Zalroth followed the rising puppetered being with his eyes, watching it ascend high above the city as he twirled his opaque flame-coved silver combat knife(rare) in his hand. He could feel a contentious and condescending demeanour oozing from the puppeteer behind the cursed elite assassin, filling Zalroth with the bottomless need to find the puppeteer and sock her in the face. Despite the obvious threat above him, Zalroth peered over his shoulder as he heard the distinct sound of buzzing and sizzling coming from the Golemight Smithy. With a relieved smirk, Zalroth returned his focus to the threat at hand and activated his appraisal skill.
[Activated Skill: Appraisal(Level: 3)]
[Cursed Human Puppet(Object)][Level: 460]
[HP: 1840(+870)][Hexa: 4100]
[Class: Elite, Magic, Warrior, Poison, and Support Assassin]
[Vitality: 184][Stamina: 369]
[Attack: 266][Hexa Profficiency: 231]
[Defence: 175][Intelligence: 410]
[Agility: 380][Speed: 325]
"Hmm. So, having multiple classes is possible... at least in certain circumstances," Zalroth pondered, leaving him to speculate on how he'd replicate it without the whole curse thing. Seeing the contemplative glint in Zalroth's eyes, the puppeteer couldn't contain her excitement at finding someone who was vastly more interesting than the usual people her "puppets" had faced, given how he hadn't turned tail and run after she created a combined cursed puppet.
"Seems you really are more interesting, not like all those other Hexa worlders," the puppeteer remarked, her snark beating out the grating power of a cheese grater in Zalroth's opinion. However, the last part of her statement caught Zalroth's attention, not that he'd allow it to show on his face as he took on a more aggressive stance.
"And, it seems every time you talk makes me want to punch you more," Zalroth retorted, getting a delighted snobish cackle from the puppeteer.
"Then allow me to make the first move since you kindly allowed me to charge this," the puppeteer uttered condescendingly as they controlled the cursed human puppet to raise its arm and point an open palm at Golemight Smithy.
[Activated Skill: Hellflames of Apocalypse(100%)]
Although the pop-up was far away, Zalroth barely recognised the name of the skill as one of the ones he had gotten from his Random Aquire Skill. "I suppose it isn't a non-zero chance I'd randomly get the skill they have," Zalroth mentally remarked before activating Particle Warp.
[Activated Ability: Particle Warp]
[Activated Skill: Accel Drive(Level: 4) x5]
In a flash, Zalroth appeared right in front of the grinning cursed puppet, not even fazed by the guy's sudden shift in location, and if anything, had an unnervingly happy expression on their face. With his Accel Drive empowered leg, Zalroth swung a decisive upwards round-house kick to the cursed puppet's hand, forcing it to be flung and aimed upwards.
Right as its aim moved beyond the scope of Gronoville, a torrent of concentrated dark blue flames erupted from the cursed puppet's palm, narrowly missing the ground as the beam of flames pierced through the clouds and exposed the full moon from behind them. Zalroth felt his breath catch in his throat as he kicked off the cursed puppet to make some distance before landing on a Seraph Step platform.
"It seems Skills without levels to them are vastly stronger," Zalroth mentally uttered, a drop of sweat running down his face as he knew without a shadow of a doubt that that attack would've obliterated him along with the city.
"Hah, I knew you'd be able to stop that, but I guess someone of your capabilities would still feel uneasy after seeing that move," the puppeteer boasted, throwing up her cursed puppet's arms as its body began to contort, taking on a more feminine physique. "Heh, guess I took too much control and ended up altering this thing's shape."
Zalroth remained silent, locked in a staredown with the cursed puppet. He and the puppeteer were locked in a standoff, waiting for the other to make the next move.
Meanwhile, an explosively booming bang blasted through the city, snapping Nagami and the others out of their slumbers, whilst Metsu was especially startled upon noticing Nero was gone.
"What was that? Are the golems attacking!?" Nagami blurted out as she nearly tumbled out of the bed she and Metsu were sharing. However, her question was swiftly answered as she spotted Zalroth dropkicking the cursed puppet high above the town and sending it flying over the town wall.
"Guys, get dressed, Zalroth's fighting against a monster!" Nagami shouted, catching all the others' attention and fully waking them up.
On the outskirts of Gronoville, the cursed puppet hurtled over the tall town wall like a ragdoll with the puppeteer's cackling all the while as Zalroth whizzed after them. Closing the distance, Zalroth reeled back his opaque flame-covered knife as his Hexa points rapidly depleted.
[Activated Skill: Accel Drive(Level: 4) x50]
In the blink of an eye, Zalroth unleashed a storm of Accel Drive boosted knife slashes, moving with such speed that the lagging flames struggled to keep up and swirled into a raging tornado to envelop the cursed puppet. But as the opaque flames around it subsided, the cursed puppet sported a crooked smile, seemingly unfazed by the attack. Recognising that expression, Zalroth wasted no time delivering an Accel Drive-powered roundhouse kick to the cursed puppet's face, sending it flying before the two aimed a hand at each other.
[Activated Skill: Flame Blast(Level: 3) x30]
[Activated Skill: Hellflames of Apocalypse(100%)]
Torrents of red and dark blue flames slammed into each other with tremendous force, unleashing an equally intense torrent of searing heat through the air that washed over the unsuspecting town. As the flames scattered, Zalroth landed on a Seraph Step platform while the cursed puppet floated close by. Despite his best efforts, no matter the method or how hard Zalroth's attacks hit the cursed puppet, it always received the same amount of DMG, a consistent zero across the board.
With a jestful tone, the puppeteer remarked, "Man, you're one tough cookie. That equipment you've got has gotta be pretty special. I bet a certain one of my companions will be thrilled to have that sword of yours once I'm done with you."
Clutching the handle of Kotatzugami and grabbing it tightly with all his strength, Zalroth glared daggers at the cursed puppet before stating, "As if I'd allow you to get your grubby mits on this."
Despite not being there in person, the puppeteer felt the sudden influx of murderous intent for her from Zalroth, her cursed puppet involuntarily flinched as she instinctively wanted to do so herself. Trying to save face, the puppeteer forced her puppet to equip the elite assassin's knives and quipped, "Be as mad as you want, unless you have a holy weapon, you're as good as dead against my cursed puppet."
"You said it yourself, your puppet wouldn't last this mission, so all I have to do is outlast it until dawn," Zalroth retorted with a defiant scoff, getting an unplesant frown and a distasteful click of the tongue from the puppet, confirming his suspision that the sun would destroy the puppet.
"You say that... but those last two attacks of yours probably took most of your Hexa to fire, so will you really be able to hold out for that long?" the puppeteer barked back as her brevado returned. Zalroth awkwardly averted his eyes, instilling a false sense of security in the girl that she was correct. However, in reality, Zalroth's expression was born from him making the same judgmental mistake; having forgotten Kotatzugami's scabbard increased his Hexa by over ten times.
"Urg. Chronia, Saria, and Nagami would die of laughter if they knew I forgot the scabbard counted towards my stats," Zalroth grumbled under his breath as he released his grip on Kotatzugami's handle.
"Aww, I hope you aren't getting cold feet now, this was just getting inte-."
The puppeteer was cut off as its cursed puppet swung its knives to the side to block Zalroth's sudden knife slash, sending embers of opaque flames from the clashing blades. Using his angular superiority and that he was slightly higher up than the puppet, Zalroth vaulted over the cursed puppet before axe-kicking it in the head and sending it hurtling towards the ground. Having had enough of her talking, Zalroth landed on another Seraph Step platform before pointing his silver combat knife(Rare) at the cursed puppet and stating, "Would you shut up."
The cursed crashed into the ground, sustaining zero damage as always, as the sound of the puppeteer's grumbling murmur echoed from it.
A while later, atop the city wall of Gronoville, the city guard watched the unfolding battle in the sky, the blurring trails of light that were the combating duo almost moving too fast for them to keep track of. The captain of the town guard, the highest leveled person from the town, was easily able to keep track of the duo, even if all he saw were barely humanoid blurs shooting and clashing across the sky.
"Captain, our ranged attackers are ready," a guardsman yelled as he rushed over to the Guard Captain. The captain nodded his head sternly, keeping his eyes locked on the fight while keeping a keen focus on Zalroth as the captain recognised him from the group of people who had arrived around midnight.
"I'll give the signal when that guy isn't close to the monster," the guard captain stated calmly as he uncrossed his arms. The guardsman nodded before hurrying off to his position among the ranged guardsmen, awaiting the signal.
"Thanks for not telling you guys to relentlessly attack," Nagami said with relief as she, Reino and Fio were at work at Nagami's mini-forge set-up nearby the captain, all fully kitted up in blacksmithing gear.
"There's no need for thanks, what kind of people would we be if we attacked a guy defending us," the captain retorted calmly, followed by asking how long the thing they're constructing will take to make.
"At least five more minutes," Reino stated as he slammed his smithing hammer at full force on the glowing metal dagger.
Clashing blades again, a piercing screech of metal rung through the night sky, the swirling winds born of the rapidly heating and cooling of the air picking up into a mini whirlwind that flung to two combatants away from each other.
Covered in cuts and trickles of blood, Zalroth landed on yet another one of his Seraph Step platforms, falling to one side as he clutched his free hand around the reddened and soaked spot on the side of his torso.
[Activated Sub-Skill: Quick Appraisal x2]
[Zalroth Akikou][Level: 544]
[1436/9100][49,753/50,350]
[Cursed Human Puppet(Object)][Level: 460]
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
[HP: 1840(+6870)/1840][Hexa: 4562/4100]
"This isn't looking good. I haven't left a scratch on it, and whatever's obscuring its equipment's stats isn't helping me gauge how much power to counter with," Zalroth uttered in his mind as his heavy breaths tumbled out of his mouth.
"Hah! Looks like you're on your last leg there, buddy; So, I'll be taking that sw-.". Mid-sentence, the cursed puppet was clocked in the face by a speeding fireball that exploded on impact and knocked it off balance. And, before it could recover, volleys upon volleys of magical attacks careened into the cursed puppet, not allowing it even a second to capitalise on Zalroth's weakened state.
Zalroth rapidly blinked, momentarily stunned by the sudden support, but figured it wasn't a surprise that the protectors of a town would fight against a threat. But, even with the moment to breathe, Zalroth still didn't have any way to get around his inability to harm the cursed puppet other than stalling until the sun comes up.
Eventually, the assault of magical attacks from the guardsmen, Zalroth's friends, and the two other assassins came to an end.
And, at the centre of the dispersing smoke, an unfazed and scowling cursed puppet hovered in the sky as its controller's focus shifted to the town. Realizing the puppeteer's intention, Zalroth snapped his gaze to Gronoville before Particle Warping over in an instant. Sliding across the Seraph Step platform he created, Zalroth spun on the spot as he frantically swung up his free arm to match the cursed puppet's raised one.
[Activated Skill: Hellflames of Apocalypse(300%)]
[Activated Skill: Hellflames of Apocalypse(100%) x5]
For a moment, there was nothing but the building silence of suspense in the atmosphere, only broken by a deafening boom as the night sky was lit up by the intense and overwhelming collision of the two tsunamis of dark blue beams of flames. Droves of heat washed over Gronoville's town wall, forcing everyone on it to duck behind the wallway wall while Nagami took her chance to use the rushing heatwave to superheat the in-work weapon.
"What!?" the puppeteer yelled through her puppet in complete bewilderment as she watched Zalroth's Hellflames of Apocalypse overpower her puppet's. She was blindsided, flabbergasted and no short of awestruck that Zalroth had such a high mastery of the skill that he could already multi-cast it let alone use it in the first place.
Zalroth's flames continued to creep closer and closer to the cursed puppet, managing to push back its flames as its puppeteer gradually lost focus until Zalroth's flames were mere inches from the puppet. Needlessly panicking, the puppeteer forced the cursed puppet to put up a magic barrier around itself right before it was engulfed in a wave of searing flames.
Flinging themselves out of Zalroth's flames, the cursed puppet soared higher into the sky, covered in soot but sustaining no tangible damage other than its magic barrier shattering.
"How does he have one of my puppet's skills? Can he mimic his opponent's powers? It must be the case, otherwise he would have used it earlier if he already possessed it," the puppeteer exclaimed in dread-filled shock. Her puppet staggered back in the air, emulating the girl's terror as she mulled over her options.
Heavily panting, Zalroth slumped his shoulders, allowing his arms to dangle like limp noodles as he felt his brain being crushed by an invisible weight. Clasping his forehead loosely with his fingers, he closed one of his eyes in pain as he mumbled, "So, this is what happens when you expend so much Hexa at once and have too much fatigue."
"Zalroth, catch!" Nagami yelled seriously, catching Zalroth's attention and snapping him out of his pained state instantly. Peeking back, Zalroth spotted Atella pulling back the elastic strap of a weapon-loaded sing-shot. With perfected practice, Atella launched the weapon toward Zalroth, slightly off-setting her aim to not accidentally hit him. The gleaming golden object shimmered in the moonlight, hurtled towards Zalroth, sminning through the air at frickish speeds as it resembled a full moon in its yellow period.
"You owe me big time for forcing me to make yet another weapon for you, Zalroth!" Nagami shouted boldly as Zalroth raised his knife wielding hand, returning the knife to his Inventory, before catching the golden object. With an amused chuckle, Zalroth faintly muttered, "Ain't that the truth?"
In his hand was a golden dagger, both sides of its blade engraved with a bismuth engraving of a crescent moon, and a thick ring-shaped pearl pummel.
[Activated Skill: Apprasial(Level: 3)]
[Golden Moon Dagger(Rare)][Level: 99]
[Attack:900]
[Agility: 288]
[Holy Infusion]
-All attacks used through the tool/weapon gain the Holy Attribute-
[Serious Bismuth]
-Decreases cooldown of Abilities by 50%-
[Golden Enforcement]
-Increases chance of Status Effect Skills/Abilities by 5% every time the effect isn't applied-
[Weapon Skill: Purifying Light]
-Fires a concentrated beam of light that does double DMG against Shadow-type or Cursed-Type targets-
-Cooldown: 1 minute-
Seeing the weapon's Abilities and Skill, Zalroth couldn't help but feel a growing respect for Nagami's craftsmanship, left to ponder if he should say that to her face or not as Metsu's head slowly rose up into view.
"Get on," Metsu stated confidently as she tugged on the guy's shoulder to snap him back to reality. Sitting atop Nero's back, the confidence behind Metsu's eyes made it hard for Zalroth to decline, and he hopped onto Nero's back with her as the small girl handed him two potion bottles, a Status Recovery(Medium) Potion and a Strength(High) Potion.
[Status Recovery potions are pale yellow filled teal swirls]
[Strength Potions are red]
Watching as Zalroth drank the two potions before the bottles seemingly disappeared without a trace, the puppeteer grumbled under her breath, cursing her luck that her guaranteed win was stolen from her and being so mad she didn't register the potion bottles' disappearance.
"Damned be these Hexa Worlders, I was so close to a-.". The puppeteer cut her complaining short, realizing the shadowy creature Nero that Zalroth was now standing on. Under her restrained breath, she uttered, "Okay... having a shadow monster as a subordinate is cool."
However, the puppeteer's astonishment was swiftly replaced with concern as Nero and his passengers blasted out of her view within the blink of an eye. Ordering her cursed puppets to move, the puppeteer darted her focus across her surroundings, desperately trying to relocate Zalroth.
[Activated Skill: Accel Drive(Level: 4)]
The cursed puppet's eyes widened in fear, its movements becoming even more frantic to locate its targets. Focusing on the buzzing, the cursed puppet heard Nero racing from behind it and threw up an arm to fire a Hellflames of Apocalypse.
But, a golden sheen of light slashed past the cursed puppet, leaving the puppeteer in a stunned silence as she saw the cursed puppet's severed hand fly in front of it through its eyes.
"Uh oh," the puppeteer uttered, watching as the stump of the cursed puppet's arm and the entirety of its severed hand greyed out before crumbling into inert dust.
Blasting through the air, Metsu raised her hands into the arm in victory, the power of the wind rushing through her crescent moon-shaped hair filling her unadulterated glee.
"Nero! Plus Accel equal OP!" Metsu exclaimed excitedly as Nero doubled back in a loop and barrelled straight for the cursed puppet. At hearing the girl's chant of victory, a small smirk formed on Zalroth's face as he spun the Golden Moon Dagger in his palm.
"It's not over yet, but I can't argue with that reasoning," Zalroth retorted as he braced for another attack.
[Activated Skill: Accel Drive(Level: 4) x4]
Dreading what was to come, the cursed puppet tried to turn around to counterattack, but just like before, the speed of Nero's flight easily outpaced the puppet as four more devastating Holy Attribute-infused slashes tore through its body. The puppeteer reeled in terror as she watched the HP of her cursed puppet drain like a fish tank gushing out water from having a hole in the bottom of it.
"Was he really this strong the whole time, even against something over level four-hundred?!" the puppeteer exclaimed, screeching like a raging gamer after losing a sing;e ranked match.
With four glowing golden, greyed-out-coloured skin surrounded slash wounds covering the cursed puppet's body, the puppeteer tracked the flight patterns before swinging a preemptive punch that Metsu's face was heading straight for. However, instead of the moon-haired girl, Zalroth Particle Warped in the way of the punch, getting sucker punch in the chin by the cursed puppet in the process which dealt fifty point four two points of DMG to him.
The cursed puppet smirked confidently, mimicking its controller's expression of satisfaction, but that smirk quickly melted away as Zalroth pushed his raised head back downward. Overpowering the cursed puppet, Zalroth stared down the puppeteer through the cursed puppet, sending shivers of regret through her.
"Hmph, finally managed to punch me properly, huh? Glad you did, otherwise I might've felt bad about stabbing someone not from this world in the head," Zalroth remarked coldly before he disappeared from using Particle Warp, catching the puppeteer off guard after having gotten used to Zalroth's Particle Warp's usual cooldown.
"Wait! He mentioned this world, does that mean he's also an oth-."
But the puppeteer couldn't finish her revelation in time as Zalroth, appearing behind the puppet, plunged the blade of the Golden Moon Dagger into the side of the cursed puppet's skull.
[Activated Weapon Skill: Purifying Light]
The blade of the dagger shone brightly like the yellow sun, beams and golden strands of light erupted from it like rave lights at a disco that scorched the body of the cursed puppet into dust. Raising an eyebrow, a thought crossed Zalroth's perplexed mind as he thought, "I was expecting a bigger boom... crud."
The moment Zalroth finished his thought, he realized his grave error of testing his jinxing luck as the entirety of his surrounding area was bathed in the Golden Moon Dagger's light. Unleashing its full might, the cursed puppet was reduced to atoms in mere seconds, leaving Zalroth to bear the brunt of the dagger's might alone.
Nagami held her breath, clenching the handle of her steel hammer(Rare) so tightly with unrivaled nerves that her knuckles turned as white as her dreading face. The light of the Purifying Light skill swiftly faded away, disappearing just as quickly as it appeared. It left a rapidly blinking Zalroth barely standing on a Seraph Step platform, much to Nagami's relief-filled mind.
Panting heavily, Zalroth plummeted from the air, his strength giving out from the compounding strain of expending so much Hexa in one big burst, followed by being hit at point-blank range and spamming Frostbite Armourment. Luckily for him, his collision with the ground was cut short as Kaira teleported underneath him, grabbing hold of his shoulder before teleporting the duo safely onto the city wall walkway.
[Zalroth Akikou][Level: 544]
[HP: 21.54/9100][Hexa: 153/50,350]
"And after all that, I didn't get a single level... although it did say it was an object... does that mean golems aren't objects?" Zalroth muttered aloud as his friends surrounded him.
"Geez, why'd you have to be so reckless? You should've said something instead of running off on your own, stupid. What if you'd been killed by that thing or the dagger we made?" Nagami cried as she raised a fist to hit him. Bringing down her sorrow-fuelled wrath, she lightly punched the guy on the head, causing green digital numbers to appear beside the guy as his HP points recovered at an accelerated rate.
"Yeah, well, how was I supposed to know a bunch of assassins were cursed to turn into a monster that could rival my level and that was also immune to all of my attacks?" Zalroth retorted with a heavy strain in his voice but with no less snark than usual.
"Fair," Nagami murmured before stuffing an HP potion in the guy's mouth to stop him from talking any further.
"How punches healing him?" Metsu murmured, her confusion distracting her from the worry she once felt for Zalroth's condition. Nagami raised her left hand, revealing the iron chain bracelet with a four-pointed-star-shaped emerald on her left wrist that jingled under her abrupt movement.
"This bracelet converts all my punches into healing instead of damage," Nagami explained before resuming her relentless punches to heal Zalroth along with the potion.
Meanwhile, in a dimly lit, grand and regal bedroom, a girl could be heard whining and pouting like a child, flailing her limbs around as she wallowed in the darkness of the room.
"Nooo, I was so close to beating him, but noooo, he had to go and get a weapon that negated my advantage! And, that last attack on my cursed puppet was so much that it made me pass out from the recoil," the girl whinnied, bawling her eyes out with fake tears.
"So you've said for the past thirty minutes," a significantly more reserved-sounding female retorted as she sat on the other king-sized bed on the opposite side of the room. The other girl tilted her head to the side with contempt for the curse-maker girl's act, uttering under her breath, "Also, stop acting like you're actually upset, it's even more annoying than when you're actually upset."
The curse maker raised her head, her eyes as dry as a desert, completely negating any effect her prior crocodile tears might've had on a normal person with a heart.
"Still, though, wonder where the bottle for the potions he drank went," the curse maker girl pondered aloud, finally getting the attention of the other girl in a positive light instead of just annoyance.
"You mean like when we put stuff in our Inventories?" the other girl asked with mild interest in the conversation topic now. The curse-maker girl nodded her head as she saw the similarities.
"Yeah, just like when we... ... ... OH MY GOD, that's why he said from this world, because he's also from Earth! I almost realized that earlier before he stuck that dagger in my head," the curse maker girl exclaimed as she flopped back into her bed with a proud grin on her face, while her friend had a more stern and serious look on her shadow-obscured face.
"Eh, I'll tell that dumb Pope tomorrow, not like that idiot Sukinia will," the other girl grumbled as she led back into her bed.
