Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1502: Strike One To Three

Classes in Aigas came in three broader categories: Form Users, Arma Users, and Energy Formers.

Of these three, Silrat, like most, belonged to the Form Using category, which included Classes that gave their users abilities tailored towards direct confrontations with their body and mind like Warriors and Mind Casters.

Silrat himself related more to hand-to-hand combat than armed combat and the manipulation of strange energies. Thus, when he saw that the enemy was going to strike, he didn't hesitate to use the information Ferex was funnelling into him about all his abilities and defend.

'Mana is useless against these Divine beings as far as I know. So, I need…' The instant the signal was sent, Ferex's body responded to Silrat's thoughts. Null Life Essence flooded out of Ferex's Null Core to reinforce him in a towering, bloated cocoon.

…But by then, a terrible blow had already befallen them both. There was shattering boom and Silrat felt him and Ferex get sliced cleanly through from the shoulder to the underarm!

The force of the blow resounded across the ground behind them.

Silrat gritted his teeth, sweating. It hurt like the devil.

…But then he was healed an instant later. Using [Soul Acre], Ferex reinforced Silrat's soul and an instant later, his body was convinced it was never harmed. The body learned from the soul, and the soul learned from the body. [Soul Acre] in Ferex's hands brought this fundamental truth to a new absurd peak!

The effect was more advanced than the one deposited through the [Soul Talisman].

Silrat was taken aback. His soul felt like some stalwart mass of steel at the moment, and his physical body copied it, transcending its own limitations to mirror his soul; it essentially ignored the damage it had taken!

This….

"That's one," came Ferex's nonchalant voice.

"I know, I know!" said Silrat and he took himself out of the stupor. "I was late in guarding. That bastard is fast!"

And it turned out that the heavy Cavern was even faster. Silrat hadn't even finished his sentence when a fist came smashing into the face of his helmet (Ferex's head). It was fortunate that his reinforcement with Null Life Essence was formidable. He went flying over two kilometers before crashing into the ground. His face was still intact, but blood spewed from his broken lips.

…But again, Silrat healed.

"That's two."

"I know!" Silrat cried and hurried to stand up, taking a breather. With Ferex's help, his thoughts ran faster, but apparently, that was a luxury he didn't deserve.

'I have to change my approach,' he thought and turned resolute.

The heavy Cavern warped a few meters away from him, brandishing his glaive again. He wore a wide, mocking grin.

He was toying with him.

That lit a fuse in Silrat.

'You're enjoying this, aren't you?' he thought, and then he tapped into Ferex's abilities. The Apostle had a hide that had the properties of a Null Life Class called the Spirit Walker. He activated it, and at once, he and Ferex's presence vanished.

The Cavern was taken aback. Where had the enemy gone? He'd decided to toy with them before finishing them with a single blow to spite their efforts, but now…

He looked left and right. There was no sign of the enemy. Even his Divine senses detected nothing.

The Cavern scowled.

Meanwhile, in the advanced stealth, Silrat created distance between himself and the creature.

"You said you'd only give me three chances to attack him, right?" he asked Ferex.

"That's right. If it takes four to five blows, my Flaw might kick in. And if I take the same amount of blows, it might trigger too," said the Apostle.

"Alright then. I guess I'll test out my first idea."

Of all the information that Ferex fed Silrat about his (Ferex's) abilities, the one that might have intrigued Silrat the most was that the Apostle was able to use Skullius' skills. (Not his Andori.) The Apostle has also freely shown which of Skullius' abilities he had access to.

One was particularly enticing.

While Silrat was cooking up something dreadful, the thickly Cavern scowled. He couldn't help, but think that his enemy had fled, otherwise he would have attacked by now. Of course, the creature took no chances.

He raised his glaive and plunged into the ground.

Quite like most of the Cavern that had touched upon the Divine stage, he didn't have an Andori; the Cavern Skullius had fought after reaching Divinity had also lacked Andori.

This was because the Under wasn't a world, and thus Boron had had to resort to unconventional means to have a few of his children reach Divinity. They were Divine, but not especially powerful.

But many could compensate for this through the Treasures Boron granted them.

And indeed, Treasures.

The glaive the Cavern was wielding was a World rank Prime Treasure with a basic property that allowed it to anticipate the next move of its enemy when it was plunged into the ground. But there was a caveat, of course. The user was supposed to be able to sense the enemy.

The heavy Cavern obviously couldn't. The dual layer of a mutation like Ferex's as well as the shroud of generous amounts of Null Life Essence made him and Silrat hard to pinpoint for the senses of weaker Divines.

The Cavern growled furiously when it felt no feedback reaching its mind about the enemy's potential route of attack.

Had the enemy really fled then?

The answer to that came just when the creature pulled its glaive out of the ground, and raised its arm.

SHUP!

A ferocious blow came piercing right into the creature's underarm. The ground exploded in protest from the force, and the Cavern roared in both fury and agony. It snapped in the direction the blow had come. Blood oozed from the indentation in the vulnerable flesh under its lumpy arm.

The creature meant to swipe the air where the enemy was still invisible, but it suddenly drew back. A sharp jolt of pain bombarded its soul. Its eyes turned bloodshot.

What was this? What had the mortal opponent done?

As the Cavern agonized over this, Silrat grinned.

"Not bad," he said. His hand (Ferex's) had become a large, steel drill laced with Null Life Essence. But deep within, golden quality mana was tracing Silrat's veins, converging into the point of the drill. "I guess if you target the right spot on any opponent, and with the right attack, it will deal damage."

"That's one," came Ferex's voice.

Silrat sighed.

"I got it. Two more chances left," he said, and he employed the Supreme Skill, [Greatest Hegemon of Sorcerous Mana] once more, turning his dismal quality and quantity of mana formidable.

Gold quality mana ran through him generously.

At the same time, [Soul Acre] throbbed inside him.

"Onto my next idea, then," said Silrat.

Bit by bit. He was starting to enjoy this.