Vengeful doom strike (Legendary)

People say that the doom is ultimate ruin for everybody involved, but the multiverse is vast and there are always beings who managed to cross it one way or another. The hatred and fury of the doom is yours to harness. This skill allows the user to empower one strike to deal lethal damage if it manages to hit its target.

Cost: 100% of remaining mana, 50% percent of remaining stamina

Lucas reread the skill again, to make sure nothing changed. After making sure it was the same as before, he sent a mental command and the skill was unlocked. Prompts appearing a moment later surprised Lucas.

“Due to having “Vengeance bringer” title, this skill cost five skill points”

“Title awarded: Prodigy”

Lucas wasn’t sure for what he should be more ecstatic about. On the one hand, he saved four skill points he was sure he was going to sink into his new legendary skill, potentially netting him another skill after he level up. On the other hand, he just got a new title and titles were usually good stuff, even his weird title he got from slaying Michael, which even Bruce wasn’t able figure out, but now it gave him a discount on legendary skill. After seeing its effect, Lucas suspected there was a number of doom skill related to vengeance and that he would get a discount on every one of them. But now was not the time to think about that, as he needed to focus on what he had right now, his new title. He quickly navigated to the titles submenu, finding his new title and starting to read its description.

Prodigy

Learning a legendary skill is no easy feat even for beings that are alive for millions of years, making your feat of learning it before level 100 an outstanding feat. +1 free point per level

Lucas was speechless after reading the description and especially the reward. This was his most valuable title yet, the effect allowing him to raise its stats more quickly and hopefully became more efficient fighter. He knew full well that stats weren’t everything, but they made things much, much easier. He remembered back to his days fighting with the troopers that occupied Cam Hearth. After he finished training with Bruce, he was able to dodge their bullets with just his Agility, conserving his resources. He was fairly certain he was also able to kill them with just regular blows, only flexing his Strength, but he never tried it, as he always needed to finish the fights quickly. He quickly sent out his new title to the rest of the room, with another round of cheers and congratulations.

“Have you tried sneezing lately? Maybe you will get a title from that” Ted said mockingly.

“No, but I do want to take a huge dump later in the day. I will send you the title I get from that” Lucas responded in the same tone before fist bumping his friend. Margaret was quick to hug him, Lucas forced to bend down a little, prompting another bursts of laughter from the group. Lucas found himself in a good mood, his bitterness and depression from earlier completely forgotten.

“Only bad thing is that we cannot try it out. My training apparitions already die from just one strike and we definitely wouldn’t want to test it on anybody present” Bruce said “but I trust your instincts and your judgment” he finished. Lucas nodded and Margaret stepped forward, pestering Bruce to help her with her skill selection. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as Lucas’s one, but she did end up with an interesting skill called “Life transfer touch” which essentially allowed her to transfer health points from one target to another. It could even be used offensively, as the skill didn’t have any condition, only telling that the right hand drains and left one heals. It would certainly help as it will allow her to go easy on her usual skill which had feedback aside from the smallest heal. Speaking of feedback, Lucas remembered time was near and he started organizing his party. Only him and Ted had feedback due, Lucas having two, but luckily there was some two hours difference between them.

They sat back and engaged in even more small talk and in no time first feedback came. Lucas felt sharp pain in his flank where his ribs were broken. Luckily, the feedback from skill didn’t break them again, but there was health loss. He gritted his teeth and prepared to weather the pain. Luckily, resources regenerated much more swiftly outside of combat, something to do with more mana available in immediate surroundings as no one was actively using it with skills and buffs and who knows what else. Lucas searched for Bruce and old Loremaster caught his gaze and lost himself for a few seconds before silently nodding him, signaling he will make full recovery before next feedback came. Half an hour later, Ted also got hit by its feedback, the one he got when the Witch made her entrance when he tried to smother the blow other would get when crashed into the cliff. He was successful seeing as he was the only one needing a major heal and he quickly took out a health potion and drank it, subduing the pain. Now it was only Lucas’s second feedback that needed to pass and they could finally be on their way, taking a well earned rest. Lucas was getting back into conversation as his pain subsided, throwing his opinion about the state of the settlement and speculating about the future.

“I don’t think anyone who invaded us hold a grudge” Maggie said to Lucas, making him figure out only she continued talking to him, as the rest drifted to some other subject. He felt his blood heating, not related to feedback from Margaret’s heal as he looked into her green eyes and her lovely face.

“I’m not so sure. You don’t get powerful enough for System to consider you a suitable challenge for the new world by taking defeat lightly” he said, struggling to keep the words coming distracted as he was. Luckily, the pain came, saving him from doing something embarrassing. Unlike last time, the pain wasn’t concentrated in one place, as he taken multiple hits before the second heal. Predictably, worst one was chill on his chest where the ice ball hit him squarely in the chest. He took a potion bottle from his ring and drank its contents, pleasantness coursing through his body and combating the pain and chill.

“You are healed for 300 points via health potion”

Lucas made sure to get one of his weakest potions as he knew it would be enough for the worst of it and the rest will heal on its own. As everything subsided, the party said their goodbyes to Bruce and started going their own way. They quickly separated after some time, Chen going one way and siblings taking the other. Margaret and Lucas continued following the road, their houses in same block. The streets were almost deserted as the night began to fall, only travelers either on their way home or to some of the entertainment buildings Camp Hearth offered. They arrived at Row Street together and just as they were waving goodbyes, an arrow clanged from Lucas’s armor. He immediately repositioned himself from the direction the arrow came, ushering Margaret behind him.

He caught in the edge of his vision two more shadowy figures closing on him, one from each side. Drawing his sword and muttering “Doom infusion” to activate his buffs, Lucas strained his Perception looking for the archer.

Margaret, from behind him, have drawn her pistol and prepared to fire it. One of the figures launched knives at the space occupied by Lucas and Margaret, but they were to poor quality to pierce through the steel coral armor, which proved its worth once again. Pinned down by protecting Margaret, Lucas searched for the aura of the man who just attacked them and when he felt it, he activated “Aura severing” stunning the man.

Other figure hesitated, probably waiting for the archer to fire once again and Lucas took that chance to activate “Infused piledriver”, spinning toward the assassin. The figure was caught by surprise, gladius piercing the torso and shredding the flesh and organs. Assassin quickly fell, probably disabled for good.

Second arrow then flew towards the Lucas, this time encased in blue light. Having a feeling his armor will not protect him if the arrow connects, Lucas activated “Dodge”. The limited precognition that came with the skill showed him the arrow was in fact area of effect attack. He somersaulted backwards, landing just outside of the zone of effect in the nick of time, as the arrow swished the now empty space that was occupied by Lucas just a second ago and hit the ground, exploding in blinding blue light. Locating Margaret, who was in the middle of emptying her clip in the head of the stunned assassin, Lucas quickly moved to protect her, his passive granting him additional speed. He continued to keep his eye on the shade that was the archer he managed to locate after the second arrow. The form looked like a man, but the shade was far enough for Lucas to make a correct guess.

Archer moved from rooftop to rooftop, trying to reposition and fire another arrow. Lucas signaled Margaret to get on his back and when she did that, he started moving around, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, trying to hide from the archer the fact he follow it. The shade jumped on the chimney from one of the houses and then stood still, making slight movement which Lucas guessed meant he was taking aim. He tapped Margaret’s leg which was a signal to quickly drop down and then activated “Infused piledriver” once more, spinning in the direction of his opponent. Archer cried out a yelp of surprise before the Lucas connected with his sword. Now close enough, Lucas was able to discern it was indeed a man and soon that man was screaming in agony as Lucas’s spinning sword severed his arm. Using his pommel, he connected with the face of his would – be assassin, knocking him unconscious. He took his limp form, minus the arm which he left on the roof and jumped down from the roof. He threw the body down and called Margaret to stabilize him before he bled out or die in any other way. Unfortunately, healing him also woke him back up, forcing Lucas to once again knock him out with another pommel to the face.

“I guess you want him for questioning. Please, do try to be more gentle than Bruce” Margaret said, obviously disgusted by the treatment that the General’s archivist which was securely in Bruce captivity. Bruce still hadn’t much luck to get the man to spill his archive and put it public, but he insisted he had all the time in the world to get it out of the man.

“I’m not interested in torture, frankly, but I can’t say it won’t be needed” Lucas said, sharing the same disgust Margaret had. He wasn’t a fan of torture, but he knew that sometimes it was the most effective method. Taking a rope from his ring, he tied the man up and hoisted him up on his shoulder, walking towards his house.