He…there’s no way he reached 6C, that’s…
"Impossible? I think not; if only you haughty rankers would take a second to understand the nature of our race, which is no different from warmongers, then maybe we could have stopped those extraterrestrial lifeforms from taking over our planet."
Before Ryan could finish his thought, I interrupted while digging my heel into his chest, earning a loud cracking sound for my efforts.
I had dug through and collapsed his sternum, causing blood to gush out of his mouth unhindered as Ryan’s pained wheezing entered my ears.
"I reckon you probably only made it to 2C, potentially 3C, before giving up on the never-ending evolution grind, but I was never like you pitiful excuses titling yourselves as Heros or defenders or whatever the fuck your equivalent was." Shrugging my shoulders, I continued.
"Had any of you not given up, you would have realized that the stat caps imposed by Arkadia are completely subjective to a being’s Racial Classification. Partner that with a high-level Circulation skill, and before Ranking up to Alpha, you too could have capped out EVERY ONE of your stats…just like I have."
I have to warn the other returners Xipher is even more of a monster than we ever imagined; his strength will end up leagues ahead of us and…..
SPLAT
Unfortunately for Ryan, his thoughts would never be completed, as before he could even finish that train, I swiftly lifted my foot and brought it down directly on his face with enough force to explode his head like a melon, killing the young man instantly and siphoning off his XP.
"Tsk, I wanted to play around with him more, but he just had to walk down that dangerous path. Once the idea was in his head, if he had some manner of contacting other Rankers, I could have been in deep shit." Grumbling to myself as I shook my gored leg around to clear the ick from my pants and shoe, I looked up to the sky and noticed a distinct change occurring overhead.
The moment Ryan left this world, his control over the miniature hurricane ceased entirely. As such, the rotation slowed, allowing the raging storm to quickly transition back into a regular thunderstorm.
Closing my eyes, I stood in silence for a couple of minutes, feeling the pitter-patter of rain all over my body while lost in thought. Anytime I entered what I called "Xipher mode," I inevitably required a few minutes to calm back down, returning to my basic state of mind so as not to give away my identity.
That’s not to say I couldn’t switch it off at the drop of a hat; I had done that multiple times before, but with my manner of speech being so drastically different from usual, along with the playful, sadistic tone I adopted, it would be a dead give away if I suddenly appeared as myself while acting in my Villainous Capacity.
Feeling myself return to normal, I reached over my shoulders, gripped my hood, and pulled it back over my head, hiding my hair and mask from plain sight.
’Sigh, it’s quite a shame that his Intellect and Meta Physical Defence were so high; I baited him into thinking about his stats during our interactions, so I am 100% convinced coercion wouldn’t have affected him in the least, not even for a fraction of a second, so me getting all his inventory goodies was off the table.’ Crouching down, I uttered the command to retrieve the loot from Ryan’s corpse, then tossed it into my inventory for disposal at a later time before casually strolling around the island, looking for any signs of the Fae.
As the island was important in their culture, I didn’t doubt there would be one or two lurking around like silent protectors from the shadows, and if they were and happened to witness our battle, then it wasn’t like I could allow them to flee.
In fact, I had been on guard from the second I stepped foot on the land bridge leading to the island because I knew how keen the senses of those fairy bastards could be.
Even if Earth wasn’t saturated in particles, that didn’t mean they were weak or didn’t have access to a weak form of supernatural abilities. If my explorations in the Origin Timeline taught me anything, it was that there was generally a layer of truth in every myth or old story from ancient times.
For example, the Myriad Races were practically all bedtime stories or myths. Yet, I had fought werewolves, vampires, dragons, and wendigos, sheesh, I’ve seen things that could even make the Winchester Brothers shiver in their boots, so I was well versed on all the spooky shit on top of the not-so-scary myths.
’Hmm, that reminds me. I should probably swing by and try to find that one lake and see if Excalibur is real when I’m in England.’ Walking around with my hands behind my head, I stumbled upon several Fae Towers, aka piles of stones arranged in weird stacks. However, I didn’t see or pick up anything with my perception, so I left them alone before completing a full exploration of the island.
It took some time, but with all the potential threats to Rowing out of the way, I had plenty, so I left no stone unturned and covered every inch of the island before eventually ending up back in the dead center, scanning the surrounding terrain in the dark with my eyes.
’Hm, I guess we are too far off from the Summer Solstice, which is in June, to bump into any of them; still, I can’t help but get that little itch on the back of my neck that I feel when someone is watching me.’ Unlike before, I didn’t vocalize my thoughts carelessly as my eyes narrowed, and I took greater care in observing my surroundings.
And it was a good thing I did because, on my fifth ocular pass over of certain ruins, I noticed a flicker in my vision…one I recognized.
About three seconds after noticing it, I saw it again, only now, there were two…then five, then 10…
’Ah…shit…they were here…and they brought the calvary.’ I grumbled while loosening my muscles for combat again.