Age of the Deluge

The rest of this thing was practically armored. Its muscle tissue was as hard as steel, just like Shane Channing's Ironclad Skin. It was invulnerable.

Gwen attacked from the blind side. She wielded her combat spike like a baseball bat, swinging it in a vicious arc toward the Brute's skull.

THWACK.

The Brute flinched at the last second. The spike glanced off its cheek—armored with muscle—but the impact was enough to rupture the skin around its eye. Blood started to flow.

Injured and enraged, the Brute flailed its arms wildly. The team scrambled back to avoid the haymakers. Luckily, the monster handled like a dump truck when it wasn't charging. It swung wide, leaving itself wide open. Gwen slammed her spike into its face again, and Harris used the shaft of his spear to club it right on the forehead.

The Titan Brute roared in pain as its scalp split open, blood pouring down its face. It staggered, swaying on its feet, clearly concussed by the double-team beatdown.

The head was a weak point, sure, but "weak" was relative. Harris and Gwen had been pounding on it, but the monster was too tough to go down easily.

Drake, who had just whacked the Brute's spine with his steel pipe, saw the monster teetering backward. This was it.

He lunged, switching the pipe to his left hand and extending his right palm. He slapped it directly against the back of the Brute's exposed skull.

Soul Eater.

The Titan Brute's eyes rolled back until only the whites showed. It swayed for a second longer, then collapsed with a ground-shaking thud. Dead.

Soul Eater bypassed the tough hide and attacked the life force directly from the inside. It was a terrifyingly effective skill.

Gwen and Harris lowered their weapons, breathing hard.

Liam walked over. He was a little disappointed he hadn't looted the Venom Fang skill from the Crocolisk, but seeing the team take down the Brute so cleanly made up for it. He nodded to himself. He'd expected them to win, but it was good to see them handle it.

It wasn't exactly a shock that they won. Drake, Gwen, and Harris were all Level 4 Ether Wielders, and they weren't exactly pushovers. Even one-on-one, they could hold their own against a Level 4 Elite Beast. Put the three of them together against a clumsy, muscle-brained Titan Brute? That was basically a warmup exercise.

As the Titan Brute crashed to the ground, dead, the usual orb of Ether floated out of the corpse. But then things got weird. The grotesque, blood-red muscles on the monster's massive arms started to peel away like old paint.

"Nice one, Drake," Gwen said. She spotted it immediately and knew exactly what was going down.

Drake had just scored the Titan Brute's special ability. Loot drop confirmed.

The peeling red muscle dissolved into two glowing crimson orbs. Whoosh. They shot toward Drake, merged into his biceps, and vanished beneath his skin.

Drake clenched his fists, a low, guttural growl escaping his throat. Veins popped along his arms, but they weren't normal veins—they were glowing, blood-red streaks of power.

"Might Surge!" he roared, swinging his arms through the air, looking like a kid on Christmas morning.

"So, give us the specs. What does 'Might Surge' actually do?" Liam asked. He figured it was a strength buff, but he wanted the numbers.

Drake relaxed his hands, and the glowing veins faded. "It's a flat five-hundred-pound boost to my arm strength. I can hit with thirteen hundred pounds of force now."

"Not bad," Liam muttered. He did some quick mental math. If he had snagged 'Might Surge,' he'd be hitting over two thousand pounds. Bummer.

He couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance. They both killed Elite Beasts, so why did Drake get the cool power-up while Liam got squat? Had he used up all his karma getting that trait earlier?

The rooftop had cleared out a moment ago—the Arrow Serpent and Aqua Simian had bolted when the big boss monsters showed up. But the quiet didn't last. Shadows flickered at the stairwell exit.

Figures shuffled out into the light. They looked human, mostly, except for the pale, bloated skin and the patches of white fur sprouting from their faces.

Carrion Beasts. Zombie-wannabes.

And they weren't just using the stairs. More of them were clawing their way up the sides of the building, pulling themselves over the ledge. Within seconds, the roof was crawling with at least twenty of them.

They shambled toward the center, closing the net. But they weren't just hungry for living meat; most of the pack was staring greedily at the fresh carcasses of the Level 4 Elite Beasts. The scent of high-level monster blood was like a dinner bell.

"They're all Greater Carrion Beasts," Liam said, his eyes glowing faintly as he activated his Insight Rune. He flinched slightly at the info dump. He'd expected a mix of fodder, but there wasn't a single Lesser beast in the pack.

Greater Carrion Beasts were bad news. Unlike their mindless cousins, these things had evolved special abilities and possessed a crude, nasty intelligence. In Liam's book, they were even more of a headache than the Level 4 Aqua Simian.

Most of the horde threw themselves at the dead Crocolisk and Titan Brute, tearing at the flesh, but a small group broke off and circled the humans.

Gwen and Harris didn't waste breath on battle cries. They just stepped up, weapons ready.

Drake laughed. He was high on new power and itching to test it out. A horde of zombies was the perfect punching bag.

"Might Surge!" The red veins flared on his arms again. With an extra five hundred pounds of force behind his swing, he gripped his steel pipe and smashed it into the face of the nearest beast.

Liam moved, his machete glinting. "Sheila, center formation!" he barked. He shoved her into the middle of their group, and the four fighters took up positions around her, creating a defensive square.

Liam drew first blood. The Greater Carrion Beast lunging at him didn't even get a chance to trigger its ability before Liam's machete swept across its neck. The head went flying.

A mote of Ether drifted from the headless corpse, and Liam sucked it in.

Level 4 Spirit Wielder: Ether 38/50

The text flashed in his mind. Liam didn't pause. He triggered Spider Climb, his movements suddenly becoming erratic and fluid. He didn't just run; he weaved through the enemies like a shadow, threading the needle between their claws.

Slash. Slash. Slash.

Three more heads spun through the air, trailing blood.

Three more orbs of Ether rushed into him instantly.

Level 4 Spirit Wielder: Ether 41/50

While Liam was racking up his kill count, Gwen made her move. Her combat spike crunched through a Carrion Beast's skull with a sickening crack. She absorbed the Ether, bumping her total up to fifteen.

Drake was next, followed quickly by Harris. Both of them managed to drop a Greater Carrion Beast of their own. Thanks to "Might Surge," Drake was hitting like a freight train now. Every swing carried the crushing weight of a thousand pounds; his power had leveled up big time.