patreon_loskro
patreon
(BUS)Chapter 52: Worthy prey
🕑 Added 2024-12-27 17:07:48 +0000 UTCThe fact my bullets had so little effect at all told me that this thing either had really good defensive traits or was built qualitatively better than even the normal badass Skags. I briefly flicked my attention to Brick and his Skag(Moe) and saw a brutal dance of strength going on. Unlike this shock one that kept it's distance to launch those shock projectiles the flame Skag charged in a VERY similar manner to the bug I fought leaving a trail of flames when it did. Brick being the mad chad he was tanked these charges growling like a rabid animal. -
He then punched the beast as hard as he could a few times before retreating to recharge his shield that was taking a beating from the impact and flames on the Skag. Even with his extremely high strength the Skag was taking those hits and only barely registering them though some of the armor plating on it's skin was starting to loosen where he struck. I returned my attention to my Skag when one of it's shock projectiles hits close enough to me to cause my shield to flash before switching to shock while my gun got the fire damage added to it's shots.-
I strafed around the beast popping shots that caused it to whine in pain as it continued to try and hit me with those projectiles even succeeding a few times when I didn't adjust to it's own adjusted aim fast enough. My shield broke at one point and I figured out how [Energetic sustenance(shock)] worked. Like obviously I had a vague fucking idea due to my how powers roughly explains traits I find and take into me. But I hadn't understood HOW exactly this trait worked until now since I couldn't exactly grab electricity to stuff into my mouth.-
As it turns out though the "consumption" my powers hinted at referred to skin contact with the stuff rather than legitimately eating the shit. The moment the electrical energy touched my skin three things happened in rapid succession. First my resistance stopped it from doing any real damage beyond killing a few cells. Second the energy got absorbed into my body vanishing immediately. Finally I felt a I suppose "boost" would be the best word of energy rush through me like the jolt of a cup of espresso.-
A grin threatened to split my face at this and I entirely holstered my gun before crouching down and kicking off hard to launch myself at the Skag. I swung my right fist and slammed a punch into the side of it's head using my momentum and full strength in the process. The armored plates on it's skin were ripped off by the force while the entire front half of the Skag pivoted to the left. The electricity sparked off it's body onto me but I only felt even more energized and went in for a ruthless rush of blows.-
Right, left, right, one punch after the other in a violent rush that used the full strength of my body to bludgeon and tear the face of the Skag apart. I knew the moment the beast died as my powers told me and I breathed out a long steamy breath.
'Ah that was just what I needed to loosen up.' I thought with a smile before checking on Brick.
His Skag was much less damaged than mine but was still bloody faced and missing chunks of it's skin and muscle on it's head. I wasn't surprised since I had technique in addition to raw power while Brick had no such thing and just swung his fists hard.-
{Skag
Lifeforce: 4,519
Traits: [Alpha muscles-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units, [Armored hide-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Omnivore-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Strong vitality-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units,[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]-7,000 units, [Shock resistance-Epic grade]- 32,000 units, [Energy projection-Epic grade]- 32,000 units}
'Oh? Not bad at all. I'll wait for Brick to finish up before seeing if he wants any of this.' I thought with a grin as I sat on the corpse to watch Brick work.
It was clear as fuck that Brick had never gotten any formal training and had honed his fighting style entirely through street fights more or less in addition to his massive strength. He moved based on instinct and experience but his footwork was all over the place and he failed to ever put his bodies full strength into his punches making them weaker than they could be. Don't get me wrong his fighting style was not horrible by any stretch of the imagination, just fucking sloppy. I debated trying to teach him my own muay thai or traditional boxing as he wasn't exactly the smartest person I knew.-
He wasn't stupid, just really simple in how he thought. Direct I suppose was the best way to explain it. He didn't deal with metaphors or sugar coating or any of the more subtle parts of conversation but got to the point with little else involved. While that might make him a bit rough to deal with for most I found it to be a breath of fresh air personally. I didn't need to put on airs of politeness with him and could be as rude or blunt as I wanted and he wouldn't care at all.-
Anyways It took him another ten minutes to finish off the fire Skag and drag it over to where I was waiting. While he did so I watched his reddened skin pale and his veins sink down as his [adrenal rush] traits effects wore off. The trait was one I grabbed from him already but hadn't integrated yet that was quite interesting. It worked rather similar to my powers {Burn} except much weaker and without taking any of his lifeforce to do so. Instead it worked because his adrenal gland was slightly mutated so he could actively pump adrenaline in vast amounts through his body gaining all that entailed.-
Effectively he could forcefully trigger the sort of boost a normal person gets when they have adrenaline pumping through them whenever he wanted. Ignoring my own addiction to adrenaline this trait of his made him a monstrous existence as far as combat was concerned as he went one hundred and ten percent from zero in an instant. Again ignoring my addiction the trait would give me a great way to get that boost in ability without using {Burn} or being in a genuine life or death scenario.-
{Skag
Lifeforce: 5,911
Traits: [Alpha muscles-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units, [Armored hide-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Omnivore-Rare grade]- 7,000 units, [Strong vitality-Uncommon grade]- 2,000 units,[Elemental body(fire)-Rare grade]-7,000 units, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]- 32,000 units, [Energy projection-Epic grade]- 32,000 units}
"Huh? That's unexpected." I mutter seeing the traits of the firs Skag.
"What's up?" Brick asked curiously.
"You know how this one could launch those shock balls?" I asked and he nodded "Well this one could also do that apparently but with fire." I explained honestly.
"Why didn't it then? Seems kinda stupid?" he asked confused.
I shrugged "Fuck if I know! I'm not a Skag." I said equally as confused. "Anyways you want any of these traits other than the elemental ones?" I asked before listing off what was here.
"I wanted the fire and shock ones!" he said with a disappointed look.
"Nothing for it man I need those for my plans." I said with a shrug.
"Should we go meet up with Mordy and the others then?" Brick asked and I nodded after grabbing the 131,570 units of traits from the two corpses and cringing as my lifeforce store halved more or less.
I hoped there was a lot of bandits along the way to refill my expenditure because with the increase in trait prices it was going to be hard to stock up enough to get Lilith's siren trait unless I simply stop integrating traits. As we walked I integrated the [Energy projection] traits that extended my powers range to a good forty feet in every direction from me. While that wasn't like a massive area or anything it was still enough to make it even easier to harvest lifeforce so long as the targets were within that range.-
Leaving the valley we headed towards where our minimaps said the safehouse was and saw more and more metal on the way lining the walls of the path until we came to a narrowed area with a sort of watchtower set up at the right of it. It was more like someone stuck a metal shed on top of a rusting metal ship support being held against a canyon wall, unsafe as fuck. At the "porch" of the shed a arm hung off the side while blood dripped down it onto the sand below.-
"Mordy's definitely been here alright." I said with a chuckle and Brick grunted in acknowledgement.
I drained the little over eight hundred lifeforce from the corpse as we entered the area beyond the watchtower and more and more corpses shown in my powers radius. I of course also checked the traits but they were all worthless to me. The lifeforce was nice though and when we got into the camp outside the safehouse proper I had recovered 23,962 units of lifeforce. The camp was a collection of tents, sheds and shoddy welded metal platforms with skulls on spikes and even a whole gutted Skag on a spike being cooked over a fire.-
Mordy was sitting next to that fire with his feet propped up sipping a can of beer while rotating the Skag.
"Hey! I got us some grub and booze while we wait for Lil and Roland!" he called while waving us over.
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 180,304
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Omega body-Rare grade]x4, [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade]x4, [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade], [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade], [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [True omnivore-Rare grade], [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X2,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Hyperflexibility-Rare grade], [Strong circulation-Epic grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade]
Stored traits:[Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Elemental body(fire)-Rare grade], [Fire resistance-Epic grade], [Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]
Comments
Christian Jeffress
Thanks for another entertaining chapter
