[Skill Count: 61]
The area erupted like two hammers bashing at each other. It was way louder than at a live concert as vibrations spread for miles upon a clash.
Apparently, some of these military personnel couldn’t seem to get away from this. They thought this was a great opportunity to take a gamble by firing rounds of artillery right at Julius and the cloaked individual. The latter was mute. It didn’t talk, but it shared a similar reaction.
The individual grabbed the 120×570mm NATO shell and threw it right back. Julius went for a sweep kick, striking the individual’s legs. He tipped the individual off balance and followed up with a stomp kick, sending the latter to the ground.
He summoned an electric bolt, charged it, and threw it at the individual. An electric burst out of the crater, and the cloaked person flew up. Julius took the opportunity by rushing for an abdominal thrust, but he was fooled.
It regained footing in the air and grabbed his right arm with both hands. It sent Julius down to the ground and slammed him down to the ground. His hand became the handle while the rest of his body was the head of a hammer. Julius’ head, as a bell, tore through levels of solid ground. The bashing through the dirt caused his mind to go crazy.
Before his mind could comprehend, the lower half of his body reacted out of control. A surge of qi of all three colors surged. From a different point of view, it looked like he was electrocuted. In a jerky motion, his legs went berserk, and one hit the cloaked individual.
Julius heard the first scream, and his mind was caught up after a brief cognitive delay. He felt the grip from the individual was weaker. He went for another kick with his other leg, finally breaking the grip.
Julius, in a handstand position, launched out of the hole. He landed a few hundred meters away, and he readjusted his head. A little lightheaded at first. His neck exerted a burst of qi about the size of a light bulb, restimulating his head and saving him from nausea.
The individual was gripping their right arm. Julius slightly squinted, zooming his vision right up to a few feet away from them. Even with that, he couldn’t see their face or even eye color through the cloaked mask’s visor.
Reverting his vision to default, Julius called his sword. When it came to him from somewhere in the distance, he remembered something. So, he unsummoned Valence and went through his virtual inventory. After selecting one occupied slot, a rifle was summoned to his hands.
Turning on the optics, he aimed at the individual.
[Skill Count: 61] +1
Julius deeply inhaled with his right index finger touching the trigger. The barrel turned into a tuned car exhaust. Firepower and smoke fired out of the barrel, followed by blue smoke.
A shell sped out, whiffing through the smoke. Julius’ eyes observed the trajectory of the bullet. Before it struck, he pulled the trigger again. And again and again.
Bang! Poof! Shatter!
One at the agonizing arm. Smoke to the face. And shards went for the torso.
“Damn,” Julius muttered, realizing he could only pull off three bullets.
He summoned Valence again and went right on. Instead of striking at the body, he went for the head. When the blade clashed, a cluster of sparks flashed before his eyes. The hardest and most durable cloak Julius ever seen. For all the rebels he dealt with, their cloaks never came this close to how substantial they performed.
Crack.
Julius continued to press his grip to the hilt. The noise was so sharp his ears rang, and he instinctively grimaced and clenched his jaw. To pin them, he stepped on the individual’s foot and amplified his weight to his leg with qi.
The individual’s scream quickly turned into heavy, angry grunts. Julius’ ears noticed the change of tone, forcing him to raise the weight of his arms. The vibrating sound grew louder, enough to be deafening.
Julius kept pushing, forcing qi towards the blade. The cloak crack grew and grew, and the individual went for a left hook, striking Julius’ side.
“GRH!” Julius grunted and almost fumbled. In response, he quickly elbowed their right elbow pit.
Shatter!
Julius forced his mouthplate open, tearing off the skin of his face. All of his teeth, masseter, and jaw were completely exposed. Multiple white smoke spewed out of his gums. He spat out blood that was caused by the hook.
And there was one problem: Julius couldn’t get the right grip on the individual’s left arm. Since he struck the individual’s head to the right, there wasn’t any leverage. He quickly thought about what the next move was.
His left hand summoned a pistol and fired multiple rounds at the individual’s abdomen. Then he aimed the gun at the clash between the individual’s head and Valence, not caring if the shells of the bullet deflect.
Crack! Crack!
Julius went for the strike. He dropped his gun and slammed the spine of the blade, finally breaking the armored hoodie. As it shattered into bits, Julius saw a bald lady with vivid tattoos imprinted on her head. And her left eye was missing, presenting emptiness inside the orbital socket where an ocular organ once resided. Julius went for a violent slash and thrust-kicked her, disappearing into the horizon.
Only for him to fire a bullet blast, sending her trajectory down to the ground. She crashed into a payload, causing a nasty explosion. Floors were obliterated. A large crater was formed, and plumes overwhelmed the scenery. Julius watched briefly before he was interrupted by soldiers nearby.
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He sliced them through while his lower face was regenerating. Sent all farewell remarks through facial terror. Multiple combinations of upward and downward slashes. Punched multiple soldiers, sometimes decapitating them.
Was it a dopamine rush? There was no way to tell, but it felt good; a fulfillment.
[Skill Count: 62] +2 +4 + 1 +7
Maldoro System counted a vast number of new skills. Julius wasn’t even paying attention to the alerts. He kept pushing like a mindless beast. He demolished right through the tanks, trucks, and camps, and the madman ripped through the landscape. Dirt was like blood splatters. His robe continued to tear as his body kept regenerating.
His lower face was quickly patched up. The lips and mouth returned. No more teeth exposure. And despite appearing normal again, the total body count continued to increase. More bloodshed and rampage terrorized the area.
“Stop!!”
King Valtoris and Solomon appeared in a flash. A second before Julius noticed them, the two punched him right in the head, sending him to the hill.
When Julius crashed, the impact ignited a burst of energy. Qi dispersed and ravaged miles, destroying anything in its path. Julius got up as his body continued to pour all its energy like a faucet.
He stood with a slight tumble, and gravity was straining his back.
King Valtoris, in a portable shield, teleported right behind Julius. He slammed right into the latter’s back, unleashing intervals of shockwaves. It was like a pulse. A thump for each wave, and its strength almost made King Valtoris trip over.
Solomon helped him position himself upright, and the two raised their power to stop Julius’ body from going out of control.
Julius’ mind got out of the mindless craze and yelled. “What are you doing?!”
“I’m saving your ass, alright!” King Valtoris exclaimed. He thrust his palm right to Julius’ upper back, perpendicular to his shoulders. “Now, stand still!”
Solomon summoned a pole, and he froze halfway. “Brace yourself!”
Julius sensed what he was doing, so he flexed his entire body.
Slam!
Kaboom!
The three flew from the spot and crashed in different regions of the area. It didn’t matter who died or what was wrecked. A wind blew like a dust storm, soared, and sprinted everywhere possible. Julius lay under the dirt while his head was spared. He watched the winds blowing towards his left. He sensed it. All that the wind carried was qi. Its color and the feeling of dust were all from qi.
[Skill Count: 76] + 1
Julius had another idea, but for some reason, the Maldoro System counted it as one new skill.
King Valtoris, flashing his green eyes through the heavy storm, arrived from a high leap. His feet thumped as it pierced through inches of the ground. “Is your body heavy still?”
Julius shook his head. “No. Not anymore.” His lower face was completely healed, and the mouthplate reformed. “How on Earth do I get rid of this thing?”
“Did you forget the five-week training?” King Valtoris reminded before raising his sword into the sky. The extreme winds were enough to lacerate his face. “A sword is your extension…Whatever you’ll do with it, you must have intent. Now, you intend to clean this up. Go on…Get your sword and clean up this mess.”
Julius summoned Valence and pointed the blade up in the air. The blade echoed the sound of a D note on the piano. Despite the windstorm blocking the sun, Julius saw the reflection through King Valtoris’ eyes as the latter watched.
Sparks flashed from the tip of the blade, creating a strong glare. Golden qi swirled around Julius, and Valence sucked up the qi like a vacuum, filling up the blade as if it were a Hydro Flask. When it reached the limit, the sword bursted out an energy beam, shooting right up and breaking through the storm. The windstorm then went around the beam.
Julius looked up and saw it flying at an altitude. A sudden jolt forced his right arm down, and he almost went into a squat position. His knees cracked, and the thighs burned.
“Channel it down,” King Valtoris muttered.
Solomon was speedrunning, arriving at the scene. “What did I miss?”
“Just a little more,” Julius muttered and grunted. Qi shot out of his calves like a rocket booster. It pushed him back into a standing position.
Kaboom!
Julius felt a punch to his arm, causing him to look up. And there it was; the beam of energy broke off into a sprinkler. It spurted out showers. He saw a bunch of rays shining through the heavy dust.
Unlike rain, which leaves a puddle or floods, showers of energy rays left small craters behind.
More and more precipitated. King Valtoris looked around the area. He dispersed his own qi, expanding the local visibility.
Whoosh!
“I think it is time to give a big slash,” King Valtoris muttered while looking up.
The beam that was unleashed from Julius’ sword was depleted. Julius raised his left hand. With both of his hands on the hilt, he leaped fifty feet into the air.
“Summon! Jì fēng (季风)!!”
Red swarmed the blade, channeled the energy into a glowing red that haunts. Bloody and horrific shade of color. A brief articulation with the sword. Julius charged it up until it was decently heavy. Afterward, he launched a full upward slash into the sky. A crescent-shaped wave of bloody red energy was unleashed and sped high.
The unique dust storm disappeared. It dispersed from view like opening the curtains on stage. Everything from particles and winds was shoved away. Then, the dark and fluffy clouds in the air raced to the area. More
Whoosh!
Heavy rain poured as Julius descended. Thunder echoed all the way back to Colemond. Floods took over the warzone rapidly. All craters became bathtubs.
Julius looked to his left. Colemond was about twenty miles away, but the clouds didn’t care. It kept going in that direction.
Rang!
He pulled his phone out while it was raining. Lady Bian was calling. He picked up the call. “Yeah?”
“I need you guys to come back here. The city is damaged.”
“What?!”
“The winds from where you were reached downtown a minute ago.”
One chaos dwindled only for another to be born. What a joke to be in.
Boom!
“We still have a problem to deal with over here.”
Julius then heard a brief scuffle, and Mother Elaine’s voice took over the call. “Julius. The US military is pulling back, and we need y’all to come back now. Especially you. The people needed your presence.”
“Alright, I’ll come over—”
Suddenly, purple smoke erupted a mile from where Julius, King Valtoris, and Solomon stood. The three turned their attention towards that scene.
“Oh, great. I thought she had been dealt with already,” King Valtoris said, putting his right hand on his hip.
“Always more fucking problems.”
The three left in position where they have two choices. Stay for a little longer until things were certainly calmed down, or they all headed back to Colemond.
