Chapter 151: A Game of Spinning
Chapter 151: A Game of Spinning
[
Dreamer has used the Unnatural Lifeform to temper with the Attributes again
Adding 2% additional Penalty
Agility: 168 (+86)
Perception: 194 (-86)
]
Aldrich confirmed the drop in his Change Skill.
The previous advantage of 70% Attribute Transfer had dropped to 31%. With every penalty and the Plaza, the gap between Aldrich and the Crawlers was getting shorter and shorter. The fact that he could use more of his Perception because of this handicap didn't give him any solace too.
Aldrich remembered how the Crawler had turned into the wind. But there was one thing that only he in the entire Galaxy could see, the Stats. There were no counters to his Passive Ability Share Vision, at least not any he had encountered so far. The point that he could see its Stats meant the Crawler was truly present with its original body. And before getting slashed apart by Aldrich's surprise attack, it somehow substituted itself.
Aldrich didn't doubt this sudden vanishing was related to the same phenomenon as that of the female Crawler vanishing into the earth.
Hisss!
The sudden hissing sound brought Aldrich out of his reverie. To the farthest his eyes could see, he saw snakes of length varying from tens to hundreds of meters. All were slithering around him and the valley, waiting for him to move towards the light. A hip-hop song kept playing around him as if the Viscount Crawler had placed countless boomboxes over the mountains' slopes. And the storm and the lightning kept following the song rhythm, sometimes intensifying and other times, slowing down.
But the thing to wonder about wasn't the number of snakes but the lack of Stats over their heads. Aldrich could only guess one reason for it. All Crawlers spawned in the Dungeon had Stats, and if the snakes didn't, then it meant they were a part of a Skill or had been bred within the Plaza.
"Sigh! Here we go again! Senseless killing. Tsk!"
Aldrich knew why the Crawler had left him in the valley without attacking him. The Viscount wanted Aldrich to waste away his Stamina and Mana before reaching the light. But the Lord of Storms and Thunder had made a terrible mistake.
A mistake of underestimating his enemy.
There was a reason that Aldrich had taken out the Broken Faith and not Stone Splitter. Yes, the Stone Splitter was undeniably stronger than the Broken Faith, but only as a finishing move. Its use left Aldrich devoid of Stamina and made him defenseless as he needed to enhance his Strength to use it.
But Broken Faith was different.
All its Skills and the ability to turn into a Count were locked, which meant Aldrich won't have to use the penalized All Proficient Skill anymore. And being a Count ranked weapon, its sharpness alone was enough for him to just run into a Crawler to cut it down in half. He only regretted the fact that even after killing so many, he won't get a single Experience Point.
"Sha, now eat as much as you want. Don't complain afterward."
Aldrich reminded the Shadow Homunculus, given that she had been nudging him constantly for more and more 'food'. But he hadn't thought that his offer would be rejected outright.
"I not eat Crawlers."
" Why?! There are so many of them!"
"They They taste bad."
Aldrich couldn't comprehend how the taste buds of an Item worked. He shook his head and took a mental note to research it by putting Sha through one more 'session'.
"Ok Let's get over it and kill that faux ghetto."
Zoommm!
Aldrich ignored the pain from the violent winds, letting his tiny Defence take care of them, and dashed towards the blurry yellow light. The snakes lunged at his blackened afterimage, but even before they neared him, they got sliced apart in many pieces.
Hisssss!!!
Those whose heads had remained intact hissed manically. And those whose heads couldn't be seen anywhere, their bodies wriggled like lizards' broken tails. Aldrich wasn't a swordsman, but his hands were experienced in handling knives and such blades. It didn't take him long to leave behind countless clean-cut parts of snakes.
As Aldrich crossed a distance of a few miles and came out of the valley to reach the grassy plain, both the nature and size of the snakes had changed. He could see hundreds of white pythons and even longer grayish cobra-like snakes. The volume of the hip-hop songs had increased along with the wind and the frequency of lightning.
Tip-Tipp! Drippp!!
Sizzz!!!
Suddenly a drizzle appeared around him, and as the few raindrops touched his bare skin, Aldrich felt a burning pain followed by a sizzling sound. Aldrich narrowed his eyes and brought the raindrops over his sleeve near his nose. From the smell, he could easily tell that not only they were corrosive but venomous too. The directionless winds made it impossible for him to take cover.
Crackkkkk!
The brilliant bolt of lightning made Aldrich look in a particular direction, far behind the towering Pythons. There, hundreds of Cobras were spitting venom into the dark clouds. Aldrich knew it wouldn't take long for the drizzle to turn into a downpour. Then even his Devil aura cladded greatcoat won't be enough to shield him from the lethal venom.
He needed to take care of the Cobras before the Pythons, acting as guards, and fast. An evil smile came upon Aldrich's face, and he couldn't help but let out a low laugh.
"Haha! Sha, would you like to play a game?"
Sha must have taken aback by Aldrich's question, for it took her a full second to reply.
"Daddy I want to. Which game?"
The song changed as Aldrich crouched and used the Target Lock Skill on one of the largest Cobra.
[
Skill Target Lock is under penalty
Agility: 193 (+86 +25)
]
Zwipppppp!
By the time the Pythons lunged at the black trail left behind by Aldrich in the air, he had already arrived a few hundred meters above the Cobra's hood. The storm had become devastatingly unbearable at this height, and the thunders seemed to be in a race of who would strike Aldrich first.
But how could they have known Aldrich's mood and his thoughts?
Everything, the venomous rain, Pythons, the cobras, the stormy wind blades, and the bolts of lightning lunged at Aldrich. It was just, Aldrich thought, that their speed was not high enough.
Aldrich clasped the sword's butt tightly and raised both his arms outwards.
"Well, it's called Spinning, Sha. Let me show you ABSOLUTE PULL."
Aldrich fell and gave himself a rotation. His Agility was so high that it felt like a mini-tornado had originated in the sky. The space rippled and got pulled towards him, bringing with it everything at an unimaginable speed. It was like Aldrich had become a bottomless hole, within which no life could exist.
The Bloodbath had begun.