Stolen Thunder

I had to use an Air Cannon to push myself up to my feet but just as I was righting myself the young guy wearing what looked like leather track clothes in a military style trench coat as well as a simple black silk face mask that revealed only his eyes and hair was there in an instant.

I barely even had time to see the hand-wide saber in his hand leave a cold streak of light in its wake as it slammed across the already fragmenting layers of outer defenses over my armored chest.

Shrapnel of various types flew out as a small crater formed in my already weakened layers that allowed the saber's cutting edge to clang loudly against the primitive decorated electrum scales of my actual armor. I was shoved back and almost to the ground all over again with a near ten-percent loss of life. Then the girl showed up flanking from the right.

This girl wielded a pair of slimmer but longer sabers that both cleaved into my lower side, throwing me off balance as I tried to bring my sword up from the left to swat the first speed warrior. I was once again thrown to the ground on my side but this time cheated and used 360 Edge. My back cracked audibly as I spun about, slashing my sword through the ground in order to throw myself off to the side because the ground itself could not experience knockback.

Cheating once again with Flying Guillotine to automatically right myself into a proper flip, I land easily on my feet and lower myself into a crouch in anticipation. As I expected, the newly dubbed speed siblings were both on me in an instant as if the entire fight had been choreographed and they knew what and when.

However, I rose up once more and called out, "360 Geist!"

The uninterruptible spin of 360 Edge at my buffed speeds swatted away the attacks of the siblings and dished out not only two heavy slashes loaded with increased damage and knockback but also heavily true damaging wraith blades that swept through them even as they were thrown aside. Both of their health bars appeared and emptied out to nearly half from the single skill combo which were the first attacks that they had received.

I had little time to relish the small victory, however, because the giant halfling had been following us throughout these exchanges and was finally coming into reach. Instead of letting them come to me, I closed the distance with a Quick Step and simply thrust my sword straight forward toward the middle of their abdomen. The plates of their armor here followed the NPC favored style of displaying abdominal muscles.

These abdominal plates were all individual plates instead of an embossed set of sheets, providing several choice gaps in their armor for the point of my sword to sink into. However, even through my sword found purchase not far below their sternum and breached their armor by several inches the sheer strength behind the attack and the knockback effects of my speed-based buffs simply threw them several yards back and off of my sword.

I did not even bother turning around after that but instead hopped backward into another 360 Edge. Like last time, the siblings had predictably rushed in to make their heavy passing attacks. Unlike the last time, though, my position was much more exposed and the girl's twin sabers swept harshly across my lower legs even as Hauntings parried the boy's saber away.

Without the bonus damage of a few wraith blades, the siblings were only cut down to about fifteen percent of their health bars and were only thrown aside as far as the giant halfling had been, but this amount of space itself was enough for me. I swiftly released a combination of Quick Quake and St. Elmo's Fire to cover my surroundings in a combination of fracturing and up-heaving ground as well as paralyzing arcs of electrical discharge.

Unbalanced and zapped repeatedly as all of the discharge begins focusing on the few conductive targets around me, these three elites are soon staggered and rolled away. The damage itself was not even enough to finish the siblings, but as soon as they were pushed beyond the reach of Quick Quake they began crawling and climbing away.

Only the halfling giant was able to stick around but even then they stayed beyond my 'reach'. So, I rewarded their cautious dedication to the fight by gathering all of my spread electrical mana and focus it onto her heavy metal suit. The thin arcs of discharge instantly formed a lance of lightning thicker than my own thigh as it easily covered the distance.

The blinding arc of lightning traveled so fast that the giant tanker could not even begin considering defense. She was struck full in the chest with explosive force, rendering her shiny metal armor a brightly glowing orange about her upper torso as she was sent flying back into the camp. Foolishly, I withdrew a potion from my belt and simply ate the entire thing while looking about for my familiars.

Not only did I find that my familiars were looking worn down at roughly seventy percent of their health while covered in a combination of fluids and offal, I also found a small group of different fighter types and two archer types splitting up to cover the retreats of the siblings.

I could tell at a glance that their equipment were all heavy magical with hints of epic here and there. Each group had a heavy two-handed weapon user wearing different heavy armor styles and two fighters apiece wielding dual weapons and thick leather medium armor with primitive pieces. Even as I watched, the archers in camouflage patterned silk chitin light armor each fired multiple arrows at a time at my position.

Throwing up a small wall of stone right under my feet from the broken ground around me, I easily raise myself ten feet into the air and out of the way of the arrows. From up here, I could get a better view of the area and see that my familiars were slowly being forced back to back as they kept only dead bodies within twenty yards of themselves. This was not the kind of situation I wanted to see.

Filling my health with a silently cast First-Aid, I thrust my sword into the makeshift platform of icy stone and stand behind it while laughing. Why would I be laughing when I was currently evenly matched but outnumbered? I wanted the attention.

Thinking back to my own freak-out from just a few 'days' ago, I keep laughing from behind my sword that easily protects the middle third of my body and vitals while coaxing my body into splitting and splinting. In seconds my head and neck were separating in a variety of segments that allowed air to flow through the hollows of my body and give me numerous laughing voices.

As the number and volume rose, even the archers slowly stopped firing their skills at me despite several arrows sticking between the scales of my sides and upper legs. I could see the same thing that I had felt in their eyes and expressions. I could read their thoughts as if it were writing on their foreheads, 'what the hell is this?'

"Amazing! Wonderful! Bravo!" I commend and praise while throwing my voice in different pitches, causing a kaleidoscope effect in the range of vocalizations taking place. "You're all just so damned good! For a moment there, I actually thought I might die! Now, though..." I trail off while lowering my voices to booming whispers, just holding onto their attention as my familiars regen several percent per second.

"I think I should get serious. You should be proud, I wanted to save my next trick for a grander finale. Rocket Punch!" As if on command, both of my hands turned into fists and enlarged while hardening to a near brittleness before super compressed Air Cannons formed and detonated from just behind my wrists. Both of my fists exploded away from me, flying down toward the two groups of elite supports where they were met with giant swords.

Even when blocked, the effect I was aiming for was achieved. My fists exploded into a storm of crystallized mana shrapnel that tore through the two groups while taking the attention of the clan as a whole away from me. Using both fists for a rocket punch style of attack took more than two hundred mana, but assuming my Hulk Scissor-Hands form only cost a thousand which left me with more than a hundred to spare.

I could tell instantly when people had started looking at me again because the weaker willed among them cried out in shock and fear at my hulk form. I simply fed in to the shock by loosing a cordycep roar that came from almost a thousand different 'mouths'. Even if I would be ashamed of myself later to see this on video somewhere, my familiars had managed to fully heal themselves without even using a skill.

Leaping down from my stage and directly onto the closest group of elite supporters, I use Force Strike and Quick Quake in both hands that I simply slap down about the bodies of the three fighters in this group. Not even the heavy sword user could resist my Strength in this form and was crushed like an empty can under my hands.

The blades of my fingers simply scythed through the rest of the wounded group, reaping their lives while severing a few limbs. Covering myself with renewed layers of defenses while casually standing upright from the pouncing attack, I watch a ceaseless barrage of general skills and magic are unleashed in my direction. My new layers were being shredded as soon as they formed.

However, my health was only going down two or three percent per second and the barrage of skills only lasted a little more than ten seconds. I did not even reach half health before everybody had emptied out their skill uses or mana. However, I briefly saw half-mana as I leisurely stretched my arms out over my head and yawned with dozens of mouths while growing new layers of outer defenses.

"My turn?" I ask gleefully after straightening up. However, before I could even make a move there were suddenly two golden suns of light that swept out to either side of the camp in the form of two peerless, scything energy crescents.

At least two thirds of the people present simply stopped existing and I instantly recognized what had happened. Cweeper and Hermes had both used their Divine Slash skills. "My thunder?!"

Not only did they overshadow the 'public' debut of my hulk form by unleashing even more hell than me, they had copied my tactic of using a distraction to open up the crowds to a surprise attack. Instead of distracting the clan themselves, though, they used me as a decoy! These two familiars were the worst of opportunists!

Refusing to be outshone by my own underlings as the other set of supporters and the reorganized tanker chick start running in my direction, I Quick Step right up to them and clothesline my enormous arm across the chest and shoulders of the halfling giant.

This poor lady never even knew what hit her, just that twenty percent of her health disappeared and she found herself dazed from being bodily slammed backwards onto the ground. For somebody who had previously been able to match or even overwhelm my usual Strength, facing my hulk form was literally like facing the mama bear of a cub. No hope at all.

Ignoring the stunned tanker and lunging to close in on the rest of their group, I simply reach across my body and backhand swipe my sword-like fingers and the back of my hand across their bodies to send them flying away. Just as I was about to turn back to finally get rid of the tanker, though, two very familiar blurs rushed by me. In the same second a spray of ice mana scales and fragmenting troll ivory flew out from my body.

The siblings were back in action.

The damage they inflicted was downright negligible so I simply ignored them and pressed forward once again. The halfling giant was currently getting back on their feet and the last thing I wanted even in hulk form was for these three elites to cooperate. I needed to take at least one of them out for good.

Another pair of blurs flitted by, shaving away my defenses around the backs of my knees with enough force to almost buckle one of my legs. However, I stayed standing even as they came to a stop at the sides of the tanker and pushed forward, blindly rushing to engage in the melee. Despite my hopes, though, the siblings did not make another pass which would have created distance but instead switched tactics entirely.

Their sabers were simply tossed up into the air and their hands blurred while entering and exiting their coats. A barrage of large and small stars and knives alike were suddenly flashing through the air and rocketing into my body. Few of them actually found purchase but every single weapon would knock away small chunks of my defenses.

After several seconds of being struck as if the two of them together made up a single Gatling gun, most of my defenses were once again shredded but I could tell from their movements and following weariness that this had been some form of special skill. I had gone below seventy percent from the barrage of attacks but they had also worn themselves out.

By now, Cweeper and Hermes had almost finished with the rest of the camp's clansmen except for a clustered group of a few dozen people who were focusing solely on defending against their ranged attacks. I could tell from the fact that several mages were at the front of this group that those mages were their elite magic units because they were actually capable of defending against even Cweeper's Spirit Slash.

Little did they know that resistance at all was futile. Just like trying to take a mile when the alliance offered them an inch, their actions were pointless and would only help to hurt them. Hell, my familiars' health bars were not even showing because it had been so long since they had healed or been attacked.

Shaking my head sadly, I say in just a single voice, "If I was a poacher, I would offer you guys a place in my clan. Sadly, you've already picked your side just like I picked mine. In the future, do me a favor and don't hold this against me or refuse the offers of the people who allied with me. If you do, there will only be regret in store for you."

The tank chick started to retort angrily but I chose that moment to once again Quick Step over, pinching my fingertips together into a large spear point which is driven straight through the center of their chest aligned with both their heart and spine. Their already partly emptied health bar simply disappeared after that. All I could do was regrettably shake my head while flicking my wrist to literally flick their large heavily armored body off to the side.

Finally, I turned to the fearfully sweating siblings and unleash a discharge of electricity into both of them. They were quickly stunned and staggered, leaving them open and vulnerable to my simply walking up and grabbing their heads. With a simple clench of my hands into fists the strongest people I had fought so far in the game were suddenly gone.

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