Chapter 104: Evolution?
"I don't understand-"
"Answer my question, Bruce Chaolong, who are you?" Sol pressed. "Answer honestly, if I don't like your answer I'll fucking throw you into the vaccums right now and watch you pop." Sol's eyes glazed over with rage for a momt before he took a breath. "Go on."
"I..."
"Answer!" Sol roared. "Who the fuck are you supposed to be!?"
"I'm... the shield hero!!"
"Th start acting like it, there isn't supposed to be an emy that can bypass your defces, if you find one th make stronger defces, what the fuck are you doing using another person as a shield you disgraceful excuse of a warrior?" Sol g his teeth squeezing down on Bruce's shoulder plate until his hand had crushed it and folded into a fist making a handle out of it.
"I want to do it so badly; every little devil on my shoulder is telling me in choruses to kill you, but the heroes need you now, Arkadia needs scum like you." His anger slightly subsided as he had an idea.
"Here's an ultimatum th, if you survive and return, I might forgive you and let you keep fighting alongside the actual heroes, if you run away after surviving, I'll personally come for you and leave you in a state wishing for death, and the last; if you don't survive, well, you just don't and that is the d of it, the choice is yours." Sol finished speaking and th from the height above the clouds he released Bruce to fall.
"Ah!" Eris watched the man scream out as he began plummeting toward Arkadia. "No..."
"Are you feeling sorry for him, Eris?" Sol asked looking at her limply hanging under his arm, of course he already knew she was, ev with all her hidd personality traits Eris still boiled down to a sweet caring girl, she always easily forgave others.
"You said we needed him, but what if he dies?" She asked.
"That'd be the d of his other-world experice." Sol chuckled and th snapped his fingers bringing them right back to the place he was standing before where he found Arla standing over Dina who looked sleepy and tired while Ikaris stood on high alert with Usami at her side.
"It seems like everything wt smoothly on this d." Sol placed Eris to stand.
"Where is Bruce?" Arla who had thought Sol saved them both started looking a frighted. "Did he truly get caught in the crossfire of one of our attacks?" She started panicking.
"Bruce is going through some things right now, he needs a bit of time to sort his mind out." Sol answered, looking a at Eris who looked away and cast [heal] on herself.
"Did you... Did you sd him into that nightmare prism thing?" Dina looked up at him, and he shook his head and extded his hand at the mtion of Han.
"No, he should be arriving soon." Sol cast [portal] and Han quickly emerged, taking a breath of the humid air filled with the stch of burnt corpses and blood and th stared to the skies roaring with a deafing roar that caused the mana a him to tremble and the atmosphere to distort. "Look at you!" Sol cheered with a proud grin. "How long was it this time?"
"Thirte days." Han breathed heavily and th looked a and at Arla, Dina, Ikaris and Usami. "Everyone got stronger... He th looked at Eris. "Except you, what are you doing with your time, isn't there a demon god that needs defeating why are you still so weak?"
"It's only be three days for them." Sol answered and Han snapped back to Ikaris, her mana had doubled, she felt like a completely differt person than before, she felt threating in a way he had only felt from Sol at that point. "What's your progress?"
"Hm, I am at level 460 now, and my mana has reached 70k, there seems to be a gap betwe my mana and my levels that I can't overcome or short." Han responded in his new groggy and monotone voice. "Did Bruce die?" He asked, but only a momt after he said it there was a crash a few hundred metres away. "Nevermind, sorry for wasting your time."
"Not at all."
"Wait?" Dina stood with Ikaris's aid, looking at the direction that something had crashed earlier. "What was that?"
"Bruce."
"What?"
"It was Bruce." Sol answered again. "I won't go into the specifics, but he needed to be taught a lesson- oh! Here he comes!" Sol parked up again and turned to the incoming shield hero.
His left arm was twisted, and he was bleeding from his head, mouth and nose, but his eyes had ignited a fire, and as Sol had instructed, everyone waited patitly until he had limped his way over to them.
"There." Bruce fell to his knees as soon as he arrived.
"Stand up." Sol held his hand toward Usami and Eris who were both about to help him.
"You just threw me from the-"
"Stand. Up."
Sol's voice boomed through Bruce's head, and within a second the man was on his feet again standing at atttion.
"Now list, quite a lot has happed today, but I'm still in a fairly good mood, th again I've killed in better moods than this." Sol placed his hand before Bruce's forehead and aimed to flick his finger, but immediately Bruce knew from just staring into those glowing irises; if that finger hit him he was a dead man, no shield he could produce was going to save him.
"Maybe a party of people who understand each other is better after all."
"Sol wait!" Dina approached them, stopping at his side and holding his hand with both of hers and trying to lower it with obvious failure. "I don't know what he did to earn your anger, but please, just this once let it go." She pleaded with him.
Sol looked behind at Ikaris who was passive, it was obvious that she had se as well what Bruce was doing, and she seemed to have no interest in what happed thereafter, Arla although unaware seemed to hold her breath and keep her silce, and Usami was just confused, but th Eris came as well and held on to the same hand that Dina was holding and stared up at him with her eyes almost moist and teary.
"Just this once." Eris begged as well, and Sol sighed and chuckled with himself.
"If Eris is the one begging for you th I have no choice but to agree with her." Sol looked at Bruce again and lowered his hand.
"I'll be back in a little bit, there's unfinished business in Argom that I have to take care of." Sol turned to Han. "There's be a rect increase in higher levelled demons from the north, stay with them and act according to the situation, their progress is more important than yours while you're out here."
"Understood." Han growled.
"Th, I'm off again." Sol cast [heal] and [recover] on Han, restoring him from his injuries and repairing his armour again before he vanished in a flash of light.
"What happed in Argom?" Arla turned to Ikaris.
"Haha, your que is a sick degerate." Ikaris laughed, and th laughed again wh she saw the look on everyone's faces at her berating remark and how humoured she seemed by it.
"What about Sara?" Eris queried. "She vanished in the mix of everything and nobody knew where she had gone, I just assumed it was to alert you and Sol."
"Safe and whole." Ikaris replied. "Did the camp get overrun?"
"No, She was able to move the horses and everything else away before they were on top of us.
"She truly is handy, it will be a shame to say goodbye someday." Ikaris smiled with a pleased huff and th looked northward again. "Han, we are moving on."
"Yes ma'am." Han caught his grown out hair into a short ponytail and summoned his sword, showcasing his full alertness as he extded his evolved sses and began walking behind her.
"How are you feeling, Dina?" She turned to her frid, and the mage gave her a thumbs up.
[Mana: k/5k]
"I still have some fight in me, and I gained some levels too, it's actually a big upgrade, I'm glad I was able to fire off that [pulsar] in the d." Dina responded, staring at her status and a few slots with the (new) tag attached to them and their additions.
[Name: Dina Levina
Race: Human
Level: 30 (+0)
Title: Hero, Mage hero (new)
Skills: Master of all trades, Mana spear, Infernal magic, cosmic magic (new), chronological awaress (new; you have be exposed to time being paused, hceforth your body will slowly become accustomed to any fluctuation of time and space), origin explosion\\s, Cosmic Scream (new)
Class: Mage.
Buffs: Fission (untested),Perception (new); (Mana perception and manipulation during combat will be increased dramatically.)
Blessing: Gifted, Heroes blessing, que's blessing, Alliance (new; you are favoured and protected by omni-powerful beings, your life expectancy is doubled)
Curses: None
Special: Transcdt knowledge, Fission, Pulsar, Daughter of Chaos (New; granted by the goddess of chaos, Ria. For a short momt your mana will be chaos incarnate, multiplying hundredfold and causing devastation to everything it touches be warned, ev the slightest bit of overuse will lead to immediate death, the goddess has warned you to use with extreme care and caution.
Evolution: (new).]
"Evolution?"