Mutations.
Evolutionary paths determined the internal structure of a beast, and if it was humanoid, it would have a Class like humans, Sif and Giants, but if it was not, it would have a mutation instead.
A mutation was a sort of a unique bodily trait outside the bounds of abilities exclusively granted by virtue of being part of a particular species. Unconventional mix breeding, consuming other outlandish beasts, and coming into contact with mystical geographical phenomena were a few of the ways mutations could be born.
Thus, like Classes, there was an unlimited assortment of mutations.
That said...
'Is the set of abilities from this creature something from a mutation? It hasn't shown anything unique besides being fast and having sharp claws,' Skullius wondered.
In the next moment, his enemy which was bathed in restless, radiant bolts of lightning streaking from its now white furs that stood aloof, as if livid with rage of their own, pounced.
The Hybrid Luman had already drawn Demion's Dance from its sheath by the time he realised his enemy wasn't rushing towards him, but once again, around him.
The Retriever, which had doubled its stats, seemingly represented by the additional tail swinging from its rear, shot all around Skullius like a rebellious stream of light.
Skullius gathered his mana and expelled it from his body, hoping to see some kind of effect like last time with a striking gravitational imposition on the ground.
For a brief moment, the Retriever slowed down, but it then continued dashing about as if trying to decide when to attack him.
Skullius narrowed his eyes.
Of course.
His affinity with Distorted Gravity was a mere D, but he speculated that his affinity for Gravity on its own was a little higher. Still though, it was when facing enemies that could consolidate their bodies with abstruse abilities like these that he found imposing a gravitational weight on them ineffective, especially if they didn't remain still.
This meant...
'Better get my hands dirty then. Sword, I mean,' Skullius quickly corrected himself when he felt an enraged quiver from Demion's Dance.
It was then that [Primal Caution] gave Skullius another warning and this time, he reacted on his own, dodging the sudden pounce from the Retriever, then another and another with [Destined Warp Steps].
~~~
[Destined Warp Steps (Special) | Lv.55]
Create up to a 100 starry foot prints leading in a trail of your choosing that, when followed in perfect sequence, multiplies your usual, bare maximum speed twelve fold. After each print is successfully trampled, a miniscule window where time is dilated – 0.5 seconds – is afforded for the user to enact any action they desire, before going on to the next print at rapid speed. The skill will not go into cooldown until all 30 minutes of duration are spent.
-Caution-
(Current maximum range – 400 meters)
-
Mana Requirements: 28,000 (I) Mana Points, 7,000 (I) Mana Points every minute
Duration: 30 minutes
Cooldown: 1 hour
~~~
The Retriever had grown much faster than before. While [Destined Warp Steps] was capable of making Skullius more than a match for the Retriever, it was his ability to sense where it would come from that created a glaring problem.
If he whizzed around, with no doubt faster speed than the Retriever, he was likely to waste time as it would make perceiving it that much harder.
Unfortunately, even while he stood still, [Graceless Hunter] was being overwhelmed, and as the seconds passed, Skullius started to sense hundreds of after-images of the jaguar-like creature with little to no distinction from the real Beckoned Retriever.
A shard of a moment later, a striking blur went straight for Skullius' neck before he could react properly!
If it wasn't for [Primal Caution], Skullius would lost his head, but in the nick of time, he had dodged quickly enough to only have to lose a chunk of his throat to a brutal set of claws!
'Damn it,' Skullius cursed.
Above him, the glass shattered and reformed, and the '900' depicted became a '800', which made Skullius turn furious. It seemed the illusion judged lethal and heavy hits, but how they would effect a regular human, even if they meant nothing to him.
'Fine then. I'll have to reveal a bit more now won't I?' Skullius said before crouching down and holding Demion's Dance out.
With [Unmatched Sword Sense] active, Skullius felt his body tingle, and Demion's Dance get excited.
Then, with a hot breath leaving his mouth, he jammed Demion's Dance with an elegant stab into the ground.
It only took a moment, but it was devastating.
The ground around Skullius was baptised in a sickening shade of red, before it became a dark crimson, and then... flew up violently!
The dirty, moist crust was cut apart by sharp, rampaging Mortal Ruin that left nothing untouched for three hundred meters, effectively reducing the area around the Hybrid Luman into a huge pit with flying dirt over that had yet to fall down.
For a brief moment, the Retriever was left with no footing in its proximity... and Skullius didn't miss its surprised mass that was stuck in mid-air.
In the blink of an eye, Skullius was gone from the sole patch of high land left around the huge depression, and in the same span of time, the Retriever was reduced to dozens of hacked pieces by the swordsman who was already standing a distance away, where the flourishing land weighed by vegetation continued.
As the pieces of the beast fell to the ground, Skullius paid attention.
The combination of his skill with the sword and [Destined Warp Steps] had proven too much for the Retriever once he successfully locked onto it, but... would it stay dead?
His answer came when another large bolt of lightning came slamming down from the close floating swarm of clouds and onto the Retriever.
Once again, the beast stood up, its figure even more radiant... and angry.
Another tail spawned from behind it, and another wild gush of power that Skullius found to add another twofold multiplier exploded from the feline.
The fourth tail.
Beyond this however, an expertly crafted ring of light appeared above the creature's head, and the Hybrid Luman felt that something was different about the Retriever this time.
At the same time, he thought he understood a little about this Cluster beast. Maybe.
The sacred Mountain.
The roaming clouds.
The mostly unimpressive beasts.
'If I'm not mistaken, these bastards are probably not all that strong, but gain their powers from their influence of the environment. The 'Beckoned' in their name could mean they are just slaves to something, or that they are always summoned back to life after death... or both. The 'Retriever' though, I'm not sure. Now there's that thing on its head. It's probably not good news for me...'
How was Skullius to kill this creature if the clouds could seemingly reanimate it countless times and grant it a boost in power each time?
Well, he had a few ideas, but before then...
As he expected, the Retriever was much, much faster now.
As it once again began streaking around him, the Hybrid Luman couldn't even perceive its after-images. Even the wiggling bolts around it only appeared as flashy blots for splits of time all around Skullius, and as this scene went on...
Skullius' eyes widened.
The Retriever wasn't flashing around randomly this time.
With [Graceless Hunter] and Crude Vision, he found that it kept running in a fixed path that... that seemed to have a meaningful shape – courtesy of the spots of light he could actually see.
'You sockethole!' Skullius thought as in the next moment, the fixed path that the Retriever was running in suddenly became a glaring, white formation that surrounded him, a hefty amount of mana pumped into it!
The second the formation solidified to look like it was made with wide, paint strokes, linked triangular shapes replaced it, all fashioned from lightning buzzing around Skullius!
The Hybrid Luman's eyes flashed...
At once, the linked shapes seized him like chains, binding his movements firmly.
Before Skullius could even suck in a surprised breath, the clouds ten meters above him began to gather quickly, all radiating an electric blue hue that pulsed from one cloud to the next until it reached a central point where whatever disaster was coming would spill from.
Skullius looked up instinctively, and the moment his blind eyes met the glowing hue, a treacherous, fulgurous presence dove down at him with strength even to level a large city!
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