Chapter 104 – Bloodfallen Strike [Sunday]

“So, let’s put those points into Intellect and see where that gets me!” John decided. It was morning and they were heading nowhere in particular. By keeping their grinding spots inconsistent, they hoped to buy themselves a little more time. A quick ten taps on the button later his INT reached 75 and he got the expected two pop-ups.

Wearing his full battle regalia, his Stats were looking fairly impressive these days.

He had a good amount of MP now. Even though it wasn’t a core Stat, Strength would be raised next. The idea of being physically threatened by someone twenty levels lower than him rubbed him the wrong way and he finally had enough of being this thin. Endurance had given him more definition, but definition on his scrawny shape had never been the issue.

“More Wave 4 Grinding today?” Rave asked as they headed out of her house. “Yep, we should push to Wave 5 when we get to level 40.” ‘And when Aclysia has her next Special Passive-thingy.’ John added in his thoughts. He had fed the Artificial Guardian all of the items that had dropped yesterday – except the Slab. Without a Dragonscale, it took many a sacrificed drop to keep her up to snuff.

For completion’s sake, John took a peek at Rave as well.

On paper, it looked like Aclysia could whoop Rave’s butt at this point. Then again John had no idea how much her aura would boost his girlfriend’s Stats. Perhaps he should conduct an experime-

‘Finally,’ he thought. Waiting for enemies to strike had been decidedly nerve-wracking. Once more the verdin came in as a useful extension of John’s will. Admittedly, they had gotten the drop on him and Rave, but that was about the only surprise the Bloodfallen could hit them with.

Flying around, the verdin quickly spotted Victoria on the roof along the street. The sniper aimed her rifle at them with calm precision. Precision wasn’t worth that much when an air spirit came whirling her way. Intense winds dragged her barrel off to the side.

Victoria tried to take aim at Sylph, but the little green elemental was way too fast. Circling around the sniper several times, she carved a hole into the roof that the woman quickly collapsed through. John allowed himself a mocking chirp, as he looked down at her. His primary mind was dealing with the other issue around.

Namely the twenty Bloodfallen members who had encircled him and Rave. They were all dressed in the same black robe that hid most of their body. The ways to differentiate them were by height, width or choice of weaponry. They were armed with swords, flails, axes and staffs. Quite an array, and likely cause for concern.

‘Or not.’ John thought as he scanned their levels. 21-33, a very wide range and heavily weighted towards the lower end, Victoria making up the top of the distribution. They were threatening by their numbers, but they appeared to have as much of a lack of Innate Ability as Travolta had, with less of the Blood to make up for it.

“You really should have tried sooner,” John shrugged and activated Mana Shield. The fight began without another word. Rave immediately charged towards the robed figures. ‘Energetic as always.’ John thought with a grin as he sent Salamander and Sylph in as support. The verdin kept watch over Victoria. Aclysia took action without direct orders, intercepting the right wing of the enemy advance before they could get too close to John.

As the levels indicated, there were only three individuals amongst the enemy that were somewhat threatening. Everyone else was either a distraction or cannon fodder. Of these three, two engaged Rave and one Aclysia.

With her superior speed, only boosted further by the ignition of her aura, Rave had no problem dodging and keeping up with the attacks from two enemies and still picking off the distracting weaker members. Pinning her down was an impossible task at their level of ability.

Not that they would have fared any better if they had ganged up on Aclysia. The maid took many of the hits head on, causing tools to bend or shatter when they slammed against her hardened exterior. Manifesting the Cleaver of Streets in her hands, she retaliated with wide swings that scattered lesser enemies like chaff. The one person above 30 could barely navigate the battlefield and what damage they dealt was swiftly nullified by the Artificial Spirit’s regeneration.

John kept a close eye on the situation. The resistance they were met with swiftly shattered the enemy’s formation. Still, Rave and Aclysia were preoccupied and for all the damage that Sylph and Salamander could do they needed steady mana infusions and offered nothing else. They couldn’t prevent a charge. That left John with five of the cultists to deal with on his own.

A Mana Ray made that four. Gnome’s fist pulverizing a thigh bone made that three. Undine enveloping the head of an attacker made that two. Undine turning a hundred mana into a bolt of water made that one. A wave of water crashed over the last direct assailant, washing them away alongside the one she had been restricting. The duo wasn’t taken care of, but they would need to recover.

Undine had aimed well, making them collapse with a mage who had taken position in the backline. Muttering and waving his hands, he had been preparing a large spell of some variety. Immediately, he got back to that. Other people in the backline were letting loose swifter spells.

Aclysia barely got scratched by those and Rave wasn’t getting hit, the few bruises and shallow cuts she did sustain were taken care of by the Hands of Rejuvenation. They did have the upper hand and the Gamer aimed to keep it.

John took Possession of the channelling mage’s robes. It was difficult to keep on chanting when one’s clothes were tying themselves into a knot. The robes kept twisting and turning, while John prepared another Mana Ray. Three seconds later, the attack took the mage out of commission.

A panicked scream echoed over the battlefield, another one of the Bloodfallen flailing and running, their robes set alight. The responsible fire elemental was cackling maniacally, beholding the scene.. “Yes, yes, yes! Run little human ru- HEY!” A bolt of ice barely missed her and Salamander flew at the attacker to start her revenge.

In the meantime, the elites of the enemy decided to switch strategies, one of them changing targets from Rave to Aclysia. No reason to panic there, the Artificial Spirit was faring perfectly well. Then again, he was well within expected expenses. His mana had dipped below 300 for just a moment. Already, it had regenerated back to 314. 100 was best kept in reserve for emergencies. Basically, he had about 200 mana to use as he wanted.

‘Gnome, take care of that one.’ John instructed.

The earth elemental responded with a delayed, ‘Yes, John,’ before a cylinder of earth enveloped the enemy elite up to the shoulders. That would stop that hindrance for a moment. John moved his second Possession to the robe of the enemy who was bothering Rave, making him an easy target for his girlfriend even among all the other assailants. All Rave now had to do was take care to not get encircled by the remaining cannon fodder, as she laid into the sword-wielding man.

The difference in technique and power was astounding. Having a high level through blood abuse was evidently not that helpful if one lacked the abilities to take proper advantage of the raw physical power. Rave on the other hand was a trained martial artist with an Innate Ability. Add in Copernicus’ blessing and she made short work of the hindered enemy.

Aclysia had a bit more of a fight. Fewer of the enemies had concentrated on her thanks to Rave’s energetic assault but she still had a level 32 enemy with support to deal with. There was an advantage Aclysia had over them, one so subtle in a society of superhumans it often went unnoticed: exhaustion.

Aclysia had no muscles that could fatigue, all she needed to do was to go into Defence Stance and wait them out with her superior reflexes, the few attacks that did both connect and actually deal damage through Steelskin were quickly healed thanks to her regeneration. All it took was one misstep and the Cleaver of Streets in Aclysia’s hands changed into the much lighter Sword of Glory, allowing for a quick counterattack. One by one the enemies were taken down.

Killed.

The reality of that set in when the sword of his Artificial Guardian glistened red in the light of day. This was a battle and no holds were barred. Through flashing light and glinting steel, they were ending lives. John’s eyes darted over to the mage he had struck with the Mana Ray, then to the other victim of the same attack. Neither were moving.

John found no true remorse in his heart. They were the aggressors, they were the ones who had planned Travolta’s death and they were the ones keeping a girl locked up for sixty years. That didn’t mean he was numb to the fact that he was killing people. Albeit, the faceless, nameless goons of a cult did not move him after having directly brought death to a man he would have wanted to call his friend.

Victoria appeared from the building she had been put into. John estimated the distance. 200 metres? Yeah that seemed roughly right. She had left her sniper rifle behind in order to get to the battlefield quicker. Not that she could make a huge difference at this point. She took another step and the asphalt underneath her crumbled as she fell into a cavity he had Gnome make moments earlier. Everything went according to plan.

Without the elites, the enemy assault started to crumble. They were left with a gathering of enemies that wasn’t fast or strong enough to deal meaningful damage. Much of the pressure was removed, so they took out the remaining enemies through non-lethal means. At the end of the fight John still had 132 Mana. Seven of the attackers were dead, most of whom fell to Aclysia’s blade. The remaining thirteen + Victoria, John locked into the earth. When he was done, only their heads were poking from the street.

“Here we are now,” John kneeled down in front of Victoria. “Did you know your guild leader was the one to addict Travolta to the Blood of Thana?”

“Don’t speak her name, you heinous traitor,” she hissed in response, similar responses were shouted by the others. “You can try to poison the well with your words, but whatever Igor did, he would do with good reason.”

John shook his head. “You guys are really too far gone down the extremist route to talk to.” That was his conclusion. “I will go save Thana now. Should take you a good amount of time to get out of this.”

They could only leave the Illusion Barrier by raising their hands into the air. Which required them to dig themselves out first. That plus the need to take a two hour train ride would give John more than enough time to either succeed in his plan or fail due to other reasons.

After leaving the Bloodfallen behind, John called Herman. “It’s time.”