Path of the Slayer B1 C46. Good Little Imperial

A blast of lightning and thunder escaped my body as my blood ran even hotter and my heart beat harder. If you took me out of those four participants, there were enough for one or all three to be part of Magnus’s party.

Sabretooth let out a loud and hearty roar, picking up the pace with a sudden lunge forward. Her claws were sheathed away, her tires burning rubber over cracks, uneven flooring, and small piles of gems littering the entire lane.

The tall walls rushed by as we followed the same route until I saw two openings ahead, one to the left and one to the right. We could also keep driving forward, following this one lane to its logical end. Even at the Dungeon Boss Area, another puzzle stood in the way before we could get to the center of it all.

We swerved around larger piles of fallen gems and random sinkholes on the ground. There were large statues, each twenty feet tall, of gem-covered humanoids wielding different weapons along the sides.

I suspected them to attack me once I made a choice.

“Left,” I said. “Let’s keep going left.”

Sabretooth growled in confirmation.

We shifted gears and leaned toward our left. It was surprising how easy it was to ride her. My Path Energy was smoothing out the experience, and Sabretooth was doing most of the driving.

It was more of the latter than the former, fortunately.

Or I would’ve failed to notice the knives aimed at my neck.

My metal fingers twitched. My greatsword lunged from my back. I leaned to my left and looked back as a loud and sharp clang filled the air.

A blurred out figure streaked past me and Sabretooth, the autocycle hitting the brakes and jerking me forward somewhat. We came to a short, skidding stop on her front wheel before slamming back down to fully face what was in front of us.

My greatsword returned to my half ripper hand with a thunk. I fastened my grip tightly around it, severely so, as I looked at the pale elf who’d played around with Royce’s head like it was no big deal.

The head wasn’t out in the open. Instead, he held two dark and deadly straight knives that emitted the Rank 4 promise of death.

Great Skill activated: Rogue Nomad Stoicism.

I was still enraged, but my stoic skill compartmentalized that rage and set it aside. I focused on how I could objectively destroy the enemy in front of me and get what I needed out of him – an answer about Britta’s safety.

Before I could even ask, the elf cut me off.

“I have that girl’s head.” He smiled ear-to-ear as he stood there casually. “She’s somewhere on me.”

Great Skill activated: Rogue Nomad Stoicism.

I stepped off Sabretooth’s back as she growled and revved up her heart engine. The elf kept talking.

“She really loved you, huh? Was waiting for you to come back, like straight out of a sappy romance!” His laughter was piercing and horrid. “But you didn’t come back. You ran off to be the big bad Pathwalker, while leaving that poor Rank 1 slut behind with a broken heart and my blades on her pretty neck!”

Great Skill activated: Rogue Nomad Stoicism.

Great Skill activated: Rogue Nomad Stoicism.

Great Skill activated: Rogue Nomad Stoicism.

My Path Energy was down to 54%.

Path Magnetism, Path Lightning, and Striving Elementalist Mastery were still active. Sabretooth waited at my side, following my lead.

I stood in silence as the elf kept goading me, but I gave him nothing. There was nothing to give. I was empty of everything.

Except the promise of violence.

He stopped talking and looked at me amusingly. Between us, there was the sound of Sabretooth’s aggressive revving and growls. Somewhere out of sight, the pulsating energy of the Dungeon throbbed like a slow-beating heart.

After three more slow beats, I raised my left hand and opened up with Tyrannosaurus Roar. A Single Shot Arm Cannon coated in light frost appeared in my raised hand via the storage ring.

Path Energy: 44%.

The elf hesitated under the effect of Tyrannosaurus Roar. Even with him being Rank 4, my Path Magic could punch above its weight and give me a window of opportunity. I would’ve taken advantage of it, but he struck me back with a targeted Suppression – a strong one at that.

Great Skill activated: Gaining Lifter Focus.

Path Energy: 42%

I broke free of the targeted Suppression with pure strength and grit. The murderous elf became free of Tyrannosaurus Roar, dashing around to my right, out of the way of my arm cannon. 

Something deadly, invisible, and fast moved through the air for my neck. I only noticed because my senses were high-tuned with lightning and elemental mastery.

Bending backward, the wave of deadly magic scraped off the top of my helmet. The elf blitzed me from my right with a magic dash that blurred out his figure even more than before.

I sent Sabretooth flying at him with a heavy and fast shove of magnetism. In return, I vaulted away to my left as my autocycle swiveled through the air with claws extended from her tires.

The quick-footed elf ducked below and maneuvered into my blind spot as I settled back into a more steady stance. He came around behind me, his deadly blades seeking my neck.

I aimed the cannon underneath my right armpit and energized the trigger with Path Energy and Path Lightning. The single shot went off with an explosive clap and crackling discharge. I heard the elf suck in a sharp breath and felt his metal blades veer away from the back of my neck in a desperate retreat.

Turning around fully, I dropped the spent cannon and armed myself with another frost-coated single shot. It was faster to keep pulling them out from the storage ring than it was to store one and take out another.

By this point, Sabretooth was back on her claw-tipped tires, her wheels spinning rapidly, tearing up the stony and gem-littered Dungeon floor beneath her.

She lunged at the elf with her front wheel raised, but she was too loud and obvious to threaten him much. The enemy blurred out of the way and stayed out of my direct line of fire.

There was no blood on the floor, and no big wound that I could glimpse. So far, the fight was even.

Path Energy: 41%.

“No wonder Magnus kept you around when you were a Rank 0 loser,” the elf mocked as he dashed around me and Sabretooth. “You have a fire to you, I’ll give you that. Would’ve been a great adventurer if you stayed a Ranker. Makes you quite the hardened Pathwalker now. But you won’t be the first one we’ve killed. And you most likely won’t be the last. Now be a good boy and give me your neck.”

By the time he finished talking, I weaved together one of the hardest elemental tricks I’d done yet. A small stream of magnetism flowed through my body while not touching all the lightning I’d already filled my flesh with. The thin magnetic stream entered the arm cannon along with a single stream of lightning.

I waited for him to commit again, dodging around Sabretooth while going for my back. I turned and aimed the cannon, and he was already repositioned out of my line of fire and angling for my flank. I activated the trigger anyway and blew up the cannon along with my hand in an explosive burst of electromagnetic energy and fragments.

Great Skill activated: Pain Eater Gluttony.

“Agh!” the elf cried, caught by the fragments that sprayed him mostly. The burst came with a bright light that blinded him, too.

My left hand would recover quickly, and my right hand was already moving with lightning in my muscles and magnetism guiding my greatsword. The elf tried to back away until I tugged on the metal fragments and the knives he held on his person.

Path Energy: 33%

“What the – ahhh!” He let out a bloody scream as my cursed greatsword ripped open his chest and exposed his ribcage. Since he was Rank 4, his Vitality would keep him alive and give him a chance to heal if he could get away.

I rushed him with everything I had. Internal lightning sped me up. Magnetic pulses braced against Sabretooth’s frame behind me as an added push. My lifter skill made every step explosive and strong.

I ducked in for the double-leg takedown.

The annoying elf cried, “GOD EMPEROR!” and pulled out a new power straight out of nowhere.

A force that was beyond him, beyond me, and beyond the Dungeon unfolded from the elf’s body. It smashed into me like an immovable wall before giving me a shove that I couldn’t resist.

I lost all the air in my lungs as I flew backward and crashed into Sabretooth, who spun her wheels rapidly and absorbed the impact to slow my backward flight.

Path Energy: 27%.

I blinked my vision clear as Path Energy fixed up what was broken. Getting to my feet, I stood across from the elf while he was surrounded by a fountain of red and gold aura that had his hair whipping into the air.

If it wasn’t for Rogue Nomad Stoicism, seeing all that divine power would’ve daunted me. I’d gone fairly far to escape the empire, yet the empire and its damn god wouldn’t release their hooks from me yet.

“Wooo haha haha!” the elf laughed, the wound on his chest sealing up far faster than it should’ve. “Tough luck, bastard nomad. Some of us are good little imperials and actually get Blessings from our big daddy god!”

“My liege, you need to use me now!” Hellion begged. “I can sense the concentration of Vitality coming out of that damn elf! Without me, he’ll crush you!”

I knew that. But I couldn’t bring attention to Hellion until I had the elf where I wanted him. I needed a real opening.

“It would’ve been nice if Magnus was here to see this! Oh well! Time to die, loser!” the elf laughed as he confidently approached me.

I braced myself. Dozens of ideas came to mind. My right hand refastened its metal grip on my greatsword. My left hand twitched, the storage ring feeling cold on my finger. I settled on three routes just as the elf prepared to rush me.

Neither of our plans came to fruition.

Thumper materialized from the slimmest shadows and did what his path required him – to be the Perfect Rogue – stabbing both of his curved short swords through the elf’s back.

By this point, I knew  the rogue’s main weapons were Epic. When they landed, the damage was gory and horrific, sending splatters of blood all around.

Even with the Blessing of the God Emperor empowering the elf, Thumper enacted his will with multiple rapid stabs on the elf’s back. He splattered more and more blood and had the elf screaming, distracted by pain and bloodshed.

The opening I needed arrived.

Sabretooth swerved around me and shot forward.

My left hand gripped the pull handle to my half ripper as I ran after her.

I pulled once on the cord.

The elf lashed out desperately, missing a strike with his knife. Instead, the back of his hand cracked Thumper in the face and rocked the half-giant rogue back a step. But no more. The rogue stabbed the God-Blessed elf in the back some more and forced out another cry.

I pulled a second time.

Sabretooth smashed her front wheel into the elf’s left leg, her claws extended from the tires. She locked the brakes on her back wheel and sped up the rotation to her front wheel, tearing muscle and gore free from the elf’s base.

Streams of viscera poured into the autocycle’s radiator mouth as she gorged upon the Blessed Rank 4. The elf slashed down at Sabretooth’s handles with his knife, and the Rank 4 blade left its marks and cuts. But Sabretooth’s Epic nature shrugged off the blows as she ate through one leg.

I pulled a third time and filled the lane with Hellion’s guttural roar.

Autosaw energy traveled down the magnetized greatsword. I sidled past Sabretooth and thrust the churning crimson weapon through the elf’s gut. The Blessing’s resistance got in my way, but on the other side was a wellspring of Vitality.

I roared, piling on the other powers I’d held back until now.

Path Magic activated: Relentless Surge and Apex Fervor.

The greatsword pierced straight through the elf’s abdomen as Thumper peeled out of the way and focused on carving away at the upper back and chest. Sabretooth kept a strip of ragged leg meat pinned under the tire, fixing the elf in place. I shoved hilt-deep and let Hellion consume all of that enhanced Vitality.

The elf screamed and gargled and choked on his bloody pain as Thumper, Sabretooth, Hellion, and I tore him apart. He still had some fight in him and tried to stab me.

I took out a poisoned green arrow from my storage ring and stabbed him with my free hand in return. After pinning him with four more poisoned arrows, the inevitable happened.

[You’ve slain a Rank 4 elf!]

[Congrats! Path of the Slayer Leveled Up! 37 to 39!]

[You’ve slain all foes in a significant encounter. Reward: 50% Path Energy!]

Path Energy: 100%