Strength of an Ox

Rowan didn't get the chance to be appalled because at the time when he was going to a massive fist collided with his stomach hard enough to cause spittle and blood to fly from his mouth , leaving him stunned. Despite his ridiculous stats he was still able to feel the punch that had actually lifted him off of his feet. Ox planted one foot and used the other to bring his knee into Rowan's stomach cracking several ribs that had been strained from the previous punch. Rowan was now far enough off the floor that he was eye level with Ox who huffed and slammed his horns into Rowan's face causing blood to spurt from his face and sending him flying backwards. He felt so sluggish for some reason and could not trace why, but the beating that he was taking was not helping at all.

He felt a tug on his ankle and he was suddenly flying back towards Ox, who in turn greeted Rowan with a big boot that landed on the center of his chest and sent him flying back into the wall that he now cratered. Blood shot from his mouth and he fell to the ground as his body worked to heal itself from the punishment he had just received. He moved his limbs and still felt sluggish, but Ox had started a slow charge in his direction. "Hey system, I distinctly remember you telling me that tier zero existences were rare, not to mention did Genma not say that there were only two of us on the entire planet, what is going on here?" [....]

[The system has identified what has happened, the cost of said information is too high for the host to bear, unique situation has been triggered.] Rowan was about to ask what that was supposed to mean when Ox let out a moo that shook his brain and froze him in his tracks. He followed that with a stomp and from behind him, an entire avalanche of snow poured towards Rowan from Ox's shadow. Time slowed down to a crawl right as the avalanche picked up Ox and he readied his ax.

[Urgent Quest: The forbidden class.]

[Task: The system has discovered that somehow that your world has given birth to a necromancer. Eliminate the necromancer and their creations before they can further bastardize the souls and bodies of the deceased.]

[Reward:Destiny encounter]

Rowan was ready to question the reward, or the fact that most of the drops from his enemies have been inconsequential to him, he had assumed it was because of the direction that his skills had taken and he was right; the system was still causing items to drop, he just no longer had a need for them, the drop system was only ever meant to acclimate new users to mana , something he would be told for free if he asked the system. The system brought him from his thoughts on the rewards when it finally commented.

[Comment: Necromancy is a discipline that has been identified as being capable of causing massive loss of life and has been outlawed by the one true king. Carry out the will of the one true king and be rewarded directly by him.]

[Comment 2: The host can choose to not comply with the quest and will give up on the reward, but the host should know that the reward will greatly surprise the host.]

[Comment 2: Special black skull markers have been added to creations of the necromancer while the necromancer himself will be marked with a white skull.]

Rowan looked back up at Ox, who previously had the same blurry name as every other human, but there was now a black skull next to it and it was no longer blurry. Rowan lowered his stance and pressed his right foot behind him and onto the wall that was behind him and flat against the wall.

Weathervane switched into Bolt form while Rowan kicked off of the wall behind him and became a human shaped projectile as he went flying at Ox. He swung his battle ax downward and the avalanche exploded towards him almost like it supported the weight of the swing of the ax. Rowan smiled and swung the weathervane from the floor upwards while he smiled at Ox. [Chop] caused Weapon light to blast onto the snow and came up just in time to meet the battle ax.

The weapons collided, and the world went silent. Rowan noticed that the collision had caused whatever was making him sluggish to disperse because he had full range of his movement and his full speed as he stabbed with the spearhead Ox caught it on the flat of his weapon and the two of them exchanged close to thirty blows in a flash.

Rowan's hyper vision began to pick up on something as he could see a fume rising from his Ox's body. He swung and used the momentum to step back as he used his skill, causing the fume to spread into the room. Rowan stopped breathing as the fume that looked like a heatwave filled the room. [Noxious Musk] "Can restrict your breathing , and if you are dumb enough to breathe it, then I guess you know what happens. Come Rowan Raid, let me show you death."

Rowan grinned and dashed in once again. He swung from above with a [chop] that was deflected but Rowan chained it into a sweep that cut deep into Ox. Ox spun in a circle and a landslide formed around his body that he sent hurtling towards Rowan with a swing of his ax. Rowan tapped his toes off of the ground and flew backwards and to the wall as the mass of mud and rock shot towards him.

Rowan had no clue what this man's true attunement was, but he didn't care. He began to swing the weathervane slowly at first and then slowly picked up the speed with his swings. Brilliant blades of amethyst shot from the weathervane and then multiplied and blasted forward towards the land slide. [Wind storm assault] The two forces collided, and it made Rowan realize that the reason he could not hear previously was because the collision had shattered his eardrums, they finally recovered during this moment and the roaring winds threatened to shatter them again as Ox was swallowed by the detonation that was caused by the two attacks meets. A bloodied ox shot into the air from the aftermath.

[Boulder Fall] Rocks fell from the sky at the same time that he was slashing towards Rowan. He was a mess of blood and broken bones; he was not a true tier zero and while skillful it showed itself almost instantly. Rowan could feel the strength from before as he realized that the scent that he released had actually drained part of Rowan's strength, but now with it blasted away, there was nothing restricting him as he returned to full strength. His strength was once again so high that his every movement left indentations in the ground.

Rowan slashed upwards and side stepped a falling boulder while at the same time a storm point formed and shot a bolt of lightning that slammed into Ox and threw him towards Rowan who was waiting with weathervane held forward as it stabbed right through his chest and punctured his heart. Rowan slowly lowered him to the ground as he died, not treating him the same as he had the others due to the nature of the new quest. "Before you die, I need information. Who did this to you? Who made you stronger?"

Rowan didn't know if these people knew truly what had happened that increased their abilities. He actually suspected that none of them realized that they had come into contact with this necromancer the system told him about.

He was working under the assumption that they thought they were just receiving a powerup and that it wasn't built on the corpses and souls of their own race. Ox smiled up at him in an innocent type of way and was helped by Rowan as he coughed up blood and bits of his internals. Weathervane was linked to Rowan's storm mana. The moment it pierced him, his insides were torn to shreds with lightning. "Boss Azure is the real deal. Even if you beat us, he will definitely take you down. If his modifications and medicines were able to make me this strong, then I know the boss is super powerful."

Rowan could only shake his head at this while he confirmed his thoughts, he didn't even want to explain to him what had actually happened. "The boss Azure adopted us when we had nothing and now, with this apocalypse, he's led all of us to live better lives. If you can hear me, boss Azure, thanks for saving me." Ox breathed his last breath and Rowan began to make his way to the next room when something in him felt an odd itch, so he used the ability he wanted to use the least right now.

[Call of the fairy king] A soul pulled itself from Ox's body, but it didn't look like the normal wisp of a regular soul. It was shaped like an ox and in its horns Rowan could see nearly a hundred screaming faces. He watched from the corner of his vision as his stats went up by 100 points. This boss Azure had melded close to 100 souls onto ox so that he could give him the capability of a tier zero. Rowan quickly started to understand why necromancers only deserved death.