Chapter 162 – Kang’s Manipulations

His special ritual disk landed heads up and he smiled. That was it. Finally, after three losses in a row he was getting a live duel. A battle that once he won, it would give him the last sixteen coins he needed. After that, he’d be able to go straight to the shop and buy the precognition skill pack that had appeared on his curated list. While happily recalling what had been included and with his tier three spear in one hand, he stepped through the door that would result in no GOD’s shield being applied to him.

It was all very routine.

The void filled the space around him and text flashed into existence to highlight what he was facing, but his mind was elsewhere.

Precognition Skill Pack—Cost 44 (75% Discount)

When choosing to purchase this pack, you can get the result in skill stones or blueprint form.

Skills included are.

Treasure Sense – Tier 3, Expert Danger Sense – Tier 4, Instinctive Motion – Tier 2, Preemptive Movement – Tier 3, Future Sense – Tier 2, Insanity Guidance – Tier 4.

Tom was excited by the set of abilities that DEUS had selected for him.

The first two were skills that he would have actively hunted for in the wild. It was nice to get a shortcut to obtaining them. Though to be honest, the help probably wasn’t needed. With his incredible affinity, he was confident he would have obtained them eventually just through his everyday activities.

The next three were not special, and he suspected he wasn’t getting them to sit in his everyday or even niche use ability set, but rather they were there purely because they were a prerequisite for Insanity Guidance. A skill he was sure that DEUS had brought to his attention in order to help him manage Unhinged Fury. The intervention was very much welcome because he wouldn’t have even considered that such a skill was possible let alone have gone out of his way to either develop it or buy it. It was the unknown unknowns that got you and this had definitely been a blind-spot and he was smart enough to accept that he needed all the help he could get to manage the curse. Nor was the discussion he had with Briana about getting Dimitri involved if he won more than four times in a row. If that happened again, he hoped that Dimitri would find a way to let him rage safely. The management framework he had put in place felt robust and would probably hold the risks at bay while he was a child, but once he became an adult and became a bit more powerful everything was going to become more unpredictable and dangerous.

This new skill DEUS was pushing his way was not the solution, but it would help.

Skill: Insanity Guidance—Tier 4

When your mental state is impacted by external forces or internal skills, precognition will act directly to help prevent your actions from doing irreparable harm to you or your loved ones. At tier 4 and level one, this skill will be able to have a minor effect on your actions.

It was far from being a perfect panacea, but a minor effect was not something to dismiss outright. After all, it might turn a lethal spear thrust through the heart of a friend to one that just missed. Or his eyes might skip over Eloise and see a way other than going through her to reach what had set off his fury.

Slight twists that could preserve his life and that of his companions. It was nowhere near enough and given the curse wasn’t going away he would seek to gain additional abilities to help or to evolve the skill further, but he would not rely on such a path. He understood how hard it was to improve a tier four ability so he couldn’t bank on that sort of good fortune even if his fate could bias the scales in his favour. The probabilities of what he needed to occur, to upgrade a tier 4 skill or get lots of levels in it, in a short amount of time were so infinitesimal he was not sure they could be imagined into existence. 

The void surrounding him shattered, and he appeared in the midst of an ocean standing on top of a partially submerged island. Rocky upthrusts formed a patchy broken surface around him where the high points of the island valiantly stood their ground against the ocean’s fury to create a terrestrial battlefield admittedly a more challenging one than usual. Some of the mini-islands were the size of a car while others were twenty metres across. It felt artificial because there was no genuine high ground with the highest point being only a couple metres above the waterline and with large waves, many exceeding two metres in height, there was nowhere safe from the encroaching water. The waves crashed on the rocks, sending glittering sprays of water through the air and regularly flooding across the exposed surface.

Even as he assessed his location, a large wave struck the living room sized stone that he stood upon. Heavy water rushed over the rock. It only came up to his ankles but despite that, in his thirty kilogram body it almost swept him off his feet.

The very environment was treacherous, but he had taken its measure and so he calmly regarded his opponent. It stood on a similar sized rock the standard twelve metres away, and Tom’s lips thinned when he saw it.

He cursed his arrogance.

He should have paid attention in the void. Going into these fights blind was stupid, and it almost cost him. It took every iota of his will not to smile manically.

There was no way to tell if it could interpret human body language, but that didn’t stop him. With an expressionless face and hate in his eyes, he glared at it.

This promised to be a great day.

It was happening.

The trident appeared uncomfortable with the wet environment. It was how it stood and the disgusted way those big eyes looked down on the seething ocean. The petty detail made him unreasonably happy.

It shifted awkwardly to avoid the splash of a wave and Tom felt like laughing as the same salty spray fell across his own face. It was like a refreshing summer shower.

The countdown hit zero, and Tom dutifully tried to create his lightning javelins while knowing the attempt would fail. He was faster than the last time he had met this particular monster and the javelins could now snap into existence in less than a quarter of a second, but even that was too slow.

The reality illusion claimed him.

His almost perfectly created spell collapsing beyond his power to maintain as the trident’s skill took hold. Tom couldn’t help but grit his teeth as he ruthlessly suppressed his instinctive panic at the abrupt cessation of control. It was like a monster beyond comprehension fought him as opposed to an annoying terror child. His instincts screamed at him to His instincts screamed at him to break the hostile magic. To tear apart the weak spell that dared to control him, to flex his title and be done with the pretence. Instead, he endured the cloying feeling of being trapped. He pretended to be helpless and separated from his spells and skills and his muscles futilely fought against the reality restraints that bound him. Perfectly invisible tailored metallic bands settled over him to hold him in place.

The trident stared at him only briefly before it glanced in distaste at its surroundings. The inconvenience of the wet battlefield a larger concern than the person it was going to kill. 

With an audible curse, the non-physically gifted monster leapt across the gap separating them. It landed heavily on all four of its feet with its talons scraping loudly against the bare rock. Then on the same island, as Tom it stood up on two legs and brushed water off its clothes.

“This,” it looked around angrily. “This is a disaster.” The cultured tones told him. “This is my last fight, and I was hoping to reach thirty-two incapacitations, and instead I’m up against you again. Forced to fight a coward who cheats with a GOD’s shield. I’ve already studied you. What’s the point of this. A waste of my time and effort and talents.”

A particularly heavy wave washed over them and both, he and the trident were toppled. With no ability to brace, he was knocked off his feet. His face was briefly submerged in the rushing water before strong hands gripped him and tore him back before he was swept off the side.

“Stupid, uncivilised trial. This was supposed to be my swan song. I was meant to be drawn against a misguided brave soul and crush them. My people did a ritual to guarantee it. It was supposed to be a glorious final duel. I was supposed to get the title for incapacitating thirty-two people!” the claws dug into his arm causing blood to run from the cuts they had created. “I can’t even hurt you properly because of the interfering GOD’s shield. It’s intolerable.”

A spray of water smashed into both their faces. Tom was glad that the reality illusion was physically preventing him from moving because otherwise the manic grin he would have been spouting would have almost certainly given his deception away. Soul Stun was formed and ready to strike and his enemy was distracted, spluttering, and frustrated at the weather conditions.

“And this arena is stupid. I should have just quit rather than accepting my last fight. Why did it have to be a water arena?”

Tom’s joy spiked further at all the reveals. The trident’s people had spent a ton of resources to help him spread his disgusting brand of misery and despite all that investment Kang by himself had thwarted them. Kang had given him this final chance to have revenge before the evil thing aged out. There would be no windfall of ranking points, because it was not going to be extinguishing the hopes of any more civilisations, but he didn’t care about that wrinkle. This was about delivering justice.

In its hand, a scalpel appeared to cut him physically open and based on previous engagements it would go for his spinal cord first and then it would start the soul attacks.

Another wave almost knocked it off its feet, and in that moment of distraction Tom acted.

The reality illusion that stopped him from touching his skills and magic shattered. 

A burst complemented the boost in attributes that his traits were already giving him, thanks to the trident’s higher values, to make him both stronger and faster than his opponent.

His spear forgotten, two knives materialised in his hands and he unleashed Soul Stun upon it. The difference between the trident’s resistance levels and the centipede was immediately apparent. The trident was significantly more robust, but that didn’t help it. Tom’s own abilities were superior to its lazy, scorn fuelled excuse of soul training.

It faltered under the shock of its reality illusion, breaking along with the soul strike and rather than reacting in a sensible fashion and leaping away. An act that would have made the fight a contest it instead remained, like the dumb fool it was, unmoved and a stationary target.

Both knifes plunged into its back like he had practiced those hundreds of times to perfect the actions. The specialised three-pronged dagger struck high and severed all three of the brain stems in a single blow and in doing so removed the capability of the primary brain to both direct the body and access its magic. His second dagger stabbed home into the base of the second brain, disabling it as well. Then, before its healing could help restore its upper brain function, Tom went to work with the third knife having left the other two embedded in its body. With cold sharp metal lacerating the heart and Spark frying its delicate insides, the healing went to preserving life rather than fixing its ability to think.

Abrupt and unexpected pain washed over him.

It was like a vault of acid had been tipped on top of him.

It took him a moment to realise what was happening.

The Trident was attacking him. Its physical body had been disabled, but Tom should have known that wasn’t enough. Like him with the reality illusion, it could still use its soul attacks and it had just sucker punched him with the same ability that had torn Kang’s soul apart.

Tom hesitated for a moment uncertain how to react.

The attack was painful, but it was nothing compared to what Mr Cricket had done to him almost nightly for years. Then, when he checked the integrity of his soul, there was no injury not even the precursor of one.

He laughed.

It had hit him with its strongest and best attack, and it had failed.

“None of that,” Tom scolded while Rend slammed down against his opponent and left narrow scratches on its soul. “Today is my day.”

Critically, he examined his own soul attack. All that mattered was that it had done damage even if it was only a sixth of what he had been able to do with each blow against the centipede. The trident truly was stronger than it.

There were no downsides to this discovery of strength. It had probably consumed precious treasures to strengthen itself to such a degree, an investment that the terror race wouldn’t see a return on. Plus, he wasn’t on the clock and the extra resistance only meant it would suffer for longer.

He had plenty of time, considerably more than what he had with the centipede. This time the mind was disabled, so there was no flood of poison for him to counter and the ticking clock that threat had represented when all he had been able to do was delay its spread. To prolong this fight all he had to do was to keep stabbing it and its regeneration would keep fixing the heart rather than the brains and with them disabled it couldn’t trigger its own deadman’s switch and while it was helpless, his own diagnosis abilities could find those triggers and disable them.

“You hit like a child,” he told it as another blow struck him. While the strike had stung, there was still no noticeable damage, but he had been watching this time. Now he knew where its soul attack had originated from.

Tom struck it with another Rend not bothering to switch positions and instead focused on deepening the existing scratches. Scalpel, on the other hand he used more discerningly. With precision, he applied it to the three-dimensional cluster of runic lines where its attack skill had been launched from.

“How does it feel to know that you are going to die?” He asked, trying to channel the annoying way it had spoken when it had carried out its own torture routine. Even as he taunted it, he kept his multiple attacks cycling one after another. It, paralysed as it was, didn’t respond. “It must be so embarrassing to die like this, butchered like a cow while being soaking wet.”

He couldn’t tell for certain, but it definitely felt like his words were affecting it as its counterattack had more oomph behind it. The trident enjoyed taunting its prey and so he figured like most bullies it would be thin skinned when its own methods were turned against. “Stop tickling me.”

It struck again, and he wasn’t imagining it. The blow had been more powerful, and it left a mark on the surface of his soul. But its attacks while apparently capable of hurting him were way too weak to do so practically. After twelve hours, a draw was declared, and it wouldn’t be able to manage any true damage in that time. After his sessions with Mr Cricket, Tom knew the types of beatings his soul could take.

“How does it feel to die on your last day in this trial? What’s it like knowing if you hadn’t gotten greedy you could have walked away with honour, titles and skills, but your greed has condemned you to a painful death?”

There was no response. Not even a soul attack, and it wasn’t because it didn’t want to.

He smiled.

This was what winning felt like. His Scalpel had mangled the trident’s attack ability. It was helpless and in agony and dying, and Tom couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction. Its coming death was a win for the good guys.

“It’s a damn shame that your abilities are too weak to touch me isn’t it?”

Tom grinned as his rend that had been consistently striking the same location tore through into the inner part of the trident’s soul. He remembered the pain Mr Cricket had subjected him to, and those blows had only ever shredded the outer parts of his soul. The open competitor had always been careful to avoid skills and to not go too deep. The pain the monster was experiencing had to be greater than what Tom had suffered.

A couple of Rend attacks to deepen the wounds would kill it but it was too early to do so. If it died now, there was a chance it could survive with only minor soul wounds. That was unacceptable, so he shifted his attack to go after each of the skills on the surface. He was determined to ensure that if it survived, at a minimum it would be at least as disabled as Kang had been. It took twenty or thirty strikes per skill, but one by one the abilities it had were permanently torn from it as he scarred its soul.

Over an hour had passed, which was only as long as one of Mr Cricket’s sessions, but Tom knew he had been far more brutal than his teacher had ever been. He had been attacking to destroy instead of to educate.

With a grin, he pulled out the dagger that was stopping its body from acting and ceased his attack on the heart.

After less than thirty seconds, the trident’s admittedly impressive regeneration switched to the brain stems. “How does it feel?”

The trident started screaming as finally the brain started sending signals to the rest of the body. This was the critical moment. He wasn’t ready for it to escape, but he wanted it to feel deeper despair and he had a Soul Stun ready to be unleashed in case his analysis was wrong. Touch Heal had already physically removed three stores of different poisons and two cursed objects, but he wasn’t a hundred percent certain he had gotten everything. It depended on how paranoid it was.

Nothing went wrong. Its body healed back toward full health even if the soul was close to falling apart. “This is personal. You probably don’t care, but you incapacitated my friend.”

“Good,” the trident spat.

“Bad for you. It was my friend who made sure that I met you today.”

“Impossible.”

Tom just smiled as Scalpel traced a line through an area of already tenderised soul and made it start to scream once more. “All your supposed brilliance and you don’t know how things truly work. How does it feel to die?”

It stopped screaming. Those massive eyes stared at him and it tried to strike him with its claws. Tom blocked it effortlessly and chuckled despite himself.

“Why don’t you use your magic?” he taunted.

The look of horror and despair on its face said everything.

“You can’t? You’re completely helpless, aren’t you?”

“I’m strong.”

Tom laughed. “You were strong. Now you’re nothing. I’m going to kill you now. This was nowhere near as fun as I had hoped. Instead, I feel disgusted at myself at thinking I would enjoy this.”

“Spare me then.”

“No,” Tom told him simply. “Your evil gets removed today. I might not like the process, but I will do what needs to be done.”

“You can’t kill me. I’m here with a partial GOD’s shield.”

“We both know that functionally. That’s not true.” He stabbed the daggers back in place to shut it up and then he started removing its organs just like he had been shown. Its regeneration was helpless against his surgery-based assault. Those organs whose loss wouldn’t kill it immediately he destroyed. Then he carefully reinstated all five deadman pay loads and continued cutting away the soul.

He monitored everything, waiting for a moment that it was about to die and the partial GOD’s shield would trigger to save it. Progressing the physical and soul damage forward in tandem.

The soul shivered and started to collapse, and Tom instantly triggered all the deadman switches while plunging Rend into the weakened parts of its soul to make sure of the kill. The blow went straight through the quivering, dying soul and it shredded it from its head to its navel.

The arena dissolved around him, and Tom found he didn’t feel anything. The process had sapped him of all his emotions, well the positive ones at least. He had done his job, but it had not been pleasant.

He appeared in the lobby, said nothing to either Briana or Baptiste and left them, only pausing to buy the precognition pack.

The moment he arrived back in his body, lying on his bed, in the dark, the invitation from Kang came through and he accepted it. How he knew was a mystery, but somehow he always did.

Tom stared at his friend who waved as he normally did. He wasn’t sure, but it looked like Kang had an expectant look on his face. “It’s done. The trident’s dead.” Tom announced without any fanfare.

“Ood… M… me…. P…p…ppy.”

Tom nodded and guessed at the meaning. “You’re happy.”

“Ya.”

“That’s great Kang.”

“N…N… gain.”

Tom stared at him, trying to work out what he was trying to say.

“You…ppy.”

“Am I happy?”

There was a nod.

“Revenge was not the amazing feeling I expected. It was kind of horrible to be honest, but that creature won’t hurt anymore people, so that part’s great.”

“Ood. No… ppy…. Now.”

“Happy now?” Tom guessed.

Kang half nodded and half shook his head. “Wh… Wh…”

“What can make me happy now?”

This time, the nod was a definitive yes.

Internally he sighed in relief he hadn’t actually been able to interpret what Kang had been saying. His response had been conjecture based on his summarisation of Kang’s outlook on life.

“Um…” he scratched his head and remembered the changes to Known Heretic. It would basically allow him to gift items that he had tiered up and potentially if an item circled lots he could tier things up multiple times. “Um… I want to start the gifting circle thing that I’ve spoken about. I give random things to people and have them give other stuff back to me. As far as particulars go, quantity is more important than quality.”

The stuffed teddy bear trident against the wall disappeared and was replaced with a Christmas tree.

Tom smirked when he saw it. “Yes, I guess that’s accurate. Something like Christmas but have it happening every day.”

Fate rushed out of Kang, and a present appeared underneath the tree. Tom, despite wanting to press for answers had learned better. “Let’s fill up all that space with presents.” He suggested to his friend brightly.

Kang grinned back at him and Tom wondered what the Trident would have thought if it knew about the monster that it had created.