Dan sidestepped the two radioactive rods that smashed through the glass. His heartrate spiked, fearing the glass breaking and him falling to his death. The Church agent landed on the glass pane and Dan immediately let loose with his own barrage of green projectiles. To his frustration, the agent had his psychic field up as the green rods bent mid trajectory and burrowed harmlessly into the room around them.

  A second Church agent dropped beside the other while a third flashed into existence in front of Dan and almost took his head off with a sword swing. He backpedaled from yet another trio of Church agents.

  Dan swapped to his Conservative and pulled out the sword from its scabbard. If guns wouldn’t put these assholes down quick enough, then he could just cut them to ribbons. He locked eyes with the Church agent in front of him. He swung diagonally and slashed apart the agent’s robes. Blood splashed onto Dan’s coat and nearby surfaces. A strange sound came from Conservative that reached Dan’s ears. He swore he heard the blade howl from his first kill using this strane sword.

  He barely sidestepped and avoided getting hit by a green rod to the chest. He set his eyes on the only other Church agent who was armed.

  Glare activated.

  The agent instantly combusted into flames and flailed about. Dan activated his berserk and lept up, avoiding the sudden launch of an energy attack aimed at his feet. The ball of destructive energy left a burning whole in the ground. Dan raised his sword and brought down the blade onto the third agent’s head with all of his might.

  The Conservative sliced through the agent’s head and continued cutting through his neck, torso and bowls until he was perfectly sliced in two. Dan looked away from the mess as the agent’s body split apart and blood gushed and exploded out of his enemy. His corrosia bar popped up in his HUD and showed him strangely regaining a small fraction of his energy from his recent kill.

  He powered down from the berserk. He briefly took time to stare at his newly looted sword and inspected it. The strange howling and the absorption of corrosia from slain foes. Something was up with this sword.

  At a quick glance, this was a regular straight, single edged sword that was somewhat shorter than the blade he had given to Ada. Dan scrutinized what appeared to be some electrical current running throughout the length of the blade. The current was a dark violet mixed with blue and he could faintly hear the barely contained energy that was ready to lash out and cause pain to its enemies.

  He couldn’t hear the same strange howling noise from the sword like he did during combat. The strangest part of the blade was the leftover blood stains. The blood from his two kills was seemingly drying up in real time until the blade was brought back into pristine condition. Whether the current of energy was evaoprating the blood or the sword was somehow absorbing the blood he wasn’t sure.

  One thing was for sure, Dan was keeping this sword.

  He received an incoming notification in his HUD.

  Congratulations!

  You have reached Tier 1 | Level 24.

  You have earned 5 stat points. You have 10 unspent stat points.

  Dan let out a sigh after seeing his stats. Until he found this artefact that would supposedly give him a big power boost, this level up felt hollow given the new adversaries he had to contend with. Assuming he survived this mess hutning down the cult master, he still had to find a way to bust out and escape Kodak together with Li.

  A crack of glass snapped him out of his thoughts and Dan’s body suddenly moved without his input. His right hip took slash from an unknown blade the penetrated his coat and armor.

  Reflex ability used. Cooldown: 150 seconds.

  Dan had almost been impaled by the sudden appearance of another Church fanatic. He saw the agent with the same black dagger in his hand. Ada’s explanation of the shadow blade came to mind.

  “Oh no you don’t,” he said.

  He had no clue how this asshole got behind him but he knew he had to die right now. Dan did something stupid and powered back up to his berserk mode. He winded his arm back and threw the Conservative at his opponent. The blade dug itself into the torso of the Church agent, paralyzing him.

  The agent fell to his knees with his arms still twitching. His shadow dagger broke into particles and disappeared. Dan rushed over and grabbed the hilt of his sword and wretched the weapon out of the agent. The Church fanatic’s body flopped onto the glass pane and he didn’t get back up.

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  After powering down from the berserk form, the laceration on his hip proved to be more damaging than he thought. While the berserk mode compensated and still kept him going, without it Dan couldn’t walk without limping.

  Warning: Your healing factor is experiencing complications. Healing less effective.

  “What the hell is this shit?”

  Dan had a moderate healing factor that could heal from basic injuries like bullet wounds, stabs and lacerations. It could even somewhat realigned dislocated or broken bones. But somehow, the wound inflicted on him by the corrosia-powered dagger proved to be beyond his healing capabilities.

  He returned his attention back to the waypoint that paointed him straight through the wall across from him. This artefact was either in the next room or the next one over.

  “Okay, I gotta wrap this up,” he muttered to himself.

  Dan limped his way toward the opposite wall of the room. He walked past fallen furniture and appliances and was thankful the glass panes were strong enough to hold. He looked up and saw the second door into the room and didn’t think it was practical for him to jump or climb his way up. Instead, he stared at the wall in front of him and had an idea.

  “My sword can cut through this, No sweat at all,” he said.

  Dan raised Conservative and impaled the wall in front of him. He began carving his way through and cutting a rough circle large enough to fit him through. His blade easily cut its path through the material with little resistance. He couldn’t quite tell whether it was his increased strength or the power of the blade itself.

  Once he cut a circle into the wall, he took a step back and lashed out with a hard stomp. The section of the wall gave way and flew into the other room. The circular section eventually came to a stop as it smashed into a pile of furniture.

  Dan carefully stepped through the opening he created and kept his Conservative pointed straight. He swerved his head side to side assessing his new surroundings. Somehow the previous Church agent had snuck up behind him and triggered his reflexes, narrowly avoiding a fatal stab from the shadow blade. His reflex was still on cooldown and so he could not afford to take another surprise attack like that again.

  Dan took methodical steps along the glass panes beneath his feet. He didn’t want to perform any sudden moved for fear of the glass giving way and him falling to his death. The quiet didn’t last long when Dan saw a head poke out through what was originally the floor of this room. The hood and glowing eyes stared at him before the rest of the Church agent’s body phased through the surface as if the wall was water.

  His eyes were wide as he watched the agent literally phase his body through a solid surface. The red hexagon in his HUD immediately updated and the waypoint laid firmly above the head of the agent.

  Dan raised his blade at him. “You got something I want punk.”

  The agent stared at him with cold glowing eyes that flared red. “This artefact was ours. Kodak-Cresh had no right to steal from us. I will not ask what an Alpha agent is doing all the way here, but stay out of my way or you will die like the rest.”

  Dan smiled beneath his mask. He did need the artefact, but this agent thought so little of him that he wanted to prove the asshole wrong.

  “No, I think I’ll stay. Let’s fight this out like men,” Dan said. “Or do you need a priest’s permission first?”

  The Church agent immedaitely gathered energy in his arm. In a flash, he crushed the ball of energy and flashed out of existence. Dan instinctively rushed forward fearing an attack from behind. And he was proven correct.

  He spun around and saw the agent had teleported behind him.

  The wound to his hip still hadn’t fully healed and was proving to be a major handicap. He powered up to his berserk mode which immediately numbed the injury and allowed him full range of motion.

  “You’ll have to do better than sneaking up on me,” Dan said.

  “Careful what you wish for, infidel,” the agent whispered.

  The Church agent raised his palm and his fingers began taking in whisps of dark purple energy coming from Dan’s direction. The corrosia bar popped up on his HUD and began rapidly draining faster than normal. Even with his berserk mode in use, his corrosia shouldn’t be draining this fast.

  The drain rate rapidly sped up and Dan was now down to quarter capacity. He rushed the agent and prepared to swing his Conservative. The agent proved faster than anticipated when he grabbed Dan by the wrist and twisted. He dropped his sword while his corrosia was still being sucked out of him. The Church agent’s iron grip on his wrist held Dan in place. He glanced down and saw only one option left to end this fight while also getting out of this building.

  He looked the agent in the eyes. “Ever thought of skydiving without a parachut?”

  “What?” the agent said.

  While still in his berserk mode, Dan used whatever sliver of corrosia energy he had left and stomped the glass pane beneath their feet. With one move, the ground shattered and both Dan and the agent fell together.

  While in freefall, the Church agent let go of Dan’s wrist. But Dan countered by grabbing the fanatic's forearm.

  “What’s the matter? Don’t wanna ride this one out together?” Dan taunted.

  He saw Conservative in the corner of his eye and extended his arm out. Snatching the sword from the air, He plunged the sword through the abdomen of the Church agent and gained the upper hand. If they were hitting the ground hard, Dan wanted a cushion.

  Dan placed his feet on top of the agent’s stomach and forced his enemy beneath him. When they both hit the ground, the abrupt thud knocked the wind out of his lungs. Even through his boots, he felt the breaking of bones and crushing of internal organs of his enemy. His corrosia meter popped up in his HUD and slowly began recharging. Whisps of violet energy left the Church agent’s body and Dan felt the energies shift in his direction.

  His corrosia bar began refilling back to around half capacity. He was regaining the lost corrosia stolen from him.

  “What a fucking day,” he said to himself.

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