"All right.. I'll start tracking those mage guys. I don't remember what they were called… Actually, I could just look in the bestiary but.. Meh, whatever." Max Said.

"What bestiary?" Oldren asked.

"You don't- damn. Y'all's status sucks." He looked up with his eyes as he thought. "Statuses? Stausi?"

"Max this is not the time." I sighed.

"I suppose." He admitted. "Ight, I've started tracking them. I'll lead the way, y'all follow me."

"...What else would we do?" Oldren questioned. I stared at him but he didn't seem to notice.

"Juuuuust making sure." Max drawled.

He stared at the ground for a few seconds, as if he was looking for something before he shrugged and gestured for us to follow him. I used Max's [Brash Dash] as soon as the other two started picking up speed.

As Max scanned the city, I delved into my own investigation. I reached into my small sphere of awareness and fumbled around for any mana. While I was confused at the lack of any energy, it's not like I had anyway to find out what was wrong. Unsatisfied, I focused back onto the cobbled road.

We ran across a wide, curving road way that slowly began to curve upwards. The city was built in some kind of hill biome, seeing the odd and fluctuating elevations of most of the city. In the distance, a hill covered in houses and other stone cubes sat like a tower. It stood out among all of the other scenery, though not just for its size.

All of the buildings were simple. Simply made, simply built. They seemed to be mostly pricks with cement coating its entirety, like the houses in the past. Adobe I believe? Though these were all gray colored instead of tan. Wood seemed to be uncommon here. Even fence posts were made of chipped stone.

An explosion rang out in the distance, making me remember the last time this happened. It was barely a week ago, yet the emotions I had felt still lingered in my mind. For a while now, my sense of fear had been dulled, now giving way to things like worry and stress. But the emotions I felt when I saw Max's hp reduce to half in a near instant… that was real fear.

I really care about Max. I'm not sure in what way yet, but I know that I do. I want to live, and I want him to be happy… It's so much more than that, but I don't really have the vocabulary to describe it quite yet.

And then there is Oldren. Honestly, me and him know next to nothing about each other. It's unavoidable though. He's like… 20? I think? And I'm just barely not thirteen, my birthday being next month. Should I tell Max? How would he react I wonder… I shouldn't, he has enough to think about right now.

I suppress a laugh as Max trips over a piece of shattered lumber. He glared at the surroundings as if it were the tortured city's fault that he was a clutz at the best of times. Another explosion rang out, and after a few moments, Max called us to a stop.

"Stop! Something's off." Max ordered. He stared daggers at something in front of us, on the ground. Sigh, it's at times like these I wish I could borrow his abilities too. That mana sight ability is crazy… I looked right where he was and cast a wide area [Super Appraisal] at the ground.

The skill could appraise multiple things at once, and I could adeptly control how it would go about it. A piercing appraisal, a wide appraisal, I can even apprais everything in a decent radius around myself. And since I just automatically perceive the information instead of having to look at some system window, I had no reason not to take advantage of it.

The appraisal swept over the area like a ripple, notifying me of every little thing in the area. I doubled down on the mana part of the inspection, and summarized the grim information out loud.

"Some kind of teleportation trap."

Max chuckled nervously. "Good thing we didn-" He cut himself off as the intricate circle suddenly appeared to the mundane senses, and vastly increased in size, spreading to contain all of us and then some. Max cursed and blurred as he attempted to escape, but was soundlessly caught and held in place.

With a deep hum the surroundings completely changed, and the impossible hold on me ceased as if it had never existed. The circle persisted under us, but its glow ceased, and the entire circle unwove itself into nothingness. I felt through [Mana Sight] that the mana wasn't just unweaving, but actually dissipating into the air like smoke.

"Max! Where-" Oldren shouted suddenly. I looked his way, to see that Max was gone. I cast [Super Appraisal] again and swept the skill across the building faces we were now surrounded by. While I couldn't see Max, I found something else instead. It gave off weird signatures, I wasn't sure if it was life signs or not, so I flipped on [Soul Exploitation] and appraised the odd signatures.

I saw… Well, something. They weren't souls, but there were a lot of them.

I looked at me and Oldren's souls, the small glowing white hearts feeling both familiar yet foreign at the same time. A comforting but placating feeling. My soul was tiny, less than an inch, while Oldren was only slightly bigger, maybe an inch and 1/4th. I looked out, and saw a familiar white glow out in the distance.

I could tell the soul was far away, but the distance did not hinder my sight, I could still see his soul with the same clarity as if he were a foot in front of me. He was at the apex of the hill I had acknowledged before. Content that he wasn't in imminent danger, for once, I toned down the isolating effect of the skill to consult Oldren.

The black world that entered when I activated the skill at full power dulled back into the normal world. The infinite soul range decreased to a mile or so, losing me Max's soul but letting me know the location of my enemies all the same, though the souls were translucent and showed through people's body's, as if they were ghosts.

"Oldren." I pointed toward the hill I had seen Max at. "Max is over there. I have no clue why the circle split us up but…" I finished awkwardly, with nothing else to say. Oldren seemed to be in thought before I was forced to pull him out of it.

"Something's coming, and a lot of them." I stared critically at the shriveled, withered black "souls" as a dozen or so surrounded us and the little cul-de-sac we had found ourselves in. They began leaping on top of the stone houses, and I recoiled as soon as I saw them.

"It's the mages!" Oldren looked at me as his arm flashed with brilliant golden light. "Like the ones Max mentioned? That attacked you guys a while ago?" When did he hear that?

"Yes." I said, too busy forming mana constructs to give a more detailed answer. I grabbed three mana strings from the air with each hand and began weaving them into the transformation runes.

I called the mana constructs runes. First, I had to turn the normal mana into elemental mana, which for me is water and lightning. I twisted the mana into a circle, the foundation for all magic, for some reason, before I began filling out the simple pattern for the water rune.

Three boxes that are kind of bent, three small circles, and three ovals in between the boxes meeting at the center. Magic also loves symmetry. The circle pulsed blue as I fed the normal man into it. The string dissolved into fine threads that drove through one side of the rune, and then did the same on the other side, except transformed into ocean blue.

According to my racial trait that I got when I selected high human, my stat efficiency has increased. According to a lore tidbit, that means the effectiveness of each stat point is increased. My stat efficiency is at two hundred percent, meaning my stats are actually twice as high as they appear.

Thanks to that, my intellect was actually eighty and not forty, though, I still don't get the fifty stat benefit. Oh well.

Oldren's hand, or rather, his whole arm, had turned into a massive and complex looking cannon. He hefted the huge tube onto his other hand and aimed at one of the mages. The gun made an ominous whirring sound, as if powering up.

After a five second stare down, the whirring abruptly cut off. Before the mages could move, Oldren swung the cannon to the right towards a completely different mage. The being barely had time to flinch before a hole the size of a diner plate appeared in its body.

The air shook with the force of the discharge, and Oldren's cannon arm got shoved upwards from the recoil, the end of the barrel sparking. The attack set off the rest of the mages, who all started launching their prepared spells, while a few others launched themselves off the buildings for a melee.

I reached out with [Soul Exploitation] and pulled at their souls. A mage who opted for a close up brawl suddenly froze as I formed a chain around its soul, tightened it, and pulled backwards. They were the same chains I had used to control the monsters before. Though I had wisened up since then.

My control back then was sloppy and half baked. Even now I still have no clue what I did, so I'll just stick to basic manipulation for now. With the mage frozen, and my grip slipping under the wriggling of the mage's disgusting black soul, I pointed it out to Oldren.

"Oldren! Shoot that one." his right hand had since turned into some kind of eight barreled machine gun. He transformed his left hand into a large rifle and shot a bolt of blue energy at the halted mage.

The bolt hit right in the hand just as my chain slipped free. Oldren grunted and revved his once spinning gun barrel back into speed as he sprayed across the whole area. The bullets either missed, or didn't pierce, though it did stave off the mages from further advance.

An explosion cracked out as a mage wielding glowing orange daggers suddenly appeared next to Oldren. Unable to turn due to the two heavy weapons at the end of his arms, he was completely defenseless.

A bolt of lightning crackled through the air and slammed the would-be assassin into a nearby stack of bricks. "Thanks!" Oldren yelled, before hammering the line of mages with more bullets. "Hey! I'm running out of ammo! But I have an idea!"

"What kind of idea!" I yelled, as I ripped one of the mages souls to the side, forcing a lance of ice to pierce one of his comrades, who was strangely ok with it.

"Uhh… It might be a bit weird, but just hear me out!" I thought back to the times me and Max would sit by the campfire and talk. Every time he said; 'okay here me out', it was always an absolute travesty. Naturally, hearing those words immediately shot ice up my spine.

I narrowly dodged a spear of rock that stabbed up from beneath me. "Talk fast! I'm getting tired!"

"Same… have you ever watched Iron man?" It took a small expression of will to stop myself from physically freezing at those words. "Uhhh.. yeah? I think? My dad was a huge marvel nerd.. Why?" I was just confused at this point.

"You know that scene where- GAH! Stupid bitch… Anyways. You know when Tony summons the iron man armor and it all, like, flies onto him until it forms the suit?!" In the middle of his speech he had to dodge a lunge from a particularly zealous earth mage, who Oldren promptly smashed into the ground with a probably very heavy cannon arm.

"Sure? Oh wait… can you even do that?!?!"

"Uh.. maybe? Theoretically?" He began backing up, and I followed suit until we were both almost back to back. He unshifted his cannon arm back to normal. At this point, his entire body was made of that golden, flashing, oddly cubic metal. He stood almost seven feet, his entire body dwarfing mine.

His arm uncoupled into a few dozen large plates. He flung the metal outwards, which flew straight at me. I blocked with one arm and marveled at how the metal almost turned liquid and morphed around my arm. All of the pieces turned into thin circuits that roasted around the entirety of my arm.

Then, they all recombined into plates again and slammed into my arm. They shifted and transformed, building a knight-like suit around my left arm. The plates converged and stilled, they shifted together, making sure everything fit and worked.

I made fist and marveled at the new found strength the armor provided. "How is it!" Oldren yelled, who was now struggling to keep the mages at bay now that he was down an arm.

"It works! I think…"

"Great!"

Immediatly, the rest of his body exploded apart into almost a hundred golden parts. His head shifted into a bulb that fused to the back plate. The metal that was within him flowed out and formed into random pieces of metal.

The armor flowed around me and formed into an exploded view of the complete armor set, though everything was still shifting its shape. An echoey voice resounded from somewhere. "JUMP!!!" I did so.

The armor drifted onto my body, forceful but not painful. Most of the plates were massively oversized, though they soon shrunk and shifted to hug my body. The excess metal that drifted outside was now spinning around me, blocking all of the incoming spells and deflecting the few melee mages yet.

I felt especially heavy metal form onto my legs. Almost an entire foot below my shoes stood a pillar of metal, constantly shifting and adjusting. The whole process only took about thirty seconds or so.

Pauldrons rolled onto my shoulders, the chestplate shrunk, and a thick circle of metal propped onto the front. I felt more metal riggle inside as everything connected, and some of the excess metal produced from down sizing swam in the air to smooth out the whole design.

Metal coalesced around my head as it turned into a helmet. Blue light shone through the eye slits as I suddenly felt the suspension effect wear off. Before I could drop to the ground, I was thrust upwards.

I panicked, and wished desperately for the mask to come off. It did. The helmet unwound itself, and I was presented with the same scene, but from a birds eye view. I was now a hundred or so feet in the air, blue flames propelling me from my feet.

Each of the thick boosters sported one thick flame pointing downwards, two smaller flames pointing diagonally down and back for support, and one that turned on and off at the front that had a longer but less wide flame.

"You good?" I heard Oldrens voice echo in my head. "H-how… how are you doing this??"

"I got a new racial trait called [Symbiosis] just now. I guess it lets us connect on a more fundamental level. That's how you got the helmet to open without my input."

"You didn't do that?"

"Well… I kinda did? It's like your voice over rid my thoughts and forced me to move like you asked. It sounds worse than it actually was."

"So… what now?"

I felt Oldrens mind light up as he stopped speaking. The metal shield shot upwards and began forming into.. Something. The metal plates on my right arm began shifting and opening up as they accepted more material. The construct grew to massive proportions, making some kind of gun with its barrel split in half, and electricity coursing between the two thick prongs.

A word entered my mind. Rail gun.

The barrel was easily three feet long, the entire arm now longer than my entire non-armored body. We pointed the gun, which spun and then stretched out like tongs before setting back into place. The lighting between the two prongs intensified, making a localized lightning storm as the gun whirred to life.

I activated Max's aiming skill, and then fired the massive weapon at one of the stronger looking mages down below. The two prongs compressed into one, the electricity now creating a magnetic weight, before they burst open and a bullet exploded outward with a calamitous WOM. Three thin shockwaves rippled through the air as the bullet pierced through the wind at unperceivable speeds.

Safe to say, the mage was completely obliterated. I had to flip myself in midair and cast the thrusters completely backwards to offset the ridiculous knockback. Even then I still had to kick them into overdrive to resist the force adequately.

L: Why didn't you do that before?

O: Didn't have enough material. Would have had to scrap both arms and form it at my chest, and then I would have to drive both of my legs into the ground, after which I would be completely defenseless, even with you there.

The energy completely dissipated and the blue glow that had suffused the gun now completely vanished, now leaving the weapon in a depowered appearance. The two prongs sighed and closed back together, though they still didn't touch.

O: I also have, like, no bullets for them. Plus, the cooldown. I can solve the bullet issue, I know a machine that can energize debris into decent bullets, but forming a decently shaped projectile out of debris will take time we don't have.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

L: Huh… What if I made a bullet out of water, would that work? Cause I can make a bunch of those.

O: …Maybe? Actually, hold on.

More of the excess metal that was now just in a pile on the ground flew up and formed a vaguely engine shaped rectangle on my tricep, which then somehow connected to the gun by forming across my elbow.

Following his thought process, I had already constructed a small version of my main water spell, aqua sphere. I made sure to fill out the three inch sphere completely with water, not an ounce of air within. I kept the sphere stable as I shoved it into a slightly larger circular hole cut into the box.

O: Huh, yeah. That'll work. ……. What the hell is that???

I turned around and noticed a gigantic magic circle hovering over the hill Max had been brought too.

O: Should we go help him?

L: ..He'll be fine. We should take this time to level up. What are you?

O: lv40.

L: I'm 21.

Suddenly, I felt something latch onto my ankle. I could feel through the metal thanks to symbiosis. I looked down to see a rope of mana latch onto my leg, before I was yanked out of the sky.

I was still unused to flight, so all I could do was flail as I fell. I slammed into the ground with a heavy thump, though surprisingly I barely felt it at all. Now that we were near the ground, the mound of metal started floating up again and began forming a machine gun on my left arm.

A slot opened up near my elbow, and a swirling blue vortex about a foot across summoned itself above the slot. A drumstick shaped piece of metal dropped perfectly into the slot, and at the right of my vision, an illusion appeared.

It showed 800/800 with a little bullet next to it. On the right side, another appeared, this time showing a house shape with a 2 next to it, and another with a 0 and an orb. Next to that was also a timer counting down from thirty seconds.

That mages had clearly not been idle whilst we were figuring out everything. In front of us sat a fiendishly complex rune made of wind mana that looked sort of like a ballista. A thick chain of mana was still leashed to our leg, pulling us down and preventing us from ascending again.

In my peripherals I saw another of the constructs shooting another rope of mana. We jumped back but were caught by another rope from behind us chaining to our left shoulder. We whipped around and started spraying the offenders with our machine gun. Instead of fleeing, the six mages just tanked the spray as another whipped up a brown construct on the ground. Moments later a wall of rock rose to intercept the bullets.

A lump of metal finished forming on our right shoulder, which unfolded into a missile launcher. All of the pin size missiles exploded out from the slots and swarmed the cluster of mages that I had dodged the attack of before. Call them group two.

With the cooldown for the railgun finished, we whipped around and fired at the first group. The shot spread dust across the arena, and while it went straight through the ballista rune, it took five mages with it. A line of devastation formed behind them, as the bullet pierced through dozens of buildings, blowing them away with the sheer force of its flight.

< Experience cap Attained. Level increased. 21 → 22 >

The two prongs that made up the barrel of the rail gun expanded and rolled back, the firing mechanism folded outwards as a metal hand was formed were the main body of the gun once sat. The hand lashed into the heavy chain of wind mana. While it didn't break, it was weak enough to move through.

We flew at the first group, most of them now gone. We landed right inside of the ballista rune. We ripped our right hand to the side and knocked back one of the still living mages. We riddled the last living one with holes as we tore the ballista apart.

By this time the shoulder missile launcher had refreshed, and Oldrens pet project was 80% done, a massive shoulder cannon that was resting on our back. I shoved another water orb into the rail gun ammunater. As we turned towards the third group who had put up the earth wall we were met with a massive javelin of ice hurtling towards us, and three more mages clad in magical armor running right behind.

O: I got this.

We walked forward as the bulge on our chest began glowing, a thin blue circle which pulsed. The spear of ice slammed into a now corporeal shield made up of large hexagons. My left arm shifted once again, the hand vanishing and the rail gun's prongs pulling up and fusing together, the outsides sharpening. The inside glowed blue as did the edge, lightning flashing between them.

One of the mages was covered in gray rock plates, while the other was coated in lightning and held a long bow staff vibrating with energy. The rocky one was slow, while the lighting one was upon us in mere moments. The bow staff looked dangerous, but its impacts didn't seem to do much. The mage hopped and flew around us, spinning the stuff as if this were a performance and not a battle.

We peppered the approaching earth mage when we could, as the lightning mage kept jostling us around. Oldren fired two pen missiles to test his armor, while I tried to fight off the lighting mage. His staff connected with the arm holding the sword, finally letting me knock him back. The earth mage reared out of the cloud of dust from the missiles, his armor chipped and cracked in places.

With the machine gun no longer as effective, I erged Oldren to change it as I continued fighting off the mages. The energy shield seemed to be a one time use type thing, needing a recharge, so I used the last bits of remaining metal to form a long shield on our left arm, which was shifting into some kind of rifle.

O: Wait a second, weren't there three mages??

I reached out with [Soul Exploitation], and felt a grimy soul shifting around a few yards behind me. I felt a tingle as Oldren passively notified me of the gun's completion, including the shoulder cannon. I hefted the short barreled rifle towards the hiding soul and shot. Space seemed to break as a mage shimmered into existence, now sporting an inch wide hole in its shoulder.

We fired another shot right before the lightning mage could intercept. Once the bullet was flying, we whipped forward and stabbed the mage in its chest, pinning it to the ground. The earth mage rammed into us, making us lose our footing. We stumbled, and our hold on the mage weakened. Lightning flared as the mage turned into a ball of energy and teleported a few feet away, clutching the wound in its chest.

The shield that I had made before slammed onto the rifle, now sleek thanks to Oldrens help. A wild melee ensued, one in which the mages were clearly losing. They were out matched, none of their attacks could do any real damage.

We managed to cut off one of the lightning mages legs right as the earth mage charged us. We turned and leveled our rifle. Oldren shot the mage in the head while I stabbed the lightning mage into the ground. He fired thrice for good measure.

< Experience cap Attained. Level increased. 22 → 23 >

I sighed once that battle was done. Oldren moved by himself, forming the sword shield combo back into the rail gun. The shield flew back and deposited itself onto our back. As soon as the energized water orb entered the firing chamber, I inserted another into the ammunater. A single blue head peeked out from behind the wall, and then Oldren fired.

< Experience cap Attained. Level increased. 23 → 24 >

L: Ooh, I got a new skill!

O: What's it do?

L: [Skill Crash]- Temporarily prevent a skill's use, or permanently down level a skill. Has a long cooldown.

O: …That's crazy!

L: I know right?

It was at this time I finally decided to look at my surroundings. All the buildings were destroyed, mostly in straight paths thanks to the rail gun. I flew upwards, after enlisting Oldren for the task. The rockets ignited and propelled me, or us, into the sky. I'm still kinda foggy on how all of this works.

Are we the same being? Cause I can see our two souls are still separate, plus we talk to eachother like we're different beings… but this sense of unity, it's so odd. We share xp too, no clue how that's being divided. Is it a simple 50/50 split, or does it work off of contribution?

I peered out into the sky, noticing that the massive magic circle was gone, as well as…

O: What the fuck?!?!

L: Language, but, yeah.

The entire damn mountain was just… Gone. Vanished. Stolem. All that remained was a huge dirt colored depression sinking a few feet downwards. I looked up at the hp bars, and breathed a sigh of relief that Max wasn't on death's door. Sure, his hp was, like, a third down, but he was probably fighting those mages too. And I've seen his regeneration ability. He'll be fine.

O: What's that?

I swing to the left. What lies before me, many miles away, is some kind of.. Camp? We squat down in midair, before jumping and blasting forwards. As we fly, a feeling that was once at the back of my mind suddenly jumps to the forefront. I feel drained, and once I get within five hundred feet or so of the dark buildings, I land on top of one of the few remaining houses.

L: Ugh, what is this?

O: Ah, I'm running out of energy. That's part of the reason I haven't done this before, energy consumption. I've been running the numbers. I'm gonna have to sleep for like, five days after this.

L: That Long!?!?

O: Yep. Power doesn't come for free, despite how random the iron man idea seemed at the time.

L: So how long do we have?

O: I can keep going for as long as we need, but after a certain point, the amount of energy being consumed will massively increase, and the amount of sleep time i'll need to recover will drastically increase.

L: That doesn't answer my question.

O: …Maybe fifteen minutes? Btw, if we're going to take out this base, let's use my remaining rail gun shells for it. I won't be able to use it soon. Energy conservation and all that.

L: Is there a difference between your bullets and mine?

O: Yes.

L: W-

O: No, I will not elaborate. I'll just go ahead and scrap the ammunater.

I scan the camp… no, fortress for souls. It's chock full of black souls, but there's not even a hint of white souls within. But as I enter the dark space, I realize that further to the right, exists a massive amount of white souls in one place.

Suddenly, a group of a hundred or so vanish. They don't die, simply… vanish.

L: You getting this?

O: Vaguely. Are they transporting the townspeople?

L: Must be… but for what? Also, I'm not sure the rail gun will be a good idea.

The fortress in front of us was a massive and complex collection of fused buildings, filled to the brim with hundreds of black souls. The entire complex was spiked and wicked looking. The ground around the structure was black, as if its corruption was leaking out of it.

O: hmmmmmm…… Oh no.

L: What?

O: I have a terrible idea.

L: i'm listening.

O: Well, you know about my sub-system right? My material gatcha.

L: ..Yeah.

O: Well, one of the first few things I got out of it, like my third day actually, I got something called a Volcan Core.

An image of a perfectly spherical orange ball that glowed with warm light appeared in my mind, surrounded by similarly colored crackling lightning.

O: Essentially, its a massive fucking bomb. According to my appraisal, it is stupid volatile, and carries a blast power comparable to a thermonuclear bomb, but instead of radiation, it uhhh…

L: …..What?

O: It kinda.. Uh… turns the air into gunpowder?

L: WHAT.

O: It's kinda been rotting in my storage for like, ever, cause I'm absolutely terrified of using it. Have I mentioned how volatile it is? I'm pretty sure it's omni-activated. As in, touching air, even light will set it off.

O: So here's what I'm thinking. I'll make a shell for it, and a trigger. We blow a few holes into the fortress, toss the mega-nuke in there, and then run as fast as we can.

L: ... It wont, like, end the world will it? You said it's a nuke right? Won't that like.. Destroy everything?

O: The size of a nuclear explosion has been exaggerated considerably. Besides, whatever those walls are made up of is pretty tough, so they'll absorb a lot of the force.

L: Alright…

I aim the rail gun, loaded with a water bullet at the fortress. I simply aim, as Oldren constructs the Ultra-Nuke in his skill.

O: It's ready.

I aim at the fortress, powering up the rail gun as I do so. Instead of going straight to the middle, I aim off to the side. I activate the gun, the bullet just piercing the outer wall, but causing quite a ruckus.

I watch as most of the black souls rush over like ants to see the commotion as I ready the next strike. Thirty seconds later and the gun is ready to be fired again, now loaded with one of Oldrens premade shells.

With my left hand transformed back into a workable appendage, I fire the bullet at the very center and immediately start flying in. Only once I'm near the long crater do I summon the large bullet shaped bomb, the inside glowing orange with ominous energy.

We twist in midair, planting both of our feet onto the back of the bomb. I push off and immediately push every scrap of energy into the rockets. Our legs fuse together and form a heavy but extremely powerful rocket. We speed off diagonally into the sky.

An undeniable power suffuses the air, and no matter how far away we fly, the feeling never ceases. A scream took up the air, infinitely reaching a higher and higher pitch. Time shuddered as reality itself seemed to hiccup.

BOOM.

A massive shockwave pulsed out, sending the both of us off course. We spun out, and while reorienting ourselves, we caught a glance of the destruction. The black fortress was gone, as were the numerous black souls that dwelled within. To my sight, a strange, indescribable energy wafted up and flowed into us. Half was absorbed by the living armor, while the other half pierced through and flowed through me, though it funneled slightly to my soul, visibly empowering it.

< Experience cap Attained. Level increased. 24 → 31 >

Class - Grand Paragon | lv 31/200 ******

Party Composition: Lily (Leader lv3 | Clarity Buff) | Max (Dealer lv5 | -20% Skill cooldowns) | Oldren (Crafter lv2 | 10% Material Efficiency)

Name - Lily f | Race - High Human

Condition -

Skp- 2 Stp- 9

Efficiency: 200%

Stats - (x2)

Strength 10

Speed 15

Stamina 15

Dexterity 10

Intellect 40

Sense 20

Vitality 20

Spirit 10

Charm 17 {locked}

Class Skills-

Super Appraisal |||||| lv8

Soul Exploitation |||||| lv3

War Conduction |||||| lv3

Party Link |||||| lv5

Skill Crash |||||| lv1

Skills -

Mana Sight ||| lv3

Mana Shifting || lv10

Mana Grasp || lv10

Water Specialty || lv3

Lightning Specialty || lv6

Stitching | lv3

Cooking | lv4

Intense Focus || lv8

Lofty Meditation || lv7

SOLU || lv7

Hide | lv2

Aim | lv3

Coordination | lv2

I barely have time to register everything before Oldren begins to sink to the ground. The blue lights dotted liberally around the armor completely shut off from their dimmed state, and the rockets began flickering as we quickly descended.

L: Oldren? What's going on? You said we had fifteen minutes, but it's barely been five!

O: Well… I did say it was an estimation didn't I? We still have time, I just want to minimize power waste.

It was at this time that I noticed something. Max's health bar was…

My blood went cold. Ice shot through my veins as if I had become a manifestation of horror.

L: OH MY GOD!!!

O: What??

L: M.. Max.. He's dying!

O: wha- oh. oH SHIT!

HIs health bar was continuously decreasing, and extremely fast. I pulled up his status in a panic. Oldren did the same, as evidenced by his equally devastated reaction. I pulled at my own skills, desperate to find him. He always has that tracking skill going, so I can never use it. The only time it turns off is when…

Suddenly, Max gained the unconscious condition. I shoved aside my worry and immediately engaged the skill, and began tracking him down. His hit points stopped decreasing with just a bare sliver of red left.

The longer we moved the more twisted the path became. At one point, the trail veered off in a completely different direction. We ran as fast as we could, Oldren pulled on as much energy as he could in preparation for the future battle.

Once we realized he was at the second camp we saw before, Oldren finally engaged flight again. We soared with a thunderous leap. We ascended over the high walls and came upon a vast camp filled with dozens of efficiently constructed buildings, and hundreds of mages.

A scene of devastation appeared, a massive trail of cracked earth liberally dotted with the goopifying remains of several downed mages. The skill locked on to a distant soul, and I knew it was him. Feelings of relief were held back, as we witnessed a being rush towards Max, who was very clearly gravely wounded.

We didn't even need to communicate. Oldren diverted all power to the rail gun, which I aimed and fired with cold efficiency. The final rail gun shell slammed into the ground with a wicked crunch, sending the aggressor far into the distance. I didn't wait for the notification as I descended to just a few feet above Max's head.

He stared up at us, his hair caked with blood and his body flooded with scratches and blemishes. He clutched his stomach with one hand, blocking his face with the other all while heaving as if he were taking his first breaths.

He looked up at us. His clothes torn irreparably. His shirt gone, his pants reduced to booty shorts, their frayed ends waving in the wind. His bloodied eyes stared up at us, the faint golden flakes catching the sun's light and making them glow. That emerald gaze was filled with pain, determination, and wonder.

His voice was unsteady and devoid of life. Though his face was bright, the labor of a thousand restless days permeated his voice. "Iron Man?" He said weakly. It held the slightest bit of humor, and he seemed to chuckle to himself as if he had made a joke. The motion made him throw up blood.

We descended. The armor depowered and uncoupled. I shook off the plates as if it were a practiced motion and ran to Max. The golden armor collapsed into a loose pile and begrudgingly began to mold itself into a shape vaguely reminiscent of a person. The process was slow, but definite. I paid it no mind as I embraced Max's strangely light body.

He failed as he tried to resist leaning on me. I wrapped him into a hug as he fell to his knees, his head hung like wet cloth. He didn't look up, but he spoke. A sound as silent as a whisper, just barely not carried off by the wind.

"I'm glad you're here."

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