Tower Apocalypse 3, page 19
On the other side of the beast, Maxwell launched a low kick, aiming for its ankle. The dinosaur roared again—angrier this time—and I could have sworn it briefly wobbled, but it seemed like the attack just wasn’t strong enough to cause it to stumble.
The dinosaur raised its foot high to strike at Maxwell, and that’s where I saw an opportunity.
I darted underneath, gathering all of my force into my fingers.
Right as the dinosaur stomped down, I used the same hand-blade trick as before, slicing the tendon that held the sole to its toes and sending a ripple of force upwards, rocking its whole leg.
Hot red blood, mixed with thick black oil, erupted from the gaping hole in the dinosaur’s feet and washed all over me. The smell was disgusting, and the burning heat was even worse.
With all of my force concentrated around my hands, the rest of my body was in a weakened state without any force to protect it. I almost felt as if I was back on Earth again and a weak ordinary human again. Even something simple like this spilled burning oil hurt like hell—it felt like I was being boiled alive.
But it didn’t matter.
In my book, offense was the best defense.
I sliced twice more, and then the creature finally fell, crashing hard into the stone.
There was a loud snap, and then Allan and Maxwell cheered. Not only had the dinosaur toppled over, but the awkward angle and the severe wound had also shattered its leg.
The monster spun around, trying to get to its feet, and in a stupid attempt to get up, it rolled over on its chest. Sparks erupted from the broken cannons, and then they exploded.
Blood and bone briefly flew through the air and the dinosaur writhed in pain, snapping its teeth and twisting its neck from side to side as it tried to use its only remaining weapon, its teeth.
However, even with just its teeth, it was still dangerous.
We needed to put it out of its misery right away.
“I’m sorry, big guy, but it’s time to sleep,” I whispered.
I lurched behind it, dodging its teeth, then punched straight through the back of its head with a full-powered blow.
The dinosaur stumbled and crashed to the ground, finally dead.
A STRENGTH BEYOND STATS
NEW PERK RECEIVED
MECHA EXTINCTION
REWARD 1
+5 Levels / + 100 Health / +100 Shield
As soon as the dinosaur stopped trembling, the armor fell off. A loud pneumatic hiss echoed through the coliseum and then the white pieces hit the floor with a surprisingly light clank. The corpse itself dissolved into the stone, vanishing in moments, but the armor remained.
I stepped forward and touched the closest piece, looting it for my inventory.
The piece vanished, and a notification appeared.
ITEM ACQUIRED
Synthetic Armor (x1)
“Interesting…” I said, pointing at the next few pieces, which were lying all over the crater-ridden floor. “Grab some of these, let me know what it says.”
Allan and Maxwell stepped forward, taking some of the pieces for themselves.
Allan frowned.
“Synthetic armor.”
Maxwell nodded.
“It says the same thing for me.”
I picked up another piece. This time, I didn’t add it to my inventory. Instead, I just turned it around in my hands, sensing it with my force detection abilities.
The armor seemed powerful but generic. There was nothing hidden inside and seemed like nothing more than a simple stat bonus.
Compared to the ore we’d found earlier, this felt different. It was more like an item than an actual upgrade.
“System,” I asked. “Can I use this armor to upgrade my summons?”
The System responded immediately.
“No, you cannot. This Synthetic Armor is an item you can equip. You will have to reforge the item to fit your summons, but only if you find a suitably skilled crafter.”
A crafter who designed armor for giant summons…Yeah, that was not going to happen.
It seemed very unlikely that anyone had even risen to the calling, and even if there was someone who decided to become a smith, there were still over nine hundred thousand people. Creating armor for them was probably much more profitable.
Allan and Maxwell fumbled with the Synthetic Armor and used force to bend it. Then they broke it with their bare hands. The item seemed like it was reasonably useful, but it wasn’t good enough to hold off elite fighters.
I now wore top gear, which was one of the reasons I could kick the Mechasaurus’ ass, but there were still a lot of people running around in leather pieces.
They’d appreciate this.
I glanced at the many white pieces strewn across the floor, then turned to Allan and Maxwell.
“You guys mind gathering these up? I was going to use the ores we found earlier to upgrade my summons.”
“Are you going to try and forge armor for them, too?” Allan asked.
I shook my head.
“It seems too basic, and I’m not sure we can find a crafter who knows how to create armor using…well, this stuff. I was thinking we could just pass the material over to Schroder.”
Maxwell nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. Assembly line stuff should work well, especially with his numbers.”
As Allan and Maxwell gathered the splintered white pieces, I checked if I could summon my trio. Seeing Reinhardt was available, I gestured and brought him out to play. The stone floor splintered, and then Reinhardt burst from the ground.
“Master!” he boomed. “Why didn’t you use me in the battle? I was watching and waiting!”
Unlike Maxwell and Allan, halfway through the battle, I found that I could have used my summons or skills at any time since the Fragment of the Demigod protected me from the System’s restrictions.
“I wasn’t allowed to, Reiny,” I replied out loud.
Mentally, I sent him a separate reply before Allan and Maxwell, or worse—the System itself—grew suspicious.
“Reiny, let’s keep the fact I can summon you at any time a secret. We had some limitations imposed on us, so don’t mention it anymore.”
Reiny nodded, playing along without any fuss.
Since Reinhardt was also a living being on Gaea, he probably didn’t understand what the Fragment of the Demigod was. That power was absurd even in a world with so many incredible spells, skills, and abilities. It would be like a human back on Earth meeting someone who could defy the laws of gravity.
“Well, I’m glad I can help now, master! What do you need?”
I removed the ores from my inventory. “I need you to grow stronger. Please take these ores and upgrade to the next Rank. And while you’re at it, don’t forget about these war hammers.”
I removed the three hammers the metal skeleton lords used and tossed them on the floor next to the ores. These hammers were fairly ordinary items—they had good stats for our current level, but lacked special abilities. However, Reinhardt’s upgrade system meant he could fuse the items and combine them with his current gear.
After gathering up all the items, Reiny laughed, putting his hands on his hips and pushing out his chest. He almost looked and sounded a little like Bizarro, the goofy parody of Superman.
“Of course, master! Your wish is my command, but this is one of the best commands ever! Oh, boy, I’m going to rub it into the snake’s face!”
Reiny grabbed the ores, which glowed bright white, and then merged into him. More light flooded Reiny’s entire body and then he roared with triumph as his body expanded.
It was all a bit anticlimactic as there were no explosions, no shaking ground, and no blast waves, but maybe that was the best. I had enough of Michael Bay for one day.
He promptly grew taller and stronger, shooting up from ten feet to thirteen. His body broadened and expanded. Even in his base form, Reiny had looked like an NFL linebacker. Now, his chest was over five feet wide. At this point, his body no longer resembled that of a human beyond the general appearance. He’d become some kind of steel half-giant.
Just like before, his armor expanded along with his body. The shoulder pauldrons grew bigger and heavier, gaining several spikes that would cause tremendous damage if anyone was stupid enough to touch them. The armor had already been thick and spiky before, but due to the expansion, the pauldrons now looked almost like morning stars in their own right.
At first, I thought that the helmet had vanished since Reinhardt’s armor was now capped off by a gleaming silver skull. It was only after a closer look that I realized that Reinhardt’s head was still protected. The old helmet had been replaced by a new close-faced one designed to look like a massive skull with razor-sharp teeth. The helmet completely covered his face, leaving just a blue-black flicker for his eyes.
Talk about design choices…
The rest of the armor closed up as well, completely covering all of Reiny’s body and leaving hardly any weak spots.
However, the most dramatic change, if you could even call it that, came from his hammer.
All three of the new hammers had fused into the initial weapon, which was now fused directly into his body. Reiny’s right arm had been transformed into a single enormous weapon, with the hammer’s handle replacing his arm.
The arm itself looked more mechanical than biological, with three separate joints allowing him to reposition the hammer head at the end to strike from any position.
“We got ourselves a T-800 here. I just hope he doesn’t decide to go back in time and try to kill anyone,” I muttered.
The hammer had become a simple but brutally effective weapon with a honed and gleaming spike on one end and an enormous hydraulic flat-like press on the other side.
In contrast to the enormous hammer arm, Reinhardt’s left looked outright skinny. However, it was far from useless. Reinhardt grasped his right hand in his left, then raised the weapon high over his head.
With a single mighty heave, he slammed the weapon into the ground while still wearing his shield. Now that was an interesting piece of news. He’d be able to both attack and defend at the same time.
I grinned. Just like the dinosaur, he was able to split the seemingly indestructible stone. I’d love to see that weapon in action against Nieven and the other darkling princes. Let Reiny cave their fucking skulls in. Hell yeah!
Flames billowed all around Reinhardt, throwing an aura of heat and darkness through the coliseum.
Reinhardt cheered excitedly, his deep voice echoing like some kind of raucous symphony. “Move over Shai! Get back Tiamat! Big brother is here to keep you safe!”
A new notification appeared.
YOU HAVE UPGRADED A SKELETON LORD TO THE SECOND TIER
REWARD
+ 100 Attack for the summon Reinhardt
I pulled up his overall stats window. In addition to the attack boost, the bracketed numbers from his equipped items had been transferred to his base stats. The only bracketed stat was Attack.
NAME
Reinhardt
CLASS Living Armor
RANK 13, 22%
LEVEL 25
HEALTH 4,660 FORCE 400
ATTACK 565 (+128) DEFENSE 620
SHIELD 1,600
The stat increase for Tier 2 was much greater than the one for Tier 1, which I supposed made sense considering the sheer power of the added ore.
Reinhardt still wasn’t quite as powerful as Shai or Tiamat though, but that was alright. He wasn’t supposed to be. If anything, Reiny’s best attributes were probably the unique skills I’d gained from the skill boxes, but the other summons had that too. His strength was almost a weakness, though, as Reiny’s main ability, [RAPTURE] only dealt damage.
“We need to get you some crowd-control skills, big boy.”
The other summons were from rarer species and their added bonuses, like Shai’s health shred and Tiamat’s drones, meant they were innately more powerful.
A second notification appeared as I was lost in thought.
YOU ARE THE FIRST PLAYER TO UPGRADE A SKELETON LORD TWICE
UNIQUE REWARD
Concussive Blow
(Passive skill)
My eyes widened.
The first player to have upgraded a skeleton lord twice, and instead of turning it into a sarcastic perk, I just got a reward for Reiny. Maybe this new system version wasn’t all that bad…
I hurriedly opened the skill, already having an idea what it would do. And I was right.
UNIQUE SKELETON LORD SKILL
NAME
Concussive Blow
TYPE
Passive
DESCRIPTION
Each attack comes with an additional 30% chance to stun opponents for two seconds on hit. Each successful concussion increases the percentage chance of the next strike by 5%.
COST: N/A COOLDOWN: N/A
I read the textbox twice, then a third time, and finally grinned. At first glance, this didn’t seem particularly powerful, but after re-reading it, the skill became more and more ridiculous.
This was the true purpose of the skeleton lord species. It was a real niche that could separate Reiny from Shai and Tiamat in a way that I needed. The other two were basically crowd controllers, while Reiny didn’t have the bulk for it. He was supposed to be a supporter, the Robin to my Batman. Reiny would be able to soak up damage but also prepare a target for me so I could send it to oblivion.
Shai did a lot of innate damage, and his special barbs meant he could shred high-health targets given enough time. On the other hand, Tiamat’s [BROOD SWARM] and [DARK MATTER] meant she was best used for army battles.
However, Reiny could bring superior utility. By repeatedly attacking the same target, he could hold them in place with [CONCUSSIVE BLOWS] almost indefinitely.
It was the perfect option for holding down another race’s most menacing fighter such as Nieven.
Reiny glanced at his arms and the flames flickered wildly. I could sense he was almost a little befuddled by his newfound strength. He hefted his hammer, gazing at it in wonder.
“Master. What is this new power? It feels like my every attack can shake the very ground!”
His happiness made me happy too.
I knew that Reiny didn’t want to fall behind the other summons and this special ability would keep him relevant.
Hell, that went for everyone in our alliance.
Everyone in my group was worth their salt. They tried hard, they risked their lives, and they wanted to progress. I’d gotten lucky and jumped out to a head start, but people like Ben and Emma were always close behind me, developing new techniques and finding new weapons to nip at my heels.
Despite all the danger, that was the fun thing about Gaea. Pushing each other to grow was the best.
I clasped Reinhardt on the side, smacking my hand against his armor. Before, I would have grabbed his shoulder, but due to his height, his chest was about as high as I could go without jumping.
“Nice new passive, big guy. I’d like to see the darkling fuck with us now.”
“Hey, Devin! Nice little pet you got there, but check this out!” Allan yelled from the other side of the room.
He clasped his hands together and a wreathe of flame briefly flickered across his wrist as he summoned his trusty flame djinn.
Then, Allan gestured and the djinn shot a fireball at the ground. The flames wrapped around the black stone, searing into it. For a while, it looked like nothing particularly special—we’d already sent attacks straight into the maze’s walls with no effect.
But then, I heard a splintering crack and some of the oil inside spilled out.
Allan grinned. “Not bad, huh? I’m trying to see if I can apply this force flow to my djinn’s skills to empower it. You could probably do that to your summons too.”
“Now that’s something new!” I said, shooting him a thumbs up.
Force manipulation wouldn’t just improve our hand-to-hand abilities. It could also be used to direct the power of skills and spells.
Since summons were technically an extension of our body, it made sense it extended to them too. But that also meant if we extended our force to our summons, that we lost that protective layer of force that would keep us safe.
Just like everything else, there was a risk and reward.
I concentrated and I felt the flow of force binding me to Reiny. It was almost like an invisible series of lines tied between us, and I could transfer strength to him, simple as moving cash from one bank account to another.
I gestured and felt some of my force flowing toward him.
The skeleton chortled and his usual hue-hue chuckle echoed through the coliseum. “Wow, master! How did I get so strong?”
“It’s a force transfer, Reiny. Try it out!”
He let out an excited cry, then struck the ground again, leaving another gouge on the stone floor.
“Hell yeah!” he rumbled.
Allan glanced at Reinhardt, then let out a good-natured scoff.
“Shit. I’m kind of jealous. You can do it so well already? It feels weird to me—shifting force in my body is already pretty tough, but now I have to move it to a different body to power up my summon.”
He shook her head. “It’s just crazy. Got any tips?”
I thought for a moment, but then I shook my head. “Hate to say it, but I think it might just be talent.”
Talent wasn’t quite the word for it—it was really the Fragment of the Demigod, but he didn’t need to know that.
Even with my trusted friends, I didn’t want to give them that information. I was afraid the Demigods or the System would get it from them.
Besides, even if they did know, how would it help them? I had no idea how I’d gotten the Fragment, and I had even less idea what the hell had happened to Parfanel.
Beside Allan, Maxwell hefted his Darmagil ax, taking a tentative swing at the ground. Like Allan, he was empowering his skills with force manipulation, but it was easier using it on your weapon than pushing it into another summon.
