The reward aside, he was quite pleased with the power of his skill. He didn't go so far as to cut the tree in half, but what was certain was that an Eeqidi would die instantly taking this skill head-on.
Lazar was thinking that if he tried to cut the trunk of an oak tree with his weapon without the Energy Slash, it would be much more complicated than when he dismembered the Eeqidi, even with his increased constitution statistic. While with this 'basic' skill, he had done a lot of damage to an oak tree trunk about 1,50 meters in diameter.
He came closer to examine it. The cut of the Energy Slash was 2,5 centimeters wide and by pushing his hand inside the trunk to see how deep the cut was, he was surprised to not feel the end of it before his forearm was too thick, 'It doesn't matter. My skill will become stronger when I will have allocated my stats points.'
▼ [Lazar Sogorov] ▼
🔶 Age 🔶 20
🔶 Level 🔶 2 (75/300)
🔶 Energy points 🔶 (41/51)➞(65/75)
⚫ Energy regeneration rate ⚫ (1.6 points/min)➞(1.9 points/min)
🔶 Evolution status 🔶 [Evolved human being]
🔶 Skills 🔶 (None)
🔶 Statistics 🔶 [Stat points available ⚫ 0]
⚫ Constitution ⚫ 12(-1) ➞ +1 ➞ 12
⚫ Agility ⚫ 11(+1) ➞ +2 ➞ 14
⚫ Perception ⚫ 12 ➞ +2 ➞14
⚫ Energy ⚫ 12(+1) ➞ +3 ➞ 16
'It's just a step to climb a mountain.' He may be the first to use such a complex technique, but he wasn't going to be satisfied with that alone. It was partly due to his avidity of power, Lazar was willing to admit it.
And it was also by the need for certainties, 'I was able to make an Energy Slash after 3 hours. It would be satisfying if my enemies remained silent and motionless. I have to have some mastery before I can even consider Boston.'
...
He spent the next 2 hours practicing on other trees as large as the oak of his first attempt. This time he got into position to execute a horizontal Energy Slash. This allowed him to better assess the strike force of his skill because he could easily see how deep the cut was like that.
He would take breaks whenever he could no longer use his skill. It consisted only to go into the car for eating energy bars and drinking lots of water until his energy was replenished. Spending his energy didn't only mean that he could no longer use the Energy Slash.
He had a big drop in vigor after each test session and was also extremely hungry, 'It seems that the evolution of my body pushes me to eat a lot more calories. This is probably related to the fact that my constitution is weaker than my other statistics, it would be much more problematic if it was lower. All statistics matter, I mustn't overlook one.'
His progress was spectacular over the past 2 hours as he made an interesting discovery. It happened when he was trying to circulate his energy from his hands to his blade.
For a random reason, the name of his skill had crossed his mind. Before he was just thinking about how to circulate his energy in his body, but when he thought of the words 'Energy Slash', this had the effect of greatly speeding up the process of his labor.
Thinking it was going to help him, he kept repeating it in his mind, 'Energy Slash! Energy Slash! Energy Slash!' As if by magic, he could now instantly use this skill.
'But that's when I stay still and with a non-moving target.' The results weren't as conclusive when he tried to trigger his skill while running around a tree. It took him 4 seconds to use the Energy Slash.
Its accuracy was still as good and 4 seconds, that was acceptable. But Lazar isn't one to settle for the acceptable when he can achieve a perfect result.
He just had another idea during his break, 'I'm going to hate myself doing this but... I have to shout the name of my skill, it might help.'
He started running again around a tree he hadn't yet attacked, "Energy slash!" It was almost instantaneous. No sooner had he pronounced the name of his technique than energy had formed on his blade. He just had to adjust the timing so that the Energy Slash crashed against the tree.
If the trees in the clearing could speak, they would beg Lazar to spare those who remain by leaving immediately. Unfortunately, he is far too perfectionist, 'Ok, that's not bad. Last test.'
Lazar returned to his car to pick up his phone and headphones. He put by far the most destabilizing music he had in his playlist and started running and again, he managed to use the Energy Slash instantly. 'Perfect. Let's get out of here.'
He had nothing more to do here. He went to his car and started the engine, leaving behind a completely distorted clearing with several trees that were about to crash on the ground.
...
Lazar had been driving around Boston for 20 minutes now. He was passing by isolated roads and skirted the city by the East for now. He intended to continue thus until arriving at the entry of the city in the North-West.
The problem for him wasn't to know where Lana was when she got killed. They lived close to the FBI of Boston and Lazar knew more or less the route she was taking to get back from work.
In fact, that was one of the things that made him furious over Lana's death, '5 minutes...' It was the time it took Lana to make the way from her office to their house, 'This fucking Apocalypse had to go off just when she was coming home! If she had been in the office at that time, she would have been in a building with hundreds of other trained agents!'
What he said was worth nothing, he knew it, 'I have to stop saying nonsense. She's dead... That's how it is, I can't change it. All I can do to clear the debt I owe her is to pay tribute to her.'
The real problem was that no matter which way he planned to pick up Lana, he had to pass through a very populated area of at least 6 kilometers, 'If you were a bloodthirsty monster whose only hobby would be to kill humans, where would you go? Exactly where there are the most humans of course.'
The monsters weren't the only ones to be taken into consideration, 'I highly doubt it, but you never know. Maybe people have already started losing their minds...'
...
Lazar took the road exit in the direction he had circled on the map. He had just arrived towards the entrance to Boston. He was still in a rather quiet part of the city and seeing what he had before him he wouldn't want to see what was resembling the city center. 200 meters after the exit he arrived in a one-way shopping street and dozens of cars were abandoned on the road.
There was blood and guts everywhere on the cars, on the asphalt or even on the walls of the stores. No corner of the street was spared. Even the windows of his car couldn't prevent a pestilential smell from reaching Lazar's nose, 'No more no less... a massacre.'
Thousands of flies were eating scraps of flesh on the ground and Lazar even saw a raccoon running with a piece of gut in his mouth when he noticed his car. But that was something else that immediately struck him, 'Blood everywhere, but no corpse!'
Something was wrong here, but he couldn't make a plausible guess right now. He was well aware that if what he saw was widespread throughout the city, then finding Lana was going to be more complicated than expected, but that didn't deter him,'In any case, I have to search on her itinerary. If she's not there I will go with plan B.'
Lazar was going to pass at an intersection between four lanes but he had to brake at the last moment. A woman and a man had just run past him, they didn't seem to have seen him. He saw them running on the lane to his right, 'They seemed to be running away from something.'
He turned off the engine and left only the top of his head sticking out of the dashboard. They were surely fleeing from monsters. He had to know what they are and above all how many they are before deciding what to do. He needed information and this couple could surely provide it to him, moreover, he shouldn't be very far from where Lana was attacked.
Perhaps these monsters were of the same species as those which killed Lana... He began to count each creature that passed before his eyes and tried to make a description of them to determine whether to interfere with what was happening or not, '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Okay.'
He had made his choice. He got out of the car blade in hand and chased after the couple and the monsters that were on their heels.