Chapter 168: Killing The Elite Guard
"CRITICAL HIT SPIN!" the elite guard began to slowly spin around while carrying its morning star horizontally, positioning it for the spikes to hit its enemies directly, which would definitely be an insta-kill not only for the clone, but also Stark.
Then…
~FWISH, FWISH~ see more mvle mp|y|r
It began to go faster… faster… AND FASTER, until eventually… the guard's figure was only but a blur, replaced by a series of afterimages.
The [Elite Guard] was spinning so fast it was invisible to the naked eye, and its morning star kept crashing onto the obsidian walls, but it was the walls that were getting destroyed, not it.
~BOOM, CRASH~
Before Stark and the [Superior Clone], the giant spinning figure of the guard, its white aura surrounding it completely as if it was a tornado, kept approaching the two.
It was taking up the entirety of the hallway, with no way to escape, and all there was behind Stark was the room the guard had come out of, and it was just a dead end.
"AURA SMASH… MERGE!" the clone's expression didn't falter as it kept smiling, then sent its giant crimson fist toward the elite guard, who was slowly getting closer.
Of course, it could go much faster even in this [Spin] form, but it was as if it was enjoying tormenting the prisoners.
~FWISH, BOOOM~
The giant fist crashed onto the giant.
"-49382!" it did damage, but the giant guard didn't even falter.
Wind was blowing through Stark's hair as the aura and speed created force, and the ground shook beneath his feet.
'…' Stark's clone just shrugged, and yet it didn't stop smiling.
Was it the [Superior Clone] perk that made it so confident in everything, or…?
"DODGE CONTROL!" as if showing Stark what he should do, the clone dashed toward the giant guard and immediately disappeared.
[Dodge Control] wouldn't let you get hit no matter what, so it basically just teleported to the other side.
'Already knew that… but didn't want to use it in case there was another solution…' Stark thought that he needed to keep this skill in case anything else happened…
But…
Once the cone was on the other side of the hallway… it drew a circle above both Stark and the spinning guard, then hit its palm, a crimson aura glowing in it.
And…?
"HEAVEN'S WRATH!" a crimson glow appeared on the ceiling above Stark, and when he looked at it, his face turned pale.
'DID IT… JUST USE IT ON ME?!'
He could see the [Superior Clone] smiling, seemingly having planned everything.
The [Superior Clone] wasn't listening to Stark, or at least it wasn't doing ONLY what he wanted it to do, almost as if… it gained some kind of sentience?
Of course, this wasn't truly possible, but his aura merged with his could make it do things even he couldn't predict.
~FWISH, FWISHH~
The giant beam was charging up while the [sublevel 4 ELITE Guard] was approaching, now only a few meters away as its giant morning star kept getting closer to Stark.
The [Superior Clone] was basically… forcing Stark to use [Dodge Control], or else he would get killed by its own beam since he wasn't immune.
~FWISHHH, BOOOM!!!~
"DODGE CONTROL!" the morning star actually was about to smash Stark's head when he activated the skill, but his aura moved his head at terrifying speed, defying the laws of physics to dodge.
~BOOOOM~
The beam exploded, its radius taking over not only Stark but also the [Elite Guard] as it didn't expect anything while the human was cornered.
'That clone…' Stark eyed it for a bit, his pupils widening, 'Its… smart…?'
Usually, it's Stark giving all the instructions, with the clones only following what he was asking them to do, yet… this time… it was the [Superior Clone] itself who made up a plan to both escape this situation but also to damage the guard immensely.
'…!'
The crimson beam descended and began to hit the entire radius it was aimed at, hitting both Stark and the [Elite Guard], except that thanks to the [Dodge Control], Stark was able to teleport away right next to the [Superior Clone], who looked at him with a wide smile on its face.
"Never do that shit again…" Stark rolled his eyes, and the clone just shrugged, "Especially when we had [Crimson Ball Transmission]…"
Of course, he had never used it before, so that is the reason why the clone decided to not risk it and used [Dodge Control].
Meanwhile…
~BOOOM~
The intensity of the crimson beam hit their face, and all they could do was watch as the elite guard was getting destroyed by the beam.
"-58372! -59281! -63928! -61928! -73144!" it would take a while to stop itself in its spin rush, so it couldn't even dodge.
Armor? Defense? None of this matters when your very body was getting disintegrated by a giant beam that could take out anything within it.
And so after a few seconds… the beam stopped.
The ceiling and floor within the circle radius of the beam completely disappeared.
And as for the [Sublevel 4 ELITE Guard]… it was nowhere to be seen.
Like literally, in its place were only a massive pile of ashes, and the morning star had also completely disappeared.
'…'
[You have slain 'Sublevel 4 ELITE Guard lv100', gained 2,183,449EXP!]
It truly was dead… just like that.
It almost felt weird for Stark, he was so used to enemies always managing to use up every last one of their skills before being defeated, yet the guard didn't even get to use some of its skills like [Chrono Dodge], [Guard Sacrifice] or even its ultimate skill [The Fourth Elite].
'Well… I guess it's better this way,' he shrugged.
But this also instinctively made Stark turn his head toward the [Superior Clone], its expression was cold and malicious, the grin on its face growing more as it saw the ashes of the guard.
'…' Stark didn't know what to think of this, but the clone had pretty much taken out the elite by itself.
Should he be concerned or happy that such a perk had been gifted to him? He didn't know…
'Okay, what now…'
And right at that moment… many panels appeared around him as he was surrounded by the golden glow thrice.
[Your level has increased to level 44, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 45, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 46, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Experience: 20599/1000000], he had finally reached the stage where he needed 1M experience every time to level up.
But in the end, even if his clone did the damage, he still got all the experience as it also meant the clone grew stronger alongside him.
And so at that moment, Stark began to read the panels as they should be able to help him…
But of course, the first he observed was…
[Level 45 Reached: please pick a card]