18 Evolution of Armor (1/2)

Torix said, ”This next few beasts will be level 150. Be ready for them.”

I said, ”Of course.”

He opened the summoning portal once more, the purple lining it more vicious than the previous one. From it, a twisted, gnarled mass of branches and roots shot outwards. The monster of bark and wood crawled towards me, thousands of empty eyes staring at me from its spiny body. At the tree's center, the trunk caved in, creating teeth of wood. It twitched as it squirmed, more like an insect than a beast.

Brach Leon, Corrupted Treant(lvl 150) - Once a leader of a sentient race of plants, this being has fallen from basking in the sun to squirming in the shade. Their race fought against the dominant species of their planet and won. They enslaved the humanoid race, ruling over them for hundreds of years.

The sides of the Treantis people split, one side for the continued enslavement and the other against it. Much like wars fought on earth, a civil war erupted. Brach Leon was the leader of the enslavement regime. Torix came, killed, then possessed him.

With hundreds of roots and branches, Brach pummels targets with innumerable blows from above and below. Strengthens in darkness and grows weaker in sunlight. You have nothing to fear.

It was time to test my new found agility. The monster whipped a wooden branch towards me, the air hissing as it gained speed. I shot towards the attack, dodging by a hair underneath it. To me, that hair was like a mile. I could sense the exactness that I could move around it. I could feel how close I could get before it actually hit me. Even the wind from the attack was within my expectations.

Seven more strikes lashed out towards me, but I slipped past them, moving just enough to dodge. I wasted no movement, no lapse in my balance holding me back. As I weaved around the onslaught of strikes, Torix said,

”It always amazed me, watching a warrior fight with all three attributes unlocked. Any I watched couldn't maintain it for long. With how subtle and slight your movements are, you might be able to extend your stamina further.”

I laughed before setting myself into my fighting stance. Knees bent. Arms pinned against my sides. My jaw kept square and down. A tentacle of wood lashes towards me, I bend beneath it. As it passes overhead, I torque on my heels and smash my fist into the wood. Chips of wood splinter as force travels down my wrist, into my shoulders, and back into my heels.

I almost fell backwards from how well my blow connected. The timing of the swing, the angle of the blow, even the way I braced myself, it was incredible. The impact timed so cleanly that my heels cracked into the stone beneath me. The echo of the blow was like shattering a bottle full of thunder.

As the next vine came snapping towards me, I shot a straight into the belt of bark. My fists were like bombs, each blow landing like an explosion. I slid back a foot from the how hard it landed. The wood smashed to ruin at my touch. After cleaving four of the monster's branches with momentous impacts, the attacks slowed.

The monster reeled back, no longer enraged. If anything, it seemed almost afraid of me. I grinned an eager smile, showing the whites of my teeth. I walked towards it, inching closer like a moving wall. It whipped another strike. I chopped the wooden vine with my fist. After cleaving a few more branches, the tree no longer glanced at me like food. To this thing, my fists were like axes, tearing it apart.

I kept pressuring the monster, moving forward with patience. When the thirty foot tall tree's back pressed into the colosseum's wall, the trunk teeth squealed. I approached like a guillotine coming down on a man's neck.

Each root that came within my grasp, I eviscerated. Every vine that squirmed near me, I sheared. Every branch that attacked, I retaliated with an unweildly force. The monster pushed itself up the wall, scrambling for further distance.

With a burst of speed, the monster shot sideways. I slid on my feet, cutting the monster off from running. Quoting the movie Watchmen, I said, ”I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me.”

I pulverized the tree with gauntleted fists. As the tree monster died, chunks of wood and splinters littered the pool of blood we standed in. Torix nodded his head in approval as he said, ”That was rather ruthless. You handled that monster with such ease. The three attributes are showing their might already.”

I clanked my fists as I said, ”It's amazing how good it feels to fight.”

Torix nodded before snapping his fingers. In an instant, the blood was gone. The splinters dried, the wetness in my boots no longer present.he said, ”Let's get that filth out of the way. It was starting to coagulate.”

I blinked, stunned by the sudden change. After a second or two, my armor bent to consume the tree. As it did so, I said, ”What was that?”

”Silent casting. It's a perk for reaching 30 intelligence. Quite useful for stopping orthodox methods of countering spells. It's more for convenience then actual pragmatism, however. High level mages will fight with their minds. Having high mental resistance is fundamental.”

I glanced at my menu screen, seeing a gain of three levels from the single fight. I tap my chin as I say, ”It's a good thing mine's at 96% then. Anyways, I think I'm gonna go with intelligence next. With arcane blood, It'll increase my maximum health on top of letting me learn stuff easier.”

Torix stood up and said, ”The armor affects other resistances besides physical ones? That's possible?”

I shrugged as I said, ”I mean, it does, so it is. It raises the resist cap for all damage types I have resists for.”

Torix grinned, his teeth yellow as parchment. He said, ”Then understanding these ruins has become my priority.”

He snapped his fingers and a chair formed beneath him, more a writhing shadow than a seat. It held him up as he leaned close to the runes. After a few moments, he said, ”Every time I glance at this, my understanding of it lessens. Questions are answered with even more questions. This will take...time.”

Before replying, I put three points into intelligence. The same clarity of before washed over me. Things that were complex became simple. What surprised me most, however, was the tug of mana on my skin. The density of the arcane laying in my blood thickened ever so slightly. It acted as a pressure, much like gravity, that helped hold me together.

I used the red air conditioner skill I had. At that moment, I sensed the bonds of arcane within me lessening by the smallest bit. Those arcane bonds helped keep me together. They kept me whole. Using magic tore apart the bonds that the arcane had created within me. In essence, I sacrificed my body for the magic I casted. It was more like converting my body into magic than using my blood for magic.

At that point, I pulled at the arcane holding me together. It surged from my hand in a torrent along with a burning sensation in my hand. I clamped my fist, killing the cast. A notification appeared,

Breakthrough achieved! Apprentice level unlocked for Arcane Blood Manipulation

(lvl 1) ----> (lvl 25)

I said, ”Torix, have you ever heard of breakthroughs?”

He waved me off as he stared at a jagged character on the wall. He said, ”Of course. They aren't that uncommon.”

”Alright, cool. Can you spawn another monster?”

”Sure, sure.”

The cycle continued like this for a while. Torix spawned abomination after abomination, and with my improved dexterity, I ripped them apart. I checked out my notifications.

Evolution gained. II Harbinger of Cataclysm unlocked. Evolve Y/N?

I press yes in an instant. It was finally time. When I tap the Y button, my armor clasped into me. Like a thousand nails piercing me at once, the armor stabbed until it reached my bones. I scream out, the sheer torment unbearable. Even with 96% pain reduction, I could do nothing but convulse.

Torix stood at my screams, pacing over as he said, ”What's wrong? What happened? Are you alright?”