Threads of the Soul

Seth narrowed his eyes slightly at the trembling hand that was held defiantly aloft into the air, which strangely had some kind of makeshift pipe system attached to it which disappeared underneath the man's shirt.

Following the arm down to the face, he let out a soft sigh when he saw who it belonged to. His old friend Alfie, the guy with the scent based ability, who he had met when escaping his workplace with Cynthia right before Alfie saved his life.

He could see the determination on Alfie's face, as well as the fear he was desperately trying, and mostly failing, to hide in hopes that it would help his chances. Seth had to admit, it was working. Not his attempt to hide it, that was failing tremendously. But the fact he was practically trembling with fear yet still pushed on to volunteer, when he could just sit back and watch. It was respectable, however...

"I'm sorry friend, you're ability just... Isn't suited for this kind of battle. We appreciate your courage, but we cannot have any distractions nor would we be able to protect you."

"Y-yes sir. Of course sir..."

Seth simply gave a curt nod at Alfie's nervous response, who still had his hand in the air as if his body hadn't come to terms with the outcome yet. Seth absolutely respected his bravery, that was undeniable. But there was a point where bravery alone wouldn't cut it, and that point was now.

Alfie had saved his life before and Seth knew the extent of his powers, so a tier 0 trying to fight this beast would simply not end well. After all, as far as he knew it was only him, and perhaps maybe Astra too, who had transcended. There was still no viable way for him to check, that he had discovered.

Thus, in Seth's mind, Keeping Alfie out of battle he definitely wasn't suited for instead of letting him sprint towards his death was his way of repaying that life debt. It might not have been nice, but it was how it needed to be.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, he leaned forward and rocketed away with a supernatural burst of speed, his sudden and powerful departure sending a torrent of wind backwards and into the faces of those who were simply standing around watching.

The rest of his combat team were quick to follow, each of them turning into blurred streaks as they dashed away like bullets shot from a gun. The only ones left behind were Cynthia and Erik, who needed a few minutes to prepare.

Sprinting towards that gargantuan beast, without a hint of fear in their hearts, or if there was, they were much better at hiding it than poor Alfie was.

As Seth quickly drew closer to the horrific colossus, which had nearly pulled itself completely from the sink hole, he held the [Requiem of Blood] to the side and finally summoned its blade. The blood stored within the pommel gem churned to life, flowing through the arm-like hilt and out of the base. It burst forth in a crimson torrent before starting to take form, manifesting itself as a blade with a black centre and a crimson edge, almost as if it was already slick with the blood of its enemies.

The blade in question was 190cm long, or close to 6'2 for those without a measuring tape, however despite the blade being even taller than Seth himself, in both his own body and Corvus', he wielded the blade in just a single hand as if it was utterly weightless. The transcendence process had done wonders for his stats.

[Name: Sephtis 'Seth' Quinn

Species: Gaian Human

Biological Score: 200 Elemental Score: 109

Spiritual Score: 350 Psychic Score: 75

Mutation - Puppeteers Thread, Spirit Animal

Requitals: Life Lantern, Ravens Raiment, Expeditious Ratreat, Grizzly Reminder, Kiss of Death, Requiem of Blood, Weavers Curse

Bonds: Omelette]

His bio stats might have doubled, but in terms of his physical capabilities he was absolutely more than twice as strong and if he channelled his energy into his muscles, then he would blast even further past those numbers. That was the difference between Tiers, his stats merging together and beginning to benefit each other. The stronger his soul, the more energy he could put into his reforged muscles and enhance them.

And that is exactly what he planned to do.

Sinking deep into his next step, Seth poured energy from what he was referring to as his 'Soul Furnace' into his leg. The mana flooded into his muscles, filling them with a surge of overwhelming power that was desperate to be released.

With a single mighty step, Seth blasted into the air leaving a deep crater in his wake as he rocketed through the skies faster than the eye could see. A bit too fast, actually.

With the rats gruesome face rapidly filling Seth's view, he wildly lashed out with his blade in the desperate hope to hit something on his way past. Initially he had been aiming to cut off its head in one go, but it became decidedly difficult to aim after seriously underestimating his own strength.

The difference between one tier was simply unbelievable... He could only imagine what the next would bring.

To those on the ground, it simply looked as if their 'Lord Crow' teleported. Disappearing from the ground as the beast let out a deafening cry that shook the very air itself. A large gash manifesting itself across its already detestable face, not that it could be made any uglier, as their Lord reappeared dozens of metres in the air.

A cacophony of gasps and mutterings immediately filled the crowd at the spectacle of overwhelming power. Although it was only a superficial cut, there was no doubt in their mind that this was their Lord's intention.

Of course, he must have done it to show not only them his power, to act as a beacon of inspiration to all those watching to grow their own power. But also to drive the fear of the power of humanity into these wretched beasts. Even fighting a beast like this, he was thinking of what was best for these people.

Fire ignited in their hearts at their understanding of the Lord's intentions, especially in the heart of a particularly fanatical fan who was making sure to record every moment. It was just a shame that her recording was unable to capture the inspirational Lords wise inner-monologue.

'Shit shit shit... Too high, way too high.'

Flipping himself in the air as he came to a gradual and natural crescendo, Seth began to plummet back down to the earth once again. He was honestly lucky that he managed to get that slash across its face, with the speed he was moving at, but with his position in the air he was able to see a most unpleasant sight.

It wasn't the full view of the monster's putrid body, although that was absolutely unpleasant it wasn't what he was focused on. Instead his eyes narrowed at the large, albeit superficial, gash across the creature's face that was knitting itself back together. More tendrils had sprouted from the wound, stabbing into the other side of the sliced flesh, and was pulling itself back together like they were stitches.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Seth angled his body as he fell and hefted his sword high above his head. As soon as he came close to his target, he swung down with all his natural might, this time choosing not to use mana enhanced strength for a better reference.

His crimson blade cleaved through the air, even forming a weak slash of just air itself that carved into the ground, but also through the rancid flesh of the fetid Rat King.

Landing with a roll, Seth quickly leapt to the side, just in time to dodge being crushed by the creature's freshly severed arm. However, even as the arm was settling onto the ground, Seth could already see pink rat-tail tendrils wriggling themselves out from within the putrid flesh, like worms rising from the dirt to dance in the evening rain.

Heaving his blade around, he sliced cleanly through the severed arm once more, before whirling the blade in a circular motion and slicing it again. Over and over he cut, dicing the arm into smaller and smaller pieces like he was chopping fruit. Each movement flowed into the next with smooth and fluid motions, as he tried to slow the regeneration.

He only spent a few seconds on that endeavour, since he couldn't spend all of his time uselessly hacking at a sundered arm when there was the rest of it still to fight. But he wanted to test the beasts limits and give his companions one less thing to deal with in the moment.

However, those few seconds were enough for him to deal dozens of strikes in the cast off arm and chop it into a hundred tiny little pieces. But even that wasn't enough to stop this creature, as those pieces were already in the process of regenerating without any sign of slowing down. Tendrils wriggling themselves free to stitch the flesh back together.

Even slicing the tendrils didn't work, as they rapidly regrew like a lizard's tail.

His team wasn't fairing much better. Fox was having just as much trouble as Seth was, if not more, dealing lasting damage to the creature. His katana simply wasn't long enough to sever limbs like Seth's could and the slashes he made were simply stitched together too fast for him to try and hack his way through.

No matter how many times his blade was folded, nor how many hairs it could cut with its sharp edge, this was a battle unsuited to the mighty Katana. Much to the shame of many weebs throughout the world.

Cynthia was still in the process of flooding her gelatinous body to a size that would allow her to compete with the Rat King, whilst the Amazonian Alexandra was forced onto the defensive.

She had completely covered herself in stone, looking like a mountainous golem with her face completely covered with the jagged rocks as if to give herself a new, snarling face. Her powerful, Rhino hammering arms trembled under the strain of the Rat Kings tyrannical jaws, which she held apart in a desperate attempt to stop them from clamping down on not only herself, but Astra who was positioned behind her.