FB: Chapter 98 – The Twist

I used a Potion of Unlimited Strength. That would only last for about two minutes at most, but it would hopefully be enough. I rushed back in towards the Unmentionable Horror. I had wanted to avoid using this potion since its length was based on how much strength was used. The more strength used to counter those bone arms, the quicker the 10 platinum potion would be consumed.

There was no visible timer or counter, the icon would just disappear once it ran out. That was why it was a double edged sword and tended to fail at the worst time. I gave myself two minutes at most instead of the standard ten, using the anti-spawn flares launched into the night sky every minute to help keep track of the time.

I blocked one massive bone arm blow, spun and brought Slice above my head as another blow slammed down towards me. I blocked the blow. I wasn’t pushed into the swamp soil as I kept moving forward against the large Unmentionable Horror and tossed out another round of Condensed Mineral Water. I needed to stack up as much damage as possible.

“Slice!” I swung my mega blade and slammed it into the monster once more. It was a critical hit as green pus and black smoke emerged from the wound. I kept moving and swung at the monster once more. I landed another critical blow.

“Spatial Disjunction.” I knew the stupid thing wasn’t out of powerful skills. A glowing white orb emerged from one of the boney hands and shot towards me slower than other attacks. The slower the attack, the more dangerous it was. I knew of this skill and using Blink at this moment was a great way to die horribly. I pulled out a Spatial Stabilizer Rod for 10 platinum and used the consumable. If you weren’t paying to win, were you even trying?

The white orb winked out of existence as all spatial and teleportation skills were canceled out in the area for the next thirty seconds. Better than being hit with a spatial attack, which had a very high chance of being super critical. I moved in again and slammed Slice against the Unmentionable Horror once more. A misshapen jaw was ripped off and the monster stumbled backwards. Enough critical blows could stagger a monster for a moment. I tossed Slice into the air above me.

“Command remove item one,” I stated. The actual name of the item was Compressed Doom Fire Bomb Of Destruction. I wasn’t about to say that long name, so I had set it up as item one instead. I also wasn’t going to carry the large item on my bandolier either. This item was very sensitive to be jostled about and teleportation. Thankfully the Spatial Stabilizer Rod didn’t impact my inventory use since I was the one to use the consumable.

The small torso sized bomb appeared in front me. The stupid thing cost 250 platinum, but that was the level of power I needed to really hurt this monster. I had practiced the necessary movements as I grabbed the handles on the side of bomb and twisted the handles, turning it from mostly unstable, to highly unstable. As I twisted the handles, I lifted up the bomb and spun around in place to throw the entire thing right at the broken open mouth of the Unmentionable Horror. The Compressed Doom Fire Bomb Of Destruction went flying and I rose up a hand to catch my mega blade which was dropping back down.

I spun the blade around and I slammed it into the ground into the water ground in front of me. I closed my eyes tightly and hoped to the Trinity I would survive. “Command switch pendants!” I got the command off just in time

BOOM!

My health instantly bottomed out, but I survived the initial blast thanks to the long-range support skill that had been used. All the water nearby was instantly vaporized into steam and pushed away as white flames rushed by me around the edges of Slice.

I was rapidly taking 10 platinum HP potions to heal myself up. My Pendant of Divine Intervention broke, saving my life once more from the massive destruction. Leaving me at 1 HP and the risk of dying from a sneeze. Thankfully my poison based regeneration was handling any incidental damage. “Command switch pendants.” My Lesser Pendant of the Human God quickly reequipped around my neck.

The blinding light and fire disappeared. Water came rushing back in over the molten ground, releasing a cloud of steam. The Unmentionable Horror was still standing, but it was burnt and portions of it were still on fire.

“Urrrrr,” it let out a deep bone rumbling moan. I really hated high level monsters like this, since they were a massive pain to kill. They were just way too much of a tank. I pulled out a potion of Ice Water and poured it on the handle of the mega blade. If I had just grabbed it, I would have taken heat damage and died. I picked up the blade and raced forward once more.

“Slice!” I swung and struck the Unmentionable Horror again and again. It was heavily staggered from the Compressed Doom Fire Bomb Of Destruction. I rained down blow after blow. About a third of them were counted as critical attacks and managed to get through the absolute level difference.

“Death Beam!” I blocked the attack and used more Force Walls to counter the boney arms that tried to hit me at the same time.

“Spatial Disjunction.” I used another Spatial Stabilizer and kept wailing on the monster before my potion of Unlimited Strength ran out. I was dancing on a razor’s edge. One misstep and I would instantly die.

“Just die!” I shouted out as I landed a twentieth critical blow and a chunk of bone and rotted flesh was ripped off the monster. The monster staggered back a couple of steps and then began breaking apart. I didn’t think actually shouting would work.

I quickly got out the Crystal Capture Phial and uncorked it. A black and green orb left the remains of the monster and flew into the phial. I quickly recorked it and then tried to put it back into my inventory. It didn’t go in. That was annoying, but not that serious, since I had won. Another round of flares was shot into the sky illuminating the quickly dispersing steam in a red light.

I approached the remains and looked them over, seeing if anything had dropped.

Unique Mask: Visage Of Horror
A recreation of the face of the God of Horror that cannot be described with words and whose image may never be captured. All who see it despair as their very existence slips from their grasps.
+Mask Item
+Unbreakable
+Innate Artifact Skill: Aura of Horror

The mask kind of looked like a human face. Just that it was rotten, very asymmetrical, had maggots crawling over it, dripping green pus, and emitting black smoke. I carefully picked it up and noted that the various features of the mask, like the eyes, nose, mouth, scars, and trails of maggots were constantly shifting.

The skill itself was incredibly powerful. Anyone within a set distance of me who looked at the mask would lose one HP, MP, and SP every second and all regeneration of the wearer was halted. It also didn’t differentiate between friend and foe. I hadn’t even noticed being hit by the aura skill, since the active effects were transferred to the people supporting me and I had only consumed health potions while being hidden behind my mega blade. The big weakness of the skill was one just had to not look at the mask wielder.

There were unique equipment slots for some items. A mask item that actually did anything was incredibly rare. The fact it gave a unique innate skill that was at the artifact rank was incredibly impressive. A shame that I couldn’t wear the mask to the Capital Ball. That would liven things up.

I put the mask away in my inventory, the slimy feeling of the mask felt disgusting between my fingers. There were no other drops. The mask was already an amazing drop. Forcing people to look away from me or constantly losing one HP, MP, and SP every second was incredibly powerful. Sure, potions could return a set amount of each of those bars, but it would just be another headache people would have to deal with when fighting me.

The fact that the skill was at such a high rank just below Heirloom and Divine but above Legendary meant it would be quite a pain to counter. One would need an upgraded skill at the Heirloom rank to effectively counter this skill. Also, since it dealt damage through Perception, very few support skills would be able to effectively counter an such a skill. Or people could just not look at it.

The one major downside would be having to wear the actual thing. I had no doubt it would feel very uncomfortable on my face. It wouldn’t impact my vision or how I viewed the world, there were too many health risks with something like that, but I would feel the maggots and the slime. That I had no doubt of. For something so amazing, it clearly had to come with a downside to its use.

As I made my way back to the edge of the Black Swamp, the air stilled completely. The swirl of the steam and water completely stopped. A black cloaked figure emerged out of the steam.

I couldn’t get a read on them at all, and they didn’t show up on my mini-map. The hood was completely concealing the face. Another round of anti-spawn flares were shot into the sky.

“Follower of the Human God. You are brave to permanently kill my pet that had my visage carved into its flesh,” the cloaked figure said in a rasping voice. It took me a moment to realize this was the God of Horror.

“Take it up with the Human Emperor, he assigned the quest,” I replied with more confidence than I was actually feeling. Gods supposedly couldn’t take direct action in Exponential, but they held a tremendous amount of power.

“Swear to me, and I will make you a Saint of myself, the God of Horror. All who see you will cower away,” he offered.

“Sorry, but I am going to have to refuse,” I replied.

“That is your choice. You have annoyed me and refused my offer. My Dark Saint shall be seeking you out. And they are no idiot or weakling like that failure of the God of War. He goes through more Dark Saints than most gods have followers,” the God of Horror replied with a chuckle.

“And when I kill them?” I asked.

“Then you will live another day, and I will find someone who is not a failure to be my Dark Saint, God Slayer Foxy Blight. You might have an interesting title, but you are far from being a threat. You have overreached here, and it will not be forgotten or forgiven.” The God of Horror disappeared downwards into the water, without a single movement, without a single ripple.

That was really disturbing and a twist. Of course there was a twist after a hard fought victory. An alert icon came up and I selected it.

Foe of the Dark Gods
Awarded for drawing the ire of three of the Dark Gods by killing their followers or disrupting their plans.
+5% Physical Damage

It had the same starting bonus as the Slayer and Champion title track. If I offended more dark gods, then I could get a really powerful title and another title slot. They would also send hordes of strong beings to kill me as well, but that was expected.

I still needed all my current titles. Like the title chain for being a follower of the Human God, this one would have to be put in reserve unfortunately, unless I was able to rank it up a lot more. While it was tempting to try and kill other high-level monsters this entire operation had cost far too much. And even with all the preparations I had barely managed to beat the Unmentionable Horror.

High level boss monsters were completely overpowered, and I wasn’t about to invest thousands of platinum to beat another if I didn’t have to. I had completed the quest the Human Emperor had given me and I had gained an amazing mask.