Reborn: Apocalypse

Micheal immediately jumped backwards, moving so quick it almost seemed like he was falling. At the same time, he shifted his center of gravity as close to the ground as possible, leaning low.

Xavier's two blades sheared through the air where Michael had been standing, whipping forward and only narrowly missing. Small bits of water flung off Xavier's arms he attacked, soaking the roof of the skyscraper.

'The Water Elemental Body Type…' Micheal's eyes flashed as his mind raced ahead.

A unique Limited Ability that allowed one to transform their body into Elemental Water. By doing so, things like bullets, swords, or other physical attacks would have little effect. After all, no matter how many times you stabbed a river, the river would be just fine.

In fact, not only was his entire body turned to water, so too did his clothes. Even his swords and the necklace he wore took on a faint, water-like shimmer, no longer fully solid.

The Ability cost 77,300 Points in the Shop and was Limited, meaning the supply was short. By this point in time, the stock on it was completely sold out. For its price, it was a very powerful and useful Ability in the First Layer.

'The advantages of arriving in the Second Wave are indeed pretty great.' He tossed the thought from his mind as he focused fully on combat.

WHOOSH

Micheal ducked and dodged as Xavier came rushing towards him, slashing out with strike after strike. The insane murderer unleashed a flurry of blows, each one ripping forward brutally.

'That said…' Micheal's eyes flashed as he stamped with his foot, half-jumping forward.

CLANG

His Steelborn sword knocked against Xavier's swords, slightly redirecting them. Both blades shook as they sank through the air and each missed hitting Micheal by an inch. Each one was still metallic and durable, despite shimmering like they were made from water.

Micheal was unable to cut directly through them using his Sword Mastery, the Sword Energy he could muster from his average soul stat not quite enough. In the First Layer, there were very few ways to increases that stat.

splash

Micheal sliced off Xavier's left arm. His blade, coated with Sword Energy, easily sheared through the arm with practically no resistance. Xavier's sword fell from his left hand as his entire left arm was lopped off, disintegrating into a puddle.

'He is certainly no expert with the sword. His battle style is unrefined.' Micheal dodged backwards as the serial killer spun around with his other arm, avoiding getting stabbed.

"Ohh, you got me." Xavier clutched at his arm, his eyes wide,

"Nah, just kidding."

WHOOSH

A new arm formed, water expanding out into a complete replica of the arm Michael had chopped off. Xavier bent down and grabbed his sword, smiling.

"You're going to have to do better than that, boyo!"


Micheal smiled grimly behind his mask. He had never directly fought Xavier and only ever run from the insane killer in his first time here. The Water Elemental Body type reacted as he had thought it might.

'I've never fought anyone that had this Ability, even in my first go-around. If I disable him completely, can I just keep him down? There's no way he can regenerate infinitely, it's likely a big energy drain.' Micheal dashed forward, ducking low.

'Lobbing my Life Orbs will do nothing to him. Let's try close combat.'

"That's the spirit! Ahahah!" Xavier cackled as he saw this. He then did something outside of Micheal's expectations.

He threw his swords up into the air.

"Let's have some fun!"

Xavier clasped his hands together, concentrating. Micheal's eyes narrowed as he saw this, still sprinting right at the killer.

WHOOSH

Six streams of water split off from Xavier's body, rising from his shoulders like snakes. These streams floated in the air, billowing ever so slightly as they waved in the air. The afternoon light glittered as it moved through the water, cascading brightly.

'He already has his Water Whips this early?' Micheal's frown widened.

Xavier had grown famous, and into a powerful A Ranker, based on two factors. One was that he was annoyingly difficult to harm, let alone kill. The killer stocked up on powerful Defensive Artifacts, living like a turtle.

The other was his versatile uses of his Water Elemental Body Type Ability.

WHOOSH

The six snakes of water on Xavier's back shot forward, whipping through the air towards Micheal. They moved blurringly quickly, striking at him with no hesitation.

"Hup!" Micheal broke off his charge and stamped his right foot down, dancing into a spin. He shifted his entire body to the side, contorting slightly. At the same time, he sent a Life Orb out of his body and had it smash into him, jerking him abruptly to the side. He ignored the lump of pain it caused as it bruised his ribs, rapidly accelerating.

CRACK

Six simultaneous cracks rang out as all six of the whips of water smashed down, slamming into the roof. Each one had a large amount of force, enough to shatter bones, carried with it, somehow maintaining coherency as if they were solid objects.

Each of the six missed Micheal. He simultaneously managed to track and predict their angles, aiming to position his body to dodge them. He then used his Life Orb to help him instantly change direction, forcibly moving himself to where he needed to be.

Some of the whips came so close to hitting him he could the feel cool air from the water flowing around him, less than an inch from his face.

"Huh?" Xavier's cheery facade shook slightly as he saw this, surprised. He withdrew the snakelike whips of water as fast as he could, raising them up. At the same time, he began to jump backward, his powerful body reacting in an instant.

By that point, however, Micheal had already reached him.

WHOOSH

Micheal's Steelborn sword blurred as he cut out two separate times, first splitting the serial killer in half at the waist and then splitting him in half again with a vertical slash, carefully guiding the blade so it cut into the rope of the necklace Artifact the man was wearing. The tightly controlled motion looked almost mechanical due to his exacting precision and control of his body.

splash

clang

The serial killer's body fell apart, water splashing onto the ground at the same time that the swords he had thrown up landed, echoing simultaneously.

Micheal looked at this and without waiting threw himself backwards, once again ramming a Life Orb into his chest to enhance his speed. He felt one of his ribs crack and almost break as he did this, unable to fully withstand the pressure. The rapid acceleration the Orbs could muster was faster that he could change directions at his current level, but the impacts were slowly injuring him.

CRACK

Four separate whips of water cracked as they lashed out from the puddle of water on the ground, smashing right where Micheal had been standing.

Slowly, the figure of Xavier rose from the water, completely unharmed.

"Wow! You're really good at that!" The man laughed cheerfully, his eyes piercing towards Micheal. He began to step forward, folding his hands together. Several whips of water rose again, shivering in the air.

"Not to sound like a 2-bit villain, but I'm going to enjoy killing you." Xavier smiled, an unerring look coming from him, as he charged forward.

'Well. His Nullification Aura Necklace is undamaged.' Micheal zeroed in on the Artifact the man wore around his neck, ignoring the pain from his cracked rib. He had tried to cut it off when he attacked just moments ago, but it had magically reformed right after.

'What an extraordinary Ability, though he depends on it too much.' He sighed,

'Alright, let's use Plan B and not drag this out. This is going to hurt.'

"Crane, now!" He yelled out loud.

Immediately, the temperature seemed to drop as a pink glow gathered around the masked Sophia's eyes. The light shined forth, the power of her Fairy Eyes activating.

"Huh?" Xavier stumbled to a stop briefly. At the same time, the Nullification Aura Necklace he wore glowed bright blue, activating.

The Nullification Aura Necklace was one of Xavier's key Artifacts, a Limited Artifact that had long since sold out, one that nullified energy based attacks. Sophia's Fairy Eyes were a type of energy based attack, and as a result, were greatly nullified.

It couldn't block them completely, but enough that her Ability had little effect against someone with the strong willpower and psychotic sense of self that Xavier had.

Xavier's obsession with keeping himself safe and alive had led to him buying this 70,000 Point Artifact.

To Micheal, however, that necklace made Xavier a walking treasure chest.

"Hup!" Micheal sprinted forward, bringing his sword forward. He took advantage of Xavier's temporary lapse to reach down to his Spatial Ring, pulling something out of it.

"Hahaha, keep it coming. I'll take all comers!" Xavier recovered enough to see Micheal bearing down on him. He responded by sending his Water Whips forward, cracking in the air.

Micheal then did something unexpected.

He threw his sword at Xavier's face.

"Uh?!" Instinctively, Xavier jerked his head back, unable to help himself. No matter how invulnerable his Ability made him, there were certain things that could not just be turned off. A human's basic survival instincts were one such thing.

In the moment that he jerked his head back, he temporarily stopped attacking. Micheal crossed the distance between them in that minuscule moment of time.

And then punched the serial killer in the stomach.

"…"

BOOM

When Micheal punched forward, he didn't use any special techniques or anything of that nature. Instead, just as his fist slammed into the watery body of Xavier and pierced through it, he crushed an Artifact he was holding in his hand.

An Artifact he had purchased for a bit more than 1,000 Points before he came after Xavier.

A Static Light Box, an Artifact about half the size of his palm

The mysterious Artifact could be used to provide a continuous stream of light in one area. At the same time, it would create a cool, relaxing aura that could relax the mood slightly.

In combat, it was practically useless…

Practically useless save for one minor quirk.

The Static Light Box drew upon the energy of the environment to create its effect. It was a delicate creation that was rather breakable.

If the Artifact was crushed in an instant, all the latent energy it had absorbed would be released instantly. This energy was stored in a way similar to a battery.

When it was released… it would explode out, rippling with electricity. The current it released was far stronger than that of a taser or a stun gun, enough to seriously injure someone, even a superhuman.

More importantly to Micheal, however, was the fact that the energy it churned out was rather special.

It was a type of energy known as Elemental Lightning, antithetical to Elemental Water.

An explosion rippled out as the Static Light Box went off. Blinding white light and searing pain filled Micheal's mind as he felt his left hand seize up.

The explosion radius of the Static Light Box was tiny, less than a meter large. Xavier was dead in the epicenter, while Micheal was right next to it, his left hand jutted into its origin.

BOOM

The explosion echoed in his ears as every single nerve in Micheal's left arm died.

He instantly lost all feeling in his left arm, the blast of energy knocking him backwards. He spun around as he was knocked away, forcing back the pain as he looked over at Xavier. The pungent odor of burnt meat from his badly seared arm filled the air.

Xavier was standing still, frozen. His body no longer looked as if it was made of water, instead returned back to normal.

The explosion only lasted a very brief instant before returning everything to normal. It didn't set the air to quaking or create a huge gout of fire. Just a small, but potent, blast of Elemental Lightning.

.

—- Points Obtained —-

Points: 9,272

.

The serial killer slowly fell to his knees.

His body hadn't been shocked by the current nor was he burnt by it. The blast had lasted far too brief a time for it to injure him in his Water Elemental Body Type form.

What it did do, however, was disrupt his Ability, forcing him back into a normal state. The Nullification Aura Necklace he wore was unable to block the energy, busy blocking Sophia's Fairy Eyes. It could only stop one type of energy at a time.

Unfortunately for Xavier, in the exact moment he turned back to normal, the sword Micheal had thrown had still been piercing his head, slowed down by the Elemental Water.

When he turned back to normal, the water magically changing back to his flesh, that sword remained exactly where it was, firmly implanted in his skull.

thud

Xavier collapsed onto the roof.

Killed instantly.

"..."

Micheal took a deep breath as he stumbled, his body shivering from the trauma it had suffered. He blinked slowly, wincing as he sensed the damage to his left arm.

"Heron?!" Sophia's voice was full of worry.

"All good, Crane!" He gave her a thumbs up as he checked himself over. He would definitely need to use a Life Orb.

He then glanced at Xavier's body, making sure the man was dead. As he looked, however, something odd happened. Something that took him completely aback.

A black stream of smoke rose from his body, wisping off into the sky. This stream dissipated into the air, vanishing almost instantly. It gave off a foreboding aura that was faintly unsettling.

When Micheal saw this, his heart spasmed, memories flooding into his mind.

'?!'

'Wait, what? He was one of the Vile King's men?!'

.

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Next chapter tomorrow!

~ Volume 1 just finished on the Patron, with Chapter 71 being the last chatper :)

Volume 2 begins tomorrow on the Patron. A huge thanks to all my loyal supporters and readers that make this possible!

~