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Chapter 145- Demonic Sowing Machine
🕑 Added 2024-03-15 01:19:44 +0000 UTCRain Clouds hung heavy in the sky, hardly empty after the torrential downpour earlier in the day. Now, night rapidly approached and the ominous skyline was tinged a dark crimson red. The sun’s setting was only half responsible for the eerie sight. Unbeknownst to Arthur, the vampires had established a Territory of Blood where his house had once stood and the planet itself was adjusting to conform to the new laws set in place.
The earth became hostile to all things non-vampire, water became more viscous and took on a reddish tinge and even the air itself became poison to living creatures. With Arthur’s absurd health pool and investments into Draconic Vitality, however, the freshly created territory's rejection of his presence had little to no effect. So much so, that he hadn’t even registered the miniscule increase in energy expenditures everything he did cost.
Had any tier-3 been witness to the fight taking place, they would have been shocked by the events unfolding. Yes, newly established territories were not all that strong, but they weren't so weak that a single domain, created by a freshly minted classer could stand up to them. The underlying subtext to their grand fight too was lost on Arthur. Engaged as he was in a brutal melee with three Blood beasts, it was all he could do to remain mobile and avoid getting pinned down.
Already, he’d ignored a dozen system notifications, though the cadence of their accompanying chimes told him they were debuffs he’d resisted. Or at least something of a similar nature. Barely a minute into the fight, and things were not looking good. He’d tried his best to focus all attacks on the juggernaut, the largest and strongest enemy amongst his foes. Focusing his damage on one of the creatures and permanently getting rid of it would make the chaotic fight far more manageable. Two enemies were far more manageable than three.
His efforts had been rewarded with marginal success and he’d managed to get the Bloodbeast’s total health pool down to 271,000 from its original 310,000, a full 19,000 more permanent soul damage than he’d expected he’d be able to inflict collectively across all three of the monsters he was currently facing. The reason was simple. Armaments of the soul possessed a small chance of permanently reducing a target's stats with every strike he managed to land. What the skill didn’t say, was that it more often than not affected his foe's highest stat which in the case of the juggernaut and another Blood Beast in melee range, luckily turned out to be constitution.
Arthur couldn’t put a number on it, but he estimated the monster's defences were about 20% weaker than they had been going into the fight. His average damage against the monster, however, saw an increase far greater than 20%, perhaps due to the monster’s constitution falling below a certain milestone it had once passed. Now he was averaging around 3,000 damage per spear strike he landed, three times more than at the beginning of the fight. His movements with the weapon had improved significantly too, as he learned to adjust to the flawed weapon structure of the soul construct he’d created.
Arthur’s every thrust now factored in the irregular weight distribution across the shaft and his blows were blindingly fast, striking at critical locations again and again. A single percent of every attack that hit him was reflected, courtesy of his shell of water and it prevented his foes from establishing the momentum to land any combinations on him. The single long-range Bloodbeast had sent another two crimson pellets at him. The first he’d dodged more out of luck than any skill on his part and the second was disrupted when the debuff, A Homunculi's draining finally showed its worth.
The health, ether and stamina it drained from his foes were repurposed to create shadow bombs. Just as the ‘Ranger’ had been about to shoot out its second pellet, the most destructive shadow bomb he’d ever seen had exploded under its feet. The creature had been sent flying, its own failed attack exploding in its face and causing further damage. Unfortunately for Arthur, the monster’s recovery rates were quite literally out of this world and the only lasting damage he was causing this battle came via his armament.
Kicking the juggernaut into the path of his lesser brethren, ’Beta’, he ducked the slashing claw of the only Bloodbeast that specialised in agility, who he’d dubbed ‘sonic’. The thing was fast but what it possessed in speed it lacked in every other department. At the start of the battle, the monster had been slightly faster than Arthur but a minute and two dozen stat-draining spear strikes later, he was comfortably dodging all of its frenzied movements. Or at least he would have been if he hadn’t had three other bastards to deal with.
Just half a day ago, Issania had been telling him how the seventh form of the star spear revelations was nearly useless in a fight and merely used as a transitioning movement. Except when Arthur ducked under Sonic's wild swing he found himself perfectly positioned to execute it. Arthur didn’t waste time. The ground was covered in rubble, chunks of concrete and fragmented metal. His footing had never been weaker but he moved forward with a single-minded determination. Something popped in his ankle as he forced it to rotate in a way the joint was never meant to. Augmented recovery dealt with the injury in the next instant.
Arthur’s soul spear exploded upwards angled directly beneath the Bloodbeast’s chin. The weapon's tip penetrated an inch through the soft flesh.
Two inches.
Three.
His weapon had broken through the creature's upper palate before it realised something was wrong and tried to move away. It was too late. A perfectly timed water bullet struck the monster’s knee, buckling it and delaying it for a quarter of a second.
That was long enough. With an explosive exhale of breath, Arthur felt his spear pierce into the creature's brain, through it and finally out of the monster’s skull. Wrapping a leg around the monster’s knee, Arthur turned his back to it, adjusted the grip on his spear slightly and torqued his hips with as much explosive force as he could generate in the compromised position.
Arthur was no master of judo, but he’d learned how to throw someone pretty well. This was reminiscent of that, except he had a spear through his opponent's skull and he was anchoring them to the ground as well as he could with the little force he could exert with a single leg.
The results were glorious.
With a yell of effort and a few strained back muscles. Arthur tore the bastard's skull right off its body, the Bloodbeast’s spine hanging off it like a macabre piece of stringy jelly. Arthur could have smashed the creature's head beneath his foot but he wanted all the damage he dealt to be done via his soul spear. He swung the weapon like a baseball bat at the ground even as the fiend's prodigious regeneration tried to save it. Once, twice, thrice. Juggernaut came flying at him like a tank so he grabbed the fractured monster skull tight to his chest and allowed himself to be punted two dozen metres away. A percentage of that strike returned to stun the massive bloodbeast for a split second. Arthur made the most of that time, placing the skull between his feet and pushing his spear through its eye socket, in and out as fast as he could take a demonic sewing machine from hell.
He destroyed the creature's brain again and again, even as it tried to reform and push his spear out. Repeated brain destruction did far more damage than anything else he could dish out and it was all being done with his trusty spear. That finally did the trick, and Arthur felt a massive influx of energy suffuse his body, the greatest amount he’d ever felt save the dragon’s core. It felt so amazing he almost groaned in ecstasy, completely ignoring the fact that Juggernaut had once again punted him across the ground like a football.
His body bounced across the rubble, but his mind was elsewhere, revelling in the sensation of finally levelling up. Despite the ongoing battle, Arthur didn’t dismiss the system notifications.
You have reached level 101…
You have gained 36 Draconic Vitality…
You have gained 93 free stat points…
there wasn’t anything to think about. He immediately dumped them into Draconic Vitality. Draconic Vitality- 1126-->1255 After all his titles worked their magic, he was now the proud owner of a Draconic Vitality stat of 2278 (1255x1.65x1.1) His healthpool shot up by almost 30,000 to hit 293,177 (2278x(30 x 1.65)x2.6) and his regeneration increased by a whopping 5,000, now at 49,694 health/hour.
The sheer ecstasy of the single level-up was nearly equivalent to every stat he’d invested prior to unlocking a class and a part of Arthur realised he’d need to be careful of mid-fight powerups in the future if they continued to affect him so strongly. Grinning widely, Arthur read through the rest of his notification. It was the one he’d been waiting for the most ever since he’d chosen the perfect Homunculus as his class.
You have reached level 101 and are now ready to undergo your first consolidation as a Homunculus. The changes that take place, be it a physical mutation, a new skill or something else altogether will be dependent on all the cores you have consumed thus far. Note that your next two consolidations will occur under slightly different conditions and only after certain criteria have been met…
As you are currently in battle, your consolidation has been put on hold. Make haste for you can delay this process no longer than twenty-seven minutes…
Arthur quickly read and digested the information in the two seconds it took his body to finally stop smashing through the rubble. Twenty-seven minutes. Whether or not I can beat them, the Bloodbeast will be dead in three and a half minutes so I guess I’ve got nothing to worry about. Opening his eyes, Arthur rolled back to his feet, surprised that the relentless monster had given him the respite to do so comfortably. Unfortunately, a single glance at them quickly explained why.
“There just has to be a second phase to this boss fight.” Arthur groaned, rubbing his temples. The three remaining Bloodbeasts, two melee fighters and the ranged mage had gathered together. Thick limbs of purplish-red flesh extended between them, grotesque hollow tunnels that were pumping ‘something’ through them. One thing Arthur learned from dabbling in games, was how stupid it was to allow your enemy to enter a new phase, which more often than not, you were forced to do when playing. In the real world, Arthur had to conform to no such rules and so he deployed the attack that was rapidly becoming his favourite, a water shot soul spear combo.
His weapon arced through the air, on a direct collision course with the Bloodbeasts that were now rapidly merging together. Not on my watch you bastards. For the first time, however, his attack wasn’t successful. Just as the spear was about to land, a thick limb of flesh shot out and knocked the spear off its trajectory, only by half a foot but it was enough for his attack to completely miss. Before his spear returned to his hand, a black orb grew to surround the Bloodbeast, eerily similar to the process of the hydra's revival.
“I wouldn’t waste my time attacking that if I was you.”
Arthur jumped at the sudden voice and only just stopped himself from reflexively attacking. Ayesha Murker had finally arrived on the scene, and judging by her pale skin and grim expression, things weren't looking very good. “Those vampires have lost their minds. That’s an ascended Bloodbeast they’re creating. When that fucker blows up, it’s gonna wipe the city off the map.” Arthur frowned. “When? What do you mean when?” he asked, confused.
“I meant exactly what I said,” Ayesha replied. “The monster’s gonna have a sixty-second lifespan. Two minutes tops. Even if we start running now, I doubt we’ll get out of the blast radius in time. Iris will be here soon, she’s probably got a talisman that’ll help us survive. Well, help me survive. I don’t think you need any help there.” She paused for a moment, considering his unblemished form.
“Everyone else though. They’re as good as dead.”
