To Kill!

Scythe in hand, the Gamer cracked his neck as he approached the nearest of the tall reverse fountains. The entire thing was around sixty feet in height like the others. But since the three tiers were pretty evenly spaced apart, his destination was only twenty feet above the ground.

As John walked closer to the structure, he moved slowly and carefully at first. Yet as he got closer and closer, none of the Fountain Fairies peeked over the side to see him coming. Now it could be that he was secretly the stealthiest stealthy boy to ever stealth. Or, and sadly far more likely, they just weren’t very vigilant about the environment outside of their fountains.

That would likely change the moment he tried to climb up. Doing so would be difficult while being pelted by water magic or anything else they potentially had to interrupt his ascent. However, who said that John actually needed to climb to make his way up there?

The world record for a vertical jump made from standing still was about five feet, three inches. But that was the mundane record. Compared to the supernatural physicality of Abyssals, that kind of number was for scrubs. John’s current base Stats were “only” comparable to the very peak of mundane human performance.

Yet to go even further beyond that, he did effectively have a toggleable cheat for both his Strength and Agility. The Gamer quickly opened the description for the Skill in question.

Demonic Rage:
Both adrenaline and fury pump through the Gamer, pushing his body into and beyond its maximum physical potential.
Strength and Agility will be increased by 75%. Also, while in this state, the Gamer ignores 10% of all physical damage.
However, it will also automatically activate if the Gamer’s HP drops below 40%.

Ever since it did the auto activation during his battle with the boss monster of the grass samurai, John still hadn’t tested the manual toggle. Was it dumb to do so while fighting against opponents he had no practice against? Especially when there was every implication that at least one fountain fairy equal to his own Level would await him at the top? Almost certainly.

But on the other hand, there was the rule of cool that’d come from doing a sick leap. And with how crappy John still felt since his conversation with Blair and making her worry, getting to feel cool would be a helpful change. So that was all the reasoning the Gamer currently needed.

He momentarily considered also switching to his full set of knight’s armor. But decided that even with the enchantment to reduce how heavy the pieces are, he didn’t need the extra weight to literally pull him down. But with that, the Gamer flipped a mental switch and toggled Demonic Rage.

John’s jaw tightly clenched as he felt every muscle within his body tense. The sensation of immense power filled him from the massive percentile boost to his Stats. His vision practically reddened as his eyes narrowed, staring straight up the reverse fountain. Every fiber of his being screamed with hateful desire.

He wanted to immediately tear apart every fairy limb from limb, caution or strategy be damned. But even a complete slaughter wouldn’t be enough. Not when these structures could be toppled next until this Barrier was nothing but a pile of corpses and rubble.

His teeth were already grinding together as it took everything he had to not roar like an angered beast. Yet just that ability to restrain himself, even if it was by just barely, was already a good sign. In terms of legitimate concerns about the Skill, a part of John had feared that the blackout rage would be an unavoidable aspect. That he’d just lose all conscious control over his body and would only have to hope that he wouldn’t snap out of the rage only to find that he was already dead.

But unlike before, he still remained self-aware and could at least control his empowered anger. In the back of his mind, however, John was concerned about something. Out of an attempt to make it a habit while in combat, he tried to keep both his Health and Mana bars visible at all times.

HP: 105/105
MP: 305/323

His MP had been reduced by the initial Barrier creation, of which he’d already regenerated the only five points it cost. But then beyond the base cost of Soul Weapon and its upkeep so far, there weren’t any signs of Demonic Rage costing any Mana. Nor had it mentioned such a cost anywhere in the Skill’s description.

A little voice in his head found it too suspicious, and tried to warn him of how there was no way such a good boost would only have the loss of control as its built-in cost. But that voice’s murmuring was very easily and quickly drowned out by the impatient demand for **** which currently screamed inside his head. And as far as which voice he listened to, it’d be the much louder one, of course.

Now with his Strength and Agility effectively boosted to 32 and 35 respectively from Demonic Rage’s multiplier of 75%, John felt ready for anything. With a deep breath, he bent his legs and vertically leaped straight into the air.

When the Gamer was close to the first platform, he found that he’d still fall just a bit short of making it in just one jump. But John refused to give up and allow gravity to pull him back toward the ground. He swung his scythe in a wide arc and caught the blade on the inside of the platform’s edge. Then with a grunt, his weapon was used as leverage to swing himself up and over the perimeter.

The moment his feet landed ankle-deep in the water, John’s eyes met those of one of the fountain fairies. It was Fairy A, and until his arrival just a moment ago, it had been sitting there with a dejected look after just being knocked down. He then quickly spotted the other two on either side.

With an enemy now directly in front of him, John couldn’t hold back a growl as his lips curled into a snarl. The monster let out a startled garble as it quickly tried to get up to its feet. But the Gamer was already on the move as he swung his scythe straight for its undefended neck.

Critical hit!
43 dmg
+60 exp

With the boost to the weapon’s scaling for Strength and the doubled damage of a crit, the injured fairy was an easy one shot, one kill. As its wide-eyed head hit the water, John was already sprinting straight for the next closest target.

The second and third fairies rushed at him together with fangs bared and claws raised. Coming with about the same amount of speed and starting distance, the pair were soon about an equal distance away from him. Which in his case was just the perfect setup handed to him on a silver plate.

A calm John would have taken the rational approach and exploited that opportunity. He should have just waited in place until they entered the range for one slicing arc of his scythe to hit them both with a single swing. But with his uniform’s jacket now stained the clear but still viscous goop of the first fairy’s blood, he just didn’t have the patience to wait.

With a roar, the enraged Gamer charged into the second fairy. His shoulder slammed into its chest and sent it flying backward. He ignored the damage notification as it skidded across the water and immediately turned toward the other fairy. Undeterred by how easily he killed and knocked back its peers, it still tried to slash at him. John just used his superior Agility to grab it by the forearm before its claws could reach his unarmored flesh.

He flung the fairy up into the air as it tried to flail against his grip. But it failed to break out as it was then slammed into the ground. Its body spasmed as the short level of water did almost nothing to cushion it from the stone at the bottom. The fairy let out a clearly pained, garbled scream. But its cries were just as quickly cut short as John brought his scythe down and pierced the blade straight through the base of its beck.

Critical hit!
38 dmg
+60 exp

As John pulled the weapon back out, he saw movement in the corner of his eyes. A bolt of water flew toward him from above. He quickly swung his scythe and cut through the attack with the blade. He glanced up to see that the fairy from the second platform was now looking down at him.

While its hands moved to likely prepare another elemental strike, the knocked back fairy from before was now charging at him again. The Gamer’s brows tightly furrowed as he saw it. A fresh influx of rage swept through his mind like a red tidal wave. Just who the Hell did this random monster think it was to still charge at him?

It should have given him the respect of fearing him enough to run away. But it dared to still come back and think it could actually hurt him? To believe that it even had the slightest chance of even beating him?

John’s vision tunneled as his attention was squarely focused onto the newest target of his brimming rage. His grip tightened ever further around his weapon. Enough so that any mundane weapon’s shaft would have just split apart in his hands.

Another bolt of water was then thrown his way as he swung at the fountain fairy. But John simply didn’t care about dodging or blocking the incoming attack. All his focus was put solely on striking down the foe directly in front of him. Even as the spell tore through his clothing and pierced through his flesh, he only used the pain as even more fuel for his swing.

-9 HP

Ignoring the notification, the blade of his Soul Weapon tore into the middle of the fairy. It went in from one side, and with a growl from him, it cut clean through to the other other side.

+60 exp

With an HP of 55, it didn’t take much chipping away until even a regular hit could finish the job. So with the damage of the shoulder check from before, he did more than enough to enact the killing blow.

With the fountain fairy trio of the first tier of the structure now dead, John’s hateful gaze turned upward. He stared straight at the greater fairy up there. But whether it was three Level 6 monsters or one at Level 7, or even potentially another at Level 8 at the top platform, it made no difference to him.

As long as Demonic Rage remained in effect, it wouldn’t even take another 30 minutes for the Gamer to fully clean out the entire Barrier.