R-a - Volume 3 - Chapter 42 (Patreon)

R-a - Chapter 200 (In editing -v4)

Micheal’s hands splayed out to the side.

In a split second, ten titanium threads ripped outward through the air, glowing red energy covering each line with a layer of power as the threads spread out.

The three warriors reacted at the same time Micheal did.

The female in front of Micheal immediately raised her firearm. As she did so, her entire body began to transform, morphing as yellow light glowed out from her eyes.

Her form became slightly smaller and thinner, more wiry than muscular. Her legs hunched forward slightly while her arms elongated, the metal armor she wore stretching to accommodate her.

As soon as Micheal saw these changes, he was able to instantly guess what her Type was.

When it came to Full Transformation Types, especially ones you could get from the Mystical Variant Transformation Type Ability, there were four distinct Tiers used to classify which Types were among the strong and which were weak.

The first Tier, Standard, was composed of the vast majority of Full Transformation Types. The strength of these Types was nothing special, they were commonplace and the norm for most people.

The second Tier, Rare, was the start of the upper tier of Full Transformation Types. Less than 5% of Types fell into the ‘Rare Tier.’ These were creatures of greater power, those that stood head and shoulders above common breeds.

The third Tier, Mythical, was composed of extremely strong Full Transformation Types, ones that often held certain mystical Abilities and powerful might. They were creatures out of myth, rarely seen or heard from. Very few people had a Type from this Tier.

The fourth and final Tier, Legendary, was for awe-inspiring creatures out of literal legend. Types that held devastating power that were absurdly rare to an extreme degree.

The infamous Black Dragon King of Micheal’s original timeline had a Legendary Tier Full Transformation Type, though when he faced the Deities, he fell all the same in the end.

This female warrior’s type was one Micheal recognized. The changes in her body, the way her legs hunched forward, and the painted image on her mask made it clear.

The White Tailed Spring Monkey Type Ability, a Full Transformation Type that was listed as one of the strongest among the Rare Tier. It was an Ability that greatly improved one’s reflexes, hand-eye coordination, speed, and strength.

A single glance was all it took for Micheal to determine the other two warriors had the same Type. This entire squad appeared to consist of those with the same Type Ability, warriors that knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses the best.

The unnatural silence that enshrouded their actions was also an Ability Micheal recognized. The ‘Silent Zone Ability’ that cost 178,000 Points in the Shop. This Ability created a sound-dampening field, quieting most sound waves before they could escape from anywhere within one meter of the user.

They were a team of silent killers, assassins sent out by the Vile King to wreak havoc and force humanity into war. A mix of hatred and pity stirred in Micheal’s heart as he looked at the warriors.

The ten metal threads Micheal had cast out stretched more than a dozen meters in length. The thin size of each thread made it much easier to spread his Sword Energy along, something that would’ve been impossible on a sword of even half their length.

These threads cut through the rain itself as they flew out into the air, hovering just above the rooftop. The dim red light the threads gave off was difficult to see, completely obscured by the rain if you were farther than twenty or thirty meters out.

As soon as these threads spread, and just as three warriors were beginning to attack, Micheal jerked his hands inward.

He brought his right arm up above his head, while his left arm down below his chest, pulling as hard as he could. His muscles bulged as he went all out, tugging ferociously.

The metal threads, guided by his Advanced Tier Sword Energy, followed his commands, whiplashing back in and cutting through the rain like 10 razor knives.

It was like a visible wave of metal, slicing outward in one second and then rushing inward in the next. The attack was extremely sudden, especially given how hard the metal threads were to see.

For a single, frenzied second, everything was peaceful.

In the next…

Micheal obliterated the roof.

His titanium threads sliced the top of the warehouse apart like it was butter. The Farians had reinforced these buildings, constructing them from a special type of durable rock. Despite their efforts, Micheal’s attack devastated everything in his path, shearing through the tough stone with ease.

He relied on two Life Orbs hidden inside his shoes to keep him up and hovering in the air.

His strike had been near-instant, moving with incredible speed. Despite that, all three of the Beast warriors saw through it, each of them possessing an intuitive sense of battle awareness when it came to conventional attacks.

The female warrior in front of him simply jumped backwards off the roof, moving out of range of his attack.

The man behind Micheal withdrew two large metal shields from a Spatial Ring and stored his two swords, holding one shield on each side of his body as he huddled up, opting to block the attack.

The last warrior, the female on Micheal’s right, smashed through the roof with her foot using a technique that caused a small, fiery explosion. She managed to carve a small enough hole to duck into, letting her avoid the strike.

As a result of their lightning-fast reactions, the two females on the squad successfully managed to avoid Micheal’s attack.

The lone male, on the other hand…

When Micheal’s titanium threads tore the roof to shreds, shards of stone were sent flying. Debris and rock shrapnel ripped through the air, clashing off the rain in a chaotic mess. What was left of the roof immediately began to collapse as its entire structure was ripped apart, unable to support itself.

Just before it began to collapse, however, Micheal’s threads reached the shield-bearing warrior.

The two shields weren’t random ones the warrior had picked up off the street. They were Marrow Shields, Artifacts which cost 142,000 Points each. Colored bone white, these shields were renowned for their ability to regrow after taking damage as long as you fed them with blood, making them extremely durable. Their defensive prowess was top notch too, making them a steal of a Defensive Artifact.

At the same time, a blue glow began to appear around the warrior and his shields. This glow seemed to make the shields grow a little bigger, enhancing their power. Micheal guessed it was the Sky’s Ally Ability, a Limited Ability that cost 212,883 Points in the Shop. This power allowed one to temporarily buff their Artifacts, a very useful Ability for a warrior.

In just a single frantic moment, the warrior transformed into a leviathan of a tank, exuding defensive prowess that was previously nowhere to be seen. His Type wasn’t one geared towards blocking attacks, yet he managed to overcome that hurdle through his own efforts.

Most warriors would not even be able to break through his defenses, let alone injure him.

Unfortunately for him, Micheal was not most warriors.

Ten glowing metal threads slammed into the two stalwart shields.

The cutting energy combined with the sharp edge of the threads sliced into the shields, but failed to slash all the way through it. The reinforcing energy from the Sky’s Ally Ability forced the threads to slow down, preventing them from digging all the way in.

The warrior grunted as he felt the impact. While the threads were small, the combined energy of Micheal’s Sword Energy and inertia gave them an impact that would’ve sent a Third Rate Warrior stumbling back.

For a brief moment, the shields held together. The male fighter was able to take the hit and hold steady, never faltering. He successfully blocked the attack.

In the next moment, the roof fell apart underneath him.

Micheal snorted slightly when he saw this. At the same time, he pulled hard on the metal threads, tugging them down and to the side in a jerking motion.

The male warrior put forth a valiant effort as he tried to tuck himself in, but blocking a multi-pronged attack while caught by surprise falling in mid-air… well, even Micheal would have a tough time with that.

The warrior’s body was literally ripped apart as half a dozen titanium threads sliced him into pieces, killing him instantly. If he had a last resort Defensive Artifact, he didn’t have time to activate it as he died without even a chance to attack back.

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—-Points Obtained—-

Points: 29,272

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As soon as Micheal killed the warrior, he cupped both of his hands and rolled his fingers. He then pulled his hands up over his head, using his Cloud Stepping Shoes to help maintain flight as his Life Orbs lost the support of the now collapsed roof.

His metal threads responded to his movements, transforming into a large, net-like structure that scooped up the remnants of the male warrior’s body. The net then flew towards Micheal, the metal threads retracting back into his Silk Strider Glove.

With a quick waving motion, Micheal stored the battered corpse of the warrior in his Spatial Ring, trapping the Seed before it could disappear.

Below him, the roof continued to collapse in, only a couple of frantic seconds having passed. The female warrior that had jumped off the roof was still falling in mid-air, just about to reach the ground, while the other fighter was dodging rubble down below.

Micheal used his Cloud Stepping Shoes to launch himself forward, charging towards the one that was avoiding falling debris.

His large-scale attack here was bound to draw a large amount of attention. Thankfully, this clearing was decently large and the Beasts warriors would be on guard, meaning he should have at least a minute or two of free time.

He intended to take full advantage of that as he spread his hands out and motioned forward, sending his titanium threads whistling through the air before him.

To her credit, the female warrior below noticed his presence and reacted to it.

As she ducked past a particularly large chunk of rock, several metal throwing stars appeared in her hands. These stars began to glow with very faint red light as she pulled them in and then unleashed them, throwing six different weapons at Micheal.

The twirling edged weapons cut through the air, leaving behind a rapidly fading red trail.

Just before they were about to slam into Micheal, spread out in a wide formation that came from multiple directions…

A collection of loud ‘tings’ rang out as the throwing stars collided with several near-invisible titanium threads.

As soon as he saw her begin to attack, he’d used the threads from his right hand to spread across the air in front of him, anchoring them with the ground a few meters beneath him and the half a dozen meters to his right.

Red light from his Sword Energy clashed with the faint red light from the female warrior’s throwing stars. Micheal could feel a heavy impact as the two energies collided, instantly surmising that this particular energy was an example of ‘Hammer Energy,’ a rather odd energy to attach to a throwing star.

Sword Energy was a type of Weapon Energy geared towards raw, cutting ferocity. Hammer Energy, conversely, was a type of non-sharp energy that had its focus centered on smashing impacts.From the force of the blow and the color of her energy, her understanding was still within the Intermediate Tier, but just barely touching upon the Advanced.

Nevertheless, Micheal’s Sword Energy blocked the attack and sliced most of the metal throwing stars to shreds, causing the first five to fall to the floor ineffectually.

One of the stars managed to deflect its way through, but lost most of its force. Micheal caught this star with his hand and forcefully hurled it back at the warrior.

“You’ll need a bit more than that to hit me, dearie.” He quipped, his eyes tracing the throwing star as it flew through the air.

Micheal couldn’t sense even the slightest change of emotions from the Beasts warrior as she gracefully caught the throwing star, glanced at it, and then pulled out five more. He noted the keen agility she showed when she grabbed it mid-flight, a high level of physical coordination.

Instead of waiting for her to attack him again, Micheal landed on the ground and rushed forward as he unhooked his titanium threads from the wall with a casual wave of his hand. He then flung them forward in a grand sweeping motion, sending the glowing threads at the woman.

The debris had finished settling down by this point, though a few of the still-standing walls, and clumps left of the roof, swayed rather unsteadily.

The female warrior threw her six throwing stars once more, red Hammer Energy surrounding them. This time, she threw them out far, causing several of them to begin to circle around to hit Micheal from the back.

Just like Micheal, she could use her Weapon Energy variant to help manipulate her weapons, though to a lesser degree.

Micheal’s Sword Energy made guiding the metal threads vastly easier. Her Hammer Energy let her guide the path of her throwing stars which, combined with her hand-eye coordination and raw skill, made her deadly accurate.

At the same time that she threw them, she leapt up into the air and backwards. White Tailed Spring Monkey Types were talented at jumping, apart from the other aspects of the Type. Her single leap here would be enough to send her flying 10 meters high, at the minimum.

This left Micheal in a seemingly awkward position.

If he continued his attack, several powerful throwing stars that would each hit like a truck would slam into his body. If he didn’t continue his attack, she would be able to put distance between the two of them again, giving herself an advantage as she launched more long-range attacks.

With the existence of the Shop and Spatial Rings, she could have a seemingly endless supply of throwing stars and longe range weaponry stored up, not to mention her allies who would be rushing here any minute.

As all of this ran through Micheal’s head, he merely sighed.

“Idiot.”

Micheal jerked back his metal threads, pulling them around to guard himself defensively. Glowing red energy covered him as the threads spun about, implanting in the ground and wall.

The throwing stars the woman had thrown slammed into those metal threads, once more ringing out as they bounced off them or were cut to shreds, depending on the angle of each attack.

At the same time that he did this, however…

Micheal pulled a handgun out and shot the jumping warrior four times in the mask.

The gun, a modified handgun from the Shop that had a silencer attached, was more or less equivalent to some of the heaviest-duty pistols on Earth. Even one bullet at center mass would be enough to kill someone with twenty times the strength of a human, let alone four to the face.

The female warrior was still mid-jump. She barely had time to react as Micheal immediately shot the gun, and certainly had no way to dodge. She tried to twist her body to the side and began to jerk her hands up, but even with her boosted reaction speed, it wasn’t enough.

The four bullets slammed into her mask and instantly killed her, turning her jump into a dismal fall as her corpse fell to the floor.

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—-Points Obtained—-

Points: 25,972

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Micheal shook his head as he stored the handgun and walked up to the dead body, storing it as well.

The metal armor these fighters wore was pretty durable, Micheal had noticed that when his titanium threads collided with the shield-bearing warrior’s body. Bullets wouldn’t penetrate it.

The painted masks, however, were notably weaker. He had easily split apart the man’s mask when he killed the fighter. He didn’t see any particular reason to believe the other’s masks would be different, especially not for those in the same squad.

Thus, the only thing stopping him from shooting the female warrior in the face was her capacity to react to any direct attack and the fact that she might have an automatic long-range Defensive Artifact.

Her casual catch of the throwing star he’d thrown had proven she lacked such an Artifact. He’d thrown it with enough force and intent that, even if she wanted to catch it, the Artifact should’ve picked up on it. Not all of the magical Artifacts worked in the same way, but the vast majority would’ve stopped that attack from hitting her.

The only thing left to do was to goad her into jumping or put her in a position where she wouldn’t be able to easily dodge. Everything that happened next was history.

He hadn’t even needed to use his Temporal Bubble Ability.

This might be a world of martial arts, but that didn’t mean guns stopped existing.

He’d always found it odd how so many humans gave up entirely on guns once they got powerful bodies or special Types, especially here on the Second Layer. On the later Layers, where humans got so powerful that most guns became useless, he could understand. But here on the Second? He shook his head again.

Just as he finished that thought, he raised his left hand up, flicking his wrist to bring the metal threads out in front of him. His right hand also pushed out and away, cascading the metal threads forward until they buried themselves in the base of the opposing wall.

Several quiet bangs echoed out as three bullets slammed into the threads from his left hand, veering off to the side as each shot was deflected. The bullets slammed into the unsteady walls of the building behind Micheal, sinking deep within them with loud thuds.

Micheal stared up at the attacker, his keen senses long since detecting the sole remaining warrior of the squad of three, standing atop the remnants of the roof before him.

He could vaguely sense that the warrior was outraged from her posture. She stood leaning forward, her handgun in her right hand and a battle-ax in the left. After she saw Micheal block her attack, she paused, as if to see what he would do next.

Micheal had figured she’d stay until at least this point. These warriors were fanatics that fought in squads, the woman wouldn’t flee right away, not until she tried to take him out.

Now that she’d seen the full extent of his power, or at least part of it, she would switch to simply delaying him and waiting for reinforcements.

Well, she would try to do that, anyway.

Micheal flicked his right wrist, sending the metal threads he’d buried in the base of the opposing wall wild as they tore the stone apart. In just a single second, the entire structure began to collapse, rock exploding to dust as his Advanced Sword Energy annihilated everything in its path.

Micheal couldn’t see her face, but he could sense the abject surprise he took the warrior by. In the time it took for her to realize what had happened, she was already falling alongside the debris. Building up an intuitive sense of battle awareness meant nothing if you didn't also constantly pay attention to both your surroundings and everything your enemy did.

As the wall collapsed, Micheal activated his Temporal Bubble Ability, spawning Time Bubbles that centered on his person as he began to rush forward and dodge through the debris, moving unnaturally quick. He physically climbed through still falling stone as he zeroed in on the last warrior, his eyes deathly calm.

The last thing the warrior saw before darkness embraced her was Micheal’s cloaked figure rising up like a dark angel of death.

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