Chapter 76: Replicating Destruction, Arachne Pathfinder

Fix floated lazily through the air, raining down death every fifteen seconds. The iron sphere held four gun ports that fired simultaneously. But despite being primarily a gunner the Kalan was horrible at aiming. What Kye said came back to him.

He probably left behind any location based skills to focus on destruction.

Hatred and anger weren’t good guides for murder. Faust couldn’t wait to show Fix that.

He stood atop one of the undestroyed buildings left in the district. Fix had just fired so Faust wasn’t worried about an attack. The sphere moved slowly and took every single attack without flinching.

The Worldbreaker had a sphere of local gravity around it that slowed down in coming attacks. Then it had Steel Reinforcement and many other skills for blocking attacks.

He came prepared for most things.

Faust leaned forward over the roof, almost drunkenly—then jumped. The tiles and roof exploded under his feet. He made it only a quarter of the way to fix before he lost momentum.

Instance Replication!

Just as planned, he replicated the force of him catapulting his body using the Slime Tether. He had to test it a few times and form a really good mental picture to know the right time to replicate but he got it now.

FWOOSH!

His speed instantly doubled, dragging him closer to his target. The force of the ascent barely rattled his jaw despite how fast he was going. But the rushing wind made him close his eyes.

Hurtling through the sky blind and unable to even protect himself—and Faust was still smiling.

Fix sensed his approach a few metres before he arrived. This is why Observe was so crucial. The giant hunk of metal was blind.

Faust hit the gravity field around Fix and instantly felt seven times heavier. But that wasn’t all. The gravity field kept him trapped in Fix’s orbit waiting for his next shot.

But Faust didn’t need leverage to move.

Instance Replication!

He instantly shot forward. Finally within ten metres, their plan could start. Faust opened his shirt and a black bat crawled out and took flight.

She had trouble flying, but as a bat, Nirvana was much lighter than Faust and could navigate much better. They used their abilities simultaneously

Schema Replication!

[Schema: World Breaker]

[Schema Abilities: Distance-Damage Amplification, Annilahation]

[Note: You have 24hrs to defeat this enemy and permanently replicate this Schema]

A high-pitched cry of outrage came from Fix’s Sphere armor. Fauast couldn’t tell if it was from the Schema replication or Nirvana’s Death Curse.

Either way, it was three seconds before Fix was ready to fire again. This time he surprised Faust.

A gap opened in Fix’s armor and a smaller gun appeared and pointed at Faust.

Oh, crap!

Instance Replication!

He didn’t even want to know what that gun did; he instantly replicated Kye’s earlier rearrangement of the world. Everything shifted right in relation to him. The gun fired a purple laser beam that cleaved through empty air.

Nirvana was already fleeing. Say what you want about her—except that she’s crazy; she hurt you for that—but she followed orders. And Fix had a hard time even hitting full-sized targets not to talk about black bats in the night.

Faust on the other hand had no way to escape. No shadows to teleport from. No more using Dash mid-air. Damn patch notes. He could replicate the force from his catapult, but he was saving instance replication.

Seven more uses before the three minute cooldown.

Focus!

Fix’s cooldown ended. The eruption with fire and force. The projectile wasn’t as fast as Faust had expected, even with Focus enhancing his mind.

Instance Replication!

His attack met Fix’s midway between them and exploded with more force than Faust could have ever imagined.

It was caused by Fix’s Earbuster, compressed heat in ways physics wasn’t paid enough to deal with.

The sky above the Novice Village glowed for a brief moment before a shock wave rolled over the entirety of the walled city.

◇◇◇

In the safezones people stared up in disbelief.

"What now?! Did the office admin in system headquarters want to torture us too!"

"That’s way too much power! No player can stand against that!"

At the town hall, Thalia was seated on the roof of the remaining half of the building. Her eyes glowed with a hidden light as she appraised the explosion. It was like the system spazzed out for a moment.

System messages about more than twelve skills being used popped up. Half of them had ’Replicated’ in front of them.

"He’s still alive." She didn’t know whether or not to be happy about that. Nirvana had just said she was with him and didn’t answer any of Thalia’s other twenty fucking questions. All she offered was information that Faust wanted Thalia to know.

That Amelia girl is safe. Nirvana is safe. That’s all that matters.

Faust could be dealt with later. She looked up at the explosion and sighed. Or maybe not. That guy was a bit too powerful.

In the meantime they managed to ground Negan. The cordial spider-robot-man thing simply dusted off his cloak and dodged another sword slash. His flail flickered and the vanguard went flying.

Spider surged forward. The mutations had given her gorilla arms and some kind of bird legs that made her freaking fast.

"Ohh! You’re back with a new mutation," Negan yelled gleefully. His voice reminded Thalia of someone rubbing styrofoam together. It was the most irritating thing in the world. "More mammalian parts... How boring."

His dragon flail reared back with a mental command from its master. But that was when Thalia struck.

Interfere!

Negan’s flail froze mid-air. The robot spider only briefly noticed it as he was dealing with an attack from Jason.

Spider used the opening to land an awkward, but heavy blow on Negan’s shoulder. The blow sent the large, spindly figure bouncing off the stone street, but he quickly recovered.

Negan tilted his head in confusion. "You should have gone for the head—"

His crackling voice stopped as he noticed the lapel on his shoulder missing. Thalia couldn’t see his expression, but she sensed anger when most of his eight feet started tapping against the floor.

"How did you know?"

Spider chucked the strange glowing lapel into her spatial bag before Negan could summon it. Thalia recommended her for this because she was the perfect little thief.

The lapel was a special equipment that allowed its user free movement in all directions. Without it none of the Patrons could fly. How Faust had gotten this info was beyond Thalia but she was thankful for it.

Negan cracked his neck and sighed. "This doesn’t change anything. I’ll show you stupid monkeys the true strength of an Arachne Pathfinder."