Chapter 441: 80%

441 80%

When Aldrich did not receive any contact from Valera, he reached out to his other Chosen: Vexa. She responded immediately.

'What's going on?' said Aldrich, tone urgent.

'I am unsure, my lord,' said Vexa apologetically.

'With an entire network of butterfly eyes, you don't know?'

'The assault went well. Valera showed tremendous force, tearing apart men left and right. My brood performed adequately as well. More so than I thought in this strange new world.'

'But what went wrong?'

'Valera's show of force brought forth their champion. A warrior woman with the visage of a feral wolf-beast. Valera used her dueling taunt upon the beast-woman, and together, they crashed through a building to fight in isolation while my brood slaughtered the lesser soldiers.'

'Adriana. The other Sword Capo.' Unlike Nico, Adriana was less careful about concealing her powers, but even then, the Trident did well in covering up any information available about her on the Net.

He checked Valera's status, specifically her HP. It was low, flashing red low. And not regenerating.

'Vexa, redirect the majority of your forces to Valera's location,' demanded Aldrich.

'I am afraid it is not possible, my lord. I have tried. The wolf-woman has erected a barrier of poisons around the building that not even the hardiest of my insect warriors can stomach before melting into nothingness, let alone my butterflies.

The only one that can intervene is-,'

'Is me.' Aldrich grimaced, or he would have if his skull face could do so. With his [Death Essence Barrier] blocking out energy-type attacks which included environmental hazards like acidic air, he was the best candidate to help Valera.

Immediately, he began to channel [Mist Phase], kneeling down as his undead fog began to gather around him.

"All of you make your way towards the fight," said Aldrich to the Ivory Knights. They nodded and began a steady charge through the forest, bulldozing through trees standing in their way. "And you-,"

He addressed Nico. "Keep that coin ready. Fire on my mark."

Nico nodded.

As Aldrich's channeling continued, a channel whose each and every second felt agonizingly long, he wondered how Valera could have lost. He had done a battle assessment and seen her winning 9 times out of 10.

Adriana was a mutant that looked reasonably similar to a werewolf. Her sheer size indicated a considerable degree of superhuman physical stats. He also knew that she had killed no less than three A-rank heroes.

Inferno, a Blaster from the European Union who could whip up flaming tornadoes.

Multiman, an Augmenter from the United States who could create copies of himself.

And, most notably, Tianyong, an A+ rank hero from China who was considered an up-and-coming S ranker. He had it all. Came from a family of distinguished techno heroes. Graduated from Yumenguan, the top hero academy there. And after that, became a top disciple of Sifu, the hero with the greatest legacy in all of East Asia.

Tianyong could wield Qi excellently and seamlessly synchronize it with his transforming techno-weapon and battle armor. In terms of track record and combat capability, he was good enough to be fast-tracked to be an S-class hero.

Of course, until he met his untimely demise trying to stop a gang war between the Imperials, the largest criminal syndicate in China, and the Trident.

All three heroes showed signs of significant physical trauma along the lines of being savaged by a wild beast. Claw marks, bite marks, the whole macabre catalog. On top of that, large chunks of their bodies had been melted off with a caustic green substance. The radiation coming off their corpses was so intense that there was no dosimeter capable of easily reading it either.

Inferno and Multiman were both melted down without much of a fight, showing that more so than anything, their lungs had turned into goop. Tianyong's tech had fried against high radiation exposure.

Knowing this, Aldrich had sent Valera out to fight her. She had incredible regenerative ability and natural resistance to poisons which should have translated to radiation. On top of that, she herself was level 70, the same as Aldrich, and as a dedicated warrior, she could invest all her stats into physical ones.

In raw physicality, she was a whole league ahead of Inferno, Minuteman, and Tianyong after his mech suit fried. At the very least, unlike anything Adriana had faced.

He had expected a fight between Valera and Aldrich to be a challenge, but not a life-threatening one. Similar in vein to him and Nico.

But Adriana had turned out to be more trouble than he had bargained for. Maybe more trouble than she was worth. He would find out when he got there.

"YOU HEAL A LOT. I WILL MAKE SURE THERE IS NOTHING LEFT LIKE A GOOD GIRL DOES," said Adriana. She moved to take a step forward but stopped, the hairs on her hackles raising.

"Hahhh." A voice rasped out from the melting torso through scrambled vocal cords. The voice became clearer, chords tying together and growing back tougher, stronger. "I did not want to use this. I prefer to keep my head. But it looks like may have it before long."

A red aura roared around the torso, raging and coursing in bloody strands and pillars. They gathered into the shape of limbs made of pure, raw red - flesh and blood matter made whole.

On these, the torso stood. A red sheen washed over its scarred, distorted face and restored pale skin, elegant, sharp features, blazing red eyes, sharp, vampiric teeth.

Valera was back. "[Reversion: 80%]

In the next moment, her pretty face distorted again, but not because of acid melting her flesh, but because it was morphing into something else, something monstrous. Her eyes sealed shut, useless vestigial little things they were that True Vampires, the primordial night creatures that never knew light, never needed.

Her pointed ears became larger, her mouth ripping apart to make room for several more rows of large, sharp teeth. Cracks echoed out as her spine and bones shattered and restructured, hunching her, extending her limbs, making them larger, capable of carrying more muscle, pushing out of her elbows and knees and hands in spikes. Wings burst forth from her back. Red and black carapace covered her pale flesh, armoring her with flesh plate that could withstand strikes from the mightiest of paladins.

"YOU THINK YOURSELF A MONSTER...?" she said, her voice rattling, deeply guttural, on the way to becoming less and less capable of uttering human inflections. "YOU WILL SEE WHAT A TRUE MONSTER IS."