As the boys traveled into the tunnel, it continued to wind deeper and deeper into the hideout, they found themselves in an eerie and unnaturally tidy environment. It was clear that this place had been meticulously designed and constructed for a specific purpose. Along the walls, there were stacks and stacks of boxes full of valuables and stolen goods, neatly organized and stacked.
All of the gang's stolen valuables and ill-gotten gains were stockpiled here, forming a twisted treasure trove amidst the underground passageways.
Mako, Nathan, and Leon proceeded cautiously, well aware that they were delving further into hostile territory. Their recent encounter with the well-coordinated reinforcements had reminded them of the difficulty of the challenges that they were soon to face.
As they ventured deeper, the passage grew darker, illuminated only by the faint glimmer of stolen valuables and the eerie, dimly lit lights that lined the walls.
Their senses were on high alert, and the trio advanced with caution, ready for any threat that might emerge from the shadows. They understood that their opponents in this hideout were no ordinary gang members; they had faced individuals with only a single elemental ability, making it certain that they weren't the strongest ones inside this hideout as they were certain to run into individuals with multiple abilities making each encounter potentially deadlier.
As they approached the end of the tunnel, the walls widened and revealed a massive room where more boxes were stacked.
Not all the boxes they had looked at were full of valuables as many of them were also full of furniture and appliances that they had stolen from the abandoned homes, but there were also a lot of boxes that were full of different technological parts that looked like they were pulled from bigger appliances that couldn't be moved quickly.
"They are skinning the entire village of all its things," Leon commented as he looked at the sheer quantity of things that were stored underneath in the tunnel.
The trio began exploring the big room that was a bit more lit up. There was only one other passageway that connected to the room they were in besides the one from where they had just come and that was the passage that led deeper into the hideout.
The boys didn't want to waste any time as their friends were still in danger so they quickly skimmed over the contents of boxes before quickly making their way to the other passageway that was completely covered in darkness.
Mako was the first to take a step in to continue moving forward; however, just as he did so Nathan observed a tiny spark illuminate from within the darkness, and without a second wasted Nathan quickly grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down just in the nick of time.
*ZAP!*
A giant bolt of blue lightning revealed itself from within the darkness and just barely missed Mako's body and struck one of the boxes behind, destroying it completely.
Mako and Nathan quickly recovered and got back on their feet and just as they did six gang members rushed out into the room from the dark passageway with one of them crackling with blue lightning.
This was the person responsible for the sudden surprise attack and Mako couldn't help but admire the power that was emanating from the blue lightning. Just like he had unlocked a variant of the regular fire ability which was a red fire, the same red fire that Mikhail possessed.
Right now in front of Mako was a strong Lightning ability user who had unlocked a new variant of the lightning ability which is normally yellow in color, but this one was blue lightning.
These new enemies were far different from the reinforcements that they had just faced as the aura they were releasing not only confirmed to them that they all had a level 5 ability, but they had more than one ability which meant that these were high-ranking gang members that were probably right under the main boss, Victor Voss.
Mako, Nathan, and Leon decided that this time they would as a united front from the very beginning, not wanting to isolate themselves in individual battles like before.
Yet, the sheer number and strength of their foes threatened to overwhelm them. The enemies started powering up immediately and were relentless from the very beginning as they didn't want to hesitate to unleash their most powerful abilities and skills.
These new enemies not only possessed the common core five elemental abilities but also some unique ones that weren't quite rare but not common either.
The man at the center who looked to be their leader crackled with blue lightning, but also had streams of wind circling around him as he emanated a strong wind aura as well that wasn't quite as strong as his lightning.
The man beside him looked to be the second strongest as he immediately used his transformation ability to morph into an 11-foot tall ogre-looking beast with goat horns protruding out like a beard with skin that was cracked and looked like magma was flowing through it.
The other four gang members weren't quite as impressive as the main two but they were far stronger than all of the previous members they had defeated so they knew this was going to be a tough fight.
This combination of elemental prowess and unique powers made this the greatest test of Mako and the other's combat abilities and techniques.
"Mako, that your all-knowing skill can really come in handy right now," Leon said with a bit of worry as he faced the imitating auras of the gang members in front of him.
Mako was one step ahead of Leon as he had already activated Analyze to possibly find a weakness against the two strongest gang members.
[Analyze]
[Profile: Dimitri Volkanov]
[Ability: Magma Giant Transformation (Level 5)] ?
[Health: 500/500] ?
[Energy: 2000/2000] ?
[Strength: 60] ?
[Agility: 10] ?
[Perception: 8] ?
[Intelligence: 8] ?
[Mentality: 17] ?
[Stamina: 21] ?
[Charisma: 8] ?
[Fortitude: 39] ?
[Ability: Magma Giant Transformation (Level 3)] ?
[A transformation ability that allows the user to take on the form of the Magma Giant, giving the user immense boosts in strength and fortitude, but a heavy reduction in speed, mentality, and intelligence. At the user's current level, the user can fully and partially transform into the Magma Giant, giving a different amount of boosts depending on the amount of the body transformed.
At the current stage, the user can utilize basic skills that belong to the Magma Giant Including Eruption, Molten Fist, and Magma Blast]
[Weakness: ICE, WATER, WIND] ?
Mako's heart skipped a beat as he quickly read through the description of the gang member who transformed into an ogre-looking monster.
Although he only had a singular ability compared to Mako who had 4, the strength of one overshadowed any strength that Mako could muster even if he was 100% efficient in switching abilities and didn't waste any time.
The strength and fortitude stats were through the roof and it was going to be a challenge just to defend against him alone, much rather 5 more members with strong abilities.
The gang members didn't give Mako and his friends much time to get ready as they rushed in to finish them off quickly just as soon as they powered up.
The blue lightning user started shooting small bursts of Lightning strikes in quick succession as cover while the Magma Giant took giant thundering steps towards them as he rushed towards them as fast as he could.
The other 4 members also rushed in, fully coordinated as they cut off any way of escape by covering both the left and right side of the giant.
Mako instantly took action as he took an extremely serious expression realizing the threat level of this fight was extremely high and if they didn't play their cards perfectly, they might perish which was something Mako wasn't prepared for as he still had many things left to do in this life.
He blocked the incoming lightning strikes by raising earthen barriers and fired two energy blasts from each hand toward his left and right where the other gang members were rushing from. He purposefully aimed lower toward the ground so that the blast would kick up a lot of dust creating cover for them.
Nathan and Leon both realized Mako's resolve as the intensity of his aura skyrocketed. Lastly, Mako had to deal with the giant that was almost upon them. He activated his earth ability and condensed as much earth aura as he could into his fist before slamming it into the ground using all of his might and strength.
[Ground Rupture has been activated]
*Ding!*
[An overwhelming amount of strength was used to cast Ground Rupture. Ground Rupture has been cast as a D-tier level skill.]
Glowing cracks emanated from the ground from where Mako had punched the ground and spread out in every direction up to 10 meters.
The cracks not only appeared under the giant but also the other gang members who were pushing through the smoke screen that Mako had created.
The energy felt like it was flowing outwards through the cracks and in reality, it was doing exactly that as the condensed aura was traveling from Mako's fist to the edge of the cracks.
Once all of the energy had traveled to the edge, the cracks erupted with explosive force as a powerful concussive blast erupted from beneath all of them, blasting the regular gang members back and was strong enough to knock the giant off balance and he began to fall to the ground in slow motion.
Mako instantly turned towards Leon.
"Leon, use your Earth ability in sync with mine!" Mako commanded.
Leon didn't hesitate as he followed Mako's lead and mirrored his hand movements. They quickly opened a gaping hole underneath them while the blue lightning user continued to fire shots into smoke blindly hoping to hit one of them.
Fortunately, the three of them were able to easily evade all of the lightning shots and once the hole they were creating was deep enough, they quickly jumped in and covered up the roof, effectively burring them inside the ground with a limited air supply.
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