Dan crouched down and tried searching through the severed body parts of the cult master’s remains for anything to loot. The moment his hand brushed against something, Judith’s voice cut into his mind.
“Sorry Dan,” Judith said. “You can have the bragging rights for your kill, but whatever loot that motherfucker has, I’ll be taking it. Step away from the body.”
“Right,” he sighed. He stood back up and walked away from the cult master’s body.
Somehow, this cult master by himself without any guns or equipment except for his fancy robes had given them this much trouble. He and Ada both walked together along the street. He watched the last of the cultists attempt to flee from Natalia before they were instantly dismembered and beheaded.
He felt discontent with this outcome. It wasn’t just because Judith reserved the right to loot whatever valuables the cult master had. Somehow, that fanatic had ties with Michael Cynosa. Michael had given the cult master his description and he was immediately recognized by the enemy.
What the fuck is going on here, he thought to himself.
Dan’s HUD popped up with an urgent notification.
Congratulations!
You have reached Tier 2 | Level 34.
You have earned 20 stat points.
Dan was shocked at the four rank jump from killing the cult master. Immediately Dan was calculating where his excess of stat points would be allocated into. Another message popped up in his HUD.
Assist counts as a kill.
You have killed your first cult master from the Church of Nanotology.
Massive experience bonus rewarded.
Somehow since he had been taken prisoner by Kodak, he had progressed over ten levels and was more powerful than he ever was. Dan looked at his sword and saw the blood from the cult master was slowly being absorbed into the blade. His corrosia energy was refilling at a slightly accelerated rate. Now, his corrosia bar was back at around half capacity. He wondered if his Conservative was responsible for that.
When the blood was completely absorbed into the blade, Dan placed the Conservative back into the scabbard. The walk with Ada on their way to regroup with the rest of the team was oddly peaceful. Dan still had blood splattered on his coat and armor while Ada was still wiping blood off her face from their grusome kill together.
A harsh cackling filled his ears and he frowned. He knew who it was.
Excellent, excellent, Overlord said. You defeated the cult master of the Church. You should be proud of yourself. I am sure that Judith will be envious of your victory.
“Good,” Dan said. “Let that bitch be salty.”
Overlord continued cackling before he faded away from his mind. But Dan didn’t let that entity ruin how good his victory felt. He had just bested probably the most dangerous adversary he had ever faced and experienced a multi-level jump from the experience rewards alone. A thought crept up in his mind. He wondered if Judith’s offer really could elevate him to further heights than what he just experienced today. But he quickly shoved that thought aside. There was no way he would accept that bitch’s offer.
Dan stepped over many bodies of the robed cultists empowered by the cult master’s corrosia. Aside from the being cut down by him and Judith, many of them were killed with precise headshots as they laid lifeless on the pavement. All of them gave up their free will and autonomy and put their lives in the hands of their psychic commander who merely used them as disposable cannon fodder. The more he though about that grim reality, the harsher it was to think that the enemies who laid dead at his feet got the shitty end of the deal.
He took his mind off that and turned to Ada. “You still have blood in your eyes?”
“It’s annoying when you don’t have a cloth,” she said.
Dan stretched out his arm. “Here’s the next best thing. You can use my sleeve.”
The young Bloodknight looked at him. Then she abruptly shut her eye from the irriation of my blood leaking into it. Ada had saved his ass when he was being choked out by the cult master and she helped him deliver the killing blow that left the fanatic in pieces behind him. It was the least Dan could do for her.
She grabbed his arm and yanked in various directions trying to use the fabric of his coat to wipe off the cult master’s blood from her face. By the time she was done, Ada still had some streaks of red smeared along her cheeks but at least her face wasn’t glistening blood.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Sure thing. It’s the least I could do.”
When Dan reached the demolished banking branch, he saw Kate slumped next to the transport, clutching her upper arm that got hit by the cult master’s energy attack. She glanced at him and widened her eyes.
“H-how? How did you grow this powerful?” she asked.
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Dan smirked under his mask and gave a simple reply. “Because I’m just that good. You should know by know that I overturn all the shit that comes at me. You could learn something from me.”
Kate didn’t say anything. Instead, she kept clutching her arm and tried suppressing her soft whimpers.
“It seems the fight is over,” a voice said.
Dan jerked his head and saw Li standing beside the transport at the large whole in the front of the bank. The silver-clad agent confidently and his left arm wasn’t limp anymore. Only now did Dan realize that he hadn’t seen Li for the entire time he battled the cult master on the surface.
“Did that artefact give you the boost?” Dan asked.
“Sure did,” Li said. He lifted his arm and crueld his fist. “My arm is back to normal. I’ve jumped six levels and received a bunch of stat points to play with.”
“Good shit Li,” he said. “So when did you wake up?”
The stealth specialist walked up to him, kicking aside bricks. “When I woke up, my ears were assaulted with a mass shootout right in front of the building. A snuck down to the transport and grabbed what I needed before heading back up to the second floor and getting myself in position. Kate and Adam were out of the fight. Judith and her minion Natalia were holding their own on the streets and everyone else was getting their asses kicked by the cultists. I took my time taking out cultists on the streets, going for headshots to make suyre they were put down for good. I saw a female Bloodknight rush to your rescue when that cult master had you held up.”
“Oh,” Dan said. “So you saw all that.”
“I’m not one to turn down a challenge, but that cult master was kicking your ass and I didn’t like my odds even with my own power up. Plus there were still a bunch of cultists roaming around on these streets and any number of them could have broken off from the team and rushed to aid their commander. And since everyone except Judith and Natalia were getting eviscerated, I stayed to keep these fools at bay. It appears you and your friend here had that matter under control.”
Dan performed a brief scan of Li’s stats after he powered himself up with the artefact.
Agent: Li “Arctic” Phantom
Age: 21 M
Shard: Alpha Corporation (formerly Spec Ops Hellhound)
Rank: Tier 2 | Level 32
Strength: 27
Agility: 35
Endurance: 28
Intelligence: 30
Supernatural: Acolyte
Healing Factor: n/a
Reflex: Superior +
Li obviously hadn’t spent the time to allocate his stat points. While Dan still remained two levels higher than him, they were now brought up to equal footing assuming Li were to spend all of his stat points.
“So what did you meet with Overlord in that realm?”
“I did,” Li said. “I had to dump some points into my supernatural stat before I was granted an official rank for it. During my time with that entity, I unlocked a new technique. Something called the shadow blade.”
Dan remembered the few encounters he had previously against the Church agents. One of those fanatics slashed him in the hip and his healing factor struggled to mend his wound from that shadow blade that was forged into a dagger. He wondered if that ability had variations, whether it could be forged into some other weapon, like a full-sized sword.
A slow clap filled the air and all three of them turned to watch as Judith slowly walked toward them. She wore a nefarious smile on her face as she made eye contact with Dan. Her armor and her brown hair were soaked in blood from fighting off the enhanced cultists.
“Ada, nice of you to join us,” she said. “As for you Dan, you did well. If you and Li agree to my offer, I can promise you more high octane adventures just like this one in your futures.”
Dan narrowed his eyes at her. Judith’s fake warmness always put him on edge.
“So, how does it feel taking down your first cult master?” Judith asked.
He gave the lead Bloodknight a blank stare, wondering what her angle was. Judith was unpredictable and Dan didn’t rule anything out. From talking about Jane in such a callous manner to her explanations about corrosia and magic, pretty much anything could leave her mouth.
“Come on. It’s a rather simple question,” she insisted.
Dan knew that if he told her that it felt good to kill such a powerful opponent, then she would only double down on her sales pitch for him to ditch the Alpha Corp and work under her leadership.
“Well, I get to brag that I succeeded where you failed,” Dan said proudly with his full chest. Ada shot him a wide-eyed glance and her mouth was a tight line.
Li nodded his helmet slightly in approval.
Judith furrowed her brow at him and her jaw tightened. But then her features softened and she let out an amused huff. “Well then, I guess I’ll go off of that little boast of yours. Knowing you, I’d say that you must of reveled every second you spent fighting against that bastard. And in the end, you managed to kill him and tower over such a strong opponent. If I recall, your progression in your supernatural category is entirely kill-based. Meaning my offer would be perfect for you and Li. Trust me Dan, I believe you will find the life of a Bloodknight quite invigorating.”
“Fuck that,” Dan shot back. “I kill when I need to. If someone is after me or the people I care about, then it’s fair game. I don’t hunt and kill for sport. Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
Judith gave a low chuckle at his answer. “Are you serious? You’re really going to play the “I do it to protect my friends” card? Come on Dan. Get with the times already.”
Li stepped forward facing Judith, almost shoulder to shoulder with Dan. “His bloodlust would be best suited directed at Kodak trash like you. Dan would never be tempted by your worthless offer.”
The lead Bloodknight snorted and held her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t hold it in anymore before bursting out laughing.
“Well then, if you two have more jokes, feel free to share them on our trip back,” she said. Judith ran her fingers through her blood-soaked brunette hair before she spun on her heel and walked away from the trio.
Dan leaned in closer to Ada and said to her, “Your boss is a fucking lunatic, you know that?”
Ada gave him a sideways glance. “I am… acutely aware of that fact.”
At the corner of his eye, Dan saw Natalia leap up to the third floor of a building. The entire side had been caved in and he remembered the cult master throwing Adam into that section using his telekinesis. The Bloodknight emerged out of the damaged section and hopped back down to the street.
Kate’s reaction was oddly sullen. Her eyes were pointed down to the ground and her jaw no longer tensed from the wound to her arm.
“Why the long face, Kate?” Dan said in a mocking tone. “Wasn’t this what you signed up for.?”
The blond still didn’t lift her face up nor did she make a reply. Even with the cult master dead and many of his followers’ corpses littering the streets, Dan’s ears still picked up distant ambient pops and cracks of gunfire. This city was still a mess of hostile activity even after everything they had endured.
The roaring screams of jet engines along with the sudden waves of hot air blew into Dan’s face as a aircraft flew low over their heads just above the building roofs.
“That’s our ride,” Judith said. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
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