Chapter 339 Scythe (3)
Chapter 339 Scythe (3)
The sudden surge of potency in Ashton baffled Atlas. He couldn't believe the mortal was hiding his true strength till now. But in hindsight, no matter how strong his enemy got, they would not be able to defeat him.
His abilities made him almost unkillable, even if the power of death had corrupted him and made his rank fall after his 'death'. His combination of tanky abilities was the reason why he was able to kill even the most fearsome Precursor prisoners after they betrayed him.
"I don't care... now matter what you become..." Atlas laughed, "You still can't... defeat me..."
That's right. The number of broken abilities that he possessed, made it impossible for Atlas to die. Not to mention, his weapon was something the precursors had created.
There was no way a mere mortal would be able to get rid of him so easily. But why was he reassuring himself over and over again?
The reason was standing in front of him. Ashton's sudden powerup had forced Atlas to be concerned about his safety. What else could the mortal be hiding from him? Atlas' train of thought was stopped when he saw Ashton's expressionless face.
"I told you to keep your mouth shut, didn't I? Ugh... just go back to being a mouthless piece of shit please." Ashton reminded Atlas of his words, "Your breath makes me wanna puke... especially now that I have a werewolf's keen sense of smell."
Ashton might have been busy mocking Atlas, but on the inside, he was having a different conversation. Astaroth was furious with Ashton's lack of sincerity. Even though he wasn't someone who would remain serious during battles himself.
[Are you out of your mind? The only reason you could 'rip' your flesh off and survive was that you were undead. Now if the bastard manages to as much as break through your skin, you might not be able to recover... like ever!]
'Do you really think I'm such a moron? I have taken care of everything, so just wait and relax. If the fight still worries you, just go and watch a memory of mine like some movie. Let me take care of this.'
Mere words were not enough for Astaroth to be convinced. However, the smirk on Ashton's face and his confident voice were enough to sway him otherwise.
[You're right. Worrying about this isn't doing anyone any favours.]
If it comes to worse, Astaroth could always take matters into his own hands. His only worry was whether he would be able to save him in time or not.
Ashton might have everything planned out, but he could not refute the fact that he activated the genes due to desperation. His undead genes were not nearly enough to kill Atlas. Therefore, he was forced to use his full strength even though he knew he was putting himself in grave danger.
Back when Atlas bit into his shoulder, his undead genes managed to slow down the process of corruption long enough for him to take care of the wound. However, with his werewolf and vampire genes now active, doing so wasn't going to be that easy.
'The scythe's corruption was specifically made to kill living beings in an instant. With my werewolf genes now active, I might be strong, but I'm at more risk than I was before. I will have to be careful.'
But that wasn't the only thing Ashton was worried about. While he was immune to entering the 'coffin' state from an undead's bite, he did not know whether it would protect him from Atlas' bite as well. In reality, Ashton had no idea what would happen if the bastard was to bite him now.
After all, from what he had seen, the undead on Euphoria were much different than the ones back on the Earth. This meant, their bites could be stronger and can possibly kill him as well. It was just a theory inside his head, but he wasn't so keen on testing it for real.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Atlas' heavy footsteps echoed throughout the cave as he charged toward Ashton. The behemoth was still as fast as before, however, this time Ashton could outmatch his speed. Werewolf genes boosted his agility astronomically, allowing him to outmanoeuvre Atlas with ease.
Before Atlas could suspect anything, Ashton dove between the behemoth's legs and buried his claws within his legs. A huge chunk of his hamstring muscles away. The next moment Atlas fell to his knees as his legs gave away, but as usual, he could not feel any pain from the attack.
It wasn't until he tried to get back up, did he realise something was seriously wrong with his legs. The wounds in his legs were not healing!
"What sorcery... is this...?" Atlas bellowed while he kept attempting to get back to his feet, but in vain.
"Sorcery? Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't even use my mana." Ashton replied with a confident smirk, "It's just one of the abilities I have in my bag of tricks."
While Atlas thrashed his hands around, trying to force his gigantic body back to his feet, Ashton was formulating the next steps of his plan.
'Perfect. The aggravate skill is working like a charm. Although it can efficiently counter Atlas' healing, the damage done to him is still quite low. I need to do something about it.' Ashton took a deep breath to calm his nerves due to the adrenaline flowing through his body.
'It's a shame I can only use my claws to attack enemies while using Aggravate. If only I could use Aggravate along with Balmond, I would be able to deal a lot more damage.'
Aggravate's passive damage depended on the damage dealt in the first attack. Since Atlas had ridiculous damage nullifying ability, the damage Ashton's claws caused was minimal. In fact, he was surprised that he even managed to stop the bastard from healing.
However, if things kept proceeding like now, it would take Ashton a year to kill Atlas. That's assuming he wouldn't make any mistakes. Which was unlikely.
Ashton kept thinking of ways to deal a much more devastating blow to Atlas. That was until Seraph's crystal flashed before his eyes.
'People will call me a mad man for what I am about to do...' Ashton sighed while clasping his hands together, 'Let's do this!'
Fire erupted from the crystal. In an instant, the claws were on fire. Ashton had never thought of doing anything like this, but he realised since the Hellfire worked with Balmond, it would probably work with his claws as well.
He would have been unaffected even if his plan failed. But since he had fire immunity, Ashton decided to abuse it as much as he could.
With blue-black fire revolving around his claws, Ashton once again began his ruthless attacks on Atlas. However, he had lost the element of surprise, since Atlas now knew that his opponent could actually hurt him.
"Your resistance is futile. You had already lost the moment you lost your legs."
Ashton's face was the last thing Atlas saw before everything got shrouded in a red mist. Atlas couldn't do anything but lay helplessly there, unable to figure out the direction Ashton would attack him from. As usual, the blood mist skill was enough to confuse Ashton's enemies.
'He might be strong, but he is out of practice.' Ashton thought before lunging at him, 'Your rustiness and overconfidence have led you to your demise. Nothing else.'
Ashton mounted the giant and repetitively plunged his flaming claws within Atlas' chest. Atlas tried to swat him off with his hands, but Ashton's agility made it impossible for him to successfully land a hit.
"Come on! Die already you fucking fatass bastard!"
Ashton yelled while his claws dug deeper and deeper into Atlas' chest. Suddenly Atlas stopped trying to get Ashton off of himself. Instead, he focussed his efforts on escaping from there.
Atlas couldn't see Ashton, but he could sense the looming death over its head. At that moment, he gave up on fighting back and tried to run away from the monster of a human.
"Thinking of escape? Sure... I wonder where will you run to though? The cave is not big enough for you to hide for a long time. Either way, it's not like I'm going to let you go. Just wanted to quench my curiosity." Ashton sighed.
The predator had turned into prey, and Ashton wasn't going to let his prey get out of his hands. Not when he was so close to ending him.
Atlas, however, used whatever strength he had to lift himself off the ground. With the sudden movement, Ashton couldn't hold on and slipped off of Atlas' chest. Ashton was surprised but latched on to Atlas' retreating back.
A moment later, Ashton warped his legs around Atlas' waist, while his free arm grabbed onto his neck. With a swift movement and using physics to his advantage, Ashton managed to pin the behemoth to the ground.
It was Ashton's half-assed attempt to lock Atlas in a rare-naked choke. However, he had made a mistake. The Behemoth saw the opportunity and bite into Ashton's arm. It was over for the mortal now.
Atlas felt Ashton's grip weaken and waited to hear the screams as Ashton slowly withered away. But the wait never ended. There were no screams... just calmness. Until the grip tightened once again.
"How..."
"You are so predictable. I knew you were going to bite me, so I simply turned off my genes for a moment to take care of the wound." Ashton whispered into Atlas' ears, "You can keep biting my arm as much as you want. But you are dying, and that fact would remain unchanged."
Atlas bit into Ashton's hands a few more times, but the end result remained the same. Just like Ashton had stated.
However, the chokehold wasn't going to kill the undead. That's why Ashton improvised. Rather than grabbing his bicep with his other arm to complete the traditional chokehold, Ashton plunged his free hand straight into the behemoth's chest to keep attacking him over and over.
Aggravate's passive damage coupled with Seraph's flames was enough to slowly eat away Atlas' HP.
"No... my revenge isn't... complete... LET ME GO!"
Atlas thrashed his arms around for a while, before letting out a final cry of pain. Soon the behemoth stopped moving. Its limbs turned limp, falling sideways. Ashton's job was complete and so was the trial.
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The trial has been concluded.
Official results: The Secret ending has been fulfilled. The participant wins by default. Since an impossible feat has been achieved, additional rewards would be provided.
Equipment: Grim Reaper's Scythe would be awarded as a special clearing reward.
The participant will be teleported out of the trial zone in: 20 seconds.
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As soon as the notification appeared, all of the remaining undead turned to dust. Everything had been handled.
"Finally... it's done." Ashton mumbled and pushed the behemoth off of himself, before looking at him like the greedy gentleman he was, "Now what should I do with you?"