The Occupation Pt8

"Weak," I sneer arrogantly despite casting First-Aid on myself, watching the intestines scythe away from my blade fingers like sand or water spilling through the spaces.

"You think too highly of yourself!" Stronghold Commander Orion declares as his innards begin retracting into his body as the would slowly heals. Unlike the usual slashes, stabs, or clubbing this attack had ruined him from the inside out and even his regenerating health only rose a few percent every second.

Outright laughing as I decide that the time was right, I release four of my fingers from my left hand and apply Telekinesis to them, adding them to the whirling staff that continued harassing the demon. As soon as the original slow debuff ended in a few seconds, it would be almost instantly reapplied at this rate.

Growing out new fingers and their small defenses, I start forward and say, "You already used your steroids, kid, what else could you possibly have left? An ultimate skill? Then feed me! Timber Tantrum!"

My field of view suddenly turned hazy with red, obscuring everything in the world except for my immediate surroundings and my opponent as my body reflexively unleashed numerous blades and spikes of chaos soul crystal. The flying weapons swarming about the demon were already negating its regeneration, keeping the demon hemmed down to seventy percent.

Quick Step, Force Strike, and Spirit Wave were compiled into yet another Open Handed palm thrust as I zeroed the distance in an instant. Orion was busy fending off my flying weapons and unprepared for the palm planting against where his solar plexus should be. His body formed an obtuse angle as he suddenly found himself flying backward through the air.

Using another Flash Step ring to zero the distance all over again, my berserk body that I suspected was controlled by cordyceps unleashes a brief flurry of claw slashed and spike impalement about the demon's body. Many of the spikes I gored into its ribs or thighs were broken free of my body, left in the injuries to keep the viscous black fluids flowing and the wounds from healing.

Unlike the stalagmites, these spikes were all incredibly dense crystal that were stronger than diamonds. The only way for the demon to actually remove them would be to pull them out by hand or some form of magic application. However, with five flying weapons constantly stinging about its upper body like furious wasps he could not afford the distraction.

Seventy percent quickly tapered down to thirty in only a few moments before I finish my eight-strike combo with a savage kick to the demon's chest that sends them flying through the air. However, my berserk body made a mistake that I had been desperately avoiding since I met this demon. I, for some reason, tried to punch them in the face.

After landing on his side and sliding to the extent of my next Flash Step, Orion saw my incoming bladed fist and simply opened its entire face to reveal a mouth big enough to swallow my natural body whole. That mouth was lines with innumerable concentric rows of fangs packed in tight circles leading down the demon's throat.

Those hundreds of shiny black teeth engulfed my entire arm up to the elbow and chomped straight through my blades, defenses, armor, and arm. I lost a whopping forty percent of my health with the loss of my arm but this barely even slowed my berserk body down. As soon as the mouth was closed, my other hand was up and ruthlessly slapping down with Open Handed strikes about the demon's head and neck.

Even though the demon's health seemed to surge upward with the consumption of my arm it never even made it to half as the compilation of damage from a variety of attacks constantly rained down upon the demon. In the beginning, I was nearly overwhelmed from fighting against an enemy with so many arms and weapons. Even as things started to balance out, his sheer number of attacks were hard to cope with.

Now, though, I was attacking with no less than six weapons at a time and it was his turn to taste his own medicine.

Fighting against the surge in the demon's health, I just barely manage to outlast its growth in health by a few blows which knock it down to twenty percent of its HP. Finally, I grew out a single blade the size of Hauntings from the regenerating stump of my arm before stabbing it down through the demon's shoulder and into the granite ground.

Struggling to cancel my Timber Tantrum and regain control of myself, I step back and as, "Had enough, yet? Ready to bend the knee? This grandpa of yours is forgiving, I'll accept you with open arms as my servant since you refused to be my general!"

Losing health by pushing himself slowly up from the ground and off of the sword blade I left in its shoulder, Orion finally takes the time to start removing my weapons from its body now that my flying weapons were only warily circling. Then, standing there as fluids pool about the ground at his feet, the demon opens its mouth wider than a CordAniCol Blossom and looses another roar that shakes the world around us.

"How… How could one become this strong and be so young?" Orion asks after his roar, seeming to calm down as if he had just vented his frustrations while raggedly breathing and bleeding. "Compared to us, you're truly a monster."

"Don't bother talking dirty to me, you're not my type," I say flippantly as I return to my normal body and use First-Aid to finish growing my missing arm. "But, for the record… currently, my Luck stat is almost five hundred with the bonuses from my equipment and titles. Also, it's my lowest natural stat."

"Luck… You're saying you bested me… with Luck?" Orion asks haggardly, collapsing onto his hands and knees as the black flames about his body begin dying out and his health stops regenerating at just under fifty percent. "I… I, Orion of the Corrupted Asura, do hereby swear my service to the mortal Life Hack of the Plaguedman race. I ask only that you do not dishonor myself or my people."

[Outpost C has been successfully captured]

[+10000XP]

[Leveled up]

[All stats raised by 1]

[Successfully Captured: Corrupted Asura Orion]

[+1000XP]

[+1000 Boss Beast Mastery XP]

[Successfully Tamed: Corrupted Asura Orion]

[+2000XP]

[+2000 Boss Beast Mastery XP]

[Boss Beast Mastery Leveled]

[+200XP]

"I'll keep it to an individual level," I reply honestly with a serious expression. "If any of your people do me disservice, I will eat them and claim the powers of your species. However, I will not extend my reach beyond the transgressor unless those they are tied to attempt to seek revenge. Come, accept my blood and bring me yours," I add, simply corrupting my gauntlet open before biting a chunk out of my palm.

Unlike with Zekrom, the blood binding rewards were not toward all stats but the standard two for two and one tenth of those involves. In exchange for thirty-eight and thirty-seven Agility and Endurance respectively I received an astounding fifty points in Strength followed by sixty points in Luck. Now, my Strength shot right up to four hundred while my Luck soared to three-eighty-five.

For the first time in a long time, my Strength had found its way above Agility and even Luck was equal to Agility!

[Acquired Strength Perk: Bountiful Brawn]

[Bountiful Brawn: After achieving four hundred points in Strength, all armor now weighs half as much on your body and weapons below thirty units of weight are nearly weightless in your hands. +20DPH]

DPH? Damage Per Hit? Even though it is only twenty, all of my Strength reliant attacks like those from weapons and Open Handed would now do twenty more points of damage.

That was almost the same as a small upgrade to all of my weapons and skills!

Not only did I gain these stats and ensuing buff, but I also raised my affinity with darkness by ten percent and my Timber Tantrum skill became fused with Orion's own demonic origin to create the berserk skill 'Corruption Crazed'. This skill still had the same drawback of lessening defense by the same amount my attack rises but I now had a passive ten-percent regen for health and mana every other second during berserk that compensated for the loss in defense.

However, the increase and decrease of PATK and PDEF had climbed to one hundred percent apiece. During Corruption Crazed, my current base PATK of three-seventy with my current staff would DOUBLE despite my PDEF dropping to zero regardless of my armor. I could no longer safely use such a skill without extreme circumstances but it would be worth it whenever I might be forced to activate it.

I was honestly tempted to ask the demon to give me one or two of its arms to Assimilate but I figured this might count as a 'dishonor' since it was a multi-armed species of demon. Instead, I simply walked up and consumed the tattered remains of intestines scattered in the thick pool of bodily fluids they had made.

[Assimilating: Corrupted Asura Orion]

[Assimilated: Demonic Physique]

[+500XP]

[Assimilated: Asura's Armaments]

[+250 XP]

[Demonic Physique has been consumed by Polycrystalline Plague Physique]

[Demonic and Chaos energies can now be integrated into the Polycrystalline Plague Physique's Mana Synthesis]

[Polycrystalline Plague Physique is still restricted to Initial Success state]

"It's still locked?" I cannot help but ask in surprise, wondering why even though I knew it was part of a balancing act as one of my strongest aspects. Just the initial side perk of the Earthen Enrichment process had raised all of my defensive values through the roof. If I kept developing the physique, I would become a titanium tank.

After assessing my gains and allowing the demon time to heal itself, I lead the way back to A where I could already see several dozen sentries overlooking our direction as if awaiting our arrival. I was honestly a little wary of what kind of reception I would receive after having taken an outpost all to myself. I could already tell some people were not happy.

Before Orion and I even reached the walls, the other clan leaders and my own party appeared on top of the wall as if they intended to use the opportunity to look down at me. Little Thirteen had an unreadable but somehow unpleasant look on his face while Donna looked irritable and curious at the same time. My team, though, just looked bored.

"Did you have fun?" Mr. Thirteen asks. "We all got a wonderful notification about the taking of a certain outpost and a dividend of then thousand experience. How much did you manage to get?"

"I see…" Orion remarks before I even have a chance to reply. "It is not just your personality that creates disharmony in the group, you simply make it easier for others. You, mortal, can you defeat me?" He asks suddenly, outright pointing at Little Thirteen with one hand in which quickly forms a shadow scimitar.

Thirteenth Incorporated's leading representative actually widened his eyes a bit at this challenge, having clearly not expected 'us' to take such an aggressive stance. Obviously, since the demon was following me it meant that I had managed to enlist them. So, it probably looked like I put him up to this.

When Mr. Thirteen failed to answer quickly enough, Orion says, "The answer is no. Your Luck alone is not even comparable to my own, let alone your speed or Strength. Let me ask you this. If you were in my place and several hundred people appeared before you to take what was yours, what would you do?"

Narrowing his gaze suspiciously, Little Thirteen actually takes a moment to think about the question. I honestly expected him to disregard the question and try to redirect the conversation. However, he instead says, "I would kill all the weakest people first. At once if I could, not just to disprove the advantage of numbers but also to demoralize my enemies."

"What do you think would have happened had all of you come to me at once?" Orion asks, now, calmly dismissing his Armament and lowering his arm. Then, answering his own question he says, "At least one hundred of you would have died to a single sweep of my arm. Why? Because you were unaware of the risks."

Pushing forward as if trying to prove his value by fighting my battles for me, he continues with, "There is also a great deal that you do not know. While the next neighbor is not as strong as I, every other neighbor afterward is at my level of power or greater. Once one reaches my level, you acquire a unique view of the world. I watched you argue about the distribution of experience and I watched this young man convert hundreds of enemies into allies.

"I dismissed my subordinates to reinforce my neighbor, this means there was no other 'experience' there except for myself," he explains, pretty much answering the question directed at me earlier about how much experience I gained. "Now, how much would all of you have lost had you attacked me together? More than you would have gained. A scheming fellow like yourself can understand that no profit would have been found. Now, do you still question the actions of my liege?"

There was more taking place than just the challenge to Little Thirteen's authority. Orion had just spoiled most of the rest of the outposts, revealing that their overall firepower exceeded the risk factor of his own outpost. There was basically only one outpost left where it would be safe for the other players present to participate.

Having understood this point and the position it put him and his clan in, Mr. Thirteen merely purses his lips into a thin frown before saying, "What do you suggest, then? Simply give everything to one person?"

"If you are not strong enough to take it then you are not strong enough for the right do you have to complain," Orion says instead of directly answering, having given away all the information that he was interested in. "This small world you find yourselves in is one ruled by power. If you have no power, you have no right. If you seek to control others you should at least make sure that you are stronger than they."

"You guys can take all that remains of B," I say quickly to smooth over the friction and burns taking place. "It won't be much to increase your overall power, but after that the other NPC should be ready and we'll be able to get to work crafting. With a new set of equipment for everyone, our firepower with rise to the occasion."

Little Thirteen said nothing, simply harrumphing coldly before turning and walking away. The confrontation he probably wanted to create and use to change public opinion of me had not gone the way he wanted thanks to the overwhelming power of my new companion.

It was impossible to argue with something that could kill most of them in one hit.

*