Hunger: A LitRPG Adventure (Unbound Book 3), page 44
Pit's Wingblade is level 22!
Pit's Wingblade is level 23!
"You assault an Epic Skill gifted by Divinity to my order with unholy claws? And a Chimera!" An arm of shimmering light blasted past Felix, still slow but growing faster. The armor never stopped moving, seemingly building momentum with every swing of its massive gauntlets. "Your folly knows no bounds, Fiend!"
"Shut up," Felix groaned.
Felix ducked another haymaker before leaping into a midair barrel roll, gracefully avoiding a follow-up strike. The absolute control over his own Body that Unfettered Volition offered Felix was intoxicating. He flowed like water through the Initiate's powerful counterattacks, deftly avoiding all of them; but the margin was thinning. Each attack was faster than the next, until the gleaming giant was a whirling dervish of limbs.
Unfettered Volition is level 17!
Still, Felix hit him, and hit him hard. Higher levels, enhanced stats, and the Initiate's sheer size let him dart in and out of the Initiate's guard. Cracks started to form along his abdomen, where every single one of his slashes landed.
"Stop! Moving! And! Die!"
The Initiate's armor flared brighter, burning like a tiny golden sun as he swung his fists up and over. They came down like a speeding train, as inevitable as an avalanche.
Arrow of Perdition!
Felix summoned his fledgling Arrow on the move, though it ate up a staggering 80% of his available Mana. A surging headache pierced his skull and almost sent him stumbling from the drain, only his heightened Alacrity and Willpower keeping him on course. It was tiny, barely longer than his finger, but an actual, physical arrow made of gold and blue light.
Unfettered Volition is level 18!
Felix spun into the giant armor's reach and jammed it right into its cracked abdomen. It sank straight into his gut.
Into his core.
Crell looked down, his eyes wide with fearful anticipation. Seconds later, nothing had happened. He laughed. "Pathetic! That Skill only works on those of a lesser advancement. Fool!"
His armor flickered and shattered into mist.
Arrow of Perdition is level 2!
Arrow of Perdition is level 3!
Arrow of Perdition is level 4!
Arrow of Perdition is level 5!
"The Skill description didn't say that," Felix mused. The Initiate fell five feet to the ground below, landing in a surprised slump.
"No," he whispered, aghast.
Felix grinned. "Yes."
"No!" Crell's body lit up as if his blood had turned to light. Spittle sizzled as it flew from his mouth, and he threw himself to his feet. "Impossible!"
He drew and lunged with his side sword in one motion. Felix flinched back from the heat more than his opponent's wide strike. The Initiate's Body warped the air in a hazy aura around himself. Pain crawled along his nerves, and it was only growing worse. The heat increased with each second.
Mantle of the Long Night!
A spinning burst of arctic air swirled around Felix, immediately cutting into the heat. Felix flared it harder, pushing his Skill more than he'd ever tried before. He felt his Mana ticking downward faster and faster.
Mantle of the Long Night is level 18!
The light and heat from Crell redoubled as his rage broke through the bounds of reason. He was shouting something, but Felix only heard a wet, angry gargle. Whatever was causing the heat was taking its toll on the man. The deadly heat scorched Felix's nerves, while white pressed in on the sides of his vision. If the Initiate didn't stop, he'd pass out from the pain of his broken Skill, easy pickings for the insane zealot.
Yet neither stopped.
Behind Felix, his friends battled against the surviving Acolyte. With his focus captured, he couldn't spare the attention for them, though he breathed a sigh of relief that they still lived. He hoped they would succeed before cutting his senses off completely; he dove into his core.
Mantle's etched pattern was a hurricane, a swirling spiral that twisted in unexpected directions. A maelstrom of arctic intensity. At its center lay a point where it felt like the essence of ice itself resided. The winds, he realized. They didn't push outward like he had felt. They pulled inward, greedily subsuming all heat for deathly cold.
Mantle of the Long Night is level 19!
...
Mantle of the Long Night is level 22!
Like a gathering storm, the pattern swirled with growing strength. The invisible maelstrom was larger now, spanning at least twenty feet in diameter. The bridge below them iced over. The air itself began to precipitate, the humidity wrung out and turned to snow.
Still, Crell burned like a man on fire.
"Your foul stain shall be stamped from this city! Fiend, you end here—!" He suddenly stumbled forward.
From behind, a barrage of Frost Spears assaulted the Initiate.
Pit's Frost Spear is level 21!
Pit's Frost Spear is level 22!
The first set of spears dissolved before they hit him. Those that followed, however, flowed through Felix's growing Mantle, thickening with rime as they hurtled past. The Initiate batted them away with little issue, laughing shrilly. Only a portion of their force was preserved, though it was more like hail than deadly projectiles.
But it was distracting.
Wrack and Ruin!
An orb of dark, potent acid hovered above Felix's palms, and he hurled it forward. The light and heat boiled it away before it could make contact. Then he got an idea, though his Mana reserves were growing lower by the second. The Arrow of Perdition had drained him of so much, and maintaining his Unfettered Volition and Mantle of the Long Night didn't help. But he thought he'd have enough.
He hoped.
Felix ran forward, cutting the distance between them with a silent scream. His Heat Resistance howled in his core, the sound of a tortured violin seconds from breaking apart completely. It was only twenty feet, but it felt like a thousand. Felix stopped when his skin felt like it was peeling from his body, and he thrust his arms forward.
Reign of Vellus!
Lightning surged from beneath the Initiate as the Skill's kinetic force pulled at him. It grasped at his form for a brief instant, as if the man was somehow slippery. Crell shouted in alarm as the lightning blasted against his legs and chest, likely only minor injuries, but extremely eye-catching. He spun toward Felix, and the light burned brighter than ever. Felix was so close he could smell the sizzle of fat and muscle as the Initiate screamed incoherent fury at him.
H34t R!s/$*4nce is level 25!
Congratulat—-
With a final wrench, Felix picked him up… and hurled him directly into the waterfall.
The water that flowed from those archways, every single stream, vaporized instantly. A dense cloud of steam rushed into the chamber, blasting past Felix like a hurricane and sending waves of indescribable agony across his broken nerves. Barely, by tooth and nail, Felix held onto consciousness.
Then, finally, the notification he was waiting for popped up.
You Have Killed Crell Sovos, Initiate of the Inviolate Inquisition!
XP Earned!
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Standing still to let his Stamina recover, Felix extended his senses as far as he could. It seemed the Initiate was well and truly dead.
With a sigh of relief, he toggled the notifications he hadn't bothered to view during battle.
Thrown Weapon Mastery is level 13!
Make An Entrance is level 15!
Cold Resistance is level 22!
What Dwells Beneath is level 17!
You Have Gained 1 Level!
You Are Now Level 29!
+2 PER! +2 VIT! +1 END! +2 INT! +3 WIL! +4 AGL! +4 DEX!
You Have 40 Unused Stat Points!
Power stormed through his veins, a bright white light that thundered through his channels and into his core. It looped, completing the circuit again and again. Each time, the patterns etched in light grew more intense, more powerful. It was Felix's biggest net gain since he fought the Prismatic Wretches, and he wasn't so blind he didn't see the connection.
Battle. Nothing forces improvement so much as battle.
He grimaced as a searing pain nearly doubled him over.
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier With Heat Resistance!
You Gain:
ERROR!
ERROR!
ERROR!
Damn. He knew it was too good to be true. Of course he couldn't earn Apprentice rewards with a broken Skill; he'd lost them when Acrobatics broke, after all. But at least that means it's prepped for combining.
Felix fumbled out a Health Potion and quaffed it. He had only a few in his satchel, minor things that Cal had been able to get him, only healing 150 points of Health. With all the alchemists in town under the Guild's thumb, getting potions was remarkably difficult. With the city on lockdown, it was nearly impossible.
He felt his body shift and settle, the pain stark in the aftermath of his fight. His hands had returned to normal, as had his teeth. Pit landed next to him and folded his wings. The Stone of Wild Echoes sat upon his forehead, a green diamond on his sable avian head. He chirruped at Felix.
"I'm okay," Felix replied and stood up. He had shaken off most of the bad effects of his broken Heat Resistance. "I think that ritual strengthened me against the pain a bit."
He had certainly not been as incapacitated as usual by his damaged Skills, and was even able to push through it and remain conscious. Maybe combining the rest of them won't be so bad.
"Twin's teeth, Felix," muttered a pained voice. "What was that?"
"Is that Pit?" asked another. "Where did he come from?"
Felix looked up and saw Evie limping toward him, leaning on the arm of Vess. The spearwoman was bruised and beaten, but not nearly as bad as Evie. She gave Pit a wide-eyed look.
"Glad to see you're both alive," Felix started, but Vess cut him off.
"What happened to your arms, Felix?"
Ah.
"A new Skill. A transformative one." Felix's mouth felt dry, and he waved off their concerned looks. "Low-level. I don't really have a good grip on it, yet."
The two of them exchanged a look Felix couldn't translate.
"More importantly," Felix said quickly, part of him attempting to divert their attention. "Where've you been?"
The others all turned in the direction Felix stared, so all of them saw a very guilty-seeming teen trying to pull a long dagger out of a corpse. Flustered at the attention, the boy yanked too hard and freed his blade, but fell backward onto his butt.
"Mettias?" Vess said, incredulous. "Were you here the whole time?"
"Um, yeah, er… yes, I was," Mettias fumbled, struggling back to his feet in a way that suggested a limited amount of Agility or Dexterity. Felix's eyes narrowed.
He's faking it. That dagger throw had to have been fifty feet. High Dexterity is a must for that sorta precision. Why lie?
"What, hidin' in the shadows while we fought for our lives?" Evie groused, raveling her chain around her shoulder. The spiked metal links seemed to slither under their own power, retracting toward Evie like a winding power cord.
"Hey, I killed this lady!" Mettias protested.
"After abandonin' us in the sewers!" Evie shot back.
"You found me, right? No harm!" The courier pointed to Aenda's corpse. "This one coulda cooked me alive! I ain't even Apprentice Tier!"
"Lie."
Everyone stopped and looked at Felix. He glared at the boy. "You've already passed your First Formation. I'd guess you're more than halfway to Journeyman, too. You're lying to us. Why?"
Silence greeted his words as sweat beaded against the courier's forehead. His dark eyes flickered between the two women, perhaps hoping for a way out of the situation, but Evie was frowning and caressing her spiked chain. Vess, meanwhile, looked more than a little upset.
In71mi#*@on is level 9!
...
Int$m1d471on is level 11!
The flare of pain surged across Felix's senses, but it was minor at that level. Felix focused on Pain Resistance and weathered the storm, fighting to keep his eyes focused on the courier who flinched before them.
"Explain, Mettias." Vess' voice crackled with authority. The Heiress of Pax'Vrell was displeased.
For a handful of seconds, the little jerk gripped his long daggers as if he would do something with them, before he slumped in defeat. "Fine. Fine. Ugh, I knew this job wasn't worth the money."
Then Mettias began to change.
The boy's skin rippled, crawling along his body in a way that was distinctly upsetting to watch. His shoulders widened, and his arms thickened. His face, once the perfect depiction of a guileless fifteen-year-old boy, grew leaner in the cheeks and mouth, his eyes harder and more calculating. A sharp chin and jaw emerged from the disappearing baby fat, and he grew nearly six inches in height until he was a couple inches taller than Felix. When it was all said and done, he appeared to be a young man around age twenty-five or so. All of this occurred within a matter of seconds, the shift moving so fast that someone could miss it were they not looking closely.
"Noctis wept," Evie cursed.
"Wow. That's impressive," Felix admitted, and used his Voracious Eye once again. Before he had registered as a level 10 Human with little to no remarkable features. Now, he showed to be level 31, and focused specifically on Agility, Dexterity, and Perception. He was weak in Willpower and Vitality. Even tired as he was, and on the low end of his Health pool, Felix was pretty sure he could take him.
"Why?" Vess asked, and Felix noticed she looked almost betrayed. "I trusted you. What is your game?"
The last was said with more steel in her voice than Felix had heard before. Mettias heard it too, because the man paled.
"I was set to watch Vess by Zara or Caerwin. Whatever she's callin' herself today," the duplicitous courier admitted. "You think my Skill is impressive? You ain't seen nothin'."
"Why?" Felix asked.
"I don't know. Didn't ask. She wanted me to support your investigation."
"My—? How did she know?" Vess blinked and looked at Mettias with narrowed eyes. "So that is why you had those Script-Ciphers."
"Script-Ciphers?" Evie raised an eyebrow. "That's banned magic."
"What are they?" Felix asked.
"Sorcerous scriptwork constructs, meant to bypass wards. Aside from bein' Sorcery, they're illegal because proper ones work extremely well."
Sorcery. That means they're Chanter-made, I'd bet.
"And there's few ways to detect ‘em," added Mettias. He shrugged. "I was told to deliver, so I did."
"I trusted you," Vess said, her mouth a thin line. "I suspected something was off… but not this. Why did Zara want me to investigate the Guild Elders?"
Evie sucked in a startled breath, and Felix raised his eyebrows. Investigating the Guild Elders?
Mettias at least had the grace to look somewhat ashamed, but he only shrugged. "I—I don't know. I'm just the messenger."
"He was sent by Zara," Felix repeated and looked to the others. "So, she would be able to explain herself. That's the next step."
"That's what she told me to do, anyways. Lead you outta here an bring you to her," Mettias said.
"And then you ran away," Evie sneered at him.
"I was scared!" The young man protested. He was almost as skinny now as he was in his teen disguise, and he gestured at the nearby corpses with his daggers. "Yeah, sure, I'm stronger than these idiots. But I ain't gonna last against a proper Journeyman Tier. I don't know how you did."
The last remark was directed at Felix, but he ignored it.
"If you know the way, then let's go. I don't want to waste more time down here." Felix extended his senses back the way they had come, but he caught nothing other than the sound of flowing water and echoing stone. "More could be coming after us."
"Finally, someone's speakin' sense!" Mettias started to walk away, but a gloved hand gripped his shoulder. Tight. He cried out.
"You lead us true, or else we'll bury you," Evie snarled in his ear, loud enough that they all could hear her. "Got it, guttersnipe?"
"G-got it."
Evie released him, and he scrambled toward the far end of the room, toward the ladder. She snorted. "Pretty cowardly for a spy."
"I don't know that he is one," Felix muttered, watching the courier's progress. The man paused at the bottom of the ladder and turned back toward them, beckoning. "There's more to this puzzle."
"Vess? You alright?" Evie turned to her friend, and Felix glanced her way. The spearwoman was angry, that much was clear from what he heard from within her. A rising tension that sounded like the plucked strings of an increasing number of violins. Contrary to that, Vess' face was clear and calm, and there was a shrewd sort of consideration in her eyes.
"For now. Let us meet with this Zara again. I have many questions. And they will be answered." Without another word, the heiress swept toward the ladder, halfway there with a single leap.
Felix let the others move ahead, each of them beginning to climb the ladder up. Pit stood at his heels, and huffed a breath before cooing. He ruffled the feathers on his head, and turned around.
He had one last task to do.
He knew that at least one Initiate could replay a corpse's last moments. Whether that was common to all of them or was a singular, esoteric Skill, Felix had no clue. But he wouldn't leave it to chance. He just hoped destroying their bodies would suffice.
It was the least they deserved.
The Initiate’s body was lost somewhere in the water below, and Felix wasn't willing to go hunting for it. He doubted the Inquisition would, either, even if they could find it. Hopefully, the Veelo made a snack of Crell's bones, the bastard.
