1% Lifesteal

Chapter [BOOK TWO FINALE] 102 - Naive Little Shit

Freddy was in debt.

Thus, it was easy to conclude that saving money was the right choice to make. Perhaps, at some point in the past, he'd have made that decision. He'd cheapen out on anything he could to ensure that his debt was cleared as soon as possible.

But on that day, he was a wiser man. He'd gotten a taste of earning thousands of dollars in just a single day. So, which was the right decision—let the money rot… or invest it to increase his profit?

He returned to his apartment, holding several large bags of equipment.

Not only were his savings of over half a million dollars gone, but he was 100,000 dollars deeper in debt, courtesy of a brand new loan.

During his time in the gorel realm, he'd learned many things. This was reflected quite aptly in his purchases.

A pretty large bulk of the money he'd spent was invested in only four pieces of equipment: the helmet, boots, metal vambraces, and a reinforced vest.

The helmet was smooth, almost resembling a motorcycle helmet. The visor was much wider than the one on his last headgear, giving him a more extensive field of view. The glass was made from a material that was quite effective at blocking blinding light-based attacks.

The boots were much bulkier than his previous ones, but he knew that he wouldn't regret the extra protection.

Bracers were great, often comprising the first line of defense between him and a charging enemy. But they were usually made of thinner, lighter material. Their origin was that of a piece of equipment archers used to protect their arms from the bow string.

He needed more than that.

The metal vambraces he bought were damn bulky, adding quite a bit of weight to his upper arms, but they were tough enough to provide a much more valuable layer of protection against serious melee blows.

The reinforced vest was somewhat of an experimental piece. He often delved alone, and he didn't have 360-degree vision. The vest he bought was heavily reinforced along the spine and heart areas, giving some extra protection to what could be called his only real weak spots in his torso.

The main thing that was different about this piece was the same as with the vambraces—it was bloody heavy. Fifty kilograms, to be exact. With his equipment and Abyssal Depths, Freddy's total weight was well over 200 kilograms. While he could still claim to be mobile, he certainly wasn't fast.

With the way he was going, speed would never be his strength. Rather than constantly trying to compensate, he wanted to make the most out of what he had.

He planned on becoming something of a tank—somewhat slow, incredibly sturdy, and packing one hell of a devastating ranged attack. With the added bonus of stealing people's life force, of course. A vampire tank.

Other than that, he got a heat-resistant body suit, some permeable gloves that allowed blood through so he didn't have to take them off or ruin them when forming Gore Knuckles, and a whole collection of pieces of underwear bought at quite the luxurious premium. Everything was camo—gray, black, and brown, mainly on the darker side. And everything was extra fire-resistant.

It took a few days for his equipment to be ready to use since he had to get it refitted, which also cost quite a bit of money, but now that he had everything, there was no more reason to stall.

After half an hour of pulling things on, tying straps, and securing buttons, he headed out toward his new place of work.

Three of the four new public hubs were suitable for his personal preferences. One banned him the moment he tried registering due to his criminal record, and another wasn't accepting two-stars since it was aimed at beginners.

That left him with only one, somewhat unpleasant option.

As opposed to the gorel hub that used to be a short walk from where he lived, this realm was a 40-minute bus ride away. He was looking for accommodation somewhere closer, but for the time being, he didn't mind the commute.

Once he was off the bus, he had another short walk to get there.

The hub building was quite similar to Santorio. In fact, most of these public passages were within similar buildings. Heavily reinforced metallic constructions were used to ensure that the damage could be minimized in the unlikely case of a break. They had been beefed up a bit after the… incident.

He stepped into the lobby, where he was greeted by a scene quite reminiscent of his first delve. Even the interior was similar, but rather than a scattering of couches, this hub used plush armchairs.

Dumb motherfuckers kept pointing fingers at his excessive gear, laughing and calling him names. Because they were so much cooler for not wearing a fucking helmet to a place where losing their head was a constant risk.

But such people were a minority here, thankfully. This realm was no joke. And the delvers reflected this. Naive fools were few and far between, with most people resting around looking quite a bit more experienced. Granted, nobody was wearing gear as heavy as his own, but they were still properly equipped.

Rather than a descent into a cellar, the passage of this realm was right behind a bend on the other side of the room. Rather than a massive entrance, the passage was the size of a tight door.

Freddy had to wait in line for around two minutes before being allowed to pass through.

And on the other side… Well, it was probably what hell looked like.

The first thing that hit him was the smell of smoke and sulfur.

Several hill-sized volcanoes were scattered throughout the realm, and rivers of lava flowed into massive lakes of fire. What solid land there was was overgrown by near-pitch-black vegetation. Everything seemed to have an oily surface. The ground was a depressing shade of gray bordering on black, and the "ceiling" of the realm was a reflective, uneven surface that evenly scattered the light throughout.

This place had no sky; to be technical, it didn't have a ceiling, either. That reflective, uneven surface was nothing.

Quite literally.

Most people imagined nothing to be a black void. But for something to be black, it had to either be an empty space or a material that absorbed light.

Nothing couldn't absorb light. Things couldn't just "go nowhere." Nothing wasn't material. It wasn't empty space. It wasn't… anything. Nothing was indeed just nothing.

True nothingness appeared like a perfectly reflective surface. Everything, be it matter, light, or force, was simply reflected right back with 100 percent efficiency. And this nothingness was the true edge of every realm in the interspace. A naked look at the very border of existence.

Where there was nothing left to see.

Looking at the tall surface above made Freddy feel queasy. Knowing that nothing lay beyond the confines of a realm was one thing—seeing it was another altogether. It was a phenomenon that truly defied human comprehension. He settled on thinking about it as just a mirror instead and managed to temporarily stave off the searing existential dread that had built up in the back of his mind.

With a resigned step, he embarked on his journey throughout this hellscape of a realm. The main targets were these large white lizard things that mostly lived inside the lava but journeyed into the nearby woods to find something to eat. They were the size of a horse, but they could move at quite the speed due to an inborn talent.

The greasy woods had several types of monsters, the most notable being the giant, black, greasy snakes that fed on the lizards.

The snakes were a bit slippery—quite literally—but he found that one solid injury anywhere along their body was enough to mortally wound them. Or maybe that was just the incredible power behind his blows.

The lizards proved to be the trickier among the two opponents. They were damn fast on their feet, and as soon as they spotted even a hint of movement, they bolted right back into the lava and dove into it in an instant. Despite being deaf, sneaking up on them was quite hard—they had a large field of view and kept tight notice of their surroundings.

Freddy couldn't kill a single one.

Thankfully, the massive snakes were considered the more challenging target for most delvers, and their bodies were comparatively more valuable.

Among the other monsters in the forest were frogs that spat acid and bat-like creatures with incredibly sharp teeth and claws. Both critters were almost worthless but could easily damage equipment, as Freddy learned the hard way.

Three snakes in a single day and all by himself was apparently quite the impressive haul, given the looks people gave him. It was no surprise, either—that was 14,000 dollars. The fee for delving here was only 20 percent compared to the nasty 50 percent fee at Santorio's, but that wasn't a huge surprise. This realm was rated at D+—suitable for either peak two-stars or competent parties.

While the deal seemed wonderful, the reality was a bit more complicated. The demerits were numerous, and few delvers would find it a practical place to make money. Hell, even Freddy had struggled to get that much done.

Those damn forest critters had done a number on his new gear. Eight thousand dollars of his earnings were gone on repair, just like that. Not to mention that the whole realm was so hot that Freddy would have died of heat stroke had he not frequently cast Create Water over himself to cool down.

While the heat-resistant equipment served him well, it wasn't heat-immune.

With an incredibly hostile environment and annoying monsters, it was an excellent place to get injured or stuck perpetually working to get the damaged equipment repaired. While injuries were no issue for him, fixing his equipment would still be a significant tax on the total profits he made unless he found a way to deal with the critters.

Freddy still had a lot of stamina and essence in the tank, but that was enough work for the first day. He'd have to cycle Adaptive Water Body a bit to help deal with the heat fatigue. Besides, it'd do him no good to attract too much attention.

For the rest of that day, he read through the guide on the realm again. It was crazy how differently he perceived the text after seeing it for himself. So many small details that seemed irrelevant suddenly popped out, almost like the text was stabbing him in the eye.

He went about the rest of his evening as usual, eating, keeping himself clean, and working on his tempering.

The next day, he was up at 9 a.m.

He put his gear on and stepped outside.

A short bus ride later, he was at the hub.

As soon as he stepped inside, he noticed something slightly disconcerting—there was a group of four delvers he hadn't seen the other day. All of them were geared up quite heavily, clad in almost as much protection as he was—but it was clearly of much higher value.

Three of them had nothing unusual about them, but their fourth member was massive, over two meters tall, with a frame Freddy could only compare to someone like Jacob Santorio, but a bit skinnier.

While it wasn't that rare to see people wearing helmets, it was unusual that they were all wearing them inside the lobby. Their gear had no signs of maintenance—it was brand new.

And they were powerful. They all had a way to hide their gathering, so he couldn't tell exactly how strong they were, but they most likely weren't over two stars in power.

For a moment, he could swear he felt their attention on him, but in the next instant, it was gone, like they had never noticed him to begin with.

These people were strange. Bizarre, even.

The most likely explanation was that they were some sort of party of enforcers. The empire occasionally sent such people into hubs like these, usually if there was suspicious activity among the delvers. Given that it took being at least a little crazy to delve here, it was no surprise that someone was up to no good.

While their appearance was curious, Freddy had no further interest in them.

For that day, he headed towards one of the larger lakes of lava. It had a clearing surrounding it, and the number of lizards in the area was high. There were no other delvers there.

He made this place his target because, without the surrounding forest, there were no annoying critters to inflict damage on his armor. He'd have to rely on his javelin-throwing skills to hunt, but even if he only got a few, avoiding repair costs was worth it.

However, it wasn't surprising that this spot was unpopular—the heat the lake emitted was insane. With temperatures like this, Freddy was considering developing some sort of ability specifically for cooling his armor.

He settled a bit away from the lizard beach and got to throwing. As soon as one lizard spotted the projectile, it rushed into the lava, immediately prompting all the other lizards to follow.

Thus, Freddy's hunting regime consisted of throwing spears randomly and praying he hit something. While the lizards were fast, their bodies were large, so hitting them wasn't impossible.

A few times, his prayers were answered. He landed four throws by sheer chance—even though he only killed three of the targets.

From what he knew of the pricing, that would add up to around 4,000 dollars total. While that didn't seem like a lot—a thought he couldn't believe he was actually considering—it was money earned with little essence spent and in relative safety.

When accounting for the repair cost, he had almost earned as much money as he had the day before. If he continued for another run like yesterday, even with armor repair, he should be 10,000 dollars richer.

He was at 154% essence remaining, but he'd spent 200% on water and around 50% on the javelins through his satellite. With the RETI of those affinities, he could continue delving further, but he had to keep an eye on the reflux water essence.

His blood reserves were low, though. There was only around 10% capacity remaining in his reserves. Once he finally got Pool of Blood to stage two, he shouldn't be at risk of running out unless he wasted blood with reckless abandon.

Just as he was about to go collect the corpses, he heard a voice from behind him. "Hey!" someone shouted. "Do you have a moment?" The cadence of the voice was familiar, but it sounded muffled—almost modified through the helmet.

Freddy raised an eyebrow as he turned to face the three people approaching him. It was those people he had spotted in the lobby, minus the freakishly large guy. The one standing on the left held a shortbow, the one on the right carried a spear of pure metal, and the one in the middle—the man who was talking—had a shortsword sheathed on his hip.

"We're new around here," the man said as he stopped some ten meters away. "We were wondering if you have any suggestions for good hunting spots. Or maybe we could join up?"

Something about this situation didn't sit right with Freddy. In the back of his mind, his instincts were screaming that something was wrong. The voice he thought sounded familiar, the missing man, the brand new gear, the fact that they were there—it all added up to something, and he didn't like it one bit.

Suddenly, he heard a strange noise. It sounded like footsteps, and they quickly got closer to him. He turned around to face the sound, only to spot the massive man charging at him from a blind spot, and in the next moment, an arrow struck him in the stomach, although it barely pierced his vest. He jerked his head back to the other three, only to spot the archer preparing another arrow.

Before he could move out of the way or even react, the massive figure jumped and drop-kicked him toward the lake. The momentum behind the strike was incredible, and he felt his entire torso scream in agony as the surface of his skin cracked apart and the integrity of his armor fell into ruin.

His body flew over the lake's surface, its heat so scalding he felt his skin boil, and just as he was about to fall into the lava, he activated both stars and used Create Water. The large ball of liquid caught him like a net in the air, slowing him down as the water washed over the scorching surface.

Thankfully, water created by essence couldn't turn into steam, so he wasn't in the center of an explosion, but unfortunately, it wasn't nearly cold enough to handle the lava. Freddy's body dropped on a fragile and ridiculously hot raft of sizzling obsidian, and while his body burned, his mind churned for any way out of his predicament.

***

"Holy shit," Jacob cursed as he got off the floor. "That bastard is tough as nails. I expected him to break in two."

Theodore's eyes were locked on the flying form of Liam as he flew into the jaws of fiery death. It was time to drop the pretense—he was fucking ecstatic to see the asshole finally die. And it seemed that he wasn't going down without a spectacle.

A large ball of water appeared in his path and caught him, slowing him and dropping him onto an obsidian platform. Theodore snickered at the attempt. All the man had achieved was to make his death even more painful. He was already a good thirty meters out—and even if he found a way back, he wasn't making it past them.

Still, even though they didn't need to do anything to finish him off, it didn't mean he wouldn't take pleasure in adding to the man's suffering. "Grant," he called the archer. "Give him hell."

The archer nodded and took aim. He fired arrow after arrow, but Theodore could see that even with their respectable power, they weren't sinking particularly deep. "Tough as nails, indeed," he admitted.

Suddenly, he spotted movement to their side.

The corpses of the giant white lizards were leaking black liquid, likely their blood, and it was flowing through the air—right in Liam's direction.

Theodore raised an eyebrow at the unusual sight. "Randy," he called the spearman. "Disperse it."

The air-affinity spearman nodded and raised a hand, using a simple Gale to try and disperse the blood. It didn't work. As the black liquid broke into mist, it floated faster over to the grilling man, who was somehow gathering it into a large ball above him.

Grant fired away at the mass of blood, but nothing seemed to affect it.

A moment later, the ball of liquid started glowing, transforming into a crimson mist.

He had a bad feeling about it.

A moment later, that feeling turned into horror as the mist manifested in the form of a three-meter-tall skeleton drenched in blood.

"What the hell is that?" he muttered.

Considerable power radiated from the creature, so much, in fact, that they'd be in trouble if it was next to them.

"Keep firing," he said.

The arrows flew at the creature, and while they were leaving visible marks on the bone, they weren't powerful enough to break them apart.

Suddenly, the bloody monster grabbed Liam by the leg and lifted him into the air as if it were going to throw him.

Theodore's mind spun as he tried to predict what the creature was doing. If it was throwing Liam at them, it was sending the man to his death. There had to be another—

"The passage!" he screamed in terror, his eyes wide open. "We have to start running immediately!"

"What's happening?" asked Jacob.

"Hurry the hell up!" insisted Theodore as he ran back towards the passage.

The other three quickly caught on to his meaning and joined the man.

That creature felt quite powerful. It no doubt had the strength to throw Liam all the way back to the realm's entrance. And the man had just proven capable of manifesting a mass of water large enough to catch himself mid-air to prevent death from falling.

If he made it back there and into the hub, the four of them would be in deep shit. In the worst-case scenario, the adjudicators would get involved, and even with Jacob's political clout, things could get ugly.

"Grant!" Theodore shouted. "Just… Fuck! Try and shoot him out of the air if he—"

A nasty crunching sound interrupted his words. With pure disbelief, Theodore watched the man he was just talking to fly a few dozen meters forward under the impact of Liam's flying body, who was also skittering across the ground.

As soon as Liam stopped rolling, he started getting back up to his feet.

Grant's arms were bent the wrong way. He wasn't moving.

Before Liam could get back up, Randy screamed in fury and dashed forward, aiming his spear to impale the bastard before he found his footing. But before the man's weapon could land, another mass of water appeared around Liam—but this time, it was strange.

Slithering shapes shifted through the liquid, scurrying about and enshrouding its depths.

Randy couldn't stop himself in time and dove head-first into the mass of liquid. A moment later, the dark water flowed away and evaporated, leaving the image of Randy's body impaled upon spiky knuckles of blood. The spearman coughed as he tried to say something, but Liam grabbed his head and smashed it against his knee, crushing it like a can of soda.

Theodore and Jacob froze as they watched Liam throw Randy's limp body aside like a wet rag doll.

It made no sense.

Liam's armor was partly melted, with chunks of his metal vest that Jacob's talent had crushed rattling inside the body suit. The two of them could smell the burned flesh, yet Liam stood as if his disfigured body was a moderate inconvenience.

"You bastards," Liam said, his voice sounding distorted, likely due to the heat burns inside his throat from inhaling the scalding hot air from so close to the lava's surface. "I know who you are," he declared as he lifted a finger at them. "Jacob and Theodore, am I right? Now what the fuck did I do to you!?" he shouted to the best of his ability, but it sounded warped. "Huh!?"

"Jacob," Theodore whispered. "I'm gonna Bless you. Take him out before anyone comes."

To Theodore's surprise, Liam seemed to have heard his words from that distance. He got into a stance and prepared to fight.

***

Freddy was not in a state to fight. His essence was at 76%, but that was the least of his problems.

The damage all across his body was terrible. So bad that if he wasn't undead, he'd already be going into shock. The burns had healed a bit after he killed the two men, and the worst of it was scabbed over with the scar tissue created by first-aid-quality healing.

That was barely keeping him together.

"Master…" Bloodshed whispered in his mind, and he glanced at the distant form of the skeleton. "My time is up."

That was short, but also to be expected given how little blood Freddy had used. Frankly, he was surprised at the power Bloodshed could show even with that bit of blood. The amount of blood seemed to have a more significant impact on its size and how long Bloodshed could remain than on its power.

But now it was gone.

And he was facing two opponents all by himself.

He watched Theodore step over to Jacob and deliver his promised Blessing. After doing so, he pointed a finger at Freddy and fired a practically undodgable beam of light. It did no damage, but it near-perfectly outlined the area on his body where he had suffered the worst of the burns.

"Son of a—" Before he could finish his curse, Jacob was sprinting at him.

Freddy readied himself into a stance and did his best to ignore the pain he was feeling.

Jacob was there within seconds, and Freddy launched his fist forward.

The man dodged the attack effortlessly, bending around and landing a nasty kick on Freddy's burned hip. Yet again, the man's attack seemed to have a strange effect on armor. The body suit was torn apart with ease, and even his bones felt like they were cracking into pieces.

The two of them engaged in a melee, with Jacob landing every blow and Freddy failing to do anything about it. On top of simply outclassing him in skill, Jacob was casting Shift Ground occasionally, disturbing Freddy's footing and making him clumsily stumble around as he continued his onslaught.

Every now and then, Freddy saw something he remembered Sophia doing, but Jacob did it so much faster and so much harder that there was little Freddy could do to retaliate. When he thought the situation couldn't get much worse, Theodore picked up the dead archer's bow and started firing arrows. The man had no power to make the arrows count, but he knew just where to aim to distract Freddy even further.

I have to use Leviathan's Fury, he thought—but he hesitated.

Jacob would die if he did that, but what then? Freddy would be left half-dead, and even against Theodore, he didn't believe he could win a fight in that state. While the man was primarily a support, the light affinity could get dangerous if need be.

But did he have a choice?

A punch landed on the side of his helmet, cracking his visor. A kick landed on his knee, sending a sharp jolt of pain through his leg. Then a punch in the gut, another kick in his burn wounds, and another kick right in his chest, each strike leaving cracks through his body.

He felt helpless, as he had back when he'd been sparring with Sophia.

His eyes widened briefly as he remembered something she had told him—

***

After landing another blow on his ear, Sophia shook her head and stepped back. "You really do suck at fighting."

"Huh!?" Freddy shouted, picking at his left ear, where he struggled to hear anything. "Can you repeat that a bit louder?" He could hear her just fine with his other ear, of course, but he decided to be a prick just for the hell of it.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "This is not the time to be joking."

"Then give me advice!" he yelled. "You've been yapping plenty, but I've yet to hear something useful!"

"I've given you plenty of pointers."

"And I'm too dumb to follow!" he said, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, but I know you're used to people who aren't… you know… challenged when it comes to stuff like this. But I think it's becoming obvious this isn't working for me."

Sophia scowled at that and, a few moments later, nodded. "You're right." She took a few steps forward and looked up at him with squinted eyes. "While it usually takes much longer to discern someone's true nature, I'm rather confident you're a Hateful."

"I'm a what?"

"A Hateful. You have something my people call a 'mind of hate.'"

He gave her a flat stare in response. Then he scoffed, "Aight. I already knew I'm a born hater—you didn't have to beat the shit out of me to tell you that."

"This goes deeper than just being prone to hatred," she said, pointing at his face. "When it comes to fighting, even in sparring, you attack with passion, like you have a personal vendetta against the fact that I'm standing in your way."

He frowned at that. "I didn't really get to do much of anything."

"Because I don't let you," she said. "When you attack, you don't put any thought into it. A fight isn't decided after a punch is thrown—it's decided before that. To win a fight, you must know what your opponent intends to do and directly counter that move before they even make it. But with you, there's no such thinking."

"You expect me to, what, play fortune teller mid-fight?" He snorted.

She smiled at that. "People like you should never be close-combat fighters. There's more to a fight than winning. Everyone who fights to the death has to walk away not only victorious but healthy."

"Bah," he said. "You know that's not a problem for me."

"I do; you don't."

Freddy paused for a long moment. He was about to say something, but he shut his mouth as he thought her words through.

"Look," she said, smiling mockingly at the rusty gears turning in his head. "You don't need precognition to guess what your opponent will do next. In fact, you have a natural advantage against skilled opponents."

"That makes absolutely no sense."

"Does it?" she asked, tapping her chin. "Think about it like this—if you know where it would hurt the most to get hit, that's probably where you're going to get hit next. A skilled opponent will aim for openings."

"Yeah…" He nodded as he finally got it. "Huh. That actually makes sense. You know, I've had a similar thought, but any time I try to defend myself, you just hit me somewhere else."

"That's why you shouldn't defend yourself."

He scowled at that. "Huh?"

"Freddy, look—no matter what is done to you, you'll live. So when someone aims where it's gonna hurt—you hit where it's gonna hurt harder."

***

Jacob planted his feet into the soil as he swung a fist at Liam, landing a solid blow on the man's stomach. Even injured as he was, the man was incompetent. Yet, despite his lack of skill, he had some of the most incredible defense Jacob had seen from a two-star, and the man apparently didn't even have a defensive talent.

Suddenly, the man's guard dropped on the injured side of his body. He was finally starting to lose steam. Jacob, purely by muscle memory, launched an attack straight at the opening, aiming to crush the man's hip and end the fight.

Yet, at the same time—no, before Jacob even made his move—Liam was in the middle of throwing a punch.

Neither of them could dodge.

Jacob's kick landed with a nasty crunch, and Liam's spiked fist landed on Jacob's helmet. Gore Knuckles pierced through the helmet with incredible power behind them, far more than Jacob expected to see from the man, and one of the broken spikes sank into his left eye. "Fuck!" he screamed.

The unexpected force threw him off balance, his head reeling from the blow. He took several large steps back to create distance between himself and his debilitated opponent. He refocused his sight and watched the man conjure a flimsy Blood Javelin.

He prepared himself to throw it, but rather than launching it at Jacob, he threw it at Theodore. The projectile struck the caster right in the knee.

So fast!?

Theodore's knee exploded, nearly blowing his entire leg off. With a pained scream, the man dropped to the ground.

Liam conjured another spear and threw it at Jacob. The projectile flew at insane velocity, reaching Jacob just as he raised his hand to slap it aside. He managed to redirect the attack, but his hand felt numb from the impact.

This man is a freak!

Liam didn't conjure any more projectiles. In fact, the man was obviously exhausted, with blood running down his armor and his posture drooping.

Jacob, carefully observing his opponent, started approaching. "You vile bastard," he accused, conjuring a fireball and throwing it at the man. It was a distraction at best, but against a helpless target, it was still a ball of fiery agony.

Yet, even though he was on fire, Liam seemed to care little about it. A ball of water manifested above his head and flowed over his body, extinguishing the flame.

"I saw it," Jacob said. "That whore by your side was one of them. I refuse to believe you didn't know!" He raised his hand and fired a Stone Bullet, aiming at exposed flesh and tearing a chunk out.

Liam still didn't show a reaction.

"You think this is some sort of sick game!?" Jacob shouted. "Do you even have any idea what kind of pain…? What kind of horrors those cultist bastards committed!?" he shouted as he fired one Stone Bullet after another. "Do you!? You and your 'friends' have extinguished so many innocent lives. Karen… Phillip…" His words were reduced to sobs. "Rachel… They deserved better. If it weren't for sick bastards like you…"

"Sorry for interrupting you, man," Liam croaked, "but what the fuck are you on about?"

Jacob snorted. "Playing dumb until the end, huh? You know what? Fuck you. I'm not a sick bastard like you. I'll make your death quick."

With both stars active, Jacob used Hydraulic Flex and dashed straight towards Liam, and just as he was about to land the killing blow, he heard Liam mutter something.

"Leviathan's Fury."

***

Theodore watched Liam's body erupt into a forest of bony spikes. A moment later, Jacob's body was trapped in the jaws of what looked like something between a dragon and a turtle. He muttered something through bloody coughs, and a moment later, the spikes retracted, dropping his dead, mangled body to the ground.

Theodore's breathing was frantic. His knee was shattered entirely—it was impossible to heal it at his level.

After standing deathly still for a few moments, Freddy fell to his knees. The man's entire body was covered in severe wounds, and blood was seeping through the cracks in his armor.

Whatever that skull was, it had taken both of them out. However, rather than lay down and die, Liam extracted a fleshy blob out of thin air and a hunting knife.

And he started stabbing.

Theodore was frozen in horror as he watched the numerous weak points across the man's body slowly fade.

Panicked beyond the ability to reason, he unhesitantly cast Piercing Beam with both stars activated and aimed it at Liam's head. Faster than the wounded man could dodge, a beam of light as thick as a grown man's leg impacted his head, vaporizing the cracked helmet and melting his skin and flesh to the bone.

A grisly white skull with blood seeping through the charred eyes and flowing down from where the scalp started was all that was left of Liam's face.

Yet… again… rather than drop dead…

The man raised the dagger.

And started swinging.

The sickening sounds of flesh being repeatedly torn sank into the background as Theodore watched, frozen in horror, as tissue rapidly grew back all across the man's face. It looked scarred and raw, but with more and more slashes, it rapidly improved.

"Y-y-y… You fucking monster!" he shouted as he turned around and started crawling away. He clawed through the dirt for minutes, feeling his mind melt from the despair. And while he thought he was imagining them at first, he was eventually certain that footsteps were closing in on him.

"Oh god…!" Theodore cried. "Please… Please don't kill me… Beatrice…! She's sick! You're gonna leave her all alone! She'll die without me; please, have some heart!"

Then a foot landed on his shattered knee. He screamed, shouting wildly as Liam's foot twisted.

"So… you fuckers think I'm one of the cultists, huh?" he said, lifting his foot only to bring it down on Theodore's other knee, which he crushed with absolute ease. "You imbeciles think you're so goddamn smart… What, the investigation wasn't enough for you? Not even the best detectives in the empire can compare to you…"

"Please… I'm begging—"

A foot crashed down right on the bottom of Theodore's spine, just above his glutes, and a moment later, the feeling in his legs vanished. He screamed harder.

"Let me tell you something, Theodore," Liam whispered as he violently pulled Theodore's helmet off and grabbed him by the hair, lifting him off the ground. "You bastards are above the law. Had you killed me here, you would have walked away without even a slap on the wrist. Jacob's daddy would ensure nobody looked too deep into my death, and you'd spend the rest of your life fucking your wife without imagining my face. But guess what?"

Liam turned Theodore around to come face-to-face with him. Through the burned hole in his helmet, an imperfectly healed face—the image of a monster—grinned widely at Theodore. "While you may be above the law, you are not above me. For the same reason you get to do whatever you want, I get to walk away alive."

Theodore's nostrils flared as he struggled to breathe. "Maniac! Help! Help me—"

Liam's hand wrapped around his mouth to shut him up. Slowly, step by step, Liam dragged Theodore's thrashing form; they both knew where they were headed. Theodore couldn't hold back his tears as he felt the heat behind his back.

One last time, Liam lifted him into the air. "You said your wife will die without you?" he said, snorting and then breaking into an unhinged laugh. "Nah." He grinned maniacally. "She'll move on by the end of the day."

That was the last thing he heard before the world started spinning. It didn't hurt as bad as he thought it would.

The pain spiked suddenly, and just as suddenly, it vanished as the darkness consumed the flames flickering through his eyes.

***

"Oh, shit!" Freddy jumped back as Theodore's body exploded when subjected to the sudden spike of heat. Moments later, little jaws popped out of the lava and tore his body apart, eating it before it could cook past well done.

Soon enough, Jacob and… whoever the other two were… joined the man on his swim.

And Jacob's ring was stashed away in Freddy's pocket. It was about the same size as the one owned by those two cultists he'd killed—big enough for a few core items, but not any more than that.

"Well then," Freddy said as he sighed and continued slashing away at the spark to heal the rest of the damage. "How fucked am I?"

It was the same old same old.

An unaffiliated two-star shmuck had no business defending himself against such an affluent young master and his goons.

Sitting at the shores of a lake of fire and angrily slashing away at the chunk of flesh, he couldn't help but feel bitter. So bitter.

He remembered his expectations of living life as a fighter. Women, money, glory, anything he wanted—as long as he could prove himself, he'd be set to live his life exactly as he wished.

This dream was inspired by what those in power wanted those at the bottom to believe. "Work hard and fight harder…" he muttered.

Once healed, he got up and pulled almost everything out of his storage ring. He raised all the ethertech garbage high and threw it as far into the lake as possible. With that, his storage ring finally had some free space.

His mind lingered on the platinum card in the corner of his ring. He chuckled. That would have to wait, it seemed.

He took off the most damaged armor pieces and threw them into the lava.

With that, he turned around and left the realm as quickly as possible. He gathered what few valuables he had, sat on the first bus that didn't require an ID, and bought himself a ticket.

He didn't care where he was going. He just had to go far away.

Thinking about it, he had never actually seen someone at the third star at any of the hubs. That only meant one thing. By the third star, everyone was either affiliated, retired…

Or dead.

He had no intention of becoming either of those three things.

His plans were grander than that.

The bus started and moved forward through the traffic. It was the middle of a rather cold day, but the heating was turned off. The other people were mostly quiet, but there was a couple chatting away at the front. Slowly, the bus moved from one intersection to another, stopping and picking up more passengers as it went.

It was out of the city not long after, leaving the man-made horizon behind.

He leaned his head against the cold glass and took an even colder look back at the city.

He thought he could be different. He believed that minding his own business would be enough. It had always been enough.

Stay away from others, and you'll stay away from trouble.

That still held true, and he knew it. What happened on that day was a consequence of his own decisions.

He thought back to the long days he spent in the interspace, far from people, far from all the stress.

Unfortunately, that was a false paradise.

Whether he retreated to the deepest corner of the interspace or the biggest city on New Earth, he was always an unlucky day away from death.

And he was done lying to himself.

Freddy Stern was a shallow person. He wanted wealth. He wanted power.

He had lived a life of envy directed at those who sat at the top, and the mere idea of running away just to die from boredom somewhere in a rural shack was an insult directed at the very core of his being.

But even when he tried keeping to himself, other people still got in his way.

This wasn't going to be the last time.

Throughout all those years, he had really believed that he would be different. In a world of cruelty, where those in power could only be held back by a greater power, he had really believed that he could avoid playing by the rules. That he could avoid all of the darkness and live honestly in the light.

He shook his head and chuckled to himself, then covered his face in shame.

What a naive little shit he had been.