Book 5: Chapter 39

Zero looked up at the dark, gloomy sky, inhaled the fresh air, and sighed. Sure, a battle was raging all around, and warriors were streaming into the trailer park from Dober and its various settlements to bolster the defense, creating pandemonium, but he was just happy not to be stuck down in the World Core any longer.

Talia had relieved him the moment she had reached the settlement. It was an easy decision to make. Her shadows would be absolutely devastating for anybody attempting to enter the dark caves on the way to the World Core. She had also gotten a little poetic about it, and Zero had taken it as his cue to leave before hearing any more of her waxing about the darkness.

Emmy and Soohyun had also joined the defenses. Emmy had taken up a tower which had been quickly erected by a few geomancers from Dober. From there, she could lazily direct her bubbles across the battlefield.

Soohyun, on the other hand, was helping prepare defenses. She had been working with squads from Dober for a while now, setting up new outposts every time they took down one of Darius’ obelisks, and she had a knack for it.

And of course, Aaron was off fighting against one of the undead commanders. Terry had returned to the settlement and informed everyone what was happening.

Zero had a desire to fight by his master’s side, but if he had called Terry back, then it was probably best he didn’t go. Aaron knew what he was doing, and if he needed help, which seemed unlikely, he would call for it.

Since everyone had a job, Zero sniffed the air and decided to follow his nose. They already knew an impressive beast army had gathered on the outskirts, and were currently sending skirmishing parties forward to test themselves against their defenses.

But he smelled more. He caught the scent of a few fairly powerful beasts amongst the army that had moved into forward positions, and went to see if he could scout them out.

Zero flashed across the front lines, dipping behind enemy squads, and even stopping to take out a few of the weaker ones.

He couldn’t go too far. The prime objective was to defend the World Core, after all. And there was a pretty good chance that the skirmishing parties were intended to lure them away from the settlement.

But that didn’t stop him from dipping beyond their lines and getting a better view of their army.

He didn’t see the leaders whose scent he had picked up. But he could sense them before their lines, as if they were sitting in wait.

Zipping along the front line, Zero decided to help the Desert Pythons deal with the skirmishes out, fighting back several small groups. Though they were rather weak. Most were barely D-grade beasts, with a few E-grades mixed in.

As they easily dispatched a few of the squad, he surveyed the area. The battle hadn’t started for real yet, but he could feel something brewing beneath the surface.

Master, hurry and deal with that undead. They’re planning something.

Zero looked over his shoulder toward the settlement. At least they had plenty of rankers to help defend whatever their enemy was about to spring on them.

Aaron

The fight had gone on far longer than Aaron had planned, or appreciated. Well, to be fair, he enjoyed a good punch-up, and he was learning to face off against someone with completed mana anchors. But there were better times to be doing it than when almost surrounded by armies.

“Take this, you bag of bones!” Aaron shouted as he threw increasingly powerful punches.

But it was becoming painfully clear that overwhelming the Death Reaver with simple attacks simply wasn’t going to work.

He had already been drastically increasing the power of his attacks, but it wasn’t making a damn difference. More mana simply gave the Reaver more to soak up.

But after one particularly long exchange when he let his frustration get to him and went a little too wild, he noticed something. In his fury, Aaron had gotten a little unhinged, throwing stupid power with a whole lot less focus than usual, and the result was a tremendously powerful fist sailing past the reaver harmlessly.

As usual, the reaver sucked up all the mana pouring off his powerful strike; unlike the other attacks he had thrown, it had nothing to heal. In the recklessness of his rampage, it had recovered, and without somewhere to expel the influx of mana, it poured straight back into its core and thudded angrily.

Huh? What was that?

Suddenly, he remembered that the Death Reaver was only D-grade, much like himself. And like himself, it had a true core and completed mana anchors.

Sure, it might have been at a higher level than himself, but that didn’t mean its body was as tempered as his, or that its Classes provided as many Stats as his did. Not to mention his gear that gave a sizable boost in power.

And then there were the anchors themselves. How much additional strain would completed anchors pose on a regular D-grade?

Aaron raised a brow. Even if the soul was some powerful ancient being, that didn’t mean its body was its equal.

And most importantly, he knew better than just about anybody what a fractured soul felt like.

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The reaver healed quickly, though. Still, his revelation gave him an idea. The reaver was using the damage against its own body as an outlet for all the energy it was draining from him and cultivating within its core.

But what would happen if it didn’t have an outlet for all of that energy?

Aaron smiled. It’s certainly worth testing out.

The reaver didn’t seem to realize what he was doing at first. Aaron roared and went wild, putting on an act as a madman raging at an enemy who wouldn’t die no matter what he did.

As his rage grew louder, he flung his fists all over the place. Now, the reason this worked was that the Death Reaver had been avoiding his strikes as best it could when enough of its body was formed that it could dodge. After all, it needed to find a balance between draining Aaron’s mana and eating his strikes.

But suddenly, that balance was thrown off. Aaron’s strikes never seemed to land, even when the reaver was fully healed and stood still, waiting to be hit.

He probably looked like an idiot, missing a static target. But he had to sell the rage to test his theory, and hope his opponent believed he was lost in some mindless rampage.

Unfortunately, the reaver didn’t have to take damage. It could also use Skills, and soon it started to fire them at Aaron, who, for someone who seemed to have lost all precision, was remarkably good at dodging.

Aaron was starting to get worried, though. Not just about keeping the ruse going, but if the reaver could keep blasting attacks off, the mana wouldn’t reach a critical point.

It was obvious that the reaver was simply better at controlling its mana than Aaron. It was an unfair contest, since they were a reincarnator who had far more experience. But nonetheless, he had to find a way to overcome this problem.

That said, despite the reaver’s control over its mana, it hadn’t reduced the amount of mana it was siphoning from him. He wasn’t exactly sure why; perhaps it just wanted to get the fight finished as soon as possible, and figured draining all his mana was the best way to do that.

But that was also Aaron’s opportunity. He ate some food as he powered himself, cycling more mana through his own core. There was a benefit to this reaver draining him; he was fairly certain under these conditions he could push himself to the limit without worrying about destroying his soul.

They clashed a few more times when Aaron got a brilliant idea. He waited for the reaver to strike, and threw a strike with [ Equal and Opposite ]. The attack caught the reaver’s attack before it could finish, and it was dismissed just like that.

In that moment, he also realized he could use Yendal’s attack far better than he had been able to in the past. It wasn’t at the level of a Passive Skill yet, as it was designed to be used by divine warriors, but he could use it far more liberally if he kept his core pumping mana at full power.

Eating furiously as he was desperate to generate as much mana as possible, Aaron waited for the reaver to strike again, and once more, he used [ Equal and Opposite ] to cancel the attack.

Timing was everything. Even a fraction of a second would allow the reaver to draw out some mana into a Skill. It was almost like the hand-slapping game, and Aaron was smacking the reaver’s attacks straight out of its hand before it could do anything, over and over again.

As he pushed himself, he concentrated on his mana anchors, infusing them, detaching them, and enhancing them, further pushing the amount of mana out of him and into the Death Reaver.

He could see the undead creature growing increasingly furious as its mana welled up within it, and yet, it didn’t stop siphoning. It just kept drawing more and more mana in, even as Aaron looked like an insane hand-slapping glutton, eating at an exponentially increasing speed, using his spirit limbs to help feed himself faster and faster.

The mana literally rippled around them, distorting the air. The situation was getting critical, and he could feel the Death Reaver’s soul cracking under the increased pressure of unstable mana filling its core with nowhere to go.

And yet, curiously, it didn’t stop.

If it was going to keep siphoning his mana, then Aaron was going to give it mana to siphon, and he kept slapping away its Skills before it could get anything started, and his speed advantage was finally showing its value, as the reaver was unable to do a damn thing about it.

“You greedy bastard!” Aaron said as he swallowed an endless line of food whole, generating more and more energy, sending arcs of mana whipping across the ground, cracking earth and exploding.

And it kept going. Draining more and more mana as Aaron desperately churned out as much as he could, doing everything to make sure he could keep cancelling out Skills, and feeding and feeding it.

Its soul was literally bulging. Cracks spread across every inch of it. And Aaron got the feeling that its inability to stop syphoning was somehow connected to the way its soul had been bound to the corpse it controlled.

And he kept feeding it mana as he fed himself. Draining so much of his food supplies while the battle was still so young was a worry, but he first needed to complete the objective before him.

It kept going, light piercing out from seams all across its soul as more mana flooded into it at an absolutely reckless rate. And never once could it even get the opportunity to start a Skill. Aaron was just too fast for it.

“No! Stop this madness! I yield! I cannot take any more!” The Death Reaver pleaded.

It wasn’t just scared, though. Aaron could feel the immense pain that its soul was bearing. It was far beyond physical pain. Something that dug deep into the recesses of its very being.

Suddenly, its eyes went wide, and an endless agony could be seen within them, and then nothing. Its soul literally burst, and the undead shell fell to the ground limp.

You killed Death Reaver!

Bonus Experience rewarded for killing a monster of a higher level than yourself!

[ Precise Bombardier Pugilist ] has LEVELED UP!

151 → 154

“That was…” Aaron sighed, almost feeling bad for the tortured soul in its final moments. Almost doing the heavy lifting, as he couldn’t feel too bad for anybody trying to wipe his civilization out.

A current of aether swept the land as the undead reaver crumpled into nothing, and Aaron heard several drums in the distance, as if he had triggered something.

Not a few seconds later, a messenger from Oasis arrived. “Aaron!” The messenger called. “It’s the beast horde! They’ve launched their attack on the other side of the settlement! There are thousands of them!”

“Beast horde?” Aaron blinked. He didn’t even know there was a beast horde.

Furthermore, he could see the undead legion starting to move again. It seemed like they were both planning to make their move now.

Aaron groaned. A small peek into his spatial storage confirmed he had used a ton of food supplies, and he needed a few more bites to recover from the fight.

“Great, and it’s only just getting started.”

“Um, yeah?” The messenger said, confused, as he didn’t understand what Aaron was talking about.

“Oh, you’re still here,” Aaron said, and gave a salute before shooting off back toward the settlement to see what this beast army had planned.