Chapter 77: Shield Technique
Theo rolled across the street and slammed his back against a door, breaking into the room. For the most part, he had used the shield that he summoned at the last minute to protect himself.
It was one of the items from an investment reward he had received the day before his measurement. But now there was a deep groove in it and the round shield looked like it was barely holding on.
He studied it with a small frown, looking at the hole the axe had left. The metal had folded back along the edge of the hole the way the lid of a tin folds, and a hairline split ran off the groove and died halfway to the boss.
’If I didn’t have this, I really might have died.’
Theo felt his heart suddenly beating louder at the thought of that reality. It seemed that it was then that his mind woke up, informing him of the dangers of what he was doing. He kept his back flat against the door and listened to the street through the wood, and his hands, he noticed, were not sitting still.
At the same time though.
[You have Adapted to a Superior Technique]
[+10 Physical Power]
Theo froze, simultaneously because of the message he received and the fact that as he received it, he felt a swell of strength in him. He was reluctant even so, feeling like it could just be fuel from a stupid overconfidence and adrenaline.
But that was just the feel of it, and Theo knew that if the system said he gained something, then he gained it. In the past three days, he had grown so much more than he had when he was outside.
Theo looked around him. It was an abandoned house, the chairs had dried up, and the wood was stained with dry blood. Somebody had sat down to eat in here once and never come back for the plates. He walked into the kitchen, every metal he found was rusted and he could get nothing to use. The knives came apart between his fingers, and the pot handle left orange dust on his palm when he set it down.
’Shadow Sword is a sword technique, now that I’ve lost my sword, am I not cooked.’
Although this was true, Theo did not just limit himself to that. First of all, he wanted to believe Shadow Sword and his high affinity to the Shadow Attribute wasn’t some coincidence.
So he closed his eyes and pushed his hands out a little, summoning the same feeling he got with the sword.
When he paid so much attention like that, he figured out the flow of his mana and he could say, it almost looked like it had no flow. But then when he paid more attention they were like water in a pond, constantly still, then when the pond was widened, it moved slightly forward, filling the pond again and for that brief stretch swirling and swelling. Then it settled, and it was a flat still pond again, and it was waiting.
Theo opened his eyes in shock as he observed this.
’Wait, can my mana quantity increase?’
Mana Qualities and Quantities were fixed, according to what Theo was taught in the university. But now, Theo already knew he couldn’t depend on a lot of things that were taught in the Hero University.
When he looked at the shield, it was obsidian, the shadows had coated it, and the edges gleamed with cold purplish light. The groove was still in it. It just did not seem to be a problem anymore, and the weight of it had gone out of his arm.
Theo inhaled and exhaled and moved.
He basically vanished.
The troll-looking Legatee slowly paraded the street Theo had tumbled through, dragging its axe on the ground and looking for Theo. The head of the axe cut a line through the road behind it, and the sound of it arrived a moment late, low and grinding, coming off the fronts of the houses on both sides.
Only one mind controlled the entire horde, but it divided the entirety of its skill across just ten stronger individuals. Theo’s guess was that he had to kill all nine in order to kill the Inheritor.
The smaller fries didn’t matter.
Even though the round Legatee was looking for him like he owed him a duel, Theo was not that obsessed with it. He needed to subvert expectations.
And the most important thing was making sure their movement stays halted.
So he traveled all the way to the frontline.
There was a feminine looking Legatee with a whip in her hand. Theo appeared behind her, leaping straight into the air with the shield in his hand. He descended onto the creature, slamming the rim of his shield straight into the back of her neck, slicing her head so cleanly, and diving straight into the shadows as he fell to the ground.
Theo rolled out somewhere else, and threw the shield in a low spin. It rolled and sliced off the leg of a tall Legatee that was busy bringing down the body. Theo had vanished yet again, already picking up his shield and disappearing.
This was the most he could do though, because now not just the remaining Legatee were looking at him, but the troll from the other street was beginning to slam his way through several buildings to cut towards here.
The horde consumed a seemingly endless amount of space, and even in the darkness, Theo was disadvantaged because he was in the midst of a pool created by the Inheritance. Which he didn’t believe would do him any good being surrounded by so many of them.
So he had quickly dissolved, appeared somewhere else and was running through the shadows.
He soon appeared on the roof far off, letting Brandy see him clearly.
The large beast stopped, Theo knew it when he saw that the buildings weren’t crumbling anymore, and then it turned direction and started bulldozing towards Theo.
Somewhere behind its fat leg, Theo’s sword was still lodged there, and did not fall off even as the creature lurched forwards with thunderous steps. The hilt jumped with every stride and stayed where it was.
’When I imagined the Tower, I didn’t think about things as monstrous as these... where are the Moon Wolves, the Goblins.’
Theo inhaled and then leaped off the roof where he was, he descended straight towards the approaching force of the Legatee.
The creature seeing him held its axe with both hands, marched the ground, and destroyed it, and leaped into the air with its axe raised over head to pulverize Theo. For a moment the two of them were the only things in the air over that street.
And Theo just dove into all of that directly with a shield in his hand.
One would think he had a very good plan.
Actually he did. But he was mid-air, under the descending axe when he discovered it wasn’t going to work. So he switched strategy and raised his shield over his head. Both him and the shield were slammed to the ground with a power that felt like the entire sky crashed down on him.
Cracks flew and the ground shattered as his legs dug into it. His entire head, and body rang, but the shield held above his head. His arms had gone dead from the wrist up to the shoulder, and for a second he could not hear the horde at all, only one flat tone sitting behind his teeth.
Despite being pummeled by an axe twice the size of his head, Theo was standing beneath the shield.
And that was all he needed. That moment.
He drove the shield upward with one hand, its rim straight into the creature’s jaw, with the second hand, Theo clenched a furious fist and buried it into the side of the creature. It folded like paper as its neck was torn and rolled away from Theo. The axe came down on its own a moment afterwards and stood upright in the road.
[Your body has adapted to a Superior Technique]
[+10 Endurance]
[+5 Physical Power]
[+3 Combat Skill]
[+4 Battle IQ]
[You have unlocked Sub-skill: Shadow Shield Technique]
[Your mastery of the Shadow Sword has increased]
...
Theo was already giving Brandy a menacing grin.