REAPER SCANS
Surviving as a Broken Hero
[Author – Farlight]
[Proofreader – Harley]
Chapter 118 - Unleashed (5)
“We have to go faster!” Rhil shouted, seeing the dark sphere hovering above Londo in the distance.
Even from the halfway marker, the orb was visible as little more than a small dot in the distance. Without rampant pollution or fog obscuring vision, and with the much larger size of the planet combined with her higher Perception as an Awakener, things were visible from a much greater distance to her than they would have been for a human on Earth.
“Come on…” Bernard and Eve were slow, frustratingly so, yet she hesitated to leave them behind.
‘I can’t end up alone again…’ The hellish iceland wastes had been enough for one lifetime. What if something happened again?
Unfortunately, Eve didn’t appear to have any movement abilities to speak of and moved no faster than an Unawakened would.
‘Did she put everything into Mana or something?’ Well, the woman had used magic without end and kept pulling out all sorts of new spells, albeit flame-based, so there might have been some merit to that.
Min-maxing in real life was known to have a multitude of problems, though. Including simply not being able to keep up with others.
‘Should I ask Bernard to carry her or something…? No, that would be too much.’
The woman had rescued her. She wasn’t about to recommend something like that. Instead, she urged Eve on in her mind and kept casting nervous glances back at her.
Eve, for what it was worth, was doing her best. That was apparent by the flush on her pale face and her pants of exhaustion.
With the road stretching out before them through the forest, it would still take them hours to reach Londo at that rate.
‘Who knows what’s going on in the city? It could be too late by then…’
Aizen and Koise had to have made it there already.
Bernard grimaced and looked over at Eve, likely thinking similar thoughts.
That was when the purple sphere, far in the distance, surged. Fraying the air around it, spindly tendrils of dark power crept from its previously smooth surface.
‘Shit…’ Rhil inwardly cursed. ‘I can’t wait any longer.’
It was time to make a decision. She’d been dying to use her power anyway.
The air rippled outward far in the distance, and the ripple traveled over the realm like the ripple of a stone in a pond, leaving a sickly feeling behind it as it spread and eventually reached them as well.
Another ripple was already forming from the sphere, judging by the distorting air in the distance. What would happen if the ripples sped up in frequency?
Turning to cast a glance at Bernard and Eve, she locked eyes with the large man.
The two stared silently at each other for a moment before Bernard nodded, understanding her intent.
That was all the confirmation she needed.
“Haa…” Rhil took a deep breath and used her mana.
[«Ride the Lightning»]
Following her skill use, a bolt of lightning formed around her, crackling in intensity and encompassing the entirety of her body.
BOOM—
In the next moment, the lightning shot away into the sky, and Rhil was gone.
* * *
Reaper Scans
[Author – Farlight]
[Proofreader – Harley]
Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics
* * *
Gregor looked no worse for wear despite taking who-knows-how-many arrows and my wristblade to the gut.
All of it healed in mere moments.
He merely laughed at me, his malformed mouth turning his chuckles into gurgled gasps. Words would be lost on him, that much was clear, and Koise was out of action.
‘Maybe I need to talk to him about investing more in Endurance or something later…’
It seemed like every time he took a hit, he went down.
Lightning cracked somewhere far in the distance again in the rainless sky, throwing stark blue light and elongating shadows over the throne room.
I leaped forward, going for Gregor’s head this time.
An «Eruption» through my legs followed by an «Enhanced Strike» through my wristblade saw me shooting forward almost faster than I could manage to properly attack him.
While the demon corruption had horrifically disfigured him, it also clearly granted him power. Or had he been that strong, to begin with?
Gregor swung his clawed hand at me in a vicious swipe that caught me perfectly in mid-air, only the earth forming instinctively around my ribcage saving me from a gruesome goring. As it was, I careened to the side and straight toward one of the room’s supporting pillars.
[«Walk it Off»]
I used another of my abilities just before I smashed into the stone construction and tumbled through it in an explosion of debris.
It hurt, and something cracked in my shoulder. With that much damage after «Walk it Off», I could only imagine what would’ve happened if I hadn’t reacted in time.
[Mana: 80/175]
Gregor merely watched, a feral grin on his face in the looming darkness.
Rolling after I hit the floor, I knelt and used the Second System’s earth abilities to contract stone into my shoulder, feeling a pop and another surge of pain as it returned to the socket.
He slowly walked toward me, savoring the moment.
My fastest attack hadn’t been enough.
‘If I can’t beat him in speed…’
Would my strength be enough?
I pushed myself to my feet and matched his approach, waiting for the slightest hint of movement or tension to react.
Circling each other like gunslingers waiting to see who’d act first, our eyes locked.
He was the one who made the first move.
Gregor stepped forward across the short distance separating us and brought his claw around in another lightning-fast horizontal swing toward my chest.
True, he was fast, but he wasn’t so fast that I couldn’t react.
Not having the time to let gravity take me under the swing, I conserved my mana and braced myself with spikes of stone that I shot into the crumbling stonework below us and a shield of it around the point of impact on my tensed left arm.
Having leaned into the blow, I only skidded a few inches thanks to my efforts, countering and using the recoil of the block to swing around with a right-handed punch at his face.
[«Piercing Eruption»]
[«Enhanced Strike»]
[Mana: 60/175]
Beastlike as he was, our movements almost resembled a match between two boxers in a ring. The close distance between us was such that, even with his higher speed, he could only slightly turn his head before the strike hit him.
That was enough to at least avoid a lethal hit.
Still, my enhanced punch ripped his jaw clean off, the «Piercing Eruption»’s energy sending a flash of light over the room and sending the shadows into full retreat.
He reeled back, spraying the purple ichor that had replaced his blood over the spacious room.
Pressing the advantage, I stepped forward again and launched a right hook at his neck, activating my wristblade mid-swing.
[«Enhanced Strike»]
[Mana: 40/175]
Feeling my stamina draining, there was no need for a «Piercing Eruption» when the enchanted wristblade Krylla had made for me served the same purpose.
The blade drove straight into his neck. Even with its sharpness and all the force of my swing, it was like driving a nail through wood, and the impact reverberated through my bones.
Even that wasn’t enough to kill him.
With his mutated form, my blade didn’t outright decapitate him.
Letting out an enraged, agonized gurgle and spraying his purple blood over me, he did something new. Up to that point, he’d used sheer physicality and power in his fight against me. I’d almost forgotten he was an Awakener as well.
He used a skill. I had no way of knowing what it was, but it launched a bubble of purple light from his body that sent me flying away.
The stone wall met me with its rough embrace and knocked the air out of me, but Gregor was in no condition to follow up.
Panting and letting out hissed breaths, he healed, though much slower, and kept a watchful eye on me while holding one of his gargantuan hands to his throat.
‘Damn it…’
That had been my big chance. With my mana and stamina so low, I could only muster enough for one more exchange like that, and Gregor would be more on guard.
What he had in speed and power I made up for in technique. The man might have been one of the most renowned Awakeners at one point, but his corrupted evolution had frayed his mind and taken much of his battle strategy with it.
Just as I clenched my fist and prepared myself to throw everything I had into one final clash, a blinding flash lit the room, and the mosaic windows exploded inward.
A deafening explosion of thunderous sound reverberated through the room a moment later as flying fragments of glass slashed small cuts along the bare skin of my face.
By the time my eyes adjusted again, I saw a figure standing in the center of the throne room between me and Gregor, tendrils of lightning wrapping around her body and flickering in the gloom.
“Rhil…?”
Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics
