528 Brutality!
Skullius took a step.
The raging mana within him eagerly exploded out through his abnormally large mana pathways causing an anxious stir among the approaching storm of bandits.
How can someone output so much mana at once?
No. Maybe it was a bluff.
Was this to intimidate them?
Fat chance!
The Hybrid Luman didn’t look fazed by the result. It would have been disappointing if his enemies suddenly turned tail anyway.
With [Beyond the Hype] influencing every aspect of his being, a plan weaved in his mind.
‘I’ll spare that much. The rest…’ he thought as the terrifying mana cover around gained a deadly shape. One forged when a certain skill was used.
[Hyperfocus Motion Counter].
Skullius’ existence vanished soundlessly.
Nothing, except for the absence of his image suggested that he had moved.
Not the ground.
Not the wind.
He was like a feather.
Before half a blink could pass, Skullius was already upon a fiercely charging member of this tide of fodder and not fodder, his existence a couple of breaths away from being registered by this victim.
With precise motion, even as the body of this bandit was being ravaged by the spiky form of Skullius’ mana in slow motion, the Hybrid Luman screwed off the man’s head.
Blood was still leaps of time away from splashing out of the man’s neck but he was already finished.
Skullius grinned with flashes of inspiration on how else to brutalise the rest of his chosen victims, his mana flowing into the severed head he held which still wore a lively face.
A sturdy weight of thirty thousand tonnes was added to the head and with extreme force as well as calculated motion, Skullius flung it towards his designated enemies before following after it!
Sound didn’t have its clutches on the situation yet.
All there was, was a laser-like blur that bombarded twenty-five oblivious Advancement Stage bandits who had yet to guard or activate their supplementary abilities. Never in their wildest dreams would they have thought that they would be killed by a mana coated head but the bloody holes, gaps and ruptured organs on their bodies expressed that they would venture a few guesses before collapsing – when the time came.
[You have killed LV19 Human. 30 EXP awarded]
[You have killed LV17 Human. 24 EXP awarded]
…
Skullius rushed past the bodies of the men he had killed as he collected the 45 Null Life Essence points that they each awarded. Death was not a follower of time. Whether one had yet to realise their own death or not, it came and reaped nevertheless, unless of course…
Hmmm.
The Hybrid Luman wore a maniacal grin as he lodged his hand into the throat of one of bandits and pulled, ripping out their voice box!
‘Fun! This is so… fun!’ Skullius thought as his excitement drew him closer to the edge of ecstasy where extreme stimulation awaited.
Blood flew but Skullius was already behind the man he had violated, boring his hand into his back and drawing out his spine!
Mana flooded onto this object along with the property of weight, the bloody, yellowish structure of the spine growing erect from its previous state!
This, along with Skullius’ [Greater Mana Crafter] made for a rather grotesque makeshift weapon that was forged for no reason other than to explore the most sadistic of ideas!
Skullius vanished and in the next second, 43 of his targeted victims were fitted with the most clean and jarring of wounds – split faces, cleaved torsos, carved limbs among many other gruesome forms of hurt.
After this, the spine was cracked as it couldn’t handle what Skullius was using it for and thus the Hybrid Luman flung it away and reverted back to classic dirty handed slaughter!
He ripped a man’s face in half by pulling at the gap in their mouth.
He pulled one woman’s hair and delivered a full power punch into her face as soon as she had fallen to the ground, still unable to discern that was she done for.
In the terrible explosion that followed the excessively heavy punch, he bore his hands into the chests of two bandits and pulled out their hearts.
Skullius looked at the still beating hearts and scoffed.
What a strange concept a heart was.
As Skullius continued his murder streak, a few powerful combatants sprinkled in the small army finally showed themselves.
Two Master Stage experts blasted his way, one with a fierce expression that showed a particularly disdainful look at the atrocities that Skullius had committed. These bandits seemed to to have some sense of camaraderie.
Around the body of this man was a neon blaze of gold that raised his base abilities far above the norm, allowing him to perceive Skullius’ movements.
Skullius was pleased that they were some who were capable of this.
The Hybrid Luman knew his limits. His main advantage lied in movement speed more than reaction and attack speed. That was how he could beat enemies stronger than him most of the time. In terms of close quarters combat, he might be bested as it was a different case when considering movement.
When it came to his application of weight, there were two ways with their own cons and pros
Skullius could apply weight to his body by enveloping it with his mana – coating it over his body – which allowed him to not wear down his body with whatever weight he wanted to apply to a target. This method also helped him apply the effects of weight to separate objects. The disadvantage of using this application though, was that Genuine Incarnations could deal with it, as the mana which made contact with the enemy would be cancelled out.
The Luman could also apply weight to himself by charging his mana from within his mana pathways which would wear down his body with the weight he wanted to apply as well – he would also become heavy, which limited his movements. The advantage of this was that, Genuine Incarnations couldn’t deal with it as there was no mana expelled from his body to cancel out.
All this said, fighting with Masters with just these was difficult, even if it was just bandits without complex techniques.
“You bastard!” the other among the two Masters upon him yelled.
He screamed as he launched a quick jab at Skullius that caused the air to crackle from its sheer force while the other bandit circled around the Hybrid Luman, sucked in a gust of air and blew at him!
A ferocious storm of blue flame that dyed the air blue while burning the air spilled out of his mouth with staggering intensity!
It was an effective hazard that instantly melted the ground!
To make matters worse for the Hybrid Luman, other Masters were also weaving through the abysmally slow Advancers, nearing his position.
By all accounts, this was a terrible situation for Skullius.
If he used his speed against powerful, much aware enemies, he was likely to reap limited results.
However…
[You are HYPED!]
~~~
[ Beyond the Hype | None ]
-Passive-
Every aspect of the user’s being naturally processes all information fed into it at twice the normal capacity.
-Active-
When the user is excessively excited, the <CURSED BLOOD CELLS> will be supercharged, producing an artificial form of adrenaline that allows the user to process information with every aspect of their being at fifteen times their current capacity.
Mana Requirements: —
Duration: —
Cooldown: —
~~~
Inspiration and murderous intent peaked in the head of the Hybrid Luman as the active effects of [Beyond the Hype] showed!
For less than half of a millisecond, Skullius’ eyes flashed with a dazed look.
He wondered why he was feeling so happy despite the dangerous situation.
pA(nD)A no ve1 So expectant.
‘The more I kill… the more I feel everything unravelling. Everything becomes complex, yet to simple. If I just cleave through enemies… everything will make sense…’ he thought.
Brutality.
Was this the WILL OF BRUTALITY at work?
Skullius’ mind reeled back into reality.
Into the centre of impending doom.
A jab was half an inch away from his face with a pulse to it that promised to obliterate his torso despite whatever defences he could conjure in that time frame.
A ferocious blue flame was slowly inching its way towards him, no doubt packed with enough power to burn him into a crisp.
Twenty-nine more Masters were rushing just a few meters behind the two that pincered Skullius.
It was perilous but Skullius could sense it all with excruciating detail.
Being able to experience everything fifteen times faster than normal with every aspect of his being all senses, all sensory skills – had such an effect.
The wind, the mana, the fluctuation of every aspect of his opponents. All of it was nailed to his being at this moment as it all became vivid.
In truth, at base, most of Masters here eclipsed him in terms of raw speed and strength.
There was no way Skullius could weave through all the attacks and enemies coming his way right now.
Not with his body at least.
He could experience it all with all his available senses in a slow and vivid way but that was it.
‘I would have loved to take the easy way out but…’ Skullius thought as dozens of ‘strings’ of mana were expelled from his body at a speed that far eclipsed what all the Masters around him were capable of perceiving. His physical body couldn’t move that fast, but his skill in controlling mana could.
[Greater Mana Crafter] could!
These strings of white mana connected to the abdomens of dozens of Advancement Stage experts among the bandits, the targets of Skullius’ master plan from the start.
Master Stage Experts could probably resist this as their Perfect Aura countered most mana attacks and even some Aura attacks.
But these guys…
They could not.
Skullius thought a single word that brought about a stupidly unexpected result.
‘Break.’
…!
And it happened.
The mana cores of 127 bandits immediately exploded!
With this, came the familiar force of death Skullius knew and he exploited it fully.
Yes, Skullius couldn’t remotely affect the cores of individuals who were aware of their cores and could control them as they willed. But if he touched their cores with his own will, unless they had purple cores or an extreme understanding of mana, they were doomed.
The mana from 127 individuals – all with blue cores of varying brightness – was sucked through these ‘strings’ he had created and fed directly into Skullius who immediately used half of it.
A towering golden light flashed into existence from Skullius’ body in real time.
With it came something so ridiculous and mind boggling… but no one but him understood it.