1% Lifesteal

Sophia pulled the arrow out of her stomach and used her life essence to seal the wound. It was a crude measure, something that would leave a permanent scar without her talent, but it would keep her from bleeding out for the time being.

Thankfully, the volley of arrows didn't last long. After only ten seconds of being turned into a hedgehog, the berserk cultists finally reached the group of soldiers, who were promptly forced to change their target. It was hard to see the whole picture. The tall boulders and thick trees limited the view in almost every direction, leaving them only with the deafening sounds of combat.

"Are you good!?" Sophia shouted.

Freddy slowly turned around to face her, shaking like a leaf in the wind. She flinched as she saw the arrow in his eye, as well as the dozens upon dozens of other arrows scattered throughout his whole body.

"Do I look good?" he snapped, tearing the arrow out of his eye, but his voice was weak. It was hard to talk with such severe injuries.

They didn't get a long time to rest. A moment later, a fist-sized projectile of stone cracked against Freddy's skull, whipping his neck back, but with his thickened bones, it hadn't done enough to knock him unconscious.

The two of them turned to face a flying man just in time for that man to pierce Freddy straight through the heart with a shortsword. The man was about to tear the sword out to strike again, but Freddy's blood suddenly coagulated into a metallic substance that filled his chest cavity and locked the sword in place.

Before the flying man could realize that his sword wouldn't be leaving Freddy's chest any time soon, Freddy grabbed his arm, pulled him in, and grasped his neck, barely reaching it given the restraints limiting his movement.

Whatever kept the man afloat suddenly flared as both of them jolted into the sky, dragging the several-meter-long chain leash up with them. The man's other hand manifested a spike of earth that rushed to pierce Freddy's other eye, only to bounce off his forehead, but not before taking a chunk of skin off.

Suddenly, the cuffs keeping Freddy restrained started blaring with a high-pitched alarm as the artifact detected the essence flowing through Freddy's arm. A moment later, Hydraulic Flex powered by both his stars crushed the man's neck into a paste, mangling his flesh and crushing his spinal cord.

The rush of lifesteal instantly stopped Freddy's bleeding, and the first-aid-quality healing pushed half of the arrows out of his skin, but the other half was buried too deep to be ejected so quickly.

Once the influx of ether reached Freddy's body, he knew that the man was dead.

They fell back to the ground, which caused many of the arrows to break as their tips embedded deeper into Freddy's body. "Fuuuck," he groaned. He was blind in one eye. He was heavily restrained. His heart had been cut straight through, and a chunk of metallic blood was coagulated all around it. Blood wasn't flowing through his veins, and his Pool of Blood was steadily leaking through the puncture in his heart.

He rushed to his feet, feeling the uncomfortable sensation of his flesh and skin being cut by the metal arrowheads, but he ignored the pain as he raised his guard. He felt dizzy, and fatigue was beginning to settle in his body. He had to get his heart pumping again.

Sophia grabbed his arm. "Come on!" she shouted. "We have to run!"

"Run where!?" he yelled back.

Indeed. They were surrounded by fighting on all sides. The only direction that was relatively clear was the place where the empress was fighting someone. That place had gone relatively quiet, and Sophia and Freddy looked over simultaneously to see what was happening.

Only then did he notice the tall sentient ether construct through the storm of sensations he was feeling. His blood ran cold as he felt its power and authority envelop him with such a force that he nearly felt compelled to kneel before the being.

It was an eidolon. And by the looks of it, it was allied with a strange man.

Well, that's none of my fucking business, Freddy decided as he started looking for another way to go. For a moment, his eyes flickered to Sophia, and he saw the stricken expression on her face. She looked… sad—confused. She was shaking as she kept her eyes locked on the strange man who was facing the empress.

"Not the time for this, Sophia!" he yelled as he tugged on her arm.

It was definitely someone she recognized. Given that the man was facing the empress, he absolutely had to be the leader of their cult. And if he could face her, he was a five-star, which was horrifying. This was not their fight. Not that day, not in a hundred years.

Sophia tore her gaze away from the man and shuddered. She nodded her head briefly and refocused.

The shackles keeping Freddy tied were thankfully quiet now that he wasn't using his essence, and they still allowed him to run relatively freely. The weakness that was slowly spreading through his limbs like wildfire wasn't so merciful. "Sophia…" he whispered. "You have no more sparks left, right?"

She nodded.

He swallowed. "Take one from that man's corpse."

It was a desperate move, but it would hopefully be enough to at least remove the chunk of metal in his chest. The rest would have to be handled through his talent.

She nodded hesitantly and obeyed. A few seconds later, the spark was burning through Freddy's body with an intense healing energy. It was filthy, way nastier in substance and feeling than his talent.

The chunk of metal in his chest broke apart into pieces, the biggest of which were pushed out of his flesh, but several smaller ones stayed behind, together with most of the arrowheads. His heart was back in one piece and back to pumping blood. There was a massive bloody gash on his right pec, and several of his ribs were broken beneath.

A deep nausea had spread through his body. He could see patches of his skin growing discolored, and he felt like his organs were melting. That was one hell of a price to pay for a bit of healing. It was way worse than what Sophia described, likely due to whatever that ritual circle was doing to the cultists.

The two of them broke into a run in a random direction away from the empress and the strange man. The action around them was still incredibly intense, and from what little they could glimpse between the thick foliage, it was plain to see that the soldiers were losing. Formal training and tactics were an excellent way to overcome superior power, but when that superior power was backed by elite training, there was little that could be done.

Freddy watched a cultist walk through a volley of arrows as if they were a mere inconvenience, completely ignoring any that embedded into their skin as they ran forth and tore the soldiers limb from limb.

Sophia wasn't fucking around when she said that these people are nuts!

They moved around a tree, over a boulder, and through a bush, only to—

A massive fist crashed right into Freddy's left cheek, cracking the bone beneath and sending him flying. He slammed right into a tree, and a second later, another punch smashed right into his chest, crushing the chains into powder and caving his lungs in.

A wheeze escaped his mouth as he opened his one good eye to look at his assailant. A titan of a man loomed before him, cocking a head-sized fist back as his bulging muscles flared. Freddy barely moved his head out of the way of a punch that would have likely crushed his head. The tree behind him exploded.

He jumped to the side, barely carrying himself a few feet onward, but the man pursued him, throwing another punch.

Freddy raised his cuffed hands, only for the man's blow to shatter both the cuffs and Freddy's arms as he was sent flying back again, this time back-first into a large boulder.

Once he blinked the black spots out of his vision, he saw Sophia standing frozen with a scorpion-tailed woman before her. The two of them seemed to be talking. A chill pulsed down Freddy's spine, but he didn't have the time to consider it as he stumbled out of the way of another massive blow.

The man didn't let him get far this time as he grabbed Freddy's right arm and swung him into the boulder, then at the ground, and then at a nearby tree, but before Freddy's body could smash into the tree, his mangled, twisted arm tore off, sending him skittering across a patch of sandy soil.

His vision was blurry, but Freddy could see the man charging at him. He was about to use Leviathan's Fury, but the man suddenly leaped out of his field of view, and Freddy felt the shell for Leviathan's Fury lock as he realized with a profound sense of dread that he couldn't use the ability if he couldn't see the target. The man was seconds away from landing on Freddy's back, and if he succeeded, it would be lights out.

Left without another option, Freddy focused on Create Water, activating both his stars as he coupled it with Perished Water. He pushed with all he had, manifesting as much water as possible. Within a few moments, a solid 70% of his essence vanished as a massive sphere of water manifested all around him.

For a moment, he was fully submerged. For the first time, every inch of his skin was enveloped by Perished Water.

Then he felt a particular shell in his soul finally unlock.

Without knowing what it was, Freddy desperately rushed to activate the second ether shell of the Perished Water affinity.

Suddenly, it was as if the water around him became an extension of his body. He felt every drop of it clearly as he sensed the bulky man's body sinking into it. Within the Perished Water swam the Ghosts of the Drowned—and he was their master.

He felt his essence slowly trickle down as he gave the command. An eel-like creature rushed at the man's leg, biting down on it. His skin was like pure stone. Another small ghost moved through the water and clawed at the man's arm. It only left a small scrape.

Freddy didn't panic. Instead, he focused on all the other remaining ghosts. The man's head finally reached the inside of the mass of water.

Every remaining ghost suddenly rushed at the man's eyes as soon as he was fully submerged. Before he could raise his guard, it was already too late. A stinger pierced the man's right eye while a toothy tongue tore the left one apart.

In less than three seconds, the mass of water had appeared and flowed away.

The broken Freddy stumbled up to his feet as the giant of a man screamed bloody murder on the ground next to him.

Despite his injuries, the giant figure still managed to roll away and climb to his feet, just in time for a two-star-powered Flowing Strike to ram Gore Knuckles right into his stomach.

Freddy's attack landed with far more force than he expected it to. The man's whole body was lifted off the ground for a solid second, despite his incredible body weight, but even with that, it took the man only a second to react by reaching an arm to grab at where Freddy was, but Freddy managed to stumble to the side as he swung a second strike at the same spot. And a third.

The attacks had devastating results. The man spat blood and stumbled back.

The two strikes alleviated many of Freddy's injuries, but he wasn't even close to regrowing his right arm, which was missing elbow-down. Still, much of the many injuries marring his body had been at least patched back together by first-aid-quality healing, so he was in far better shape.

His mind whirled.

His essence reserves weren't doing so well. Within seconds, he had expended 130% essence, leaving him at only around 60%.

The man was blind. Freddy had no reason to continue the fight. Sophia was just behind one of the boulders, and he turned to—

The sound of feet shifting on the ground was all the warning Freddy got as another punch flew right at his side. He barely moved out of the way in time, only for the man to throw yet another punch, which landed a glancing blow this time, dislocating the shoulder on Freddy's torn arm.

"Shit!" he shouted as he leaped back, only to be followed by the blinded man. With the senses of a two-star and extensive training, it was possible to fight even without eyesight, but it wasn't something any ordinary warrior was capable of.

Bracing himself, Freddy resorted to only using Hydraulic Flex in passive mode with both stars activated. His essence expenditure raised just above 3% per second, and with his satellite, that left him with less than a minute to finish his opponent and go find Sophia.

He reformed his Gore Knuckles, took out the Dagger of Bleeding, and got started.

The giant's punches were incredibly precise and quick, leaving Freddy with many glancing blows across his body. This gave the cultist more information on where he was moving, allowing him to press the attack.

Still, despite being on the back foot, Freddy struck back, mainly on the man's forearms. Gore Knuckles struggled to get through the man's ridiculously tough skin, but when they pierced through, the bleeding effect of the dagger made the injuries considerably more dangerous than they appeared to be at first glance.

Before long, the man threw splatters with every swing of his arm. He was losing a lot of blood. So much that it appeared to be slowing the giant down.

Freddy capitalized on the man's sudden decrease in speed to lunge in. That was a massive mistake.

The man suddenly sped up, and Freddy immediately realized he had been tricked. Before he could react, the man's hand reached his head, wrapping giant fingers around his face. A moment later, Freddy's head struck the ground. Then again. Then again.

With the first strike, he lost all hearing in his left ear, and with the second, the hearing in his right was gone, too. He couldn't see anything; it wasn't just from the man's palm blocking his view—his vision was blacking out; now, even the desperate solution of using Leviathan's Fury was off the table.

He cast Create Perished Water with roughly 30% essence, conjuring a giant bubble, but not enough to fully submerge him. Not enough to use Ghosts of the Drowned.

The ghosts cut into his body just as much as they did his opponent's, and a moment later, the last of the water flowed away. Freddy's head was smashed into the ground again. And again. And again.

A strange clarity seeped into his mind. How was he even still alive? He couldn't tell. Maybe it was the undeath. Maybe it was Thousand Wet Hells. Maybe it was Sophia's help. Maybe it was all those things combined.

At any rate, whatever it was wouldn't last long.

The back of his head grew softer with every strike as his skull splintered and fell apart. The feeling in most of his body was already gone. As his sense of his body started to fade, he only felt the things directly tied to his spirit. He felt Bloodshed watch on from deep within his soul. He wanted to release it to at least let it escape. But he couldn't focus long enough to do that.

He felt the ring on his finger and the way it empowered his blood essence. It was such a fascinating phenomenon—so alien and strange. He felt chunks and pieces of his life force chip away one piece at a time. Finally, he felt the storage ring on his finger.

He felt the items inside.

Before he could even realize what he was doing, he extracted the massive bag of nearly 200 doses of lethal poison. Although he didn't feel his body, he didn't need feeling to move it. Hydraulic Flex activated, forcing his arm to throw the bag roughly in the direction of the man's face. A second later, the constant lurching stopped as the world stilled again.

Freddy didn't feel his talent activate, but that was because it couldn't be triggered by such indirect means. The poison had come from neither his body nor his abilities. But if he had managed to hit the man, then he was also covered in a highly potent toxin. His undeath wouldn't keep him safe forever.

He willed to extract the spark of undeath. As soon as he did, he slammed his Gore Knuckles into it. A pulse of healing essence coursed through his body. He didn't feel his body, but he felt the life force at work more clearly than ever before. He felt it form thin connective tissue at the back of his head and throughout his wounded body.

His vision was still dark, but the barest hint of feeling returned to his body—and he felt the giant man's body pressing down on his own.

"Shit…" Freddy whispered. "At least take me out on a date, first."

The man was unmoving, but Freddy hadn't received a rush of lifesteal, meaning he was most likely just paralyzed and not entirely dead.

Freddy rushed to use Create Water and wash off the poison covering his own body before he suffered the same fate. Then, without a single hint of hesitation, he slammed his Gore Knuckles into the man's neck. A massive pulse of lifesteal coursed through his body as he felt the man's warm blood running down his torso. He did it again.

A few moments later, the rush of ether came. The man was dead.

Freddy slammed his fist repeatedly into the spark of undeath, urgently healing himself as much as he could manage.

The damage on his body was so extensive that, without at least half an hour, he didn't have enough time to fully heal. But he had more than enough time to give the body parts that were still attached to him a dose of natural-quality healing. As soon as he could see again, he pulled himself out from under the man's corpse and got to his feet.

He quickly retrieved his Dagger of Bleeding and spark of undeath and rushed to where Sophia was.

As soon as he turned the bend, he was greeted by the sight of the scorpion-tailed woman slowly turning to face him…

And Sophia's dismembered… and decapitated body scattered across the ground.