Jumping backward several feet at nearly the same time, both my Father and Brenden mirrored each other’s posture as they pushed all their Remaining PC into their dominant arms for one final attack.
However, right as they did, something no one watching around the world expected happened.
PUCHII
Four extremely sharp pronged blades burst out of the chest of the NightWalker, sending a ripple of agony through the monster’s body as it screamed in pain.
"GAOOOOOOOOO!" Either because it was stunned or utterly confused about where the attack had come from, the monster froze in place, a deadly mistake, because it was exactly what it SHOULDN’T have done given its predicament.
"Tsk tsk, little hellion, you get a little prick in the back, and suddenly that walnut brain of yours shuts down; heh, Actuate-10%."
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM
A sudden strike from behind assaulted the monster with such force that it rocketed forward into the mountainside, revealing my looming shadowy figure floating in mid-air where the NightWalker had been not even a second before.
Flap…Tap…Tap
With a flutter, the hem of my black outer robe caught the gust of wind generated by the sudden disappearance of the monster, followed by the tapping of my boots touching down on the platform.
Sliding my thumb along the inside of my palm, I directed several of the camera drones to get wide-angled shots of my visage because this would be the first official appearance of my Alias on record; thus, I had to put on quite a show for the people of the world.
Gone was my Nexus Combat suit, and now, I was dressed in what I was most comfortable.
**Look at the book cover; that’s the outfit I am about to describe**
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The color pallet was simple: Black, dark purple, and dark crimson. My shoulders were adorned with layered shoulder guards made of Draco-Hide and a similar alloy to what the Gates were made of.
A tall collar that could easily transform into a hood ran from under the pleated armor up toward my ears, while a tough yet flexible hide-turtlenecked suit completely protected my neck itself.
My upper body was a combination of four different artifacts; the first was my inner suit, which worked like a second skin; atop that was a long-sleeved runic-inscribed robe, which draped down toward my ankles and was open in the center, revealing the third layer, a tactical body-vest.
The fourth layer was the shoulder armor, which not only added an extra layer of protection for my shoulders and collarbones but also covered my biceps.
The mask I wore was special, although similar in style to the one crafted for Emilia; I didn’t have her Talent, so I needed a way to protect my eyes, and after a shit ton of trial and error, I crafted a full face mask, which covered everything, but had special devices installed that would allow the area over my eyes and forehead to turn transparent.
So, while it may appear as if I was only wearing a standard, ninja-style mask, in reality, I was actually wearing a full face shield.
Further down my arms, I was finally equipped with my beloved gauntlets and an exact 1 to 1 scale replica of the pair I had used in the origin timeline, dual claw blades and all.
Below the belt line were tactical pants, crafted from material similar to my inner armor to match the style and color of my outfit. The knees were reinforced with the same plating as my shoulders, as were the boots on my feet.
Along my thighs were numerous holsters, all loaded with throwing knives and needles, and my tactical belt was fully stocked with particle bombs and other devious weapons.
All in all, I was FUCKING KITTED OUT!
To top it all off, my eyes and their Icy Blue Glow were on display as a trail of Particle Radiation drifted away from the corner of my eyes.
Xipher was back.
"Hmmmm, it’s been so long since I got to stretch my legs for real," Bouncing on the balls of my feet, I tapped the ground two more times and exploded forward before calling out an increase in my Actuate.
"Let’s get this warm up on the road; Actuate 20%," Flashing forward with such speed that I left a single afterimage of myself behind and a light trail of Ice Blue Aura behind, I zipped toward the NightWalker, who was only now getting back to its feet.
"Boo," appearing in front of it, I spun around and delivered a heel kick into its ribcage; however, it seemed that the monster had expected this type of attack and brought its arm up just in time to deflect the kick.
Unfortunately for it, I was already on the move again, as I used the force of its redirection and whipped a second kick, with the opposite leg, into its neck, this one landing and with a loud smacking sound, the NightWalker slammed head first into the mountainside again.
"Gonna have to do better than that little hellion; you aren’t the first or even the hundredth of your kind to have fallen to my blows before. Hm…ahh, it seems you’re a Cripple too, tsk how sad, someone robbed you of your Energy Core, quite a shame, here I was hoping to get a taste of that famous Annihilation Aura again." Shrugging my shoulders, I released my Actuate and brandished my claws against each other, showering the platform with sparks.
The Skill was FAR too demanding on my body, and even with my suit being tailor-made to reduce the physical strain it generated, I could already feel the itching caused by overextending myself.
Much like a certain Wanabee-Hero from a HeroSchool Anime, my body struggled to contain the power exhibited by my Talent Skill: Full Body Augmentation- Actuate.
And even in the Origin Timeline, there were certain thresholds I didn’t cross willy-nilly, as at a certain point, it would begin burning not only my muscle mass but life to overdrive my body.
That’s why I had always used it as a burst skill, turning it off and on as needed, and from my experience, each rank had a percentage I could use freely.
Beta-Rank was 10%; anything beyond that would begin hurting me; Gamma allowed me to use 30% uninhibited, Delta allowed for 50%, Zeta 70%, Theta 90%, and Sigma would allow me to freely wield 100% of my Skills power without injuring myself.
As for Omega-Rank…well, the description alluded to going beyond 100%, but since I hadn’t even made it to Theta-Rank, all I had to go off of was what Arkadia told me.