Chapter 117 - Transcendent (Patreon)

<---Chapter 116 - Premonition | Table of Contents | Chapter 118 - Prison   --->
Before the lone man could wind up another attack, Kyle brought his railgun up to bear, firing a single explosive round right at him. Without looking for the impact, Kyle quickly signaled with his hand for the Ghosts to take cover. Their battle training over the last few months kicked in like clockwork, each of them diving out of the way and positioning themselves in a staggered form.

Before the explosive projectile reached the lone man, he raised his left hand and swung downwards in a single slice, cutting the projectile in half. The two halves of the round sailed past him, exploding behind him and illuminating his outline while his short, curly hair fluttered forward in the ensuing shockwave. He wore a foreign outfit with sparse armor: pauldrons, elbow and knee guards, khaki pants with a frilled white shirt befitting that of nobility, not a single stain seen on the shirt itself. Two belts secured the three lightning swords holstered on his back, while sparks of lightning continuously arced between his fingers.

As he recovered into a standing posture once more, he noticed that all of the Ghosts and Kyle were already scattered across the chamber, fanning out around in a zig-zag pattern that ensured complete coverage of wherever the lone man moved if he took even a step forward. "Interesting..." The lone man muttered under his breath, his eyes cold and calculating as he analyzed the battlefield.

Kyle did not strike again, knowing the railgun was useless if it did not work in a concentrated strike. [Sasha, flank left slowly, and stay further back. I need you to snipe him while I take the front.]

[Understood.]

"Come on, is this how a transcendent fights, by hiding behind normal humans?! Pathetic!" The lone man called out, his voice clearly directed at Kyle. Feldon had a confused look, but Kyle's expression darkened. This was the first time he had heard anyone other than him talk about transcendents out loud, save for Yona before. Instead of replying, he readied his railgun once more, loading in another round.

"Judging from the way you act... Bekin? Is that you? Well, whatever. Don't blame me for helping myself to these bags of EXP." A blinding clap of thunder erupted as a lightning sword impaled through Feldon's lower abdomen, the sparking blade piercing through the large rock. The lightning itself seared the flesh, burning it electrically while the hilt knocked Feldon back and sent him tumbling back.

"Attack!" Kyle roared, the Ghosts all firing in unison as Kyle himself fired yet another railgun round at the transcendent. The transcendent's eyes glinted with power while he drew one of the swords from his back to replace the one he had thrown. Sparks erupted from the edges of his body as he dashed around as fast as lightning itself, each step igniting and searing the ground with booming sonic claps. His movement was hard to hit, the second railgun explosive round sailing harmlessly past him. The first Ghost nearby barely had any time to react to the transcendent's attack, only watching the sudden appearance of a lightning sword swinging towards him, his vision swirling as his head was cut cleanly off, blood still spurting through the neck stump as his body collapsed.

One by one, the Ghosts fell, most not even knowing what had hit them, while the transcendent carved a bloody path of fury and thunder through them, slaughtering five in just a few seconds with his dual-wielding lightning swords. Just as the transcendent was about to carve up another Ghosts, alarm bells rang in his head as he sensed two railgun rounds approaching him from different angles, intending to pincer him. He leaped upward with grace, slashing cleanly through the two rounds in sequence like a hot knife through butter, the explosions blasting outwards harmlessly on both sides.

I'm losing too many men! Kyle needed them to take Desham and train new recruits - letting this transcendent slaughter all of them would make the bulk of his Versian expedition meaningless. "Retreat!" He roared to the Ghosts charged forward in front, his presence immediately forcing the transcendent to turn around. With a single sonic clap, Kyle saw the transcendent appearing right in front of his face, a dangerous right uppercut swing aimed right at his arm.

Kyle hurriedly used the railgun to block, the sparks and heat of the lightning sword incinerating the wooden stock. "Wait a minute... you're not Bekin!" The transcendent exclaimed in surprise, as if he wasn't in an important battle at all. "Are you a new contestant sent by Mother?"

Without replying, Kyle lunged forward, using the butt of the railgun to nail the transcendent in the head. Kyle half-expected the hit not to land, but unexpectedly, the butt crushed against the transcendent's jaw, sending him staggering backward and buying time to recover. The Ghosts were more than willing to comply with Kyle's retreat order, quickly moving away back to the encampment. They picked up Feldon as well on their way back, while Kyle and Sasha remained behind. I need a better weapon. [Sasha, runic falchion!]

The falchion was hurled through the air, Kyle clasping it in his hand and pushing up against the transcendent, slinging the railgun behind him. Sasha, too, fired one more railgun round, but a sudden burst of energy out from the transcendent sent Kyle and the railgun round spiraling outwards more than five meters. Kyle tumbled on the ground, recovering quickly only to see an infuriated expression on the transcendent's face.

"Here I am asking you simple questions, and this how you treat me? Who the fuck are you? What clan are you from? I'm going to lodge a fucking complaint against whoever bred you." The transcendent ranted, stomping up towards the defending Kyle in a childish tantrum. "You better give me a good answer before I wipe you off the face of this fucking continent!"

Kyle gritted his teeth, preparing for an incoming attack, but soon he noticed that the transcendent's eyes were locked on a corpse behind Kyle, the transcendent's face an expression of pure shock. "Seriously?! Did you kill all of the salamanders here? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! Why the hell would you even do that? ARGGGGGGGHHH, YOU JUST OVERTURNED MY ENTIRE EXP GRINDING PLAN!" The transcendent rubbed his head in frustration.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kyle still kept the runic falchion at the ready in his right hand, his left slowly drawing the Tattoo Knife from its holster without alerting the transcendent.

"Don't try to fuck with me! I saw you flip that damn switch at the control system, and you got a fucking exosuit arm! You think I was bred yesterday?" The transcendent shot back, but he still did not launch an attack. " Everyone knows it's extremely rude to crash into someone's else dungeon! Did you not fucking check the notice site? I've already booked this dungeon for two more years! You got ten seconds to tell me exactly which fucking clan bred you! Ten!"

"I really don't know what you're talking about!" Kyle blurted out. [Sasha, get ready. I might need you to come down to fight. This won't be easy.]

[He doesn't look like he is experienced in dealing with humans. We can take him.]

"Are you serious?" The transcendent squinted his eyes at Kyle.

"Yes. I'm just a dungeon explorer, that's all. Heard there were relics." Kyle bluffed his way, trying to get the transcendent to lower his guard. From his viewpoint, the transcendent was full of openings, yet Kyle knew he could not get a clean strike on the man even if he launched a surprise attack due to the transcendent's speed. That lightning speed must be a skill. What is the cooldown and duration? If I can figure it out...

Weirdly enough, the transcendent began to grin from ear to ear. "A dungeon explorer? That's great! Perfect for what I needed. I'm a bit away from Level 30 for my Race Upgrade - You'll do just fine. No hard feelings." Without warning, the transcendent lifted his feet again, a lightning arc causing a sonic clap between his shoes and the ground, the angle of the blast enough to propel him forward at an alarming speed.

The sudden attack caught Kyle off-guard as the transcendent swung a lightning sword with a cross slash from the left, threatening to cut off Kyle's neck. The runic falchion blade blocked the incoming attack in the nick of time, though the kinetic energy of the blow sent Kyle skidding along the mud, his feet drawing lines in the sludge.

Kyle had no time to recover, seeing another slice headed towards his head. Instead of dodging, Kyle unexpectedly took a forward right into the transcendent's inner arm radius, ducking to tackle the man's body using his shoulder, trying to fling him over in a grapple.

The transcendent gagged as the force of his own movement worked against him, Kyle's shoulder driving into his gap with full force. However, as soon as Kyle tried to grab the arm and complete the ground slam, a shocking high voltage current lanced through from the elbow guard into Kyle's body. Waves of nerve-numbing pain arced through his body, causing Kyle's muscles to temporarily cramp up.

Both of them staggered backward, each of them hurt from the exchange and trying to recover. Unfortunately, the transcendent recovered fast, about to rush again at Kyle when yet another railgun round blasted towards the transcendent from behind, Sasha having repositioned. The transcendent grunted as he aborted his attack, turning around to slice the railgun round once more. "I should kill this irritating fly fir-"

Before the transcendent could complete his sentence, Kyle was already on the attack, stabbing the runic falchion at the transcendent's back. Immediately, the two remaining swords holstered on the back of the transcendent burst out, blocking the runic falchion and trying to knock it out of Kyle's hand. However, Kyle's grip was rock solid, eventually able to overpower the two blocking swords, but another sonic clap had the transcendent retreat to a safe distance from both Sasha and Kyle.

[Sir, I'm out of explosive rounds. I only had three.] Sasha said through her telepathic channel with Kyle.

[Switch to medium range with the repeater. I just need you to pin him down and distract him.] Kyle held the falchion up again in a fighting posture, though he noticed the edges of the falchion were slightly burnt from the lightning swords themselves.

"Since you're unwilling to tell me which clan you're from, then I can only consider you to be a rogue transcendent." The transcendent twirled his two swords expertly, while the other two floated in the air by some form of unseen control attached to his body via an ever-changing arc of lightning like a tether. "Either I kill you, or I beat you hard enough and drag you back to Mother to sort you out, and then I kill you. How would you like it done?"

"How about neither?" Intimidation Aura!

The effects kicked in immediately on the transcendent, causing him to stutter and take a step back involuntarily. At the drop of a hat, both Kyle and Sasha kicked into action, Sasha firing a stream of pellets while Kyle stormed forward, closing the gap in three large strides. This time, Kyle aimed at the legs, chopping downward with all his might to stop the transcendent from moving as much.

The two floating swords kicked into action instantaneously as though they were automatic, one spinning in a furious circle to block the incoming pellets, while the other parried Kyle's falchion even while the transcendent was still rooted to the spot with fear. Activating the exosuit arm, Kyle overpowered the automatic floating sword easily, pushing it away and slicing through the arc of lightning that was its tether. The clean cut had the automatic sword spiral out of control, dropping to the floor uselessly.

Kyle didn't have another chance to swing the falchion, the transcendent suddenly recovering from the effects of the Intimidation Aura and swinging back. They exchanged blows and parries, Kyle utilizing his runic falchion and Tattoo Knife to go toe to toe with the transcendent. While the transcendent seemed to have the upper hand with his speed and lightning effects, Kyle was slowly winning the fight, cornering the transcendent inch by inch, exposing the transcendent's lack of combat experience against humans.

Each swing and slash saw the transcendent begin to panic little by little, the transcendent taking a few steps back bit by bit. Just as Kyle was finally about to land a blow with his Tattoo Knife, the aura around the transcendent suddenly changed, the once white dazzling lightning switching to a red hue. "ENOUGH!" The transcendent bellowed with anger; another pulse of energy forced Kyle and Sasha to be pushed back.

Kyle slammed the falchion into the mud, using it to stop him from being pushed back too far. The pressure suddenly relented, Kyle looking up to see that the last automatic sword was gone now, and the transcendent merging both swords in his hands together, clasping tightly to form a larger greatsword, one masked in an eerie red hue that crackled with lightning energy too.

"Let's see how much EXP you're worth!" An evil grin erupted on the transcendent's face, his two hands swinging the swords downwards in a single slash. Kyle leaped out of the wave, a wave of red lighting bursting outwards in an energy slice that carved the floor easily, tossing up rock, dirt, and sludge alike into an incinerating column of smoke. Kyle glanced behind, looking at the burning trail. I'm not taking that head-on.

"And you too!" The transcendent did not forget about Sasha, swinging at her as well as she ducked out of the way, a horizontal slice sending a lightning crack that burst against the walls of the chambers, chipping it slightly. The panels of the wall fell apart, revealing intricate electronics and sensors with beeping lights inside.

Kyle and Sasha backed off from the battle zone, dodging and weaving through the slashes. The transcendent was more than content to give chase; the battlefield slowly shifted closer and closer toward the center of the Rotten Chamber. Each slash of the greatsword saw pillars of trash that had stood for centuries come collapsing down, electricity sparking between the metallic bits of the refuse as they were overcharged by the lightning.

[Sasha, get him to strike the wall again!] Kyle urged, while his eyes darted about the piles of trash. Ignoring the broken bodies of rock spiders, scattering red moths and scampering insects, he spotted a long, twisted steel rebar pole lodged in the trash. Sheathing his runic falchion and picking it up, he watched as Sasha taunted the transcendent, firing more pellets at him.

"You irritating little shit! Do you really think those pellets are going to do anything?!" The transcendent roared, unleashing a slash at Sasha, who again leaped out of the way. Just like before, the slash broke the panels on the wall, unveiling electronics embedded within.

Before the transcendent could wind up another swing, Kyle lunged at him, jabbing forward with his Tattoo Knife, expecting the swings of the transcendent to be slower given the larger size of the sword. Unfortunately, the transcendent reacted as quickly as before, easily parrying the hit, the Tattoo Knife being cut cleanly through by the empowered greatsword. Shit!

Kyle leapt back, the transcendent not letting up as he gave chase, swinging at Kyle while Kyle backpedalled towards the wall, dodging and weaving through the energy slices thrown at him. With his exosuit arm, Kyle gritted his teeth and smashed the steel rebar pole into the electronics, before ducking out of the way again as another slash struck where he had been standing just a second ago.

"Idiot, are you trying to destroy the dungeon? There's a limit to how much - GUH!" The transcendent was caught in the middle of taunting, the arcing lightning that was gathered around his body suddenly being absorbed by the steel rebar pole, the pole acting like a lightning rod. The transcendent gasped and struggled to move, but the lightning attraction was drawing him back, sucking up all of his excess lightning energy to an unknown ground.

Lines and lights began to flicker on in the dungeon, absorbing power bit by bit. The originally dim lightning of the Rotten Chamber was replaced by bright floodlights enhanced by the transcendent's energy. Sasha and Kyle watched on as the transcendent twitched and flailed helpless, before the lightning finally died out, his body collapsing to the floor.

[NOW!] Kyle roared in his mind as he lunged forward, drawing his runic falchion, with Sasha also bringing her rifle to bear. However, a sudden recognizable sonic clap erupted from the transcendent's body. Kyle immediately stopped his attack, swiveling around to block a white lightning sword that slashed against the blade of the falchion, drawing sparks.

"What kind of a transcendent would I be if I couldn't stop my own skill?" The transcendent smirked, having lured Kyle inwards. "You're not the first idiot to try that on me!" Kyle was pushed back by the transcendent's sudden strength, though it was not as powerful as the red lightning transformation that he had experienced just now.

Kyle stepped back, with Sasha continuing to fire. Instead of an automatic sword blocking the pellets, the transcendent simply aimed his hands outwards, an arc of lightning lancing out towards her and nailing her right in the chest, sending her spiraling onto a heap of trash. "Enough bullshit. You're strong. I give you that. You and I, one on one. No butlers, and certainly no dumbass mules." The transcendent spat with derision at Sasha's collapsed but still breathing body. "If that's all you got, then you deserved to die anyway!"

A bolt of lightning shot out towards Kyle from the transcendent's hand too, threatening to knock him out as well. However, Kyle's reaction time was faster, allowing him to use the falchion to deflect most of it. Some of the residual shock still ran through his body, the voltage looking for a way out through his boots.

The transcendent stepped forward once more, unleashing a brutal, vicious combo with his default dual-wielded lightning swords, returning to his standard form. Kyle blocked and parried, only left with the runic falchion now that his Tattoo Knife was broken in half. Kyle had to utilize the railgun on his back to fend off a few attacks, expertly twisting and using his body in its most efficient manner. Unlike their first exchange, Kyle could tell that the transcendent was slowly learning how to fight back as well. He's learning too fast!

Blood thumped in his ears while his muscles strained to the limit, each counterattack pushing his endurance to the maximum, each block numbing his bombs. His thighs screamed for rest with each step, but Kyle clenched his teeth hard, knowing that this was the hardest he had ever been pushed since coming to Raktor. Memories of his vigorous decades of Dynasty martial training, as well as a century of skirmishes as a crime lord, began to flood his brain, his mental fortitude stronger than ever.

Kyle's aura began to grow more menacing by the minute, each foot he stepped forward unleashing a domineering aura that even the confident transcendent found hard to ignore. As the transcendent tried to rationalize what was happening, he was suddenly hit in the arm by the barrel tip of the railgun, a momentary lapse in judgment allowing Kyle to get an attack in. Before the transcendent could figure it out, it was already too late. Kyle's fighting style completely changed, and his movements were now unperceivable. Whatever moves the transcendent had learned to counter Kyle were now useless, Kyle utilizing his legs more than ever, relying on his exosuit arm to block some of the grazing hits of the lightning sword.

"Dammit!" The transcendent tried to take a step back to create some distance, but Kyle stepped in even closer, his fighting style changing once again as he swapped over to his fists and knees, swapping to an extremely close combat style. A few hits landed on the transcendent's thighs and chest, causing him to stagger back. In a blink of an eye, Kyle's movements were switched up once more, light on his feet as he jabbed in and out, as light as a feather.

Even as the transcendent tried to use his sonic clap movement, Kyle was already for where he was going to appear, either launching a strike or defending aptly. I know the durations between sonic claps now. I do not know the maximum number of uses, but it is every ten seconds. Kyle kept this gap in his mind, utilizing it for his own benefit. Every time it hit ten seconds, Kyle would relent a little, allowing a gap for the transcendent to use it and then predict his movements.

As the battle drew on, it became even more apparent that the transcendent was on the losing foot. None of his lightning skills were working any longer on Kyle. Desperate, the transcendent used another sonic clap, this time launching himself high into the air unexpectedly. "RAYNER!!!" The transcendent roared out a cry for help, startling Kyle. There's another transcendent?! I have to take him out now! Penchant for Violence!

Kyle had been taking a measured approached, unsure of what other tricks the transcendent had in the bag. However, if another transcendent were to join in the fray, Kyle would not be sure how he could deal with it, especially with Sasha knocked out for the count and Feldon severely injuried. If he wanted to strike, it was now.

The transcendent fell back to the ground, his eyes widening as he realized he was unable to dodge Kyle's mid-air attack, his sonic clap on cooldown. He could only watch as Kyle launched himself up into the air as well, aiming his exosuit right fist at him. The transcendent hurriedly blocked the incoming punch with his dual swords, but unexpectedly, Kyle's strength was increased tremendously, the blow sending him spiraling back, slamming into pillars of trash in sequence before tumbling onto the floor in an injured heap.

Before the transcendent could get up, Kyle was already on top of him, delivering one more blow that smashed the jaw of the transcendent in, concussing him. The transcendent dropped the lightning swords, both of them losing their lightning effects. Kyle immediately used his exosuit arm and crushed both lightning swords with his exosuit arm, unwilling to let the enemy have it any longer.

The transcendent was grabbed by the collar of his white shirt and dragged along the muddy ground into a nearby cave, his consciousness fading in and out. As his vision slowly stabilized back, he soon began to struggle hard. He gripped onto Kyle's back, trying to send a voltage in to shock Kyle. However, Kyle's body seemed almost unaffected by it, Kyle simply punching him in the back of the head again.

Kyle quickly forced the door at the end of the cave open, revealing the same laser prison cell that he had discovered on his first exploration of the Rotten Chamber. He immediately tossed the transcendent into one of the cells, plugging in the battery and activating the laser cutters. The transcendent was still groggy, struggling to get up to his feet, when he saw Kyle walking away from the cell. He tried to summon a lightning arc from his hand, but he somehow just couldn't. "What... what happened to my System?! What the fuck did you do!"

A loud tremoring boom resounded through the cell, alerting Kyle to danger outside. Kyle didn't care to reply to the transcendent, leaving him in the prison cell while he rushed out, tapping his arctech radio. Is the other transcendent already here?! [Report, status on Ghosts!]

[Sir, we're under attack! An unknown person is breaking into our encampment.] A frantic Ghost voice came over the radio.

Shit! However, Kyle did not rush over just yet, instead heading to Sasha and checking up on her. She was still unconscious, the lightning blow having reignited her injuries from the battle with Nest just 12 hours ago. Kyle quickly poured a health potion down her mouth but did not linger around anymore. He sprinted as fast as he could back to the encampment, seeing fire and smoke already spiraling in the distance, rivaling the pillars of trash.

The encampment was a disaster, with most of the supplies damaged and blown out, stored explosives having been ignited by what seemed to be stray pellet fire. A dozen Ghosts were still fighting in the midst of the encampment; some of them had already died on the spot, their bodies strewn across the ravaged tents and broken crates, workers scrambling to salvage what they could and evacuate further.

In the very center, amidst a burning flame, a strange man stood, dressed in a full khaki explorer-style outfit that was slightly similar to what the first transcendent was wearing. However, Kyle could already see something different - the Ghosts have already hit him directly a few times, yet he was still standing, unhurt. His human skin had peeled off to reveal a metallic robotic case underneath, deflecting any pellets that the Ghosts sent at him, even those that had been empowered by a poor arcia crystal.

The strange man's eyes locked onto Kyle, ignoring the barrage of pellets that only seemed to tickle him. "Where is Master Soren?" The strange man spoke with a monotone voice, confirming Kyle's assumptions. He's a cyborg! I have to end it fast before he learns my moves! Kyle had decades of experience fighting them in the Galactic Era, knowing that they were extremely dangerous and far easier to train than the regular, un-modified humans. Each second he wasted would lead to more problems, and he was already accumulating losses far more than he could accept.

The moment Kyle took a step forward, the cyborg raised his arm and launched forward a green dart. Kyle raised his exosuit arm to block the dart, only for the dart to suddenly light up and send a surge of arcia energy into the arm. The arm began to transform into ice at the point of impact, forcing Kyle to quickly take off the arm.

"You're not registered in the databa-" The cyborg quickly raised both his arms, blocking a hit from Kyle's runic falchion. Before the cyborg could move, Kyle already lunged forward with his other free hand, clutching onto the robotic chest of the cyborg and gripping as hard as he could.

This Is My Turf! Instead of pushing the cyborg aside, Kyle toggled the friend-or-foe setting of the barrier to only allow steel in. The strength of the barrier began to rip the cyborg apart, and every other alloy and element within began to strain as they were stretched. The cyborg's voice became garbled immediately while its body was split apart into two, the various electronics, wires, and sensors, as well as motors, all being stripped from its steel frame.

The cyborg's human skin itself was also elongated as it tried to cling onto the skin, but its body could not respond under the sheer intensity of the barrier. Before long, the entire innards of the cyborg have been evacuated by the barrier, leaving only just a skeleton of the cyborg behind.

Kyle huffed and panted, tossing the frame of the cyborg aside onto the ground. He used his arm to wipe the grime and dirt off his face, noticing that it was stained with blood too. He had suffered a few hits from the transcendent during the exchange, and thankfully, this cyborg was far easier to deal with. He could have used the barrier skill on the other transcendent, but it was far too dangerous to use a high cooldown skill to an ambiguous outcome. Looks like I was right to pace out the usage of my skills.

"Clean up the encampment and pack all of this into a sack. We'll move in by the end of the day. It's far too dangerous to stay here." Kyle motioned to the scattered electronics and sensors of the cyborg. "Get Sasha back here and use all potions now, do not ration them. We need to be at our best." He didn't know if there would be another transcendent coming or not, so he made up his mind to move as quickly as possible. However, he still had one more thing to do.

Returning back to the laser prison cell, he entered to see 'Master Soren' gingerly using his fingers to try and inch out between the gaps of the laser fence that made up his cell, aiming for the nearby exposed panel, though it was just out of reach. The moment Soren spotted Kyle enter, he immediately recoiled, scrambling back as far away into the cell as possible.

Kyle walked up to the cell, unexpectedly unplugging the battery from the cell's panel and disabling the laser fence. Soren's eyes widened in confusion, carefully watching as Kyle stepped into the cell. The same sudden loss of strength could be felt, but Kyle had been expecting it, his nerves steeled against the decrease in stats. Without warning, Soren lunged forward, throwing a punch at Kyle as hard as he could. The punch was stopped just before it hit Kyle's face, Kyle clenching hard onto it.

"So you think you could beat me when I don't have a System," Kyle smirked, grabbing Soren by the neck and slamming his knee into Soren's guts. Soren gagged as he collapsed onto the floor while Kyle's hand clenched tightly onto Soren's head, squeezing through his hair and lifting him up to be face to face with Kyle.

"I got bad news for you, kid. The System isn't what makes me strong. I am what makes the System strong. Now, I can either kill you, or you can start talking, and then I'll kill you. How would you like it done?"

<---Chapter 116 - Premonition | Table of Contents | Chapter 118 - Prison   --->