Genetic Ascension

[Quicktime Event Triggered]

[Menace of the Rain God]

[Level Recommended: 50]

[Description: A single goal met by the struggle of two parties, a battlefield written in the danger of a furious God, and neither the patience nor the restraint to court peace] [Event Type: Survival]

[Clear Requirements]

[Last Will standing]

The flashing lights of the notification caught Sylas’ immediate attention, and he realized then that he wasn’t alone. There were enemies here.

Sylas’ Aether churned, and he was about to circulate his Glassvolt Aether to quickly clear this world when he paused.

His gaze tilted up to the skies, and a large rain droplet morphed into a humanoid before smashing down to the ground. Giants formed entirely of rain took shape, and their eyes glowed with rippling tidal waves of violet as they turned toward him.

[Rain God’s Split Avatar (FF-)]

(Level: 501

Physical: 220,000]

[Mental: 295,000]

[Will: 100,000]

Sylas paused for a moment and then chose to change tactics. Clearing this world wouldn’t help him; it would make the environment a flat playing field, and that was no good for him. If anything, that would only harm him.

The enemies he was facing now almost certainly had more people than him, and their stats were likely even greater than his own. Facing them head-on would be idiotic.

What if instead…

The split avatar raised its palm high into the skies and then smashed it down toward Sylas. All of the rain droplets in the air froze in place for just a moment before they became as hardy and sharp as needles, falling from the skies above in an oppressive dance that closed off all avenues of escape.

Sparks flew in Sylas’ eyes as he calculated something.

High above, stored away in the heavy rain clouds, a throne of reflective glass and emerald green appeared.

‘I don’t need that long.” Sylas thought to himself. Then, he moved.

Runes danced to life around him, his body shifting out of the way in a warp of space.

He found that even his teleportation was slowed significantly, but he found the reason and countered with his Runes, reading the laws of this world as though they had been inscribed into a book on the back of his hand.

It took Sylas no more than a single breath of time to rewrite one of the biggest disadvantages of this territory.

“Not good. There’s another party in here,” Sanzi barked. “Cover me. It’ll take a little bit more to send a message now with the added barrier of an Event.”

Bluanca didn’t complain this time, realizing the strain of the situation. The monsters in this Quicktime Event were exceptionally powerful, even the average one having more than double their base stats. If they didn’t work together well, they would be finished. The only good thing about these monsters was that, unlike real living beings, the stats they presented were basically their cap. They wouldn’t be likely to have overpowered Comprehensions, and they certainly wouldn’t have treasures to bolster them.

it was only because of this that the likes of the Boros and others of their level could even survive for so long in the first place.

But now, they were really starting to be pushed to the edge, and this was just the first floor. Even if there wasn’t another team here, calling forth the Ouro might really be all they could do to survive.

If the minions were this powerful, the main BOSS would only be all the more exaggerated.

Slapping her palms together, a ripple of Will extended out with Bluanca as the center. Her hair danced with hissing serpents, her teammates reacting in kind with slaps of their own palms.

If one had had their eyes closed, it would have felt as though they were reliving the same echoing sound again and again. Whether it was the height of the sound, the duration, or even the crispness, it felt as though they had all mirrored Bluanca perfectly. And as a result, their Wills melded together into a single, perfect wall, their many bits, pieces, and divisions forming a singular mesh that mutated into an ancient hydra.

A beast of multiple heads rose into the skies, formed entirely of Will and Runes. However, what was odd was that these Runes didn’t seem formed by the Boros themselves, but instead by the world, as though they were borrowing their Wills to trigger something very real and alive.

It seemed that one of Sylas’ questions would be answered very soon. The Boros didn’t have the aura of Serpentes because they weren’t Serpentes—they were Hydras, descended from a vastly different line of genes that just happened to have some characteristics of convergent evolution.

But if he had been present, he would have had another question as well…

How were the Boros casting such complex Runes without actually casting… and without the majority of them even being Rune Masters in the first place?

[Ancient Boros Hydra (FF)]

(Level: 222]

Physical: 350,000]

[Mental: 420,000]

(Will: N/A]

The hydra had so many heads they were impossible to count. It felt like every time one began, their eyes would blur and they would find themselves right back at the start.

This was because they had an uncountable number of heads—a true representation of infinity.

These infinite heads rose into the skies, rays of what minimal light there were shining through their bodies as they roared in unison.

The fierceness of the sound alone painted the skies and shattered the nearest split avatar into a rain of droplets that left craters in the muddy swamp they all stood in. However, as quickly as these raindrop craters were formed was also about as quickly as they were swallowed up again. The irony of quicksand was that it actually worked quite slowly. But there was nothing slow about the process of these swamps cannibalizing themselves, swallowing the land whole and only leaving behind deeper trenches.

If one stepped into where those craters had been, rather than stopping at just six inches, you would be submerged completely.