by L. M. Kerr
Instead of sprinting forward or leaping back, he modified his Celestial Aura to adjust the rate time was being sped up by. He kept his movements cool and controlled, never standing fully still.
An attack that would hit him when he was at 50% enhanced speed might miss by a hair at 34% enhanced speed. Conversely, an attack that was sure to shatter his arm if he remained at 34% speed might be easily dodged at 47% enhanced speed, or safely blocked at 42% enhanced speed.
By fluctuating the rate that he was modifying his movements by, not only could he lessen the amount of energy he was using, he was also able to show off his masterful talent at combat.
It was a truly incredible example of skill, an enemy Micheal would’ve loved to duel fairly.
Blasts of energy, blades covered in bloody red light, spears thrown as fast as a bullet, a mountain of attacks fell towards the Celestial Silverback user…
And he handled each and every one, coming through with nary a scratch.
The elite members of the Shadow Guard never stood a chance. Only the Shadow Captain Tanin was able to hold the warrior back, calling floating roots into existence that obstructed his enemy’s movement while steadfastly tanking the blows the warrior rained down upon him. Tanin tried to return Silverback’s attacks with mighty strikes of his own, but lacked the speed to connect.
Micheal watched every movement the Celestial Silverback user made, only now realizing the true potential of the Temporal Bubble Ability he had obtained. It was as if he had been blind but now could see, a wash of understanding flooding into him.
He made a second observation in that same moment.
The Farians… were losing.
Micheal’s gaze pierced through the Blood Aura that surrounded Shadow Captain Tanin, just barely able to pick out the Farian’s bloodstained lips. Each Hammer Energy-infused blow that the Celestial Silverback user ushered forth contained a massive amount of force. While Tanin’s Ancient Tremont Tree Bloodline had decently strong defensive properties that the genius Farian utilized to the absolute highest degree possible, the Farian’s Aura could not help but begin to splinter under Silverback’s relentless assault.
Micheal understood, then, how this secret area had been so easily invaded in his first timeline.
It wasn’t that these Farians were too weak or that the warriors sent by the Beasts of Providence were too strong…
It was because this Celestial Silverback user was the absolute worst type of enemy for them to face.
A warrior that could dodge or deflect all of their attacks with relative ease, all while lashing out with horrifying blows of his own.
Either of the other two Shadow Captains would’ve been able to face up against Silverback squarely, had they been here instead of Tanin.
Shadow Captain Yvinna, the Silent Leech, controlled the somewhat-common Black-Fated Leech Bloodline, capable of unleashing anything from a magical onslaught of undodgeable curses to a high-density barrier that absorbed energy, all with expert skill.
Against her, Silverback’s hammers would lose much of their attack power even as his speed was sapped away, foiling this assault.
Shadow Captain Sprel, the Loyal Lion, and the only active Shadow Captain whose status as such was basically an open secret, controlled the rare White Maned Grand Lion Bloodline, granting him balanced offensive and defensive prowess, as well as an extremely strong level of regeneration.
While Sprel might not be able to handle Silverback as easily as Yvinna, he would still be capable of handily outlasting him. Silverback’s blows would wound Sprel’s defenses, but Sprel’s own attacks would force Silverback to pause often enough that Sprel would still be kicking by the time Silverback ran out of Ki.
The Beasts of Providence had planned this assassination attempt meticulously. They knew exactly who they would be facing, how to counter the defenders of their target, and when they had to attack.
It was a terrifying assault that never should have stood a chance at failing, even if Silverback was forced to attack the secret base entirely on his own.
And that’s where Micheal came into play.
As the battle situation continued to deteriorate, as Silverback relentlessly pounded his hammers forth in an unrestrained barrage against the Farians…
Something began to change.
Everyone in the room, from the Farians to Silverback himself…
Over the next second, all of them abruptly seemed to lose their footing.
It started with the elite members of the Shadow Guard, the non-Rhindor Bloodline users in particular.
Warriors that had been fighting agilely just moments prior tripped over their own feet, slipping on dry ground out of the blue, almost as if they were somehow battling under the pouring rain up on the surface. Some of them instantly got back to their feet, but were then forced to stop, leaning back and forth as they tried to gather their bearings.
Silverback, intent on taking advantage of these mistakes, immediately hefted his hammers as he prepared to strike.
However, the simple action of him hefting those hammers caused the Division Leader to stumble himself, his eyes opening wide behind his mask. His cheeks began to flush, his legs trembling as he forced himself to stand still.
A tiny moment later, the rest of the Farians, Captain Tanin included, slowed down and began to move about somewhat unsteadily. No one present, save for Micheal, was exempt.
Most of the warriors quickly continued their attacks on Silverback, ignoring any distractions with commendable discipline, in Micheal’s opinion. None of them managed to land anything of import, however, their sloppy blows deflected by equally sloppy, but significantly faster, return strikes from the Division Leader.
It was an absurd scene. Highly skilled elites, experts that were some of the best of the best among their own kind, transformed into klutzy warriors that could barely move.
It was almost as if everyone in this area, with the sole exception of Micheal, had become roaringly drunk.
And…
As it turned out…
That was exactly what had happened.
.
Chapter 53
A half-confused, half-overjoyed smile appeared on Micheal’s face as he took everything in, sweat continuing to pour down his forehead as he measured the results of his grand plan.
The diabolic plot he had hatched, the only feasible plan he could conceive, was created because of a fact he could not overturn.
There was truly no realistic way he could win in a direct fight against a powerful Celestial Silverback Type user, not without harming his Soul, something he desperately wanted to avoid. He was so close to being able to safely use Master Tier Sword Energy, a setback that might delay him for weeks or even longer was a huge risk.
It was still true that, even without that, he was strong, and with his Time bubbles, fast. He could use a massive amount of Advanced Tier Sword Energy and owned a slew of useful Artifacts, possessed a tactical mind that he combined with a decade of experience.
However… he was still facing someone with the Celestial Silverback Type, boosted in talent by the Vile King, that had 2-3 years of training and experience of his own.
The Celestial Silverback user’s body was operating at a speed faster than anyone else, forcing time itself to obey him, issuing blows that Micheal probably could not even safely deflect, let alone block or dodge. From the warrior’s thoughts to his attacks, everything about Micheal’s enemy operated at an accelerated rate.
Everything.
Those affected by certain types of Celestial Auras even aged at an accelerated rate, the same way it worked for Micheal’s Time Bubbles, one of the few downsides for those that utilized time-enhancing Abilities.
When Micheal realized that, an idea popped into his head.
If everything about the warrior was operating at an accelerated pace, from his brain to his muscles…
That also had to include his respiratory system, right?
And that was where his two r
ocks came into play.
The first rock, the plain grey one, was not just the everyday riverside stone it appeared to be. It was the nigh legendary King’s Rock that could heal one of almost all ailments, the single most valuable Artifact Micheal had obtained from Yvvtal’s Treasury. Its seemingly ordinary nature belied its true potential, hidden behind a facade of normalcy.
The second rock, on the other hand, was an oddity Micheal had purchased from the Shop.
It was an Incense Rock.
Incense Rocks were unique Artifacts that cost 28,926 Points. The name of these tools gave away their simple function.
They emitted incense.
What type of incense, however, was determined by what substances an Incense Rock absorbed.
This wasn’t an Artifact that was meant for battle, but instead a tool designed for close-range clandestine assassination, meditation, or interior decoration, depending on what it took in.
By imbuing a mix of poisons, combined with warm scented liquids or wax, into an Incense Rock, this Artifact could be disguised and used to poison someone to death in their own bed. Conversely, one could also fill the rock with liquids that had mental-enhancement properties, creating an excellent environment for meditation.
The Artifact itself wasn’t very efficient when it came to large areas, requiring a huge amount of its variable fuel to spread its smoke beyond a few meters. Widening its range to move beyond six or seven meters, or more, took veritable truckloads of liquids, hampering the usefulness of the Artifact.
Still, even if you could acquire truckloads of a certain type of poison, it was entirely conceivable using an Incense Rock would nevertheless fail.
Poisons that were both colorless and scentless, while also being potent enough to kill a superhuman, were extraordinarily difficult to acquire. Micheal was hard-pressed to pick anything out from the Shop that shared those properties. If he went with something that lacked either of those aspects, his silent ambush would almost certainly be detected and foiled, giving Silverback enough time to take countermeasures.
Most experts possessed a body that was adapted to using Ki Energy or other similar energy sources. In the majority of cases, powerful warriors would be easily able to throw off most normal poisons, the deadly concoctions themselves rejected as one’s body recognized it as something foreign.
As for the much more deadly energy-based poisons, ones aspected with various types of energies or elemental powers, the Incense Rock had no way to absorb them. It could only take in and give off normal substances; anything more would shatter it.
Micheal was aware of all of these issues, but didn’t let them stop him.
In the first place, he had never planned on using real poison, not when doing so might risk killing Myla Hannis. Being unable to use, or even obtain, a notable amount of energy-based poisons was not a real issue.
Instead, he imbued the rock with vast amounts of Magnus Four Crown Vodka™ from Earth. More specifically, from Norway.
This special type of vodka, when purchased from the Shop, was not only extremely close to being both perfectly flavorless and odorless, even to superhuman senses, but also happened to be as colorless as it was potent. As a result, when the Incense Rock absorbed it and gave off its ‘incense,’ it would give off clouds of invisible, scentless, alcohol-infused air.
The floating incense wasn’t flammable, it was only an imitation, not an exact copy. Still, it possessed even stronger inebriating effects than regular alcohol, even for superhumans.
Because Micheal had blocked off the way behind, that incense had only one way to go as it spread:
Forward, to the room in front of him.
Alcohol… technically, it could also be described as a type of poison. It was a substance that invaded one’s body and distorted one’s perception, among various other things.
However, it was also one of the single most popular additions to drinks back on Earth, and its popularity remained, even as people became more and more powerful, in the 7 Layers. Alcohol shared an even higher level of popularity, in fact, here on the Second Layer, due to the fact that the Byrens had their own, even stronger, form of alcohol. For the Farians, the Rakkonians, and the Orkals, it was a mostly new substance.
After cultivating enough Ki, the human body's Ki-energized blood was able to instinctively react to most foreign substances, often treating them as things that need to be eliminated. This was how most conventional poisons were rendered useless. The intrinsic power of one's Ki was not something that could be discounted. Once a person's Recovery stat exceeded 100 and their Ki grew past Mortal Tier, this protection grew to a mostly complete level.
Alcohol, on the other hand, was a special case.
If you happened to be someone that drank, even only on occasion, you would consciously be allowing your body to absorb this substance. Unconsciously, the Ki moving in a person’s veins would react to that person's intentions, conditioning their body to ignore the alcohol and let it be.
The more powerful one’s body and denser one’s Ki became, the more alcohol was required to actually have any effect, at least until a person reached the Lord Tier of Ki Cultivation. At that point, their body would eliminate alcohol far too quickly for it to be absorbed.
Silverback was at the Early Stage of the Sky Tier of Ki Cultivation, something Micheal was able to confidently re-confirm as he watched the man fight. While the man’s silver Celestial Aura overpowered any color his Ki gave off, he was clearly too strong, durable, and fast, even when speed-boosted, to only be Earth Tier. The Celestial Silverback Type was famed for its Celestial Aura, not for its raw power. Even if the man had other Strength or Endurance-enhancing Abilities, it wouldn’t be enough.
All Micheal needed for his plan to work was for Silverback to have had some drinks sometime within the past six months or so, recent enough that his Ki would still tolerate its existence. With how engrossed the warrior was in battle, by the time the man realized he was being affected, it would already be too late.
It was a gamble, Micheal knew, but one he was willing to take, given what he knew about the future; specifically, how large numbers of humans turned to alcohol on the Second Layer, something that became a mini epidemic in its own right.
When people realized the world they knew was never going back to normal, when they were met with discrimination, unlawfulness, crushed hopes and shattered dreams, faced death or monsters galore…
Many people chose to ease their burdens by relying on a substance that seemed to temporarily wipe that all away.
Alcohol abuse became a very significant problem for humanity, as did many other types of substance abuse. The Shop cared nothing for the lives or health of the humans using it, letting anyone buy as much alcohol as they wanted so long as they had Points to spend. There were no other limits.
Micheal had experienced this personally. He struggled with alcoholism for years after he had been forced to kill the love of his life, only giving up the habit after his body became so strong that alcohol was rendered useless. It, and other substances, could take away the memories, the agony, and the pain of his past. Not in any real sense, Micheal was well aware, but, well…
What he had done was unforgivable. Nothing would make it right. The best he could do was pretend he had moved on.
He shoved those dark thoughts to the side, not allowing himself to get distracted as he continuously purchased obscene amounts of Magnus Four Crown Vodka™ from the Shop’s ‘Drink Selection’ and imbued it into his Incense Rock.
At the same time that he did this, he was continually activating the Incense Rock, making it convert everything it had absorbed, all at once.
The normal way to use this Artifact would be to leave it alone after storing enough of one's desired substance. You only needed to activate it once for it to start working.
Micheal, however, did not have the luxury of time on his side. The few moments he did manage to steal totaled a pitifully small amount that was measured in Farian blood, especial
ly given that he'd had no idea he would be facing someone with the Celestial Silverback Type before a little while ago.
As soon as he’d come up with this plan, he’d immediately purchased the Incense Rock and set to work.
From the moment he entered the Farian secret base up to now, Micheal had been purchasing vodka and storing it, over and over, even as he carefully tracked down the Celestial Silverback user.
That part was actually pretty easy. He made the vodka he purchased appear in his hand and instantly imbued it into the Incense Rock. Storing something in the rock repeatedly did drain his Ki, but by such a tiny amount it wasn’t worth mentioning. This was an Artifact whose origins resided in a mystical world where people could not advance to the Earth Tier of Ki Cultivation and were stuck in the Mortal Tier; because of that, all Artifacts from the Warisen World required very little energy to use.
What was hard, however, was now activating it while also purchasing and storing more vodka in the rock at the same time. The activation necessitated a large portion of his focus, requiring that he repeatedly form an image of an ember bursting into flame in his head.
Every time he stored the vodka, his simultaneous activation of the Incense Rock sent out an equivalent amount of alcohol-infused incense. This let him spread his ‘poison’ at the fastest possible rate, but also happened to be incredibly thought-intensive.
What made this even more difficult, as if that wasn't enough, was the fact that as he used the Incense Rock, he had to simultaneously re-activate his King’s Rock to cleanse his body from moment to moment. There was a good reason why he had that rock in his other pocket, why he kept his hand on it at all times.
A little more than a week ago, Micheal had pretended to get roaringly drunk for a night, a major component of his plan to trick the Tansol City Lord’s son and speed up his journey through the Dragon Mountains. Even though it was mostly an act, he did actually take in several drinks. Not enough to get drunk, but just enough to feel them, to better play the part.