Genetic Ascension

[Bonus thanks to patticus. I still hate you all. While I was squatting over the toilet all day yesterday, my only light was thinking about pushing you all out of me] —

[Name: Zolte Kaelthar]

[Level: 64]

—

[Physical: 18 372]

[Mental: 23 991]

[Will: 19 998]

—

Zolte felt a jolt run through his mind, the uncomfortable feeling of someone scanning him sending a shudder down to the depths of his soul.

Crack.

A protective item on his neck shattered to pieces, crumbling to ash as it slowly fell to the ground and scattered like dust in the wind.

Sylas looked at the stats quite calmly. He was a bit surprised taht Zolt wasn’t a Level 100 on the verge of reaching the D-tier. He had seemingly grown too used to facing such opponents.

Yet, still have 36 more levels of growth left before he could catch up to Gwenu, his stats were basically double that of her, or at least almost so.

The gap between the two was enormous, not to mention the fact these stats didn’t account for boosts from Skills, Comprehensions, and various other Rune-related things either.

Zolte should be who the Kaelthar claimed to be among their first tier of geniuses. But, to Sylas… this was just yet another insult.

They went as far as to have Zolte join the Bat Lineage despite him not even being a member of the Lineage to begin with, but they weren’t willing to sacrifice the best of the best they had in the E-tier, so they sent a Level 64 instead.

A foolish mistake.

Zolte took a half step back, his eyes blinking as he regained a sense of himself. These geniuses were so used to having their treasures block scanning for them that unlike the people of Earth, they had long forgotten what it felt like to be scanned in the first place.

The feeling of intrusion, like a slimy palm scraping along your inner organs, or a nail slicing along your heart muscles. It was enough to make a man or woman feel suffocated, as though they had been violated in the worst of ways.

“You…”

Zolte took a haggard breath, his gaze looking down toward the ashes scattered around him.

His fury took root deep within him and then billowed outward, a crack appearing in his forehead. As though holding back the depths of hell, the lids of his Skai Eye spilled forward with a crimson light that seemed to radiate out with beams of bloody red.

Sylas’ body flickered and vanished in an arc of emerald lightning, stepping out of the way of the beam as it cut across the ground.

There was a hint of narrowing in Sylas’ eyes as he looked at the marble it passed along. It was completely unblemished, as though nothing at all had happened to it.

However, Sylas had still felt as though it shouldn’t touch him.

He looked back up to Zolte to feel that the latter had taken out a blood red halberd. Its weight seemed so great that light bent around it, a sizzling air popping and crackling in its presence.

Zolte slowly raised and then pointed the tip at Sylas’ head, his hair dancing in the air as his horns seemed to grow only all the more prominent.

Standing at over eight feet tall, his body brimming with power and vitality, he looked like a demonic overlord ascended to pass judgment over the world.

If nothing else, his aura, his momentum was suffocating, akin to a towering mountain compared to Sylas’ small, insignificant figure. The momentum an F-tier could muster up was truly too small in the face of such a character.

Read on lig‌ht‌no‌‌vel‌world‌.o‌rg

‘A halberd related Comprehension. The boost from an E-tier Comprehension also seems to be much more significant. His Strength alone has increased by fivefold.’

Sylas indifferently read Zolte as though he was an open book.

BANG.

The two suddenly moved at the same time. Sylas’ clothing was enveloped by a surging emerald might, his perfect Scorpion Warlord Armor sparking to life as his Physical leapt upward by over +10 000.

He met the halberd with a fist, the difference in power so great that he should have sent flying back. No, it was so great that he should ahve been shattered on the spot, his body becoming little more than a mass of flesh and blood.

And yet, a small pivot of his hips, a tiny twist of his wrist, a shift in the angle of his feet, and it was like the entire situation had changed.

Read as though he was an open book, Zolte’s power was deflected and weakened, then dispersed and spread along Sylas’ armor until it was sent through a chain of sparking bolts of emerald lighting.

The poison in Sylas’ Armor unleashed a wrathful flash and rather than shattering pieces of his armor in exchange for a disperse, it swallowed up and crushed the excess Aether instead.

Then, in a fluid motion, Sylas deflected the halberd to one side and then gathered up the new energy of his Glassvolt to the next.

As though his armor had become a series of rebounding mirrors, they roared with life and vitality, gathering up Zolte’s energy into a blow that struck back against his chest.

Zolte took a heavy step back. The earth would have shattered under the power if not for how sturdy it all was, but Sylas had already flowed into his next attack, and then the next.

Flashing in streaks of lightning, Sylas moved faster than the wind, and sharp enough to mimic teleportation.

Spatial Runes danced to life around him and he crossed from one barrier to the next, and then into the next, dancing around Zolte so fast that the latter’s visualization couldn’t seem to keep up in the slightest.

Zolte spread out his arms and roared, his Skai Eye peeling open truly. His senses sharpened as Sylas tapped a foot, slipping out of the path.

As though expecting this, Zolte’s halberd had already pointed toward Sylas’ escape route, his Aether thrumming with life in his body as he cast his first Skill.

An echoing roar of a sharp halberd-like Aether pierced through the air in rings of crimson light, swallowing Sylas up in an instant.

Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi.