Monarch of Profound Toxin [Progression, LitRPG]

Eik's ears had stopped working. Well, technically not completely. They were still sending his brain this awful, head-splitting ringing that made him dizzy as all hell, but circulating Panacean Quintessence with Backflow saw him quickly getting better.

It would seem Eik hadn't been the only one to run ahead of their main army and deeper into the city, because the explosion had occurred far enough away from them that only a minority had actually been caught up in the blast itself. But that was still too many.

"Fuck!" Eik hissed as large gliding wings grew out and he headed into a steep dive. "We literally just told them to be extra careful!"

When he touched down it was pure chaos. Even here on the outer edges of the explosion radius, the buildings had mostly been leveled. Corpses littered the ground and, bizarrely, the walls. Those who had been caught in the blast at a point where they had avoided complete vaporization had instead been flung through the city with unbelievable force, flying between the buildings until eventual, inevitable and thoroughly existence-ending collision.

A mystical, invisible conflagration ravaged cultists and Alliance soldiers alike, only a shimmering haze flowing from their bodies and the horrific sight of skin and flesh eroding away like paint under the flame of a blow torch revealing the existence of the blaze. Screams of pure terror and agony echoed through the streets.

The site of the explosion was a naked, smoking crater, about ten meters deep in the center. Everything had been annihilated in an insane radius. The Oracle had not been lying when she emphasized how important it was to handle the Life Harvesters with care.

Apocalypse Canvas still hung directly above the city, continuously spitting out shards of crystal. Since the war had been charging up to a big showdown ever since they attacked Luna, the defensive shield arrays had been taken to a new level, however, and the rain of shards were still being blocked quite effectively.

Separate but interlinked barriers covered the whole city, meaning that even when one shield was severely damaged to the point of structural failure, there were others besides it or beneath to continue the defense. It was something that was too costly and time consuming to maintain indefinitely on a day to day basis, but in times of active way it was a wise measure to implement.

Eik checked his levels.

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 140]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 141]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 142]

[Acquired Apocalypse Canvas — Lv. 143]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 252]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 295]

The levels from the fight with the S-ranked swordsman rolled in with the following messages. A few passive level ups in Living Manifestation from Goo's life were probably mixed in there along with the ones from the temporary summons as well.

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 176]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 177]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 178]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 179]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 202]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 203]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 204]

[Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 205]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 253]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 254]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 255]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 256]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 295]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 296]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 297]

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Not bad, but wildly different from what he had gotten from S-ranked fights before ascending himself.

Finally he had a better sense of how he matched up with other S-rankers physically and in direct combat. He had deliberately held back on infecting the Gohkamorian during the fight in order to test himself.

When he had first learned that there were Awakened with such power that it would put them in a category called S-rank, he had imagined beings possessing hundreds or maybe even thousands of different abilities, to the point where it would be impossible to keep track of it.

To his relief, his own experiences had shown him that that wasn't really the case. While he certainly acquired new abilities here and there, it was nowhere near how many he had gotten during F-rank. The traits which instead changed the behavior of a skill or added new breadths to their functions meant that it could often feel like even these insanely powerful S-rankers didn't have that many abilities.

It had been the same today. Eik had kind of constantly expected the S-ranker to pull out more and more skills, but in reality, what improved was the potency of the skills and the Awakened's ability to use them.

And against someone like Eik, and with many abilities not immediately obvious even when active, like a defensive, boosting, or utility skill, they often didn't quite seem to get the chance to properly unfold.

Abilities didn't fit the situation or weren't suited for the particular enemy. That was the truth of real combat. It wasn't necessarily as flashy as in the movies, although Eik's own skills often took it pretty close.

He weaved between buildings, the destruction growing less and less severe the further away he got from the epicenter of the detonation. Instead of contributing to the killing, he released little green Living Manifestations of Panacean Quintessence that scurried around the chaotic battlefield in search of injured Alliance warriors. They would climb into the closest available wound and begin the process of healing.

The ratio of allies to cultists gradually increased as he approached the approximate center of their army. Andihar was easy to spot, his massive form dressed in that familiar bright, golden armor standing out like a… gigantic man dressed in bright, golden armor. Eik leapt into the air, maneuvering his way onto the muscle elf's shoulder.

"Hey, Andi, what the fuck just happened back there?" he called directly into the man's ear.

With how large Andihar currently was, his body language was unusually obvious. The tensing of his jaw was basically audible this close. "One of the Life Harvesters was damaged," the man muttered, his reverberating voice going through Eik's body like a gong.

"Yeah, I figured out that much. The big ass explosion kind of gave it away. Do you know who it was?" he asked, afraid of the answer.

"Probably platoon five," the elf said, his fatally accurate blade stabbing a twenty meter deep hole in the street where a group of six cultists had been prepared to launch a cluster of magical projectiles. "According to their most recent report to the communication team, that was roughly the direction they were headed."

"Then why the hell didn't they summon reinforcements? They clearly weren't capable of disposing of the Life Harvester safely!" Eik growled.

Andihar eyed his friend. "I certainly thought the leader of platoon five seemed rather reckless—you heard him complain about our caution during the briefing—but, Eik, they might just have been unlucky. For all we know, it was a cultist who saw it as a better alternative to allowing the Life Harvester to become inert. If they're losing it anyway, then they might as well take a platoon of the Alliance with them."

"And level their own city? That's madness!"

"Yeah, so? The low status, subordinate cultists aren't exactly known for their ability to judge a situation soberly. The problem to focus on here is that we lost a chunk of our fighting force in the beginning of the clash."

Eik sighed. That was true. People had died and it didn't matter why.

"Where did you go anyway? You were gone before we knew it." Andihar asked.

Eik threw a thumb back the way he had come. "Went deep into the city and followed crowds until I found a Life Harvester."

"Seriously? And you just left it there?"

Eik shrugged. "I left two solid domes around it. And if the cultists destroyed the abdominal sack now, none of our troops would be around to be caught up in the blast."

"For now…" Andihar corrected.

"Yes, for now. But I encased it completely before I left. I doubt it's going to be a problem. Andihar, I found thousands of captives stuffed into cages underground. They're being kept as food reserves for the Life Harvesters. They're kept emaciated and weakened in these flesh pockets until the ordeal kills them. There was a person I knew from back home there, Andihar."

Andihar didn't say anything, but his next few strikes with the blade seemed to have a bit more force behind them. "Did you get out the guy you knew at the very least?"

Eik gritted his teeth. "No, he was killed by an S-ranker."

"An S-ranker?" the elf exclaimed. "What happened to—"

"Dead. I killed him myself."

"That easily, huh?"

Eik just shrugged. "There are still many surviving prisoners back th—" he began but abruptly cut himself off with a gasp. "Oh, crap!"

"What, what?"

"That Life Harvester exploding threw me off so much that I forgot to bring the prisoners back with me!" he shouted and leapt from Andihar's large shoulder. "I'll be back with them in a jiffy!"

"Eik! Take a platoon with you!" the giant called after him.

"I can take care of it!" he shouted dismissively. "We need as many warriors as possible here on the primary battlefield. I'll be quick!"

Now that he knew where he was going, it didn't take him long to get back to the basement. Most of his Profound Toxic beasts had been dealt with at this point and he was forced to unleash a new horde to keep the cultists at bay while he went back into the underground space. The cultists weren't deterred by the numerous corpses of their comrades littering the ground.

Having still stood strong in his brief absence, Eik dismissed the blue wall that he had constructed to keep the fight between him and the S-ranked swordsman from killing any more captives than it already had. Weakened by their imprisonment, some of them must have been leaning against the cool wall and now stumbled through the rubble, unsteady of their feet.

Cushions of gooey toxin popped up to catch their falls. "We have a little bit to go, guys, but I'll get you to safety, all right?"

There wasn't much a response to speak of. A vast majority looked either too exhausted or too frightened to do much more than stare at him. The past ten minutes of their lives must have been a roller coaster of confusion.

"We have food and water," he tried, and suddenly the many faces lit up as if he had offered ice cream and cotton candy to a kid whose parents didn't allow him sugar. He grinned. "Take a buddy and let's get going, shall we?" he said as Profound Toxic beasts popped up to assist the captives.

They had made it about two thirds of the way back, Eik continuously fighting off cultists as they went, when a stream of super heated flame struck Eik in the chest at such speed that he hadn't been able to react in time.

He was crushed into the ground, breath stolen away before he could even scream in pain. An arrow followed at frightening speed but Eik's reflexes allowed him to dodge to the side just in time for it to only graze his stomach, drawing a deep but nonfatal gash.

Instantly his eyes sought the source and located a figure standing on the edge of a rooftop, fabric whirling about its body as the remnants of smoke still billowed in the wind. Shortly after, a second figure joined, both just silhouettes against the Apocalypse Canvas above.

Eik clenched his jaw and cursed internally. S-rankers. And two of them this time.