Chapter 274: Airstrike
Zen suddenly felt pins and needles all over his body, his eyes transforming fully as a strange feeling overtook him
[Warning]
[Warning]
[Calamity level insurgence detected]
[Endless plague identified]
[New quest received]
[The endless plague has resurfaced in this realm. The lines between blessings and curses blur under its dark dominion. Find and destroy its source before all is lost]
[Objective: Destroy]
He was a bit confused when the objective was only one word that didn’t even mention the gangster, but when he looked up at him, he realized in his vision the gangster that had just injected him was flashing red.
The gangster had frozen in place,eyes white and hollow, not moving
No need to waste time then. He dashed towards him, about to take his head off with a punch when a crazed smile suddenly appeared on the gangster’s face.
A sudden eruption of heat blasted in all directions, knocking Zen down on his back.
He quickly raised his arms over his eyes to block the blaze.
’what in the world?’
He stepped back, still trying to keep his face from getting burnt off.
He’d heard of performance enhancing drugs before but nothing this drastic.
And it wasn’t just that. Before his ability had merely been fireball. A common fire variation ability. This clearly wasn’t fireball
He forced himself to look into it center of the inferno, activating his read skill.
[Race: Plagueridden]
[Channel: inferno ]
That was it?
Where’s the rest?
And what in the world did inferno or channel mean?
The blaze finally lowered its intensity, pulling back inward towards the figure and flowing into him.
Now that he could see clearly, Zen looked ahead and what he saw was something surprising to even him.
All of the gangster’s skin seemed to have been sucked in onto his bones, making him look even skinnier than before, and much creepier, his hands and legs looking weird and disproportionate. His eyes were completely pitch black with flames coming out of them.
His hair and clothes had been burnt off, leaving him bare and allowing him to see several areas on his skin glowing a bright orange.
"Yikes, ugly alert. He looks like if a skinwalker ran through a barbecue and fell on a grill"
Theia pointed out
"H-help meeee"
Zen looked down and so did the Plagueridden at its feet where the other gangster who’d been both bludgeoned and charred was just barely holding on to life.
The Plagueridden looked down at its previous partner, its haunting smile never wavering as it pulled its hand back,bone ripping through the skin of his fingertips,sharp and glowing from the intense heat, before stabbing down right through his heart with ease
Zen raised a brow, looking at the corpse and back at the Plagueridden
It was safe to say whatever he took had influenced his mind as well.
He wondered if it could even still talk.
Slowly it turned its head to look at him,fire bursting out from its hands, thrusting it forward towards him.
In a matter of seconds it was upon him, scratching at him with those bone claws.
Not willing to test his durability against it, he ducked, launching himself back. It didn’t buy him any time though as the flames erupted from its body again like rockets as it followed right after.
Seeing his current situation, Zen internally noted that it might have been a good thing that he didn’t bring Black. After all one of its only weaknesses was extreme temperatures.
Even if he’d brought it it could only hide in his body.
The Plagueridden reached for him,a huge burst of fire erupting from its palms, striking Zen and launching himself back again right into the ground.
He quickly got up but it was upon him already, its bone claws, ripping into his already slightly burnt clothes and into his side.
[Abnormal status detected]
[Burn]
[Plague]
He almost keeled, feeling heat rise up inside him. It felt like he was being cooked from the inside out
His health immediately started to go down,both status effects chipping at it bit by bit.
He tried to attack but felt the burn effect get worse, his insides cooking themselves for a second before calming down.
"I’ve got it. I’ve got it. A few more seconds"
Theia’s voice rang in his ear.
He briefly retreated, dashing back, rolling on the ground at the last second to avoid another hit, though he could still feel the intense heat pass overhead
At the same time.
"Okay, you’re good to go"
[Burn status resolved]
[Plague overriden]
[Healing has started]
The fire in his chest disappeared and the wound started to close up.
He prepared to attack when his eye suddenly twitched.
Immediately recognizing the feeling, he looked back towards the rubble pile where the one that had been cooked and stabbed by the Plagueridden was, activating his read skill
[Race: Plagueridden]
[Channel: Steel]
"Great,so they follow zombie rules. That’s not awful at all"
Theia remarked sarcastically
Luckily it seemed he was immune
The word "Endless" in endless plague finally started making sense to him.
He had to kill these two now before this whole thing got so much worse for him.
Rising from the ground, this one was much more built than the last, retaining much of its mass but still looking malnourished.
It’s skin regained its metallic lustre,spikes ripping out of his body all over.
Using his new attack he formed two blades of light in his hand, launching them right at the burning one. They stabbed right through, plunging into its arms but that didn’t even slow it down. Apparently they were also immune to pain.
He threw another right at the burning one but it simply struck and dissipated, leaving a faint scratch on the surface.
"..."
Both charged towards him and he started retreating, dodging left and right. He already saw what happened when they attacked him so the slightest touch was something he couldn’t deal with.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to kill these things as quick as possible. The mere sight of them insulted all four of his eyes in a way that felt personal, but he hadn’t thought of a way to kill them that was guaranteed without leaving him unable to finish the rest of this gang today.
Though...if these are simply the ones at the gates,then maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Sin bomb?
These two definitely weren’t innocent. Though, would it even work like this? They were barely sentient right now .
Luckily the metal one was slow, though his punches did nothing but bounce off.
He briefly remembered the way he killed them before, running back into the fray. He ran through a burst of flames, using fortify to increase his defense before punching it as hard as he could.
He felt something give in under his hit but it didn’t knock it down.
It hissed and swung its claws at him but he didn’t stop and kept punching it right center as hard as he could, dodging all its swipes.
Behind him the spiked one already had it’s hands that were covered in spikes headed for him.
Zen looked behind and in front of him. Wondering if he’d gotten the timing right for this.
Right ad the spiked battering ram of a man tried to impale him, the burning one lost its patience,a giant burst of fire rushing in every direction.
The spikes, and the Plagueridden itself passed right through Zen’s body, impaling its partner right as it was blinded by the fire.
They both crashed onto the ground, the first getting skewered even more, attacking the second with fire indiscriminately.
"They’re like animals"
Theia pointed out as Zen’s body shifted back to its regular density .
Soul form
The time requirement for the skill to be activated, and the cost made it so he didn’t use it often but this was a reminder that every skill had a purpose.
And as for distractions. This was more than enough.
Moirai suddenly appeared over the both of them with a massive ball of astra connected to it.
He gave the order and it dropped the attack which had all of its own personal reserves on the two, creating a large boom.
Even Zen had to cover his eyes from the glare of about a hundred units of astra going off at once.
Once the light and dust settled,he looked at the giant crater in the ground and saw the two of them ripped almost completely apart, but still barely alive.
He walked closer, about to finish it when they suddenly stopped thrashing. He wondered if it was some sort of trick but the system confirmed it
[Killed Plagueridden (×2)]
[Gained unknown aspect (×2)]
He suddenly saw a twinkle of light fly out of the two corpses and into him
’Unknown aspect’
The exact same term for his destroyer aspect. Interesting.
He waited for a second but that was it. No exp,no nothing.
How was that possible. He’d had to call in an airstrike just to kill these two, and Moirai was out of commission for at least a few hours.
"Look at the quest"
He was a bit confused but still opened the system, not sure why she -
[Ongoing]
...
...
...
"Huh..."