Based on his [ way of the wind ] skill that could be used to sense the lightning strikes coming, Max keenly waited for the seventh attack to strike.
*Kaboom-Thunder*
Max sensed the vacuum in the air and reacted instantly, releasing his very powerful inferno spell that was enhanced by both the power of the Agni-Astra and Fire Compression, however, the attack travelled even faster than Max could ever react to at his level with the collision of the two blasts occuring only about 3 feet above his head.
Max felt blazing heat from the inferno spell quickly being dispelled by an eerie thunder that resulted in a fireworks type explosion.
*Fawoosh*
Max was blasted by the residual lightning and blown away for about 20 before beginning to roll on the grassland like a tossed ragdoll.
-75,000 critical hit!
Max could no longer feel his arms and legs, he had become temporarily paralyzed from the neck down.
His HP bar was at an alarmingly low level of 3% as he tethered on the edge of life and death.
If there was one single reason why Max survived this lightning strike whose strength rivalled a peak tier5 attack, it was because of his unbelievably strong constitution.
Every single stat point he had struggled for while training for stat maximisation in the university for nourishment of young talents, every single painful moment that he had to suffer while his two race change procedures as well as the reward from the dragon king all contributed equally towards helping Max survive today.
Had it been any other tier3 warrior in this position except for Max, they would have died and disintegrated by now.
[ System Notification - You have survived the 7th lightning strike, your evaluation has improved from C to A, do you wish to proceed to strike 8?
Yes
No ]
Max tried to move his arms to touch the system screen in front of him, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even lift a single finger.
It seemed like this was the absolutely last lightning strike that Max was lucky to survive, however, he was not ready in his heart to accept an A ranked evaluation.
Max had worked too hard in his second life to settle for an A grade and pass out on the class specific rewards that one only got for S ranked evaluations and higher.
Banging his head against the grass, Max willed his body to obey his mind and somehow forced his right hand which felt as heavy as lead to press on the ' Yes ' option.
Max could practically see Sebastian looking down on him at this moment as what Max did was not the way of the coward, however, what Sebastian and Kremeth did not understand was that Max was already the ultimate coward.
In his first life, Max ran away from all his challenges like a coward which was the only reason why he ended up as the pathetic man that he did.
He let his ex-girlfriend abuse him, he severed his ties with his only blood relative in his brother and chose to pack his bags and become a government employee when the earthlings who had always been his fans and supporters started calling him trash.
Max could not handle the criticism in his past life, he could not truly become happy for the success of his brother, he could not get himself to push past those problems and live up to his potential.
He was a coward, who ran away every time the situation became tough up until the moment where he fought against the werewolves in a desperate attempt to save his niece and nephew.
It was this experience of his past life that restrained Max from truly becoming a coward, as while he did embrace Kremeth's teachings and found them logical, he felt something innately wrong with himself whenever he decided to go against his immense desire to become something more than mediocre.
Max had an inbuilt thirst for adventure and somewhere deep inside his mind he believed that he would be happier being dead than live and see scenes like his niece and nephew being dragged away in front of his eyes, while being helpless to save them.
Max wanted to risk his life if it meant achieving greater heights, he wished to strive and improve himself everyday to one day become the best, for it was not enough to become the rising star of the vampire clan, only by becoming the vampire king could his thirst truly be quenched.
Balling his fists, Max used his newest acquisition.
[ Perfect Cloning ]
As Max used this spell, he felt a large amount of mana being drained away from his body as it magically started to materialise into a 6 foot 4, perfect replica of Max without the mask and armour.
The clone was truly perfect to the very last detail as for a second Max felt like he was staring at the feet of his own reflection in the mirror.
Max stared into his clone's eyes as he saw the same fire inside him that he did feel himself.
" If you feel my passion and are truly me, find a way to get me through this today, or it's the end of both you and me ". Max said as he instructed his clone who instantly activated the same skills as Max by Summoning the giants and closing his eyes to detect the incoming strike using [ Way Of The Wind ]
While the clone awaited the incoming strike, he started spamming chain heal spells to try and heal Max.
Max who saw the clone's posture, the exact same one that he used, felt like he was having a deja vu as this was exactly how Drax looked while fighting with him inside the mirror world.
The chain heals helped Max feel less and less like his arms were filled with lead, as slowly but surely his HP started to climb reaching 7% before he saw the dimly lit surroundings become pitch white for a second.
*Kaboom-Thunder*
The 8th strike had been unleashed....
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/// A/N - This Bonus chapter is sponsored by the top patron Cervantez91, please thank him in the comments for the same///