Two eyes burned crimson, locking directly onto King’s gaze. Above its head, a floating name appeared.

Written in deep, blood-red text.

[CURSED NEPHILIM]

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

King remained unfazed, staring down the Nephilim.

GrOoOARGHHH!

It roared, parting the smoke screen, and with this it’s full figure was unveiled. A muscular but bloated giant with a pair of smaller wings, and black cursed tattoos runing across both arms, its legs were quite shorter compared to its hands, it had long haggered hair and wild beards. It wore no serious armor, just a warrior’s belt and a helm.

and as it roared it switched it’s grip on the doom hammer, swinging it overhead.

"Eli..." king called.

And immediately the butler realized it was their cue, they both dispersed as the hammer descended.

Eli kept retreating, finding a distant angle on a tree branch.

King pushed off, sprinting left, away from the mansion as the hammer came down. The impact cratered the mansion where he’d been standing half a second earlier, sending chunks of debris and stone flying in every direction.

CRASH!!!

The shockwave knocked King forward. He rolled with the momentum, coming up in a crouch ten feet away.

The Nephilim wrenched the hammer free, molten ichor dripping from the weapon’s head as it turned toward him.

King raised both hands.

[Basic Construct Creation].

[-30 MP]

Three gigantic arrow forms materialized around the Nephilim, glowing blue and translucent. King shot them simultaneously, two aimed at the creature’s wings, one aimed at its hammer wielding arm.

The False Nephilim roared, swinging left and right. It shattered the first two construct rather easily. But the third pierced it’s left wing.

The opening was all King required. With a sharp gesture, he summoned another fabrication, twin sigils burning bright against the stone.

From the heart of those seals, massive shackles of conjured steel surged forward like striking vipers. They caught the Nephilim’s massive arms, anchoring the giant to the ground with a thunderous crash.

He sprinted forward while the creature wailed, activating [Ruin’s Touch] as he closed the gap.

He was just about to drive his gauntleted palm into the Nephilim’s skull when...

Black veins spread from its eye sockets, crawling across it’s chin and forehead.

!!!. King’s eyes widened, recognizing the cue.

"SHIT!" he whispered, immediately creating a brick wall between him and the giant.

BoOOOMM!!!

A concussive wave rippled outward, the raw force of it shattering the conjured chains and snapping the heavy cuffs like brittle glass. The blast didn’t just punch through the magical wall he created. It slammed king as well, launching him into the mansion’s skeletal remains.

CRASH!

He hit a support beam with a violent thud, the impact splintering both wood and ribcage alike.

[-40HP] His health bar flickered in his Hub.

The Nephilim screamed, lounging forward in a follow up to squash King like a bug

CRACK! CRACK!

From the tree branch, Eli fired.

BOOM! BOOM!

The first round tore into the False Nephilim’s wrist, shredding muscle and jerking its massive palm wide by mere centimeters. The giant’s strike intended for King slammed into the earth with a thunderous boom, a hair’s breadth from King’s resting form.

A heartbeat later, Eli’s second round found its mark, extinguishing the light in the giant’s eye.

The creature erupted in a primal, sightless rage, its massive limbs flailing as it searched for its unseen tormentor. Under the canopy of the forest, Eli was motionless, a predator in the shadows guided by the golden eyes of his spirit eagle drifting through the clouds.

"Thanks" King whispered into his earpiece as he scrambled away in that moment.

"Any time, Master King"

"Now here’s what we’re gonna do" King added "I need to be able to get up close and use to gauntlet to take it out. Eli, you have to create an opening for me"

"Copy, Sir". Eli immediately clicked the side-lever upward.

The three barrels rotated smoothly, locking into parallel alignment with a soft click.

[Precision Scatter-Shot mode].

The Nephilim’s wings flared, one wider than the other. It covered its bloodied eye with one hand and stretched the other to its Doom Hammer. The ancient maul answered the call, soaring through the debris to meet the giant’s outstretched hand.

The moment the Nephilim grasped it, its eyes burned with a renewed, lethal focus on King.

It raised the weapon toward the sky as a blinding radiance ignited at its center, drawing in the surrounding light. It was the gathering of a storm, the unmistakable sense that something catastrophic was about to break.

Eli pulled the trigger without hesitation.

BLAST!!!

The shot split mid-flight, fragmenting into six separate rounds that tracked their locked targets with perfect accuracy.

The first round hit the Nephilim’s other eye.

The second hit disarmed the hammer.

The third and fourth rounds struck both knees simultaneously.

The fifth struck an opening in its neck.

And the sixth, was a low shot below the belt.

HuUUUURggGGHHHH The Nephilim whimpered as the sixth shot hit.

[CRITICAL HIT!]

THWUNK, BOOOOOOMM!

The Doom hammer free fell, releasing a premature explosion which knocked the Nephilim several meters backwards, leaving smoking craters where it stood.

The Nephilim crashed, blind and disarmed, ichor streaming down its face.

King moved.

He sprinted forward, closing the distance in seconds. He dropped low, going straight for the body part closest to him... its heel.

And on the slightest contact, he activated it.

[Ruin’s Touch].

Black veins erupted from the point of contact, spreading rapidly across the Nephilim’s leg. The flesh began to decay, crumbling inward as the curse ate through muscle and bone.

But it didn’t obliterate.

King frowned.

The leg was damaged, badly, but the creature was still alive, it wasn’t totally obliterated as King had expected.

He stepped back, watching as the Nephilim’s HP dropped below 30 percent.

King ran through the calculations in his head.

At Legendary grade, [Ruin’s Touch] should have disintegrated the entire Nephilim on contact.

Nothing should’ve remained, regardless of the point of contact.

But it hadn’t.

The Almighty’s words then echoed in his mind.

You can’t truly achieve all-rounder perfection as a mage. Weapons tied to other classes won’t maximize under your build. You’ll get basic functionality, but you’ll never truly master them.

She’d been right.

The Gauntlet of Ruin was a melee armament, Legendary-grade.

But King was a Mage.

He was getting a lesser percent efficiency out of the weapon’s full potential.

It was still powerful, but not enough to one-shot the False Nephilim.

King clenched his fist, frustration simmering beneath his calm exterior.

He needed an All-Class Perk.

"Master King" Eli’s voice called, snapping him back to the moment.

The Nephilim’s screaming had stopped.

King looked up.

The creature was now kneeling, head bowed, ichor pooling beneath it.

But something was happening.

The air around the Nephilim began to distort. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Dark energy pulsed outward from its body in waves, each one stronger than the last.

King took a step back.

"Eli."

"That’s the animation for the stage two."

The Nephilim raised its head.

Where its eyes had been, two voids now stared back at King.

And then the tattoos began to spread.

Black symbols crawled across the creature’s skin, etching themselves into its flesh. They glowed faintly, throbbing in rhythm with the energy waves. The Nephilim’s wounds started to close, the dripping fluids, solidifying into scar tissue.

Its ruined leg reformed.

The muscle twisted and fused, bones snapping back into place with sickening cracks. The limb looked foul, elongated, and covered in jagged black markings.

The Nephilim stood.

Taller than before

Its wings spread wider, the damages reinforced with curse-forged plating. Its hands grew claws for fingers.

And the doom hammer floated back into its grasp, lifted by invisible force, now wreathed in black flames instead of red.

The creature opened its mouth.

And roared, the sound sent tremors through the earth.

King adjusted his stance, raising the Gauntlet of Ruin.

He tapped the earpiece.

"Get ready, Eli."

From the tree branch, Eli cocked the Calamity Long-Shoulder, locking fresh targets through the eagle’s vision.

"Ready."