Everlast Online

"S+ RANK!" Liz yelled out, causing Nina to flinch slightly at the sound.

She was sitting right behind Smokey on one of her undead hounds and so was fully able to hear her yelling.

"What's S-rank?" Nina leaned forward and spoke into where she believed Smokey's ears would be. Liz turned slightly, before looking back to her system message, copying it and sending it as a message to Nina.

"Wow. That sounds pretty good." Nina replied as she read through the hidden skill, "But what the hell are hidden skills?"

"Don't know, but they sound pretty cool." Smokey replied as the pair quickly made their way through the plains toward the drop off location.

Hidden skills were just another means of evolving a skill, primarily being ones that occur before a skill's level cap. [Puppet Hand] could, for example, reach level 100, but by meeting the right conditions Liz could evolve it before having to gain that much experience with the skill.

Typically, hidden skills were much harder than regular evolutions and had much stricter conditions, but this came with a higher average level of power that normal evolutions simply couldn't create.

I need to get [Puppet Hand] that level quickly. Liz thought, wanting to acquire this skill as fast as possible. Though I should probably begin trying out [Soul Sight].

[Soul Sight] was a passive skill, but came with the ability to toggle it on/off at will. As Liz toggled the skill on, her eyes glowed slightly with an ethereal light, before the buttons themselves changed from their normal black, to a turquoise colour that seemed to chill the air around them. Of course Liz could not notice this, nor could anyone else who looked, thanks to Liz's mask.

As she activated her skill the colours of the world faded and Liz's vision became entirely monochromic. The soul (A/N: pun) exception were the small turquoise flames that burned within those Liz looked at.

Unfortunately, Liz's research pool to see the limits of this change was extremely limited; being only herself, Gloria, Nina and - to Liz's surprise - the 2 hounds they were riding on. 

The soul appeared like a turquoise flame, burning just as a regular flame would in the centre of a person's body. If they were physically present they could very easily be mistaken as actual flames, at least in Liz's opinion.

Liz was now able to see souls, and despite lacking a large sample size to study from, she was able to determine certain aspects of the soul - as well as come up with some theories:

1. It was clear that every living thing had a soul. Looking down, Liz could see that even the grass they ran over had the tiniest fragment of soul; however, the amount was so insignificant that one would consider the difference between it being there and not ultimately moot.
2. Living beings were not the only ones with souls. She, Gloria and her hounds - all being undead - had souls of their own, with clear distinctions in size and intensity, but there nonetheless.
3. Liz also believed that the difference in size and intensity of the soul was due to a mixture of factors, with the main one being intelligence or rather sentience.
   1. Liz considered some other factors such as skills or age, but had little way to prove something like that as of right now
4. After asking Nina, Liz discovered that [Soul Sight] - at its current level - could not allow her to better sense those who hid themselves
5. Finally, Liz believed that there was so much more that she was not seeing.
   1. She felt some kind of connection between herself and Gloria but such a connection would not manifest in her eyes as she desired.
   2. She also felt that the soul being nothing more than a simple flame was far too reductive, but again she did not have the capabilities to pull out the truth of the matter at this time.

By the end of her practice session Liz had increased her proficiency up to 7%, though she did not notice much change as the percentage increased.

For a while Liz practised with summoning her subordinates, taking some time to see their souls, but mostly to level her [Puppet Hand] skill - though the golem's soul was especially interesting as it was merely a few fragments of soul mashed together inside a giant rock body, seeing it immediately pushed her up to 9%.

Unfortunately, the skill remained obstinately at level 9 as she kept repeatedly summoning and dismissing her undead.

"We have almost reached our destination master!" Gloria called over to Liz after falling back to ride by her and Nina's side. Liz looked up and paid more attention to the environment, seeing a change in landscape up ahead.

Where they had, up to this point, been cruising along flat grassland Liz could see that the terrain became much less smooth. Waiting for them were a series of hills and valleys that they would have to pass before they got to their destination.

"Good." Liz called back, "Stay vigilant! This is where an ambush is most likely to occur! And keep an eye on the ground!"

Marquess Barview had personally warned them of this location. The area before them was an enemy field, much like the [Swampy Jungle], called the [Grass Sea]. It was the most dangerous place for miles around, but the Marquess had warned them that this was the only path they could take since they would be carrying the baron and the - safer - roads were regularly patrolled.

There were many reasons the [Grass Sea] was dangerous, the first being that it was often full of bandits hiding from the law; but the most dangerous aspect of the field were the monsters that lived there: Grass Piranha.

These were large fish-type monsters that had the ability to swim through the ground like it was water, travelling in packs with razor sharp teeth and a skill that let them alter the terrain - essentially turning the area around their victims into quicksand.

Liz took the moment to dismiss her hounds, not wanting the vibrations they caused to ripple through the ground and alert any piranha, Liz was sure they could take them, but would rather not get sidetracked.

This did little to stop the situation as the ground below them became marshy almost immediately after they went behind their first hill.

"Shit." Liz mumbled, first summoning her warrior to block a fish that jumped straight at Nina. The skeleton's bones cracked slightly, but it was able to push the fish away; though it did little to stop the 9 other fish that jumped up moments later.

Nina dodged around them, Gloria switched between using her axe to cut them into pieces and just taking the hits, while Liz immediately summoned more skeletons to protect her. The hounds and knights were slowed significantly by the ground that tried desperately to suck them in, thankfully the archers were doing quite well for themselves as they utilised their lighter bodies to resist the sinking sensation of the ground.

Gloria was close to her next level and Liz could feel that [Puppet Hand] was also close, so the trio continued deeper into the hills after pulling themselves out of the ground.

Maybe I should train my skills? Liz thought, looking at the piranha corpses before raising them with [Raise Horde]. While she was glad to see she could raise undead that were not humanoid with this skill, she was annoyed to see that they lacked any of their skills from being alive and merely flopped around on the ground instead.

This pattern occurred a few times, but the piranha were not especially strong; their main strength lay with their numbers and ambush ability. 10 happened to be the smallest pack Liz and her allies came across, with the largest being almost 50. Luckily this was enough to increase their levels somewhat: 

Gloria reached level 43 and acquired [Corrosive Flurry (1) (D)]

[Corrosive Flurry (1) (D): Envelop your attacks in an unholy aura for 1 minute that increases user's damage and reduces target's defence. Damage increases scales with skill level. Each successful hit reduces defence by 0.5% of total defence]

Liz found this skill to be highly effective and that it synergised well with Gloria's build that focused on her attacking and overall speed.

Nina and Liz didn't reach milestone levels, but did become levels 56 and 71 respectively.

The assault from the piranha was relentless as each attack would follow the previous seconds after the trio had defeated them. So it came as no shock to Liz when 3 black orbs fell before them and enveloped the area in smoke.

As expected of Kilgard. Liz thought. Attack when the enemy is exhausted.

Liz immediately activated [Soul Sight], not seeing much besides the occasional flicker of a soul running around her; like they were getting into position. Her stitched mouth spread into a grin as she prepared herself to start fighting.

Her skeletons were already summoned, waiting for orders; but one by one they began collapsing as a large spear of bone gathered above Liz's hand. Her eyes were laser-focused, waiting for even the slightest sliver of soul to present itself before her. The moment it did, her attack was launched, dispersing the smoke around it with the speed it moved - only for it to return moments later.

As the spear flew Liz watched with glee as a man dressed in all black was revealed from within the smoke, his eyes widening in horrified shock moments before it was ripped off of his neck and he died instantly.

For moments after this, it was silent. No movement, barely even a whisper of wind until a skeleton warrior jumped behind Liz: Right as a blade was about to cut into her back. The skeleton died instantly, but Liz managed to turn and launched a [Leach Bolt], knocking the attacker back into the smoke and out of sight.

The assassin wouldn't be dead, but he definitely took damage as Liz could hear a slight grumble of pain coming from the direction she had sent him towards.

"Bring it on, you dicks!" Liz yelled, laughing maniacally, before grimacing slightly as she had accidentally activated the [Spooky Witch] set effect.

And bring it on they did as 3 more knives flew through the smoke, Liz sidestepping them and sending 4 of her hounds in that direction with orders to maul anything they find. Liz noticed another set of knives approaching, but slipped as she tried to dodge and received a hit in the shoulder.

What?... Liz pondered as [Voodooist] pushed the blade out of her stuffing, along with injure one of her skeleton's shoulders somewhere nearby. Liz looked down to see a distinct change in the consistency of the ground. Grass Piranha!

Liz realised that she was now under attack from multiple fronts, massively increasing the challenge this posed for her. Liz decided on the best strategy and positioned each of her extra hands around her in a circle as [Leach Bolts] rapidly rushed out into the smoke, allowing her to hear as they hit targets. What they hit, Liz wouldn't be able to say, though she did notice some her range of soul perception increase as their flames began to be snuffed out.

Might as well take a chance... [Raise Horde]. Liz thought, activating her horde skill again with the order to kill anything hostile to her. I can hear footsteps. I must have killed a couple people.

Another skeleton crumbled behind her as it took a blade intended for her, but this assassin wielded 2 short swords with the second coming straight towards Liz's throat. 

Luckily it was met by 2 soldiers, allowing Liz to create distance. Their bones cracked slightly, but the soldiers held out before launching a counter attack of their own. The assassin jumped back, evading it entirely, but Liz was shocked to see that this did not allow him to completely escape harm.

A bone arrow shot from within the smoke, embedding itself into the assassin's arm.

Was that... A coincidence? Liz thought, it seemed that the 2 soldiers had just baited the assassin into being hit by an archer. No time to think about it.

Liz had to evade an attack as the dual-wielding assassin used some kind of instant transport skill to appear behind Liz. As Liz tried to turn, the assassin was ready to attack again, only to be forced away as a hound jumped at him from the side. 

Are they protecting me? Liz thought, seeing her undead acting without orders. They seemed to be growing and acting in the best way to assist her, even if her actual order was to kill any hostile in the smoke.

Liz took a moment to inspect the dual-wielder, assuming he must be one of the leaders of the ambush.

[### (94) (NPC)]

Liz began taking the fight slightly more seriously as she saw the assassin outlevelled her by more than 20 levels, not that she felt the odds were against her.

All Liz's undead were immediately dismissed and brought back in moments, placing Liz at the centre of an army of undead; but this did not stop the assassin. His skill once again allowed him to appear at her back, and with all her undead clustered around her, they could not properly defend her.

Got you now! The assassin thought as he sneered behind the mask. And so he did, his blade cut straight into Liz... Only for it to have no actual consequences.

Liz took the attack with a wide grin.

Got you now! She had thought as the man appeared right where she had expected, his attack was ignored thanks to [Voodooist] and now he was stuck in the centre of a horde of undead.

The assassin looked in horror as his shadow extended and restricted the use of his movement skill, allowing all of the undead around him to attack at once. Even though he escaped the bindings in less than a second, it was not enough to escape the grasp of the undead around him.

Liz basked in the sounds of her levels, reaching 76 in one go from that single assassin; as well as gaining a level in [Summon - Skeleton Warrior] and [Summon - Skeleton Archers].

Liz's stitched mouth spread wide in a maniacal grin as she basked in the glory of defeating an enemy who she truly believed was strong enough to best her.

Yet he died and she lived.

More knives flew from the smoke as Liz's grin grew wider.

Looks like I'm in for a good fight.