Chương 60: Things are going great and nothing bad is gonna happen

To have a literal army of monsters rain down on him was a new experience. Somewhat frightening. Somewhat exciting. Dennis stood still on top of the Eye's corpse, allowing one fraction of a second to stretch into the other as the creatures approached. He had a bit of time before the first Arm reached him. A few seconds, maybe. More than enough to gather his thoughts and figure out what the hell was he supposed to do. Heroic Dash grumbled at him for not moving.

The buff was active under the condition of 'killing monsters to give Lily exp', something that he wasn't doing this exact moment, but Dennis could allow himself a few seconds of inaction before the skill snapped. His buddy was forgiving like that, especially lately, with every next level allowing the skill to cheat the rules in minor ways more and more. The army coming at him didn't consist of just the Arms. He could see a few Eyes here and there, and some new types besides them.

The Spine of High Authority looked like a giant snake. It crawled through space like it was water, essentially flying. It smelled like Constitution. A tank. Whispers of High Authority were proper cultists. Hooded figures with their faces obscured by magical darkness. Human-sized, for a change. He would bet his life's savings that they were mages. Voices of High Authority were a lot like Whispers, but without the hoods. Bald faceless dudes in robes, another kind of mages?

Intrigued, he looked around, trying to find The Asshole of High Authority. Would make sense that it existed with the whole body-part theme these guys were going for. No luck in finding one, regrettably. He did spot a few Swords of High Authority though. The Swords were a lot like the Arms, but even bigger, and with giant two-handed swords that were longer than Dennis was tall. They were also quite faster, outpacing the Arms on the way to his humble self.

Dennis desperately needed to know if they all could combine like Power Rangers. There was a feeling of absurdity in his mind. A kind of detachment. Thousands of monsters were coming for him, all of them conceptually stronger, commanded by the dude who may or may not be responsible for the fucking apocalypse, their powers unknown and more than likely deadly. Objectively, chances of Dennis actually surviving it all were abysmal, at least because he had no idea what abilities the creatures had. He was fragile.

He was a speedster. One counter was all that was needed to put him down, and he couldn't dodge the unknown. Fireballs and shit were fine, but what if the mages had curses? The undodgeable kind? There were so many ways for him to be screwed. It took him minutes to kill one Eye. How would he kill The Spine? It was even tankier. There was no way. Maybe that was the reason why instead of being in his battle mode or shitting his pants Dennis was wondering about the Power Rangers. It just… it didn't feel real.

Him having to fight them all didn't feel real. There was a lot of exp coming at him, sure, but what was the point if he would die? Who would save Lily then? He didn't have to fight the army. The right choice was to grab the girl and run the fuck away. Dennis had less than a second before he got bisected by a giant blade. A Sword of High Authority was already climbing the Eye's corpse, being the first to reach him. Could he even kill it?

The monster felt like a stronger variant of The Arm, less versatile but more specialized for murder. A warrior. If it had enough Constitution he would have the same problem he had with The Arms all over again, not having enough damage. Not to mention the mages. Or… Yeah, he should get the fuck out. He wasn't some kind of a battle maniac who threw himself at every enemy he saw. There was nothing to fight here for besides power, and power was at best his secondary priority. Not worth dying for.

He could kill the Arms for exp somewhere else, or maybe finally reach the far-away target. Theoretically, he had enough speed for that. The moment he almost made a decision, something stirred inside of him. Mana: 8 / 10 If he ran away, the Eyes would start looking for him and find the roleplayers. They would die. Well, fuck. It was an obvious thought. Common sense, basically. It was also not something that he considered.

Weirdly enough, the thought wasn't accompanied with the now familiar feeling of 'maybe yes maybe no'. There was no uncertainty at all. Him abandoning the fight would directly cause the deaths of the nerds near the observatory. He knew that. It was like he was standing at the crossroads, and there was a sign in front of him that clearly spelled where each of them would lead. Fate manipulation. That had to be it.

Kriya Shakti made itself known by pointing out the obvious and eating a chunk of his mana for that like it had done something useful. For some reason he imagined fate manipulation to be somewhat cooler than just pointing out the obvious. Was it like a precognition power? Could he use it to find a way to win? Hmm? Could he win this battle? With his new awesome fate-controlling powers? Mana: 4 / 10 Maybe? He will die if he doesn't dodge that blade.

Oh shit– Dennis ducked, letting the giant sword that looked more like a rail pass above him. He had to jump away immediately after to avoid the followup impact of the monstrous body that didn't mind crushing him into paste by just running him over. Jokes on him for forgetting that there was an army of monsters currently trying to kill him. Heroic Dash really screwed with his sense of urgency sometimes. No matter what was happening, he always felt like he had more time.

Okay, since there was no way he would let the nerd group die, he had to get serious. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Heroic Dash 31 -> Heroic Dash 37 The Arms were moving like snails. The Swords like tired grandpas. The mages didn't seem to be moving at all. He tried to keep his mind on the sheet of godly paper, unsure what to use it for and wary that Heroic Dash would fill it with nonsense. Though maybe he shouldn't have.

The skill would grow naturally if he didn't control it, expanding in places where he needed it the most and it wasn't a bad thing. He just wanted to keep the option to fill it with 'run the fuck away to save the target' in case things went south. The sword swipe that he dodged continued, almost splitting the Eye's corpse in half despite the fact that the blade was nowhere near long enough for that. So the monster could cut further than its reach allowed? Like, with a magical shockwave or something?

That was pretty badass. Dennis approached it, walking just a step to the side of the strike, and tried to cut off the monster's arm. It couldn't dodge. Honestly, it couldn't do anything, still stuck in the motion of its first move. Dennis was about ten times as fast as the creature, if he had to estimate. There was no 'fighting' him. The dagger pierced the monstrous flesh like butter and exploded in shards halfway through. It was enough to cut off the arm but now the only weapon he had was Muramasa. Well, shit.

He didn't want the same fate to befall on his sword. It was already broken as it was. If he used it on anything sturdier than the Arms, the remains of the blade would shatter. Mana: 2 / 10"Why the fuck did you waste my mana on that shit?!" he screamed in superspeed.

"Fucking hell fate controlling my ass! I knew that already! There was no need to confirm it!" Kriya Shakti was an ass. If he doesn't move at least one hundred yards away in the next 0. 4 seconds, he would die. Mana: 0 / 10"I've changed my mind!" He grabbed the chopped off hand from the air as he ran.

"You're very helpful!" He had to push himself almost as fast as he possibly could, but he managed to get off the Eye's corpse and escape the kill zone. Not a moment later it was engulfed in a dome of gray. The Sword inside of it became inert to his senses, instantly dying. He could feel the exp coming to him. Oh, friendly fire was a thing. Good to know. Dennis didn't dare to stay in one spot after that.

It was nice to know that Kriya could work as a replacement for danger sense when it didn't waste his mana telling him things that were already fucking obvious, but without the mana he wouldn't have it anymore. AoE oneshot spells that came without warning were totally something that he should be wary of. He decided to go for the Arms, trying to be as unpredictable as possible. He would kill one and the next moment he would be on another street.

The hand that he grabbed was kind of welded to a giant blade, and while it was heavy it wasn't so heavy that he couldn't carry it. Fighting with it was a different thing. In an actual fight he would've been better off unarmed, the thing was too unwieldy. In superspeed? He had all the time in the world to make one horrifyingly big swing as long as he managed to deal with inertia. The rail that was disguised as a sword was both unbelievably sharp and durable.

With it he could oneshot pretty much anything that wasn't the Eyes or the Spine, awkward to wield or not. Actually, cutting off the Spine's head seemed like an option if he figured out a way to climb on the giant snake. Dennis was death. He was untouchable. He was everywhere. Every second dozens of monsters perished. Sometimes it was the mages, sometimes the Swords. Mostly the Arms. From time to time the gray domes appeared at the area where he was a second ago, killing up to hundreds of creatures at a time.

He still couldn't figure out who was casting those things. Level up. Free points +6 More speed please. Thank you. Heroic Dash 37 -> Heroic Dash 43 It was a massacre. He didn't notice the glyphs on the ground. / - /"Fucking shit. Hell! Fuck! Fucking hell!" Mary paced back and forth, biting her nail and expressing what Stuart thought a bit more vocally. It wasn't like her to curse so much, but he believed that if there was any situation that was appropriate, it was this one. He couldn't fault her at all.

He stood numbly at the edge of the cliff, looking at the battle below. His mind couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. It was like the day the end of the world started all over again, only somehow worse. It felt like he was standing there for eternity, just existing like a passive observer, though a part of his mind was aware that barely any time passed at all. His skill woke him up from his stupor. He was no longer at a proper time, or in the proper place.

"We have to move," he heard himself say. His voice was hoarse. How could anyone have so much power? How?

"Where?" Thank god for Evan and his no nonsense attitude. The world could be ending, and he was still somehow composed like it was a business meeting that he came prepared for. It grounded Stuart, to have a friend like that. Any amount of bad days were worth it for the moments like this one, when Evan had their backs.

"The observatory," Stuart said, his mind switching from sheer shock and into action.

"The place is there now. We have to go."

"Nothing guarding it now, huh?" Jack muttered, his gaze switching from the dome to the dead body nearby.

"What about the girl though? Should we just leave the corpse like that?"

"That feels wrong," Hannah said quietly.

"That guy would definitely kill us all if we touched it," Jack said.

"You know, just pointing it out. You can't just take a god-like maniac's favourite corpse like it's no big deal."

"We don't have time," Evan said, picking up the body.

"Are you sure–""Let's go." The man didn't slow down as he walked confidently towards the observatory.

"Stuart's skill made us meet with the boy. He left us a corpse and said to look after it. I believe it's clear that we have to take it. If I'm wrong, I will take the blame."

"We will take it together," Mary grabbed Evan by the sleeve.

"It's– It's going to be allright. That boy is not that scary once you know him."" How in this god forsaken world would you know–"" We have to go." The intensity in Evan's voice made Jack shut up. No one said anything after that. They hurried inside the observatory. The closer they got, the weirder Stuart felt. It was not unlike the resonance they experienced while trying to use magic. Something in the air called for him. Like A Proper Time and Place, there was a feeling of… of wanting to be where you wanted to be.

Not of never being late or wanting to never miss the opportunities, but… about reaching the unreachable? Going somewhere he wanted but couldn't? He wasn't sure, but with every step it screamed at him more. A Proper Time and Place was not missing that train that he tried not to think about, because he had a boring skill that didn't indicate anything about him as a person. To Reach Where You Couldn't Reach was finding out that he had a car that he didn't know about. Skill compatibility detected.

Assimilation threshold reached. He put a hand in his pocket and found a key.