In the world of Axia.
Strange skills originating from the past with varying effects ranging from saving lives to tearing them apart were a dime a dozen.
Originating mostly from ancient Ruins or extremely old legacies that spanned across generations.
It wasn't an exaggeration that the skills that could be obtained just by breaking a rune or opening a magic device had blood spilt over them.
Of course, skills like the ones that had been developed through skill and repetition were also highly searched for as they could be used several times unlike runes.
I guess my shield of Cthulhu was like my skill I guess.
Chuckling as I felt a pain in my chest I grimaced.
I looked at the bull man who was slaughtering his comrades without remorse.
And seeing as his comrades were calmly running away as best as they could and the whitened eyes of the Bull man.
I had the feeling it hadn't been the first time this had happened.
Prying myself out of the wall and eating a piece of dried jerky, thus restoring my health and fixing my broken ribs, I remembered my masters words.
---
"So this is a power?"
"Yes, we mostly call them skills but yes, they can be called powers"
I sat in front of the ninja on my knees while he taught me things in the middle of the cave using the light of the torch to aid him.
The cave had several depictions of people doing various actions.
One man ran through an army while only enduring the various attacks with his body.
A woman pulled back the string of her bow as a much larger image of her manifested behind her while copying her movements.
A man created weapons out of blue things that looked suspiciously like cells as he created beautiful weapons.
"Most powers like the ones we see here on these murals are all powerful ones, however they all aren't as good as they are made out to be"
Raising an eyebrow at that statement I looked at the pictures and had to ask the question.
"But they look so powerful? What do you mean by that?"
Ignoring my questioning tone the Ninja continued.
"These powers are the most widely known ones but they each have their downsides, but if you somehow fix that downside you can become like the guys here"
He tapped his scabbard at the picture of the man enduring everything with his body.
"For example, the Heavenly Body has the benefit of having a body that can't be scratched by the strongest of weapons"
Tilting my head at that statement the man shattered my expectations.
"It's downside is that it's user has to find a stupid amount of resources to aid in their growth and you can't use weapons unless they can endure your strength."
The following words coming from his mouth also shattered my expectations of the skills that they had.
Godly Avatar - Creates a much more powerful image of yourself, at the cost of immense concentration and becoming a bigger target.
Life Forger - Creates incredibly powerful weapons that are near unbreakable, The only materials they can use have to be gathered by themselves, you have to know forging.
---
This Bull guy is no different.
At first glance it seemed to be a powerful skill.
But at a prolonged look I noticed several things.
His physical strength had definitely improved several folds from before, but at the cost of several things.
The most notable being his sanity.
Breathing out slowly as I hung alongside the walls of the building I was on, I sensed the Vine rune engraved on my arms.
'Now then... I might as well try this'
Taking advantage of the fact that the Bull guy wasn't paying attention to me I closed my eyes and put my arms out.
Sensing the roots of various plants extending through the ground I focused on the Vine Rune.
And with a slight prick at my mind I felt the plants respond to my thoughts.
"Gruh?"
The Bull Man hesitated as he sensed something was off even as his underlings ran away.
But it was to late.
Roots of the plants burst out of the ground surrounding the man as they moved according to my thoughts.
Feeling the prick in my increase I understood already that this power used mental strength.
And I was confident that I had great mental strength.
'I experienced death once after all'
Clenching my hand I focused my strength into my legs and clenched them.
The Roots flew from all over as the Bull man hurriedly roared and swung their axe.
And even though the axe split the roots.
In the face of the plants that have dug under the city for several decades it was useless.
Falling across the man's body and quickly binding him, I sensed a quick drop in my mental strength but I didn't care.
jumping across the air as I held the light's bane in one hand and the Rampart in both hands.
I wondered briefly why I didn't think about doing this earlier.
But it was to late to agonize over past actions.
Flying through the air the Bull man roared and flexed his arms before getting restrained by thick roots covering his body to the point of looking like something a spider would love.
Moving my arm down and sending several air cuts to the parts of his body hidden underneath the plants I briefly thought about using less roots to hold my enemies in the future..
Slicing through the roots they met the fleshy skin of the man underneath and drew blood rather quickly.
But ignoring the pain running through his veins, the man roared and flexed his arms.
Breaking through the roots with sheer force of will, he swung his axe and made the blade of the enlarged axe fly through the air by releasing his grip on it.
'And that's why I didn't use my shield'
Dashing to somewhere else in the air while continuing my momentum, I did the legendary wall run while dragging my sword against the stone.
Kicking myself off the wall, the axe crashed through the ground and broke through the streets as it created a small crater in it's place.
Ignoring the bull man I held my blade in a reverse grip and succumbed to gravity.
Plummeting onto his head, I felt something was wrong when I saw that a grin was on the bull man's face.
Because, the most prominent emotion on his face, that being rage, was nowhere to be seen as a small trace of sanity returned to his face.
Slamming by the blade into his head and thus killing him, the man still had the strange look in his eyes as they rolled back to face me.
And using the last few moments he had alive he opened his mouth.
"For the Moon Lord"
"What?"
Thrusting my blade deeper into his head, his body glowed all of a sudden.
And from what I remember, this is usually a sign of powering up, which as impossible as he was dead.
Or he was about to self destuct.
And seeing as how his body was inflating like a balloon about to pop...
'Fuck'
BOOOMM!!!!
A large explosion rocked the backstreets of Amurath that day.
Several dozen meters of buildings and people from the center of the explosion had been obliterated.
The culprits of the explosions have thus far been discovered by the guards of Amurath and had thus been taken into custody for further questioning.
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