Anything ~ 17!

His fist lashed out, landing in the center of a pteranodon’s back. To Luke’s surprise, his fist went directly through the creature, and the rest of his body continued through the wide holethe next instant. A quick glance to the side at his mostly hidden notifications explained what was happening.

Damage dealt: 481 piercing. (100% of damage converted to piercing damage due to Feather’s Fall.)

“Don’t see an option to turn that off.” Luke grumbled lightly as he fell through eight of the creatures in rapid succession. “Fine. I want maximum points of contact, not a single one.”

Current maximum impact points: 3.

Not wasting any more time with words when action would be the better option, Luke hit the next beast and didn’t burst through, although the creature was blasted into four different sections in the same instant. Using one chunk as a kick pad, he managed to activated Bum Flash and appeared eight meters higher. A passing bird rammed into him, something neither of them were expecting. His armor held, as it would have even before the Soul Brand, but that gave Luke more confidence that this would work out.

He swung out with a one-two punch, and the pteranodon fell from the sky. His greed ached when he thought about the fact that he was gaining not a single pearl, but he just needed to push on. As he fell toward a thick cluster of beasts once more, he tried to right himself. “Not used to air combat.”

The next few hours were entirely devoted to fighting, as well as slowly moving further along the chains that he could intermittently see swinging in the air far below. Any time their glint became too distant, he would flash toward them. Getting lost in the air was going to lead to a surefire death, and he really liked life. His own life. The Murderhobo punched a dinosaur in the wing just to clarify that thought in his head.

Pteranodons were good experience, and he wasn’t losing too much Potentia as he fought them consistently; after the first hour the Potentia gain only dropped form one hundred down to ninety-nine. Because they were in a new fighting environment, or because he had just never fought flying type beasts before, Luke didn’t know for sure. Either way, his Open Up Skill was rapidly gaining levels.

As he got to his three hundredth kill six hours in, Open Up finally started to break through into the next Tier. A shockwave of mana shot out in a sphere from Luke, crossing hundreds of feet in an instant. Luke fell for a few seconds as the world seemed to go still.

Then the fog became speckled all the way out to the horizon.

*Squaaa!* the screams of delight coming from innumerable pteranodons shook the air just as hard as the pulsing shockwaves from Luke’s Sigil. He began kicking off the closer beasts and gaining altitude once more. It wouldn’t do to be surrounded on all sides. The flapping of wings as well as his own clothes were soon the only thing he could hear, with the wingbeats becoming closer and more numerous by the second.

At the top of his upward flashing, Luke looked at the sky and put his arms out to the side, slowly falling backward until his head was pointed down. He adjusted Feathers Fall as he looked down at the swarm of dinosaurs swirling up to meet him, then stuck out his fist as he shot right through the center of them.

All he saw was blue feathers, blue blood, and piercing damage notifications as he sliced through at least eighty pteranodons without slowing. Then he flipped and smashed the spine of one of the massive birds to again start climbing into the sky. In order to use Feather’s fall as well as keep his armor up, the Murderhobo deactivated his left-hand weapon as he climbed.

He was among the creatures, so the upward spiral became a sphere as the huge beasts worked to take a bite out of him. Damage notifications began piling up, but each time his gear failed, it would flicker back into being shortly afterward. Even so, the amount of wounds he was taking from flashing talons and snapping beaks was unacceptable: his health was beginning to dwindle.

Health: 211/250

“I have nearly unlimited mana here, I’m going to use it!” he bellowed in total delight as he recalled the fact that he was forgetting to use one of his Skills entirely. As he broke through the top of the encirclement, he dropped his armor entirely and devoted thirty percent of his mana to each hand weapon.

Of his remaining one hundred and thirty-six mana, Luke devoted one hundred of it to Shockwave Cleave. The enemies were so massive that he could only hope to kill three in total from a great hit, but three kills per hit was nothing to turn his nose up at.

Now that he was moving downward again, and with one hundred mana regeneration per second, he was able to release a shockwave from his blows with roughly every fourth pteranodon he went past. Feathers, beaks, leather… all of it filled the air so thickly that It looked like a new year's celebration in the kingdom’s capital. Soon the pteranodons lower down needed to veer off and clean themselves - they were being dragged down by the filth.

As Luke reactivated his armor and began ascending once more, he only got to half the height he had previously. He looked around and saw dozens of the beasts flying away: he hadn’t seen so many creatures run from him at once since he was cleaning out Zone one! “Hey! Get back here!”

They didn’t listen. He looked at the much reduced swarm that was under him, and realized that he needed to take this opportunity to get further into the Zone. If he didn’t, there was a good chance that he’d fall out of the sky soon. With such a helpful assortment of platforms to run along, Luke started flashing from one to the next; slicing down with his mana-made sword just before he jumped each time.

Soon he was once more comfortably above the huge chains, but he saw no need to restrict himself to them. Between his Sigil pulsing and drawing fresh pteranodons toward him, and the hundreds that were fleeing, Luke was able to travel fairly comfortably for several hours. Eventually he once more saw land, so he grabbed the next bird he landed on, snapped its neck, and used its outstretched wings to glide close enough that he could use Feather’s Fall to touch solid ground once more.

Congratulations! Hidden achievement gained: Off the chain!

Off the chain: cross all of Zone 10 without touching the chain walkways a single time! Reward: Chain-link Scourge!

The ground in front of Luke burst upward, and a smooth metal box hissed as it opened to the sides to reveal a long chain whip with what appeared to be a shining metal talon taken directly from the pteranodons. He picked it up and slashed out with it a few times, cracking a grin at the crisp *snap* it releases as he changed direction. Then it started to speak, and he frowned instantly.

“Yes…! Yes! I’m free! After all these years, I’ll be able-”

Luke activated Source-cerer’s Armory and directly converted the scourge into mana, slotting it as a weapon for his left hand. When it came into being after he slashed his hand out, the weapon no longer spoke. He scoffed at that. “Learned my lesson last time. Weapons don’t talk. Even Cookie just whispers. Still. Good stats.”

Chain-link Scourge. Effect: +9% physical damage (Slashing). Can be used to bind opponents or hold objects.

There was a glint of displeasure in his eyes as he looked at it. If he would have known this weapon was so good, he absolutely would have slotted it into his right hand. “Blast. I could have really used this in that cloud of feathery Potentia… coulda hit at least two birds at once with this.”

He lashed out with his hand over and again; any sharp motion would send the scourge whistling out to seek the blue blood of his enemies. It took some getting used to, and he would have gained a few scars if he didn’t manage to learn that his mana would simply dissipate if it was about to damage him.

New toy in hand, he started walking toward the boundary.

*Crack.*

Every few steps he would be swinging the scourge again, and soon he was reliably getting a deadly sound to flow out from it. The scourge reached ten feet out, and the shining talon on the end of it tore huge furrows out of whatever it hooked into. As he reached the edge of Zone ten, he was ready to blitz forward with confidence.