Chapter 332: A D Rank Showdown [1]
The first thing that Leon did was to use the ChronoSystem Snooping Tool.
DING!
~----~
[Snooping Tool utilized!]
Name: ???
Race: Neon Beast
Rank: D
Beast Type: Bio-mechanic Scorpion
[Attributes:]
[Derived Stats:]
[Traits:]
>Racial Trait- Advanced Endurance.
>Racial Trait- Extreme Speed.
>Racial Trait- Extreme Power.
>Racial Trait- Unrelenting Combatant.
>Racial Trait- Instinctual Resonance: +10% AGI, +10% ADE.
[Abilities:]
>Overdrive Mode.
>Servo Reflex (Passive).
>Power Amplifier (Passive).
>Adaptive Armor.
~----~
’He’s lost his name... he’s lost his identity...’
’He’s lost his sense of self...’
Looking at the thread of ChronoSystem notifications that were floating in front of his eyes, Leon felt a chill crawl down his spine.
And once again, he could not help but appreciate the existence of his Temporal Anomaly passive trait.
Garak was no longer Garak.
This was not a partial transformation, this was a full-on corruption and transformation from a Geneform into a D Rank Neon Beast.
’The fact that it’s currently D Rank, does it mean he was about to complete the Trial successfully before we intervened?’ Leon’s eyes gleamed.
As shown by the thread of ChronoSystem notifications, not only did Garak lose his name, his race also changed.
His attributes and derived stats were all more than any D Rank Ascended that Leon had ever used the System Snooping Tool on, and he gained a bunch of new racial traits that he didn’t have before.
Leon easily connected 4 of the 5 traits to the Cyber Gladiator Class.
Cyber Gladiators were widely known as the penultimate combat Class, and though this didn’t reflect much in their endurance, it always reflected in their superiority in the speed and power departments.
Leon knew this having fought with a lot of Cyber Gladiators already.
For this Neon Beast having an Advanced Endurance trait though, it could easily be tied to the fact that Garak was no longer a humanoid.
Neon Beasts generally have more endurance and HP than humanoids.
What intrigued Leon the most though were the abilities.
By losing his identity, the Neon Beast lost the bulk of its original Class abilities, but somehow, it managed to retain a few.
All 4 were Cyber Gladiator abilities that Leon was used to.
Due to the Unrelenting Combat racial trait though and its explanation that was given by the ChronoSystem, Leon had a hunch that if Garak’s Trial wasn’t interrupted, he would have ascended to become a D Rank Cyber Gladiator of the Storm Striker Class Specialization.
The racial trait fit the Class Specialization abilities and traits perfectly.
Despite everything and the fascination of learning and witnessing something new for the very first time, Leon was still unsettled by the morbid nature of the transformation that just happened.
This was worse than death!
Due to feeling unsettled and also due to his inexperience, he lost the script regarding the second main objective of their mission.
While he lost the script, the Neon Beast didn’t.
Led by its bestial instincts, the D Rank Neon Beast lunged at the nearest prey that it saw, and that prey was its own mentor, Dhruv Laden.
...
BOOM!
As the D Rank Neon Beast charged towards him in an aggressive and mindless manner filled with malice, Dhruv didn’t react as he just stared at it.
Instead of didn’t, it was better to say he couldn’t react.
"Garak..." he called in a daze.
Dhruv Laden was a veteran.
He was a long-time terrorist that was infamous for his high-profile bombings and killings, he was experienced and had been in the game for a long time.
He’d witnessed allies and friends failing Trials, morphing into Neon Beasts and being forced to hunt them to kill them most of the time.
He was supposed to be used to it, but still, Garak hit different.
He was still stunned. This was not just because of his relationship with Garak, but also because of the sudden manner at which everything escalated.
One moment, everything was going perfectly well and the next it all went downhill. It was too sudden for him to cope with and accept in seconds.
His eyelids twitched at the sight of the Neon Beast aggressively charging towards him as he struggled with his emotions and feelings.
In battle, this was weakness.
And in that moment, Dhruv became vulnerable.
A locked-in Leon would have never missed such a prime opportunity to complete the other mission objective and assassinate the terrorist leader, but at the moment, he was just as rattled by what happened as the terrorist leader.
Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq wasn’t though.
From the very moment that Leon unleashed his horrifying firepower with the Sentry-IV Autocannon Drone, breaching the reinforced chamber open with brute force, Umar already knew exactly what was going to happen right after.
And it happened just as he predicted.
This was why unlike Leon, experienced with decades of combat in his belt, the moment the D Rank Neon Beast charged and Dhruv froze, he saw the opportunity and was the first to react.
His brown eyes gleamed with murderous intensity as without hesitation, his ADE erupted around him.
Blood Manipulation!
BZZZZ!
Having expended all the blood of his previous victims to attack earlier, Umar slit his own wrist to generate blood and used his own blood to attack, sending a violent and highly concentrated beam of blood at the frozen terrorist.
The blood beam had an arrowhead and moved like an arrow!
BAM!
Dhruv saw it too late as the arrow-like blood beam stabbed into the left side of his chest with devastating force, making him stagger and cough blood.
"Tsk," Umar frowned in disappointment.
That attack was aimed at Dhruv’s heart.
Even with healing pills, that would have been lethal and would have left Dhruv fighting for his life but even while distracted by his own student now-turned-monster, Dhruv was still experienced enough to react.
He couldn’t dodge completely, but he managed to move by a fraction at the last moment to protect his heart.
Dhruv coughed blood again and staggered backward, and by then his time was already up.
The D Rank Neon Beast finally pounced on him.
BAM!
The massive half bio and half machine Scorpion-type Neon Beast pounced, attacking with its sharp claws and mandibles but Dhruv took a step back and dodged with a burst of Servo Reflex.
He showed insane reflexes and could have retaliated easily to injure the beast, yet he still didn’t retaliate as he just looked at the D Rank Neon Beast.
Seeing those malice-filled eyes left him in a slight daze.
Then...
WHOOSH!
Having missed its first attack and seeing that its prey didn’t retaliate, without hesitation the Scorpion-type D Rank Neon Beast’s mechanical tail stabbed towards the Geneform’s head like a dagger for another attack!
In response, Dhruv raised his hand to block the attack. He forgot to even activate his defensive abilities.
BAM!
The tail stabbed through his hand, making blood blossom like a fountain around him as the veteran terrorist groaned in pain.
Dhruv staggered slightly.
Then he looked into the rabid eyes of the Neon Beast one last time and finally, his face turned cold, emotionless, and merciless.
Dhruv locked in.
Instantly, his orange ADE erupted around his body like a tsunami.
Knight Exosuit!
Warlord!
BZZZ!