched out his machetes, pouring all of the Godsfall he could into them. If he was going to push his other stats to the absolute limit, then he would have to do the same for his Intelligence.
With a thought, he slipped into Focus again, the stretch on his mind coming back in full force.
Just as he was about to start another killing spree, though, his reddened eyes turned as a pillar of golden light shot into the skies.
'Hub formation.'
Zarek took a step forward, his heavy steel boots shattering the head of a Turned beneath him.
Until now, no Mutants had appeared just yet. It seemed that he would have to force the issue a bit.
He needed something to really push him. With his skill and current stats, along with his auxiliary abilities, numbers were next to useless against him. Even if he faced a sea of Turned, at most four could attack him at the same time—and that was only if they coordinated perfectly. Most often, it was two at best, and that was while some behind them were interfering as well.
Something strong. That's what he wanted.
**
Wyatt rushed forward with a hood pulled over his head, groups of Pensare group members following after him.
There was no one manning the GFI territory near the outskirts right now, so "taking" these territories was as easy as just showing up. But that would obviously lead to a battle once all of this died down, and though they'd have the advantage of fighting from a defensive position, that wasn't enough.
What they needed to do was not just take the territories, but compromise the defensive lines that GFI had retreated to as well. Once they caught them off guard in this way, the rest would be easy…
Especially if they let a few of the stronger Turned slip through as well.
"Move to the bridge," Wyatt commanded.