The center of the room was suddenly flooded with creatures, making Gabby recoil in fear instantly. However, Brance calmly placed a hand on her shoulder and moved them back against the southern wall as Cynrik rolled out both of his arms and legs and got a feel for his increased AGI and DEX.
“Be careful, Big Bro,” Gabby softly spoke as she nervously watched Cynrik menacingly walk forward slowly while bathed in purple light.
“Don’t worry, little rabbit; your concern is completely unnecessary; I am, after all, the Legendary Super Saiyan.” Tossing a cocky smirk her way, Cynrik flicked his wrist, tapped his status a few times to assign his stat points, and sent over his updated stats to Brance.
[Fucking hell, what the shit happened to your MP, how the fuck is it so high now?] Scrolling through his brother’s updated stat sheet, Brance exhaled sharply.
[Check my Codex; it reached Tier-3 Stage 5, which came with a 5k boost. Anyway, I’ll try not to kill all these guys instantly. Although my [Lightning Armor] doesn’t increase my STR, the fact that it increased my DEX is plenty for damage output so long as I use a weapon.] Breathing slowly, Cynrik activated his new movement skill, [Flash Step].
Feeling the electricity in his body moving toward his legs, Cynrik stepped forward, and the world around him slowed down.
‘First Step,’ he said to himself as he traveled a total of five meters in an instant.
‘Interesting, each step I take feels weird as hell. Traveling this distance with only one step is strange, and it looks like I’ll need some more time to adjust. My perspective suggests that the ground is shrinking, and according to the skill description, I should appear to be teleporting to Brance and Gabby.’ Calmly walking forward at an average pace, Cynrik’s pupils radiated purple light as he continually skipped ahead three meters at a time.
TSSBOOOM!
[Sit back and enjoy the show, little brother, shit’s about to get real,] Waving his hand and sending over his new skill descriptions, Cynrik went on the offensive.
“Sixth Step,” He said aloud, as he suddenly appeared in the middle of the clustered together and confused RaptorBasilisks, which flinched due to his new skill’s loud thundering boom.
Watching his brother teleport over 18 meters away in the blink of an eye, Brance narrowed his eyes in confusion. But just as he was about to ask how, several notifications from Cynrik arrived. The first was for the same skill being used for what looked to Brance to be teleportation.
-Tier-1 Lightning Affinity Skill [Flash Step]-
-Category: Active Movement Skill.-
-By channeling the electricity charged in your body toward your legs and feet, you can enhance your movement speed greatly for a specified number of steps. Each step taken will cause you to travel 3 meters instantaneously as your body moves so fast in that step that it appears as if you teleported.-
-This skill will stay active until the User has reached the Step Limit or deactivates the skill manually.-
-Requirement: Must have [Lightning Armor] active and must have a minimum of 30 [Charge].-
-Cost: 300 MP and 3 [Charge] Per Step.-
-Step Limit: Up to 10 steps after activation for a total of 30 Meters.-
-Cooldown: After deactivation, 15 minutes. –
“Woah,” Brance said as he turned to explain the skill to Gabby, but when he faced her, he noticed the girl’s eyes sparkling with awe and excitement, so Brance chose to let her watch the incoming slaughter in peace.
[Alright then, show me what you’ve got, Cyn. Oh, and please try not to kill everything in one shot.] Crossing his arms and leaning against the southern wall, Brance rolled his eyes.
Smirking at his brother’s words, Cynrik deactivated [Flash Step] and threw both his arms out while crouching down.
“HA!”
BZZZSZZTTT
Activating another skill, [Discharge], Cynrik ignited a field of crackling high voltage electricity around his body in a dome, zapping all twenty-four of the dinos and causing them to shudder in pain while convulsing as the currents ran through their bodies.
-Tier-0 Lightning Affinity Skill [Discharge]-
-Category: Active AOE Crowd Control.-
-By harnessing the power collected of your [Charge], you expel a dome-shaped wave of Lightning Mana in a 7-meter radius. All beings within the targeted area, except for the User, have a 50% chance of obtaining the Status Effect (Paralyze) for 30 seconds. There is also a 15% chance of inflicting (Burn) on enemies caught within the Area of Attack.-
-Damage Calc: 1 [Charge] = 200 Static Damage.-
-Requirement: Must have a [Charge] counter of at least 50.-
-Cost: 750 MP, 25 [Charge].-
-Cooldown: 1 minute.-
-You have inflicted the Status (Paralyze) on 11 enemies within your [Discharge] range.-
-You have inflicted the Status (Burn) on 2 of the enemies within your [Discharge] range.-
-You have dealt 5000 damage to all 24 of your opponents.-
Tapping the ground lightly and jumping into the air, Cynrik caught view of the eleven dinos under the effect of (Paralyze) and had to stop himself from laughing. All of the creatures were twitching on the ground like flies. Meanwhile, the two under (Burn) had blackened skin and feathers.
Flicking his eyes to the floating number in the top left of his HUD, Cynrik noticed he still had around 43 more [Charge], so he extended his left arm, channeled Lightning Mana into his hand, and manifested his third new skill, [Lightning Javelin].
-Tier-0 Lightning Affinity Skill [Lightning Javelin]-
-Category: Active.-
-As a Lightning Affinity user, you can weaponize the Mana Particles into a semi-physical construct, such as a powerful and fast Javelin.-
-Creates up to three 2.5-meter Mana Javelins.-
-Damage Calc: 2500 Static Damage.-
-Requirement: Must have a [Charge] counter of at least 15.-
-Cost: 500 MP, 5 [Charge]-
-Cooldown: 30 seconds.-
Instantly, three bolts of lightning in the form of a Javelin manifested and floated around Cynrik’s hand in the north, west, and east positions. Once fully constructed, he made a throwing motion, and the three Mana constructs rocketed forward with a buzzing sound.
BZZZSZZTTT BOOM BOOM BOOM
Erupting with three thunderous roars, the Javelins connected and exploded on impact with three unlucky paralyzed dinos, flinging them away from the group like ragdolls.
-You have dealt 2500 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 2500 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 2500 damage to your opponent.-
Landing back on the ground, Cynrik vanished from sight as he flitted from one creature to the next like a pinball, kicking and punching all of them as he got used to the temporarily raised 1147.5 AGI stat.
Surprisingly enough, during one particular assault on a dino, he received the notification he had been waiting to receive.
-You have inflicted the Status Effect (Paralyze) on your opponent.-
The whole point of relying on hand-to-hand combat to bully the RaptorBasilisks was to see how often he could get the passive effect of his [Lightning Armor] to trigger.
-Tier-1 Lightning Affinity Skill [Lightning Armor]-
-Category: Active Boosted Mode.-
-Once you have a high enough [Charge], your body becomes baptized by Lightning Mana particles, and for a short time, you fuse with them, becoming a hybrid Elemental being of Lightning Mana.-
-Physical Damage Reduction: 25%.-
-Metaphysical Damage Reduction: 50%.-
-AGI and DEX have increased by 1.5 times.-
-All Attacks will have a 5% chance of inflicting opponents with the Status Effect (Paralyze) upon making contact.-
-So long as this skill is active, the User cannot use any Affinity Skills other than Lightning Affinity Skills.-
-Requirement: Must have a [Charge] counter of at least 125.-
-Backlash: You are not used to this overcharged, and Mana saturated state; thus, your body is under heavy strain. If you keep this skill active for more than 5 minutes, the User loses HP at a rate of 5% Maximum HP per second.-
-Activation Cost: 2500 MP, 100 Charge.-
-Sustain Cost: 1% of Maximum Mana every 5 seconds.-
-Cooldown: 1 hour.-
Across the room, Brance narrowed his eyes and looked away from the skill description and toward Cynrik with [Mana Sight] active. At a glance, he could see how much Mana his older brother’s body had running through it, and upon further observation, he noticed something frightening.
Inside of Cynrik’s Codex, the Lightning particles appeared to have forced the Fire, Wind, and even Dark Mana particles into submission, trapping them in the corner of the gem-like organ and rendering them unable to leave.
After reading the skill description for [Lightning Armor] and comparing it with what he saw, Brance determined this was the result of the drawback. The description detailed how so long as the skill was active, the “User cannot use any Affinity Skills other than Lightning Affinity Skills.” But it wasn’t that simple; it was as if the Lightning Particles had complete dominance over Cynrik’s body and blocked all other Mana from running through it.
‘That’s a severe downside for Cyn, considering how much he loves playing in the shadows. Yet, as double-edged as this skill is, it opens many doors for him offensively, and if he pairs it up with his weapons, the DPS he can output will skyrocket for a short time.’ Brance thought as he watched his brother bounce from one enemy to the next, draining their HP rapidly.
Peeling his eyes from the battlefield, Brance glanced up at the clock. Two minutes had passed since Cynrik activated his [Lightning Armor].
“I think there is something wrong with Big Bro.” After Cynrik landed a particularly devastating uppercut, which forced a dino to do a backflip before landing on its belly, Gabby tugged at Brance’s sleeve, pulling his attention away from the fight.
“Huh? What do you mean? What can you see, Gabby?” Brance asked. It was no secret that she had the best eyesight in the party, so if she said she saw something off with Cynrik, Brance was inclined to believe her.
“Before he throws a cross or hook, his left arm’s muscles spasm erratically,” Gabby said as she pointed out what she had noticed.
Looking away from her, Brance channeled a small amount of Mana into his eyes and focused on Cynrik’s left arm. Sure enough, right after throwing any punch, be it a cross, jab, uppercut, or hook, all of the muscles on his entire arm would suddenly tense up before relaxing after his fist was impacted with a RaptorBasilisk.
“There, did you see it?” Gabby asked without moving her eyes away from Cynrik.
“Yeah, I think it’s Backlash from the skill.” Brance quickly explained the skill description for [Lightning Armor] to Gabby, causing her to wiggle her nose left and right cutely as she mulled over the information.
“If he is already seeing effects like that after only two and a half minutes, then by the time he reaches three or even four minutes, it will begin slowing him down. Knowing Big Bro’s pain tolerance, the issue is that he will likely ignore the signs of Backlash and write them off as muscle fatigue.” Gabby analyzed.
