Behead the snake! (Final)

Smithe crouched which looked funny with his now massive frame still bulging from the influx of stats as his legs started to vibrate rapidly. Rowan's eyes were capable of seeing things that most people missed, but because the muscles were so bulging, it was almost impossible for him to not notice that even under the green scales, his muscles and tendons were rapidly coiling like a snake. He sneered and entered a stance. Holding the great sword straight upwards with both hands, he slowly started to tilt forward. Rowan knew the strike was coming soon, and he also realized that this was a practical chance to try the last form of the weathervane.

"Bolt Form" His words were the gunshot to start the race though as Smithe's body reached the perfect angle and he shot out. He broke the sound barrier in the initial acceleration and the scales cut through the wind like a high end sports car. The gap closed in a fraction of a second, but as Rowan got more and more powerful, this became something that was weird to him. In a battle with his life on the line, a fraction of a second could feel like a lifetime. Rowan slid his left foot forward and his right leg backward while raising the weathervane over his head with his two hands.

The blade suddenly began to shine with a weapon light that began to glow brighter and brighter so it looked like Rowan was holding an amethyst sun above his head. He grinned as the second crawled even slower and he could see everything happening as if it was in slow motion, but he knew that he had entered a new realm in which the rest of the world could not keep up with the pace of the battle. He swung weathervane downwards towards Smithe who for some reason felt genuine fear at the blade that was descending above him. He still mustered his courage and swung the great sword backed by all of his momentum while Rowan was marveling at the words that had just flit past his vision.

[Skill Chop learned.] The weapon light that glowed like a sun slammed down on the blade that oozed toxin and the battle of strength that Smithe was expecting collapsed on the spot. Rowan's strength was obscene for beings of their level and Smithe, not even being at level fifty, confirmed that there was no way he could contend with Rowan with all of his abilities active. His stats had reached an even more ridiculous point now as he also gained another ten strength from learning chop. Rowan's chop stopped all of his momentum dead in its tracks as their weapons met.

Peter Smithe felt his legs give out as the residual force from the blow caused the kinetic force from his leap to rebound back and in the process, the bones and tendons from the knee down shattered into a mist of blood. Rowan's chop had just met the blade, though this was only the result of stopping him on a dime after breaking the sound barrier. The halberd continued downwards as the fear could be seen in the snake's eyes. The great sword bent in half and warped before it finally exploded outward with a boom. Shards of the blade shot into Smithe and sent him flying backwards legless.

Rowan followed up as he chased as little more than a beam of light as his instantaneous acceleration had reached an extreme point. He brandished the halberd like it was a spear and executed [Thrust] from above him as his wings kept him perfectly afloat above Smithe's flying body. The first thrust slammed him into the ground, the second thrust punctured his heart, the third thrust severed his spine. Rowan flipped through the air and landed several feet away from Smithe and the dirt that he had been left in. He slowly walked back when the cloud of dust exploded and Smithe shot out looking unscathed.

He, in fact, looked even stronger than before. He began to stalk around Rowan while he pulled at space again and a new great sword appeared, then he grasped with his free hand and another great sword sprung into existence. Rowan was really starting to envy the whole inventory thing at this point, not that he needed to store anything. His armor was as made from his mana and will always be sturdy.

His weapon could literally rest in his soul or settle on his wrist like a bracelet in cloud form. He would at some point need his though. "You know what is rather interesting about all of this? The zodiac gang existed way before the apocalypse. For all intents and purposes the code names we were given by the boss Azure should have held zero weight in this new world, but lo-and-behold we were not entirely correct. None of us know how, but boss Azure had somehow given us the titles that matched the bloodlines that we would later awaken. It is the reason we all have such a healthy fear of him truthfully. I thought that the zombie kings would allow me to stand on his level, on people like yours level, but I was wrong.

Just taking the power of the zombie kings is not enough, which is why I'm happy it perfectly works with my racial ability to shed my skin and heal from my injuries." Rowan dove back in with a big boot that slammed into Smithe's chest and should have blasted a hole in it, but instead sent him flying backwards, kicking up dirt. He stood up and planted his weapons in the ground before brushing himself off. "Did I mention that I also get stronger each time I shed my skin? My hypnotism is special, but the way it links with this ability, thanks to my failsafe, I can't fully assimilate the beings I consume that were puppets. I can only slowly absorb them but when I shed, then it fully digests part of what I have absorbed. So now that I am…"

Rowan flew faster than the monologuing Smithe was prepared to respond to as he spun like a top with the ax of the halberd forward and the weapon held in two hands as he bisected him. Rowan flicked his wrist and a storm point brought the two halves close to each other while a screaming Smithe continued to twirl through the air.

Rowan began to rapidly use [slash] as he began to cut him into pieces. Rowan smiled to himself as he thought about how much the man loved to hear himself talk and decided now would be the perfect time. "You know if I wasn't in a rush I would let you keep going on and on about this bullshit, but in the end of it all you truly just aren't worth it, what makes me care about some guy who was able to pinpoint your bloodlines, or anyone in the zodiac gang for that matter, the moment you chose to input yourselves into my lives as adversaries you confirmed that you no longer wanted to live. I meant what I said earlier and I'm done pulling punches. You think the zombie kings were ever even a threat?"

Rowan released the full brunt of his killing intent as he activated [Call of the Fairy King] and gathered all the souls of the zodiac gang members that were killed here recently while their resentment poured into the four winged falcon image causing it to grow larger and more menacing and causing Smithe to tremble in fear, unfortunately for him he was now diced into so many pieces that the trembling caused him to oscillate like a tub of jello that had been smacked. Rowan felt his strength improve once again as he leveled his eyes at the mess that was Peter Smithe. "Wind mode."

The weathervane fused into the gloves and Rowan formed a knife with his hand and made chopping motions before bracing himself with his back foot before he executed [Wind Storm Assault]. The blades of wind doubled and blasted out in the form of an inescapable net that enveloped Peter Smithe.

When the skill finally finished, it never even left enough of Smithe to be inspected. He had dropped something that Rowan had kept with his wind, but nothing else. He did get a massive amount of exp and that, combined with the gang members and the original zombie kings he had killed, had pushed him to level 30. He let the strength course through him for a minute as an orb lightly drifted down into his hands and the system gave him information. [Orb to unlock ten slot inventory. Collect other inventory orbs to increase the space. Each space is capable of carrying up to 1 ton.] Rowan crushed the orb in his hand and now in his mind, he could feel a connection to a different space that he assumed was his inventory. There was nothing in it but crushing the or also gave him the knowledge on how to use the inventory. Rowan smiled.

"Thanks system. Now let's finish this quest once and for all. First the zodiac gang falls and then within the next year I will work on saving this world." Rowan pulled the tracker from his pocket as he switched the storm armament into casual mode. He kept his wings aloft though and activated storm steps as he flew off to follow the tracker while he vanished into the clouds as he sped into the distance.

Ten minutes later, under the piece of a building that had been destroyed, Fiona crawled out with a look of absolute fear on her face. She had been right. Rowan Raid had gotten stronger, much, much stronger and if the rest of the members of the zodiac were smart, they would fight him together. She pulled a phone from her pocket and made a call. "Tiger, I think Rowan Raid is headed towards you and hes much stronger than we anticipated. He should be there shortly."

There was a moment of silence before she heard the laughs of several people. "How convenient, we all gathered thanks to a meeting called by boss Azure, he will be greeted by the full force of the Zodiac gang, we will make a plan on our end." Fiona nodded to no one, "Also there should be a little girl that's in the vicinity, looking for the girl I dropped off." The other side of the line went silent for a moment. "Boss Azure requested that she be given to him, and hes withdrew to his private quarters. She is no longer our worry." Fiona agreed and hung up the phone and started heading towards the true headquarters of the Zodiac gang. The entire time she had been unaware that Rowan used the clouds to double back and see what she would do, and now after listening to her conversation chose to follow her and was happy to see that she was in fact headed in the same direction that the tracker indicated.