The ground beneath Asher's and Buster's feet rumbled as Asher could see an x-ray view of what was causing the earth to quake. 'That light is growing even weaker now.' Asher clenched his teeth as he stared at the white light that indicated the struggling woman.
Looking at the figure continue to increase its size from below, Asher judged, he wouldn't even stand a chance against it, not when he was in such a pitiful state. Therefore, the gears in his mind started to turn in haste, trying to plot a way for him to just snatch that white light from the slime's stomach and then run away.
With the slime man inches away from bursting out from beneath his feet, Asher suddenly caught sight of a cluster of red energy gathering at one point of the slime's chest. Looking at the red gem in its chest and then its glossy, translucent body, Asher felt a sense of familiarity with the creature's anatomy.
'Slime?' He figured it out. 'In what world is a slime this powerful?' He wondered. 'But more importantly... Why is it taking that figure?'
Unfortunately, there was no one around who could answer his questions, nor was this even the right time for such questions.
BOOM!*
The ground burst open as Asher stood on the 'head' of the black slime. He took out a weapon from inside his pouch, one that was especially used to take care of such a creature. Fully loaded, Asher pointed his sniper at the head of the slime while actually aiming for the red crystal in its chest.
BANG!*
The gun practically bombed out a bullet as the rebound of the shot was too much for the current Asher to handle. He got knocked back, but before he could fly to out of control, Buster stopped him from behind.
#Hmm. That tickled.# Sorbo continued to increase its size and soon flew out of the massive abyss he had created in the ground.
To Asher's surprise, the bullet he had shot out of his most powerful weapon didn't work. His "Apocalypse" sniper rifle of course wasn't used to the fullest of its capacity, as that would have destroyed him in the process of firing, but it was still unbelievable that the weapon couldn't pierce or even make a scratch on the slime's body at 70 percent of its power.
Now, one might wonder what the talk about the percentage power of Asher's sniper was even about. Because no matter how you look at it, snipers were still guns, and they couldn't be manipulated to increase their firing power or reduce it. That was the true nature of such firearms, but not the ones Asher used.
Unlike other firearms, Asher's didn't use triggers to shoot, but the energy of the user itself. On the parts where those triggers were supposed to be were energy absorbent devices that translated the energy that they're fed into firing strength.
This way, the guns he used weren't limited to a fixed amount of damage, but were linked to the strength of the user itself, increasing their utility to once again surpass the flexible bows and arrows of the modern world. But, even with that being so, his inventions could take in a certain amount of energy before not being able to handle more, just like the string of a bow would snap if pulled too hard.
Sorbo, standing at the height of a hundred and fifty feet, with its humanoid body now mimicking the shape of human clothing, looked down at Asher. #More pests to squash? Delightful.#
'That feeling.... it's just like that water snake.'
"You think they have some kind of connection?"
'Who cares?' Asher replied the Old Man.
Looking beside him, Asher opened his eyes wider in surprise. The sound wasn't having that much effect on Buster than when Asher was first subjected to hearing the undine's voice. Apart from the little sweat that sparingly made his forehead glisten, the red haired boy was perfectly fine. 'Has he been subjected to those voices before or—'
"Or it doesn't work on unintelligent beings." The Old Man interrupted Asher's unhidden thoughts. But what Asher was about to say was that Buster had enough strength to not be too fazed by the slime man's voice.
*BOOM!
A flicker of purple of light shot out of the abyss Sorbo had created as Alya who was struggling to keep her [Special ability] on, flew over to Asher and Buster.
Seeing as the giant foot of the slime man was about to crush them, Buster pulled both Asher and Alya out of the area.
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
As they flew in the air, Buster was about to ask Alya of her condition when she suddenly grabbed his collar. "You! You can shoot powerful beams right?! Go! Destroy that thing's core!"
"What are you —"
"Do it, dammit!!!"
Buster, not understanding why Alya was so riled up, put her and Asher aside as he flew towards Sorbo.
#It's amazing how much you're struggling.# Sorbo laughed, opening its arms, as if welcoming the new challenger to have a turn at damaging it significantly.
#Four seconds... Let's see if you can do anything before they all die.#
Four seconds?
Before they die?
Time seemed to slow down as those words started to register in Buster's mind. He remembered Alya's previous actions. She was panicked, a strange composure that she almost never wore.
Buster was straightforward and simple, so much so that people often mistook it for naivety and idiocy. His IQ wasn't something to brag about, but his EQ and human understanding were his critical valid points .
With the activation of his [Special ability], his 40 percent suppressor bracelet broke into pieces.
2 seconds...
Buster's fist glowed with the light of a yellow sun as he readied his fist in the air.
1...
BOOM!!!!!!!! *CRACK!!!
"..."
The entirety of Ogmore seized to transmit sound. Or, maybe that was just how it seemed to the people on the battlefield in that split second.
Alya's pupils were dilated as she stared up. '... It's in pieces.'
Sorbo's red gem was broken and blasted out of the slime's back as it too couldn't believe what was happening.
But the most surprised of all of the people on the battlefield, was the man who had come along with him, or more specifically, the man who had carried his tired body all the way here.
Buster stared with his mouth agape as Asher stuck himself to Sorbo's chest, plunging in an eerie black stick of an abnormal length right through the slime man's gem.
As the light of life gradually came back to Asher's eyes when he stopped using the technique that evolved [Amethyst Spectre], he worded out with a mouthful of blood, "Four seconds? You don't get to make bets with my sister's life."
Hearing those last words, Sorbo's body soon exploded as its shattered core rotted and turned black, blowing into a mist of black.
Different circles of light appeared in the sky, descending down to the earth. And at different points, they started to turn into people.
As soon as the biggest ball of light materialized, Asher grabbed it and landed on the harsh, hard ground, the height of his fall tying the knot to his crippling exhaustion, he fell unconscious, but still held Nebula in his arms as he squatted.
———
Nebula, having used a lot of her energy to sustain herself in the slime's void-like stomach, opened her eyes tiredly. But as soon as she saw Asher's face above hers, her eyes opened wide as the colour red made its way across her cheeks.
Although faint, she still had a slight awareness of what had happened on the outside of Sorbo's stomach, so she had definitely heard Asher's words.
Soon though, she started to feel something cold touch her bare back, and as she looked, she realised it was blood, Asher's cold red blood.
As panic shook her body, Asher suddenly tumbled, dropping her on the ground. Nebula lifted Asher's body this time and carried him over to the two who were catching the citizens falling from the sky.
In her hurry to get help, Nebula failed to notice the strange black mist flowing into the orifices on Asher's face, as was Asher unable to see the notification from his ECS.
[You have slain a noble from the Void.]
[Further absorption of the 'Shard of Destruction' will now commence.]
[You are evolving...]
After getting the [Void Flame] and [Amethyst Spectre] ability from it, Asher didn't think the shard he stole could give him what it just had.