Book 2: Chapter 40: Dozens Of Seconds and Gagging
'I'm not going to hold back. We won't be here for more than a minute or two at best. Go fuckin' wild,' Lone said telepathically when both he and Soph appeared atop the guard tower Hamish had mentioned earlier.
Soph nodded before she created a barrier beneath her to stand on and several more to surround her which she pressed against her body to maintain contact with them. She couldn't teleport with them if she didn't do that, after all.
Lone pointed at his ears. 'Put some small ones there too. I can heal, remember, you cannot.'
'Already done,' Soph replied before she teleported away and appeared with her barriers above the centre of the town.
'That's my girl,' Lone said before he began walking in the air with Ungrounded.
'We've been silent thus far but now's the time to get their attention. I hope I can get some sound magic from the bats even if I can't use it just yet. Being able to make my voice louder would be super helpful down the line, I'm sure,' he thought before he found a spot relatively close to Soph but not too close as to compromise her.
He was the intended target, after all.
'What to say, what to say... Hmm... fuck it.' He cleared his thoughts and willed his Bone Armour to appear, covering himself in the pitch black and sky blue spiked heavy boneplate.
"Come an' 'ave ah go if ya think yer 'ard enuff!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
He honestly half expected to immediately get an 'Ultimate Chav Mastery' skill for his mockery of his southern neighbours back on Earth. Sadly, no luck.
He did, however, get blasted from all directions with a soul-piercing harmonized screech that legitimately rocked his entire being.
Blood poured out of his eyes and his eardrums immediately exploded, deafening him in the process. The force of the joint sound attack slamming into him even went so far as to crack his armour.
That was no easy task considering even Hamish couldn't chip his bones with his daggers regardless of how he tried.
The attacks never stopped as dozens, maybe hundreds, of creatures with wings spanning the size of two men streamed out of every building, even the guard tower they were atop not moments ago.
They all flocked towards Lone as quickly as they could, eager to rip him apart and savour his flesh.
System notifications and new skills were appearing in front of his eyes, all of which he immediately sidelined to look at later.
Instead, he began invoking his most powerful skill in quick succession. He couldn't hear himself speak but he knew his five Mental Destructions had worked when a small cluster of his incoming attackers fell out of the sky.
He only used the skill five times instead of his maximum of six. No matter what, he needed to keep one usage in reserve for an emergency.
Strength welled up in him as well. New, permanent strength. 'Stat points. Definitely dead. Good, they aren't immune. I was worried they might be since they use magic. I've yet to come across anyone who that clause in the skill refers to but it's best to be prepared for when it does happen.'
While Mental Destruction could kill almost anything that was up to three ranks higher than himself, it could be resisted by those hardly affected by magic or attacks of the soul.
Thankfully, that wouldn't be an issue here. Lone quickly got swarmed, the bats clutching and clawing onto every part of his armour.
Many of them ripped it apart with their strange hands while others just bit into it, taking chunks with them. A few even managed to get through, tearing into his flesh, ripping out his organs and directly eating his eyes.
He could feel his HP being drained at an incredibly rapid pace. He had ten, maybe fifteen seconds before he died.
"Tail Spears!" he gurgled out despite having had his throat chewed off.
His fluffy and normally soft limbs turned into deadly war machines. Lone cut through a massive swath of the flying beasts, freeing himself from their grasp for a mere fraction of a second.
Within that fraction of time, Soph had managed to teleport into the quickly closing gap he had created between him and the beasts.
A millisecond passed and they were gone, leaving the Balor Demon Bats confused and enraged.
"Holy feck!" Hamish spat out in a shout when Lone and Soph reappeared. "Is 'e even still alive?"
"I... I'm fine," Lone said as he coughed out a large volume of blood and maybe even a portion of his guts.
He glanced up despite having no eyes while he let Soph's shoulder support his limp form. "Soph had my back. She got me out with ease."
The girl in question frowned. "it wasn't easy. I, uh, well, if I had hesitated for even the slightest moment you'd be a goner."
"But you didn't. You kept me alive and oh was it worth it..." Lone said with a bloody cackle accompanying his words.
Breena looked pale at the sight of him and Hamish gagged a little. "Ah think ah just threw up a bit. Dinnae smile when yer missing half yer jaw. Ah dinnae even ken 'ow ye arnae goin' mad fae the pain, Fox. Also, 'at feckin noise! Disgustin' as always."
Lone chuckled, resulting in his entire body shivering in agony. "Expert rank Pain Resistance works wonders, my four-foot-three friend."
"'Ow in the name ah the stone dae ye ken ma exact height?" Hamish asked. "Actual, nah, dinnae answer 'at. Lassie, ye fine? Also, 'ow many'd ye two manage tae off?"
Soph smiled weakly. "I'm fine... I hate seeing Lone risk himself like this but... we did it perfectly, just as planned. I made sure as few as possible actually made it to him. Though... I... could have done better."
Lone shook his head. "And you will. Each time we go, you'll improve. Maybe by the time this tunnel is finished, you'll even be able to kill some with your barriers."
"M-Maybe..." She didn't seem even half as optimistic as he was. "It's hard to watch you get like that... to hear you like this..." Soph smiled weakly. "But... we know this is just how you are, both Sophie and I. If... If we can't stop you from killing yourself then we just need to get strong enough to stop you ourselves!"
Lone chuckled a bit despite the pain it caused him. "I assume Sophie helped you come to that conclusion, huh?"
The girl nodded, making his smile. "Sorry for being such a pain."
Hamish gagged again. "Ah swear, if ye two're gonna slam cock tae arse right noo with ye lookin' like ah walkin' sack ah organs, then ah'm feckin' throwing maself at the bats an' golems."
"Haha, I kind of want to see that. Soph?" Lone asked, raising his newly reformed eyebrow suggestively.
Her eyes clouded over before becoming stern and unyielding. "Fewer jokes, more recovering, Lone."
She moved past Breena and Hamish and was about to enter her and Lone's tent with the currently crippled foxkin but turned slightly at the last second to say, "He killed eleven of them."
Lone let her then carefully drag his sorry ass to their bed. "Strip, heal, clean. In that order, please."
"Yes, ma'am," he replied as he used his tails to rip what was left of his clothes to complete shreds.
Sophie nodded and took off her armour. It had proven to be unneeded as it turned out though her just wearing it gave Lone some peace of mind.
As soon as she was done, she approached him and held out her hand. "Water and cloth."
"I thought I was meant to clean," Lone commented as he gave her what she asked for. 'Dimensional Storage is far too useful...'
She got to work very tenderly removing the bits of flesh, guts and innards that painted his entire body. "You shall clean the bed and deal with your shredded clothes, we shall clean the man we love."
"You said it without even blushing..." Lone commented in shock.
Sophie smirked. "Even a crude old hag like us is not beyond the possibilities of growth."
Lone would have kissed her right there and then were his face not covered in blood, both his and that of the bats. The last thing he wanted to do was give her a disease or an infection of some kind.
"... How much does it hurt?" Sophie asked softly.
Lone winced. "From a scale of 1 to 10,000? A solid 10,000. You'd think the ability to ignore 65% of it would help but it really doesn't. Resistance for pain doesn't make the pain less, just easier to tolerate."
Sophie frowned deeply. "Why... Why can you not simply stop doing this? We... We wish to support you knowing your stubbornness with the system and your power but... You are not the only one enduring pain, Lone."
"I know," he answered, "but I need to. I cannot allow Milindo to happen again. Not to me, not to you, not to Breena, not to anyone... Sophie, Gilbert lost an eye and his ageing immunity for my sake. For our sake. I slaughtered dozens of children, fucking children, to save them from an even worse fate. This can never be allowed to occur ever again. If I need to bring myself to the brink of death to accomplish that, then I welcome the cold touch of the reaper's scythe waiting to lop off my head with open arms."
Sophie pursed her lips tightly as she carefully wiped down Lone's exposed form. "These things you fear? They happen everywhere. Not to you or us, perhaps, but to someone, somewhere."
She looked straight into his eyes and asked, "Do you wish to stop those atrocities too? To avenge those like you who did not have a Gilbert, a Grimsley, and the power to slay an SS-ranked pursuer?"
"Maybe. Who can say? Justice corrupts just as easily as injustice does," Lone answered philosophically. "What if I do decide to crusade against the kingdoms and empires of this world?"
"Then we would call you a fool for trying to fix an unfixable system... but we would join you even if you became the very core of that evil cycle. Love is binding. We do not speak of it as easily as you or she might," Sophie said, obviously referring to her other half. "We love you, Lone. That bond shall never break, regardless of what you do or who you become."
Lone smiled. "Thanks, though for now, I have no plans to become some holy king killer. Balor Demon Bats and Milor, right?"
"Right, indeed." She sighed faintly. "Look at your notifications. We know you desire to do so. We can see you glancing to the corner of your vision repeatedly. You are not sneaky."
Lone exhaled in defeat. "If you weren't such a fuckin' ten out of ten with those sparkling green eyes of yours I might say I preferred you when you were blind and could only see in abstract colours."
"But you won't, because we are," Sophie grinned with a seductive glint in her eyes.
"Down, girl. This old boy needs to recover," Lone joked.
"Hah. Very well," Sophie agreed before she stopped looking at him and refocused on her cleaning efforts.
Lone immediately pulled up his notification log, his spirit now feeling lighter after such a pleasant yet deep conversation with Sophie.
The first thing to pop into his view was a new, skill. Two, in fact. Of course, alongside smaller notification related to said skills.
The host has developed the active skill: Wide Taunt.
Active Skill: Wide Taunt
A skill that allows the host to more easily enrage a group of enemies.
Provoking enemies is 5% easier when directly taunting them. Each extra enemy included in the same taunt boosts the ease of provocation by 0.5% up to a limit of 10%.
Can only be used once every 12-hours.
Cost:100 SP Mastery:Beginner Level 1
'Holy fuck. My 'hard enough' yell actually gave me something pretty useful. Not right now since we're fighting dumb monsters but against people, this could dramatically lower their cognitive level of thinking and decision making. Anger clouds the mind. I know that better than anyone,' Lone thought, happy at the unexpected benefit. 'I need to do random shit more often...'
The host has developed the passive skill: Sound Magic Resistance.
Passive Skill: Sound Magic Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Sound Magic.
Sound Magic used on the host will be weakened by 5%.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 9
'Wait, level nine? Whelp. Here come's a tide of messages...' Lone sighed mentally as he willed the skill description one away.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Sound Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.
'Only two levels shy of an immediate rank up... Next time, I'm sure,' Lone thought as he paused the notifications for a moment to review briefly.
'So I didn't get whatever magic they actually used on me nor an affinity for sound magic. I guess I need to learn a magic skill to get an affinity then. They must have been using raw sound magic, right? I'd have stolen it were it a skill,' he concluded before resuming the onslaught of messages.
Congratulations! The host's primal skill [Ungrounded] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.
A level there was unexpected but greatly welcomed. Perhaps the seriousness of the situation had pushed it further than any amount of training could.
Regardless, it was edging ever nearer to a likely SP cost reduction which would make it a much more versatile skill.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 5.
'Huh. Didn't expect that. I certainly embrace it though. I was pretty fuckin' scared that I might actually die, to be fair,' he reasoned.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 4.
'Yeah, you had better level up you wonderful skill, you. The sooner you reach master rank, the better,' Lone thought with a smile.
Despite what he had said to Sophie, the skill was the only reason he wasn't thrashing about on the floor screaming his lungs out right now.
Congratulations! The host's racial skill [Tail Spears] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 4.
He nodded calmly. 'One use, six kills of far higher ranked monsters, one level. I can accept that if the pace keeps up. Maybe advanced rank is possible just from Urd Grun alone,' he hoped sincerely.
Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Expert level 8.
Congratulations! The host's unique subskill [Bone Armour] has levelled up! It is now Expert level 6.
Lone couldn't help but beam from ear to ear when he saw this. Bone Armour hadn't levelled up in ages. As for Basic Regeneration, Hamish had only managed to level it when he was actually trying to kill him back in Krieg Moor.
Now though he felt he could get these skills to the peak of expert rank at the very least. 'Maybe not master rank. I can't expect too much but Bone Armour gets stronger every time it gets destroyed. It doesn't work the same way as any other skill I possess... How hard can it get while here, I wonder?'
That thought excited him to no end. With stronger Bone Armour he became that little bit harder to kill, just that little bit more powerful.
Lone finally summoned the roast pig of the feast, the biggest prize of them all. His status and all of his level and stat gains were revealed before him.
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