Second Genesis

The Skrill revved its chainsaw again, its wiggling mask of hair lighting up beneath the sparks as it shot forward like it had been fired from a railgun.

Grey collapsed backward mid-run, his knees skidding across the ground as the chainsaw passed overhead.

He immediately leapt up to his feet a moment later, pivoting hard. He could feel that he was just a bit slower, and he was quickly calculating how to make up that difference as the Skrill landed again.

The creature sensed Grey coming and repeated a familiar trick, balancing its revving chainsaw on the ground midair to change direction.

But this time, Grey was ready. His head was already dodging out of the way.

One weakness was obvious. While the Skrill was using its chainsaw to change directions, it couldn’t use it to attack.

His head slipped to the side. This time, the Skrill had aimed for his neck instead, but it was worthless nonetheless.

Taking advantage of a small gap in time, Grey sliced down with his dagger, digging right into the gut of the Skrill and ripping to the side.

Bowels and guts spewed out in a rain of blood that covered him from head to toe, all the strength draining out of the creature’s eyes.

Sparks flew from the chainsaw as it slipped, and a light of panic flashed in Grey’s eyes for just a moment.

Luckily for him...

—

[Winner: Grey Temolt]

—

The Skrill and the chainsaw vanished, letting Grey sigh a breath of relief. He exhaled slowly.

’That was tough. The knife almost didn’t make it through.’

During that attack, Grey had panicked before the chainsaw slipped. He had felt like he was cutting through whale fat during that last attack. The Endurance of the Skrill must have been off the charts.

’How was its skin so tough but its foot so fragile?’

Grey was sure the Skrill had broken its foot, which was why he was so confident in that final attack even though it had almost failed.

’I think I’m missing something...’

Pushing down the thought, Grey looked around for his reward, and as expected, it was nowhere to be found.

The Skrill Mask had appeared hovering right in front of him before, but ever since then, he hadn’t gotten a single reward from the ruins. Was Muskrat just messing with him? Or had he really left a large number of rewards behind?

Grey decided to give it a go and looked around.

There wasn’t much to a ruin, just cobbled stone and pillars, many of the latter of which had been knocked over and were leaning at awkward angles.

As expected, a quick walk around the place didn’t give Grey anything.

’... If I had a Cyber Space, I could scan the area... but like this...’

Grey stopped moving and stood in place, looking around seriously. If you had to hide something in a place you couldn’t easily dig up from the ground, where would you put it?

He kept looking and looking until his eyes landed on a pillar.

’Don’t tell me... Fuck me.’

Grey walked up to a pillar and touched its surface. It was slick.

’Hm...’

He left the pillar behind and walked past the ruin. He almost immediately got a ping from Muskrat, cursing him for being an idiot.

He directly ignored it, found a tree, then started to scale it. Soon, Grey was pulling himself up by branches.

When he felt the tree was getting too thin, his body swayed to one side, forcing it to bend. Then he jumped.

Grey grunted as he slammed into a nearby tree. This one’s branches had been much higher up, so he couldn’t scale it easily from the bottom. His body was also a lot heavier than he remembered, so the effort was greater than he expected. But he just kept going until he was finally high enough, a distance that was easily about 15 or so meters above the ground.

And that was when he saw it.

Grey cursed under his breath.

There, half buried in the pillar and half sticking out of the top of it, was a lightly glowing treasure. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

’They really were hiding my treasures. These pieces of shit...’

His teeth clenched as veins popped along his jaw.

Slowly, Grey made his way back down. Then, taking May’s Nexis Suit, he wrapped it around the pillar’s body and pulled tight.

Inch by inch, he shimmied it upward as he walked.

From his vantage point down below, he hadn’t been able to see the treasure at all. If not for the tip he received, he would have never thought to look in such a place.

These people didn’t just want to make his life hard, they wanted to make it impossible. They wanted to ruin him in every sense of the word.

He didn’t know who was doing this. Was it the Great Udon? Someone else?

It didn’t matter.

The more enraged Grey became, the more crimson his irises were painted until they were glowing in the depths of the night.

His biceps ached, his back stretching against his pull. His thighs bulged and his blood pumped through his body in violent, churning waves.

"I swear to whatever god there is, I’m going to chop every single one of you into as many pieces as I can manage and piss on your graves."

Grey’s growl echoed in the night as his hand finally caught the lip of the top of the pillar. Then he yanked himself up the rest of the way.

Finally, he laid eyes on it.

—

Name: Chainsaw of the Skrill

Rarity: Rare

Accepted Type: Branching

Restricted Type: Linear

Description: An item of rage and revving fury. As powerful as it is, it pulls on your stamina more than any weapon. Use 1 unit of stamina for every 30 seconds of activity.

Abilities:

Revving Burst — {Using the rotating chain, accelerate in any direction with +900% of your base Speed for 1 second.}

Spark Fly — {When active, the rotating chain will spark and heat up, allowing it to instantly cut through any item beneath Rare rarity in exchange for 5 units of stamina. Only applies to physical objects without energy enhancement.}

—

[You have defeated the Elite Skrill]

[+13 Free Stat Points Awarded]

—