Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

A temporal portal opened beside Ivan the instant he made contact with the wall. Another alien emerged, this one two times more massive than the one who had shot him. Ivan had rebounded off the wall because of the internal reinforcement from Fatima's shield.

The second alien wrapped a massive hand around Ivan's face, grasping it tightly. Holding his head, it hoisted Ivan off his feet and slammed the back of his head on the floor, creating a crater that threatened to form a gaping hole.

The alien did not let Ivan go. It featured an eyelidless, almond-shaped eye in the centre of its forehead. It tried to rip off Ivan's helmet, but its durability stood in the way.

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Your armour is sustaining heavy damage. -0.5% per second.

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Ivan's thoughts eventually gathered. All the while after the headshot, his senses had been stunned.

His fifty-seven soldiers opened fire on the alien that was trying to rip off his helmet. He also cast all the powers within the 'parasite' powerset on the creature. The combined attacks yielded fruit. Although the soldiers' fire did little to the alien, they distracted it, forcing it to focus on defending itself. In the process, the alien dropped Ivan to the floor. Ivan had managed to land more than a thousand parasites on the alien.

He primarily executed 'Steal' and 'Knowledge Eater' on the alien. Both of them worked. A part of the alien's vitality was taken away, and 'Knowledge Eater' leeched knowledge from the alien's mind, which brought about a physiological consequence. The alien coughed out two mouthfuls of blood as it fell to its knees.

The other alien was not idle. It began shooting at the soldiers, annihilating six of them; they all exploded on impact from the cannon's round. Ivan commanded the soldiers to retaliate. Unfortunately, the first alien was elusive. Its power was centred around portal formation and marksmanship. Ivan split the soldiers, with one group focusing on the larger, injured alien and the other on the elusive one.

Ivan decided to do something desperate. He banged ferociously on the governor's office door. His intent was to convey the emergency at hand.

"I know someone powerful is in there! I need your help. My group and I are being overwhelmed by aliens; we need help."

The elusive alien had seen Ivan run to the door. At that moment, it had wanted to help its massive comrade, who was in a dire situation. But on seeing the opportunity to deal with Rania, it abandoned its comrade, hiding to await Rania's emergence.

The gold-transcendent that Rania had injured was someone the elusive alien held in high regard, and it had sworn to get revenge on their behalf. Revenge, in the form of Rania's head. Of course, it would not do it alone; there were other aliens waiting for it to open a portal to this place so they could aid in the attack.

Due to its declining vitality, the massive alien's shield faltered. It suffered a heavy attack to the chest. It noticed that its portal-bending comrade had seemingly abandoned it. It got on its feet and attempted to flee. Ivan jumped on it, followed by twenty possessed soldiers. The massive alien struggled to fling them off, but Ivan and his soldiers were relentless. They kept piling on, injuring the massive monster.

The massive alien flung Ivan and nine soldiers off, sending them crashing into the ceiling. It then slammed itself on the floor, smashing through and landing in the ground floor's hallway, free of its grappling burden.

The massive alien sprang to its feet, about to flee. Suddenly, layers of a spherical, translucent golden shield enveloped it. The massive alien struggled to break out of the shields, and they suffered cracks but remained unyielding. Meanwhile, an array of runes formed around the shield, coursing with sparks of electric bolts.

The hallway floor resonated with a deep thrum, akin to high-voltage electricity coursing through power lines. BAM! In quick succession, twenty bolts of electricity came down on the massive alien, killing it on the spot.

Fatima undid the shields protecting the office. She stepped back, allowing her boss to come forward. Her boss created a 50-metre-wide array that let her see whatever was within it. This allowed her to see the massive alien and kill it swiftly.

Suddenly, ten portals appeared inside the office, and ten aliens, including the elusive one, entered the room. Rania was quick to act. She cast 'Position Switch', and the damaged flower vases in the hallway switched positions with the aliens.

Ivan commanded his soldiers on the second floor to open fire on the aliens instantly. This time, it was not at regular power; they unleashed their ultimate power. The entire second floor was ravaged by the eruptive force. The governor's office was on the east wing, and the east wing came crashing down under the violent burst of energy.

The east wing was a massive heap of concrete. Rania had considered the possibility that there were other people in this wing. It was a matter of her survival versus prioritising the lives of other people, of whom she was not certain were present. She did what she had to do. She formed a layered cocoon to envelop herself and the officers in the governor's office. Then, the instant Ivan's soldiers were about to unleash their devastating attack, she complemented it with a discriminating barrage of lightning bolts that targeted all the aliens within her array. The bolts flashed simultaneously, scathing all the aliens, including Ivan's possessed soldiers.

The elusive alien had suffered a devastating injury. It lay impaled and weak under the heap of concrete. In a desperate attempt to survive, the elusive alien formed an unstable two-way portal. The other side of the portal was outside the heap of concrete. The portal had a pulling effect, which drew it out of the heap and dropped it on the plaza nearby.

The alien rose unsteadily to its feet. As soon as it did, the world around it became a dark void.