The Storm (Part 2)

Rowan studied the man in front of him, wondering what he should do when he heard the neigh of a horse in the background. Rowan looked over the roof of a building and saw a being with his top half human and his lower half resembled a black horse. The man that Rowan was standing next to and squealed in delight. "You are dead now!" Rowan swung out the storm spear but when it connected, the man shattered like a piece of glass but into hundreds of rats and scurried in every direction.

Rowan felt the wind move long before he noticed the arrow shooting towards his head. Rowan tilted his head to the left and a massive arrow passed by his head by inches. Rowan leapt off the side of the building and stepped down back to ground level while leaving countless tracks in the sky from the after-effects of storm steps. The man shot another arrow as Rowan landed and quickly followed it with a rapid fire volley of arrows. Rowan coated his hand in mana and reached out to grab the first one, but unfortunately, that's what the man had wanted. The moment that Rowan's hand came into contact with the arrow, the head became a bright red as it began to burn through the mana that he had coated his hand with before it finally just detonated. Sharp metal shards shot everywhere as the arrow head exploded.

Rowan never even moved. He had let it explode directly in his face. In the last second before it had exploded, one of the clouds on his shirt had spat out a storm point that he had already prepared and, in turn, the storm point spat out a spinning deluge that covered his body and protected him from the explosion. It was right at this time that the other arrows now reached him. The horse man sneered and instead of waiting, he snapped his fingers and the arrow heads all began to glow red before they detonated, causing a chain of explosions that threatened to swallow Rowan.

He lightly tapped his feet backwards, avoiding the explosions, but the horseman saw his opportunity as he burst through the flame with two massive swords in hand. "My horse transformation skill is undefeated! Die!" He slashed both swords down towards Rowan. He raised the storm spear and blocked the blow, causing the sound of metal clashing against metal to ring out. Rowan twisted the middle and the staff form he had been using broke down into two batons. The horse man opened his mouth to shoot flame from it, but Rowan created a storm point between his lips and water surged in the opposite direction. The man began to choke from the steam created while Rowan moved in.

He used the batons like they were extensions of his arms as the stunned horse man was not prepared for the onslaught that Rowan began to rain down on him. The first strike smacked him in the head and shook his brain further, stunning him. The second through fifth blows all connected to a joint on one of four legs, bring the horse down to the ground with a smack and a cloud of dust. Rowan pivoted on his left foot and spun like a top around the man's body before a kick covered in cyan mana smashed into his face with a sickening crack. Blood began to pour from his nose right before he went limp.

The moment he fell unconscious was when the skill he had used for the partial horse's form dispelled itself. He was a normal man in what looked like a kilt made of horse skin. Rowan could only shake his head in disappointment. This fight had been a total let down as far as pushing him to his new limits. Rowan knew that this newcomer was the last one and that the odd one that peed himself had already escaped. Rowan was getting ready to wake him up when he felt the air tremble as something from the shadows was piercing towards his head at double the speed of the arrows from before.

Rowan smacked it with an upward swing, but the force shook his arm enough to turn it numb and the webbing of his hand cracked slightly, causing blood to trickle out. Three more pale white projectiles came for him, causing him to immediately dodge out of the way and fall for his enemy's ploy.

A zombie bounded out of the dark and its jaw seemed to come loose as it directly bit into the unconscious man's throat. After the first bite, it seemed to nod its head and confirm something. Its mouth became a grinder as its jaw unhinged and its sharpened teeth began to rotate through its mouth on their own. He swallowed the whole body in an instant; the body becoming a mess of blood and bone bits as he was ground into slop and swallowed into the creature's stomach.

Rowan felt a profound sense of danger wash over him as he looked at the evolved zombie that had used the space in which he was fighting the people present to gain exactly what it needed. Golden light shone from its body after swallowing the horseman, but it illuminated the night enough for Rowan to realize that the zombie had also consumed all the men that he had knocked out. This zombie had moved through the entire battlefield with him completely unaware and consumed all the men that he had knocked out and managed to do it in complete silence. Rowan grimaced as he placed the two pieces of the storm spear together and then added an extra twist and double-edged blade reminiscent of the simple dagger came out of either end.

The blade seemed to morph and became T-shape but made of three feathers with the wings that branched out to the side, being just as lethal as the rest of the blade. Rowan cracked his bones and stretched as the world slowed down and the quest finally appeared in front of his eyes. [The Bone Collector!] [Comment: The roaming zombie king the bone collector has appeared before you due to excessive amounts of blood spilled in the area. The consumption of the bodies left in the wake of your previous attack has enabled the world boss to reach level 30 and step into the third rank of mana.] [Reward: Lvl +5 Unlock Rank 2 of mana cultivation and step into soul-stirring.]

The world began to return to normal speed so that Rowan could finally see the zombie in front of him. [Bone collector Lvl 30] The name was blood red, just like Gardas had been, but instead its level had what looked like a bone symbol stuck through it. The light faded from the zombie and it roared into the air before leveling its eyes on Rowan as he smiled to himself. "A 15 level difference huh, well this will be absolutely thrilling, won't it?" Rowan had spoken out loud on reflex, but instead of the silence he expected, the bone collector looked at him and seemed to smile. Rowan had never met a ghost, but he assumed the ethereal voice that came out of the bone collector's mouth would be rather close.

"Yes, Special human, Exciting, you shall cause me to evolve past these shackles. You humans do not even realize the immense treasure trove that your bodies hold, but we, in fact, do."

Rowan was so surprised by the words that he froze which was exactly what the bone collector was going for as it stepped on its back foot and became a flash of white light as his skin split open and his bones grew out of its wounds and coated its body in an armor made of bone. The armor grew a scimitar out of its arm and the bone collector slashed down with the full momentum of its dash. A faint white light followed the path of the blade as it cut the wind so easily that it traveled silently.

Rowan dropped his stance low as the speed of the blade left no room to move out of the way. The storm spear was laid across his shoulder with his arms looped over it to further lock it in place. He dropped his neck and looked forward to the best of his ability. The white blade light met the shaft and the ringing of metal on metal causing a sonic wave that shattered the nearby windows on the shop buildings that lined the road to Rowan's complex.

The true fight had begun! Rowan twirled his body to the left, his left arm choking up on the spear as it whipped outwards towards the bone collector. The bone collector let its mana pulse and a bone-colored light blasted outwards and slid him back just enough to dodge it. Rowan smirked. He was still learning more and more about this new weapon, but with each second, he felt like he was getting to know it more and more, which made it just feel like an extension of his body.

When he bound the weapon, it told him a lot about it but it also included that for any other effects and for the materials he would need to ask the creator. He was looking forward to the conversation with Em later. His cyan mana surged into the spear that the bone collector thought he dodged while giving himself enough space for a quick counterattack. The mana infusion caused clouds that were hidden on the midnight black shaft that Rowan had never even had a chance to inspect.

The clouds glowed cyan and the segment where the staff met emitted a cloud that extended the range of the spear enough so that a sharp cyan spear light slashed right through the zombies' eyes. He had executed slash with perfect precision, the skill which showed no effect before now carried a peculiar light from the spear that showed his mastery and the skill's evolution. The bone collector roared in pain. The bone white mana poured out of him as he roared, and bone spears raised from the ground as its eyes began to steam and regenerate even while the clouds retracted, locking the two pieces back in place. Rowan understood another way to use the spear and the back blade retracted and became an empty cylinder that spewed a cloud and accelerated Rowan forward like a jet.

The bone spikes that rose from the ground shot to the sky and became a wave of white that threatened to slam down on Rowan. He held the spear by the shaft and fully extended his arms, the cloud stream bursting from the back, causing him to spin like a top. He formed a tornado that swallowed the wave. He slammed a foot into the ground and channeled close to forty points of mana into his storm steps as cyan mana shrouded around his foot as it slammed to the ground and punctured through it Rooting him in place as the wind around him burst like a cannon and flung the spears into the surrounding impaling the surrounding buildings.

Rowan jetted forward again and the bone collector summoned another scimitar in its other hand and crossed them like an X and slashing forward. The blade light followed them, carving up the wind as well, causing squalls as he swung downwards. Spear tip met the center point of both blades and the two weapon lights slammed into each other and canceled each other. Rowan tugged, and the weapon became two. They met in a flurry of blows, parrying one blow and following up instantly, both just aiming to slay the other.

The bone collector opened its mouth, and a spear came out of its throat. They were too close! Rowan moved his head, but not enough as the spear cut into his face as it passed. While at the same time arms made of bone, already sporting scimitars sprouted from the side of the bone armor. It was two sets of arms, making it a total of six blades.

The blade light formed a cage that locked him in place. Rowan pumped more mana into mana armament, he had realized that his skills were more than what the page described them as; the system told him what they could do, but it was still up to him to explore how he could change and adapt them to him as a person with his own manipulation of mana.

The extra mana caused the clouds on his shirt and pants to form cloud-like bubbles that met the blade light. The bubbles popped and clouds burst into life with them in the middle. The resulting explosion forced Rowan backward, but not before one of the blades cut into his chest. Luckily, his clothes were made from mana and they began to repair, but clearly the blade was sharper than the current defense of his storm armament. The battle was thrilling and now the stage had changed again as round two would start within the clouds that Rowan had now summoned to the ground.