NOVEL WEB 5. Brutalizer
“MWHAHAHAHAHA! AAAAHAHAHAHAHA!” Adonis screamed, “IF YOU POWER TELEGRAPHIC PORPOISES WITH CLOUD RESONANCE YOU CAN JUMP WITH DRUNK FINGER PUSHERS! AHAHAHAHAHA!”
Adonis swung his katana with wild swishing noises as he screamed what sounded like pure nonsense at the top of his lungs. His face twitched, his eyes crossed, and he frothed from the mouth as he ran at a young woman and sliced her across the middle with his sword. Screams echoed from around the scene and spread across the cave as blood sprayed outwards from the body. Adonis twirled in a rain of blood. The corpse of the young woman stayed slightly airborne as he sliced it again and again until it looked more like a lump of sliced raw meat than a corpse.
An anouncement echoed throughout the lit cave.
Megan Gratitude Ullyses: Confused Wanderer: HITBOX ZERO!
FATALITY!
“Somebody stop him, he’s gone insane!”
“I don’t have a weapon!”
“Me neither, she didn’t give any of us weapons if we didn’t come with them!”
“I have a sword skill and no sword!”
Nobody in the police officers' group made any move to proactively help anyone around the swordsman even though the officer had a stun baton. With her legs shaking, Circe was afraid to say anything. If she got anywhere near that lunatic wielding an imitation katana combined with whatever power he had, it would be enough to cut her in half. Alfredo didn’t look too interested in getting involved as they were far enough away from the action to have the illusion of safety.
Circe frantically tried to look up the names she heard, but they were removed from the database so she simply kept scrolling as she hadn’t figured that out yet. Alfredo peered over her shoulder while crouched.
“What exactly is goin' on here? That guy wit' tuh sword is goin' more juiced than an over ripe tamato.”
“I have no idea, but let’s keep our distance and slowly back up, stay behind the cop and his group.”
“Gotcha,”
Megan’s corpse began to come apart. An eye flew out. A leg hung by a thread as the katana bit through bone. The bowels slid chopped and messy over the floor. Fingers flew from the body as the blade twirled along with slices of cloth. Finally, a few twirling swings lopped off her head, though there wasn’t much blood left to escape the gaping neck. Adonis hacked the corpse into pieces.
When the pieces dropped, unable to stay airborne with the assistance of the crazed katana, Adonis ran through the gore pile to the next person in his sights. A young man with glasses wasn’t caught completely off guard, as he cast a spell that grew a wood shield from his wrist. The blade thunked against the wood.
“Bwaaahahahahaha! BWAAAK! BWAAAWWWK! GABAAWWWK!” Adonis screamed his crazed swings slammed against the elemental shield.
Circe clung to Alfredo’s shirt and trembled so much that she was practically going to rip it. That could have easily been her. Alfredo looked down, stopped his own trembling as best he could and inflated his muscles slightly.
“I don’t need a weapon tuh fight, if he reaches us maybe he’ll be drained from buggin' out so hard, ya know?”
Closer to the stage, the Katana threw out sparks of energy as it sliced across a spectral looking shield. The force of the blows slid the opponents’ sneakers across the smooth granite with a shushed squeak.
“He’s gonna break it!” the shield user pleaded.
Scrolling through nearly a thousand names to find someone she didn’t know proved too difficult. Sure, their names and powers were listed but there was no picture in the file. It wasn’t as easy to identify the others as she thought it would be. Getting close enough to ask the shield user his name so she could get a tactical idea would take too long and risk her being sliced.
The police officer had left his screen open while watching the chaos unfold. If she could possibly see the name, but she needed to creep closer. Alfredo held her back. She turned, shaking her head at him.
“I need to see the cop’s name.”
“Fine, go for it, but get yer butt outta there as soon as yuh get what yuh need.”
She scurried to the officer and his group, just close enough to where she could see the name on the holographic screen floating in the air by the officer. As she thought, he had been checking his own stats when the show started. His name was Mark Stanford Bellview
Mark Stanford Bellview
Brutalizer
[Skills]
Arcing Novice 01: Can flow electrical currents around any weapon with no regard for conductivity of the material for twenty seconds a day.
Reach Novice 01: Can extend the reach of a weapon by half a meter once a day for thirty seconds.
[Passives]
Magic Growth 01: Ten percent bonus to growth for wind and water magic.
[Vital Statistics]
Perception: 73
Sight: 41 Hearing: 82 Touch: 59 Awareness: 69 Spiritual: 13
Strength: 75
Arms: 79 Legs: 75 Torso: 76 Back: 58 Grip: 73
Toughness: 89
Blunt: 97 Slice: 53 Pressure: 55
Stamina: 53
Heart: 58 Lungs: 51 Arms: 59 Legs: 61
Speed: 87
Swim: 61 Swing: 89 Run: 96 Think: 57
Agility: 43
Arms: 52 Legs: 42 Torso: 58 Back: 37 Fingers: 37
Fortitude: 25
Magic Defense: 39 Mental Defense: 27 Mental Stability: 31
Intelligence: 58
Emotional: 11 Scientific: 71 Spiritual: 14 Interpersonal: 27 Bestial: 80 Creative: 12
Magic: 30
Fire: 05 Ice: 05 Water: 37 Wind: 71 Earth: 41
Spirit: 10
Restoration: 01 Illusion: 09 Life: 11 Dark: 03 Light: 03 Resistance: 20
Luck: 69
Money: 15 Combat: 73 Magic: 57 Interpersonal: 55
This was enough, Circe knew what needed to be done. She nodded to Alfredo to let him know he should trust her before she joined the small group who had gathered about the police officer. She grabbed the blue uniform pants and leaned against him.
“You need to take out that crazy guy before he kills anyone else,” Circe said, “You have the perfect set-up to do so”
“Were you spying on me!?”
“I saw your name, anyone who knows your name can look up your stats. Once people start using their powers and dying, I don’t think anybody is going to have trouble finding anyone else anyway! Please, you’re a police officer, you help people, right!”
“If you want to help him so badly, why don’t you step out front and volunteer?”
The officer gave Circe a forceful push toward the fight that caused her to skid on her sneakers while taking several big steps forward in order to not fall over. When she managed to skid to a stop, she suddenly faced the fight closer than she’d ever been.
The young man with the plant shields had been pushed closer towards the officer’s group, with each slash of the katana causing him to slid backward closer to where Circe had stopped. Her vision felt blurry as panic set in. Footsteps were approaching from the side, fast, something massive was on the move. But the plant shield user was right behind her.
Adonis attacked in circular motions as he moved like a top extending a blade. The attacks were predictable but so fast and powerful they chipped the wooden shields like a saw blade and ate through the opponent’s mana. Circe froze as a wood chip smacked her cheek and drew blood.
Officer Bellview smirked as he saw Alfredo, the man who had been sitting with her, approach looking rather determined to save the useless little waif. He guessed the old man was a relative or something from the way they had stuck together during the waiting period. He ran forward, withdrew his baton, and gave Circe a good smack centered on her back.
“Just a bit closer!” he teased, “I’m sure you’ll do fine!”
The push sent Circe tumbling forward as the katana became caught in a bloody wood shield growing from his opponent’s thigh. The wood of the shield grew around the weapon to forcefully sheath it as vines extended upward along the blade toward Adonis’ hands. Circe couldn’t get control of her forward motion and smacked head first into the insane swordsman’s torso. Her push was just enough force to help his katana shake free of the hilt and slice the vines as it pulled out.
The wounded fighter using wooden shields took the chance to back away before sprinting in full retreat. Azoria watched him flee as she leaned over her high podium resting her chin on her hands. Tail swayed behind her idly. Mogg-dell had closed his eyes and breathed heavily; a large bubble of snot formed from his right nostril.
“What’s this!? What’s this!? What’s this I say, a koala in a hot dog bun!? Let’s slice it! Slice, slice, slice, SLICE IT!”
Mouth quivered and gasped in silent screams. Legs shook. Eyes darted. Knees pushed together. Heart raced as breath ceased.
There was a thumping, beating, pounding baseline from the floor that made her legs quiver while the viscera coated blade quickly pulled upwards trailed by a fine gore mist.
The blade arched back even further as Adonis readied to swing for that slender little neck of hers. Frothing saliva slid from his hanging lips.
Then he swung.