He had never seen anyone who could elevate their anger to such a violent level. Bosch felt his throat run dry, so he swallowed a nervous gulp. He was about to speak when suddenly, an urgent cry was heard in the party channel.
"Run away, Bosch!"
"The h.e.l.l are you talking about? That b.a.s.t.a.r.d is the only one who can still fight! If we run away now, will His Excellency spare us?"
"That guy's a monster! His teammates are also recovering at an amazing speed! Besides, even if His Excellency is going to punish someone, you won't be the first one he'll look for!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Turn back and look."
Bosch immediately turned around and saw from the corner of his eyes that Lamb had already taken the lead in escaping. He was well over twenty meters away by now. A chill immediately crept down Bosch's spine. He wanted to swear but had no energy to left to speak.
He immediately concentrated his strength on the edge of his +6 silver storyline dagger and launched the ability 'Death Throw' at the onrus.h.i.+ng Sheyan.
Bosch's decision was ingenious. His 'Death Throw' ability was very vicious as it would stimulate the black magic attached to the dagger. Once the enemy was. .h.i.t, besides causing a lot of damage, the enemy would also have to go through the checks for eight different negative statuses - sluggish, freezing, slow, curse, weakness, bleeding, blindness and burning - to see if their attributes were high enough to resist those debuffs!
Of course, there were not many unlucky souls who would be hit with all eight negative statuses, but those who could resist all eight were even fewer. Under usual circ.u.mstances, it would be normal for someone to be hit with four or more debuffs.
Although Sheyan was charging at Bosch with a fierce momentum, Bosch knew that if Sheyan dodged his 'Death Throw', Sheyan would not be able to catch up to him.
And if Sheyan chose not to dodge it, then under the effects of the various negative statuses, Sheyan would only be able to get close to him for a fraction of a second. If Sheyan could really kill him in that fraction of a second, he could only chalk that up to fate.
Just to be safe, Bosch gulped down his honorary dosage to restore his HP back to full. An Awakener with full HP had very little chance of being instkilled.
Sheyan ate the 'Death Throw' and was inflicted with three negative statuses - sluggish, slow and blindness! All of them were debuffs that affected his pursuit of Bosch! His movement speed dropped sharply. He only had one chance to attack Bosch, just like Bosch antic.i.p.ated!
Bosch tensed up when he saw Sheyan's chilly eyes that were already not far away from him. He silently prepared himself to endure the crazy tempest that would engulf him in the next moment. He swallowed three bottles of potion in a flash.
Nerve-numbing agent, which reduced his pain reception to 0.
Stoneskin Potion, which would absorb an additional 10% of damage.
Zombie Blood Extract, which instantly slowed his heartbeat and blood flow, lowering his explosive strike rate and attack speed by 10%, but also lowering the explosive strike rate he would sustain by 20% and raising his movement speed by 25%.
However, the painful strike Bosch expected did not come. What he felt next was a sensation of flying through the sky as if he was riding a roller coaster!
In that half a second, instead of attacking Bosch, Sheyan merely grabbed Bosch's ankles with the pair of powerful gloves that glowed dark green and threw him into the maple forest that had leaves so red that they seemed to be burning!
'Tactical Throw'!
In the maple forest, Reef, Zi, Sanzi and Kulutego had recovered nearly 40% of their HP by now under the care of Melody. Melody herself was in peak condition, as were Ramtas and Reef's servant, No. 7.
As the saying goes, two fists are hardly a match for four hands. Bosch was now facing seven enemies who were burning with anger, on Melody's home court, alone! Not only did the opponents have an MT, they were also in formation. A chill ran down Bosch's back like he had fallen into an ice cellar. He could not arouse any fighting spirit in himself at all! There was no suspense about the outcome of this battle.
***
Sheyan once again suffered a round of ranged attacks. This time, the power of the bombardment was astonis.h.i.+ng. A mushroom cloud more than 10 meters high rose with Sheyan at the centre, then exploded outwards.
The ferocious shockwave tore many leaves off the maple trees planted by Melody. A couple of the high-rise buildings nearby, having previously suffered two destructive shockwaves from the 'Chill of Resentments' and were now struck again by a fiery shockwave, immediately collapsed, giving rise to a cloud of dust and smoke. If one did not know better, one would think that the apocalypse had arrived ahead of time.
But when the smoke and dust settled, Sheyan was still stubbornly half kneeling on the ground, gasping violently while flames swept over his body. However, his eyes were still fierce, and the sinister grin on his face was still there!
In the distance, Melody's face was filled with worry and anxiety, but Zi was frowning instead.
She muttered in a low voice to herself, "This guy...is he crazy? He shouldn't have been able to survive that without using any medicine or skills. Could it be???"
Sheyan staggered to his feet. He then gave a middle finger to the sky and burst out in wild laughter.
"You f*cking idiot, you think I can't do anything if you confine me? I'll now let you see how wrong you are! You gave me seventeen minutes and thirty-nine seconds of preparation time! That's why... more than half the people here are going to die!"
After Sheyan made that declaration, a blinding light shone from his chest. Two images formed from the light, overlapping together! The fist, proclaiming his ident.i.ty as a Strength-type contestant, was now wearing a plate metal gauntlet. Meanwhile, the s.h.i.+eld, proclaiming his ident.i.ty as an MT, did not have a holy cross on it like Reef's did. Instead, the pattern on the s.h.i.+eld was a towering mountain the colour of blood!
Sheyan had evidently also broken through the boundary of a Growth Hunter into the realm of an Awakener! He had acc.u.mulated just as much strength as Reef had, and his equipment was no worse than Reef's. Most importantly, Reef may have been immensely frustrated previously, but at least he could still move and scream. On the other hand, Sheyan was completely confined with no way to vent his frustration! So there was no reason why Reef could break through to an Awakener while he could not!
An illusion of the 'Stairway of the Sun' emerged behind Sheyan. Now that Sheyan was an Awakener, the illusion had become bigger, more vivid and more realistic. All its tendrils stabbed deep into the ground. The veins on Sheyan's forehead visibly bulged, and his eyes started to become bloodshot....
"It feels good now that I can finally stop suppressing the viral instincts... Break out, my viruses!"
***
Because Sheyan's information was shared with his party, his information was soon displayed in front of them.
[ Awakener No. 1018, Direction of Evolution: Survival/Offensive Oriented." ]
[ Obtained Survival Awakening Reward: 'Tenacity' - Because you have a negative condition which renders you unable to use any kind of s.h.i.+eld, 'Tenacity' will enable you to get 20 HP for every point of Physique (a normal contestant would only get 10 HP for every point of Physique). ]
[ Obtained Offensive Awakening Reward: 'Gifted' - Because you have a negative condition which renders you unable to use any kind of s.h.i.+eld, 'Gifted' will enable you to skillfully use all kinds of melee weapons. Even if you do not have the relevant mastery, you can still display the strength of a melee weapon. ]
[ Obtained Survival Awakening Skill: 'Survival Mark' - You can place a mark on a target within 100 meters of you to greatly enhance their survivability. In the next three seconds, 75% of any damage done to the target will be allocated to you. The allocation will be performed at the stage of theoretical damage value, so any damage reduction, including the damage reduction from defence, will be done after the allocation. ]
[ The initial cooldown time of 'Survival Mark' is 10 seconds. The cooldown time will increase by 30 seconds with every use, up to a maximum of 300 seconds. This will reset every 24 hours. ]
[ Obtained Offensive Awakening Skill: 'Hunter's Eyes' - Any prey targeted by you will find it hard to escape. You can release a power with your eyes to steal 25% of the movement speed of an enemy in your line of sight, and add it to your own movement speed. The effect will last for 30 seconds. ]
[ The initial cooldown time of 'Hunter's Eyes' is 10 seconds. The cooldown time will increase by 30 seconds with every use, up to a maximum of 300 seconds. This will reset every 24 hours. ]
[ You will consume your own vitality every time you use your Awakening Skill. The occasional use will not affect your lifespan, but please do not overuse this ability as medicines and methods that can supplement your vitality are extremely rare. ]
[ You do not have an aura ability. ]
"So that's how it is," Zi snorted. "With this, his HP now exceeds 6,200. And his innate ability has also upgraded - that's why he can hold out for so long."
"But it's strange. He should have gotten an aura ability when he awakened. Did he give it up?" Reef was perplexed.
Zi knew that Sheyan had the Dzi beads which involved the strongest MT in the legends, so she suspected that Sheyan not having an aura ability may have something to do with it. Of course, she would not tell anyone about this.
Whenever Zi looked at Melody who was standing next to her, she would feel restless and uneasy for some reason. This was the first time she had felt like this in her life.
