Second Genesis

"... I was just kidding, man. No need to take a joke so serious."

The platform seemed immune to Grey’s apology. It just kept rumbling. In fact, it was growing worse with every passing moment. It looked like it was expanding.

’Well, there’s good news...’

Grey blinked his bad eye and felt that the pain was gone. But he was pretty sure it wasn’t that weird energy just now that had fixed it. All of that had gone to his Frame, and he was pretty sure Paladin Spirit had leveled up with it as well.

’This healing is from my body itself. Cool, I have a healing factor now. I’m gonna give Deadpool a run for his money.’

He might have been joking around about it, but he actually sighed a breath of relief. He really didn’t want to go through all this without an eye.

However, from what he could see, that had actually taken a bit more out of his stamina. He had finally ticked below 100.

All things considered, that wasn’t a bad trade off. But Grey had a feeling that he was going to need that to keep up, especially since he didn’t have his treasures to rely on.

Usually his Stamina would be 222, but right now it was 111, and it had just ticked down to 99 after a single battle.

’I can’t get hit. I don’t know how long this will last.’

Grey took a deep breath and exhaled as not one, but two shimmering giants appeared in front of him.

’Fantastic.’ Grey chuckled to himself as he wiped the blood caking his eyes away, clearing his vision completely. ’Hm?’

The two guardians looked identical. Both were enormous, both were looking at him with menace, but Grey could naturally feel that one of them had a rhythm that was very different from the other.

It was still the horns, but they weren’t as variable as the horns of the first one had been. Instead, these horns were long, sustaining. They formed harmonies between one another, and like a ballad, they swung from one note to the next.

Grey’s gaze flickered. ’Hallowed Endurance.’

The answer came to his mind as though he had experienced every one of these rhythms personally already. He knew which Godly Ability his guardian was representing before it even attacked.

’... Shit.’

Grey had a feeling he knew how this was about to go.

Both guardians moved, flanking him in a formation as perfect as could be for one made of just two people.

’Fast.’ Grey cursed inwardly. ’They couldn’t just add a new enemy, they had to make them stronger too?’

Grey focused. While the enemies were more numerous now, the platform was also larger and there was more room to maneuver. But if the enemies were going to keep multiplying like this, he needed to end these battles quickly.

He shot forward.

Their blades swiped at the air and Grey leapt to his feet, gliding through their gaps and then rolling across the ground.

Instantly stopping his momentum, he slashed at an ankle. The timing of the Sacred Bulwark Guardian was off. Grey could hear its rhythm roaring through the air, he knew it wouldn’t be fast enough.

Motes of light flickered through the air and Grey curved his body away from a thrust of the Hallowed Endurance Guardian.

’This is going to be so annoying.’

Against a human enemy, that Achilles slash right now would have put them out of commission. But the giant fucks just kept absorbing hits until you did a certain amount of damage.

From what Grey could tell, unless you could crush their armor in a single blow, they would just keep going. But in order to weaken their armor enough to do that, you had to keep chipping away at its gaps.

’Is there an easier way to kill them?’

Grey hadn’t found one yet, so he could only weave and dance, focusing his attacks on the Sacred Bulwark Guardian as he studied the rhythm of the Hallowed Endurance Guardian.

His bare feet slid across the ground, his toes flexing and his knees withstanding a great amount of pressure with every jerky stop and go movement he made.

’So it’s like that.’

Grey hadn’t attacked the Hallowed Endurance Guardian a single time, but he had feinted toward it a few times just to keep it honest.

Hallowed Endurance had a brief window of invulnerability too. At first Grey thought that was because this guardian was a fusion of two abilities, but no.

’So fucking broken. I need it.’

Having not just one Ability with a brief window of invulnerability, but two was huge. If the rhythm of one didn’t work in a certain situation, you could lean on the other.

However, there was a difference. Hallowed Endurance was so long and sustaining that its window of invulnerability was harder to activate, and it was more predictable.

Unlike Sacred Bulwark whose main ability was its defense, Hallowed Endurance was deeper than that, it was hiding something more sinister—at least from Grey’s perspective.

Grey’s head dodged out of the way of another thrust to his head, he weaved forward, leaping over a slash from the second guardian and slapping a palm onto the flat of the blade as it spun past.

His body appeared in a crouch in the air, eye-level with the Sacred Bulwark Guardian. It was about time he cut this one down.

Chi.

His blade slammed against the side of its helm, shattering it to pieces.

Motes of golden light flooded Grey’s body, but now he was in the air and vulnerable. It almost looked as though he hadn’t considered this at all.

The Hallowed Endurance Guardian swung for his back, looking for nothing more than to sever his spine in two.

Grey suddenly curved. As though he was leaping over a high jump bar, his body curled, adjusting his center of gravity as though he had eyes in the back of his head.

He landed on his feet, his own momentum building up within him until it all erupted at once.

BANG!

With a single strike, he found a hole in the guardian’s rhythm, ripping it to pieces.

Grey grinned. There was another weakness, after all.

’Wait, fuck. What are you doing? No, no. Stay down, dammit!’

The pieces of the Hallowed Endurance Guardian’s armor began to suction back together as though connected by magnets.

Suddenly, Grey understood what the Godly Ability of Hallowed Endurance was.

’This is bullshit. Coming back to life should be my thing. I’m suing.’