Vicky's Stats :
Level: 25
XP: 0 / 40,000 (To Lvl 26)
Stat Points Available: 0
STR: 31
SPD: 30
END: 30
Chi: 20 / 20
"Stay back. This one... is mine."
Vicky's voice was a low growl, barely a whisper, yet it cut through the oppressive, pulsing silence of the arena. Albert Cole, his body radiating the power of a fresh Level 14 warrior, felt a spike of pure, primal terror that dwarfed anything he'd ever known. The... thing... in the coliseum's center wasn't just a monster. It was a monument to death. It was a 30-foot-tall god of the grave, and they were insects.
"Progenitor... you can't..." Albert began, his voice trembling, his hard-won courage feeling like a drop of water against a furnace.
"Hide," Vicky commanded, his voice utterly flat, his eyes never leaving the Colossus. "Kill anything else that shows up. Do not interfere, no matter what. Understand?"
Albert swallowed, his vampiric pride warring with the instinct screaming at him to flee. He looked at Vicky, a lone, tattered figure against a 30-foot-tall behemoth, and nodded sharply. "Understood."
He scrambled back, his new speed carrying him a hundred yards in seconds, melting into the shadows of the ruined coliseum stands. He found a high, defensible position, his claws sinking into the cracked stone. From here, he could see the whole arena. He was a spectator to a battle between gods and monsters, and he still felt like he was standing at the monster's feet.
The arena was still. The Colossus was motionless, its skeletal, plated head facing the dark energy rift it guarded. It was as if it hadn't even noticed the two tiny beings who had invaded its sanctum.
Vicky's muscles tensed, coiling like steel springs. He took a single, deep breath, pulling the cold, dead air into his lungs. Then, he opened the floodgates.
He poured his Chi from his core, channeling the full 20 points not into a single strike, but into his entire body. It was a technique he'd been perfecting: a full-body reinforcement. His skin tingled, and a faint, silver-white aura, like liquid light, enveloped him, visible only to his own vampiric senses. His 31 Strength, 30 Speed, and 30 Endurance were all pushed beyond their mortal limits, screaming with newfound power.
He sank into a low crouch.
And then he moved.
He didn't run. He exploded.
In one instant, he was on the ridge. In the next, he was a black-and-silver comet streaking across the coliseum floor. The ground cracked under the sheer force of his launch. He covered the hundred-yard distance in less than a second, a silent shockwave of displaced air trailing behind him.
He was aiming for the monster's left leg, a pillar of bone and iron as thick as a carriage. His fist, saturated with Chi, was cocked, ready to deliver a blow with the force of an anti-tank missile.
It was only then, with Vicky mere feet from its leg, that the Colossus reacted. It didn't turn. It didn't look.
It stomped.
It was not a fast movement. It was a casual, absolute gesture of utter contempt. It lifted its massive, iron-shod foot ten feet off the ground and brought it down.
The world ended.
An earthquake of raw, necrotic power erupted from the impact. The entire coliseum shook as if struck by a meteor. A shockwave of pure, black energy and pulverized stone blasted outwards in a perfect, expanding circle.
From his hiding place, Albert Cole was thrown back, tumbling violently through the stone stands as the structure began to groan and collapse around him. He roared in pain and terror as he was half-buried in rubble.
Vicky, at ground zero, was faster.
His senses, screaming at him at a pitch he'd never experienced, saw the attack coming. He didn't try to block. He didn't try to finish his punch. He threw himself into a desperate, Chi-enhanced roll, his 30 Speed pushing him to his absolute limit. He skidded across the stone, but he wasn't fast enough to escape completely. The shockwave caught his back.
It felt like being hit by a freight train.
The air was punched from his lungs in a single, violent gasp. His tattered shirt and jacket didn't tear; they disintegrated. He felt his back muscles shred, and the sound of his own ribs cracking was like gunfire in his ears, even through his 30 Endurance. He flew through the air, ragdolling for fifty feet before crashing into the coliseum wall, shattering the ancient stone on impact.
His body slumped to the ground, his vision blurred, his body a full of agony.
[Warning: Massive Blunt Force Trauma Detected.]
[Warning: Multiple Critical Fractures Detected.]
[Warning: Internal Bleeding Detected.]
[Vampiric Regeneration Initiated.]
Blood steaming down in the cold air, trickled from his lips. He coughed, a wet, rattling sound that sent a fresh wave of agony through his chest.
Slowly the Colossus turned. Its head, a building-sized amalgamation of giant skulls and blackened metal plates, swiveled on a neck of fused vertebrae. The thousands of tormented, purple spirits trapped within its form writhed, their silent screams a visible, churning aura.
Two balls of malevolent, violet light burning deep within its massive, empty sockets. They fixed on the small, broken form against the wall. It had registered the fly.
It raised its arm, a limb of pure destruction, and prepared to swat it.